In modern, industrialized nations such as the U.S., Scotland, and Sweden, few people above the age of 55 are completely disease-free. The vast majority suffer from one or more health problems, whether it’s hypertension, diabetes, and/or hypercholesterolemia, and use one or more medications. This has led a lot of people, including many scientific researchers, to […]
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New Research Suggests That Probiotics May Do More Harm Than Good
In my previous article here on Darwinian-Medicine.com, I made the case that certain current implementations of the probiotic concept are pernicious. That post is the last in what has now become a fairly sizeable list of articles I’ve written about the potential downsides of probiotic supplementation; all of which are built on a similar line […]
My Beef with Probiotics: Why You Should Trust Your Gut, Not the Recommendations of Probiotic Manufacturers
Probiotics are high on the list of things I’ve written the most about here on Darwinian-Medicine.com. The principle reason why I’ve devoted so much time and space to the probiotic industry and its promotion and sale of supplements and nutritional products containing live bacteria is that I’m of the belief that the probiotic enterprise is […]
Why Isn’t Nutritional Therapy a Primary Therapy for Mental Illness?
It’s well established that the food we eat has a profound influence on our mental health and risk of developing psychiatric illness (1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 6, 7), and that gut dysbiosis, which closely relates to nutritional imprudence, plays a central role in the pathogenesis of a number of disorders of the mind. One […]
The Evolutionary Basis for Human Behavior: Why We Have a Sweet Tooth, the Origin of Athletics, and More
Every organism on this planet is a product of evolution via natural selection. This fundamental, scientifically established fact is Herculean in its reach and power, in the sense that it’s capable of entering, unifying, and acting as a governing force for all of the different branches of science that deal with living things. Essentially, evolutionary […]
Ask Eirik: How Much Protein Do I Need?
One of the questions that nutritionists and personal trainers are asked fairly routinely is the question of how much protein that’s required to support the growth and maintenance of the human body at different life stages and under contrasting circumstances. I’ve previously offered my take on this issue in several regular articles here on the […]
Evolutionary Mismatch: The Larger Issue Facing the Inhabitants of the Earth
If you were to go out on the street and ask two dozen people what they believe is the biggest and most pressing issue in the world today, chances are many of the individuals you ask would say that it’s pollution, global warming, warfare, or food insecurity. The obesity epidemic, terrorism, and a widespread infiltration […]
The Science of Evolution
We humans tend to perceive ourselves as being in a league above other organisms with respects to our intelligence and wit. Yet a significant part of the human population lives in a reality that’s largely disconnected from science, including the science of evolution. Within scientific circles, it’s widely accepted that all organisms, ranging from humans […]
The Evolution of Medicine. Part 2: The Rise of Evolutionary Medicine
Ever since the time when I first stumbled upon concepts and ideas related to ancestral health and Stone Age diets in my late teens, I’ve been interested in, bordering on obsessed with, Darwinian/evolutionary medicine. Back in the day when I first stumbled upon this fascinating world, it wasn’t really on the map, at least not […]
The Evolution of Medicine. Part 1: The Theory That Could Change the Game
In the world of medicine as a whole and as it exists today, chaos is the norm, whereas order and cohesion is the exception. There is no foundational, scientifically robust paradigm in place, which helps explain why a number of disparate theories, concepts, and practices abound, many of which haven’t got a solid premise behind […]