杏吧原创

Should you take cold remedies the next time the snuffles strike? Modern medicine blindly 鈥渢reats the symptoms鈥� at our peril, argue evolutionary biologist George Williams and physician Randolph Nesse in Evolution and Healing (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 拢20, ISBN 0 460 86140 9). Fever, sneezing and vomiting, for instance, have all evolved as defences against disease-causing organisms, they argue. And drugs that counteract these responses may actually prolong the illness. 鈥淒arwinian medicine鈥� 鈥� health and disease from an evolutionary perspective 鈥� will ultimately revolutionise medical practice and research, says this provocative and entertaining book.