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Things had fallen apart – me and the band, my first marriage. I had the disastrous court case – I owed a lot of money for that. I didn’t have anything much to do. I couch-surfed for a while, living with one set of friends during the week and then with others at the weekend.” During the economic crisis that put Thatcher into power, the utopian stuff of the late 60s curdled. Punk was a cleansing
The second half of the book miserably spiraled into something I had no interest in reading. Tolhurst removed the focus on recording the albums and his experience with the band and started to give lengthy descriptions on the topic of his, at this point full-blown, alcoholism. Very understandable, might I add, as it was such a big part of Tolhurst's life and impacted his relationships with the band members very much, but it just wasn't something I was particularly interested in. We moved into Outside Studios at Hook End Manor, which was once the house of the Bishop of Reading and was more recently owned by David Gilmour of Pink Floyd. A beautiful place for me to finally fall apart." Taylor’s “Newcastle” weight loss programme is a clinically proven method of reversing early type 2 diabetes and his approach is currently being rolled out to people with the condition by the NHS. It involves cutting your calorie intake to 700-800 calories a day. In the book, he explains how the people in his programme managed to do this – typically by consuming only slimming meal shakes and non-starchy vegetables, plus one cup of tea or coffee each day with skimmed milk – lost a life-changing amount of weight in just eight weeks. And how you can do the same, safely, at home. It is almost universal that health can be returned Could my belief that I’m going to feel better in itself heal me? It’s a fascinating question, and one that British author Jo Marchant takes on with aplomb.” Spirituality & HealthI love how Tolhurst went into detail about the so-called 'new towns' close by London (these popped up everywhere after WWII) and the way the stuffiness of the atmosphere in Crawley, along with its many aggressive inhabitants, practically drove this band out into the world of music and creativity. those with remarkable recoveries are the heroes in self-care, who have achieved something unusual because they see ability and opportunity where others see disability and disease. A vivid, compassionate, generous exploration of the role of the human mind in both health and illness… full of human detail, integrity, and ultimately, hope.” Deborah Blum, author of The Poisoner’s Handbook and Love at Goon Park Another important point Rediger makes is that there are no silver bullets, neither any guarantee that making radical changes is going to improve a chronic health condition. In fact, there is nothing "spontaneous" about spontaneous healing, as in most cases the seeds for healing are planted long before any noticeable changes take place. However, scientific studies have proven that the amount of involvement and participation that an individual puts forth has an enormous impact on their treatment recovery.
The placebo effect is a wonderful thing, and still highly mysterious. A person who believes they have been given effective treatment for pain or disease, even though they haven’t, might get better. Placebos can work even if you know they are placebos, and for reasons no one understands the placebo effect appears to be getting stronger over time. It is silly to casually dismiss findings that a medicine performs only a little bit better than placebo: placebo is already extremely strong. He is best known as a founding member of the band that virtually invented alternative music, The Cure. Formed in 1976, The Cure is one of the most influential, successful and critically acclaimed bands of its generation. This doesn't provide any single golden bullet - as we are all different, and there are as many different combinations of things that can mess with our DNA as there are people on the planet - but what it does offer is hope, and WONDER. And it really is a wonderful thing to hear such positive stories and how with a mix of science, self-belief, and love, we really do have the power to confront death, and ultimately learn to truly live, because of it.First I think I need to make it clear that I read this book because I find the subject matter interesting, not because I have been given a diagnosis of incurable breast cancer. I am post DIEP, have a new boob called Brenda constructed from my tummy fat (yes it is a long op and yes the recovery is tedious). I do not have to have radiotherapy am waiting for oncotype test results to find out about chemo and will be on aromatase inhibitors for five years.
