335: Chronic Illness & The Brain - With Donna Jackson Nakazawa

On today's episode host Laura Reagan, LCSW-C speaks to Donna Jackson Nakazawa about her forthcoming book, The Angel and The Assassin: The Tiny Brain Cell That Changed the Course of Medicine. 

Donna Jackson Nakazawa is an award-winning journalist and internationally-recognized speaker whose work explores the intersection of neuroscience, immunology, and human emotion. Her mission is to translate emerging science in ways that help those with chronic conditions find healing.

She is the author of six books, including her most recent book, The Angel and The Assassin: The Tiny Brain Cell That Changed the Course of Medicine (Random House/Ballantine, January 2020), which illuminates the newly-understood role of microglia – an elusive type of brain cell capable of Jekyll and Hyde behavior. When triggered, microglia can morph into destroyers and take down synapses, causing depression, anxiety, and Alzheimer’s. But under the right circumstances, they can be angelic healers, repairing the brain in ways that can help alleviate symptoms and prevent disease. Hailed as “riveting,” “stunning,” and “visionary,” The Angel and the Assassin elucidates the biological basis behind the mind-body connection and offers us a radically reconceived picture of human health.

Donna’s other books include Childhood Disrupted: How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology, and How You Can Heal (Atria / Simon & Schuster, 2015), The Last Best Cure (Hudson Street Press / Penguin, 2013), The Autoimmune Epidemic (Touchstone / Simon & Schuster, 2009), and Does Anybody Else Look Like Me? A Parent’s Guide to Raising Multicultural Children (Perseus, 2003). Her writing has been published in The Washington Post, Health Affairs, Aeon, More, Parenting, AARP Magazine, Glamour, and elsewhere. She blogs for Psychology Today and HuffPost.

In addition to her work as a science journalist, Donna has been a keynote speaker at numerous universities, conferences and hospitals. Her keynote lectures include the 2019 Care Plus Annual Conference, 2018 Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care Conference, 2018 Golisano Children’s Hospital Annual Pediatric Conference, 2017 Royal Society of Medicine SIRPA Conference on Chronic Pain and Emotion, 2017 Learning and the Brain Conference, 2016 Johns Hopkins Conference on Trauma-Informed Healing, and the 2012 International Congress on Autoimmunity. She has appeared on The Today Show, National Public Radio, NBC News, and ABC News.

Resources

Learn more about Donna Jackson Nakazawa here: https://donnajacksonnakazawa.com 

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