Hack Yourself Healthy: Reclaim your health to boost your energy, clear your mind and live a long, vibrant life

by Julia Bradbury

THE NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

Join Julia Bradbury as she travels the world to uncover the ultimate health and wellness hacks to help you take charge of your health for good.

The human body is a marvel of biological engineering that constantly renews itself, and we always seem to be on the hunt for ways to improve it, physically and emotionally. But with so many new health trends on the rise, how do we know what really works?

In Hack Yourself Healthy, TV presenter and author Julia Bradbury cuts through the noise to embark on a rigorous journey to reclaim her health following her own breast cancer diagnosis. Her quest in this book is to discover whether she can go from a cancer diagnosis to being the fittest and healthiest she's ever been. Travelling across the world to explore different cultural approaches, from India to Antarctica, from Cornwall to Yorkshire, Julia talks with world-renowned experts as she volunteers as a 'Crash Test Mummy' to test the latest in biohacking, screening and testing. Follow her as she embraces Europe's coldest cryotherapy chamber and investigates the world's oldest medical system, Ayurveda, in the Himalayas.

Drawing from research, interviews with global thought leaders and personal experiments, Julia offers practical tips and accessible science-based strategies to optimise every aspect of your health and wellbeing. She uncovers why saunas can be so beneficial, how sugar affects us on a cellular level, what types of exercise we should be doing every week (and how much of it), if drinking alcohol has benefits, which foods can help us live a more vibrant life, and why planetary health and human health are so intrinsically linked.

You'll also discover how to hack your nutrition and hormonal health, utilise sleep science and why the future of medicine is an integrative whole-person approach. As a long time 'outdoor evangelist' Julia continues to explore the rejuvenating power of nature (and even how it can mimic science). Using this ultimate health blueprint, you can join Julia on her quest to 'make the best of the rest' and curate your own transformative health journey at home and in nature.

Hack Yourself Healthy will show you that true happiness isn't just about living longer - it's about living better.

Genres: Health

370 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 4, 2025

Reviews

[Clare Pooley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel like Julia and I are twin souls. We’re about the same age, and we were both diagnosed - relatively young - with breast cancer. Like me, Julia used this experience to completely re-evaluate the way she lived her life, although she went about it in a much more scientific and thorough way than I did! So, I was thrilled when Julia asked me to contribute to the book by sharing my experience of quitting alcohol. If you’ve ever wondered what you can do to improve your chances of living an active, healthy life for as long as possible, then this book is for you.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Following Julia Bradbury's survival of breast cancer, she has become very interested in healthspan - living better for longer - and has engaged in a battery of tests to find out her personal blueprint for health. I read a lot on health but I came across quite a bit of new information here. However, most of the testing, travel and access to experts she experienced is way out of reach for the average person and the wide-ranging scattergun approach made it difficult to work out a clear actionable plan. Only a self-help book if you have lots of money and lots of time to engage with posh clinics.

[Missy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved Walk Yourself Happy and her story of cancer recovery. You felt more connected to her story as well as gaining some healthy life style tips.
This book seems to have jumped on that band wagon but without any of the personal touch. I hate to use the word, but the first thing that came to mind was privilege. Expensive tests, travelling etc are only available to the few and I feel it lost me.

[Siobhan Markwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has lots of really interesting information and is well-written it but, to be honest, is very much aimed at upper middle class professionals with lots of free time and money. If you lack either, you might find the advice quite dispiriting. Julia does give "poorman's" versions of the tests, metrics and activities but I found the book depressing. When the NHS in Britain is on its knees and forced to pay private health providers to deliver services at cost to the detriment of the financial efficacy of the whole, this shows the future of health care i.e. a last minute patch up after a very long wait for the average tax payer and layers and layers of complex, expensive tests and preventative health interventions for the wealthy few (lots of whom probably profit from the enforced penetration by private health companies to our NHS that started under the Tory government of the 1990s and was not nipped in the bud by New Labour. Of course, the private health providers will claim that the NHS wasn't able to provide health care under a mixed economy, social-good model, but lots of evidence points to the fact that it's these entities who've drained it of finance. Link for context: https://www.theguardian.com/commentis...

[Sarah Myers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enlightening. Great read

[Deb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read. Very interesting and full of punchy facts, well written and engaging

[Maurice · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did not finish. I was hoping to find some hacks to improve my health, but did no find any. Many of the hacks were very expensive, whilst others were impractical.