Heal Faster: Unlock Your Body’s Rapid Recovery Reflex

This practical, research-based guide from Maizes (Be Fruitful), executive director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine, demonstrates how the body’s built-in “recovery reflex” can be strengthened to heal more quickly from everyday illness, chronic disease, and surgery. Drawing on conventional and alternative treatments, Maizes takes patients’ physical symptoms, mental health, and lifestyle into account and prioritizes natural interventions. She first addresses short-lived conditions, like the common cold and UTIs, explaining that a balanced diet of fruits and vegetables (especially raw garlic, which is antimicrobial) strengthens the immune system and probiotics (either in supplement form or in products like yogurt, kefir, and kombucha) can help prevent bacterial infections. Turning to chronic conditions, Maizes offers guidance for recurring pain, encouraging meditation and exercise (walking backwards, for example, can realign the body, improving back pain). To heal from surgery, Maizes outlines tips for every step of the process, like bolstering nutrition before a procedure with protein and reducing post-op pain with therapies like acupuncture and self-hypnosis. Maizes maintains a pragmatic and supportive tone throughout, not promising miracle cures, but challenging the negativity and false despair she contends is common in mainstream health care. Readers struggling to heal will discover they have more agency than they thought. (Jan.)