الموت على كنبة مريحة: كيف ننجو من الحياة الحديثة

by Paul Taylor, سلمى الحافي (Translator)

نحن أجسامٌ قديمة في عالم حديث، والأمور ليست على ما يرام.

صحيحٌ أنّ الحياة أصبحت أكثر راحةً وأقلّ صعوبةً، لكننا أصبحنا أكثر سمنةً واكتئاباً وإدماناً على الأدوية.

أطعمة مصنّعة تجعلنا مرضى. بيئات محايدة حرارياً تجعلنا هشّين. عالمٌ رقمي يجعلنا منفصلين جسدياً... من الواضح أن هناك خللاً في الحياة المعاصرة.

يقدّم هذا الكتاب تدريباتٍ ونصائح علميّة في الطّعام والنّوم والرّياضة والاستحمام... للحفاظ على صحّتنا النفسيّة والجسديّة والازدهار في العالم الحديث.

Genres: Nonfiction, Health, Self Help, Personal Development, Science, Audiobook, Psychology

224 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2024

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author with this name in the Goodreads data base.

Reviews

[Melcat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Death by Comfort is a comprehensive overview of the ways modern lifestyle can be harmful to our health. The book brings together a wealth of information in one convenient place, making it a great resource. While I enjoyed reading it, I would have preferred it to be more detailed in some areas.

Overall, I give it a strong 3 stars as it provides a good starting point for exploring this topic further. If you're interested in understanding the impact of modern living on our health, this book is a solid choice.

[Batool Hani · Rating 5 out of 5]

فعلاً اخبرت كل من احبهم عن هذا الكتاب و سأسعى للتأكد من انهم قرأوه 😂 كتاب رائع فعلاً

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book sums up almost every aspect of the wellness information that I have been reading over the last several months. I enjoyed his matter-of-fact writing style and the fact that he has copious references for his recommendations. I wish everyone that I care about would read and digest this book.
I read complaints that the book was too brief and didn't go into enough detail, but I think its brevity was one of its strengths. Details can be found many places online, but this book could be gotten through in a short amount of time, which I always find helpful when implementation is the biggest benefit of the reading.

[فاطمة · Rating 5 out of 5]

الموت على كنبة مريحة .. قد يوحي لك العنوان بأنه معلقة لتمجيد الراحة و كيفية الحصول عليها و لكن بعد أن تقرأ عبارة :
"نحن أجسام قديمة في عالم حديث"

سوف تتغير نظرتك لمسار حياتك و عاداتك اليومية التي يدور معظمها على الحصول على سبل الراحة و كيف أن هذه الراحة هي مسرعة الموت بالنسبة لحياتك ✅



في هذا الكتاب الصغير خارطة طريق لمن أراد الصحة لا الموت البطيء الذي يتساوى فيه ضرر ساعات جلوسك بضرر ساعات تدخين أي مدمن سجائر

تحدث عن تأثير الغذاء و ثمار المشقة و نحت الذهن أو مايعرف باللدونة العصبية و التعافي و أثر التواصل على مخرجات حياتنا ✅

الكتاب عظيم جداً و كفيل بتغيير نظرتك تجاه روتينك

[Nwaf · Rating 3 out of 5]

يشرح هذا الكتاب كل شيء عن أنماط الحياة السلبية في العصر الحديث ومدى خطورتها للإنسان ، كما يقدم لنا الأدوات والتمارين والتغذية المناسبة لمحاربة آثار الموت والألم المفاصل والأمراض المزمنة كالسمنة والسكتات القلبية والدماغية بسبب الراحة وعدم ممارسة الرياضة و الحركة

[Maddie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy to read and full of interesting information and insights that make a lot of sense given the huge change in modern lifestyles over the past several decades. However, I would take some of what he says with a grain of salt. It also would have been helpful if he referenced individual claims. While there were references at the end of the book, he made a lot of sweeping and confident statements within chapters from which the source was unclear.

[Heba Albaba · Rating 4 out of 5]

جميل ومحفز وفادني بشوية معلومات حلوة بس ننقص نجمة علشان شوية الدراوينية اللي كانوا في الأول دول 😂

[Entesar Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

خذ كل وقتك مع هذا الكتاب ولا تقرأه لمرة واحدة فقط.

