Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine

by George C. Williams and Randolph M. Nesse

Book Overview

The next time you get sick, consider this before picking up the aspirin: your body may be doing exactly what it's supposed to. In this ground-breaking book, two pioneers of the science of Darwinian medicine argue that illness as well as the factors that predispose us toward it are subject to the same laws of natural selection that otherwise make our bodies such miracles of design. Among the concerns they raise:

When may a fever be beneficial?
Why...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679746749
• ISBN13: 9780679746744
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: Vintage
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.57 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Outstanding introduction to a perspective on health you won't get from your doctor

This is a very readable, intelligent introduction to a perspective on medicine that is very useful for those of us who recognize that we have to manage our own medical care. It provides us with a basis for asking questions about the recommendations that doctors make. Those recommendations can be short-sighted. Most medical schools have not provided doctors with a useful evolutionary perspective on disease and medicine. The evolutionary perspective is simple enough for an intelligent lay person to grasp and use and novel enough to give insights that most doctors will not be able to provide. Together with some knowledge of psychosomatic medicine (also neglected in most doctor's education) evolutionary medicine can give a patient sound footing to formulate a holistic perspective on health that few doctors will provide. Unlike holistic perspectives based on, say, Chinese medicine, this kind of perspective is more directly and obviously scientifically based. Accordingly, it is more likely to help a patient earn the respect of doctors that is needed for them to accept the patient as a full partner in the diagnosis and healing process.

Stimulating, important, clear.

From an evolutionary standpoint, it is reasonable to ask why we are plagued with disease, both physical and "mental", and why we age. It is not so hard to understand if the disease is due to viruses or bacteria, which evolve along with us in an evolutionary arms race. For this reason, some scientists have postulated that many illnesses ranging from heart disease to schizophrenia are also due to living organisms, and certainly there is increasing evidence for the importance of this viewpoint. Nesse and Williams provide other answers. Some of these answers - changes in environment and habits, rare mutations - are straight forward, others are more subtle and interesting. More than anything, there are inevitably tradeoffs. The gene which causes sickle cell anemia helps protect against malaria. In a few instances, an evolutionary perspective provides immediate suggestions for changes in medical practice, in the care of newborns and in the treatment of fever. More significantly, it has a role to play in the guidance of future research aimed at specific diseases. The book falls somewhere between a popular explication, and an original contribution, the contribution primarily being that it organizes many separate findings, and sets them out in a more general framework, while posing a host of possible PhD research questions. Much of the background information in Why We Get Sick is of great interest, and I only wish there was more background on the immune system. The writing is competent, and almost always clear.

Wonderfully interesting and engaging for laypeople

As a bright artistic type who is basically scientifically illiterate, I often find myself unable to get through more than a third of my organic chemist husband's science books. Why We Get Sick is written for both the scientist and those who are just plain interested in knowing about things, i.e. people like me. Like all theories, what is presented here could be flawed. However the authors present a very intriguing point of view about health and the human body. Well worth tripping over a few unfamiliar words.

One of the best books on science in a long time.

This book is about the exciting field of Darwinian medicine. In this book the authors describe why (and not how) we suffer from various diseases. Looking at diseases from an evolutionary viewpoint gives us tremendous insight and offers innovative ideas for treatment and prevention. Though I tend to treat radical new ideas with skepticism, I found most of the arguments in this book very convincing. Apart from being ingenious, this book is also very entertaining and easy to read. In my opinion this is the science 'Book of the decade'