Sitting under the bright lights of Kensington Olympia at Stylist Live surrounded by different merchandisers begging me to put my photo on Instagram to advertise their goods for free in return for a chance to sample their products, felt a little ironic once I’d listened to Dr Rangan Chatterjee – GP of twenty years and featured on the BBC programme Doctor in the House.

The essence of Dr Rangan was about whether we truly need medication to solve all of the illnesses that people are suffering with in the twenty first century, or whether by listening and understanding our bodies and adapting our lifestyle in several different ways we can avoid getting addicted to medication that won’t ever make us better.

If you haven’t read his book the ‘Four Pillars’ I recommend it.

Did you know that when you’re stressed, your body’s digestive system shuts down and doesn’t work properly? Back when we were cave people and a lion was chasing us, digestion wasn’t essential to surviving that chase so to be more efficient, the result of high adrenaline and cortisol (stress hormone) temporarily shut the digestive system down. But now we suffer from stress daily and the body still shuts things deemed to be ‘non essential’ down. The effect on our bodies of this is detrimental and causes severe health implications.

Dr Rangan’s approach is very bitesize and manageable. Always taking the lift? Do some ‘movement snacking’ and take the stairs sometimes! His research and stories are inspirational and his latest book The Stress Solution has been eagerly anticipated and is now out.