I have not posted in a long time about the books I read. I have not read that many book over the last two years, but I explored some very unconventional ideas. I read books on topics ranging from the structure of water (The Fourth Phase of Water by Gerald Pollack) to remote viewing (Mind Trek by Joseph McMoneagle)
Bioelectricity
Over the last few months I read a bunch of books about bioelectricity. It is kind of mind blowing that I did a PhD in neuroscience with emphasis on electrophysiology and I never heard about any of this. The book “Body electric” by Robert Beck is like reading sci-fi. Among other things I cannot believe they were able to use electricity for wound/bone healing with impressive results in the 1970s. Robert Becker got cancelled, maybe partially because he testified against the energy companies and the military. Recently I emailed a former collaborator: Andrew Marino to ask about Robert Becker. Andrew Marino confirmed that Robert Becker was a top researcher. I would recommend everybody interested in electrophysiology to read the book “Body electric”.
The book “We are electric” by Sally Adee gives a more historical perspective and also focuses more on the research done by Lionel Jaffe’s group and Michael Levin’s group. Apparently Lione Jaffe and Robert Becker did not get along at all.
The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
A very philosophical book about creativity. I read only a few chapters at a time.
Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia
I have been following Peter Attia since he started his podcast a few years ago. I don’t agree with everything he preaches, but I think his book Outlive is a great introduction about how to live a longer and healthier life. I really appreciate his honesty about his own struggles with mental health.
Books about movement science
Over the last year I spent some time educating myself about movement science. In our medical training we get very little exposure to this topic. In my practice of pain management movement is extremely important. I regularly refer patients to physical therapy and yoga/tai-chi, but I feel like I should know a fair amount myself. Two books I read recently are below.
Omnivore's dilemma by Michael Polan
I think everybody should read a few books about food considering how important food is for us. This should be one of those books.
Build by Tony Fadell
I really loved this book. It describes the culture in a few tech companies, including Apple and Google. A very entertaining chapter is about assholes.
Prey by Michael Crichton
I rarely read fiction, but somebody recommended this book and I decided to read it. This book felt like an episode from the TV show “Black Mirror” . It describes how things can go wrong pretty fast in the future when we have powerful nanotechnology available.
Lifespan: Why We Age―and Why We Don't Have To
David Sinclair is a researcher studying aging. His theory is that information in the cells is degraded over time and this is the cause of aging. He published some interesting papers on this topic.
Metabolical
Metabolic health is a very important measure of the well-being of our cells. In the end, we are just a bunch of cells working together. Robert Lustig is a retired professor of pediatric endocrinology from UCSF. This book contains some errors and the author’s style might not be for everyone, but overall it is an excellent resource for understanding metabolic health.
Dirt to Soil: One Family’s Journey into Regenerative Agriculture
For the last couple of years I have been really interested in food. The best way to understand how we arrived to the standard American diet is to look into how food is produced. In this book Gabe Brown describes how he transformed his farm. He is actually making more profit working less through practicing regenerative agriculture. Some of the basic principles are: no tilling, usage of cover crops and incorporating animals and crops on the same farm. I highly recommend this book to anybody interested in food.
Run for Your Life
This book is about running, training and much more. Mark Cucuzzella is a family medicine doctor in West Virginia . He has vast experience in running marathons. He is also really into low carb diet because he became prediabetic despite being thin and very fit. The way we run makes a big difference in our energy consumption and risk for injuries. Just watch this video of him running: youtube link. More information about training is on the resources page associated with the book.
Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution: The Complete Guide to Achieving Normal Blood Sugars
If you have diabetes type 1 you must read this book. If you have diabetes type 2 on insulin you must read this book. If you have diabetes type 2 on oral medication you should read this book. If you have prediabetes you should still read this book. Dr. Richard Bernstein was diagnosed with diabetes type 1 in 1946 and by himself figured out how to treat his disease in the 1970s. He is still alive today. You can even find him on youtube where he has plenty of lectures filled with amazing knowledge about diabetes.
The Deep History of Ourselves: The Four-Billion-Year Story of How We Got Conscious Brains
Joseph LeDoux is one of the top researchers in the neuroscience field. His research has been focused on the amygdala for tens of years. Recently, I listened to a podcast episode with Joseph LeDoux and Joe Rogan (link). I was intrigued by his statement that amygdala is not the fear center in the brain. In the book he makes a very compelling argument that amygdala is part of the survival circuits in the brain. The fear is an emotion that is created by other brain structures which are higher order in the flow of information processing.
Deep Medicine
I follow Eric Topol on twitter and he posts a lot about random medical topics. I thought I should read a book by him. In this book he makes the argument that technology will not replace the doctors but give the doctors more time to interact with their patients. I am not entirely convinced. He also presents various technologies that are under development in different medical fields (e.g. pathology, radiology, cardiology).
Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams
I loved this book. It is a very compelling argument for the importance of sleep. Matthew Walker is a gifted and engaging writer. He went on a few podcasts to talk about his book. My favorite was his discussion with Peter Attia.
The book of why
Within the last year I have encountered a few scientific papers using mediation analysis. I was curious to see what mediation analysis means. And then I found this book which is an introduction to causal inference. Currently a lot of scientific research is about correlations, but I think we are going to switch to causation in the near future.
The Dorito Effect
I read this last year. It is a very good summary about what happened to the food in US over the last 40-50 years. An interview with the author is here: https://youtu.be/1GBrWKp9Xug?t=1
William Osler: A Life in Medicine
William Osler was one of great internal medicine physicians in the late 1800s and beginning 1900s. He started at McGill, then moved to University of Pennsylvania. From there he went to be one of the original faculty (first Physician-in-Chief) for John Hopkins hospital and medical school. Then, he kind of retired at Oxford. It is really interesting to read the history of all these great places. There are many quotes by William Osler. One of my favorites is: “The good physician treats the disease; the great physician treats the patient who has the disease.”
The New Mind-Body Science of Depression
This was quite a technical book and it took a while to read. I loved this book because it discusses the factors contributing to depression from genes to environment. It also talks about new treatments like whole body hyperthermia (probably hot yoga can accomplish something similar). A good overview of the book was in a podcast with Charles Raison: found my fitness podcast episode.
