Strength training is important as it will reverse ageing, reduce risk of muscle loss, osteoporosis, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and stroke and improve our brain health. Dr. Chatterjee’s methods have produced remarkable results, ranging from reversing type 2 diabetes and depression to eliminating irritable bowel syndrome and migraines, all without the use of medication. His approach emphasises gradual lifestyle changes, allowing readers to implement them one step at a time.

As regards the five portions of vegetables we should strive to eat each day, these should ideally be of five different colours.My biggest takeaway on the science front was that when we get stressed, our bodies make extra cortisol, and to do that they have to steal ingredients that would otherwise be used to make other super important things like hormones. (Something I also learned about in Lara Briden's book on women's health.) No wonder reducing stress is so important. I always thought that was just sort of a feel-good, soft, catch-all suggestion, so it was interesting to read the details. So many good ideas in this book - little ways you can improve your life, each supporting one of Dr Chatterjee's four pillars of Relax, Eat, Move and Sleep. The author is a GP in the UK National Health Service, as well as an author and occasionally a TV doctor, and one of the nice elements of the book for me was the little stories of how he has used some of these practices to improve the lives of his patients, often without having to resort to additional medication. He is a strong believer in looking at the whole person and their lifestyle, rather than just the set of symptoms, and it's clear that this is the way forward for health across an aging population serviced by a limited set of resources. So much more effective in the end, and the interventions seem likely to be both longer-lasting and less expensive. It's great to see a well-researched, practical book with everyday, accessible, changes that can really make a difference to how you live. A physician dedicated to finding the root cause of ill health rather than simply suppressing symptoms with drugs, Dr. Chatterjee passionately advocates and follows a philosophy that lifestyle and nutrition are first-line medicine and the cornerstone of good health. Drawing on cutting edge research and his own experiences as a doctor, he argues that the secret to preventing disease and achieving wellness revolves around four critical pillars: food, relaxation, sleep, and movement. By making small, incremental changes in each of these key areas, you can create and maintain good health—and alleviate and prevent illness. As Dr. Chatterjee, reveals we can reverse and make disease disappear without a complete overhaul of our lifestyle. Re eating, he suggests 1) de-normalize sugar and retrain your taste buds 2) eat five different vegetables every day 3) eat all your food within a twelve-hour window (what Dr. Mercola also advises and terms “intermittent fasting”) 4) drink eight glasses of water per day and unprocess your diet by avoiding any food product containing more than five ingredients. His dynamic, user-friendly approach is not about excelling at any one pillar. What matters is balance in every area of your life, which

Aim to eat at least five portions of vegetables every day, ideally of five different colours. This approach, known as the ‘five-a-day’ concept, focuses on consuming a variety of vegetables rather than relying solely on fruit.

Author’s background

Just over a year ago I got the opportunity to make a series of documentaries for BBC1, where I got to showcase this style of medicine. Let me tell you about one of the patients. A 35-year-old, Dotti, a lovely lady but she was struggling with her health – weight problems, joint problems, sleep problems. Despite Dotti’s best efforts, she was unable to make sustainable changes. SoI went into Dotti’s house and on the first week I did some blood tests and I diagnosed her with type-2 diabetes. 6 weeks later when I left Dotti’s house, she no longer had type-2 diabetes – you see her disease had disappeared.

Acclaimed functional medicine doctor Rangan Chatterjee writes, “The good news is that I can make these diseases disappear. That’s right. This probably sounds like an extraordinary claim, but the reason I can make them disappear is that they’re an illusion. These diseases are not the inevitable result of aging. They are not simply our genetic fate or our destiny. We do not have to suffer needlessly. The truth is these diseases don’t really exist, at least not in the way we think they do.” A physician dedicated to finding the root cause of ill health rather than simply suppressing symptoms with drugs, Dr. Chatterjee passionately advocates and follows a philosophy that lifestyle and nutrition are first-line medicine and the cornerstone of good health. Drawing on cutting edge research and his own experiences as a doctor, he argues that the secret to preventing disease and achieving wellness revolves around four critical pillars: food, relaxation, sleep, and movement. By making small, incremental changes in each of these key areas, you can create and maintain good health - and alleviate and prevent illness. As Dr. Chatterjee, reveals we can reverse and make disease disappear without a complete overhaul of our lifestyle. So 15 years ago, I qualified for medical school and I was wearing — I was full of enthusiasm, full of passion, ready to go out and help people. But I felt like there was something missing, I started as a specialist, I moved from being a specialist to becoming a generalist or GP. And I always got this nagging sense that I was just managing disease or simply suppressing people symptoms. I think everyone reading this book will realise they don’t get adequate sleep or relaxation/rest. And the Dr agrees we don’t have a lot of time for it in our hectic lives. But there’s still things we can do for 15 mins that certainly help to slow us down and chill us out.

Table of contents

One particularly beneficial bacterium is Akkermansia muciniphila, which feeds on onions, garlic, leeks, artichokes, yams, bananas, Brussels sprouts, etc. The thing we have to understand is an acute disease and chronic disease are two different things. Acute disease is something we’re pretty good at as doctors, we’re good at this. It’s quite simple. OK, you have something like a pneumonia, that’s a severe lung infection. So when you’re alone you have the overgrowth of some bugs, typically the bacteria. We identify the bacteria, we give you a treatment, typically an antibiotic and it kills the bacteria; bacteria dies and hey presto, you no longer have your pneumonia. So what factors is he looking at? He’s looking at their diet; he is looking at their stress levels, their sleep quality, their physical activity level, their exposure to environmental toxins etc etc etc, as they start to sound a little bit familiar. See, what if all these seemingly separate diseases actually out there share common root causes. See, we need to update our thinking: our genetics are not our destiny, our genes load the gun but it’s our environment that pulls the trigger; all these factors here, these are the factors that basically interact with your genes and determine how your genes are expressed whether you want an optimal health, whether you have a disease, whether you are somewhere in between. Collectively as a society I genuinely believe we can do better and we have to do better. My afterthoughts on finishing the book are that I learned so much about the body and how specific things sleep, stress, whitecarbs, etc effect it.

Through his experiences showcased in the groundbreaking BBC television show, Doctor in the House, Dr. Chatterjee has transformed the lives of countless individuals and challenged traditional medical practices. His aim is to revolutionise the field of medicine and promote self-healing through lifestyle improvements.A much-needed program to prevent and reverse disease, and discover a path to sustainable, long-term health from an acclaimed international doctor and star of the BBC program Doctor in the House.