Evolving Health

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

List of Tables.

Acknowledgments.

Introduction.

1. Achieving Adaptive Normality, Your EvolutionaryBirthright.

2. How Our Health Evolved.

3. An Evolutionary Child s Birthright:Perinatal and Pediatric Diseases.

4. The Virus War.

5. Cellular Stress: A General Model for Cancer.

6. Breast Cancer, Prostate Diseases, and Cancersof the Reproductive System.

7. Heart Disease and High Blood Pressure:A Story of Fish and Chips.

8. Why We Smoke.

9. Diabetes Mellitus and the Thrifty Genotype .

10. Gout, Liver Enzymes, and Global Climate Change.

11. Back Pain, Bad Knees, and Flatfeet.

12. Gut Diseases.

13. The Evolution of Psychiatric Disorders.

14. Uncivilized Solutions: ReestablishingAdaptive Normality in Your Life.

Notes.

Index. "...many of the book's points are excellent and would yield delight if effectively delivered to the public and to the clinicla specialists...a gem..."(human-nature.com, 11 June 2002)

"...rich in facts and good quality high-fibre solid information..." (Evolving Health Focus, August 2002)

NOEL BOAZ, Ph.D., Biological Anthropologist, is the founder and Director of the International Institute for Human Evolutionary Research and Professor of Anatomy at Ross University School of Medicine. He is the author of more than fifty scientific papers, the leading textbook in biological anthropology, and two popular science books, Quarry and Eco Homo.

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.

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