It is interesting to observe how much humanity changes throughout history and to realize that the diseases we encounter on a daily basis today are something we knew almost nothing about even just a few decades before. Autoimune diseases, their overall impact on our body, the changes it introduces into our daily lives and habits is something that is impossible to ignore, and it seems that we are still just at the beginning of research in this area.
Even though without a medical background it was hard to follow the content od this book at times, I learned so much interesting information, reconsidered my own habits and honestly, I can say that the book had a huge overall impact on me.

Why We Get Sick: The Hidden Epidemic at the Root of Most Chronic Disease and How to Fight It by Benjamin Bikman

280 Pages
Publisher: BenBella Books
Release Date: July 21, 2020

Nonfiction, Medical, Illness, Health, Mind, Body, Science

The book is divided into the following

Part I: The Problem: What is Insulin Resistance and Why Does It Matter?
Chapter 1: What is Insulin Resistance
Chapter 2: Heart Health
Chapter 3: The Brain and Neurological Disorders
Chapter 4: Reproductive Heath
Chapter 5: Cancer
Chapter 6: Aging, the Skin, Muscles, and Bones
Chapter 7: Gastrointestinal and Kidney Health
Chapter 8: The Metabolic Syndrome and Obesity

Part II: Causes: What Makes Us Insulin Resistant in the First Place
Chapter 9: How Age and Genetics Influence Insulin
Chapter 10: How Hormones Cause Insulin Resistance
Chapter 11: Obesity and Insulin Resistance, Revisited
Chapter 12: Inflammation and Oxidative Stress
Chapter 13: Lifestyle Factors

Part III: The Solution: How Can We Fight Insulin Resistance
Chapter 14: Get Moving: The Importance of Physical Activity
Chapter 15: Eat Smart: The Evidence on the Food We Eat
Chapter 16: Conventional Interventions: Drugs and Surgery
Chapter 17: The Plan: Putting Research into Action

This book was an eye opener for me. I did not know that insulin resistance could be behind so many chronic conditions. Several of the conditions the author covers are medical conditions I deal with daily. If you have a chronic condition and would like to look at it from a different perspective, I recommend this book to you.

A great read! Lots of science explained in a way that's easy to digest. Leaves you feeling informed and inspired.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* ngl, i would have given this book a 2 or maybe even 3 star but i just can not get "ask any woman whos given birth and had a kidney stone, i'm sure they will tell you the kidney stone was more painful", i have never given birth but i have grown up with many kidney/bladder related issues and yes i have heard *for men* it is most likely the closet thing they will ever experience closest to child birth. Also child birth often leaves life long issues, so i just find that insulting af. Told my husband and he was like wtf as well.

This was an interesting read but like all books similar to this they all think they are correct and have the "evidence" to prove it, of course not everything in this book is complete bull im sure and it was worth the read, i just take everything said very lightly since any man who claims something is worse than child birth, worries me.

We have progressed a lot in health care. But still there are a lot of loopholes. This book tries to find basic cause of all modern illnesses. Although it appears a little biased towards particular causes but these things described do contribute to a lot of misery that modern body feels.

This was a really interesting, informative book. I found out easy to understand and deepened my level of understanding in subjects such as inflammation and insulin resistance.
Highly recommended.

I am a very health conscious person and i found this fascinating to read. So well written and a lot to think about.

This book was about insulin resistance and how it basically is the root cause of so many other ailments. Insulin resistance is kind of a newish term for me but I think that I'm on my way to having it so this book spoke to me and I found it incredibly helpful. It was written in language that was easily understood and I learned a lot about the causes and solutions. I do kind of wish there was more of a distinct action plan and some recipes, I'm a sucker for a book with an actual diet plan because I'm terrible at coming up with my own ideas but can follow a plan very happily. I ended up buying this book in the hardcover version to have handy. Thanks for letting me read this and I apologize that it took so long to get my review in!

