The origins of human ageing

Kirkwood, Thomas B. L.

doi:10.1098/rstb.1997.0160

Cited by 79 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…Such a variable would typically mean that newly independent offspring were not physiologically capable of reproduction. Further work could also introduce a state variable to represent the state of repair of the body (see Kirkwood and Rose 1991;Abrams and Ludwig 1995;Kirkwood 1997Kirkwood , 2002Mangel 2001). We could then consider the evolution of life span and senescence.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Theoretical Investigation of the Effect of Latitude on Avian Life Histories

McNamara¹,

Barta²,

Wikelski³

et al. 2008

The American Naturalist

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Online enhancements: appendixes.abstract: Tropical birds lay smaller clutches than birds breeding in temperate regions and care for their young for longer. We develop a model in which birds choose when and how often to breed and their clutch size, depending on their foraging ability and the food availability. The food supply is density dependent. Seasonal environments necessarily have a high food peak in summer; in winter, food levels drop below those characteristic of constant environments. A bird that cannot balance its energy needs during a week dies of starvation. If adult predation is negligible, birds in low seasonal environments are constrained by low food during breeding seasons, whereas birds in high seasonal environments die during the winter. Low food seasonality selects for small clutch sizes, long parental care times, greater age at first breeding, and high juvenile survival. The inclusion of adult predation has no major effect on any life-history variables. However, increased nest predation reduces clutch size. The same trends with seasonality are also found in a version of the model that includes a condition variable. Our results show that seasonal changes in food supply are sufficient to explain the observed trends in clutch size, care times, and age at first breeding.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Theoretical Investigation of the Effect of Latitude on Avian Life Histories

McNamara¹,

Barta²,

Wikelski³

et al. 2008

The American Naturalist

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“…No obstetrician gynecologist should learn about preeclampsia and gestational diabetes without studying David Haig's work on genetic conflicts during pregnancy (Haig 1993). No gerontologist should consider the aging process without appreciating the declining power of selection and tradeoffs between reproduction and longevity (Kirkwood 1997). Every epidemiologist and infectious disease specialist should be able to engage in "tree-thinking" (Baum et al 2005) and interpret the phylogenetic trees used to track the evolution of HIV (Woroby et al 2008) and the emergence of North American West Nile virus (McMullen et al 2011).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Clinical Perspective in Evolutionary Medicine: What We Wish We Had Learned in Medical School

Alcock

Schwartz

2011

Evo Edu Outreach

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Medical students have much to gain by understanding how evolutionary principles affect human health and disease. Many theoretical and experimental studies have applied lessons from evolutionary biology to issues of critical importance to medical science. A firm grasp of evolution and natural selection is required to understand why the human body remains vulnerable to many diseases. Although we often integrate evolutionary concepts when we teach medical students and residents, the vast majority of medical students never receive any instruction on evolution. As a result, many trainees lack the tools to understand key advances and miss valuable opportunities for education and research. Here, we outline some of the evolutionary principles that we wished we had learned during our medical training.Keywords Medical education . Evolution . Natural selection . Phylogeny . Virulence . Host defenses . Tradeoffs . Ultimate causation Evolution and Medical EducationMedical students must learn an ever-increasing volume of information in medical school. Many worthy topics, including prevention, public health, clinical reasoning, ethics, health policy, communication skills, and professionalism, now compete with the traditional core biomedical sciences, such as biochemistry, genetics, and pathophysiology. It is no wonder then that any effort to introduce another science-evolutionary biology-into the medical curriculum is a difficult endeavor.In a 2003 survey of North American medical school deans, 48% said understanding the concepts of evolution is important for physicians. However, not a single medical school taught evolutionary biology as a basic science, no medical school required evolution as a prerequisite for admission, only 16% had Ph.D. faculty in evolutionary biology, and schools devoted a median of only four hours of curricular time on core topics in evolution (Nesse and Schiffman 2003). Complicating matters further, one of ten medical students in Glasgow rejected the notion of long-term evolution on religious grounds (Downie 2004). Thus, more than 15 years after the publication of the seminal text, Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine (Nesse and Williams 1994), many physicians remain unaware of evolution's most relevant principles.Evolutionary (Darwinian) medicine is the application of evolutionary principles, including natural selection, adaptation, phylogenetics, and evolutionary constraints, to understanding health and disease. In this paper, we argue that a working knowledge of evolution is well worth the time and effort by students of medicine. We review selected concepts in evolutionary medicine that we wish we had learned when we were in medical school. This missed educational opportunity would teach students to ask evolutionary "why" questions of diseases and develop skills to recognize evolutionary paradoxes and patterns in medicine. As we describe, evolutionary biology is an integrative science whose concepts can help students and professionals improve learning, teaching, practice, ...

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“…Existem diversas teorias sobre o envelhecimento, mas a "teoria do soma" tem grande aceitação quando tenta explicar esse processo por meio de danos somáticos não reparados geneticamente, evoluindo para perda de função e declínio progressivo da homeostase 4 . O início da velhice pode ser o ápice do desenvolvimento humano, pelo maior potencial de experiência, inteligência, cooperação social e conhecimento filosófico.…”

Section: Introductionunclassified

Psicomotricidade e retrogênese: considerações sobre o envelhecimento e a doença de Alzheimer

Borges¹,

Aprahamian²,

Radanovic

et al. 2010

Rev. psiquiatr. clín.

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ResumoContexto: A teoria da retrogênese refere-se às mudanças nas habilidades psicomotoras que ocorrem de forma inversa à aquisição do desenvolvimento motor normal. Tais mudanças ocorrem ao longo do processo de envelhecimento e também são ilustradas por mudanças degenerativas ocorridas na doença de Alzheimer (DA). Objetivos: Revisar o conceito de retrogênese no envelhecimento e na DA e discutir os artigos publicados sobre o assunto nos últimos 10 anos. Métodos: Foi realizada uma pesquisa nas bases de dados PubMed (MEDLINE), LILACS, Cochrane e Sci SciELO com as palavras-chave "retrogenesis" (retrogênese), "elderly" (idoso) e "Alzheimer's disease" (doença de Alzheimer). Resultados: A busca bibliográfica resultou em seis artigos, dois dos quais publicados nos primeiros meses de 2009, sendo realizadas análise descritiva e interpretação crítica deles. Foi possível observar que o estudo da retrogênese na velhice tem sido feito fundamentalmente com base na DA, principalmente por meio de revisões bibliográficas e explorações teóricas. Esses trabalhos correlacionam manifestações observadas na DA com determinadas alterações fisiológicas, seguindo o sentido oposto ao do desenvolvimento normal do ser humano. Conclusão: A partir da revisão realizada, destacou-se o modelo da retrogênese funcional que ilustra as alterações involutivas que ocorrem em pacientes acometidos em pacientes com DA. Modelos experimentais utilizando-se de técnicas de ressonância magnética com medidas de anisotropia, identificando alterações de substância branca, têm sido apresentados para testar as hipóteses teóricas da retrogênese. Borges SM, et al. / Rev Psiq Clín. 2010;37(3):131-7Palavras-chave: Retrogênese, idoso, demência, doença de Alzheimer. AbstractBackground: The theory of retrogenesis refers to changes in psychomotor abilities that occur in the reverse order in which they are acquired in normal psychomotor development. Such changes occur along the aging process and are also illustrated by the degenerative changes that occur in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Objectives: To review the concept of retrogenesis in aging and in AD and to discuss the articles published on the subject in the last ten years. Methods: A search was conducted in the databases PubMed (MEDLINE), LILACS, Cochrane and SciELO with the keywords "retrogenesis", "elderly" and "Alzheimer's disease". Results:The literature search resulted in six articles, two of which recently published. We conducted a descriptive analysis of them. We observed that the study of retrogenesis in old age has been done primarily on the basis of AD, mainly through literature reviews and theoretical explorations. These works correlate events observed in AD with some physiological changes, following the opposite direction to the normal development of human beings. Discussion: Based on available literature, we support the notion that functional retrogenesis model illustrate the changes that occur in patients with AD. This notion is supported by experimental models using diffusion tensor imaging and addressing w...

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The origins of human ageing

Cited by 79 publications

References 53 publications

A Theoretical Investigation of the Effect of Latitude on Avian Life Histories

A Theoretical Investigation of the Effect of Latitude on Avian Life Histories

A Clinical Perspective in Evolutionary Medicine: What We Wish We Had Learned in Medical School

Psicomotricidade e retrogênese: considerações sobre o envelhecimento e a doença de Alzheimer

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