After having great success with her first book “The Charm of the Gut” in 2014, in which she highlighted the intestines as an underestimated organ, the German doctor and researcher Giulia Enders is now focusing on the entire body. During her work and in conversations with patients, she often felt the need to explain how the body works differently than before.
– We need a different relationship with our body and see it differently. A concrete example is safety and security, which are often discussed in society. How does the body define this – the immune system is not just about protection against evil and threatening things, but also about finding out what is good or bad for you, about cooperation and not just about attack, says Giulia Enders, who in the new book “Your Body Knows the Answer” (Bonnier Fakta, 2026) intersperses knowledge about the body with stories from everyday life.
Giulia Enders believes that with the increasing pressure and influence of information flows on us, it is becoming even more important to truly function as humans. For example, she discusses the “machine-like” ways we sometimes try to imitate when we want to be more efficient.
– Politicians brag about only getting four hours of sleep, flying to another country, or taking on another mission. When they should really care about getting a good night’s sleep and taking care of themselves when they need to make well-thought-out decisions.
She highlights another example where we tend to overanalyze and believe that something depends on completely different factors than it actually does.
– We may ruminate about whether we are bad at something or about bad relationships, when in fact it may be because we haven’t eaten well or slept enough. Start to feel what the body needs. When you wake up at three in the morning, your mind is spinning and you can’t get back to sleep – get up, make tea, get some fresh air. Touch your face in a compassionate way instead of thinking about everything that’s going wrong in your life – then the brain starts to match other thoughts, says Giulia Enders.
She says the most important first step is to gain more knowledge about how the body works. Then it’s about understanding the information by getting to know our body better and how it works all the time, from the brain to the heart, lungs, skin and immune system.
– We receive a lot of information about how we should eat and sleep. But often it’s superficial information that only scratches the surface of everything the body does. For example, do I know that the body is constantly fighting cancer cells and usually wins? Am I aware that the body constantly receives oxygen? says Giulia Enders and continues:
– During our workday, we should take a moment to breathe or lower our shoulders. When I feel the impulse to pick up my cell phone, I first notice how my heartbeat or my breathing is. Our inner world has a strong competitor in all information – but we must have a counterbalance.
Did your own relationship with your body change while working on the book?
– I have become better able to identify with my reward system – when you want more of something, it is not always what you need to get more. I see the brain as an organ that, like a hamster, needs rest, sleep and food to feel good. I am striving for better air quality, which is easier for you in many places in Sweden than in Germany. Since then, I have become more interested in exercising. When I studied how the body works during exercise, it became more fun, she says.
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