Darwinian Medicine

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Darwinian Medicine

• Katherine M. Fisher
• Evolution
• May 4, 2005

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What is Darwinian Medicine?

• Using an evolutionary perspective to understand
  why the body is not better designed
• The hunt for evolutionary explanations of
  vulnerability to disease
• Darwinian medicine is designed to look at
  disease and pathogens

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Explanations that Darwinian Medicine gives
Researchers

• 1. Evolved Defenses present as Discomforting
  Conditions
• 2. Availability of Fats in our Diets
• 3. Natural Selection and Suboptimal Design
  Features

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Category I Evolved Defenses of Discomforting
Conditions

• Pain
• Nausea
• Fever
• Coughing
• Morning Sickness
• Anxiety

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Anxiety an an Evolved Defense

• Anxiety was necessary for protection against
  predators
• Fight or Flight mechanism is built into nervous
  system
• Often triggered in individuals with panic
  disorders
• Agoraphobia would have been beneficial in the
  early days of human existence

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Morning Sickness as an Evolved Defense

• Nausea queasiness may have its historical roots
  to protect new fetus
• Garlic, onions, and coffee contain natural
  toxins
• Toxins or teratogens could cause a miscarriage
  if consumed

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Category II Availability of Dietary Fats its
Relations to Disease

• Appetites shaped to survive famine
• Fat was a rare treat
• Very little fat, salt, or sugar in early humans
  diet
• Today, humans tend to consume high fat, sugar,
  and salt diets
• Could lead to the problem of obesity

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Category III Process of Natural Selection
Suboptimal Design Features of the Human Body

• Myopia can be looked at in regards to Darwinian
  medicine
• Thought to be a result of interaction between
  genes and literate societies
• Not caused by change in genes, but the
  teaching/reading in literate societies
• Not seen in Eskimos and other groups that were
  not a literate society
• When these groups began to read,
• the incidence of myopia increased

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Conclusions

• Darwinian medicine is a new and revolutionary
  discipline
• Physicians seen as guides who understand
  vulnerabilities that lead towards disease
• Teaches us that disease doesnt result from
  random forces, but process of natural selection

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Works Cited
Allman, William F. How Evolution has Changed
Modern Life. Forbes 156.12(1995)
19-21. Berlim, Marcelo Turkienicz and Alberto
Mantovani Abeche. Evolutionary Approach
to Medicine. Southern Medical Journal 94.1
(2001) 26-32. Burne, Jerome. How Modern Life
Makes Us Ill. The United Kingdom Times26 Feb.
2003. Nesse, Randolph M. How is Darwinian
Medicine Useful? Western Journalof Medicine
174.5 (2001) 358-361. Nesse, Randolph M. and
George C. Williams. Evolution and the
Origins of Disease. Scientific American
279.5 (1998) 86-93. Richards, Guy. Why We
Get Sick The New Science of Darwinian
Medicine. Journal of Social Evolutionary
Systems. 19.2 (1996) 195-200. Smith Jr., J.
Graham. Darwinian (Evolutionary) Medicine.
Southern Medical Journal 89.10 (1996)
1028-1031.
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