Darwinian medicine is a radical approach that considers why evolution has not “freed” humans from disease. Traditional medicine, for example, would examine who contracted a cold, why, and how to treat the symptoms. Evolutionary medicine examines the interplay between virulence, transmission, natural selection, and evolution in an attempt to understand why anyone would catch a cold. This presents a potent example. With a pathogen like a cold, generation time is short, mutation rates are high, and genetic information can spread rapidly through a population. Therefore, evolution (a shift in gene frequencies within a population through time) can occur in weeks (as opposed to the slower pace most commonly associated with evolution). Evolution occurs via natural selection. Pathogens meet the requirements of natural selection by having variability of heritable traits which impact their reproductive success in comparison to others in the population. Consider the heritable and highly variable trait of virulence. Evolution predicts that those pathogens with high virulence must also have successful transmission when their host is …show more content…
incapacitated (or else the mutant, highly virulent strain will cease to exist as its long term reproductive success will be close to zero). A cold virus, can only survive for a short time outside the body and is dependant upon a host that is functional and interacting with other potential hosts. If a more virulent strain occurs, the isolation of the incapacitated victim will result in the demise of that strain. The reproduction of that strain (though highly successful within the single unfortunate host) fails to succeed in transmission to successive hosts. This approach helps analyze the potential threat presented by infectious diseases across the world. “Infectious diseases” is one category a Darwinian approach creates.
Others include defenses, genes, and design compromises. Some health practitioners treat symptoms without consideration of evolution. This is dangerous both to the individual and to society as a whole. If a fever is viewed as a highly evolved bodily defense, then the decision to treat that fever takes on a new level of consideration. If iron deficiency is a defense to chronic infection, should a supplement be prescribed? If the defense threatens the well being of the patient, then treatment is necessary. If the defense presents discomfort, but is fighting the pathogen, treatment may present the greater danger. On a societal scale, failure to consider evolution combined with over prescription of antibiotics to treat bodily defenses has lead to “superbugs” resistant to
treatment. Our missteps extend to the dubbing of “deleterious” genes. If truly deleterious, these genes would be eliminated through evolution. An evolutionary point of view shows that “deleterious” genes frequently have benefits associated with them; an evolutionary compromise. The gene for sickle cell anemia is deadly when two recessives are inherited. Malaria is also deadly (it is highly virulent and highly mobile due to the mosquito vector being even more successful at biting an invalid victim) making homozygous dominant individuals at risk of death prior to reproductive maturity, as well. Heterozygous individuals are physiologically functional and less likely to become infected with malaria. This bestows a reproductive advantage to the genotype, erasing the misnomer “deleterious”. In every situation an evolutionary framework can help us understand why we become ill. By considering medicine within this framework, we can use evolution itself as a tool to decrease the virulence of disease and develop novel treatments and approaches to our frailties. Evolutionary medicine has already led to a greater understanding of our health problems, and further research will help develop practical preventative strategie.
Dr. Sharon Moalem and Jonathan Prince’s book, Survival of the Sickest, points out the fact that diseases do not always need to be cured infact beneficial mutations is how we evolve. Although the book mainly discusses how diseases evolve humans, Moalem and Prince do discuss how we, humans shape diseases. By the simple acts of getting and giving mosquito netting, one forces the malaria virus to find a new perhaps less malicious path to survival and reproduction one that may not cure the malaria virus but may make not fatal, similar to the common
Biological evolution is a change in the characteristics of living organisms over generations (Scott, 2017). A basic mechanism of evolution, the genetic drift, and mutation is natural selection. According to Darwin's theory of evolution, natural selection is a process in nature in which only the organisms best adapted to their environmental surroundings have a higher chance of surviving and transmitting their genetic characters in increasing numbers to succeeding generations while those less adapted tend to be eliminated. There has been many experimental research projects that relate to the topic of natural selection and evolution.
Patients should have the ability in all situations to decide what happens to their bodies. This should be accompanied by the knowledge of risks associated with any particular procedure. Some physicians may attempt to circumvent this right for personal gain by omitting important information or simply utilizing force. This is where the debate over human experimentation arises. In a more civil setting, some patients don’t have the cognitive capacity to choose what is done with their tissues. In this case, the line of ethics becomes obscure.
