Best Health & Wellness Books

A neurosurgeon diagnosed with terminal lung cancer at 36 confronts the questions he spent his career preparing to face — and writes a book about mortality, meaning, and what makes a life worth living.

Peter Attia's comprehensive guide to living longer and better, based on his medical practice and years of research into the science of longevity.

A landmark work in trauma psychology by one of the world's foremost authorities on PTSD. Van der Kolk reveals how trauma reshapes both body and brain, undermining survivors' capacity for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust.

A science journalist investigates the health implications of how we breathe — and finds that most people are doing it wrong, with significant consequences for their health.

A neuroscientist reveals the life-transforming power of sleep. Walker shows why sleep is the single most effective thing you can do to reset your brain and body — and the catastrophic consequences of neglecting it.

A Stanford psychiatrist explains how the flood of dopamine-triggering pleasures in modern society creates compulsive behaviour — and how to reset the pleasure-pain balance.

A Pulitzer Prize-winning history of cancer — its origins, treatments, and future — told through the stories of patients, scientists, and physicians across centuries.

A Harvard geneticist argues that aging is a disease — one that can be treated — and shares the cutting-edge research on sirtuins, NAD+, and the information theory of aging.

A journalist investigates the real causes of depression and anxiety — and finds they have far more to do with how we live than with brain chemistry.

The memoir of Navy SEAL and ultramarathon runner David Goggins — from a traumatic childhood and an overweight, unfulfilled existence to becoming one of the world's elite endurance athletes.

Surgeon Atul Gawande examines how medicine has failed dying patients by prioritizing survival over quality of life, and what better approaches to aging and end-of-life care look like.

A physician examines the scientific evidence for which foods can prevent and reverse the fifteen leading causes of premature death in America.

British infectious disease doctor Chris van Tulleken investigates the health effects of ultra-processed food and what the science says about why it's so difficult to stop eating it.

Max Lugavere presents the research on diet and brain health, identifying ten foods that improve cognitive function and protect against dementia and cognitive decline.

Biochemist Jessie Inchauspé explains the science of blood sugar spikes and provides ten practical hacks for flattening glucose curves without giving up the foods you love.

Stanford-trained surgeon Casey Means argues that mitochondrial dysfunction is the root cause of most chronic disease and presents a comprehensive lifestyle framework for optimizing metabolic health.

Roxane Gay writes about her body — fat, surveilled, weaponized against her — and the sexual violence that shaped her relationship with it, with unflinching honesty and structural precision.

Journalist Michael Easter spends 33 days hunting in the Alaskan wilderness while investigating the science of why modern comfort is making us physically and mentally worse, and what embracing discomfort can do for our lives.

Tim Ferriss applies his 80/20 optimisation philosophy to the human body — covering fat loss, muscle gain, sleep, sex, and extreme athletic performance with self-experimental data.

Dr. Steven Gundry argues that longevity depends primarily on gut microbiome health, and provides a comprehensive protocol for living vigorously into old age.

A journalist goes in search of the reclusive Tarahumara Indians of Mexico's Copper Canyons, legendary for their ability to run hundreds of miles without rest or injury. What he discovers turns everything he thinks he knows about running — and human nature — upside down.

A nephrologist argues that obesity is caused by insulin resistance and chronic insulin elevation — not by calories in/calories out — and that intermittent fasting is the solution.

Dr. Satchin Panda, the world's leading researcher on circadian rhythms, explains how aligning your eating, sleeping, and activity with your internal clock dramatically improves health outcomes.

Michael Pollan's response to the nutritionism that has dominated American food culture — a short, elegant argument that the answer to the question of what to eat is simpler than the food industry and nutrition science want us to believe.