Michelle Obama, the former First Lady of the US, became despondent when Hilary Clinton lost to Donald Trump in the Presidential election. She had difficulty accepting that a man whom she felt was not suitable to hold the highest office in the United States was now President. When the pandemic hit and Americans were dying in their thousands, she feared for the future, not only of her country but also the world.
She felt despair, a feeling of helplessness and self-doubt. There was no way out and nothing could stop the world sliding down the slippery slope to dystopia. She was at her lowest ebb. The ‘light’ within her dimmed. The light we carry is our confidence, our wellbeing, our commonsense wisdom, our ability to stay hopeful and balanced in our thoughts and actions.
With the help of trusted friends and her resilience, which she built up over many challenging years, she was able to put together strategies that eventually pulled her out of this anxiety that bordered on depression.
The first thing she did was take up knitting. This meant she had to sit quietly, concentrating on what her hands were doing. This calmed her … and it produced garments for the children and her husband.
In The Light We Carry those strategies are set out for all to use. We need to be strong, confident and resourceful in these uncertain times. The problems of the world are left to be solved another day. ‘Start small’ is her mantra.
Prof Hansbro says that microbiota are the ‘distinct communities of microorganism that jostle for space in our bodies. When we talk specifically about the community of microbes and genes that they produce, we then use the term microbiome.’
This is a fascinating subject and made me really think about the microbes that are all over my body. As they say, ‘in every nook and cranny’. Of course, this includes in my gut. Hansbro tells us that historically microbiome were seen as bad. Now we view them through a new lens. We understand they are critical for our health.
The Good Gut Anti-Inflammatory Diet is a practical book, explaining the functions of inflammation and microbiome. How they influence each other and how our diet and lifestyle impacts on them. It also explores what are the best foods to eat to support a healthy gut, and why, with recipes in the back of the book that you can use as a handy meal planner.
There has been a number of books published about the gut over the last few years and this is a very welcome addition. Produced by the Centenary Institute, an Australian medical research institute located at the University of Sydney, it’s up to date and very informative. It’s also written in an accessible style which means that its aim of helping us live a longer, happier and healthy life feels quite achievable.
Reviewed by Adele Westman
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Professor Phil Hansbro is an internationally recognised research leader in the study of respiratory diseases. This includes asthma, chronic obstructive airway disease (COPD, aka emphysema) and infections and is developing interests in lung cancer. His work is substantially contributing to understanding the pathogenesis and developing new therapies for these diseases.
His work has made internationally important contributions and led to the identification of novel avenues for therapy that are under further study. This is achieved through the development of novel mouse models. These recapitulate the hallmark features of human disease, including infections, asthma and COPD and now lung cancer.
He employs these models in integrated approaches to understand human diseases, and to develop new treatment strategies. Research outcomes have a translational goal and his studies are conducted in parallel with collaborative human studies with clinical researchers.
This novel approach to decision-making sets out to disrupt our usual methodology by suggesting that trawling through the data already collected on certain subjects will tend to lead to a more successful outcome than relying on preconceived assumptions and ‘gut feelings’.
This is no more evident than in the first chapter, which deals with relationships. Could you (would you?) rely on data to pick your partner to ensure a happy marriage? Stephens-Davidowitz lets the reader down immediately: data will not give you a soulmate. What the data (gleaned from the plethora of online dating websites) does reveal though is the common thread among those who’ve had successful relationships. It seems success in this realm is dependent on individual happiness.
The book mentions ‘success’ a lot and – relationships apart – that consistently means ‘wealth’. (Other worthy metrics mightn’t be in the data?) ‘Luck’ does occur, but the data says that success will come from seizing the opportunity luck offers. The data also reveals that entrepreneurs aren’t all wunderkind, with success achievable until a person’s sixties. And quite candidly, there’s a chapter where the author tests his own looks via data to see which appearance affords him the best chance of surviving competency bias.
Stephens-Davidowitz is an ex-Google employee. He’s a self-confessed nerd, obsessed about baseball and Seinfeld. He also mentions his previous book, Everybody Lies as often as he makes nerdy/corny jokes. His best asides are in the frequent footnotes.
