Evolutionary Medicine: A Powerful Tool for Improving Human Health

Abstract

Modern evolutionary research has much to contribute to medical research and health care practices. Conversely, evolutionary biologists are tapping into the rapidly expanding databases of medical genomic information to further their research. These two fields, which have historically functioned in almost complete isolation, are finding mutual benefit in the exchange of information. The long-term benefits of this synthesis of two major areas of research include improved health care. Recently, efforts to catalyze this relationship have brought together evolutionary biologists, medical practitioners, anthropologists, and ethicists to lay the groundwork for further collaboration and exploration. The range of overlap is surprisingly broad and potentially invaluable.Evolution has not traditionally been considered to be an important aspect of medicine, and medical practitioners and researchers have not traditionally approached their work from the perspective offered by evolutionary biology. Medical practice tends to focus on the immediate, or proximate, causes of disease, including genetics and lifestyle, to identify a potential treatment. An evolutionary viewpoint pushes the focus out farther to look at long-term ecological relationships, including symbiotic bacteria, parasites and pathogens, historical lifestyles, and the genetics of populations. Conversely, evolutionary biologists have not traditionally paid much attention to the medical implications or applications of their findings, with a few exceptions such as the study of emerging infectious diseases. Other evolutionary studies have seemed far removed from contemporary human health issues.Recently, however, these traditions have been giving way to a new approach, as researchers and medical practitioners discover connections based on evolutionary biology that are leading them to new conclusions about their respective fields. Evolution is providing clues about puzzling medical results, and studies of human health are giving us new information about the rate and driving forces of evolution. Initiatives such as the Human Genome Project and the Haplotype Map have provided new tools for studying evolution and human health.

Alzheimer's disease and natural cognitive aging may represent adaptive metabolism reduction programs

“…Many traits that are clearly maladaptive in the present are now thought to have been adaptive in the ancestral environment [24] and this situation is known as an "environmental mismatch." The science of evolutionary medicine attempts to identify, analyze and explicate these traits [25].…”

“…Today, the costs of AD are well-documented [ 23 ], but the defensive manifestations may be hidden because of discrepancies between our modern and ancestral environments. Many traits that are clearly maladaptive in the present are now thought to have been adaptive in the ancestral environment [ 24 ] and this situation is known as an "environmental mismatch." The science of evolutionary medicine attempts to identify, analyze and explicate these traits [ 25 ].…”

Islamic Medicine and Evolutionary Medicine: A Comparative Analysis

“…Recent advances in molecular biology such as the Human Genome Project have broadened medical understanding of the human body and its genetic vulnerabilities 21. A second reason for this lapse has been medical practitioners tendency to focus on proximal causes of disease 22. Evolutionary medicine combines the theoretical approaches of medical science, ecology, anthropology, biology, and psychology.…”

Lessons from EEO: Toward a Universal Evolutionary Curriculum

“…Well, evolution involves changing the genetic information of an entire species-if, that is, the change is destined to last. That seems hardly possible by artificially manipulating the genetics of nearly seven billion people (though recent reports of a goal of five billion shots for the H1N1 swine flu virus, in a sense, addresses the issue of sheer totality of numbers; see Hood and Jenkins (2008) for a review of "evolutionary medicine"). & More realistically, we should look at the recent advances in genetic engineering and biotechnology as extensions of what we were able to do with selective breeding, which Darwin called "artificial selection," and saw as an effective analogue of his theory of evolution through natural selection.…”