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 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. So I went into Dotti’s house and in the first week I did some blood tests and I diagnosed her with type 2 diabetes. Six weeks later when I left Dotti’s house, she no longer had type 2 diabetes. You see, her disease had disappeared. So health exists on a continuum.

This is finally the health book I’ve been looking for. I’m now following Dr Chatterjee on social media as he’s a major game changer for health and the nhs. 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.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. 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 is becoming more and more intolerant to certain foods. At the moment, Dotti, your body does not tolerate refined or processed carbs or sugar at all.” She’s got to cut them out. So what factors is he looking at? He’s looking at their diet; he is looking at their stress levels, their sleep quality, their physical activity level, their exposure to environmental toxins etc etc etc, as they start to sound a little bit familiar. See, what if all these seemingly separate diseases actually out there share common root causes. See, we need to update our thinking: our genetics are not our destiny, our genes load the gun but it’s our environment that pulls the trigger; all these factors here, these are the factors that basically interact with your genes and determine how your genes are expressed whether you want an optimal health, whether you have a disease, whether you are somewhere in between. Collectively as a society I genuinely believe we can do better and we have to do better. About something else — about Alzheimer’s disease. See, we’re all living longer, aren’t we? We’re scared — we’re scared that as we live longer and as we live older we may have to live with a devastating consequences of things like Alzheimer’s, so many of us in here have experienced that ourselves, our family. It’s a heart-wrenching condition and we the doctors, we’re scrambling around, and we’re trying to find the cure of it.

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. An inspiring collection of relatively simple health interventions that are said to make a huge difference in many people's lives. I like that they all pretty much seem attainable, even the exercise ones, which otherwise are probably the ones I'd find the most daunting. But Dr. Chatterjee sets out some simple goals and suggestions that make you want to give it a try. He also doesn't promote any one certain diet, but rather the principles of eating whole, non-processed foods as much as possible, and de-normalizing sugar. This is basic stuff, but sometimes we need to hear it from a source that seems legit and can explain why. 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. This is not a book aimed for fitness fanatics. In fact, I would suspect I am younger than most of the target audience. But I found this book incredibly helpful. Especially, the section about healthy eating.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? Just one of these alone, type 2 diabetes is costing the UK 20 billion pounds every single year and I’m standing here before you’re saying it, I can make these diseases disappear. Rangan Chatterjee, an IFM-trained general practitioner in the United Kingdom, has a new book that aims to help patients simplify their approach to making sustainable lifestyle change. Released in the United States on May 1, How to Make Disease Disappear has already sold 70,000 copies in its first three months of publication in the UK. While the book only mentions the term “Functional Medicine” briefly, Chatterjee is clear about the fact that the book is aimed at helping teach Functional Medicine lifestyle strategies to patients. About 25% of the book is dedicated to each of the four pillars, which he titles Rest, Eat, Move, and Sleep, as he feels each is equally important in health. Patients can dive into whichever pillar they want to get started. “I am writing this book to try to transform the health of as many people as possible. It is not about perfection – I’m just asking patients to do a little bit in each of the four areas,” Chatterjee said.

Chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, depression and dementia are today the nation’s leading causes of death and disability. Half of all American adults currently suffer with a chronic disease, with one in four people suffering from two or more. Despite the statistics, so much confusion exists about what we can do to protect ourselves and live long, healthy lives. We are given a five-minute kitchen workout complete with illustrations. This includes 5-10 squats, 5-10 calf raises, 5-10 press-ups (if like me you’re not strong enough to do them on the floor, you can begin by doing them against a wall and then a kitchen worktop), 5-10 triceps dips and 5-10 lunges.

Author’s background

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. 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 thing we have to understand is an acute disease and chronic disease are two different things. Acute disease is something we’re pretty good at as doctors, we’re good at this. It’s quite simple. OK, you have something like a pneumonia, that’s a severe lung infection. So when you’re alone you have the overgrowth of some bugs, typically the bacteria. We identify the bacteria, we give you a treatment, typically an antibiotic and it kills the bacteria; bacteria dies and hey presto, you no longer have your pneumonia. 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. 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.

Best quotes from ‘How to Make Disease Disappear’

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: