Evolving Health: The Origins of Illness and How the Modern World Is Making Us Sick Hardcover - 2002

First line

Is it possible that something that makes us feel good might really not be good for us?

From the rear cover

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

From the jacket flap

Evolving Health

If you're seeking a healthier future, look to the past. Cancer, heart disease, emphysema, and many other modern maladies were virtually unknown among our Paleolithic forebears. In Evolving Health, noted anthropologist and evolution researcher Noel Boaz reveals the surprising origins of these diseases and demonstrates how most of them can be prevented.

Evolving Health charts the levels of evolution at which each crucial human adaptation occurred; describes the environmental conditions to which each adaptation was made; and explains how these adaptations unravel in the presence of new, man-made environmental conditions. The knowledge of how each adaptation came about and how a modern disease deranges that adaptation furnishes important insights for the prevention and treatment of disease.

From birth defects to viral infections, from breast cancer to back pain, this remarkably insightful and detailed guide uncovers the root causes of a wide variety of ailments and presents a radically "uncivilized" approach to preventing these "civilized" diseases. Designing your lifestyle in accordance with our evolved adaptations, an approach Boaz terms "Adaptive Normality," enables you to reclaim your evolutionary birthright, take responsibility for your own health, and improve your quality of life for years to come.

Evolving Health provides a well-reasoned perspective on the many diseases that plague modern life and gives a scientific basis for evaluating the claims and counterclaims of today's medical research. Read it and discover how to protect yourself from illness--by treating your body as millions of years of evolution have designed it to be treated.