Survival Of The Sickest Chapter 1 Summary

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Survival of the Sickest Journal
Chapter 1: Ironing it out
Notes:
Most of chapter 1 was about hemochromatosis. I learned that Hemochromatosis is an inherited disease, one where the body continues to gain iron because it is unable to regulate its maintenance of iron. It seems as if people with Hemochromatosis also have problems with other infections and that these people could also have problems with macrophages with them lacking iron. Although the rest of the body has tons of iron, macrophages are deficient of them. But it turns out that these iron-deficient macrophages have led unexpected benefits over the past such as the ability to resist the Bubonic Plague.This hereditary disease originated from European decent during the times of the …show more content…

The sun makes Vitamin D therefore those in colder regions with less sunlight are at a disadvantage although there are other supplements such as tanning salons and cod-liver fish oils. Although the sun produces Vitamin D, it also destroys folic acid. People with darker skin can prevent the depletion of folic acid better than those with lighter skin, but people with darker skin would have to carry more cholesterol to utilize the sun’s benefits. Folic acid aids in cell replication and the cell growth system. Melanin is a pigment that absorbs light and determines the darkness of skin color along with hair and eye color. This chapter also introduces the gene ApoE4, which is related to evolution. ApoE4 makes sure that people with darker skin have higher levels of cholesterol, therefore aiding the production of Vitamin D. But we also learn the flaw that ApoE4 can also increase the chances of heart attacks and …show more content…

It starts off by mentioning a disease known as progeria, which causes a carrier to age 10 times faster than normal, although it is very rare. The Hayflick limit is related to telomeres at the end of DNA. Telomeres hold extra information, and can stop cancer. A telomerase is an enzyme carried by cancer, which causes telomeres to get larger and larger, thus causing the cancer cells to rapidly reproduce. It also mentions in this chapter that larger animals have stronger abilities to repair DNA as well as the savanna theory and the aquatic ape theory. Another cool thing I learned is that in most cases, the larger you are, the longer you live. Humans have less hair and walk upright because of the aquatic ape theory which explained that our ancestors evolved from a wet environment which is now somewhere around present day Ethiopia. The male-savanna theory explained that our ancestors had walked with two legs into the savannas.
Opinions:
A wonderful journey what this book has been. This chapter was quite captivating, as it related on topics such as dying and originating. The book also ends with a plethora of questions and the repeated use of “just” as solutions for our questions. It emphasis on asking questions and how good they can be, “If we don’t ask, we’ll never find out.”

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