في ظل هذه الحياة السريعة والمليئة بأدوات توفير الجهد والراحة، أصبحت عضلاتنا الإنجازية ضامرة، لم نعد نبذل المجهود الذي جُبلنا عليه، ولم نعد نؤدي أعمالنا بالصعوبة نفسها قبل 20 سنة، وهذا جيد بالطبع! لكنه ربّى انسانًا كسولاً!

في هذا الكتاب عرض لسمات الكسل التي أصبحت متجسدة في الإنسان الحديث ومن ثم طرح إيجابيات وسلبيات العمل الشاق الذي كان يبذله الإنسان القديم، إلى أن نبدأ مع منتصف الكتاب رحلة التعافي من داء العصر (الكسل) ونستعيد ونشاطنا من جديد ونطرح الكسل قبل أن يطرحنا أرضًا.

[Caleb Talbot]

Book could be ok but it did seem to just turn into another “how to hack your brain to optimise your life” book bleugh. Also didn’t find anything particularly ground breaking or interesting which probably isn’t its fault but more due to the fact that other books i’ve already read went a bit deeper and were more engaging.

[Xrysa Ser · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an amazing book! Fully backed by science, well rounded, incredibly practical. If you want to improve your life, this is the book for you. Small, easy to read, really incredible, should be taught in schools.

[Stu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wanted to like this but was an over generalised grift, there’s an argument to made about modern life but this misses the mark. Feels very gym bro, a cold plunge isn’t going to cure anxiety and depression neither is cutting our seed oils

[مشاعل مجرشي · Rating 5 out of 5]

من فضلك، خذ راحة مما تقرأ واستعد لقراءة هذا الكتاب.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great book to start the new year. Plenty of good advice for exercise, diet, habits, sleep and cold showers. Most of the advice I already knew but great to have a recap and have it all in the one source. Will keep the book near my bed and I am sure I will reread sections through the year.

[F]

DNF -The first line being a quote by Jordan Peterson told me everything i needed to know.

[Smitchy · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some good points here but it also comes across as a bit of a bro-fest. The author makes very sweeping statements saying "studies show" or "it has been found" but never actually mentions any studies or cites actual research. Now I admit I listened to an audio version but when I have listened to other researchy books they have always had a downloadable data packet of references or a website they direct you to right at the start so if you want you can look up the research. A lot of what is presented here makes sense, but if you are going to cite "research" then you need to make it available to your audience. If you don't it raises doubts as to your veracity.
The author comes across as one of those inspirational speakers who yell "Everyone has the same 24 hours in a day!" or something equally dismissive of anyone who doesn't live their lives exactly as he does. Maybe he doesn't but that is how he comes across. He also is very proud of working with the Biggest Loser TV show and we all know how healthy that was for the contestants.

[Nicola · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good advice in an easy to digest format.
Take-aways... Move more, Insert some discomfort into life, Cold showers, Sauna, Stress the body in a moderate way, Recover afterwards, Eat well, Vegetables, Reach out to your social network, Have a 'why', Set up rituals and small steps to reach goals. Live to be 100!

[Josiah Watson · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Death by Comfort" is purposely encapsulated from Nietzche's maxim "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." Paul Taylor makes the case that human bodies have not evolved to thrive on the modern comforts that are offered to us today. In fact, avoiding discomfort can be hazardous to one's health. I would say the strength of this book is its brevity and clarity. If the author's goal was to give a no-BS guide to living a healthier and happier life, then he definitely succeeded.
My 5 key takeaways (my highlights of the book, thus it is not exhaustive by any means):
1. Just 30 to 90 minutes a week of resistance training lowers all-cause mortality by 10-17 percent. ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti... )
2. Important proteins called ‘stress response proteins’ are released at a cellular level when we expose ourselves to any stressor – be it physical stress, cold stress, heat stress, nutritional stress (such as fasting), emotional stress or psychological stress – and these proteins activate cellular processes that not only help us recover from stress but also move us beyond resilience (the ability to bounce back) to become ‘stress adapted’ (we increase our ability to withstand further stress).
Taylor, Paul. Death by Comfort (p. 13). Major Street Publishing. Kindle Edition.
3. A 2016 meta-analysis (which combines the results of multiple studies, giving us the strongest form of evidence) published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research concluded that ‘exercise had a large and significant effect on depression’, and the researchers suggested that their data ‘strongly support the claim that exercise is an evidence-based treatment for depression’.
Taylor, Paul. Death by Comfort (p. 33). Major Street Publishing. Kindle Edition.
4. Research shows that the most physically active group in middle age has a predicted life expectancy eight years longer than that of a sedentary group the same age, so there is a dose response to exercise, with an upper limit. What’s also clear is that the single biggest predictor of longevity is your VO2 max.

