How can something bad be good? Sometimes the genetic lottery has a silver lining, not to mention a perverse sense of humor. Did you know sickle cell anemia protects you from malaria, or cystic fibrosis patients are less affected by cholera, or low cholesterol makes you more violent?
We prepared a table that summarizes the latest medical research.
While the debate of the overuse of sunscreen and Vitamin D deficiency is ongoing, there is another surprising medical finding that may lead us to rethink what is good and bad for the human body.
A one-degree increase in body temperature has been shown to slow the replication rate of some viruses by a factor of 200. [...] Normal fevers between 100° and 104° f are good for sick children. [Yet] fever is almost universally seen as a bad thing. [...] Fevers can have marginal benefits in fighting infection, but they hurt. And [most people] go to the doctor to stop hurting. [...] It may be rational to want a fever if you have an infection. But it's not reasonable.
Source: Morgan Housel. The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness. Harriman House Limited, 2020. [B137]
The legacy of racism (in this case the slave trade) permeates our society to this day.
If you are able to retain more salt, you will also retain more water—and be less likely to die during the Middle Passage, […] but it's horrible for hypertension and related diseases. And salt sensitivity is a highly heritable trait. […] American blacks are about 50 percent more likely to have hypertension than American whites. [Yet] blacks who still live in Africa are statistically indistinguishable from whites in America.
Source: Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. Think like a freak. William Morrow, 2014. [B051]
1: Withrock, Isabelle C., et al. "Genetic diseases conferring resistance to infectious diseases." Genes & diseases 2.3 (2015): 247-254. [x]
2: Matt Ridley. Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters. United States, HarperCollins, 2013. []
3: Kathryn Paige Harden. The genetic lottery: why DNA matters for social equality, 2021. [B146]