Evolving Health
Author | : Noel T. Boaz |
Publisher | : John Wiley & Sons |
Total Pages | : 258 |
Release | : 2002-10-01 |
ISBN-10 | : 9780471212997 |
ISBN-13 | : 0471212997 |
Rating | : 4/5 (997 Downloads) |
Download or read book Evolving Health written by Noel T. Boaz and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2002-10-01 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Human illnesses can be understood as damage to those adaptations that we took on at various stages in our evolution from pre-life molecules to modern Homo sapiens. Preventing these illnesses entails avoiding what causes the damage — which too frequently are the everyday hazards of twenty-first-century life, as the chart below shows: Level of Evolution / Cause of adaptive failure / resulting disease or problem Pre-life / Environmental poisons / Certain birth defects Single cell (bacteria and amoeba-like) / Viral infection / Colds/flu/HIV Morula (sponge-like) / Cellular stress / Cancer Chordate / Physical stress / Back pain Fish / Excess dietary salt / Hypertension/heart disease Amphibian / Tobacco smoke / Lung cancer/emphysema Lower primate / Excess dietary sugar / Diabetes mellitus Higher primate / Vitamin C deficiency / Scurvy Ape / Excess dietary protein / Gout Homo sapiens / Reduced dietary variety / Nutritionaldiseases/food allergies