Taylor, Paul. Death by Comfort (p. 52). Major Street Publishing. Kindle Edition.
5. When they measured their health, sickness, and absenteeism, those who had the regular cold showers (for either 30, 60, or 90 seconds) experienced a 29 percent reduction in sickness and absenteeism.

Taylor, Paul. Death by Comfort (p. 61). Major Street Publishing. Kindle Edition.

There are many other great points in the book. For example, he has a chapter on changing behavioral habits, which has persuaded me to utilize a ritual board. He also has a chapter on diet, which stays pretty clear of controversial points since dietary studies are so difficult to make. Overall, I enjoyed it and would suggest it to all exercise and neuroscience enthusiasts.

[Fran Cormack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paul Taylor is ex-military, Irish, and now a scientist. If I am going to listen to anyone, I am going to listen to Paul. And you should too.

“Death by Comfort” is Paul’s book on how our comfortable lives are killing us. Literally. And this is not speculation. This is fact, as evidenced by the reams of research Taylor has pulled together in this impressive little book.

The first thing that may surprise you is that the holy grail of 10,000 steps, the thing that you have been trying so hard to achieve since being gifted a step tracker for Xmas, is a myth. Or to be more precise, a marketing ploy. Learn how we have been hoodwinked into stepping our way to a figure that is not what we think it is.

That we are sleepwalking our way into a health catastrophe will not be news to you. Just go out for dinner and witness babies being “sedated” by iPads, and tables of couples, and families, “digitally connected, but socially separated.” A great term that encapsulates something that was also touched on by the writer Malcom Gladwell in a recent podcast.

This informative book has chapters on our increasingly sedentary lifestyles and shows why “sitting is the new smoking.” Leading to a chapter on exercise and why this really is the “magic pill.” Combining exercise with a healthy diet seems obvious, but how many of us consider how much processed food we eat? Reading the data may horrify you.

A chapter on stress informs us why a little is good, to motivate us, and a lot leaves us at risk of post traumatic stress disorder. And linked to this, Taylor talks about Jim Stockdale, a United States Vice Admiral who was incarcerated at the “Hanoi Hilton”, the now notorious prisoner of war camp in north Vietnam that housed POWs captured during the Vietnam/American war. Stockdale leant heavily on the works of Epictetus, and so does Taylor. After reading this book, I will be too.

[Otis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll preface this review by saying that I am a fan of self development, and a lot of what is mentioned in these books is essentially preaching to the choir...however, having said that, I really enjoyed this one.

I found it very 'no nonsense', and straight to the point. Taylor is right about pretty much everything in here, even if a lot of it isn't exactly new information. Being comfortable all the time is terrible for most things in your life, only spend energy on that which you can control, diet and exercise etc etc.

I will say though, this probably isn't the book for someone who is new to the self improvement game. Taylor doesn't mince words, and there is a LOT of emphasis put on personal responsibility and taking control. If you are looking for a gently gently type of motivational boost, you won't find it here. Taylor doesn't give it the trite 'Goggins' approach by berating his readers, but he is very blunt about what you should be doing to better yourself. His parting words at the end of the book really hit this home.

Would recommend.

[Arwa · Rating 5 out of 5]

عنوان الكتاب كان مضللًا بالنسبة لي، ولم أتشجع لقراءته رغم حضوره الدائم أمام عيني على تطبيق القراءة الذي أستخدمه. العنوان الأصلي Death by Comfort والذي يتناول فكرة كيف أن الراحة أحدثت تأثيرًا سلبيًا على أجسادنا وصلابتنا النفسية، تُرجم إلى "الموت على كنبة مريحة: كيف ننجو من الحياة الحديثة" وهي ترجمة توحي بالعكس، وهي الحث عى الراحة والكسل في حياة متسارعة. وهي ملاحظة متكررة مني على الكتب المترجمة التي تجعل قراءتها صعبة وغير مستساغة وتفقدها الكثير من المعاني المقصودة. خلاف العنوان، الترجمة إجمالًا لا بأس بها من حيث السلاسة، وأنصح جدًا بقراءته.

