Book Release: Living Body Smart by Soheila Zhaeentan, a Swedish Orthopaedic Surgeon who worked in Australia

Swedish orthopaedic surgeon Dr Soheila Zhaeentan spent a year practising in Perth. Her Swedish bestselling book is now available in English.

STOCKHOLM, STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, October 5, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- An estimated 7.3 million Australians — 29% of the population — are living with a chronic musculoskeletal condition such as arthritis, back pain or osteoporosis, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. These conditions now account for $16.3 billion a year in health spending and close to a quarter of the country's non-fatal disease burden — yet, as anyone who has waited weeks for a GP or specialist appointment knows, there is rarely time in a consultation to explain what is actually happening in a stiff hip or an aching knee, only to treat it.

Living Body Smart (published by Aniara; Swedish original title Kroppssmart) is written by someone with an unusually direct line into that experience. Dr Soheila Zhaeentan is a Swedish orthopaedic surgeon with 25 years of clinical practice across Sweden, Norway and Australia — including a fellowship year in sports medicine in Perth, where the patients ranged from weekend athletes to AFL players. She holds a PhD in shoulder surgery from the Karolinska Institute, and the book has already helped thousands of readers in Sweden understand their own bodies well enough to make informed decisions about their care.

“Australians are some of the most active people I've ever treated, and some of the most in denial about ageing,” says Dr Zhaeentan. “You don't stop surfing or playing footy just because you've turned 45 — and you shouldn't have to. But your joints have changed whether you've noticed or not, and closing that gap is exactly what this book tries to do.”

The book is full of moments drawn directly from her time in Australia — including the afternoon she examined the knee of an AFL star during her stint in sports medicine and was, by her own admission, too starstruck to function normally with her next patient. Elsewhere, she recalls an Australian colleague's blunt reply when a patient asked how to stop her knee osteoarthritis from getting worse: “Stop having birthdays.”

Across two parts, the book first covers the fundamentals that most patients are never 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-examination, the warning signs that warrant a doctor's visit, and, just as often, reassurance that a creaking or aching joint does not need one.

“My arch-enemy isn't a disease,” says Dr Zhaeentan. “It's fear — the fear people feel when a joint clicks, or aches, or doesn't move the way it used to. That fear stops them moving the very joint that needs moving in order to heal. Give people the knowledge to tell a warning sign apart from normal wear, and most of them can take it from there.”

Critical Reception in Sweden
Since its 2023 publication, Kroppssmart has been recognised by Sweden's own medical and library establishment as well as its readers. BTJ, the review bulletin used by Swedish public libraries to guide acquisitions, awarded 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 also reviewed in Ortopediskt Magasin, the trade journal of the Swedish Orthopaedic Association — a professional body reviewing one of its own. Editor-in-chief Karin Bernhoff recommended it as both a patient handbook and “entertaining reading for us colleagues,” and specifically praised Dr Zhaeentan's account of practising as a woman in orthopaedics in Australia, and the support of senior colleagues through what she describes as a tough clinical environment, calling it one of the book's more interesting threads.

Everyday readers have responded to the book in kind. “Easy to read and full of good, practical things you can do for yourself — without needing to see a physiotherapist first,” wrote one Adlibris reviewer. Another, on Bokus, put it more simply: “Written at just the right level. I've now bought two more copies — one for each of my daughters' families.”

About the Author
Dr Soheila Zhaeentan is a Swedish orthopaedic 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, including a year of fellowship in sports medicine in Perth. Through her writing, media appearances and public speaking, she is dedicated to helping people take an active role in their own lifelong musculoskeletal health. Her bestselling Swedish book Kroppssmart has helped thousands of 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)
Publisher: Aniara
Format: Print / E-book / Audio
Australian publication date October 14th 2026

For interview opportunity with the author and/or a review copy of the book, please contact press@aniara.one

Yasmine Johnsson
Aniara
press@aniara.one