Survival Of The Sickest Analysis

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The human body is an advanced form of life. In life, cells are the building blocks of all organisms. Cells have many different specializations for all life. These cells specialize and create tissues, which in turn function more smoothly and efficiently than regular individual cells. Tissues create organs, and organs create organ systems. With organ systems, the organism can function more efficiently in life, to reproduce, to take in nutrients, all in order to survive. But organisms, specifically the human body, did not start out so perfect. With time, organisms evolve, especially in the case of the human being. The novel “Survival of the Sickest” by Dr. Sharon Moalem describes how the human body has evolved over time, using diseases, like hemochromatosis,…show more content…
Normally, this mechanism would reduce the amount of iron your intestines absorb from the substances that you consume when it has detected your body has a sufficient amount of iron within it. However, Moalem claims, “But in a person who has hemochromatosis, the body always thinks that it doesn’t have enough iron and continues to absorb iron unabated”. This overloads your body with iron over time, damaging the joints, organs, and overall equilibrium and homeostasis in the human body. Potentially, “Liver failure, heart failure, diabetes, arthritis, infertility, psychiatric disorders, and even cancer”, can occur. Hemochromatosis appears to be unbeneficial to human life at first sight. Hemochromatosis was originally discovered in 1865 by Armand Trousseau, and was thought to be extremely rare. It has many unfavorable symptoms, yet it was very useful for the survival of people of European descent. In 1347, the bubonic plaque took place, and swept across Europe, leaving death and demise in its path. More than 25 million people had been killed. More might have been killed, possibly the entire human race, if natural selection did not select hemochromatosis as a necessity to the human race’s survival…show more content…
Diabetes has three types. Type 1 Diabetes, Type 2 Diabetes, and gestational diabetes. Type 1 Diabetes would cause the pancreas within the body to produce little to no insulin. Insulin is a hormone required to have cells receive glucose in order to survive. Type 2 Diabetes is where, “The pancreas still produces insulin – sometimes even at high levels – but the insulin production can eventually be too low or other tissues in the body are resistant to it”, as Moalem states. Gestational diabetes occurs in pregnant women, but is usually resolved after pregnancy. Currently, there are no ways to cure diabetes, but there are ways to improve the lives of those who have it, such as insulin pumps and shots. Dr. Moalem however, believes the disease of diabetes had been necessary for humans in the past to survive extremely cold conditions. There was once a period known as the Younger Dryas, which caused mountainous glaciers to march south, bringing cold conditions with them. Humans would be devastated by these changes in temperature. Many humans would freeze to death, or starve from a lack of food. However, the humans would be able to survive, by obtaining the disease now known as diabetes and passing it down the generations through natural selection. Diabetes would be key to survival in cold conditions because as more sugar remains in your blood stream, the lower the

Survival Of The Sickest Analysis
706 Words | 3 Pages
In Survival of the Sickest, a novel written by Dr. Sharon Moalem and Jonathan Prince, Dr. Moalem theorizes that many of the modern day human diseases or disadvantages that afflict us actually had a vital and positive role in the survival of our ancestors through evolutionary history. These diseases include hemochromatosis, diabetes, and progeria. Some are hereditary and others are determined by external factors. However, they could be linked together by one goal; to keep the human species from going
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Survival Of The Sickest Analysis