Description:
You've optimized your diet, tracked your sleep, and tried every productivity hack-yet you still wake up exhausted, wired, and unable to focus.
Brief description: Dr. John La Puma is a board-certified internist and two-time New York Times bestselling author who has spent his career asking a simple question: why are modern humans so sick in environments we were never designed to live in?Early in his career, Dr. La Puma founded the field of Culinary Medicine and co-taught the first Culinary Medicine course at a U.S. medical school, helping bring food, metabolism, and lifestyle back into mainstream medical education. Culinary Medicine is now taught in roughly 80% of U.S. medical schools.His focus has since widened beyond food to the environment shaping human biology. His work examines how light, movement, time outdoors, and daily exposure to nature influence sleep, focus, metabolic health, immune function, and resilience - inputs his research shows are often more powerful than medications or devices alone. Indoor Epidemic: 93% Inside Steals Sleep, Focus & Years-The 7% Outdoor Rx Restores Them is the clinical framework built from that work.Dr. La Puma lives and works in Santa Barbara, California, where he continues to study and live the relationship between environment, lifestyle, and long-term health.
Review Quotes: Advance Praise
Dr. La Puma is among the few medical doctors who truly understands what it takes to keep people healthy, rather than just treating them when they're sick. His Indoor Epidemic focuses on a strategy people in the blue zones have understood for centuries.
-- Dan Buettner, 6x New York Times Bestselling author Blue Zones BooksChronic inflammation, accelerated aging, and preventable disease often share the same root causea: disconnection-from real food, real movement, and real environments. Indoor Epidemic is a timely, evidence-based guide to restoring that connection. Dr. La Puma's prescription is simple, free, and profoundly healing.
-- Dean Ornish MD, Clinical Professor of Medicine, UCSF and Founder and Director of The Preventive Medicine InstituteDr. La Puma brings scientific rigor to what many sense intuitively: time outdoors is a biologic necessity. Indoor Epidemic reframes nature exposure as a measurable medical intervention, not a lifestyle preference.
-- Stefanos N. Kales, MD, MPH, Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical SchoolLa Puma connects the dots between light, air, and metabolism with the clarity of a scientist and the heart of a humanist. Drawing on decades of clinical practice and peer-reviewed research, he shows how intentional time outdoors can meaningfully extend healthspan.
-- Mike Roizen, MD, New York Times-bestselling author; Co-Founder, RealAgeJohn La Puma is an important voice in ecological medicine. What's new here is treating time in nature as a vital sign-prescribed with clinical precision and practical clarity.
-- Daphne Miller, MD, author of Farmacology and The Jungle EffectWith clarity and evidence, La Puma shows how light, air, and environment shape metabolism and resilience. This book makes a compelling case for reconnecting human biology to the living world.
-- Jeff Tkach, CEO, Rodale InstituteIndoor Epidemic is a powerful wake-up call for families. Dr. La Puma shows that nature is not a luxury but a daily biologic need, offering evidence-based Outdoor Rx strategies that restore sleep, mood, and resilience.
-- Tanya Altmann, MD, Pediatrician and bestselling authorFull of practical wisdom, this timely and important book reminds us why we must reintroduce nature into our lives-deliberately and daily.
-- Sue Stuart-Smith, MD, author of The Well-Gardened MindThis gentle, practical prescription-morning light, daily movement, quieter evenings-helps you sleep deeper, think clearer, and feel more alive in a screen-bound world."
-- Michael Crawford, Olivier & Tony Award winner