The currently reigning health care paradigm that guides medical research and practise, governs health-related policy-making, and contributes to shaping public opinions on issues pertaining to sun exposure, nutrition, exercise, and the like in the modern world doesn’t have an evolutionary backbone. It was created from a formula devoid of Darwinian elements, and as a result, […]
Evolution and Medicine
The Latest in Darwinian Medical Science: 12 Noteworthy New Papers That Shed Evolutionary Light on Health and Disease
The Darwinian approach to medicine is now being utilized by an increasingly diverse array of researchers, which is reflected in the scientific literature, where new evolution-oriented papers on topics as diverse as psychiatry, cardiology, and bariatrics routinely appear. Many of these articles and studies shed light on important facets of the human condition and make […]
Evolutionary Science: The Great Medical Unifier
I’ve talked at length about the importance of evolutionary science to medicine here on the site. Among other things, I’ve pointed out that evolutionary theory needs to be invoked to understand how we’ve come to be in the midst of war against an army of antibiotic resistant germs; what types of foods our digestive systems […]
A Question of Utmost Importance: Are We Designed to Be Healthy?
What makes for a healthy body? This question is at the core of all health-related endeavors, ranging from nutritional research to clinical medicine to personal training. Much attention is devoted to how different types of stimuli and exposures – nutritional elements, medications, exercise practices, and so forth – presumably affect our well-being and consequently how […]
It Pays to Be Smooth: Another Reason Why Health Matters (a Lot) in Evolution
One of the most common and pernicious misconceptions about evolution is that health is somewhat irrelevant to Darwinian selection. All of the focus is placed on reproductive success, whereas parameters related to organismal health, vitality, and well-being are largely ignored. Even some experienced researchers operating within the realm of Darwinian/evolutionary medicine operate in this manner, […]
Darwin: A Guardian Angel for Medicine
Charles Robert Darwin has by some proponents of Darwinian or evolutionary medicine been described as a sort of guardian angel for medicine. Historically, this spiritual helper hasn’t regularly come to our rescue, but that’s not because it hasn’t been willing to, but rather because we humans have ignored it and the assistance its willing to […]
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 Evolution of Medicine. Part 2: The Rise of Evolutionary Medicine
(Note: This article is the second and last installment of a 2-part feature on evolution-based medicine. The first part can be found here.) 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, […]
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 […]
Darwinian Medicine in a Nutshell
When I was first introduced to Darwinian medicine, AKA evolutionary medicine, many years back, I was led to believe from reading about the discipline that: 1) It encompasses a number of different concepts and theories pertaining to the origins of disease. 2) It’s mostly of theoretical use. It has little practical/clinical value. Over time, however, […]