As I write on 19 December 2015 people across the world are preparing to put an organ in their bodies through an assault course. This annual ritual is known as ‘Christmas’. The organ in question is not much discussed in polite conversation, and preferably not at a sacred time of the year. It is the gut. This unspeakable body part will be dealing with your excesses and, if all goes well, squeezing the turkey dinner out as faeces.
The gut is as important to a functioning human as the brain or heart, yet we know very little about how it. In Gut, German microbiologist Giulia Enders (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giulia_Enders) offers a wealth of detail. She shows that it is one of the most complex, important, and even miraculous parts of our anatomy. Scientists are only just discovering how much it contributes to body functioning; new research shows that gut bacteria can play a role in everything from obesity and allergies to Alzheimer’s.
Beginning with the personal experience of illness that inspired her research, and going on to explain everything from the basics of nutrient absorption to the latest science linking bowel bacteria with depression, Enders gives us an entertaining, informative handbook of health. Gut definitely shows that we can all benefit from getting to know the wondrous world of our inner workings. This is a book to fully digest.
If feeling mischievous one could ask at one’s local library for Giulia Enders’s ‘tract’ on the intestine. Otherwise full bibliographic detail is to found here http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1922247960?keywords=gut&qid=1450525990&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1
May you have a feast of a Christmas dinner without recourse to the Gaviscon Double Action.
288 pages in Scribe Publications
First published 2015
ISBN 978-1922247964
Giulia Enders