Secrets of the Human Body

by Chris van Tulleken, Xand van Tulleken, Andrew Cohen

Please Read Brand New, International Softcover Edition, Printed in black and white pages, minor self wear on the cover or pages, Sale restriction may be printed on the book, but Book name, contents, and author are exactly same as Hardcover Edition. Fast delivery through DHL/FedEx express.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Medicine, Health, Medical, Audiobook, Psychology

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2017

About the author

Chris van Tulleken

Christoffer Rodolphe van Hoogenhouck-Tulleken, known as Dr. Chris, is a British physician, associate professor at University College London, practicing infectious diseases doctor with a PhD in molecular virology, television presenter, BAFTA-winning broadcaster and identical twin brother of Alexander "Xand" van Hoogenhouck-Tulleken.

Van Tulleken became well known for his two-part television special for BBC One entitled The Doctor Who Gave Up Drugs (2018). He is the author of Ultra-Processed People (2023). The van Tulleken brothers have jointly presented several television programmes, including the children's series Operation Ouch! (2013).

Reviews

[lucy♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chris and Xand Van Tullken are some of my biggest inspirations, from "operation ouch" to "trust me, I'm a doctor" and even to "second opinion", I absolutely adore the twins. Not only because they're the doctors I aspire to be, but because they're insanely smart, friendly and inspiring. So imagine my excitement when my local library had their book, I nearly screamed!
I've been anticipating "Secrets of the human body" since I discovered its existence and when I finally got it I immediately started reading.
I read it for Zoë's Christmas readathon, and I'm so glad I just got to sit and binge read it. I learned so much about growth, learning and survival, lots of interesting facts and got to learn some little things about my favourite twins.
I truly recommend this book if you are interested in the secrets your body has been keeping from you, or you just adore the Van Tulleken twins like me!

Love Lucy x

[Paperback Mo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listened to the audio. I’m not big on non-fiction, but this one was cool—really like the Van Tulleken twins. Gotta be real though, I started zoning out near the end. 3 stars.

[Viktor Stoyanov · Rating 3 out of 5]

3+

[DRugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good introduction to the mysteries of our bodies. I found the text and illustrations fascinating.

[Nicola Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this book up on a whim (well, rather pressed play on the audiobook on a whim), and really did not expect to enjoy it as much as I did!

I found I was enthralled with the subject content and loved the topics that they covered. It focused on certain interesting aspects of the human body (growth, learning, survival etc..) and laid the foundations for you to understand some of the more complex science as well as sharing personal experiences, case studies and a look at current and previous research. It was brilliant!

I also loved the narration as well so it was very easy to listen to and enjoy and I learnt a fair bit throughout the book. There’s plenty to interest the science novice and the expert alike. Well written, some sound science included and written in a way that provoked interest and stopped the reader from getting bored. I really enjoyed it!

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a bit of an unusual choice for me - not something that I would naturally go for. Listened to it as an audiobook when cleaning, gardening etc, so it took a while to get through.

Its quite an interesting book to read, and from the onset of the book the authors make it clear that this isn’t just another book about the anatomy, but is actually about the body, its secrets and how it keeps going through adversity. For example, did you know that humans are the only species in the animal kingdom that have to growth spurts? And that we are unique with the development of languages in the form of a language community?

So this book basically introduces the reader to what essentially makes a human a human. A nice and different read.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love these two. Well presented information that I’ll have forgotten by tonight.

[Toby · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good but not great book on the body. I found the book engaging and interesting. I would suggest that the science topics are either covered in more detail or less detail - the current level of detail does more harm than good. I found the content, at times, a bit waffly. The book "feels" like a van Tulleken book in that it's high on science, low on philosophical discussion. It perhaps feels more similar to a Very Short Introduction book than a more typical book on medicine (David Nott, Sacks, ...) but with perhaps more charisma. If you enjoy the bright-eyed, bushy-tailed faux-naivety (perhaps reminiscent of Bill Bryson...) of the van Tulleken twins - this book is definitely for you. If you want a book that's discoursive, this one might not be for you. If you want something actionable or with references, again this one is probably not for you either.

[Johnnysbookreviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book had interesting points about science. Science is evolving every second, and these authors provided new insight on science topics like fear, cold immersion, and communication. One of the points: the body does not get into the hypothermic state until 30 minutes, but what actually kills you is the instant change of temperature from the outside into 0-degree water. Your body cannot handle that change of temperature that quickly, so your body shuts down (death).

