Dr. Moalem's Survival Of The Sickest

Survival of the Sickest is an intriguing novel that explores why we need disease. Moalem asks and answers many questions throughout this book centering on the concept of evolution. His main objective in this book was to explain why natural selection designated certain diseases that are harmful to humans now. Throughout his questioning, he shows us that the reason so many diseases are still around today is because at some point in history, all of them helped our ancestors to survive and reproduce in their environment. Each chapter in his book focuses on a different aspect of his overall conclusion that modern diseases were beneficial in the past. Each topic gave an example and new understanding of evolution.

Illnesses such as the Plague (Black Death), Smallpox, measles, in the 16th century which people would not know how to cure those illnesses because they didn 't know what it was. These days people eat a healthier diet, so they don’t typically suffer from malnutrition as widespread as back in the 16th century. People still eat bad food and make bad selections but the research and knowledge about food has help us make better selections. Although people still believe that God gives them illnesses they now they go to a doctor and find help with symptoms and possible cure.

One of the concluding sentences that Dr. Sharon Moalem directs toward her audience is, “[...] Our relationship with disease is often much more complex than we may have previously realized.” “Survival of the Sickest” delves into the theme of the way inheritance and genetic codes in our bloodlines allows fatal diseases to enter our body and the reasons for this happening. The author discusses various diseases and their origin, and includes facts as to how this disease is able to affect modern life. She suggests that said modern diseases played a necessary part in the survival and selection of those before us in our history.

Another illness that is mentioned in the book is diabetes. As Dr. Moalem describes it, “In diabetics, the process through which insulin helps the body use glucose is broken, and the sugar in the blood builds up to dangerously high levels.” The body either fails to produce enough insulin, or the body tissues become resistant to insulin, leading to high levels of glucose in the blood. The elevated levels of glucose build up in certain organs and the high glucose concentration in these organs can lead to serious complications, such as blindness, heart disease, stroke, vascular disease, nerve damage, and kidney damage. Some of the symptoms include fatigue, thirst, hunger, blurry vision, and the frequent need to urinate. Sugary urine has historically been known as a symptom of diabetes. The author writes, “In the past Chinese physicians actually diagnosed and monitored diabetes by looking to see whether ants were attracted to someone’s urine.” Therefore, sugary urine was a key factor for detecting and treating of the disease in the past. Today’s treatment typically consists of medication, exercise, and a balanced diet. Unfortunately, diabetes has had a huge impact on humanity, as it currently affects about 171 million people

Throughout Survival of the sickest by Dr. Sharon Moalem, a scientific story telling form of writing takes place. Dr. Moalem puts well thought out scientific phenomenons supported by a history of evolutionary evidence that we see in our world today. Perhaps its largely due to his background studies in the emerging fields of neurogenetics and evolutionary medicine.

The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde: Charles Darwin’s revolutionary idea of evolution sparked dramatic debate in the scientific and, most especially, religious communities, as well as inspiring a new wave of thought in the minds of the world. There was also plenty of controversy, particularly from the many believers of creationism during the Victorian Age. But by denying creationism with his own theories, Darwin “made room for strictly scientific explanations of all natural phenomena”, and as a result, initiated a “powerful intellectual and spiritual revolution” whose effects last to this day. Its profound impact meant that “nearly every field of social and cultural life was affected by the idea of evolution.” Darwin’s idea of natural

“The Story of Us” Shermer’s Stand and The Long Argument The theory of evolution has been under attack all throughout the history of the natural sciences. Several groups of people, especially those of which whom are affiliated with the Humanities, particularly Theologians are one of the notable people whom have questioned the theory introduced by Charles Darwin. As such, Shermer found it necessary to further discuss and at the same time address the said concern through the article. It could be deduced that the article formally shuts down the “unlikeliness” of evolution by presenting several accounts that prove the said theory to be true.

Readers not only learn why microbes emerge at these particular stages in human civilization and how they cause lethal infections, diseases, and pandemics, but also how microbes, with their dynamic interactions with humans, impact and shape human life. In addition, Crawford tracks human progress towards understanding the cause of communicable diseases and fighting against the disease-causing microbes with treatments and preventions, which includes antibiotics and vaccinations. In the final chapter of Deadly Companions, Crawford outlines our current situation with evolving pathogenic microbes despite the interference from modern advancement and knowledge. These killer microbes continue to exploit society; especially with poverty, travel, and drug behavior providing opportunities for our deadly companions to

The topics that he mentions involve things such as genetic manipulation as well as cloning. He begins by mentioning how this has been simply used for the growth of plants and crops, but he questions where this is potentially leading and how the future of the environment could potentially be destroyed in many ways. He makes a strong argument about this by saying, "But by doing these things, we are changing the genetic makeup, and do we really know what the long-term impact will be on the species of plants, on the soil, on the environment? There are obvious commercial benefits, but how do we judge what is really useful?" (133).

The more traditional framework that would have been used would have been the scientific biomedical framework. This framework is a model that does not take into consideration the psychological and social factors which may be contributing to a person’s illness; the illness is simply seen in biological terms. This ideology is far outdated, and one can see this simply by reading the WHO’s most recent definition of health, mentioned in the opening of this paper. This model views medications as the resolution to all illnesses, however we know that in today’s society, medications can often cause further problems- for example the creation of superbugs such as MRSA in the hospital system, bugs that as a result of overexposure to antibiotics have now become immune to the medication’s effects, and can therefore be detrimental to a patient’s health. By choosing to concentrate merely on biological impacts on health, a vast array of other factors, such as the environment, the money invested in public health care systems and many more, are ignored.

The medical world has changed rapidly over the past few decades. We have solutions to diseases that weren’t even diagnosable before. Although we have tried our best to destroy illness, some diseases have been around since the beginning of time and are incurable. An example of this type of disease is Malaria. We’ve seen symptoms of malaria since The Ancient Egyptian ( around 1500 bc ) and The Ancient Greek times (around 413 B.C ).

Evolution is the development and change within heritable traits of different populations over generations. Over the years, humans have begun to invent things and change around their environment (the world) to suit their needs. With this is mind, we humans have not been paying attention to how these changes are affecting our evolution as a species. We are cheating natural selection with the design of medicines and medical procedures that allow us to live longer.

According to Charles Darwin, the advocate of evolution, evolution processes, including the beginning of the universe, occurred accidentally, meaning that everything we see and we have today is an enormous accident. All the naturally occurring incidents are merely the results of accidents, with nearly no special meaning. Naturalists as a result further interpret that lives of human beings serve the same purpose as their origins—human beings are to no avail. The idea of naturalism can be illustrated by one simple example.

, but have we ever thought what happens if the organism is sick? Naturally it recovers, but it also loses few of the diseased cells. These lost cells can be compared to humans, but not to these resourceful and ingenious, but rather to these abandoned and ditched by society. And honestly, they have really hard times, because modern society do not stop to help, and they are often unaided. Left just for themselves.

First, the evolution of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), which has led to the resistance to some antiretroviral medications. Second, the H1N1 flu virus is a disease which was nicknamed the swine flu because the virus that causes the disease originated from live pigs, which is where it evolved. (DeNoon and Hitti). Lastly is the evolution of MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). MRSA is a bacterium that is responsible for various infections in humans that are difficult to treat due to its development of a resistance to common antibiotics.