There are gems in this but it’s a little too USA-centric for me.
At age 58 Wendy Mitchell was diagnosed with young-onset dementia. Thrown into an unfamiliar world, her mind focused on the overwhelming picture of what the late stages of dementia would bring. However, what she found was she had to deal with small but ever-growing concerns such as tying her shoe laces, the distraction background noise creates, the need to set reminders on her phone for everything and the inability to do two things at once.
In What I Wish People Knew About Dementia Mitchell discusses the aspects of dementia that are generally not talked about. Chapters include senses, communication, emotions and environment. She talks about how her dreams have changed, to the hallucinations she experiences, how caring for someone changes a relationship and the words people use when describing dementia. She shares how the way she cooks has changed and how sounds of the world are now overwhelming. These are all things that people with dementia face.
This is an insightful and personal guide to dementia, an essential read for anyone facing the disease or who knows someone who is. It is confronting, with discussion of some difficult topics that could be very close to home for some. But it’s a positive book that shows how to live with the disease, face the scary symptoms and live a full life. For those with family or friends with dementia, it’s a guide to being empathetic, helpful and not patronising.
With this book Wendy Mitchell will teach a lot of people some very important lessons.
Proof positive that real life doesn’t wrap stories up with neat bows. If this was a 90s-era romcom, author Aimée Lutkin’s search for love by deciding she’s going to go on two dates every week (using dating apps) would culminate in a swooning moment, finding each other in Times Square, or running through an airport in a wedding dress. In this memoir such a conceit/gimmick is a pretty good hook, it just doesn’t add up to much.
The first problem is that as a character in her own story, Lutkin doesn’t seem to know what she wants. She never overtly admits to being miserable because she’s been single for six years, casting herself as a canny feminist millennial who’s lucky to occupy a world where a woman doesn’t need a man to get ahead or complete her. So why the social experiment around dating constantly at all?
Even when she does fall for a guy about halfway through, he becomes an unhealthy presence, ghosting her.
She pines after the guy while maintaining her dating schedule and even moves across the country for him, finally having to admit she’s chasing an illusion.
Then, just when you think some perfect man is going to rescue her – or at least she’s going to come to some dramatic realisation about how she wants to live her life – COVID hits.
This is undoubtedly one of dozens of non-fiction books commissioned before the world went into a global lockdown that precluded social practices like dating, but in the end Lutkin has nothing to do but sit in her apartment, her journey cut short and with no real denouement to her story/experiment.
It’s far from a definitive document about millennial dating as touted, but she peppers her own experiences with scholarly research and scientific/psychological findings about dating, sex and relationships that are fairly interesting.
Most women at some point will have issues with their bladders, whether that is a urinarytract infection, incontinence, or just the urge to go too often. In fact, many men will also experience the same issues.
Bulla has had a bladder problem since she was 27. As she tells us in the book, she is the one always insisting she has to sit in an aisle seat on a plane or the person rushing for the last quick pee before heading out. She thanks her bladder for the inspiration for this book.
Bulla covers everything from how our busy kidneys function to the bladder itself, what makes it happy or irritated, how it shrinks and stretches, to what holds it up. Spoiler, that’s the mighty sling which is the pelvic floor and it’s those pelvic floor exercises that can help maintain your health. She talks about what happens when we pee too often, or not often enough, through to the dangers of pushing compared to simply relaxing.
Did you know that men have much bigger bladders than women? Or that eating avocados, cucumber or asparagus can make you pee more? It’s interesting stuff, but also very helpful to those of us who suffer from bladder problems, especially women after pregnancy or menopause.
Bulla is not a doctor or specialist, but rather a journalist, and one who knows how difficult it is to live with a bladder problem. Her delivery is easy to read, friendly, at times humorous, but also informative.
A handy little book that all women should keep on the bookshelf.
Professor Phil Hansbro is an internationally recognised research leader in the study of respiratory diseases. This includes asthma, chronic obstructive airway disease (COPD, aka emphysema) and infections and is developing interests in lung cancer. His work is substantially contributing to understanding the pathogenesis and developing new therapies for these diseases.