[Jonathan Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating reading for anyone with an interest in the workings of the human body, layman included.

As the title suggests, the focus here is on subjects that are shrouded in some mystery to medical science or are otherwise the focus of some existing cutting-edge research and as such scours the globe for those in the field that are pushing the borders.

Particular eye-openers for me included a particular (non-controversial) use of skin stem cells to grow heart cells being applied to a 'scrubbed' donor heart; current thoughts on how memories are formed in the brain, and how such a thing transitions from a short to long term state; epigenetics and the effect of environment on gene control; and the maintenance of homeostasis through to the flat out wonderment of the human immune system.

The book is written in a light conversational style, with some unavoidable use of medical terminology but hardly anywhere near textbook levels. There is also quite a bit of high-resolution imagery to accompany the words, some of which — the 'movement' of beta-actin along a neuron comes to mind — really helps push both understanding and curiosity in their needed directions.

Highly recommended.

[Bernard Tan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chris and Xand Van Tulleken are twins, are medical doctors, and are British TV personalities appearing on BBC documentaries. They are now authors.

This book is not an anatomy book, but a book to simply explain that there is still so much we are discovering about the human body and still so much we do not know. Reading this, one is amazed at how the human body is so fine-tuned to do the things it does. Some random questions answered include.

1. Why human breast milk contain elements that the human body can not digest.

2. Why human beings the only mammals that have two distinct growth spurts - once as an infant and another at puberty.

3. Why humans have childhood amnesia.

4. Why our future is not definitively written in our genes.

5. Why some of our behaviours are hard wired in us as social animals.

Tulleken writes with typical British humour, and this is a readable and informative book. I have a lot more respect for how our bodies are.

If anyone wants short answers to the above, just DM me!

[Anne Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love the Van Tulleken twins — hoovered up their A Thorough Investigation podcasts and have ordered Chris’ Ultra Processed People. This was detailed and wide ranging dive into the biology of humans - leaving me in even deeper awe about our bodies. That I grew two children and can walk, swim and even talk is nothing short of incredible. What weird, complex creatures we are!

Listened to this on audio - a relatively short book but, because it is so dense and fact based, I honestly think it would have worked better as a podcast series. Or to dip in and out of.

[Everand. Read by the lovely Xand van Tulleken - who perhaps could have slowed down just a little…]

[Poh Kam Wong · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful exploration of the science behind the many wonders about the human body, organized around the broad theme of how evolutionary biology dictates the form and function of all aspects of the human body as it seeks to grow, learn and survive against the constant attacks by myriads of other organisms from viruses and bacteria to large predators. I like the detective investigative style of narration the authors used, posing intriguing questions like -- why human breast milk contains an abundance of complex sugar molecules that human actually lacks the enzyme to digest, how and why the chemical composition of tears of joy differs from tears of sadness, and why physical growth occurs in two major spurts (first two years, and puberty), with significant slow-down in between. It is humbling to be reminded that we still do not understand many more secrets of our human body.

[Fred Frisbee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was great, one of the better books I've read about the human body and the insane complexity and sophistication and the balance that goes on in our bodies in every day. From the immune system killing dodgy cells but not good ones or make us asmaric. The fact we need fear to prevent anxiety and the idea we'll probably never get the dance right.

[mia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite an interesting read - I especially enjoyed the bit about breast milk and the evolution behind it!

[Matthew Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pleasantly surprised. Learnt several things I didn't know before. Shame that there are no references given, would have liked to look up the primary sources for some of the claims.

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but not as actionable as it could be

[T · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting

[Hemani · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you've watched some of their documentaries on BBC, don't read this. It's basically the same. The information was interesting when I watched them but when I read it, it wasn't.

[Ivo Temelkov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful, interesting, well written.

[Thomas Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting.

[Michael Rowley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting parts. I flipped through reading here and there.

[Ingrid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting information. The books has four chapters: Grow, Learn, Survive and Future.

[Nadine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again the van Tulleken twins serve up information in a humourous, fun and interesting way. This time about conception, growth, health etc.

[Arlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

fascinating

[Fatima · Rating 3 out of 5]

first non fiction i’ve ever read it wasnt good but wasnt bad either so idk

[Steph · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting book.

Obviously, there’s structure to what they wrote and listening to this brought so much wonder.

There was many topics I didn’t know about or even know the biology of common experiences. This book honestly just invited me to be curious about my body and the way it supports me on a daily basis.