يلخص الكتاب في جملة مقتبسة منه "أطعمة مصنّعة تجعلنا مرضى. بيئات محايدة حراريًا تجعلنا هشين. عالمٌ رقمي يجعلنا منفصلين جسديًا… من الواضح أن هناك خللًا في الحياة المعاصرة.". هذه من الكتب المهمة التي تجعلك تعيد تفكيرك جديًل في نمط حياتك، وتلقي بمسؤولية صحتك على عاتقك أولًا وأخيرًا. وكما قالت ليزا ستيفنسون تعليقا على الكتاب في ثنايا الكتاب: "سأخبر كل من أحبه عن هذا الكتاب." وهذا ما أفعله أيضًا.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't often give 5 star ratings and even more rarely do I give them to a self-help, health book. Usually, I find those books are too long, overly preachy, and they appear to set unrealistic expectations on how to improve your life. "Death by Comfort" is different. First, it is very easy to read. Its written in plain English, is relatively short (160 pages - I finished it in one sitting), and where it references science its done in such a way that its easy to understand. Second, the book builds a compelling argument about the comfort crisis and explains why being uncomfortable, in reasonable amounts, should be viewed as a good thing. Finally, the solutions put forward by the author on how to break out of the comfort crisis are stepwise and he recommends making little changes and pushing yourself outside the comfort zone responsibly. All in all I think this book is a must read!

[Harry Batt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book gives a range of advice across physical health, mental health and mindset (goals, stress etc). Therefore it's quite high level in each area. It's not as interesting as I thought it could be because of this shallowness, and I thought it underplayed the role of technology (e.g. addictive social media) in the problem of comfort for our society. That being said, I think this is a good book to read when you want to be reminded of some of the top tips across general wellbeing, so could be worth skimreading at a time when you want to reconsider or take a more intentional approach to the way you live your life.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paul writes with minimal fluff, summarises the key message efficiently. Australian based but applicable to most first world countries. Minimal new ideas, however well a great introduction to the topics. Specifically covers: stress, nutrition (upf and fasting), temperature, mindset, recovery and socialisation, with the final chapter bringing the topics together to suggest how to create habits/fulfill your goals.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked a lot of the content in this book and found it quite motivating to change my general health habits. It was a fast, easy read but not in-depth enough.
Key takeaways for me:
- 8000 steps a day is the minimum I must do
- walking 5.6kmph to 6.4kpmh is the speed I should be exercising at
- sitting is killing me, so I need to move every 30 mins
- cold showers are worth the pain

[Freyja · Rating 3 out of 5]

actual rating 3.5 stars

very interesting content and thought-provoking information about how the prioritisation of comfort is slowly degrading our mental and physical health. unfortunately the writing style is repetitive, stunted and formulaic which makes it at times difficult to persist. as with the theme of the book, though, persist i did and i enjoyed overall.

[Edith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Similar to the message in Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity, but with less biochemistry and slightly more philosophically oriented towards why we ought not to sink into comfort and a soft life for our own good.

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

A fear monger selling his wares. Damn the death by exposure, the death by starvation, the broken bones, and all the rest: the comfort is killing you, and you badly need to break the body like in the good old days.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. Paul has an honest (brutally so) way of writing that I find appealing. Large swathes of scientific jargon is translated and condensed so anyone can understand it. Great book for anyone wanting a kick in the backside to get them exercising/sleeping/eating or basically living better.

[Karen G. MacDonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for anyone who cares about their physical health, mental wellness and improving their health span. Loved it! Especially the parts about moving outside our comfort zones to build resilience.

[فادي · Rating 3 out of 5]

الكتاب جيّد وفيه معلومات رياضية وصحيّة جيدة والتطبيقات التي نصح بها كلها أو أغلبها مثبت علمياً مثل المشي السريع والركض والتحمل والصيام المتقطع والغذاء العضوي وأشياء كثيرة ثانية
الكتاب خفيف ولغته سهلة والترجمة جيدة.