Survival of the Sickest: A Medical Maverick Discovers Why We Need Disease - Softcover

Moalem, Dr Sharon

4.14

8,497 ratings by Goodreads

9780007236107: Survival of the Sickest: A Medical Maverick Discovers Why We Need Disease

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007236107 ISBN 13: 9780007236107

Publisher: HarperCollins Entertainment, 2007

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In this groundbreaking and absorbing book Dr. Sharon Moalem, a leading medical researcher in the emerging fields of neurogenetics and evolutionary medicine, delves back into the evolution of man to offer a radical new way of thinking about survival, the human body, and our understanding of disease.

Dr. Moalem investigates peculiar and puzzling features of human biology to reveal the answers to such provocative questions as:

� Why do we need to pee when we’re cold?
� Can a person rust to death?
� Why are Greeks hairier than Africans?
� Can the tanning salon lower cholesterol?
� Why are leeches back in vogue?
� Can sunglasses cause sunburns?
� Who gets drunk faster – Europeans or Asians?
� Why are African Americans more prone to hypertension?

In considering the question of why diseases exist, Dr Moalem proposes that most coming diseases came into existence for very good reasons. Diabetes, hemochromatosis, cystic fibrosis and sickle cell anemia may all exist because, at some time in our past, they helped our ancestors survive some grand challenge to human existence. In turn, he also discovers that genetic and cultural differences have led to each race having different and unique ways of reacting to their environment and subsequently how they become susceptible to certain diseases.

Survival of the Sickest is a book about life – yours, ours and every little living thing under the sun. About how we all got here, where we're all going and what we can do about it. Revelatory and written in an utterly engaging fashion, Sharon Moalem's book changes the way we think about our own bodies.

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Review:

'...an entertaining journey through evolutionary medicine.' New Scientist

'A tart, funny and fascinating confection about emerging evolutionary understanding of illness.' The Guardian

'Groundbreaking and absorbing.' Closer

'This is a revolutionary and engaging exploration of our evolutionary history'. The Herald

'Insightful and accessible.' The Good Book Guide

'Smart, entertaining and informative.' Lifescape

‘This excellent book deserves a place in every lending library in the land.’ The Oldie

Synopsis:

In this groundbreaking and absorbing book, wunderkind Dr. Sharon Moalem delves back into the evolution of man to reveal hitherto unknown and astonishing ways the human body is built to survive. With this revolutionary new book, Sharon Moalem completely turns modern medicine's understanding of disease on it's head. "It is not," he argues, "that dark country to which we're exiled when we're not 'healthy.' The truth, I intend to show you, is much more interesting and encouraging." His research will reveal that many common diseases are in fact complicated blessings. In considering the question of why diseases exist, Moalem proposes that most common diseases came into existence for very good reasons. Diabetes, hemochromatosis, cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia all may exist because at some point they helped our ancestors survive some grand challenge to human existence. In turn, he also discovered that genetic and cultural differences have led to each race having different and unique ways of reacting to their environment and subsequently how they become susceptible to certain diseases.

With mesmerizing insight, Moalem demonstrates how diabetes may be a by-product of a mechanism that helped humans survive the Ice Age, why African Americans living in the north might suffer from vitamin D deficiencies, and why Asians can't drink as much alcohol as Europeans. Information in this book is extremely timely, such as Moalem's exploration of the Avian Flu, a disease that threatens to be the world's next great pandemic. Revelatory and written in an utterly engaging fashion, Sharon Moalem's book will change the way we think about our own bodies.

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