Saturday, November 30, 2013

Inheritance


Inheritance: How Our Genes Change Our Lives--and Our Lives Change Our Genes [Kindle Edition]

Author: Sharon Moalem MD PhD | Language: English | ISBN: B00ECEA41K | Format: PDF, EPUB

Inheritance: How Our Genes Change Our Lives--and Our Lives Change Our Genes
Download Inheritance: How Our Genes Change Our Lives--and Our Lives Change Our Genes for everyone book mediafire, rapishare, and mirror link Award-winning physician and New York Times bestselling author Sharon Moalem, MD, PhD, reveals how genetic breakthroughs are completely transforming our understanding of both the world and our lives.

INHERITANCE

Conventional wisdom dictates that our genetic destiny is fixed at conception. But Dr. Moalem's groundbreaking book shows us that the human genome is far more fluid and fascinating than your ninth grade biology teacher ever imagined. By bringing us to the bedside of his unique and complex patients, he masterfully demonstrates what rare genetic conditions can teach us all about our own health and well-being.

In the brave new world we're rapidly rocketing into, genetic knowledge has become absolutely crucial. INHERITANCE provides an indispensable roadmap for this journey by teaching you:

-Why you may have recovered from the psychological trauma caused by childhood bullying-but your genes may remain scarred for life.

-How fructose is the sugar that makes fruits sweet-but if you have certain genes, consuming it can buy you a one-way trip to the coroner's office.

-Why ingesting common painkillers is like dosing yourself repeatedly with morphine-if you have a certain set of genes.

-How insurance companies legally use your genetic data to predict the risk of disability for you and your children-and how that impacts the coverage decisions they make for your family.

-How to have the single most important conversation with your doctor-one that can save your life.

And finally:

-Why people with rare genetic conditions hold the keys to medical problems affecting millions.

In this trailblazing book, Dr. Moalem employs his wide-ranging and entertaining interdisciplinary approach to science and medicine-- explaining how art, history, superheroes, sex workers, and sports stars all help us understand the impact of our lives on our genes, and our genes on our lives. INHERITANCE will profoundly alter how you view your genes, your health--and your life. Direct download links available for Inheritance: How Our Genes Change Our Lives--and Our Lives Change Our Genes
  • File Size: 492 KB
  • Print Length: 272 pages
  • Publisher: Grand Central Publishing; 1 edition (April 15, 2014)
  • Sold by: Hachette Book Group
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B00ECEA41K
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • X-Ray:
    Not Enabled
  • Lending: Not Enabled
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #44,234 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
    • #2 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Professional & Technical > Medical eBooks > Basic Science > Genetics
    • #5 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Science > Genetics
    • #21 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Evolution
I received an advanced reading copy of this from the publisher via Goodread's First-reads Giveaway program.

This popular science book is a broad overview of genetic and epigenetic inheritance, basically exactly what the subtitle says. The introduction oversells the the epigenetic focus (how life experience or environment can lead the changes in DNA that are not strictly sequence-based) because the majority of the book does stay within the realms of traditional sequence-based inherited genetic variation. Moreover, given Moalem's specialty, the focus is not so much on inheritance itself, nor even the specific mechanisms of inheritance.

Instead this book really comes down to these ideas: 1) There are a lot of genetic disorders. 2) Individually these disorders are often rare. 3) It is fairly likely that an given individual though will have some kind of disorder. In other words, everyone is unique; most all of us have unique rare disorders of some severity or another. The truth of this may surprise some, as may the implications: namely that any health advisories are tailored for the 'average population'. But no one is average. So not everyone can take the same amounts of medication. Eating high amounts of fat may be great for some people. Eating any fruits may be really bad for someone else. Running is good exercise for your spouse, it might give you a heart-attack, etc.

"Inheritance" thereby sweeps across a wide realm of human genetic variation, threading topics together under common themes. Moalem avoids getting bogged down into a lot of detail, making this book of greatest interest to the general public with medical interests, or those in particular who find medical anomalies interesting.

Inheritance: How Our Genes Change Our Lives--and Our Lives Change Our Genes Download

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