A Better Second Half – by Liz Earle

Here we have a book that’s aimed at women from midlife onwards. The author is not a doctor or scientist, but has been in the wellness industry in one form or another for pretty much her entire career (and she’s now in her 60s), so you can imagine she’s accumulated a lot of knowledge and experience.

As a result, what she delivers is a guide to aging female health that is comprehensive in its recommendations, while being quite light on the underlying science (which she herself may or may not understand—she neither shows scientific expertise nor scientific ignorance; she simply doesn’t discuss the science beyond the level of mentioning that it is there).

To this end, we get practical advice on supplements, HRT, nutrition, exercise, brain health specifically, sleep, stress-management, social considerations, and even “beauty bio-hacks”.

The style is polished, including in her self-presentation when discussing her own practices and life history. The book is written in British English, by the way, which means not only spellings such as “oestrogen” but also things like her mentioning when she was at her heaviest, post-pregnancy, she weighed 12 stone. This European reviewer had to look up what that is (apparently it’s 76 kg, or 168 lbs, for Americans).

Bottom line: the advice here is good, albeit by no means groundbreaking or deep. If you’re a regular 10almonds reader, you’ll doubtlessly know the main content already, though you’ll probably also pick up at least some new information, since she peppers a great miscellany of facts throughout her work. Which, given the very minimal referencing, may then require fact-checking by the reader, but either way, learning occurs. Which is what we’re all about!

Click here to check out A Better Second Half, and enjoy a better second half!