Features
- Cover Type: Paperback with 223 pages
- Published by: Cambridge University Press
- Edition: 1st Edition June 2, 2008
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0521617375
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0521617376
-
Book Dimensions:
8.8 x 5.9 x 0.5 inches
- Weighs: 13.6 ounces
Product Review
' a powerful and compelling evolutionary analysis of the 'diseases of civilisation', a stellar achievement every medical student, practitioner, and researcher in the field of human health should read it.' Peter T. Ellison, John Cowles Professor of Biological Anthropology,
Harvard University
' a gorgeously written, very up-to-date review of the most current information on the chronic illnesses that best modern peoples.' Daniel Brown, Professor of Anthropology and Coordinator of Research and Graduate Studies, University of Hawai'i at Hilo
'Pollard offers new ways to approach old problems and never shies away from pointing out the sometimes surprising gaps in our present knowledge. This is an great text for undergraduate and graduate students interested in public health, medical anthropology, reproductive ecology, biological anthropology, and/or evolutionary medicine.' Professor Lynnette Leidy Stewart, Department of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Product Description
As a group, western diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, allergies and mental health problems constitute one of the major problems facing humans at the beginning of the 21st century, particularly as they extend into poorer countries. An evolutionary perspective has much to offer standard biomedical understandings of western diseases. At the heart of this approach is the notion that human evolution occurred in circumstances very different from the modern affluent western environment and that, as a consequence, human biology is not adapted to the contemporary western environment. Written with an anthropological perspective and aimed at advanced undergraduates and graduates taking courses in the ecology and evolution of disease, Tessa Pollard applies and extends this evolutionary perspective by analysing trends in rates of western diseases and providing a new synthesis of current understandings of evolutionary processes, and of the biology and epidemiology of disease.
Reader ReviewsThis book was really interesting. It presents a broad overview of diseases of "affluence", going back to when humans were hunters-gatherers, and basically meat eaters, and then, with the Neolithic revolution, started consuming carbohydrates. DNA does not change quickly, and it is interesting to read on how the body responds to environmental and dietary changes when most of the DNA is really engineered for a body accustomed to the lifestyle of a hunter-gatherer, dotted by feast and famine periods. In some way, it reminded me another book: "Cancer: The Evolutionary Legacy", by Mel Greaves. My only regret, and this is simply the point of view of a non-academic and very layman reader, is the lack of colorful illustrations and the somewhat dry and terse and reference-rich style typical of academic research books ... maybe I should just stick to the just-released "The Way We Work" by David Macaulay ;-) Oh, and by the way, this book might convince vegetarians to start eating meat again (you'll just have to read it to know what I mean... hint ... hint: tooth decay)
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