Publisher's Synopsis
In this groundbreaking and absorbing book, wunderkind Dr. Sharon Moalem delves back into the evolution of man to reveal until now unknown and astonishing ways the human body is built to survive.
This revolutionary new book completely turns modern medicine's understanding of disease on its head. Moalem's research will reveal that many common diseases are in fact complicated blessings.
With mesmerizing insight, Moalem proposes that most common diseases came into existence for very good reasons - for example, 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. Moalem also looks at how the modern world influences disease, and discusses Avian Flu, which 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.
Chapters include:
Iron Men and the Revival of Therapeutic Bleeding: How Iron Overloading Protected Our Ancestors from the Plague
Why Ted Williams Won't Survive Freezing Temperatures but You Just Might: Was Diabetes an Adaptation to the Ice Age?
Do African Americans have High Blood Pressure Because of Slave Ships: Why Knowing Your Racial and Ethnic Background May be a Matter of Life or Death
Why Asians Can't Drink and Fava Beans Can Kill: Learning Who You Are from What Your Ancestors Ate
Rabid Dogs and Obsessive Children: How Diseases Learn Mind Control
