Do We Need Evolutionary Medicine? Science-Based …
Posted: December 1, 2014 at 9:46 am
Posted by Harriet Hall on July 3, 2012 ( Comments)
3 years ago I wrote an article critical of evolutionary medicine as it was presented in a new book. Recently a correspondent asked me if I thought another book, Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine, by Randolph M. Nesse, MD and George C. Williams, PhD, was a more reasonable approach to the subject. It was published in 1994 and got good reviews from respected scientists like Richard Dawkins (Buy two copies and give one to your doctor.) and E.O. Wilson (bringing the evolutionary vision systematically into one of the last unconquered provinces). I was able to obtain a copy through interlibrary loan.
The book was interesting and gave me some things to think about, but it didnt convince me that Darwinian medicine is a new science, that its existence as a separate discipline is justified, or that its unique approach offers any real practical benefits for improving medical care.
Why do we get sick? A simplistic view of evolution holds that it systematically eliminates any factors that decrease fitness for survival. So why does disease persist? Why didnt we evolve to be fit enough to never get sick? Because evolution is not a straightforward process.
Evolution is complicated.There are countless design flaws in the human body. For instance, we are subject to choking because of the crossed anatomy of our respiratory and digestive systems. Nesse and Williams point out that it would be more sensible to relocate the nostrils to somewhere on the neck, but that just aint gonna happen. Evolution is limited by pre-existing patterns and has to make compromises. Historical accidents result in developments that are far from optimum. A useless or even a harmful gene may be perpetuated because it is linked with a beneficial gene. We are in an arms race with pathogens: we evolve defenses and they evolve ways to overcome those defenses. Natural selection made us fit as small groups of hunter-gatherers on the plains of Africa. We are specifically adapted to Stone Age conditions. We face very different environments today where our evolved traits can be counterproductive.
Who are the fittest? Fitness doesnt mean fitness for the individuals welfare, but fitness for propagating the individuals genes. After the individual has reproduced, diseases of old age dont affect evolutionary fitness except in minor, indirect ways. (Grandparents past reproductive age can contribute to the survival of descendants by helping with childcare and providing accumulated knowledge and wisdom.)
Nesse and Williams differentiate between proximate and evolutionary explanations: heart attacks are caused by cholesterol deposits in the arteries, but they want to know why evolution shaped us to deposit cholesterol, crave fat, over-eat, etc. I want to know, too; but Im not so certain that knowing will reduce my chances of a heart attack.
Are evolutionary explanations just pseudoscientific equivalents of Kiplings Just-So Stories? They argue that they are not. They give the example of morning sickness. It has been hypothesized that the nausea, vomiting, and food aversions of early pregnancy are beneficial because they protect the vulnerable fetus from dietary toxins. This would predict that morning sickness preferentially results in avoidance of foods most likely to harm the fetus. This is a testable prediction and there is some evidence to support it; but there is no way to prove that this is the true explanation or the only one. They suggest that suppressing morning sickness might increase the risk of congenital defects. But there is no evidence for that. They recommend that women respect their nausea and remember that it may be beneficial. (It would likely decrease your survival prospects if you said that to your wife while she was throwing up for the umpteenth time!) They admit that relieving suffering is important too, but they recommend that any anti-nausea medicine should be carefully evaluated to make sure it doesnt cause any harm. Of course, we already do that for all medications used during pregnancy. I fail to see how evolutionary thinking adds anything to the care of pregnant women. In fact, I can see how it might result in unnecessary worry and suffering.
They suggest that sexual reproduction is an advantage because the genetic variations increase survival when a population faces an infection. As supporting evidence, they cite studies showing that asexual reproduction is more frequent in species and habitats with fewer parasites. Maybe. Correlation doesnt prove causation.
They speculate that schizophrenia must persist in our genomes because it offers some advantage that balances the severe costs. They even have a creative hypothesis about why we sleep.
The rest is here:
Do We Need Evolutionary Medicine? Science-Based ...
- Evolutionary Creation: A Christian Approach to Evolution ... - May 18th, 2016
- God and the Evolutionary Mind: The God Who Beckons ... - May 18th, 2016
- Agape Live - Agape International Spiritual Center - May 18th, 2016
- Dr. Marc Gafnis Biography | Marc Gafni - May 18th, 2016
- Evolutionary Psychology - Evolution Definition - May 18th, 2016
- Reincarnation: the 35 steps of - Personality & Spirituality - May 18th, 2016
- itinerary - The Great Story Website created by Connie Barlow - May 18th, 2016
- Evolutionary Spirituality | Dr David G Benner - May 18th, 2016
- Evolutionary Psychology Definition and Examples - October 25th, 2015
- Spiritual Competency Online CE resources for Psychologists ... - October 25th, 2015
- Theistic Evolution & Evolutionary Creationism - October 25th, 2015
- What Is Modern Evolutionary Synthesis? - Definition - September 25th, 2015
- Spiritism: A Home for Healing and Spiritual Evolution - September 7th, 2015
- Spiritual Evolution - Kheper - September 4th, 2015
- Spontaneous Evolution Has Arrived! : In5D Esoteric ... - August 24th, 2015
- The Eight Auspicious Symbols of Buddhism A Study in ... - August 10th, 2015
- Website of Author Steve McIntosh, Integral Philosopher and ... - August 7th, 2015
- Spiritual evolution - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - August 6th, 2015
- Spiritual Evolution - Hermes Press - August 3rd, 2015
- Spiritual Evolution - The Meaning of Life - July 2nd, 2015
- Integral Enlightenment | Evolutionary Spirituality with ... - July 2nd, 2015
- The spiritual evolution of consciousness from quantum ... - July 2nd, 2015
- Nathaniel, author of Transitions: A Spiritual Evolution - July 2nd, 2015
- Evolutionary Spirituality | Franciscan Spiritual Center - June 19th, 2015
- The Evolution of Mankind and the Dawn of a Spiritual ... - June 15th, 2015
- Sahaj Marg Raja Yoga Meditation - What is Spirituality? - June 8th, 2015
- evolutionary studies of religion - Binghamton University - May 31st, 2015
- Evolutionary psychology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - April 17th, 2015
- New 'Bible' replaces every mention of God with 'Kanye West' - April 7th, 2015
- Douglas Todd: Facing up to loss - psychology, philosophy and the Easter story - April 4th, 2015
- Religion and Science in Pastoral Ministry - Washington ... - March 31st, 2015
- Marty Kaplan: What matters to me & why - March 14th, 2015
- Quantum Consciousness: Reconciling Science and ... - March 11th, 2015
- Teilhard 's Evolutionary Spirituality - Teilhard for Beginners - February 19th, 2015
- Evolutionary Landscapes | Consciousness, Culture, and the ... - February 16th, 2015
- How To Talk About God, And Your Wedding, With Your Future In-Laws - February 6th, 2015
- Evolutionary Christianity || Richard Rohr: Falling ... - January 17th, 2015
- Evolutionary Christianity || Speaker Bios and Topics - January 11th, 2015
- Capsule reviews of midseason shows - January 4th, 2015
- A History of the Kiss - January 4th, 2015
- Evolutionary psychology of religion - Wikipedia, the free ... - January 2nd, 2015
- 2014: Our year in trendy diets - December 28th, 2014
- All together now three evolutionary perks of singing - December 24th, 2014
- Accepting our Evolutionary History does not Mean Rejecting ... - December 17th, 2014
- Evolutionary Christianity - December 1st, 2014
- Looking at creation through science should increase faith in God, says priest - November 29th, 2014
- Brains, Spirituality, and Depression | Psychology Today - November 28th, 2014
- Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion by Sam ... - November 24th, 2014
- Yale conference continues 'Journey of the Universe' - November 21st, 2014
- Religion Today - November 15th, 2014
- Evolutionary Influences: A Brief History of Evolutionary ... - November 11th, 2014
- Comment on The Myth of Religious Violence by Isa Manteqi - November 2nd, 2014
- Comment on The Myth of Religious Violence by dinobeano - November 1st, 2014
- Good Psychology - Spirituality, Evolutionary, & Lifespan ... - October 28th, 2014
- Evolutionary consciousness points to a Trinitarian cosmic ... - October 28th, 2014
- Former Sarnia minister tells story of his 'deconversion' in new memoir - October 17th, 2014
- Clip 2: The Trouble with Progressive Spirituality - Video - October 3rd, 2014
- Clip 3: What is The Infinite? - Video - September 30th, 2014
- Evolutionary Spirituality - Order of Universal Interfaith - September 13th, 2014
- A meaningful Merdeka Day for me! - August 30th, 2014
- Is Democratic Imperialism The Answer (1)? - August 30th, 2014
- Teilhard de Chardin - Great Awakenings - Video - August 24th, 2014
- 7/25/2014 Lynn Sparrow Christy - Video - August 5th, 2014
- Consciousness Power - TransformationCoaching - July 26th, 2014
- evolutionary spirituality | pastordawn - July 26th, 2014
- Movie review: I Origins a tale of faith, sceience and love (with video) - July 26th, 2014
- Dotting the Eyes in the Thought-Provoking I Origins - July 19th, 2014
- New book After Humanity 50008 looks to resolve world issues - July 14th, 2014
- Grand Opening of our Cayce/Miller Caf, de Laski Education Center, and more! - Video - June 29th, 2014
- Darkness and Enlightenment: Faith, Reason and Judaism - June 22nd, 2014
- Health care runs in the family - June 9th, 2014
- Sara - How an Evolutionary Perspective Change My Life - Video - June 7th, 2014
- Raquel - How an Evolutionary Perspective Changed My Life - Video - June 6th, 2014
- Teresa - How an Evolutionary Perspective Changed My Life - Video - June 6th, 2014
- perspective - Evolutionary Spirituality Homepage - June 5th, 2014
- Pyramid scam? - Evolutionary psychologists take on the ... - June 2nd, 2014
- Craig Hamilton - Evolving Wisdom - Faculty - June 2nd, 2014
- Evolutionary Psychiatry - June 2nd, 2014
- Could biology explain the evolution of religion? - May 29th, 2014
- Canterbury: Sr Ilia Delio OSF to speak on Evolution and Primacy of Christ - May 28th, 2014