Book picks similar to
So You Think You Know What's Good for You? by Norman Swan
non-fiction
health
science
australian-author
The Hacking of the American Mind: The Science Behind the Corporate Takeover of Our Bodies and Brains
Robert H. Lustig - 2017
Serotonin is the "contentment" neurotransmitter that tells our brains we don't need any more; yet its deficiency leads to depression. Ideally, both are in optimal supply. Yet dopamine evolved to overwhelm serotonin--because our ancestors were more likely to survive if they were constantly motivated--with the result that constant desire can chemically destroy our ability to feel happiness, while sending us down the slippery slope to addiction. In the last forty years, government legislation and subsidies have promoted ever-available temptation (sugar, drugs, social media, porn) combined with constant stress (work, home, money, Internet), with the end result of an unprecedented epidemic of addiction, anxiety, depression, and chronic disease. And with the advent of neuromarketing, corporate America has successfully imprisoned us in an endless loop of desire and consumption from which there is no obvious escape.With his customary wit and incisiveness, Lustig not only reveals the science that drives these states of mind, he points his finger directly at the corporations that helped create this mess, and the government actors who facilitated it, and he offers solutions we can all use in the pursuit of happiness, even in the face of overwhelming opposition. Always fearless and provocative, Lustig marshals a call to action, with seminal implications for our health, our well-being, and our culture.
The Adrenal Reset Diet: Strategically Cycle Carbs and Proteins to Lose Weight, Balance Hormones, and Move from Stressed to Thriving
Alan Christianson - 2014
Unsuspecting dieters cause more harm than good by reducing the number of calories or carbohydrates they consume, which can disrupt cortisol production and cause weight gain. In The Adrenal Reset Diet, Dr. Alan Christianson provides a pioneering plan for optimal function of these small but powerful organs. His patient-tested weight-loss program is the culmination of decades of clinical experience and over 75,000 patient-care visits. In a study at his clinic, participants on the Adrenal Reset Diet reset their cortisol levels by over 50% while losing an average of over 2 inches off their waists and 9 pounds of weight in 30 days. What can you expect? • Learn whether your adrenals are Stressed, Wired and Tired, or Crashed and which adrenal tonics, exercises, and foods are best for you • The clinically proven shakes, juices, and other delicious recipes, to use for your Reset • New ways to turn off the triggers of weight gain with carbohydrate cycling, circadian repair, and simple breathing exercises • An easy 7-day ARD eating plan to move your and your adrenals from Surviving to Thriving
Sam Bloom: Heartache & Birdsong
Bradley Trevor Greive - 2020
Sam's personal message at the end of the book has resonated powerfully with readers - where, pulling no punches, she writes about what it is really like to face life in a wheelchair.In Sam Bloom, Sam tells her own story for the first time - how a shy but determined Australian girl became a nurse and travelled across Africa. How she fell in love with a like-minded free spirit, raised three boys and built a life together on Sydney's Northern Beaches. And then, in a single horrific moment, how everything changed. Sam's journey back from the edge of death and the depths of despair is so much more than an account of overcoming adversity. Sam's captivating true story - written by close friend, New York Times bestselling author Bradley Trevor Greive, and featuring extraordinary photographs taken by Sam's husband, Cameron Bloom - is humbling, heartbreaking and uplifting in equal measure. A triumph of raw emotion and incredible beauty, Sam Bloom: Heartache & Birdsong is a truly unforgettable book.Penguin Bloom is soon to be a major motion picture starring Naomi Watts, Andrew Lincoln, Jacki Weaver and Rachel House.PRAISE FOR PENGUIN BLOOM 'A unique and remarkable insight into a family dealing with tragedy and finding their way through it with love, courage and hope' - Naomi Watts'a coffee-table book that will make hearts soar' - Daily Telegraph
The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President
Bandy X. LeePhilip G. Zimbardo - 2017
The public has thus been left to wonder whether he is mad, bad, or both.In THE DANGEROUS CASE OF DONALD TRUMP, twenty-seven psychiatrists, psychologists, and other mental health experts argue that, in Mr. Trump’s case, their moral and civic “duty to warn” America supersedes professional neutrality. They then explore Trump’s symptoms and potentially relevant diagnoses to find a complex, if also dangerously mad, man.Philip Zimbardo and Rosemary Sword, for instance, explain Trump’s impulsivity in terms of “unbridled and extreme present hedonism.” Craig Malkin writes on pathological narcissism and politics as a lethal mix. Gail Sheehy, on a lack of trust that exceeds paranoia. Lance Dodes, on sociopathy. Robert Jay Lifton, on the “malignant normality” that can set in everyday life if psychiatrists do not speak up.His madness is catching, too. From the trauma people have experienced under the Trump administration to the cult-like characteristics of his followers, he has created unprecedented mental health consequences across our nation and beyond.It’s not all in our heads. It’s in his."There will not be a book published this fall more urgent, important, or controversial than The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump...profound, illuminating and discomforting" —Bill Moyers
Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection
John E. Sarno - 1991
Sarno saved me from a life of pain.” — Howard Stern The New York Times bestseller that has helped thousands leverage the mind-body connection to heal lower back pain and live pain free—without drugs, surgery, or physical therapy. Offering a surprising, noninvasive solution to an epidemic of pain, Dr. John E. Sarno’s research on TMS (Tension Myoneural Syndrome) reveals that stress, anxiety and other psychological factors, not structural abnormalities, are the root cause of chronic pain. TMS develops as a result of repressed emotions which trigger tension in the body and deprive muscles and nerves of oxygen. The solution? Recognize the emotional roots of your TMS and sever the connection between mental and physical pain. With Dr. Sarno’s expert guidance you will learn:How the mind-body connection can permanently heal shoulder, neck, and lower back painHow accepting negative emotions like anger, anxiety, fear, or grief can reverse physical symptomsHow we condition ourselves to think back pain is inevitableWhy you should resume physical activity as soon as possibleSharing case histories and the results of his extensive, groundbreaking research, Dr. Sarno’s life-changing insights show readers how to banish back pain and reclaim their lives for good.
