Nowadays, our lives are filled with all kinds of luxury that are simply too tempting to avoid. Despite the immediate pleasure and increase in happiness and comfort, this amiable lifestyle is often detrimental to us in some future form.

Even objects that seem completely ordinary, such as shoes, have impacts on our bodies that the majority of us never even know about. In The Story of the Human Body, Harvard professor Daniel Lieberman approaches the modern aches and pains that the majority of people feel today from a different perspective than your average doctor.

In his book, Lieberman educates the reader on the environment our ancestors grew up in and the adaptations we have to that specific environment that now cause problems in today’s modern world. His aim is to show the reader how their surroundings and actions are affecting them in negative ways, and how they can attempt to modify their lifestyle to achieve a healthier, more pain-free body.

To understand how mismatched diseases work, and why we are not evolved for today's environment, Lieberman moves through the series of biological evolutions and cultural evolutions our species has progressed (or regressed) through.

Starting off with the evolution of bipedalism, he assess the anatomical differences between modern humans, past hominins, and apes. He also discusses a few theories for why we evolved into complete bipeds since we are the only species that habitually walks on two legs. After Lieberman discusses the morphological features that make humans different, he moves onto hunter-gatherer societies.

Here, he spends time talking about the way they lived and the furtherment of adaptations that helped hunter-gatherers. In the second section of his book, he switches the topic to the revolutions that shaped the way you and I live today, the agricultural and industrial revolutions.

While bashing modern diet fads such as the paleo diet, and individuals who state that humans should primarily get their physical activity from running, Lieberman artfully explains that humans really are not adapted for any of these things.

As he explains, the only thing that we are adapted for is reproduction and insuring our children's survival. As he continues to try and briefly support his thought process, he uses a few examples of adaptations humans possess that do not have a purpose.

He actually mentions bodily functions that do affect our chances of survival, but claims they do not. For instance, nose hairs are a part of our first line of immune defense. They keep pathogens such as fungus, bacteria, and spores from getting into our bodies and wreaking havok.

Lieberman, however, states that, “I can think of nothing useful about my dimples, nose hairs, or tendency to yawn…" How could such an esteemed Harvard professor and chair of the department of evolutionary biology miss such vital information? One can even find Dr. Oz on television warning people against plucking nose hairs because of their vital function to your immune system.

Since Lieberman included such misguided information, likely due to a lack of research on his claims, it lessens the validity of everything else he is saying.

Lieberman also touches on something I have never considered before as detrimental to my health, shoes. Now that I know shoes often increase our chances of becoming injured, I’ll try running barefoot as he suggests. Along with questioning the use of shoes, Lieberman has caused me to never want to use anything antibacterial again. Due to its actual increase in my likelihood of getting sick. Along the lines of bacteria, I have always heard how unhealthy antibacterial medications could be for you, but they are sometimes necessary and I never knew how to counteract its negative impacts.

Lieberman proposes something so simple and easy I do not know why it is not apart of our medical treatment system when antibacterials are administered; he suggests that we should always follow them up with probiotics. This way, you help reintroduce the good bacteria that you kill off when taking antibiotics.

Here, Lieberman indefinitely achieves the purpose of his book. He introduces a modern ailment along with a way to prevent or help relieve the negativities. All of his explanations are thorough and cover topics that even my doctors never warn me about, his solutions are so simple that anyone could achieve them.

As rates of obesity and illness have skyrocketed over the past few generations, a rise in quick fixes,

miracle products, and fad diets have populated our lives that promise an end to suffering. Unfortunately, there is no quick fix, but Lieberman proposes a unique way to see modern ailments that would help us solve them.

If we look at our evolutionary history we can each better our lives ourselves, by changing our own environment to achieve a healthier body; without the use of ineffectual diet pills to combat obesity and the plethora of health problems associated with it.

Overall I would say that Lieberman achieved in educating me about mismatched diseases, devolution, and the causes and effects of such an inept modern environment that we live in today. However, I believe there could have been more discussion on modern illnesses and treatment for them; so much time was spent on the evolution of bipedalism and was never even referenced in the second and third part of the book when discussing the problem of modern illness.

In the end, though, I have found myself moved by the lessons in the book. Not only for just a few days but for weeks I have been thinking about the impacts of my actions on my body. Along with the actions that have already happened to my body and how that will affect me later in life. Such as, how will my knee injury from soccer affect me in 10 years? What about in 20 or 30?

I do not believe that the book's purpose was to cause a change in lifestyle, but it has achieved that in the slightest bit for me. Hence, this book has struck me past the point of its purpose; which is raising education and awareness to the general populace on a new way to treat morbidity.

I believe The Story of the Human Body should be on everyone's reading list. It educates the average person with information about their body they probably do not know but definitely should. Maybe if we raise enough awareness for just how preventable the ailments people feel today are, then we could finally achieve changing lifestyles and the environment around us to allow for healthier life choices.