The improvement of medicine over the course of the human successes gave great convenience to the people of today. Science has cured and prevented many illnesses from occurring and is on its way to cure some of the most dreadful and harmful illnesses. As the world modernizes due to the industrialization, so does the ways of medicine. Some cures are approached by chance, some, through intense, scientific measures.
Natural selection is a theory suggesting that some genetic traits will be more common than another trait in a given environment in which the organisms live in. Natural selection is a slow and gradual process which will happen in the matter of generations of the species. The traits become less or more common depending on the environmental circumstances, in other words, selection pressure.
Anyone with even a moderate background in science has heard of Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution. Since the publishing of his book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection in 1859, Darwin’s ideas have been debated by everyone from scientists to theologians to ordinary lay-people. Today, though there is still severe opposition, evolution is regarded as fact by most of the scientific community and Darwin’s book remains one of the most influential ever written.
In 1859, a biologist named Charles Darwin postulated a scientific theory, which stated that all living organisms evolved through a process of natural selection. According to Stephen Hawking, Charles Darwin claimed that the offspring of a particular species gradually evolved themselves genetically to resist the changes in the environment (573). The theory contended that the organisms could adapt to the changes in the environment through the survival of the fittest. Though this theory is regarded as a breakthrough in the field of biological evolution, it is interesting to explore how this seemingly scientific theory has been suitably modified, and intellectually applied to both negative and positive aspects of life.
According to Darwin and his theory on evolution, organisms are presented with nature’s challenge of environmental change. Those that possess the characteristics of adapting to such challenges are successful in leaving their genes behind and ensuring that their lineage will continue. It is natural selection, where nature can perform tiny to mass sporadic experiments on its organisms, and the results can be interesting from extinction to significant changes within a species.
Evolution is the process by which different kinds of living organisms are thought to have developed and diversified from earlier forms during the history of the earth (Google). Scientists have many evidences to prove Evolution. One of these evidences is rock layers. Rock layers are beds of sedimentary rock, consisting of one type of matter, and can usually have fossils found in them. Rock layers are an evidence of evolution because they show the development of life through fossils, show how rock layers relates to evolution, and can explain why the continent Pangea split into the continents we have today.
In order for a species to survive, its population has to evolve. Evolution is the process of gradual change driven by natural selection to improve survival. Evolution is the explanation of how life got to its current state. Before the idea of evolution, the Bible gave the explanation of how things came to be, the Theory of Creation. Charles Darwin is credited for developing the theory of evolution. Scientist such as Georges Cuiver, James Hutton and Charles Lyell, and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck heavily influenced Darwin. It is because of Darwin’s voyage aboard the Beagle that we now have a scientific explanation of how species came to be. Canines have evolved and have been domesticated by artificial selection into our household pets. Unlike natural
The evolutionary theory is the concept that species evolve over time through the mechanism of natural selection of survival and reproduction. Natural selection means acting on the assumption that various living organisms were produced by genetic diversity and mutation. The evolution theory may also be referred to as the philosophizing science. This theory states that all phenomena are derived from natural causes and can be explained by scientific laws without reference to a plan or purpose.
Darwin writes on how a species will adapt to its environment given enough time. When an animal gains a genetic edge over its competitors, be they of the same species or of another genus altogether, the animal has increased its chance of either procreation or adaptation. When this animal has this beneficial variance, the advantage becomes his and because of this, the trait is then passed on to the animals offspring.
The concepts of human enhancement and biotechnology are fairly new terms in the world of ethics and medicine. These words, although far from being unfamiliar, are not often heard in the medical field except in special cases. However, in the past few years, the research and use of biotechnology is on the rise and becoming more prevalent under certain situations. This week’s reading focuses on the issues of biotechnology in a historical and modern context, yet also addresses the pros and cons of such developments.
Evolution is a systematic mechanism through which the modern day has evolved from his ancestors. The Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is based on the premise that we all
The occurrence of infectious disease and epidemics has speckled the history of humanity since the first civilization established itself. Considering that a large population can help to foster infectious diseases, and humans share almost 300 communicable agents with animals, the outbreak of epidemics is inextricably intertwined with revol...