The Body By Bill Bryson

I finished this book before the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic hit, so I went back to see what Bill had to say about viruses.  He starts with a quote. A virus “is a piece of bad news wrapped up in a protein.”  They are the unliving; when combined with the living, viruses come to life and reproduce like crazy.  Well before this pandemic, University of Arizona researchers found that a virus infected door handle to an office building resulted in a spread to the entire building in under 4 hours.  Years ago, the Atlantic reported the number of viruses in birds and mammals that have the potential to infect us may be as high as 800,000.  Bryson notes that the idea that hyper-vigilance will save us, is difficult to implement.  The bulk of the book is dedicated to details, about the body, microbes, pain and nerves, sleep, medicine, nutrition, and of course death.  The book itself is fascinating.   

                Perhaps the most telling in “The Body”  that seems pertinent to this time is how little “medicine” has done to improve our lives; most of our freedom from disease has been from developments in sanitation, hygiene and proper infrastructure. Next, the very things that have given us freedom from “traditional” disease, have made us subject to living in worse health and given rise new diseases.  Jared Diamond, of Germs, Guns and Steel has called the invention of agriculture “a catastrophe from which we never recovered. Bryson details how farming has not brought improved diets but poorer ones.  Fruit has 50% percent less iron on average today than in 1950. The modern American, consumes 25-40 teaspoons of sugar daily. The recommended maximum is 5. Its not a surprise that the average American woman today weighs the same as the average American male in 1960. Last, Bryson quotes heavily from “The Story of the Human Body,” by Daniel Lieberman a book about how our bodies are designed for a different time.  The Body ultimately left me feeling, once again, it’s about living better not longer.

Exercise regularly, eat sensibly, die anyway—Anonymous