The Autoimmune Solution: Prevent and Reverse the Full Spectrum of Inflammatory Symptoms and Diseases
Amy Myers - 2015
Until now, conventional medicine has said there is no cure. Minor irritations like rashes and runny noses are ignored, while chronic and debilitating diseases like Crohn's and rheumatoid arthritis are handled with a cocktail of toxic treatments that fail to address their root cause. But it doesn't have to be this way.In The Autoimmune Solution, Dr. Amy Myers, a renowned leader in functional medicine, offers her medically proven approach to prevent a wide range of inflammatory-related symptoms and diseases, including allergies, obesity, asthma, cardiovascular disease, fibromyalgia, lupus, IBS, chronic headaches, and Hashimoto's thyroiditis.
Dr Karl's Little Book of Climate Change Science
Karl Kruszelnicki - 2021
(We can!)
Deep Nutrition: Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food
Catherine Shanahan - 2008
The length of our limbs, the shape of our eyes, and the proper function of our organs are all gifts of our ancestor's collective culinary wisdom. Citing the foods of traditional cultures from the Ancient Egyptians and the Maasai to the Japanese and the French, the Shanahans identify four food categories all the world's healthiest diets have in common, the Four Pillars of World Cuisine. Using the latest research in physiology and genetics, Dr. Shanahan explains why your family's health depends on eating these foods. In a world of competing nutritional ideologies, Deep Nutrition gives us the full picture, empowering us to take control of our destiny in ways we might never have imagined.
Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic that Remains One of Medicine's Greatest Mysteries
Molly Caldwell Crosby - 2010
In the midst of all this death, a bizarre disease appeared in Europe. Eventually known as encephalitis lethargica, or sleeping sickness, it would spread across the world, leaving millions dead or locked in institutions. Then, in 1927, it would disappear as suddenly as it had arrived-or so the doctors at first thought. Asleep, set in 1920s and '30s New York, follows a group of neurologists through hospitals and insane asylums as they try to solve this worldwide epidemic. The symptoms could include not only unending sleep but dangerous insomnia, facial tics, catatonia, Parkinson's, and even violent insanity. Molly Caldwell Crosby, acclaimed author of The American Plague, explores the frightening history of this forgotten disease- and details the frantic effort to conquer it before it strikes again.
First, We Make the Beast Beautiful: A New Story About Anxiety
Sarah Wilson - 2017
I bump along, in fits and starts, on a perpetual path to finding better ways for me and my mate, Anxiety, to get around. It's everything I do.Sarah Wilson—bestselling author and entrepreneur, intrepid solver of problems and investigator of how to live a better life—has helped over 1.2 million people across the world to quit sugar. She has also been an anxiety sufferer her whole life.In her new book, she directs her intense focus and fierce investigatory skills onto this lifetime companion of hers, looking at the triggers and treatments, the fashions and fads. She reads widely and interviews fellow sufferers, mental health experts, philosophers, and even the Dalai Lama, processing all she learns through the prism her own experiences.Sarah pulls at the thread of accepted definitions of anxiety, and unravels the notion that it is a difficult, dangerous disease that must be medicated into submission. Ultimately, she re-frames anxiety as a spiritual quest rather than a burdensome affliction, a state of yearning that will lead us closer to what really matters.Practical and poetic, wise and funny, this is a small book with a big heart. It will encourage the myriad sufferers of the world's most common mental illness to feel not just better about their condition, but delighted by the possibilities it offers for a richer, fuller life.
