Living Body Smart book cover
Author Soheila Zhaeentan
The Author Soheila Zhaeentan
Dr Zhaeentan’s Swedish bestseller, now published in the US, argues that the biggest gap in musculoskeletal health isn’t treatment — it’s information.
STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, October 5, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — According to the CDC, roughly one in four US adults — more than 54 million people — live with some form of arthritis, a condition that costs the US economy over $300 billion a year in medical care and lost earnings. “Healthspan” and longevity have become two of the most talked-about ideas in American wellness culture, yet most people reach their forties and fifties with almost no working knowledge of how their own joints, muscles, and bones actually age, or what they can do about it before a specialist visit, a scan, or a surgery becomes necessary.
Living Body Smart (Swedish original title: Kroppssmart), published in English for the first time, is orthopedic surgeon Dr. Soheila Zhaeentan’s answer. Dr. Zhaeentan has 25 years of clinical experience across Sweden, Norway, and Australia, and holds a PhD in shoulder surgery from the Karolinska Institute — the Stockholm-based medical university whose faculty selects the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The Swedish edition became a bestseller by doing something most medical books don’t: explaining the body the way a good surgeon would if she had an hour instead of ten minutes.
Across two parts, the book covers the fundamentals patients are rarely given time to absorb — why pain happens, what osteoarthritis actually is, how muscles, tendons, and bone density change with age — before moving joint by joint through the spine, shoulder, elbow, hand, hip, knee, ankle, and foot, with guidance on self-exams, red flags that call for a doctor, and, just as often, reassurance that an aching or creaking joint doesn’t need one.
“Most people are far more capable of managing their own joint or back pain than the healthcare system gives them credit for, especially early on,” says Dr. Zhaeentan. “The problem usually isn’t a lack of willingness. It’s that nobody has ever explained, in plain language, what’s actually happening inside a stiff shoulder or an aching knee.”
Dr. Zhaeentan writes from lived experience as much as clinical practice. She jokes in the book’s opening pages that she took on the role of public educator in orthopedics driven, in her own words, by “undiagnosed megalomania and a dash of narcissistic personality traits” — a wink that sets the tone for a book built on straight talk rather than medical jargon. She later lists her own dozen-odd orthopedic conditions, from a childhood fracture to shoulder surgery to osteoarthritis in both kneecaps, “personally encountered — and survived.”
“Aging isn’t a diagnosis,” she says. “But it’s one of the biggest drivers of musculoskeletal issues involving the joints and spine, which tend to appear between the ages of 40 and 60. Almost nobody explains what to actually expect, or what’s normal. If you know the difference between a joint that’s telling you something is wrong and a joint that’s just getting older, you make better decisions — and you end up needing your doctor less, not because you’re avoiding care, but because you actually understand what you’re dealing with.”
The book is built for readers who want to take an active role in their own care without turning to unverified advice on social media: every chapter is grounded in peer-reviewed research and 25 years of clinical practice, presented in plain, occasionally funny language rather than textbook jargon. It is intended to sit alongside a reader’s own physician, not replace them — arming patients with better questions to ask, and the confidence to know when a symptom is serious and when it isn’t.
“My dream is that one day, when someone calls a clinic because of knee pain, back pain, or a sore shoulder, the first question will be: ‘Have you read Living Body Smart and tried the evidence-based strategies it recommends?’ If the answer is yes and help is still needed, then it is time to see a doctor. That is the impact I hope this book will have—to empower people with the knowledge and confidence to take charge of their own musculoskeletal health.”
Critical Reception in Sweden
Since its 2023 publication, Kroppssmart has drawn praise from Sweden’s medical establishment and its readers. BTJ, the review service used by Swedish public libraries to guide acquisitions — roughly Sweden’s equivalent of a starred trade review — gave it a full five out of five, with reviewer Motzi Eklöf writing that Dr. Zhaeentan “writes with expertise, warmth, and just the right amount of dry humour,” and recommending it “to absolutely everyone over 35 — and to doctors and healthcare trainees, too.”
The book was reviewed in Ortopediskt Magasin, the trade journal of the Swedish Orthopaedic Association. Editor-in-chief Karin Bernhoff called it both a handbook for worried patients and “entertaining reading for us colleagues,” singling out the author’s blunt take on an often under-treated condition:
“If the orthopedic profession cared half as much about osteoporosis as it does about patching up fractures, treatment would have reached new heights long ago.”
Everyday readers have echoed that reception. “Written at just the right level — practical whether you’re trying to prevent a problem or already dealing with one,” wrote one reviewer on the Swedish retailer Bokus. Another reader, a physical therapist’s mother, bought it as a gift: “A reliable, well-researched book you can use as a reference — my daughter, who’s a physical therapist, loved it.”
About the Author
Dr. Soheila Zhaeentan is a Swedish orthopedic surgeon, researcher, author, and public educator. A graduate of the Karolinska Institute with a PhD in shoulder surgery, she has 25 years of clinical experience from Sweden, Norway, and Australia. Through her writing, media appearances, and public speaking, she helps people take an active role in maintaining lifelong musculoskeletal health. Her book Kroppssmart has helped thousands of Swedish readers better understand their bodies and make informed decisions about their health. Living Body Smart is her first book to be published in English.
About the Book
Title: Living Body Smart
Author: Dr. Soheila Zhaeentan
Original title: Kroppssmart (Sweden, 2023)
US Publishing date October 14th 2026 (print, e-book)
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