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The Genetics of Health

Understand Your Genes for Better Health

About The Book

We all want to be healthy and live well so take charge of your health by learning the connection between our evolutionary past and our future well-being with this practical guide to personalized health and nutrition—from distinguished physician Dr. Sharad Paul.

Recognized as one of the best in his field, surgeon, academic, and philanthropist Dr. Sharad Paul brings together everyday health with evolutionary biology and shows how it shapes who we are and what our bodies individually need. Starting with our brains, this book covers everything from our skin and muscles, to hearts, diets, and stress management. Throughout, Dr. Paul will share key information and steps to improve our daily well-being—impacting everything from our energy levels to memory retention to our overall longevity.

To achieve better health, we need to understand our evolutionary past. Within our evolutionary biology and genetics, bodily systems, diet, and psychology is the story of how and why your body works the way it does and how it all combines to make you who you are. Through a blend of medical mysteries, patient stories, and science, Dr. Paul takes us on “an exhilarating journey through the shifting landscape of genetics, health, and evolution” (Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Emperor of Maladies: A Biography of Cancer).

About The Author

Photograph courtesy of author

Dr. Sharad P. Paul is a skin cancer specialist, family physician, scientist, academic, author, thought leader, and MD. He has received many recognitions for his work, including the Ko Awatea International Excellence Award, the New Zealand Medical Association Chair’s Award, the Kiwi Indian Hall of Fame Award, and was a finalist for New Zealander of the Year. Sharad has spoken at events around the world, such as TEDxAuckland, the Museum of Natural Science, the European Academy of Arts and Science, and the European Healthcare Design conference. He is the founder of Healthy Skin Lab and runs literacy programs in disadvantaged schools via his charity, the Baci Foundation. Sharad was featured in Time magazine and was described by the New Zealand Medical association as “one of the most inspiring, intelligent and compassionate men you are likely to meet.” Visit his website at DrSharadPaul.com.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Atria Books/Beyond Words (April 4, 2017)
  • Length: 272 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781501155437

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Raves and Reviews

“Reading Dr. Paul’s book is like taking an exhilarating journey through the shifting landscape of genetics, health, and evolution.”

– Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer Prize winner for, The Emperor of Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

“Dr. Paul has been described in the media as 'one of the most inspiring, intelligent and compassionate men you are likely to meet.’ TIME magazine, in 2008, called him ‘Open Heart Surgeon.’”

– New Zealand Medical Association, in awarding their highest award in 2012

“We need Dr. Sharad P. Paul. In the same sense as the world needs historians-philosophers-sociologists for the history of mankind, the world needs a physician-philosopher-literate for narrative medicine. Only a distinguished physician such as Dr. Paul, with a sense for ‘stories,’ understands the importance of narrative medicine when improving patient-physician communication. He is the Sigmund Freud and Arthur Schnitzler of our times.”

– Harald Kittler, PhD, professor of Dermatology, Medical University of Vienna and international thought-leader in the field of dermatology and skin imaging

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