Gravity, one of the four fundamental forces of nature, keeps us down to Earth (literally), but our body's relationship to it could explain our susceptibility to some common health conditions — for instance, irritable bowel syndrome.
At least, that's what Dr. Brennan Spiegel, director of health services research at Cedars-Sinai, proposes in his new book, "Pull: How Gravity Shapes Your Body, Steadies the Mind, and Guides Our Health." Spiegel, also a gastroenterologist at Cedars-Sinai and the University of California, Los Angeles, got the idea that disease could be directly connected to the gravitational force when considering commonalities among patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), which affects up to 10% of the world's population.
