Books on health everyone should have in their library

Novels often draw on real life. Take the example of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, inspired by porphyria which affects the production of heme in the blood. One of the symptoms of the disorder, and we all know this from the novel, is sensitivity to sunlight. Another (more recent) example is John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, in which the central character, Hazel Grace, has terminal thyroid cancer.

While popular books often draw on medical science, there are also instances when scientific health-related books have crossed over into pop-culture. That, in many ways, is the mark of great science writing, it makes the intimidating accessible and informs us about things we did not even know existed.

Based on this criterion, here is a list of “health books” that may challenge and strengthen your worldview:

1. The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee

The Pulitzer-winning author of The Emperor of all Maladies: A Biography of Cancer tells the story of inheritance in The Gene. Starting with the heartwrenching story of mental illness in his family, Mukherjee takes us from Mendel to Darwin to Watson and Crick and the Nazis to show us how the gene makes us who we are.

2. Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ by Giulia Enders

This is an uproariously funny account of our underappreciated guts. Discussions range from the “brain-gut” connection (why do we feel it in our stomachs when we are racked with guilt or anxiety, and conversely, why do upset stomachs make us feel stressed?) to the inner sphincter at the end of the gut that tells the outer sphincter when it is time to go to the loo.

3. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

The memoir of a neurosurgeon who is diagnosed with end-stage metastatic lung cancer, this book is an inquiry into what makes a good life. After his diagnosis, Paul throws himself back into his work, has a daughter, tries to make the most of his limited time. The book is full of insightful questions and quotes on mortality. Paul died shortly before the book went to press.

4. Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual by Michael Pollan

Pollan is a public intellectual whose work on food systems and the environment is highly regarded. This book contains 64 rules on healthy eating. Example, processed foods are bad. Read it for Pollan’s persuasive explanations.

5. 9 Highland Road: Sane Living for the Mentally Ill by Michael Winerip

This a non-fiction account of an assisted living facility in a residential neighbourhood. At a time when mental health is gaining attention but is misunderstood, this empathetic book places those suffering from it at the centre and talks about their lives and hopes.

6. Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker

Professor Matthew Walker, Director of UC Berkeley’s Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab, and TED Talks speaker explores the science behind sleep, how our circadian rhythm works, how our sleep patterns change over time and how caffeine affects our body. Sleep is a crucial part of our existence and an understudied one as well. Walker discusses how adequate and restful sleep is critical for a healthy life and how poor sleep is linked to various health issues.

7. Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr Paul Farmer, a Man who would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder

Paul Farmer was one of the founders of Partners in Health, an NGO that provides quality healthcare to those who can’t afford it. The book discusses Farmer’s life and the tuberculosis programme he headed in Haiti. This is an instructive book for those interested in public health: it discusses the difficulties of providing quality healthcare in unstable environments and the political and operational factors involved in dealing with big players like the World Health Organization.

8. The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic – and How it Changed Science, Cities and the Modern World by Steven Berlin Johnson

London’s 1854 cholera outbreak changed the field of healthcare forever. John Snow, a physician, and Henry Whitehead, a priest, developed a map of the area and correlated it with incidences of the disease. With extensive cultural and local knowledge, the two figured out that the epicentre of the disease was a public well and that the disease was spreading through contaminated water. This formed the basis of epidemiology, a core tenet of public health.

9. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

The story of HeLa, the first cells cultured and grown outside the human body, is also a story about racial discrimination and patient rights. HeLa were extracted from a biopsy and cultured without the knowledge of a cervical cancer patient, an African-American woman called Henrietta. The book talks about the racial divide in the US, Henrietta’s family after she died and the contributions her cells have made to our understanding of the world.

10. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks

The book is divided into 24 chapters, each one about an interesting psychiatric case that Dr Sacks encountered in his career. Each section looks at a condition affecting a different region of the brain and illustrates the complex synergy that keeps us ticking. (In case you were wondering, the book gets its title from a disorder called visual agnosia.)

11. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

Mitch lost touch with his favourite college professor Morrie over the years. When they reconnected, Morrie, now retired, was dying from ALS, or motor neurone disease. They decided to meet every Tuesday until he died. Every week is a discussion on what makes life worth living.

We hope you find this list interesting!

Health articles in Firstpost are written by myUpchar.com, India’s first and biggest resource for verified medical information. At myUpchar, researchers and journalists work with doctors to bring you information on all things health. For more information on ALS, please read our article on Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: Symptoms and Treatment .