Found this book interesting in the sense that it goes into a lot of detail about insulin and the role it plays in the body and disease and other health disturbances.
However, I felt the title should've been more 'How Insulin Makes You Sick' as this was basically the book in a nutshell. FYI, in my Kindle version, the 'book' itself ends at the 72% mark of the whole file, and about 90% of that is explanation about insulin regarding this and that, and very little was available about how to actually become insulin-sensitive. There were guidelines, but they read a bit wishy-washy (go low-carb or 'better yet' go Keto...which isn't really something everyone wants to do or even needs to do) The part about exercise was okay. But much if not most of this book was about pointing out research and this or that study, and I found those paragraphs very confusing as it might start with saying this 'method' investigated worked, until another study pointed out it didn't work or was just neutral...which made for a very confusing read. I kept hoping the 'how to reverse insulin-resistance' part was going to be worth it, especially after having had to slow through all this confusing research, but it fell a little flat as it, too, seemed to contradict itself (for example, eat fruit...but don't eat fruit) and left you scratching your head even more.
All in all a great book if you want to know the ins and outs of how insulin works, but it doesn't deliver much more than that, sadly

I loved this very much! The characters, the actions and even the plot itself! Very inspiring for my own book too!

Great in depth book on insulin. Really well researched, it makes it an easily digestible book written for the everyone while still providing in depth explanations of endocrinology and how humans have (and haven't) changed over time as our lifestyles have evolved.
The book is written in three parts so you can pick and choose depending on your interest and prior knowledge. but highly recommend reading the entire book. The first two parts cover what is happening and why. The third section tackles what can be done about it and separates what you aspects you have control over versus what you can't control.
If you like Jason Fung's books, definitely put this on your list.

An eye-opening read about today's health issues and how to navigate the tough terrain of doctors, medicine, and overall wellbeing.

This book was chock full of science. I loved that! It is definitely a book I will want to read again to process. You can definitely tell the author is a scientist -- which brings me to my one con - the book is also typical of those written by a scientist in that the recommendations are too loosy goosy. Books written by medical doctors tend to be very specific -- do this, not that. Books written by a scientist tend to try to cover all the possibilities -- some people will react like this, others like that -- which is great, I completely agree with it -- but I think would be hard to implement if I hadn't already read other books with similar (but more specific) advice. But if you're looking for science, this is the book for you.

This book was fascinating, as I hadn't realized insulin resistance could have such an impact on the health of people. The author focused his point on peer-reviewed research and his own experience as a leading expert in his field. This read well, as it didn't feel like I was reading a medical journal and the message the author was writing about is one people need to know more about.

The first important thing to note is that Benjamin Bikman based his book on trustworthy research and studies - not on his own whims and fancies. The second thing is that he is not trying to sell you any supplements or expensive consultation programmes. You can also be fairly sure that he’s not being funded by any of the big industries. What’s more - he is an expert on insulin resistance, being a biomedical professor who had earlier on stumbled upon the fact that insulin seems to be the one common factor in almost every chronic disease that we are facing today.

I am convinced that this book has the potential to change the health and lives of countless people if they would just follow the simple suggestions that he has towards the end of the book,

Why we get sick is immensely well-written and easy to understand. I hope doctors or doctors-to-be would read it so that they can make real improvements in the health outcomes of their patients instead of endlessly supplying medications that often do not ultimately have a positive impact. Everyone who experience chronic illnesses or want to prevent them should also pick up this life-saving book.

Highly recommended.
Thank you NetGalley and Benbella for the ARC. This is my honest review.

I was a little disappointed that the mystery of premise was dashed on the first page and ended up DNF’ing this one. I guess this is a case of having a certain set of expectations for the books and having it turn out different, as opposed to not liking the book for what it is. If I had know that this was a 200 page discussion on insulin, I would have picked it up when I was in the mood to read two hundred pages about insulin. However, I thought that this was going to discuss some precursors to getting sick that we neglect such as stress, diet and sleep, and look into the mystery that is mass sickness. It’s disappointing that the title and premise tried to cover this much, because I think many people would happily read this if the title openly admitted that it was strictly about insulin.

The premise of Why We Get Sick is that insulin resistance is behind most modern-day illness and sickness that we experience. I was skeptical going in, but Bikman manages to make a solid argument here.

