We have built a world that no longer fits our bodies. Our genes - selected through our evolution - and the many processes by which our development is tuned within the womb, limit our capacity to adapt to the modern urban lifestyle. There is a mismatch. We are seeing the impact of this mismatch in the explosion of diabetes, heart disease and obesity. But it also has consequences in earlier puberty and old age. Bringing together the latest scientific research in evolutionary biology, development, medicine, anthropology and ecology, Peter Gluckman and Mark Hanson, both leading medical scientists, aed from the hunter-gatherer lifestyles of our ancestors. We have not, however, evolved to reflect this change. Could it be that this 'mismatch' has led to the current deadly explosion in lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and obesity, and will it lead to increasingly frequent epidemics? This fascinating and. controversial book addresses how we might intervene and challenge a potential health time-bomb. - ;We have built a world that no longer fits our bodies. Our genes - selected through our evolution - and the many processes by which our development is tuned within the womb, limit our capacity to adapt to the modern urban lifestyle. There is a mismatch. We are seeing the impact of this mismatch in the explosion of diabetes, heart disease and obesity. But it also has consequences in earlier puberty and old age. Bringing together the latest scientific research in evolutionary biology, development, medicine, anthropology and ecology, Peter Gluckman and Mark Hanson, both leading medical scientists, argue that many of our problems as modern-day humans can be understood in terms of this fundamental and growing mismatch. It is an insight that we ignore at our peril. - ;Thought-provoking...this book conveys admirably, for a non-specialist reader, the implications

of an important idea. - Michael Sargent, Nature (Books and Arts Review);Compelling book - Laura Howes, Chemistry World;Essential reading for anybody interested in the fascinating complexities of human biology...A most timely and innovative contribution to the popular debate about genes and the environment. - Robert Winston, from the Foreword;A fascinating and important journey through the development and evolution of human health. - Lewis Wolpert;Some possible solutions are suggested here, but for the most part Hanson and Gluckman just lay the cards out on the table for you to contemplate, which is refreshing. They offer a very humane insight that can help us all make sense of the modern world and our place in it. - Margaret Bartlett, Health and Fitness.