Doctors by Nature - by Jaap de Roode (Paperback)

About the Book

"What happens when animals get sick? Do they rely exclusively on their bodies own defense systems to protect them, or are there other behaviors they can use to heal themselves? Humans have been using plants, fungi, and other natural mechanisms to treat ailments and disease for millennia--why not animals too? It turns out they do! In 1987, primatologist Michael Huffman noticed an ill chimpanzee collecting shoots of a plant called Vernonia amygdalina, which humans in the area used to treat stomach upset and fever. The ill chimpanzee removed the plant's outer bark and sucked on the soft inner branches. Within 24 hours, she appeared to have largely recovered. Although there have been stories about animals medicating themselves, and traditional healers have looked to animals to help develop treatments for years, Huffman's observations are widely considered the first official scientific evidence of an animal actively medicating itself to treat disease. Since then, scientists have found conclusive evidence for medication in all manner of species--including bees, ants and butterflies, as well as monkeys, birds, apes, and elephants. Self-medication behaviors (for which scientists have developed a rigorous field definition) range from prophylactic consumption of anti-parasitic berries by monkeys and therapeutic use of alkaloids by woolly bear caterpillars, to blue jays' use of ant-produced formic acid as bug-repellent. In Animal Doctors, Professor of Biology and science communicator Jaap de Roode will provide an overview of the scientific study of animal self-medication, drawing on both the scientific literature and first-person interviews with key contributors to the field to ask how animals use medication against the parasites and pathogens that ail them"--

Book Synopsis

The astonishing story of how animals use medicine and what it can teach us about healing ourselves

Ages before the dawn of modern medicine, wild animals were harnessing the power of nature's pharmacy to heal themselves. Doctors by Nature reveals what researchers are now learning about the medical wonders of the animal world. In this visionary book, Jaap de Roode argues that we have underestimated the healing potential of nature for too long and shows how the study of self-medicating animals could impact the practice of human medicine.

Drawing on illuminating interviews with leading scientists from around the globe as well as his own pioneering research on monarch butterflies, de Roode demonstrates how animals of all kinds--from ants to apes, from bees to bears, and from cats to caterpillars--use various forms of medicine to treat their own ailments and those of their relatives. We meet apes that swallow leaves to dislodge worms, sparrows that use cigarette butts to repel parasites, and bees that incorporate sticky resin into their hives to combat pathogens. De Roode asks whether these astonishing behaviors are learned or innate and explains why, now more than ever, we need to apply the lessons from medicating animals--it can pave the way for healthier livestock, more sustainable habitats for wild pollinators, and a host of other benefits.

Doctors by Nature takes readers into a realm often thought to be the exclusive domain of humans, exploring how scientists are turning to the medical knowledge of the animal kingdom to improve agriculture, create better lives for our pets, and develop new pharmaceutical drugs.

Review Quotes

"Winner of the Duke Award, American Botanical Council"

"Finalist for the PROSE Award in Biology, Association of American Publishers"

"[An] exceptional book investigating the myriad ways in which diverse animals across taxa self-medicate. . . . The book is written in a very readable style and is about story telling as much as intellectual enlightenment."---David Gascoigne, Travels with Birds

"[An] extraordinary new book."---Andrea Jones-Rooy, Behind the Data

"[A] highly readable, and fun book."---Marc Bekoff, Psychology Today

"[A] pioneering study . . . brilliantly written."---David Lorimer, Paradigm Explorer

"[A] treatise on how ill animals actually make choices about when, what, and even how much to consume of medicinal plants for both therapeutic and even preventive purposes. . . . Highly recommended."---M. Gochfeld, Choice

"A fantastic book."---Ashley Frasca, Green and Growing with Ashley Frasca

"A fantastic read. I devoured [this book] in a day."---Cassandra Quave, Foodie Pharmacology

"A fascinating look at the medical knowledge of animals; this would be a worthy addition to any life sciences collection."-- "Library Journal"

"As Jaap de Roode reveals in [Doctors by Nature] many animals seek out substances to relieve illnesses or battle parasites that drag their health down. . . . They could even teach us a thing or two about medicine."---Sam Kean, Wall Street Journal

"Jaap de Roode takes the reader through a breezy and fun exploration into the complex world of animal medication."---Ed Cara, Gizmodo

"The book invites deeper reflection on what it means to medicate, how landscapes shape access to medicine, and whether we humans are as discerning in our self-medicating choices as our nonhuman counterparts. . . . It raises new questions about the relationship between medicine, behavior, and environment."---John M. Drake, Science

"There's so many cool stories in [this] book."---Cara Santa Maria, Talk Nerdy

"This book is well written so as to be widely accessible to the non-fiction enthusiast and yet has enough meat on its bones to also be of interest to biologists of all flavors -- including those that treat sick humans. The message is so very clear: we have much to learn from non-human animals and how they treat illnesses using nature's pharmacy. . . . I find something else extraordinary about this book: it invites the reader to think like a scientist . . . In other words, this book teaches us to think about evidence."---Rebecca Jo Safran, Current Biology

About the Author

Jaap de Roode is Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Biology at Emory University, where he is director of the Infectious Diseases across Scales Training Program, which trains graduate students in interdisciplinary science to study and control infectious disease.