To answer the question “how metabolism really works” requires an understanding of how metabolism is the central driver of human health. It’s more than the chemical processes where an organism takes in energy and converts it into a usable form. It is a complex process, that’s interconnected to the entirety of human health and disease, it’s not just a barometer of how quickly someone can process food or how the body responds to working out.
Dr. Brian Fertig details how metabolism functions in his two-part book series titled “Metabolism & Medicine.” His monumental work delves into many related topics, from chaos theory to the body’s microbiota, and ties them all back to the body as a metabolic machine. Dr. Fertig is a practicing physician, professor, and author who holds decades of experience in endocrinology, metabolism, and related fields. He has a passion for improving patient health and life spans by discovering root causes of disease, which he relates to metabolic problems. He encourages medical professionals to de-compartmentalize their understanding of the human body, by promoting interdisciplinary and trans disciplinary science-backed learning, and using that context to improve patient outcomes and health. He supports using physics to inform decision making with mathematical precision, which he suggests is used in correlation with high volume and personalized bioinformatics over time.
Volume 1 of “Metabolism & Medicine” talks about the complexity of living systems and what those systems need for proper functionality. It begins the discussion with an exploration of various disciplines of physics, with an emphasis on force and energy as the building blocks of metabolic processes. He describes how the laws of thermodynamics apply to metabolic discussions, and how energy is transformed in living cells. The book describes how metabolism distinguishes living from and non-living matter, and how complexity scales upwards the further a biological system is from a non-living state. It sets the stage for Volume 2 which further educates the reader on how metabolism really works.
In Volume 2 of “Metabolism & Medicine”, Dr. Fertig expands upon the first book’s lessons. He links together the laws of physics, how biological chemistry operates, and then correlates them together to deepen the understanding of human health and disease incidence. Volume 2 looks at how the body’s various systems might go into dysfunctional states, through unhealthy lifestyles, natural degradation, and other stressors.
Through this book, Dr. Fertig provides health practitioners with more scientific understanding, so they can blend their learning to an “art and science” approach to patient care, one that improves outcomes and boosts the patient’s experience. The book covers a range of complex concepts, but offers them in a simple and digestible format. For example, he discusses the power of habits and how they can reinforce unhealthy patterns that then promote biological responses to that can encourage diseases to exacerbate or appear. The understanding of how metabolism works and how it relates to health and disease is the core tenet of his work.
Medical and other healthcare providers, nutritionists, fitness experts, biomedical researchers other professionals, students and interested laypeople with a high school background in the sciences who want to understand metabolism at a never-before-seen depth can buy “Metabolism & Medicine” on Amazon. The two books give the reader new insights into the various energy processes within the human body, and connect metabolic dysfunction with diseases and longevity. It allows them to learn about metabolism and gain insights into how they can use this knowledge to aid their patients, clients or themselves and loved ones to live healthy lives.