Your Body: The Missing Manual

What, exactly, do you know about your body? Do you know how your immune system works? Or what your pancreas does? Or the myriad -- and often simple -- ways you can improve the way your body functions?

This full-color, visually rich guide answers these questions and more. Matthew MacDonald, noted author of Your Brain: The Missing Manual, takes you on a fascinating tour of your body from the outside in, beginning with your skin and progressing to your vital organs. You'll look at the quirks, curiosities, and shortcomings we've all learned to live with, and pick up just enough biology to understand how your body works. You'll learn:

 

• That you shed skin more frequently than snakes do
• Why the number of fat cells you have rarely changes, no matter how much you diet or exercise -- they simply get bigger or smaller
• How you can measure and control fat
• That your hair is made from the same stuff as horses' hooves
• That you use only a small amount of the oxygen you inhale
• Why blood pressure is a more important health measure than heart rate -- with four ways to lower dangerously high blood pressure
• Why our bodies crave foods that make us fat
• How to use heart rate to shape an optimal workout session -- one that's neither too easy nor too strenuous
• Why a tongue with just half a dozen taste buds can identify thousands of flavors
• Why bacteria in your gut outnumbers cells in your body -- and what function they serve
• Why we age, and why we can't turn back the clock
• What happens to your body in the minutes after you die

Rather than dumbed-down self-help or dense medical text, Your Body: The Missing Manual is entertaining and packed with information you can use. It's a book that may well change your life.