Survival of the Sickest

Verna Noel Jones, Special to the News

Friday, January 19, 2007

• Nonfiction. Dr. Sharon Moalem with Jonathan Prince (William Morrow, $25.95).Grade: A

Book in a nutshell: Have you ever asked yourself why, if humans are so evolved, we still deal with so many hereditary diseases such as diabetes, sickle cell anemia and hypertension? It turns out that some genetic traits that are potentially harmful today clearly helped our ancestors to survive and reproduce. Hemochromatosis, for example, a genetic disorder that fills the organs with iron, once helped some lucky Europeans to avoid the plague.

This and numerous other medical riddles are explored in Survival of the Sickest, a fascinating, enlightening and reader-friendly book penned by a curious 32-year-old with a doctorate in physiology and the emerging fields of neurogenetics and evolutionary medicine. He offers insights into subjects such as why black Americans are more prone to hypertension, the connection between obsessive-compulsive disorder and streptococcal infection in children, and even why we have to pee when we're cold. Finding the answers to such riddles is leading the way toward important changes in how scientists can treat and even cure diseases.

Best tidbit: Many Asians have trouble holding their liquor compared with Europeans, and the reason is this: Early Europeans would purify their water by fermenting it in wine, mead or beer. Early Asians boiled the water and made tea. Hence, the Europeans developed a greater evolutionary pressure for tolerance of alcohol.

Pros: This is one not-to-be-missed fantastic journey across the evolutionary landscape of humankind, including everything from how our history has shaped our senses, our appearance, our blood chemistry and more.

Cons: The book's only fault is that it ends so quickly. This kind of intriguing information could hold one's interest in volumes.

Final word: The book's witty writing and entertaining medical wisdom is so compelling that you want to read it from beginning to end in a single sitting . . . and then you want to start all over and read it again.