Furthermore, Dr. Chatterjee highlights the importance of adequate sleep, regular exercise, and strength training. He also delves into the significance of gut health, microbiome diversity, and the benefits of specific foods. The book features exercise routines, including a five-minute kitchen workout and exercises to activate the glutes.

His dynamic, user-friendly approach is not about excelling at any one pillar. What matters is balance in every area of your life, which includes: In the book ‘ How to Make Disease Disappear’, Dr. Rangan Chatterjee shares his insights on maintaining and improving our health. Driven by the belief that doctors should focus on finding the root causes of illnesses, he presents a holistic approach to healthcare. Eating a diverse range of vegetables is beneficial for the microbiome, which consists of the trillions of microorganisms living in our gut. A healthy and diverse microbiome is crucial for our mental and physical health. Vegetables, particularly those rich in plant-based fibre, provide the prebiotic fibre that feeds the gut bacteria and promotes the production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). SCFAs have anti-inflammatory properties and support overall health. Increasing vegetable intake helps replenish and nourish the gut microbiome, which has been negatively impacted by modern living, processed foods, stress, and antibiotic use. He teaches us 3-4-5 breathing, breathing in for 3 seconds, holding our breath for 4 seconds and breathing out for 5 seconds. Sowhen I met Dotti and she had her diagnosis – her blood sugar level was out of control. Because that’s what people say, many people say that type-2 diabetes is a blood-sugar problem but they’re missing the point. There’s a problem with blood-sugar in type-2 diabetes, but type-2 diabetes is not a blood-sugar problem. The blood-sugar is the symptom, it’s not the cause. If we only treat symptoms, we’ll never get rid of the disease. So when I met Dotti, I said “Dotti, you’ve got a problem with your blood-sugar, Dotti for the last few years your body has become more and more intolerant to certain foods. At the moment Dottyyour body does not tolerate refined or processed carbs or sugar at all. Soyou’ve got to cut them out.” So what does that do? It stops you putting fuel on Dotty’s raging fire but then we’ve got to work out what started the fire in the first place and what was the fuel that caused it to burn for so long.Aim to eat at least five portions of vegetables every day, ideally of five different colours. This approach, known as the ‘five-a-day’ concept, focuses on consuming a variety of vegetables rather than relying solely on fruit. A professor in San Francisco, Professor Bredesen was actually demonstrating that you can cure dementia. He’s shown that you can reverse cognitive decline in his patients with dementia; and how is he doing that? One thing he’s not doing, he is not saying, well all these patients in my office have got dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, what is the cure? He’s going the other way; he’s saying with all these patients, let’s say ten patients in my office, he’s trying to work out what have been the triggers for the last 20 years that have ended up with these patients expressing themselves as dementia and he identifies them and he corrects every single one of them. And when he does that guess what’s happening, they are reversing their symptoms, they are no longer being classified as having dementia. It’s a brand new way of looking at disease. It’s looking at what is causing this disease in this individual patient is totally different. See, when I met Dotti, she was up here, she had a disease. You see, you can think of it a little bit like a fire that’s been burning in Dotti’s body for years; it’s getting bigger, it’s getting bigger, it’s finally raging out of control at that point. I can say hey Dotti, you have a disease and I told her that you do have a disease. But what caused it in the first place? I think everyone reading this book will realise they don’t get adequate sleep or relaxation/rest. And the Dr agrees we don’t have a lot of time for it in our hectic lives. But there’s still things we can do for 15 mins that certainly help to slow us down and chill us out.

What about something else? What about Alzheimer’s disease? We’re all livinglonger aren’t we? But we’re scared, we’re scared that as we live longer and as we live older we may have to live with the devastating consequences of things like Alzheimer’s. I’m sure many of us in here have experienced that ourselves or our family. It’s a heart-wrenching condition and we the doctors, we’re scrambling around aren’t we, trying to find the cure. Well there’s a professor, near San Francisco, Professor Bredesen who’s actually demonstrating that you can cure dementia. He’s showing that you can reverse cognitive decline in his patients with dementia and how is he doing that? Well one thing he’s not doing, he’s not saying – well all these patients in my office have got dementia, Alzheimer’s disease – what is the cure? Nohe’s going the other way, he’s saying with all these patients, let’s say 10 patients in my office, he’s trying to work out what have been the triggers for the last 20 years that have ended up with this patient expressing themselves as dementia? And he identifies them and he corrects every single one of them. And when he does that, guess what’s happening – they are reversing their symptoms, they are no longer being classified as having dementia. It’s a brand newway of looking at disease. Its looking at what is causing this disease in this individual patient, it’s totally different. Sowhat factors is he looking at? Well he’s looking at their diet, he’s looking at their stress levels, their sleep quality, their physical activity levels, their exposure to environmental toxins, etc., etc. I think I’ve finally learned what my body needs. And I’m finally prepared to let it have what it needs after suffering months of severe fatigue. Prioritize mindfulness meditation - do it for 10 minutes every night as the first step of my bedtime routine. My afterthoughts on finishing the book are that I learned so much about the body and how specific things sleep, stress, whitecarbs, etc effect it. The book is extremely readable since we are told about what Rangan himself does and are also presented with edifying case histories.Some of his tips I was already doing. But as a result of the book, here are the specific things I have newly implemented or adjusted in my life: So many good ideas in this book - little ways you can improve your life, each supporting one of Dr Chatterjee's four pillars of Relax, Eat, Move and Sleep. The author is a GP in the UK National Health Service, as well as an author and occasionally a TV doctor, and one of the nice elements of the book for me was the little stories of how he has used some of these practices to improve the lives of his patients, often without having to resort to additional medication. He is a strong believer in looking at the whole person and their lifestyle, rather than just the set of symptoms, and it's clear that this is the way forward for health across an aging population serviced by a limited set of resources. So much more effective in the end, and the interventions seem likely to be both longer-lasting and less expensive. It's great to see a well-researched, practical book with everyday, accessible, changes that can really make a difference to how you live. Dr. Chatterjee is one of my new heroes, since he is both transforming the lives of thousands of people for the better and also showing us how the doctors of the future need to be – they need to get away from prescribing medicine, which is harmful in the long run, and begin to teach people how to heal themselves by improving their lifestyle. As Rangan states, “the practice of medicine will also need to evolve”. Chronic diseases claim the lives of nearly 41 million people worldwide each year, accounting for seven out of ten global deaths. Among these deaths, approximately 17 million are classified as premature, occurring at younger ages than expected.