Reading health books these days is a lot like going to other people's churches -- every author is convinced that they alone know the true path, that everyone else is wrong, and that they've discovered the key to eternity. I honestly didn't know what to expect when I requested this book but it comes down to insulin resistance here. The author is an associate professor at Brigham Young University with a Ph.D. in Bioenergetics. His fascination is with insulin, and he is one of those authors who reminds you of Maslow's instrument, when all you have is a hammer so every problem looks like a nail.

Early on, as I began reading that just about every cause of death other than being struck by lightning was caused by secret insulin resistance (even if you are not diabetic), I began cringing and thinking I really hoped this wasn't going to turn into just a keto book. It did. Other than a few nods to things like getting regular exercise (especially resistance exercise) and avoiding some kinds of fats like seed oils, it pretty much turned into a "carbs will kill you" book.

Every time I read one of these books I have to stop and think about the many people who historically have the longest lives on earth, who inconveniently have diets very high in foods like white rice and vegetables. Bikman does say that modern problems have made us more vulnerable to insulin, such as air pollution and BPA, but it still just doesn't quite add up to me. That is not to say that I don't appreciate the many ways that a keto diet can be invaluable for some health conditions, especially childhood epilepsy, which is what the Mayo Clinic designed it to treat a hundred years ago, among others. But it's just never that easy to declare there's one lifelong dietary path that will save you and any others will doom you. I myself turned around debilitating CFS (I was so weak that I was unable to stand up long enough to brush my teeth), chronic migraines and a blood-related autoimmune disorder 20 years ago by using a vegan diet and then moving on to a whole foods, mostly plant-based and mostly organic diet (with lots of indulgences and no strict rules) that has kept me in remission and med-free.

The cliff notes version of Bikman's recommendations are to test your insulin levels but to pretty much assume you have insulin resistance if you have more weight than you'd like around your belly, skin tags, or a number of other common maladies. He then recommends regular exercise and a keto-like diet (he says you don't need to go into ketosis, just avoid carbs) with mostly fat (NOT from conventionally raised animals or you're doomed), some protein (ditto) and few carbs (the good kinds). He says he is not convinced that fiber matters at all. He also says that sleep is important but you may have a mutation that means you need far less than you think (like 5 hours).

The vast majority of the book is spent convincing you that insulin resistance is the cause of just about every modern illness -- Alzheimer's, cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, etc. Then there is a shorter section of how to reverse it. Keep in mind that if you subscribe to his advice, you must avoid conventionally raised animal products and "bad fats" along with most carbs and alcohol. I have to admit that that's less appealing to me than the latest dietary church I wandered into -- this guy, a pig farmer devoted to paleo and keto who couldn't lose his spare tire until he created his croissant and red wine diet. No, I'm not serious, but you have to admit it would be fun. 😉

All in all, this is an interesting read and good to weigh against the many others out there. He offers advice for vegetarians and vegans too, instead of insisting that you need animal products (though he says it can be harder). Some of this is good basic advice for anybody, and if it matches your own beliefs or you are interested in going keto the book will be a great tool.

I read a digital ARC of this book for review.

Personally, I had thought this would be with regards to infectious diseases (my specialty, given that I am an infectious disease epidemiologist). I was wholly disappointed when I began reading that it was about insulin resistance.

Overall, having a background in biology, healthcare and public health I thought that this would be the book for me. Little did I know how intricate and in depth this book would go, exploring the possibility of insulin resistance having an impact on a wide variety of health outcomes. As many know, insulin (if resistant or not) does have a huge impact on health outcomes, and this factor of resistance is played out here a lot. I had previously known of insulin resistance but honestly never thought too much of it.

I found this to read more as a textbook than a story, and I did not find it as easily digestible in this format.

Overall, this novel was well studied and has a lot of factual information for an individual who is interested in the topic of insulin resistance. If an individual is concerned that they might have insulin resistance, there are some useful tips in the novel; however, I would always recommend speaking to a healthcare professional about your concerns before trying any of these interventions or lifestyle changes.

I got so interested in this that I read it one sitting, and immediately changed my home delivery of food to a more appropriate diet, although I have been adding coconut oil, I was not aware that fermented foods have an effect. Exercise will be more difficult but I am determined to do it. I am massively concerned about my health and anything I read reflects that fact. Thank you to Benjamin Bikman for helping me do this.