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Too Much of a Good Thing: How Four Key Survival Traits Are Now Killing Us Audiobook
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Publisher Description
The dean of Columbia University's medical school explains why our bodies are out of sync with today's environment and how we can correct this to save our health.
Over the past 200 years, human life-expectancy has approximately doubled. Yet we face soaring worldwide rates of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, mental illness, heart disease, and stroke. In his fascinating new book, Dr. Lee Goldman presents a radical explanation: The key protective traits that once ensured our species' survival are now the leading global causes of illness and death.
Our capacity to store food, for example, lures us into overeating, and a clotting system designed to protect us from bleeding to death now directly contributes to heart attacks and strokes. A deeply compelling narrative that puts a new spin on evolutionary biology, Too Much of a Good Thing also provides a roadmap for getting back in sync with the modern world.
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“Dr. Goldman takes the long, long view in Too Much of a Good Thing…Some of his argument will probably be familiar, at least when it comes to the question of why we have all become so fat. Less has been written about other areas of human physiology where our genetic programming seems to butt up against the circumstances of modern life. Dr. Goldman integrates it all into a complex narrative—a little tough sledding at points but still thought provoking.”
— New York Times
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“[A] highly original and profound book…For anyone interested in their own and their family’s well-being.”
— Eric Kandel, Nobel laureate -
“This book, written from a deeply expert yet broad medical viewpoint, sets current medical challenges into their larger contexts of our human history and biological pre-history…[with] fascinating snippets on topics ranging from platelets to percentages of paleolithic food components to polyandry to presidential obesity.”
— Elizabeth Blackburn, Nobel laureate -
“Goldman goes beyond diet issues to talk about survival mechanisms that worked well for thousands of generations but have now turned against human health.”
— Washington Post -
“Rich with compelling research and startling facts…Explains in careful, clear detail how our systems function and where they are vulnerable…Readable without being breezy, Too Much of a Good Thing will open readers’ eyes to our biological limits and at the same time emphasizes that we ultimately control our own health destiny.”
— Amazon.com -
“Goldman writes persuasively…tying present problems to past instincts and weaving biological explanations with historical research….Recommended for a general audience, including readers of popular health literature such as Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma.”
— Library Journal -
“Goldman presents a convincing case for the power of our genetics and explains why conquering these inclinations is so difficult.”
— Booklist -
“Dan Woren’s clear voice and broad phrasing range complement the flow of this thought-provoking audiobook… Woren’s consistency and sensitivity to the book’s thematic shifts help make this a captivating audio. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”
— AudioFile -
In this highly original and profound book, Lee Goldman describes how the same physical traits that evolved to ensure our survival are now working against us. For anyone interested in their own and their family's well-being, Too Much of a Good Thing is a must read!
— Winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, University Professor, Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, author of The Age of Insight and In Search of Memory -
A fascinating look at the health problems that plague us, illuminating why they happen and what to do about them.
— Jerome Groopman, M.D., Pamela Hartzband, M.D., Harvard Medical School, Authors of Your Medical Mind: How to Decide What is Right For You -
This book, written from a deeply expert yet broad medical viewpoint, sets current medical challenges into their larger contexts of our human history and biological pre-history, to provide a crisply related and refreshingly clear-eyed perspective on much that ails us these days. And throughout the book, I also enjoyed the fascinating snippets on topics ranging from platelets to percentages of paleolithic food components to polyandry to presidential obesity.
— Elizabeth Blackburn, Winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Awards
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Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award
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An Amazon Best Book of the Month for December 2015
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About Lee Goldman
Dr. Lee Goldman is dean of the medical school at Columbia University. An internationally renowned cardiologist, he developed the Goldman Criteria, a set of guidelines for health-care professionals to determine which patients with chest pain require hospital admission, and the Goldman Index, which predicts which patients will have heart problems after surgery. He’s the author of more than 480 medical articles and also the lead editor of Goldman-Cecil Medicine, the oldest continuously published medical textbook in the United States.
About Dan Woren
Dan Woren is an American voice actor and Earphones Award–winning narrator. He has worked extensively in animation, video games, and feature films. He is best known for his many roles in anime productions such as Bleach and as the voice of Sub-Zero in the video game Mortal Kombat.