Your Body: The Missing Manual

Your Body: The Missing Manual

by Matthew MacDonald
Released July 2009
Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 9780596801748

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Book description

What, exactly, do you know about your body? Do you know how yourimmune system works? Or what your pancreas does? Or the myriad --and often simple -- ways you can improve the way your bodyfunctions?

This full-color, visually rich guide answers these questions andmore. Matthew MacDonald, noted author of Your Brain: TheMissing Manual, takes you on a fascinating tour of your bodyfrom the outside in, beginning with your skin and progressing toyour vital organs. You'll look at the quirks, curiosities, andshortcomings we've all learned to live with, and pick up justenough biology to understand how your body works. You'll learn:

  • That you shed skin more frequently than snakes do

  • Why the number of fat cells you have rarely changes, no matterhow much you diet or exercise -- they simply get bigger orsmaller

  • How you can measure and control fat

  • That your hair is made from the same stuff as horses'hooves

  • That you use only a small amount of the oxygen you inhale

  • Why blood pressure is a more important health measure thanheart rate -- with four ways to lower dangerously high bloodpressure

  • Why our bodies crave foods that make us fat

  • How to use heart rate to shape an optimal workout session --one that's neither too easy nor too strenuous

  • Why a tongue with just half a dozen taste buds can identifythousands of flavors

  • Why bacteria in your gut outnumbers cells in your body -- andwhat function they serve

  • Why we age, and why we can't turn back the clock

  • What happens to your body in the minutes after you die

    • Rather than dumbed-down self-help or dense medical text,Your Body: The Missing Manual is entertaining and packedwith information you can use. It's a book that may well change yourlife.

    Reader comments for Your Brain: The Missing Manual,also by author Matthew MacDonald:

    "Popular books on the brain are often minefields of attractive butinaccurate information. This one manages to avoid most of the hypeand easy faulty generalizations while providing easy to read anddigest information about the brain. It has useful tricks withoutthe breathless hype of many popular books." -- Elizabeth Zwicky,The Usenix Magazine

    "...a unique guide that should be sought after by any who want tomaximize what they can accomplish with their mental abilities andresources." -- James A. Cox, The Midwest Book Review - WisconsinBookwatch

    "If you can't figure out how to use your brain after reading thisguide, you may want to return your brain for another." -- TheSacramento Book Review, Volume 1, Issue 2, Page 19

    "It's rare to find a book on any technical subject that is as wellwritten and readable as Your Brain: The Missing Manual. The bookcovers pretty much anything you may want to know about your brain,from what makes it up, through how it develops to how to mitigatethe affects of aging. The book is easy reading, fact packed andhighlighted notes and practical applications. So if you want tolearn more about your brain, how it works, how to get the best outof it or just want to stave off the ravages of Alzheimers (seechapter ten for details of how learning helps maintain your brain)then I can't recommend this book highly enough." -- Neil Davis,Amazon.co.uk

    "MacDonald's writing style is perfect for this kind of guide. Itremains educational without becoming overly technical or usingunexplained jargon. And even though the book covers a broad scopeof topics, MacDonald keeps it well organized and easy to follow.The book captures your attention with fun facts and interestingstudies that any person could apply to their own understanding ofhuman ability. It has great descriptions of the brain and itsinterconnected parts, as well as providing full color pictures anddiagrams to offer a better explanation of what the author istalking about." -- Janica Unruh, Blogcritics Magazine