Love Stories
Trent Dalton - 2021
A divorced mother has a secret love affair with a travelling priest. A widower miraculously finds a three-minute video recorded by his wife before she died. A tree lopper's heart falls in a forest. A working mum contemplates taking the photographs of her late husband down from the fridge. A girl writes her last letter to the man she loves, then sets it on fire. An ageing gigolo regrets the one that got away. A palliative care nurse helps a dying woman converse with the angel at the end of her bed. A renowned 100-year-old scientist ponders the one great earthly puzzle he was never able to solve: 'What is love?'Endless stories. Human stories. Love stories.Inspired by a personal moment of profound love and generosity, bestselling author – and one of Australia's finest journalists – Trent Dalton spent two months in 2021 pounding city pavements, speaking to Australians from all walks of life and asking them one simple and direct question: 'Can you please tell me a love story?' For two straight weeks he sat at a desk with a sky-blue 1960s Olivetti typewriter, on the bustling corner of Adelaide and Albert streets, Brisbane, with a sign saying, 'Sentimental writer collecting love stories. Do you have one to share?'The result is Love Stories – a warm, wise, poignant, funny and moving book about love in all its guises, including stories, observations and reflections on lovers in parks; people in cemeteries, hospital wards, pubs and bingo halls; and newlyweds walking out of registry offices. There will be stories of people falling into love, falling out of love, and never letting go of the loved ones in their hearts. And woven through it all will be remembrances of Trent's own special moments, and of the people whose love stories have made him the man and writer he is today.A heartfelt, deep, funny, wise and tingly tribute to the greatest thing we will never understand and the only thing we will ever really need: love.
This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor
Adam Kay - 2017
Hilarious, horrifying and heartbreaking, this diary is everything you wanted to know – and more than a few things you didn't – about life on and off the hospital ward.
As seen on ITV's Zoe Ball Book Club
This edition includes extra diary entries and a new afterword by the author.
Journey of a Thousand Storms: A Refugee's Story
Kooshyar Karimi - 2016
Until he was kidnapped by the Intelligence Service.Behind his professional success, Kooshyar was a rebel on several fronts. Marginalised since boyhood as a Jew in a fundamentalist Islamic state, he was a member of a political group that opposed the government. He'd also been using his medical skills illegally, to save unmarried pregnant women from death by stoning.Snatched from the street, he was jailed and tortured and then forced to spy for the regime, before finally escaping to Turkey. There he faced a whole new struggle to keep his family safe while awaiting refugee status from the UN. He was forbidden to work and at the mercy of corrupt police, con men and red tape. Then life became more dangerous still, when the Intelligence Service tracked him down and used his mother, back in Iran, as blackmail.Kooshyar's inspiring story of how he managed to forge a new life in Australia is heightened by his largeness of heart, strength of character, and insight into human behaviour, from the unfathomably evil to the selflessly kind. With the skill of a natural storyteller, Journey of a Thousand Storms recounts a life of endurance, compassion and gritty determination.
Body Confidence: Venice Nutrition's 3-Step System That Unlocks Your Body's Full Potential
Mark MacDonald - 2011
Macdonald’s targeted series of diet and fitness strategies are proven to burn body fat, boost energy levels, increase muscle mass, and eliminate sugar cravings for a better looking, better feeling body today. Providing a step up to holistic body care for fans of Tosca Reno’s Eat-Clean Diet or Jorge Cruise’s Belly Fat Cure, and an excellent companion to Cynthia Sass’s Cinch!, the Venice Nutrition Program’s innovative fitness plan focuses on blood sugar stabilization and a complementary program of exercise, sleep, and stress management. A foreword by bestselling author Chelsea Handler will let you know why Body Confidence is your next step to a healthier, happier tomorrow.
Dirty Genes: A Breakthrough Program to Treat the Root Cause of Illness and Optimize Your Health
Ben Lynch - 2018
Ben Lynch discovered the root cause—“dirty” genes. Genes can be “born dirty” or merely “act dirty” in response to your environment, diet, or lifestyle—causing lifelong, life-threatening, and chronic health problems, including cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disorders, anxiety, depression, digestive issues, obesity, cancer, and diabetes.Based on his own experience and successfully helping thousands of clients, Dr. Lynch shows you how to identify and optimize both types of dirty genes by cleaning them up with targeted and personalized plans, including healthy eating, good sleep, stress relief, environmental detox, and other holistic and natural means.Many of us believe our genes doom us to the disorders that run in our families. But Dr. Lynch reveals that with the right plan in place, you can eliminate symptoms, and optimize your physical and mental health—and ultimately rewrite your genetic destiny.