The Secret Life of Your Microbiome: Why Nature and Biodiversity are Essential to Health and HappinessThe microbiome revolution has shown us that everything is interconnected – our health, our environment, our planet. Microbes are the foundation of all life, the glue that holds it all together, and may yet provide solutions to many of our health and environmental challenges. This inspires us to find new possibilities, through new perspectives, and work together more symbiotically to overcome the challenges on our planet today.
"Written with pace, clarity, and humor by world-renowned scientists in immunology, nutrition, and environmental health, The Secret Life of Your Microbiome makes the irrefutable case that our health and happiness depends fundamentally on the health of our personal biodiversity and the biodiversity around us, and shows how we can nurture this nature."
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Origins: early-life solutions to the modern health crisisThe field of epigenetics is revolutionising our understanding of how environment shapes our genes. Dr Susan Prescott, a leading childhood immunologist, shows how the application of epigenetics through Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) is changing scientific research and public health. A poor start to life is associated with an increased risk of disorders throughout life, including cardiovascular disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes and metabolic disturbances, osteoporosis, chronic obstructive lung disease, some forms of cancer and some mental illnesses. The environment in which early life develops — at conception, and/or during fetal life, infancy and early childhood — induces changes in development that have a long term impact on later health and disease risk. Parental lifestyle and diet, smoking, obesity and exposure to endocrine disruptor chemicals and toxins, have all been shown to modulate disease risk. The effects of such exposures are often graded and subtle — they do not simply disrupt development or induce disease themselves — but can affect how rapidly disease develops in an individual. However, timely interventions may reduce such risk in individuals and also limit its transmission to the next generation.
DOHaD has significant implications for many societies and for global health policy. In Origins, Dr Prescott explains the research and shows how a focus on early life in health promotion, the exchange of knowledge between policymakers, clinical and basic scientists and the wider public, and education and training, will build capacity to assist a healthy start to life across populations. All author’s proceeds from the sale of this book will go directly into research. |
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The Calling: A true story of faith, hope and loveMonica Mary Job was one of only a few women doctors to graduate from university in the 1930s, and, as a descendant from a long line of missionaries, Monica inspired Stanley Prescott to leave England for missionary work in China – a decision made without forewarning of World War II and the Japanese occupation of China.
‘I met Stanley while I was in medical school. He was a lecturer in physiology and pharmaceutics. I had already done physiology at that stage and so he did not lecture me. But he passed through the medical school a lot. And he saw my fair curly hair. And that was it. He decided he had to marry that girl.’ This biography draws extensively on letters written by both Monica and Stanley as well as newspaper clippings, interviews and family lore to bring Monica and Stanley’s story to life. Their shared story spanned three continents and four decades, and it is part of a greater story of faith, hope and love. This is a loving tribute—in the form of a biography—by their granddaughter Professor Susan Prescott who followed their lead into a distinguished medical career. |
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The Allergy Epidemic: A Mystery of Modern LifeAs an allergy specialist working in a busy children’s hospital and as a cutting edge researcher, Dr Susan Prescott is perfectly placed to explore how and why we are experiencing an epidemic rise in allergic diseases as well as the practical side of dealing with these potentially life-threatening conditions.
Why is allergic disease increasing so rapidly, especially in young infants? What are the environmental factors contributing to this? What is going wrong with the immune system and can we prevent it? When is it safe to give children peanut products? What are the current treatment options for allergies? What is epigenetics? Where is the research headed? Drawing on the latest research,The Allergy Epidemic provides clear, no-nonsense descriptions in the very personable style Susan’s patients have come to expect. All author’s proceeds from the sale of this book will go directly into allergy research. |
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