    Publisher resources

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    Table of contents

    1. The Missing Credits
      1. About the Author
      2. About the Creative Team
      3. Acknowledgments
      4. The Missing Manual Series
    2. Introduction
      1. About This Book
        1. About the Outline
        2. Separating Truth from Speculation
        3. About the Missing CD
        4. About Missing Manuals.com
        5. Safari®Books Online
    3. I. From the Outside In
      1. 1. Skin: Your Outer Layer
        1. The Protective Wrapper
          1. Building a Barrier
          2. Shedding Your Skin
          3. The Creature That Eats Your Skin
        2. Skin and the Sun
          1. Vitamin D
          2. Sun Damage
          3. Tans, Moles, and Melanoma
        3. Going Deeper
          1. Wrinkles
        4. The Oil Factory
          1. Acne
        5. Your Temperature Control System
          1. Blushing
          2. Sweat
          3. Body Odor
          4. Deodorants and Antiperspirants
        6. Hair
          1. Vellus Hair
          2. Terminal Hair
          3. Shampoo and Conditioner
          4. Hair Growth and Hair Loss
      2. 2. Fat
        1. The Purpose of Fat
        2. Fat Up Close
          1. How Fat Controls Your Body
          2. The Life and Death of a Fat Cell
        3. Taking Stock of Your Body Fat
          1. Body Mass Index
          2. Body-Fat Percentage
          3. Bring Your Fat to a Checkup
        4. Where Fat Lives
          1. Body Shapes
          2. Fighting Visceral Fat
        5. Understanding Your Body’s Anti-Starvation System
          1. Naturally Lean and Naturally Fat
          2. How to Supersize a Human
            1. Changes in activity
            2. Changes in food
            3. The breakdown of food culture
            4. Environmental programming
          3. Good Reasons Not to Diet
          4. Winning the Battle of the Bulge
      3. 3. Muscles
        1. Meet Your Muscles
          1. The Three Flavors of Muscle
          2. White Meat and Dark Meat
          3. Pairing Up
          4. Binding Muscles to Bones
        2. Exercise
          1. Building Muscles
          2. The Stretching Controversy
          3. Setting a Schedule
          4. How to Lift Weights
            1. Aim for the point of exhaustion
            2. Use good form
            3. Always warm up
        3. A Grab Bag of Strength Exercises
          1. 1. Squats
          2. 2. Lunges
          3. 3. Overhead Press
          4. 4. Bench Press
          5. 5. Abdominal Crunch
          6. 6. Push-Ups
      4. 4. Bones
        1. The Skeletal System
          1. The Benefits of Bones
        2. Living Bone
          1. Bone Health
          2. The Blood Factory
        3. Joints
        4. Your Spine
          1. Posture and Pain
            1. Standing posture
            2. Sitting posture
            3. Lifting posture
            4. Sleeping posture
          2. Back Strengthening
      5. 5. The Doors of Perception
        1. Vision
          1. Your Eyes In Motion
          2. The Adjustable Eye
          3. Your Faulty Focus System
          4. Seeing in Color (and at Night)
          5. Binocular Vision
        2. Hearing
          1. Converting Pressure Puffs to Sound
          2. The Outer Ear
          3. The Middle Ear
          4. The Inner Ear
          5. Understanding Volume
        3. Smell
          1. Into the Nasal Cavern
          2. The Purpose of Smell
        4. Taste
          1. Taste Buds
          2. Supertasters
          3. The Riddle of Flavor
    4. II. The Machinery Inside
      1. 6. Your Lungs
        1. The Respiratory System
          1. The Structure of Your Lungs
          2. The Great Gas Exchange
        2. Breathing
          1. Breathing Exercises
          2. Taking a Deep Breath
        3. The Path to Your Lungs
          1. The Nasal Cycle
          2. The Dangerous Crossing
          3. Your Mucus
        4. Your Voice
          1. The Vocal Folds
          2. Improving Your Voice
            1. Get comfortable
            2. The man in the mirror
            3. Slow speech
            4. Serial emphasis
            5. Project the distance
        5. Pollution
          1. The Size of the Problem
          2. Indoor Air Quality
          3. The Riddle of Asthma
          4. The Contents of Cigarette Smoke
      2. 7. Your Heart
        1. The Pump Inside
          1. Your Heartbeat
          2. Heart Rate
          3. Blood Pressure
        2. The Circulatory System
          1. The Contents of Blood
          2. Veins and Arteries: Your Body’s Plumbing
        3. Heart Attacks
          1. Your Heart Attack
          2. Heart Attack Prevention
        4. Cardio Exercise
          1. Types of Cardio Exercise
          2. Workout Intensity
            1. Maximum heart rate
            2. Target heart rate
            3. Recovery heart rate
      3. 8. Your Digestive System
        1. In Your Mouth
          1. Your Teeth
          2. Mouth Maintenance
          3. Saliva
        2. Your Stomach
          1. The Gastric Storage Tank
          2. Stomach Acid
        3. Your Small Intestine
          1. The Great Absorber
          2. Diet Advice from Your Small Intestine
        4. Your Large Intestine
          1. Bacteria: Your Extended Family
          2. Balancing Your Bacteria
          3. The Embarrassing Exit
          4. Smoothing the Exit with Fiber
      4. 9. Your Immune System
        1. Self-Defense
          1. The First Front: Physical Barriers
          2. The Second Front: Inflammation
          3. The Third Front: Tactical Forces
          4. Acquired Immunity
        2. Bacteria
          1. Skin Bacteria
          2. Living in a Bacterial World
          3. Antibiotics
        3. Viruses
          1. The Life Cycle of a Virus
          2. Profile of a Cold
        4. Cancer
          1. How Cancer Starts
          2. The Body’s Cancer Defenses
          3. Cancer Prevention
        5. Flaws in the System
          1. Autoimmune Diseases
          2. Allergies
          3. The Age of Allergies
    5. III. Sex and Death
      1. 10. Sex and Reproduction
        1. Male Sex Organs
          1. What’s on the Outside
          2. Erections
          3. The Matter of Size
          4. Ejaculation
        2. Female Sex Organs
          1. The Inside Job
          2. Pleasure and the Clitoris
          3. Breasts
          4. The Uterus
          5. Vasectomy vs. Tubal Ligation: Who’s Making the Trip
        3. The Main Event
          1. Arousal and the Art of Foreplay
          2. Orgasms
          3. Toward Better Sex
      2. 11. Your Final Exit: Aging and Death
        1. Life Expectancy
          1. Your Lifespan
          2. The Ultimate Limit
        2. Why We Die
          1. The Naturalness of Death
          2. The Blessing of a Short Life
        3. Aging
          1. The Mechanisms of Aging
          2. Staying Young
        4. The Anatomy of Death
          1. Common Ways to Die
          2. How to Die with Dignity
          3. The Final Moment
      3. A. The Final Word
    6. Index
    7. About the Author
    8. Copyright

    Product information

    • Title: Your Body: The Missing Manual
    • Author(s): Matthew MacDonald
    • Release date: July 2009
    • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
    • ISBN: 9780596801748