I wanted what they knew: the scientists who were right, before we were ready

I read these books between 1997 and 2002, as a Medical Scientist, in the years before I studied Naturopathy. I have been sharing and recommending all of them to colleagues, students and patients for 25 years. These are the books that made me see that nature and medicine are the same thing. I wanted what they knew, and I have been trying to study it ever since.

I want more people to know about these books, because they strongly demonstrate something I have believed for a long time; that Naturopathy and Lifestyle Medicine are not alternatives to science, nor Medicine. They are shaped by it, deeply, diversely and rigorously.

The scientific subspecialties below have been siloed when they should have actually been in conversation. And as time marches on in the human health story, we are not disproving these messages; we are proving them. Many of them served as a warning, decades before the problems had names.

Environmental Health and Endocrine Disruption:

1. Silent Spring, Rachel Carson (1962).

Before we had the language of endocrine disruption, there was the research of Rachel Carson. She documented what pesticides were doing to ecosystems with such scientific precision and moral clarity that she changed the world and made powerful enemies doing so. If you want to understand why chemical load matters clinically, you must start here.

2. Our Stolen Future, Dr Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumanoski, Dr John Peterson Myers (1996).

This is the book that named endocrine disruption and laid out the mechanism. I could not put it down. Colborn spent years connecting data points that no one else was connecting: wildlife, hormones, physical and behavioural development, chemical exposure. It reads like a scientific detective story and it will change how you think about fertility, development and chronic disease.

Stress, Psychoneuroimmunology and Mind-Body Medicine:

3. Molecules of Emotion, Dr Candace Pert (1997).

Pert was a neuroscientist for the NIH who discovered the opiate receptor. She spent the rest of her career being dismissed for what that discovery actually meant; that the body and mind are one biochemical system. This book is where the science of psychoneuroimmunology was initially conceived.

4. Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, Dr Robert Sapolsky (1994).

In my opinion, this is the best book ever written on the physiology of stress. I could not put this down! Sapolsky is a Stanford neuroendocrinologist who also happens to be one of the most engaging science writers alive. If your patients are stressed (and they are), this book explains exactly what that is doing to every system in their body, and why lifestyle interventions are not optional, they are essential.

5. The Body Keeps the Score, Dr Bessel van der Kolk (2014- read after graduating).

Trauma is not a psychological concept, it is physiological. Van der Kolk spent decades documenting how unprocessed trauma rewires the brain and lives in the body as chronic illness. This book reframes everything from autoimmunity to chronic pain to mental health. In my opinion, it belongs in every clinician's library.

Gut-Brain Axis:

6. The Second Brain, Dr Michael Gershon (1998).

Gershon is the father of neurogastroenterology and this book, written in 1998, laid out the enteric nervous system with a depth and rigour that the gut-brain conversation is still trying to catch up with him. He presented the science of the microbiome when the rest of the world was barely even drinking Yakult. Gershon was mapping the intelligence of the gut. Essential reading.

Evolution and Ancestral health:

7. Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, Dr Weston A. Price (1939).

In the 1930s, a dentist with a camera and a hypothesis travelled to fourteen countries documenting the skeletal and dental morphology of populations eating traditional diets, and what ensued after Western foods replaced them. The photography alone is confronting. The data, eighty five years later, is foundational to everything we now understand about nutrient density, epigenetics and the intergenerational consequences of industrialised food. I could not put this one down.

Meaning, Purpose and Human Resilience:

8. Man's Search for Meaning, Dr Viktor Frankl (1946).

Frankl survived four Nazi concentration camps and emerged with a theory of human psychology (Logotherapy) built around a single, radical idea; that meaning is not a luxury, it is a survival mechanism. Clinically, this book reframes conversations about chronic illness, depression, and why people do or don't change. I ended up choosing him for a philosophy assessment, and discovered his book from there. I could not put it down.

9. Every book ever written by Dr Edith Eger.

I read these over 2023-2025. Eger was a 16 year old ballet dancer and gymnast when she was sent to Auschwitz. She became a psychologist. I don't recommend one. I recommend all of them. I don't have language for how her books make me feel. That's all I can say.

Behavioural Biology and Evolutionary Science:

10. In the Shadow of Man, Dr Jane Goodall (1971).

Goodall went into the forest and just began doing what any real scientist does; she observed. she documented without bias, she shared and published her findings. Her research into primate social bonds, grief, conflict, cooperation, and emotion reframed what it means to be human. For anyone interested or working in Lifestyle Medicine, Naturopathy or Medicine, this book is a tranquil but profound reminder that our social and emotional lives are not separate from our biology. They are our biology.

BOOKS STILL TO READ:

Environmental Health and Endocrine Disruption:

1. Living Downstream, Dr Sandra Steingraber (1997).

2. Count Down, Dr Shanna Swan (2021).

Stress, Psychoneuroimmunology and Mind-Body:

3. Waking the Tiger, Dr Peter Levine (1997).

Evolution and Ancestral health:

5. The Story of the Human Body, Dr Daniel Lieberman (2013).

6. Deep Nutrition, Dr Cate Shanahan (2008).

Plus many others that I shall keep for a future issue, slightly different categories to the above.

We cannot change our health overnight. I'm simply positing that you to consider one of these books the next time you're looking for a non-fiction read. That's all. Sometimes, a single idea, read at the right moment, changes the way you see a patient sitting in front of you, or yourself. Lifestyle Medicine rarely begins with a prescription, it often begins with a seed. These ideas, and the behaviours after, they take root slowly, they integrate steadily, and eventually become the way you think and live. We are being students and scientists again, bringing the strengths of all forms of medicine back together.

If you need to begin somewhere practical, I want to introduce you to my long time colleague and friend, Anthia Koullouros. Anthia has been doing the foundational work on food, philosophy and real nutrition longer than most, and she writes about it beautifully. Her book, I Am Food and her newsletters are a meaningful place to begin. Anthia is the real deal. I have known her since 2004 when I spoke to her many times over the phone, from the lab where I worked. She has encouraged me over many years, and it feels more than fitting and right to recommend her words and wisdom along with the treasure trove of books here. https://anthiakoullouros.substack.com/

Thank you for reading what was supposed to be a mini edition.

I am glad you are here.

Annalies

I'm grateful you choose to read and learn from my work interests. Let me know your questions. I read them all, doing my best to incorporate these into future issues and podcasts. I don't take your time for granted. Thank you! If Analyse was recommended to you, and you're not a subscriber yet, please consider doing so below.

Kind regards, and be well.

Annalies

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