Cynthia Li - Brave New Medicine: A Doctor’s Unconventional Path to Healing Her Autoimmune Illness

I love this booka harrowing and somehow also charming account by a brilliant doctor of how she healed her body, mind, spirit, and soul from a debilitating autoimmune disease. After her doctors had given up on her, with a husband and two little children at home, she broke out of the constraints of Western medicine and found her way home to health, renewal, and her own true self. This beautifully written, prescriptive book is going to changeand even savepeoples lives.

Anne Lamott , New York Times bestselling author of Bird by Bird and Almost Everything

Eat, Pray, Love meets Anatomy of an Illness meets a Deepak Chopra workshop in this engaging, exquisitely written doctor-as-patient memoir. Cynthia Li humbly, humorously, and honestly unearths the roots of her debilitating illness, but the gifts dont stop there. With 15 practical, grounded tips for how to heal, this book also serves as an unconventional, whole health prescription, sure to facilitate the healing journey of others. With raw transparency and the kind of courage we need among both doctors and patients, Brave New Medicine charts a new terrain, bridging conventional medicine with functional medicine, nutrition, environmental health, intuition, and spiritualityall in a highly entertaining, hard-earned miracle story.

Lissa Rankin, MD , New York Times bestselling author of Mind Over Medicine and The Daily Flame , and founder of the Whole Health Medicine Institute

In Cynthia Lis spellbinding book, we encounter the moving story of a physician struggling with her own autoimmune illness. Lis writing is so intimateand so exactingthat it cuts like a knife. She raises fundamental questions about the future of medicine, her own future, and about being a doctor and a patient at the same time. The result is a beautiful book that will be read and remembered for years to come.

Siddhartha Mukherjee , Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies

Each year brings a new stack of how-to health manuals, but Cynthia Lis book is different. Its a moving, personaland sometimes unsettlinginvestigation into the deepest questions surrounding chronic illness. What makes us sick? How do we live with the uncertainty of a mysterious condition? How do we define health in an age when conventional medicine focuses almost exclusively on disease management? The answers Li arrives at in her exploration change her as a person, and the way she practices medicine. Her book is full of wisdom for both health care practitioners and those suffering from chronic illness.

Chris Kresser, MS, LAc , New York Times bestselling author of Unconventional Medicine

It is a major concession to admit how much Lis book inspired me, given how deeply skeptical I am about alternative medicine. When Li, a physician herself, develops a terrifying syndrome that regular medicine cant even identify, she becomes her own doctor, charting her symptoms, doing experiments, and seeking help from whoever offers it. Emotionally, she rises from a crouch of defeat to the confident stride of an explorerand you will find yourself rising with her.

Barbara Ehrenreich , author of Natural Causes , and founder of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project

This is a memoir for our time. Cynthia Li is a superbly trained physician of internal medicine whose life comes to a halt by a life-threatening, complex illness the mainstream medical community doesnt know how to treat. Her struggle is replicated thousands of times over by others who face similar mystery diseases. While the path to recovery is rarely simple, Lis journey and scientific explanations offer hope to many who are suffering. She writes with insight, wisdom, and passion. Her honesty will touch you deeply. Dont miss this book.

Michael Lerner , author of Choices in Healing , and president and cofounder of Commonweal

Cynthia Li is an extraordinary physician with a comprehensive understanding of autoimmune disease as a practitioner and a patient. The insights she provides in this new book are essential for any patient suffering from autoimmunity. Her book challenges the current health care system model that is in such serious need of revision. This is a must-read for anyone suffering from an autoimmune disease.

Datis Kharrazian, PhD, DC , award-winning researcher, clinician, and best-selling author of Why Do I Still Have Thyroid Symptoms? When My Lab Tests Are Normal

Cynthia Li shares a deeply personal and inspiring journey, wherein she falls through the cracks of the conventional medical model but then discovers her own lifesaving path through functional and integrative medicine. Her book also includes an excellent resource filled with practical tips for those who want to learn how to take natural steps to recover their own health and vitality.

Akil Palanisamy, MD , integrative medicine physician, and author of The Paleovedic Diet

Beautifully written, heartbreakingly honest, and deeply inspirational. This is the story of a doctor whose personal experience transforms her view of what it means to be sick, and what it means to truly heal. Millions of people living with autoimmune disease (myself included) will see themselves reflected in these pages.

Eileen Laird , host of Phoenix Helix , a podcast dedicated to autoimmune health

Cynthia Lis book had me hanging onto every word. Its honest and raw, beautifully capturing the day-to-day life of someone living with an invisible illness. But more than that, this book is a conversion story of a doctor breaking into a new way of thinking and living, taking us through well-researched science into time-tested healing principles to show us how to do the same.

Dana Trentini, MA, EdM , founder of the award-winning blog, Hypothyroid Mom

Cynthia Li has written an insightful, captivating account of her own spiral into the depths of a chronic disease, from which prospects of recovery seemed bleak. Li questions the foundational principles learned in her extensive medical training, including the meaning of the term health. Emerging from those dark days, Li has a message of hope for others with similar conditions: autoimmunity can be reversible. There is much to be learned by both patients and health care professionals from this deeply personal account.

Ted Schettler, MD, MPH , science director of the Health and Environment Science Network, and author of The Ecology of Breast Cancer

Brave New Medicine is a medical memoir as harrowing as it is hopeful. As Cynthia Li battles her own self-doubt and entrenched medical thinking to combat her mysterious illness, she questions everything she thought she knewfrom her Western medical training to her traditional Chinese upbringing. Throughout her journey, Li creates the stepping-stones for a new path to healthand emerges with a brave new paradigm for medicine, for her patients, and for herself.

Lauren Schiller , creator and host of Inflection Point , a podcast and public radio show about women, societal change, and the quest for equality

In Brave New Medicine , Cynthia Li masterfully describes her hard-won transformation from disease to wellness, as she discovers the freedom beyond dogma and formulas, and the wisdom of living the full human experience. She reveals the secret of healing , which is very different than treating .

Master Mingtong Gu , international teacher, and founder of The Chi Center

Publishers Note

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering psychological, financial, legal, or other professional services. The medical information in this book is provided as an educational resource only, and is not intended to be used or relied upon for any diagnostic or treatment purposes. If expert assistance or counseling is needed, the services of a competent professional should be sought.