The Gut-Immune Connection: How Understanding Why We’re Sick Can Help Us Regain Our Health

Gastroenterologist Mayer (The Mind-Gut Connection) pursues the connection between chronic disease and the microbiome in this informative if complex work. Rates of “seemingly unrelated chronic illnesses” such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and liver disease have been rising over the last 75 years, he writes, but by prioritizing gut health, it’s possible to “reverse this trend.” To that end, he describes how diet regulates the brain-gut-microbiome network (the gut wall contains more than 70% of the body’s immune cells) and reviews the effects of a healthy diet, exercise, and sleep on one’s microbiome: disruptions in the brain-body network, he writes, lead to chronic inflammation and increased risk of chronic disease. In the way of advice, he suggests “what to eat” (fiber, green tea, omega-3 fatty acids) and “when to eat” (exclusively in an eight-hour window) to keep the microbiome happy, and dishes out nearly 50 pages of recipes. Lay readers, though, may find the explanations overly scientific (“The production of H2 O2 by Lactobacillus may protect against the development of chronic stress-induced, depressionlike behavior”). The level of granularity is demanding, but readers willing to stay the course will be persuaded to pay more attention to their guts. (June)