Upon finishing this book, I am left with more questions than when I first cracked it open. While I have learned so much, evolutionary medicine is a relatively new field and still has much to explore. I am curious how our knowledge from evolutionary medicine can be implemented both by doctors and in the public health sector. How can this knowledge help us better diagnose and treat patients as well as just take care of ourselves on a day-to-day basis.
One question that I have and would love to ask Dr. Moalem is his view on genetic engineering of organisms and how he thinks this would affect the evolutionary process? In accordance with this, how has the presence of sperm banks altered the concept of natural selection in the modern world? Just some things to keep you thinking! Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
I had basically no knowledge of evolutionary medicine before reading this book, so it’s safe to say I learned way more than I would be able to explain on this page. I have always wondered why heritable diseases are so prevalent in the world if natural selection is working to eradicate them. Before opening the pages to this book, I simply had never pondered what could be keeping these diseases around. It seems almost obvious that they would have had some benefit in an earlier time which led to their proliferation within the gene pool. I worked with diabetic children for a whole summer as a counselor at Camp Sweeney and thought I knew everything under the sun about diabetes…turns out I was wrong. I had never heard the hypothesis that diabetes may be beneficial to surviving in intensely cold climates, such as an Ice Age. I had never even heard of hemochromatosis before reading this book and had no clue the role that iron plays in the life of pathogens. I found I learned something new from almost all of the studies that were cited. I am not exaggerating when I say that reading this book has reinvigorated my love for learning for the sake of learning alone.
While I urge everyone to read this book because evolutionary medicine is such a relevant and informative topic, I think individuals with at least a little background knowledge in biology and genetics would enjoy this read the most. Dr. Moalem does a great job of not using a lot of jargon and fully explaining concepts at a basic level. Someone who is not familiar with basic biological terms and ideas still may get a little lost. To all you business majors out there, do not let this deter you from reading this book! While it may be less of an easy read for you, the knowledge you will gain is just as pertinent. Most people think that only current and future health care professionals need to worry about topics like evolutionary medicine, but I disagree. We all are aware of our own bodies and level of health so should also be informed on what we have been through to get where we are and how we are still evolving. If nothing else, being made aware of our intricate relationship with our environment and the complexities of our bodies should be a reminder to everyone to appreciate the gift of life.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and appreciate the novel perspective used to approach real medical problems. I think too often people are focused on the “what” of medicine and understanding how everything occurs and don’t take time to properly consider the “why.” Dr. Sharon Moalem did an excellent job at writing in a way that was enjoyable and exciting to read while still being educational and informative, which is no easy feat. Based on my opinion, I think Dr. Moalem supported his argument and opinions farely well and incorporated multiple different studies and hypotheses to emphasize his points.
Something that I was not super happy with was that he failed to mention any studies or viewpoints that conflicted with his own. For example, in the last chapter, when discussing the different hypotheses for the evolution of bipedalism, Dr. Moalem only brought up the savannah hypothesis and aquatic ape hypothesis, when I know there are multiple other hypotheses that have been put forth. In addition, the way he wrote it made it seem as if the most likely and widely accepted hypothesis is that of the aquatic ape, which is not necessarily accurate. Also, when presenting correlations between events, such as diabetes and the onset of cold weather, to the general public reading this book it may have come off as if correlation implied causation. Any science major can tell you is not the case. Overall, an interesting and educational read. Highly recommend!
While I urge everyone to read this book because evolutionary medicine is such a relevant and informative topic, I think individuals with at least a little background knowledge in biology and genetics would enjoy this read the most. Dr. Moalem does a great job of not using a lot of jargon and fully explaining concepts at a basic level. Someone who is not familiar with basic biological terms and ideas still may get a little lost. To all you business majors out there, do not let this deter you from reading this book! While it may be less of an easy read for you, the knowledge you will gain is just as pertinent. Most people think that only current and future health care professionals need to worry about topics like evolutionary medicine, but I disagree. We all are aware of our own bodies and level of health so should also be informed on what we have been through to get where we are and how we are still evolving. If nothing else, being made aware of our intricate relationship with our environment and the complexities of our bodies should be a reminder to everyone to appreciate the gift of life.