Ever since life first appeared on the planet we call home, organisms have been changing in a process called evolution. Evolution favors genetic traits that helps a species thrive and reproduce and tries to weed out the traits that threaten a species’ chance of survival. Genes that give a survival or reproductive advantage spread through the gene pool faster while genes that do not help a species get less common. This key mechanism of evolution is called natural selection. But even with evolution and natural selection, genetic diseases that make people sick are still in the gene pool after hundreds of thousands of years. So why would this happen? In Dr. Sharon Moalem’s Survival of the Sickest, he proposes that many of today’s deadly genetic …show more content…
Because of this, the body absorbs iron nonstop. As a result, the body will have extremely high levels of iron, leading to fatal outcomes over time. Such consequences include “damaging the joints, the major organs, and overall body chemistry” (Moalem, p. 2). When this disease was described in 1865, it was thought that this disease was extremely rare. But it was soon discovered that this particular disease, soon called hemochromatosis, was caused by a certain gene. In the book, it states “If your ancestors are Western European, the odds are about one in three, or one in four, that you carry at least one copy of the hemochromatosis gene” (Moalem, p. 3). In other words, this is the most common hereditary disease of those of Western European descent. This brings up another question. Why would a disorder be so prevalent in the genetic pool of the Western Europeans? First, it needs to be understood that harmful bacteria feed on the iron of the macrophages to thrive. However, people with hemochromatosis have a lack of iron in their macrophages, even though it may seem like the complete opposite. Therefore, those who have hemochromatosis are less prone to infectious agents. For this reason, people with hemochromatosis were less prone to diseases like the bubonic plague and tuberculosis. During the Black Death, for people who had hemochromatosis, “though it would kill them decades later, they are much more likely. . .to survive the plague, reproduce, and pass the mutation to their children” (Moelem, p. 15). Since the mutation helped humans survive an bubonic plague epidemic in the fourteenth century, the mutation became more common in the gene pool. In order to treat this genetic disorder, bloodletting is the treatment of choice since it reduces the iron level in their body. I find it interesting that bloodletting, an
In chapter one it talks about how hemachromatosis is a hereditary disease and it’s the most common genetic disease for people of European descent, in which the body can't register that it has enough iron. So it keeps absorbing as much of it as possible, and this can have very, serious side effects (including death). Iron is very important for bacteria, cancer, and other things to grow. The way this disease is most easily treated is blood letting. Looks like all those crazy blood-letting, leech-sticking doctors weren't mistreating everyone. What is the author's argument for why this disease stuck around? To really simplify things: during the black plague in Europe, people with more iron in their system were more likely
Hemochromatosis is a genetic disease in which there is too much iron that builds up in your body, this is referred to as an iron overload. Iron is an essential nutrient found in many foods but can be toxic to our bodies if we have to much. “Normally, humans absorb about 8-10% of the iron found in foods that they eat.” People with Hemochromatosis can absorb up to four times more iron than a normal human being. Since our bodies have no natural way to get rid of the extra iron, it gets stored in your body tissue including the liver, heart, pancreas and many other areas of our body can also be infected by this iron overload.
The act of crossing a metaphorical threshold is one that is oftentimes difficult and daunting. Although it may require courage, the reward of gaining knowledge is worth the process of crossing whatever threshold life chooses to place in front of you. In Sue Monk Kidd’s novel the protagonist, Sarah Grimké, knows all about crossing thresholds. She lives by her own personal slogan to “err… on the side of audacity.” I have come to learn so much about myself and the world around me by doing just that.
“What doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger” (p. 28). In the scientific novel Survival of the Sickest by Sharon Moalem with Jonathan Prince, self-acclaimed “Medical Maverick” Dr. Moalem makes in-depth analyses of current human diseases that, ironically, may have led to the survival of mankind in the past. He presents a novel concept that greatly contradicts what have been universally accepted beliefs surrounding biology and the process of human evolution for a long time. With the use of myriad scientific studies and research, he formulates surprising theories about a positive correlation between disease and humanity. Moalem narrates the scientific world’s findings that strongly exemplify his assertions, however arbitrary they may seem at first. Three of the diseases that he examines, hemochromatosis, Type 1 diabetes, and favism, could have been particularly useful for resistance against other illnesses and survival in a historically harsh environment.
Malaria: However, those who inherit just one copy of the mutation do not suffer too badly; in fact, they are resistant to malaria which defined as an infective disease caused by sporozoan parasites that are transmitted through the bite of an infected Anopheles mosquito; marked by paroxysms of chills and fever. The discovery told geneticists much about evolution and how harmful mutations can increase to relatively high levels within a population provided they confer some advantage. By understanding how
In “The Victims” by Sharon Olds it describes a divorce through the eyes of the parents’ children. The first section is shown through past tense as the speaker is a child and the last section is shown in present tense with the speaker already being an adult trying to make sense of past events. The word “it” in the first two lines carries a tremendous weight, hinting at the ever so present abuse and mistreatment, but remaining non-specific. The first part generates a negative tone toward the father who is referred to as malicious by the mother who “took it” from him “in silence” until she eventually “kicked him out.” Through the entirety of the poem the children are taught to hate their father. Who taught them? Their mother showed them that their father was a villain and were taught to have no sympathy for him but “to hate you and take it” and so they did so. Although the poem never directly states what the father did to receive the family’s hated, the speaker gives examples as to why he is hated.
