Survival of the Sickest [Import] [Paperback]

Sharon Moalem (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Harper Collins Publ. UK; 1St Edition edition (February 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0007236107
• ISBN-13: 978-0007236107
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (100 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,457,273 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Captivating and provocative, February 6, 2007

By 

Avid Reader (London) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Survival of the Sickest: A Medical Maverick Discovers Why We Need Disease (Hardcover)

If you're a fan of books like The Tipping Point and Freakonomics, I highly recommend Survival of the Sickest. It's full of the same kinds of fascinating insights that make for great cocktail party conversation. As a parent, I was particularly fascinated by the chapter on how what you eat during pregnancy can influence the way your children (and even their children) metabolize their food. And as a health conscious person, you'll get practical, actionable ideas on how to think about personalizing your diet based on your background.

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eye Opening, February 22, 2007

By 

haley - See all my reviews

This review is from: Survival of the Sickest: A Medical Maverick Discovers Why We Need Disease (Hardcover)

You don't need a degree in evolutionary biology to understand Survival of the Sickest. This book gives you a peak into how evolution can actually select for disease, and makes a compelling case for why and how understanding this can shape the way disease is treated in the future. It also explains some fascinating facts - like how some Americans are immune to HIV because they have a mutation and how a person can rust to death but be saved by giving blood. It'll leave you thinking completely differently about your body, and - in some cases - like when it advises that you should take your sunglasses off for a few minutes when you get into the sun so that your eyes can "tell" your skin to be on guard against it, it'll actually affect the way you act.

41 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Captivating, April 21, 2007

By 

B. McEwan "yellokat" (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Survival of the Sickest: A Medical Maverick Discovers Why We Need Disease (Hardcover)

This book about genetics, evolution and disease is a genuine page turner, that's how deeply interesting it is, and how well it is written. The basic premise runs like this: The environment puts pressure on all living things, including humans, to evolve characteristics that help us survive long enough to reproduce and pass on our genes. Over the millenia, various conditions such as drought, ice ages and other climate changes have sparked genetic mutations that enhance our abilities to survive. These include some biological conditions that are advantageous in the short term, but sometimes detrimental in the long term.

For example, today we consider diabetes mellitus a serious disease because it raises human blood sugars to dangerous levels that can result in loss of limbs and sight, among other problems. However, in an ice age, when temperatures were significantly lower than they are now, having extra sugar in the blood may have enabled our ancestors to survive the cold because sugar lowers the temperature at which we freeze to death. Similarly, Sickle Cell Anemia may have evolved to help people resist malaria.

What's especially interesting is that this theory would explain why ethnic groups that are prone to diabetes -- Scandinavians and people from the British Isles, for instance -- originally came from northern areas that were at one time covered by glaciers. And the ancestors of those groups that tend to carry the genes for Sickle Cell generally originated from climates in which malaria was prevalent.

Another intriguing idea is that some "sicknesses" only become serious problems when an individual is older and past his or her prime reproductive years. So if one of our ancestors had, for instance, a chronic disease like diabetes, it probably wouldn't kill him/her until after the person had children.

There are many such fascinating observations and facts in this relatively short book and I highly recommend it to anyone who wonders how things and people got to be the way they, and we, are today.