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| Authors: Sharon Moalem, Jonathan Prince
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy New: $5.99
You Save: $7.96 (57%)
New (32) Used (16) from $5.89
Avg. Customer Rating:  56 reviews
Sales Rank: 242675
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.4 x 0.9
ISBN: 0060889667
Dewey Decimal Number: 616.042
EAN: 9780060889661
ASIN: 0060889667
Publication Date: March 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New - Direct From Distributor - Light Shelf Wear - Remainder Mark
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| Customer Reviews:
 Fascinating exploration of the link between Sickness and Longevity March 18, 2008
In Survial of the Sickest, Moalem has a refreshing take on the purpose of many genetic ailment's and diseases - that they are actually evolutionary mechanisms that serve to protect the organism!
The book is loaded with numerous and engaging examples of the connection between sickness and longevity such as the link between hemochromatosis and surviving bubonic plague, resistance to malaria and sickle cells and many others.
There is also an introduction to an exciting field known as epigenetics - how children can inherit traits without changes in the underlying dna or put another way - how the expression of genetic traits is a bit more malleable than thought and how environmental factors can actually effect genetic expression.
On top of all this Moalem has put all this information in a very well written, form. A benchmark for how science writing can be informative and enjoyable.
 interesting but obnoxious December 27, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
The title of my review sums up my opionion of this book: there is a lot of very interesting information here but the writing style is annoying. The author uses a lot of corn-ball humor and stupid puns - in fact every chapter heading is an awful pun - to such an extent that I quickly got sick of reading it. This book is also written for the layman, which I think is important for the sake of getting some pretty interesting theories into the mainstream, but if you were a science major in college - or even if you passed all of your high school bio classes, you may find that this reading is a little too dumbed down. Here are some direct quotes from this book to illustrate my point. This would make Bob Sagat groan:
"Four out of five dentists may recomment Trident-but ten out of ten infectious-disease experts will give you the same answer if you ask them to solve that riddle: the answer is malaria."
"Too many solanine-rich french fries and you're french fried."
This book gets three stars for being interesting and informative, but also obnoxious and dumbed-down.
Interesting, but now I have even MORE questions. December 2, 2007
This book is very fun and informative, if not actually very useful from a practical sense. But it raises even more questions in my mind about human biology - like is there a connection between Seasonal Affective Disorder and Vitamin D deficiency in darker skinned people? Can turning up the thermostat in the house slow the progress of diabetes mellitus?
Survival of the Sickest November 3, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I love this book! It's a fascinating read that anyone can enjoy because you don't need a scientific background to get it. I recommend it to patients all the time. Understanding how sunlight causes the conversion of cholesterol in the skin into Vitamin D, alone makes the book worth reading. This is important because we are being "sold" cholesterol lowering drugs daily. The premise of the book is that disease itself provides the environmental stimulus which lead to genetic mutations that allow for "survival". They don't argue that disease is good, but rather explain why it came about. What we are today calling genetic diseases are, in fact, the result of adaptive response to conditions which would have otherwise resulted in death. For example, people who today carry the gene for sickle cell disease are the offspring of people who lived in Malaria prone regions of the world. While many of their fellow men and women were dying of malaria, some individuals developed genetic mutations that made their red blood cells sickle in the face of the malaria parasite. These people survived and passed this gene on to their offspring. Present day offspring still have this gene, whether they live in a Malaria prone region or not; but you can see that the very existence of this genetic variation was a strategy for survival in the face of an environmental threat. So, if you carefully research a genetic disease you should find some environmental circumstance that drove that particular genetic adaptation which allowed for the survival of that exposure; whether it's from an infection; toxic plants or whatever. Another example is that people whose ancestors lived in places where there are a lot of toxic plants have evolved the capability of rapid metabolizing various drugs by their liver. [The relevance of this is that today people often have adverse drug reactions that are due to their unique genetically driven metabolism that dictates how they process drugs. Consequently, even when using a medication in appropriate doses; for the correct reason; in the correct timing can still result in adverse reactions due to these unique genetic variations. This makes it difficult to always prevent adverse medication reactions. These reactions are usually labeled as "errors". For example hospitals put in check and balances and redundancies to prevent "errors", but how do you mitigate against an individual's unique genetic variations?] This book is filled with all sorts of examples of this nature. With a little imagination you can come up with plenty of additional circumstances where you can apply the premise on your own.
Most of us grew up thinking that genes are just something that we inherit from our parents and pass on to our offspring, but otherwise genes just sit around inside of our cells. The subject of epigenetic has changed that thinking. Our genes can and do actually change from an environmental demand!! This is HUGE guys!! It is such a big deal that for most of us it takes a while for the significance of this concept to sink in. Consider the environmental pressure of constant famine; a genetic response may be the capability of surviving on very little food.
All of us are "survivors" of ancestors who faced some sort of threat (just like those discussed in the book) and therefore we all have these little quirky gene variations. Considering where on the globe and the environment that your ancestors came from can help you understand why you may be at risk for various diseases, but it can also help you see why your genes may protect you from others.
You don't need any knowledge of science to love this book; all you need is a curious mind.
Maxine J Thomas, MD
Survival of the Sickest October 30, 2007
An excellent read! Very informative! It cites the newest discoveries which are leading to completely new interpretations re the workings of heredity and natural selection, while answering the question of why some apparently very undesirable (sometimes even life-threatening) genes continue to be handed down generation after generation. I recommend it very highly..... a "must read" for anyone with a healthy curiosity.
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