The key to promoting longer, healthier lives lies within the teeming world of microbes inside and all around us.

Hand sanitizer. Social distancing. Antibiotics. Even before the COVID pandemic, fending off germs has long been considered one of the cornerstones of good health. But what if better health actually went hand-in-hand with embracing the invisible microbes living on, in, and all around us?

Our bodies are teeming with microbes. They impact everything from sleep, cognition, mood, heart health, and energy to likelihood of developing dementia, diabetes and some cancers. As groundbreaking new studies are showing, taking care of the microbiome—inside and out—can help improve day-to-day health and even help prevent or reverse some of the most common age-related diseases.

Among scores of insights and highly practical tips, discover:

• How diet, hygiene, exercise habits, stress, environment, and even social life all influence the microbiome and, in turn, your health.

• How microbe-friendly diets have been clinically shown to delay the onset of Parkinson’s disease and lower the risk of developing dementia.

• Why women should be especially wary of being over-prescribed antibiotics.

• How to pick a good probiotic—and why many of the brands you see influencers promoting on social media simply don't work.

• How COVID underscored the need for healthy exposure to microbes, what that means in reality, and how to re-embrace microbes in the wake of the pandemic.

In this eye-opening and evidence-based book, father-daughter team Dr. Brett Finlay (a microbiologist) and Dr. Jessica Finlay (a specialist in aging) break down what the latest research says about how the microbiome affects not just gut health, but all aspects of physical and mental well-being—and what readers can do about it.

B. Brett Finlay, PhD, is a professor in the Michael Smith Laboratories and at the University of British Columbia. He has been at the forefront of the emerging field of cellular microbiology and is well recognized internationally for his work, having won prestigious awards including the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and Order of Canada. He is a senior fellow and the program director at Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR). He co-wrote Let Them Eat Dirt: Saving Our Children from an Oversanitized World (Greystone Books, 2016) and lives in Vancouver, BC.

B. Brett Finlay's profile page

Jessica M. Finlay, PhD, specializes in health geography and environmental gerontology as an Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado. She has won national and international awards for her innovative research with older adults, and authored publications in leading health, geography and gerontology journals. She lives in Boulder, CO.

Jessica M. Finlay's profile page