Vintage The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and Disease

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Buy Vintage The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and Disease by Lieberman, Daniel online on desertcart.ae at best prices. ✓ Fast and free shipping ✓ free returns ✓ cash on delivery available on eligible purchase. Review: Lieberman sets out to describe the evolution of the human body and how our evolutionary history has prepared us (or not) for healthy living in our modern environments. The first part of the book deals with our evolution from distant ape ancestors to humans. It's a good, up-to-date account of human evolutionary history (although it doesn't include the most recent fossil findings from Georgia). It paints a strong picture of how our bodies changed and evolved, what different hominid species were adapted for, and why some went extinct. It's certainly not the most thorough introduction to the topic, but it definitely gets the job done as a general introduction or a refresher. The second part of the book deals with the agricultural revolution and its consequences for our bodies. At first, it was largely a good thing. But as time went on and agriculture became more intensive people's health suffered, as witnessed by their bones. We are not very well adapted to a farming lifestyle, although evolution has occurred to steer us towards that direction amongst long-time farming populations. The ability for adults to digest lactose, resistance to agricultural plague diseases, and a great tolerance of insulin are some examples. In this way, the book is rather reminiscent of The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution . The idea that human evolution didn't stop in the paleolithic is a view that I'm very sympathetic towards so it was a very interesting section to read. Yet it's the final part of the book that has perhaps the greatest punch. Lieberman discusses how we are living in a health paradox. We generally live longer, healthier, more pain-free lives than ever (although he doesn't talk very much about mental health). However, we are now subject to a variety of illnesses caused by a mismatch between our bodies and the radically new environment that they live in. Lieberman likes the terms cultural evolution and dysevolution to refer to cultural changes and the bodies' inability to thrive with those changes. He spends a lot of time on our diet, focusing largely on the excess of calories that we eat. He also spends a significant amount of time on exercise, and how a lack of excerise fails to promote optimal body development. Because many of our modern health problems occur late in life, they are both not strongly subject to natural (or sexual) selection and they are easy for people to fall into as the consequences of poor choices don't appear for decades. Without ruining the content of the book, I can say that these changes are profound. As a former personal trainer, I've read a ton about diets and exercise. Lieberman reinforces the essential truth of dieting and exercise- there is no magic bullet or diet or exercise. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables and exercise regularly. That's the key. Unfortunately, neither is easy for us to do when we are bombarded with environmental opportunities to engage in much more pleasurable eating choices (e.g., junk food) and much more comfortable exercise choices (e.g., relaxing in an easy chair). Lieberman concludes by reviewing the evidence and making suggestions. Recognizing the challenge of just getting people to eat right and exercise (our bodies generally don't like doing that), he recommends altering our environments to incentive our choices. For example, putting taxes on sugary foods. Putting premiums on exercise opportunities. Etc. It's a realistic, sound approach that recognizes the scope of the problem as well as the solutions. Overall then, this is an excellent book. It has significant scientific rigor (with dozens of pages of citations and footnotes), yet it is easily readable by a general audience. Besides the general public, I think this is one of the greatest books for doctors since Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine . Lieberman collects the evidence, presents it without bias, and then proposes real solutions. This book isn't the cure for our modern ailments, but it is a very clear call to recognize them and start dealing with them, particularly since we all want to live a long and healthy life and have our children do even better than we did. My only complaint is that I would have liked to have seen more about our mental health, but I suppose that would either be out of his area of expertise or it would simply make the book too big for his tastes. So a solid five stars. Review: I think the headline says it all really. This book is probably up there with the best I've ever read. My major passions include evolutionary biology, health and wellbeing and fitness - this book combines them all. The first part of this book is very similar to Sapiens: A look back at our ancestors including how they used to live and their evolutionary past. The second part of the book focuses more on where we are now and describes how the environment we live in and the power of cultural evolution has created a mis-match for our bodies. The book is absolutely packed full of information and if you're anything like me, you will finish it examining your own lifestyle and how you can make small or major changes to improve your health and longevity. I really cannot praise this book enough. It's the type of book which should be read not just by individuals, but governments around the Western world in order to improve our societal approach to health and disease. As the book illustrates - we've created an environment which has done some wonderful but also damaging things which is making us sick. Hundreds of thousands of years of evolution have not prepared us for a life of inactivity and an abundance of fatty, sugary, salty foods. There are changes that need to be made before healthcare systems in the Western world are crippled and collapse.