Yesterday’s book review (Counterclockwise) was about psychological factors affecting physical aging (progression or reversal thereof); today we have a book about the physiological factors affecting physical aging (progression or reversal thereof).

Dr. Levine is first and foremost a gerontological epigeneticist, and a lot of this book touches on her research in that field and that of her colleagues.

She does also discuss direct environmental factors also though, and—as you might well expect—lifestyle factors.

Regular readers of 10almonds are unlikely to gain anything new in the category of lifestyle matters, but a lot of the other material will be enlightening, especially with regard to the things that might at first glance seem set in stone, but we can in fact modify, and thus “choose our own adventure” when it comes to how the rest of our life plays out, healthwise (so: choose wisely!).

The book is mostly an overview on the (at time of writing: 2022) current state of affairs in the world of longevity research, and although it’s not a “how to” manual, there is plenty in the category of practical takeaways to be gleaned too.

The style is is mostly light pop science, but with a lot of hard science woven in—she is a good explainer, and has clearly made a notable effort to explain complex concepts in simple ways, while still delivering the complex concepts too (i.e. not overly “dumbing down”).

Bottom line: if you’d like to know about what can be done to increase your healthspan and general longevity, this book has a lot of answers!

Click here to check out True Age, and shift yours in the direction you prefer!

If you assumed tendonitis to be an inflammatory condition, you’re not alone. However, it’s not; the “-itis” nomenclature is a misnomer, and while one can rarely go wrong with reducing chronic/systemic inflammation, it’s not the cure for tendonitis.

What, then, is tendonitis and what does cure it? It’s a non-inflammatory proliferation disorder, meaning, something is growing (or in this case, simply being replaced) in a way it shouldn’t. As to fixing it, that’s more complex.

This book does cover 20 interventions (sorted into “major” and “minor”), ranging from exercise therapies to surgery, with many things between. It also examines popular myths that do not help, such as rest, ice, heat, and analgesics.

The style of this book is hard science, but don’t worry, it explains everything along the way. It does however mean that if you’re not very accustomed to wading through scientific material, you can’t just dip into the middle of the book and be guaranteed to understand what’s going on. Indeed, before even getting to discussing tendonitis/tendinopathy, the first chapter is very reassuringly dedicated to “understanding the levels and classification of evidence in studies”, along with the assorted scales and guidelines of the Center for Evidence-Based Medicine.

The rest, however, is about the etiology, diagnosis, and treatment of tendonitis and tendinopathy more generally. One interesting thing is that, according to the abundant high-quality evidence presented in this book, what works for one body part’s tendonitis does not necessarily work for another body part, so we get quite a part-by-part rundown.

Bottom line: this book has a wealth of useful, applicable information about management of tendonitis, making it indispensable if you or a loved one suffer from such—but settle in, because it’s not a light read.

Click here to check out Overcoming Tendonitis, and overcome tendonitis!

We’ve featured Dr. Rangan Chatterjee before, and here’s a great book of his.

The premise is a realistic twist on a classic, the classic being “such-and-such, in just 5 minutes per day!”

In this case, Dr. Chatterjee offers many lifestyle interventions that each take just 5 minutes, with the idea that you implement 3 of them per day (your choice which and when), and thus gradually build up healthy habits. Of course, once things take as habits, you’ll start adding in more, and before you know it, half your lifestyle has changed for the better.

Which, you may be thinking “my lifestyle’s not that bad”, but if you improve the health outcomes of, say, 20 areas of your life by just a few percent each, you know much better health that adds up to? We’ll give you a clue: it doesn’t add up, it compounds, because each improves the other too, for no part of the body works entirely in isolation.

And Dr. Chatterjee does tackle the body systematically, by the way; interventions for the gut, heart, brain, and so on.

As for what these interventions look like; it is very varied. One might be a physical exercise; another, a mental exercise; another, a “make this health 5-minute thing in the kitchen”, etc, etc.

Bottom line: this is the most supremely easy of easy-ins to healthier living, whatever your starting point—because even if you’re doing half of these interventions, chances are you aren’t doing the other half, and the idea is to pick and choose how and when you adopt them in any case, just picking three 5-minute interventions each day with no restrictions. In short, a lot of value to had here when it comes to real changes to one’s serious measurable health.

Click here to check out Feel Better In 5, and indeed feel better in 5!