For patients, the most important factor might be their degree of involvement in treatment, taking charge of their own healing. Accepting their diagnosis, but not their prognosis and involving themselves in various healing modalities makes a difference. High self esteem correlates with high involvement. Taking responsibility for the healing, but not blame for the illness, spontaneous healers make physical, psychological, and lifestyle changes that lead to survival. Patients must become empowered by embracing their treatment and realizing that they are not their illness. Interestingly enough, studies can’t measure this involvement. What we do know already is that our bodies start to have trouble controlling blood sugar when fat can no longer be stored safely under the skin and it spills over into the liver and then the pancreas. If these organs get clogged with fat, they stop functioning properly and that is when you develop type 2 diabetes. Everyone has their own level of tolerance for fat in their bodies Throughout the book, Rediger explores the mind-body connection, and how our perception of the world and our stress response has a profound impact on our immune and nervous system, altering how our body functions on a deep cellular level. Rediger believes that along the journey to health, individuals need to confront those unconscious, often self-limiting beliefs that we carry about ourselves and the world, which are deeply ingrained in our psyche, and often developed through traumatic childhood experiences. Also, an acceptance of one's own mortality is an incredibly important part of the healing process, relinquishing individuals with chronic and life threatening illnesses from their fear of death, allowing them to live their fullest and most authentic lives possible.
So discovering earlier this year that Lol Tolhurst had written a book about his life in the Cure triggered memories my teen years and using his name as a punchline. I had to read it. Cured is not only the first insider account of the early days of the band, it is a revealing look at the artistic evolution of the enigmatic Robert Smith, the iconic lead singer, songwriter, and innovative guitarist at the heart of The Cure. A deeply rebellious, sensitive, tough, and often surprisingly "normal" young man, Smith was from the start destined for stardom, a fearless non-conformist and provocateur who soon found his own musical language through which to express his considerable and unique talent.
Andrew Marr discusses the relationship between mind and body with science journalist Jo Marchant, games designer Jane McGonigal, philosopher AC Grayling and actor Simon McBurney Being dismissed by doctors is a bitter pill to swallow. I’ve sometimes felt like the doctors were my enemies as much as the cancer. Lol Tolhurst photographed in his home in Los Angeles, September 2023, by Pat Martin for the Observer New Review. I read this hoping to read about some of the miraculous recoveries that people have made in the face of seeming death sentences and I have to say I was disappointed. I felt that this book gives the reader a false impression. It takes a small number of people who have recovered from various illnesses or conditions that are usually fatal and examines what they did that changed their outcome. For many of the people this seems to have been as a result of life style changes - diet, stress, outlook on life etc.She said it’s the one conversation we never have – about how to die. She’s about the same age as me, and over the three days of the festival we had an ongoing debate together. And then I went and read her books. I’m in the third act of life now, whichever way you look at it, so my mind is focused on these themes. A goth sensibility at least opens such things up and allows you to get to grips with them. It doesn’t try to sweep uncomfortable stuff under the carpet.” It takes guts to write about yourself with any degree of honesty, and Lol Tolhurst has chronicled his rise and fall with The Cure in a very poignant and candid way. The style of prose is conversational and warm, easily accessible; sure, there's a little naivete in the writing style - way too many adjectives - but by the time I'd finished reading I felt a kind of connection with this man and total empathy for his suffering and desperate self destruction. Being around the same age as Tolhurst, this book was really nostalgic for me, and one gets a real feel for the era of the 70's and 80's, the mindset and daft things we did growing up in Britain at that time. There's humour and pathos, and some parts are really heart wrenching. In particular, his description of losing his mother, the loneliness and sense that he was adrift with no real emotional or familial anchor to help stop his inexorable slide into alcoholism. Some parts I could really identify with that were uncannily similar to my own experiences, from losing my mother to lung cancer, to discovering how truly vile Twinkies are! What's so refreshing here is that there's no mudslinging, no nasty finger pointing or blame, no big I am or trite platitudes - just utter honesty and holding up of the mirror to his own shortcomings and dear damaged self. The author is a physician and psychiatrist and comes to the subject with very healthy cynicism. He looks only at cases that have been unequivocally diagnosed (with biopsy etc) and where the diagnosis is old enough that the "remission" is not just the ebb and flow of disease. The remissions truly are inexplicable scientifically. There is a particularly interesting (and sad) case where a patient recovers from seemingly incurable lymph node cancer after requesting a new drug later proven to be a fraud. When he hears the drug is a fraud his tumour return. His surgeon offers him a "new" version of the same drug (infact he gives him IV water) and the patient's tumours vanish. Sadly the patient later reads a report that the drug is indeed useless, the tumour return and he died. The power of belief? Marchant] has chosen very moving characters to show us the importance of the research…and she has an equal flair for finding inspirational figures… the studies are irresistible.” New York Times