Book SummaryThe Body, by Bill Bryson

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of The Body

Bill Bryson’s The Body: A Guide for Occupants is not so much a user’s guide about your body as it is a tour guide. Bryson devotes the majority of his book to presenting facts and anecdotes about the human body’s marvelous capabilities and significant vulnerabilities, as well as medical practices throughout history. The tour-guide tone of the book is consistent with the author’s background since Bryson focused on writing travel literature for much of his writing...

The Body Summary Nutrition

Any user’s guide to the body should include a section on nutrition since what you feed your body influences how well it works and how long it lasts. Bryson discusses the subject of nutrition from a variety of angles, including your body’s energy requirements, essential nutrients, and the way your senses assess the flavor of food. We can draw several applications from his discussion.

Limit Your Calorie Intake

Bryson explains that, in the West, we face daily temptation to overeat because our bodies adapted to a prehistoric lifestyle that involved different challenges than the ones we face today. Prehistoric humans subsisted by hunting and gathering, which required them to expend a great deal of energy in obtaining their food. As a result, they instinctively gravitated toward the most calorie-dense food they could find and conserved their energy whenever possible.

As Bryson points out, our bodies still retain these instincts. If we consume more food than we need, our bodies store up the surplus as fat reserves to be used later. In a hunting-and-gathering society, these instincts facilitated our survival.

But, according to Bryson, when our ancestors developed...

The Body Summary Hygiene

In addition to what you feed your body, the microbes that you expose your body to can have a significant impact on how well your body works. Bryson explains that your body is inhabited by trillions of microorganisms from thousands of different species.

(Shortform note: As Bryson explains, your body is full of microbes. According to some estimates, there are actually more bacterial cells in your body than human cells.)

We can infer two main applications from Bryson’s explanation of viruses, bacteria, and how these pathogens can be transmitted from one person to another.

Wash Your Hands

First of all, Bryson’s discussion highlights the importance of washing your hands to avoid transferring pathogens from one person to another—especially if you work in the medical industry.

Bryson points out that most of the microbes that call your body home live inside you and don’t survive outside the body well enough for scientists to even study them effectively. However, a few hundred species of bacteria make their home on...

The Body Summary Fitness

Just as what you feed your body and the microbes you expose it to affect how well it works and how long it lasts, so does how you use your body. In particular, Bryson presents a number of reasons why you should exercise.

He notes that all your joints are lined with cartilage, which, unlike the rest of your bodily tissues, doesn’t have a blood supply. The only way your body can maintain the cartilage in your joints is by circulating the synovial fluid in your joints, and the only way you can make your synovial fluid circulate is by moving your joints. If the cartilage in your joints deteriorates too much, movement becomes painful and difficult, a condition known as osteoarthritis.

(Shortform note: Bryson’s observation of how exercise benefits your body in unexpected ways extends to other systems as well. Just as the cartilage in your joints needs movement to circulate synovial fluid, so does your lymph system. Lymph cells are part of your immune system. They identify and eliminate unwelcome cells, such as harmful bacteria and cells that have become cancerous. Instead of circulating through your body in your bloodstream, lymph cells are carried by lymph fluid through a...

The Body Summary Sleep

As we’ve discussed, being active plays an important role in keeping your body functioning properly, but so does resting. In particular, Bryson’s discussion emphasizes the danger of not getting enough sleep. He discusses a study that found the US economy loses about $60 billion per year to sleep deprivation. This is because sleep-deprived workers are less productive, and Americans are now sleeping an average of two fewer hours per night than we did 50 years ago.

(Shortform note: While Bryson considered sleep deprivation from a macroeconomic perspective by citing its estimated cost to the economy as a whole, entrepreneurs David Fried and Jason Hansson address the microeconomic side of the issue in Rework. One of their key principles for building and maintaining the momentum of your company is to get more sleep. This is because getting enough sleep enhances your productivity and creativity, boosts your morale, and improves your ability to make good decisions on the job.)

Furthermore, Bryson asserts that sleep deprivation can be fatal. He provides two...

The Body Summary Medication

We’ve discussed several things you can do to keep your body functioning well, but now let’s turn our attention to what happens when you do get sick or injured. As he considers the body’s various ailments, Bryson discusses many historical and modern medical practices, covering the whole spectrum from ingenious to horrifying.

Two problems that he notes are still prevalent in the US today are overtreatment and failure to take gender into consideration when designing or prescribing medications. We’ll now consider these problems and what you can do about them.

Beware of Overtreatment

Bryson asserts that overtreatment (medical treatment beyond what would actually be beneficial) is a common problem in the developed world, especially in the United States. As such, whenever a doctor proposes treatment, take a moment to critically consider whether the treatment would actually help. Bryson discusses three particular situations that lend themselves to overtreatment:

Treatment at the End of Life

When an elderly person is diagnosed with early-stage cancer, doctors usually prescribe aggressive treatment to eradicate the cancer before it spreads. However,** if the person...

Shortform Exercise: Reflect on How You Treat Your Body

In this exercise, we’ll consider how your own needs and preferences might affect how you apply what you’ve learned about nutrition, hygiene, sleep, and medical overtreatment.

We discussed how the human body is maladapted to eating processed foods. Bryson believes our bodies are optimized for a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, while others have argued that we’re better adapted for ancient farming. Imagine that modern technology has been suddenly wiped out, and you have the choice of joining either a tribe of hunter-gatherers or a primitive farming community. Which would you choose, and why?