91av

Giulia Enders
(Illustrated by Jill Enders, and translated by Jamie Bulloch), Hachette (UK); HarperCollins (US)

Work, home, politics, TV sagas, juicy celebrity gossip – who doesn’t get caught up in the drama of everyday life?

But there may be an equally compelling and fascinating story unfolding every second of every day inside the squishy bodies doing all that living.

There, our organs do the quiet yet incredible work of providing the oxygen, energy and resilience we need to experience the joys and navigate the hardships of life.

By gaining deeper appreciation of our intricate machinery, honed over millennia of human evolution, we can find fresh inspiration to lead healthier, more meaningful lives, argues Giulia Enders in her new book Organ Speak: What it really means to listen to our bodies.

Enders, who is also a medical doctor and a researcher specialising in the digestive system, is best known for her bestselling book, Gut. This is an amusing account of the intestines – her favourite organ – covering nitty-gritty topics like what happens when we fart and what is the best position for defecating.

In her latest book, she extols the marvels of five other areas: the lungs, immune system, skin, muscles and, last but not least, the brain. In some ways, the new book is another tour de force. Enders explains complex biology with clarity, great enthusiasm and sometimes a dose of humour, making a strong case for paying more attention to what lies inside the working parts within us.

The book shows her fascination with how organs function and what we can do to keep them in good shape. Enders dedicates a chapter to each organ, drawing on the latest scientific research, and weaving in stories from her personal life to map her experiences onto the organ or system. For example, at one point, she describes how her late grandmother’s best friend constantly helped people around him respond to unexpected life events, acting almost like an immune system in human form.

“Our organs also have a substantial say in what it means to be ourselves. They’re involved in key questions such as: what do we really need? How do we deal with threats? How do we want to treat each other?” she writes. “If we can better understand the answers from our body, we could lead a more harmonious life.”

She starts with the lungs. These soft and flexible balloons in our chest bear the impressions of our ribs, heart and oesophagus as they inflate and shrink some 20,000 times a day. This delicacy helps them make the most of the air we inhale, which is almost never at the perfect temperature or humidity for our lungs, and contains damaging particles such as dirt or pollutants.

Enders also explores obscure, and problematic, breathing habits like “email apnoea” – where people hold their breath as they open their inboxes – and excessive mouth breathing. Both of these can lead to tiredness, neck tension and shortness of breath. As you might hope, she offers solutions, such as exercises where you briefly hold your breath after exhaling to soothe your nervous system.

Next up is the immune system. Enders shows how it protects us from bacteria and viruses, before explaining why we feel so ill when we catch a nasty infection. She amusingly frames a runny nose as “nose diarrhoea” because, much like diarrhoea, it also helps to flush out pathogens.

Allergies and autoimmune conditions, she explains, happen when the immune system mistakes a harmless substance for a threat – and that can be anything from peanut protein to healthy tissue – causing it to release inflammatory molecules. These produce unpleasant symptoms like rashes or painful joints.

Luckily, there are some ways to help keep your immune cells happy: sleep, eat and exercise well – and get vaccinated, she writes. The latter will help to protect you against viral infections, such as flu or covid-19, which can impair the immune system for weeks or even months after the virus has gone, through what is known as post-viral syndrome.

As for the skin, Enders peels back its complex layers before explaining things like why wrinkles form and the benefits of being touched. In pre-term babies, for instance, skin contact in early life may improve sleep, cognitive development and resistance to stress years later, she explains. In adults, it seems to lower blood pressure, reduce anxiety and can even bring pain relief.

To slow skin ageing, the science suggests we wear moisturising creams containing vitamin C in the evenings and vitamin A-infused moisturisers, in combination with sunscreen, in the mornings. This is because such creams help capture damaging free radical particles when applied in that way: vitamin C degrades in sunlight. while vitamin A, in the absence of sunscreen, can generate radicals in sunlight.

And if you’ve ever wondered how muscles “muscle”, Enders has the subject covered. Among a tranche of medium to less well-known facts, she explains what would happen if you could stay in bed for a fortnight without moving at all. It turns out that your body would lose a staggering tenth of its muscle mass, similar to the loss that occurs over 30 years of normal ageing.

As you might expect, Enders lays out the evidence on why we should exercise: reduced anxiety, a stronger heart and new brain cells – things the health-conscious among us may already know.

But how exactly your muscles respond to exercise partly depends on your genetics. Some people are better suited to long-distance running, while others are built to excel at strength training. So, rather than comparing your athletic prowess with other people’s, you’re better off finding the kind of workout that suits your body best – and you’ll probably find it more enjoyable too.

The book ends with the brain. Enders digs into what happens when we’re sleep deprived and what drives substance addictions, and she offers tips for snoozing better. Basically, she says, avoid bright lights or caffeine before bed, and don’t bother with melatonin because most people won’t benefit much from the hormone.

All in all, Organ Speak probably won’t offer 91av readers many health tips you’ve not heard before. I also found some passages hard to read, where Enders speaks of organs as wise gurus from which we can learn deep life lessons. These didn’t work for me: for instance, I am pretty sure thinking of my skin won’t help me to cope better with grief or heartbreak, as she suggests.

The book also takes unnecessary detours. Take the lung chapter: Enders describes the evolution of Earth’s air, when a narrower focus on the lungs themselves would have been more engaging.

Despite these issues, Organ Speak is probably worth picking up if you’re curious about your inner workings – and it just might remind you to take better care of them. I will certainly try an extended exhale when I next open my more worrying emails!

Three more great books on the human body

by Mary Roach

When our body parts fail or get a bit rusty, medicine offers a slew of solutions. Mary Roach takes a look at the most innovative attempts to repair, replace or enhance, with a daring dose of self-experimentation in the mix.

by Daniel Davis

We constantly hear about ways to boost our immune system, but what if these claims are wrong? From taking vitamin C to eating turmeric, Daniel Davis takes a forensic look at what really helps us look after our immune system.

by Guy Leschziner

Neurologist Guy Leschziner uses fascinating (or disturbing) real accounts to explore how our senses make (or unmake) our private worlds. We meet the man who “tastes” words but also one who doesn’t feel pain.