Tuesday Teaser/Opening ~ Survival of the Sickest

I picked up Survival of the Sickest by Dr. Sharon Moalem because I love the title. It's one of those fun books that tricks you into learning while it entertains you. Those are some of my favorite kinds of books.

Blurb
Was diabetes evolution's response to the last Ice Age? Did a deadly genetic disease help our ancestors survive the bubonic plagues of Europe? Will a visit to the tanning salon help lower your cholesterol? Why do we age? Why are some people immune to HIV? Can your genes be turned on -- or off?

Joining the ranks of modern myth busters, Dr. Sharon Moalem turns our current understanding of illness on its head and challenges us to fundamentally change the way we think about our bodies, our health, and our relationship to just about every other living thing on earth, from plants and animals to insects and bacteria.

Through a fresh and engaging examination of our evolutionary history, Dr. Moalem reveals how many of the conditions that are diseases today actually gave our ancestors a leg up in the survival sweepstakes. When the option is a long life with a disease or a short one without it, evolution opts for disease almost every time.

Everything from the climate our ancestors lived in to the crops they planted and ate to their beverage of choice can be seen in our genetic inheritance. But Survival of the Sickest doesn't stop there. It goes on to demonstrate just how little modern medicine really understands about human health, and offers a new way of thinking that can help all of us live longer, healthier lives.


Opening:
Aran Gordon is a born competitor. He's a top financial executive, a competitive swimmer since he was six years old, and a natural long-distance runner. A little more than a dozen years after he ran his first marathon in 1984 he set his sights on the Mount Everest of marathons--the Marathon des Sables, a 150-mile race across the Sahara Desert, all brutal heat and endless sand that test endurance runners like nothing else.
  As he began to train he experienced something he'd never really had to deal with before--physical difficulty. He was tired all the time. His joints hurt. His heart seemed to skip a funny beat. He told his running partner he wasn't sure he could go on with training, with running at all. And he went to the doctor.
  Actually, he went to doctors. Doctor after doctor--they couldn't account for his symptoms, or they drew the wrong conclusion. When his illness left him depressed, they told him it was stress and recommended he talk to a therapist. When blood tests revealed a liver problem, they told him he was drinking too much. Finally, after three years, his doctors uncovered the real problem. New tests revealed massive amounts of iron in his blood and liver--off-the-charts amounts of iron.
  Aran Gordon was rusting to death.

Teaser:
There's a curious correlation between these sunspot peaks and flu epidemics. In the twentieth century, six of the nine sunspot peaks occurred in tandem with massive flu outbreaks.

Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following: Grab your current readOpen to a random pageShare two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page. BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! To see what others are sharing on the Teaser Tuesdays, check the comments at: http://adailyrhythm.com/




Share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you are reading. Here's the link: Bibliophile By The Sea

16 comments:

  1. This sounds like a fascinating book! The opening definitely hooked me and made me want to know more about rusting. Was he really rusting? I imagine this would be a terrific reference for your writing too.
    Thank you for stopping by my blog and leaving a comment.

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    1. It is a fascinating book. The problem is that I read all over the house and I set it down somewhere and now I can't find it. I know it's here somewhere...

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    2. I lose my Kindle all the time. I wish it would beep and let me know where it is!

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    3. Oh, I lose that too. But this is a physical book. I did find it though. After I posted, I thought about all the places I'd looked (the couch, the coffee table, to porch, the bed, even the bathroom) and realized I hadn't looked at the bedside table. Lo and behold, It had fallen off the table. (Or maybe the cat knocked it off.) Now I can finish it.

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  2. What a really interesting sounding book with a lot of food for thought I would imagine. Thanks for visiting my Tuesday post https://cleopatralovesbooks.wordpress.com/2015/05/26/first-chapter-first-paragraph-may-26/

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  3. I'm intrigued - rusting? The whole premise of the book is kind of fascinating. And it sounds like a book you could pick up and put down - read a little at a time. (Hope you find it! LOL).

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  4. Maybe I should read this book. By all accounts I'm healthy but I don't feel well. The doctors are starting to suggest it is in my head. I hope you enjoy your book. Girl Who Reads

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    1. Frankly, I'm not impressed with AMA medicine. I had something going on with my skin but the doctors didn't know what to do about it, so I went to a naturopath. Best decision I could have made.

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  5. You have piqued my curiosity with this one. Thanks!

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  6. This does sound interesting! I've never heard of someone having so much rust in their body that they were rusting to death.

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  7. Oh my gosh - this sounds absolutely fascinating! And I love the intro - I'm already curious about his medical condition, how he got it, and what to do about it.

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  8. Interesting. Normally not my kind of reading choice.

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  9. Ooh I love these kinds of books as well which make you look at "established truths" in a completely different way because you walk away from such a book with a new perspective on life! I will definitely be bookmarking this post so I can look the book up soon. Sounds like a perfect summer read! Thanks for sharing :) I hope you have a great week and that I see you at ABEA!
    My Tuesday post
    Juli @ Universe in Words

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  10. This sounds like such an intriguing read. Love the title too!

    My Teaser.

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  11. Quite an opener! The book does sound fascinating.

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  12. That opener really grabbed my attention. I'd keep reading more.

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