Brain Food

This is how one will be indoctrinated once one is 'induced' into the medical world. One might say that it's worth it, or some (according to a friend who actually said it to my face) say that medics have sold their souls upon entering the threshold of the hospital complex. Ultimately, it is worth it.

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Here, I would love to share some book recommendations with those who are aspiring medics who would stop at nothing to save lives and become great healers. Haha, jokes! These reads are brilliant and available for anyone who is interested in human health. If you have personally read anything interesting and would like to share, do drop me a comment and I'll put it up here!

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1. Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer

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This is the saddest book I've ever read. I remember reading this on the flight from Hong Kong back to London and cried throughout. A very stunningly accurate portrayal of the experiences of a schizophrenic who could not get past an event of his past. It encourages us to see mental health as 'real' illness, instead of an excuse for people to shirk from their responsibilities.

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2. The Heartland (Paperback: This book will change your mind about mental health) by Nathan Filer

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Mr Filer has once again succeeded in making me cry. This time, locked up in my little flat during Covid-19 lockdown, I devoured its contents voraciously. It's a collation of stories and interesting facts about mental illness. It's a glaring display that mental illness can be downright destructive and has deeper implications. It can affect the entire family rather than merely the individual.

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3. It's All in Your Head by Suzanne O'Sullivan

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One of my all-time favourites - a book I read on my trip along Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia. It's a book about psychosomatic illnesses, which means that the patient's suffering is real. However, all test results are normal. we know very little about these illnesses, simply because they are more indicative of a deeper psychological issue, rather than a physical problem. I know a psychiatrist (not wishing to name him/her here) at my hospital who is downright dismissive of this category of illnesses. This has to change. In fact, many seemingly 'real' medical diagnoses are also psychosomatic, such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome and fibromyalgia.

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4. Brainstorm by Suzanne O'Sullivan

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Again - superb book. Dr O'Sullivan is a neurologist and as one who's fascinated by neurology and psychiatry, her books are always an inspiration to me. This time, strolling in languor around Gordon Square (my favourite spot in London), I devour the surreal stories based on real patients with epilepsy. Epilepsy is a disease characterised by seizures. It is a brain disorder. The very fact that it concerns the brain makes it varied and unpredictable. Spoiler alert - there's one patient in the book who spits and swears whenever he has a seizure! However, this book also gives a more human side of the disease and how debilitating it can be to the afflicted.

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5. The Perks of being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

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This is an excellent coming-of-age novel about Charlie, the protagonist, and his experiences at high school. It's American and to a lad from darkest London, it is exotic to my eyes. Proms, cassette tapes, baseball...it also shows us how childhood abuse can change a child forever.

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6. Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker

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I can tell that, from what Dr Walker has written, he is an extremely intelligent person and to all those critics out there making baseless claims, I do pity them for being so biased as not to be capable of learning from such a talented researcher. Why We Sleep is by far the most sophisticated book I've ever read about sleep from a medical perspective. It is a mind-blowing revelation. To a chronically sleep-deprived person like me, it sure did make me rethink about my sleeping habits haha! Instead of making myself acquiesce to merely 4 hours of sleep, now I allow myself to indulge in eight hours of uninterrupted slumber. Trust me, that's not optional.

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7. When the Body Says No by Gabor Maté

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Dr Maté is from Canada (quite a thrilling change since most books I see on the shelves are either British or American) and this book focuses on stress and the immune system. His theories regarding the correlations between personality and cancer are very illuminating. It seems that the more subservient we are, meaning that we put others' interests in front of our own, the more likely our immune system turns against us because we lack the distinction between the self and the foreign. Autoimmune diseases then lead to higher risk of cancer formation (or carcinogenesis). Some cancers, such as melanoma and renal cell carcinoma, are also largely influenced by one's immune system. I still remember the time when I picked it up from Wellcome Collection and nearly said 'nah'. I never regretted my decision of having purchased and read it.

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8. Shapeshifters by Gavin Francis

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This is beautiful. I love Dr Francis's books because they remind me how elegant medicine is. The longer we are in the medical profession, the more we forget about medicine as a sculpture of natural radiance. It is not only a confluence of different branches of science, but also a multi-disciplinary domain encompassing the arts and sciences. The human body is seen as a sacred object. It is beautiful. Dr Francis shows the social and cultural implications, as well as occasionally from a historical perspective, of the various changes undertaken by the body. This includes puberty and pregnancy.

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I hope you like my recommendations! Of course, there are many more books out there that are worth reading. In fact, I can easily recommend over 50 books that an aspiring medic would also enjoy. However, it would be impossible to list them all here so I've forced myself to cut my list down. Do drop me a line if you have any recommendations!