GENRE: Non-fiction; Medical
AUTHOR: Dr. Kelli Harding
PUB DATE: 08/27/2019
Publisher: Atria Books (Simon & Schuster)
Synopsis: Discover an eye-opening and provocative new way to look at our health based on the latest groundbreaking discoveries in the science of compassion, kindness, and human connection.
For all of its rigor and science, medicine is full of stories—mysteries—that doctors and research cannot explain. Patients who are biologically healthy, but feel ill. Patients who are biologically ill, but feel healthy. What if these health mysteries could teach us something about what really makes us sick—and how to be healthy?
When Columbia University doctor Kelli Harding began her clinical practice, she never intended to explore the invisible factors behind our health. But then there were the rabbits. In 1978, a seemingly straightforward experiment designed to establish the relationship between high blood cholesterol and heart health in rabbits discovered that kindness—in the form of a particularly nurturing post-doc who pet and spoke to the lab rabbits as she fed them—made the difference between a heart attack and a healthy heart.
As Dr. Kelli Harding reveals in this eye-opening book, the rabbits were just the beginning of a much larger story. Groundbreaking new research shows that love, friendship, community, life’s purpose, and our environment can have a greater impact on our health than anything that happens in the doctor’s office. For instance, chronic loneliness can be as unhealthy as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day; napping regularly can decrease one’s risk of heart disease; and people with purpose are less likely to get sick. Through provocative storytelling and compelling research, Harding presents a new model for you to take charge of your health.
At once paradigm-shifting and empowering, The Rabbit Effect shares a radical new way to think about health, wellness, and how we live.
THOUGHTS: "The Rabbit Effect" by Dr. Kelli Harding is an amazing read. As a health care professional, I often wondered what helps people improve their lives to becoming better, and also how the mindset of positivity and caring really do affect the healing process. I have always known that in the United States, spending on health care is the highest in the world. Despite the billions of dollars spent on health care expense, our health is still among the lowest in the world. Additionally, life expectancy also continues to drop.
I love how the book explains through very interesting stories and anecdotes. It goes over some of the things that is shown to prove how to live healthier through love, kindness, friendship and community rather than medicines and medical procedures. The book also highlights a Tool Kit and examples of how to improve your health (like a checklist) to ensure you apply in your daily life. I loved that data is presented in a way that is not intimidating but enriches the information that is provided. This book really opened my eyes to the definition of health and what being healthy in body, mind and spirit truly means.
I recommend this book whole heartedly to my fellow health professionals and to anyone wishing to live a healthier and happier life by living with a purpose, through compassion, kindness and human connection. I would pick up this book for an eye opening read that is full of amazing information. A must read for anyone.
Rating: 5/5
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