Fever: 1793 by Laurie Halsey Anderson is told from the perspective of Mattie Cook in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during the 1793 yellow fever epidemic. She lives with her cold-hearted Mother, her aging Grandfather, a Revolutionary War veteran with a parrot named King George. There’s also Eliza, a free black woman who works at the Cook Coffeehouse and Nathaniel, a charming guy Mattie likes. It starts out as yellow fever spreads around with the punishing heat. It’s killing many people, such as Polly, their often lazy servant girl. “Mother” as Mattie calls her is being very protective with the fever spreading around. In fact, people don’t really know what’s going on. As the fever got worse and people started realizing that
In the book, “Survival of the Sickest”, Sharon Moalem forms the basis of how vaccine originated to become a way of combatting the most dangerous diseases in the world. It began with a discovery from a man named Edward Jenner, a doctor from Gloucestershire county in England, where he began to understand a strange pattern when people who were immune to cowpox were struggling with smallpox and vice-versa. He started to test his findings through a small experiment where he injected cow pox into a group of young children and he was surprised to see that their bodies built immunity towards smallpox and supported his findings on the bizarre immunity of people towards either the smallpox or the cowpox but not to both. The rest of the chapter explains complex concepts
In this paper, I will dispute that in Mary Fisher 's "A Whisper of AIDS" speech, the use of pathos and ethos assists in her demand to end the ignorance, prejudice and silence surrounding HIV/AIDS. I will discuss how she replaces the "face" of AIDS with her own, allowing the conservative crowd to connect with HIV/AIDS. Fisher approaches the speech as an epidemic speech; heavily relying on ethos and pathos she created compassion and connection to an audience that usually shows disinterest and silence on the topic of HIV/AIDS. This paper will also discuss the logos within Fisher 's speech, and how she cleverly surrounds the logos of her argument with pathos and ethos. Although, Fisher has approached the speech as an epidemic, she holds a strong pervasive argument within the speech.
Hemochromatosis, also called iron overload, is a disease when the body absorbs too much iron from the food we eat and most often affects the liver, heart, pancreas, and skin. It is usually caused by genes in the body that mutate keeping them from working. Some signs and symptoms of this disease are weakness, joint pain, low libido, and/or if the disease has progressed to far diabetes or heart failure. Hemochromatosis is one of the more difficult diseases to diagnose because many symptoms are nonspecific and usually many people don’t show as many symptoms except elevated iron levels in their blood. Most will be treated with blood transfusions until the normal level of iron is reached. If diagnosed early the prognosis is excellent with possible checkups or phlebotomies.
Take hemochromatosis, a hereditary condition that causes iron to accumulate in a person's body. A person having hemochromatosis
Hemochromatosis is a deadly disease in which the body believes that it never has enough iron. The body, as a result is that iron is not filtered out through the intestines, it is always entering the body. This iron runs out of places to be stored, and is spread throughout the body. These iron stores eventually end up changing the body and causing damage to major organs and joints. Hemochromatosis can lead to cancer, heart failure, and a plethora of other problems.
“First of All, Treat Them with Hope” is a program directed towards the immigrant population in the state of Utah. According to the Center for Immigration Studies (2014), there is an estimated 41.3 million immigrants (documented and undocumented) living in the United States. In Utah alone, the estimate is approximately 236,954 immigrants (Center for Immigration Studies, 2014). These numbers, however, are approximated due to the fact that many immigrants who are undocumented are not involved in social systems which allow for them to be counted due to fear and discrimination. Thus the estimates provided are most likely lower than what is actual fact. With the assistance of Family Counseling Services of Northern Utah, an agency who works closely with the immigrant community in Ogden, Utah, we will be able to help immigrant families adapt to and deal with their everyday cultural challenges. By doing so, it will provide them with the tools and education needed to better succeed in life. One of the long term goals is to be able to expand this program from a local beginning to a national market. By expanding this program and creating educational conscience throughout our nation, we will create a more accepting and informed community that promotes equality and inclusion instead of fear and negativity.
The conditions that contribute to the ability of diseases to flourish and spread are climate changes, globalization, urbanization, and creating medication that no longer kills the disease. These diseases are able to survive and become powerful because of they are able to evolve rapidly to our changing society.
Like the world around us the medical field is always changing. It is always pushing forward, trying to understand mysteries of the human body that have boggled researchers for decades. What confuses scientists more, are the organisms or conditions that create these abnormalities that can send the human body into a downward spiral. Disease is something that has affected human civilization since the dawn of time. It can either be chronic or acute, but in either case it has the potential to bring havoc to the human body systems that can lead to devastating consequences. Generally there are two main types of diseases, ones caused by invading pathogens and those which are hereditary. One hereditary disease that can be particularly tragic is