As regards the five portions of vegetables we should strive to eat each day, these should ideally be of five different colours. Through his experiences showcased in the groundbreaking BBC television show, Doctor in the House, Dr. Chatterjee has transformed the lives of countless individuals and challenged traditional medical practices. His aim is to revolutionise the field of medicine and promote self-healing through lifestyle improvements. The problem is we apply that same thinking to chronic disease and it simply doesn’t work, because chronic disease doesn’t just happen. You don’t just wake up with chronic disease one day and there’s many different causes of chronic disease. By the time we give you that diagnosis, things have been going wrong for a long, long time.A life free of disease revolves around Dr. Chatterjee’s four pillars: relaxation, food, sleep and movement. By making small, achievable changes in each of these key areas, you can create and maintain good health—and, most importantly, avoid and reverse illness. Go outside for a 20-30 minute walk every morning (among as much natural greenery as possible), ideally before 10am. No looking at phone or listening to music/podcasts. During the walk, take an additional 10-15 minute break to sit/stand quietly--observing nature, feeling alive, grateful, and at peace. Make this morning walk a non-negotiable item. He has co-created the brand new RCGP accredited Prescribing Lifestyle Medicine course which was delivered to 200 GPs and specialists for the first time in January 2018 providing doctors with a framework to apply Lifestyle Medicine principles in clinical practice. Re eating, he suggests 1) de-normalize sugar and retrain your taste buds 2) eat five different vegetables every day 3) eat all your food within a twelve-hour window (what Dr. Mercola also advises and terms “intermittent fasting”) 4) drink eight glasses of water per day and unprocess your diet by avoiding any food product containing more than five ingredients.

Take longer 2-min walking breaks every 30 minutes during my working hours. Wherever possible during virtual meetings or commercials, walk around. Aim for 10,000 steps, even if it's mostly aspirational. So when I met Dotti and she had her diagnosis, her blood sugar was out of control, right, because that’s what people say — many people say that type 2 diabetes is a blood sugar problem but they’re missing the point. There is a problem with blood sugar in type 2 diabetes but type 2 diabetes is not a blood sugar problem. The blood sugar is the symptom, it’s not the cause. If we only treat symptoms we will never get rid of the disease. Practical and life-changing, How to Make Disease Disappear is an inspiring and easy-to-follow guide to better health and happiness. My biggest takeaway on the science front was that when we get stressed, our bodies make extra cortisol, and to do that they have to steal ingredients that would otherwise be used to make other super important things like hormones. (Something I also learned about in Lara Briden's book on women's health.) No wonder reducing stress is so important. I always thought that was just sort of a feel-good, soft, catch-all suggestion, so it was interesting to read the details. This is an excellent book, providing us with basic, necessary information about how to keep or regain our health. Dr. Chatterjee tells us how to relax, eat, move and sleep, these being the four pillars of health.See, I learned how to resolve the root cause of their problems rather than simply suppressing their symptoms. Just over a year ago, I had the opportunity to make a series documentary for BBC One where I got to showcase this style of medicine. I’m going to tell you about one of the patients — a thirty-five-year-old Dotti, lovely lovely lady but she was struggling with her health, weight problems, joint problems, sleep problems. See, despite Dotti’s best efforts, Dotti was unable to make any sustainable changes. Dr Chaterjee’s pillars of EAT, SLEEP, RELAX and MOVE is an amazing way to focus on the things you need to prioritise in life to feel and be healthier physically and mentally. So I started reading about this vitamin deficiency, and as I started reading, I started to learn a lot of science, a lot of science that I did not learn in medical school… a lot of science that made a lot of sense to me. SoI started applying the science, first of all with my son and I saw the amazing benefits. SoI started applying it with my patients and do you know what happened? People started getting better, really better – you see I learnt how to resolve the root cause of their problems, rather than simply suppressing their symptoms. A physician dedicated to finding the root cause of ill health rather than simply suppressing symptoms with drugs, Dr. Chatterjee passionately advocates and follows a philosophy that lifestyle and nutrition are first-line medicine and the cornerstone of good health. Drawing on cutting edge research and his own experiences as a doctor, he argues that the secret to preventing disease and achieving wellness revolves around four critical food, relaxation, sleep, and movement. By making small, incremental changes in each of these key areas, you can create and maintain good health—and alleviate and prevent illness. As Dr. Chatterjee, reveals we can reverse and make disease disappear without a complete overhaul of our lifestyle. A physician dedicated to finding the root cause of ill health rather than simply suppressing symptoms with drugs, Dr. Chatterjee passionately advocates and follows a philosophy that lifestyle and nutrition are first-line medicine and the cornerstone of good health. Drawing on cutting edge research and his own experiences as a doctor, he argues that the secret to preventing disease and achieving wellness revolves around four critical pillars: food, relaxation, sleep, and movement. By making small, incremental changes in each of these key areas, you can create and maintain good health - and alleviate and prevent illness. As Dr. Chatterjee, reveals we can reverse and make disease disappear without a complete overhaul of our lifestyle.