Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine
|
List Price: $15.00
Our Price: $10.20
Your Save: $ 4.80 ( 32% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
|
Manufacturer: Vintage
Written By: Randolph M. Nesse, George C. Williams
|
Click on the Buy From Amazon.com link to know Amazon.com's best price & availability.
|
|
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 610.1
EAN: 9780679746744
ISBN: 0679746749
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 304
Publication Date: 1996-01-30
Publisher: Vintage
Release Date: 1996-01-30
Studio: Vintage
|
|
|
Editorial Reviews for Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine
|
The answers are in this groundbreaking book by two founders of the emerging science of Darwinian medicine, who deftly synthesize the latest research on disorders ranging from allergies to Alzheimer's and from cancer to Huntington's chorea. Why We Get Sick compels readers to reexamine the age-old attitudes toward sickness. Line drawings.
|
|
|
Consumer reviews:
|
Customer Rating:  
Summary: Excellent review of topic, even though it's a bit dated
Comment: PROS: It helps you understand why some illnesses are good for you. Well written and easy to read.
CONS: It's a dated. Medical advances and knowledge have come a long way in the last 15 years.
CONCLUSION: I would suggest reading "The Survival of the Sickest" instead. It's more up to date and has better writing than this book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: What's for dinner?
Comment: "If you are starving in a rain forest, eat the camouflaged frog that is hidden in the vegetation, not the bright one sitting resplendent on a nearby branch."
At first glance, this quote from WHY WE GET SICK wouldn't seem to be relevant to the topic. But since the hypothesis of the book is that evolution and natural selection govern the senescence of aging and the physiological responses to diseases and mortally competitive environments, the fact that the gaudier frog has evolved with potent internal poisons that (should) signal "danger" to any potential predator makes the connection vis-a-vis both the amphibian's toxin and the starving hiker whose internal defense mechanisms may at least cause vomiting and diarrhea if frog's legs make it onto the dinner menu.
As authors Randolph Nesse and George Williams summarize:
"First, there are genes that make us vulnerable to disease ... Most deleterious genetic effects ... are actively maintained by selection because they have unappreciated benefits that outweigh their costs ... Second, disease results from exposure to novel factors that were not present in the environment in which we evolved ... Third, disease results from design compromises, such as upright posture with its associated back problems ... Fourth, ... natural selection ... works just as hard for pathogens trying to eat us and the organisms we want to eat. In conflicts with these organisms, as in baseball, you can't win 'em all. Finally, disease results from unfortunate historical legacies ... the human body must function well, with no chance to go back and start afresh ... Susceptibility to disease ... cannot be eliminated by any duration of natural selection, for it is the very power of natural selection that created them."
Under the umbrella of natural selection, the authors include everything from the obvious and non-arguable, such as fever as a mechanism to kill invading pathogens with heat, to the less obvious and perhaps debatable, such as the instinctive desire of small children to remained unweaned from mother's breast, which serves to prolong lactation and ensures that Mom won't become pregnant with a potential rival. Other examples fall into the category, Gee, Why Didn't I Think of That, including the morning sickness of pregnancy, which serves to prevent Mom from ingesting toxins during that vulnerable period when the unborn child is experiencing peak organ formation, and the causative agent of gout, uric acid, the build-up of which also protects the body from the aging effects of oxidative damage. Then there's cancer, which wouldn't be a problem had we not tissue cells that grow and regenerate. And did you know that premature ejaculation in the male is ostensibly selective, in an evolutionary sense, for those men that can get the gene transfer job done, so to speak, and then flee before the female's alpha male partner shows up to brain the interloper with a knotty pine cudgel?
Nesse and Williams lucidly present an unconventional paradigm of medicine, a different perspective from which to view disease and aging, that's only accasionally preachy. They rue the fact that it's not part of the mainstream, and argue for its inclusion in the curriculum of the country's medical schools. They fail to mention what I think is the more practical route to widespread acceptance, i.e. when it can make the medical industry lots of money.
Hey honey! How about some frog legs for dinner? I see a bright green one with yellow and red speckles perched in the carrotwood out back!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Really great read
Comment: Anyone in interested in how evolution impacts their day-to-day lives should read this book. It's not only informative, but also an enjoyable read.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A fresh and innovatrive approach
Comment: Insightful, progressive, meaningful, and comprehensive coverage of the field. I learned a lot from the book. Few minor points that can be improved. One, the figures in the book (there are only a few anyway) are vague and don't add much to the content. Two, there are many sentences in the book that are either out of context or they don't convey what the authors have in mind. Third, the book could have benefited from a bibliography. Alphabetical bibliography is easier to use to look the sources up than to struggle to find them in the Notes section at the end of the book. But, overall, a great book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: EVOLUTIONARY MEDICINE
Comment: Why we get sick is great for explaining evolutionary medicine for first timers. It's great for students, classrooms and anyone interested in Evolutionary medicine.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
More Information on Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine
Powell's Books - Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian ...
The answers are in this groundbreaking book by two founders of the emerging science of Darwinian medicine, who deftly synthesize the latest research on disorders ranging from ...
George C. Williams - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Williams. 1994. Why We Get Sick : the New Science of Darwinian Medicine. Times Books, New York. Williams, G.C. 1996. Plan and Purpose in Nature. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London ...
Depression (mood) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
... associated risks, and treatment patterns of insomnia". J Clin Psychiatry 66 Suppl 9: 10–3; quiz 42–3. PMID 16336036.  ^ Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine ...
Edge: RANDOLPH M. NESSE
... Human Adaptation Program, The University of Michigan and coauthor (with George C. Williams) of Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine.
DRDARWN1
A brief overview of Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine, pg 2 21. Wray, H., Why do we get sick? Ask your ancestors; evolution could explain some ...
NEJM -- Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine ...
Book Review from The New England Journal of Medicine -- Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine; Reinventing Darwin: The great debate at the high table of ...
What is Darwinian Medicine?
What is Darwinian Medicine? Randolph Nesse, M.D. (The University of Michigan.) A brief overview of: Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine by Randolph Nesse and ...
Why We Get Sick
Why We Get Sick: The new science of Darwinian medicine. By Randolph M. Nesse and George C. Williams. 291 pp. New York, Times Books, 1995. ISBN 0-8129-2224-7. (Published in England ...
CBE Example
Nesse, RM, M.D., Williams, GC, Ph.D. 1996. Why we get sick: the new science of Darwinian medicine. New York: Vintage Books. 290 p. World's leading evolutionary biologist ...
CURR305 ISU – Scientific Literature Reviews
Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine. Nesse and Williams (1994) proposed a unique method to approach medicine – from the evolutionary biologist’s point of ...