Evolution in Health and Disease

Evolution in Health and Disease
Author: Stephen C. Stearns
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 352
Release: 1999
Genre: Adaptation (Physiology)
ISBN:

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Have you ever wondered how the disparity between the life experiences of our ancestors and ourselves might affect our health? For the majority of our evolutionary history, humans lived in small hunter- gatherer groups whose diet, lifestyle, living conditions, and environmental pressures werevery different to the experiences of most humans today. The adaptations making us uniquely human - height, brain size, body proportions, metabolic rate, day range - were established during the Pleistocene - some 200 times as long as our recent evolutionary history - and may not fit us as well atthe end of the 20th Century. This fascinating book explores and analyses the ways in which our ancient genes contend with, and influence, human life in the space age. It offers the first broad, in-depth coverage of the many points of contact between evolutionary biology and medical science.Evolutionary biology is not a standard part of medical education, but it offers many important insights into central problems of human health and disease. These include the evolution of antibiotic resistance, the evolution of pathogen virulence, the evolution of ageing, the design of vaccines, andpopulation- and genotype-specific reactions to drugs and susceptibility to disease. They also include new insights into mother-offspring conflict during pregnancy, menstruation, menopause, child abuse, homicide, depression, schizophrenia, and many chronic degenerative diseases, such as cancer andosteoporosis. This book, written by a team of world experts in evolutionary medicine, describes the state of the art, and provides easy, clear access to the primary literature. Addressed to medical students, medical researchers, and evolutionary biologists, it provides compelling arguments for whythe tools of evolutionary biology - both its ideas and its methods - belong in every doctor's tool-kit.

Evolution in Health and Disease

Evolution in Health and Disease
Author: Stephen C. Stearns
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 398
Release: 2008
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9780199207459

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This work explores and analyses the ways in which our ancient genes contend with, and influence, modern human life. It offers coverage of the points of contact between evolutionary biology and medical science.

The Story of the Human Body

The Story of the Human Body
Author: Daniel Lieberman
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 482
Release: 2014-07-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 030774180X

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A landmark book of popular science that gives us a lucid and engaging account of how the human body evolved over millions of years—with charts and line drawings throughout. “Fascinating.... A readable introduction to the whole field and great on the making of our physicality.”—Nature In this book, Daniel E. Lieberman illuminates the major transformations that contributed to key adaptations to the body: the rise of bipedalism; the shift to a non-fruit-based diet; the advent of hunting and gathering; and how cultural changes like the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions have impacted us physically. He shows how the increasing disparity between the jumble of adaptations in our Stone Age bodies and advancements in the modern world is occasioning a paradox: greater longevity but increased chronic disease. And finally—provocatively—he advocates the use of evolutionary information to help nudge, push, and sometimes even compel us to create a more salubrious environment and pursue better lifestyles.

Principles of Evolutionary Medicine

Principles of Evolutionary Medicine
Author: Peter D. Gluckman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2016
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0199663920

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A new updated edition of the first integrated and comprehensive textbook to explain the principles of evolutionary biology from a medical perspective and to focus on how medicine and public health might utilise evolutionary biology.

Diseases and Human Evolution

Diseases and Human Evolution
Author: Ethne Barnes
Publisher: UNM Press
Total Pages: 500
Release: 2007-02-16
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0826330673

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Urgent interest in new diseases, such as the coronavirus, and the resurgence of older diseases like tuberculosis has fostered questions about the history of human infectious diseases. How did they evolve? Where did they originate? What natural factors have stalled the progression of diseases or made them possible? How does a microorganism become a pathogen? How have infectious diseases changed through time? What can we do to control their occurrence? ; Ethne Barnes offers answers to these questions, using information from history and medicine as well as from anthropology. She focuses on changes in the patterns of human behavior through cultural evolution and how they have affected the development of human diseases. ; Writing in a clear, lively style, Barnes offers general overviews of every variety of disease and their carriers, from insects and worms through rodent vectors to household pets and farm animals. She devotes whole chapters to major infectious diseases such as leprosy, syphilis, smallpox, and influenza. Other chapters concentrate on categories of diseases ("gut bugs," for example, including cholera, typhus, and salmonella). The final chapters cover diseases that have made headlines in recent years, among them mad cow disease, West Nile virus, and Lyme disease. ; In the tradition of Berton Roueché, Hans Zinsser, and Sherwin Nuland, Ethne Barnes answers questions you never knew you had about the germs that have threatened us throughout human history.

Evolutionary Medicine and Health

Evolutionary Medicine and Health
Author: Wenda R. Trevathan
Publisher: OUP USA
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2009-03-26
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 9780195307054

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Building on the success of their groundbreaking anthology Evolutionary Medicine (OUP, 1999), Wenda R. Trevathan, E. O. Smith, and James J. McKenna provide an up-to-date and thought-provoking introduction to the field with this new collection of essays. Ideal for courses in evolutionary medicine, medical anthropology, and the evolution of human disease, Evolutionary Medicine and Health: New Perspectives presents twenty-three original articles that examine how human evolution relates to a broad range of contemporary health problems including infectious, chronic, nutritional, and mental diseases and disorders. Topics covered include disease susceptibility in cultural context, substance abuse and addiction, sleep disorders, preeclampsia, altitude-related hypoxia, the biological context of menstruation, and the role of stress in modern life. An international team of preeminent scholars in biological anthropology, medicine, biology, psychology, and geography contributed the selections. Together they represent a uniquely integrative and multidisciplinary approach that takes into account the dialogue between biology and culture as it relates to understanding, treating, and preventing disease. A common theme throughout is the description of cases in which biological human development conflicts with culturally based individual behaviors that determine health outcomes. Detailed, evidence-based arguments make the case that all aspects of the human condition covered in the volume have an evolutionary basis, while theoretical discussions using other empirical evidence critique the gaps that still remain in evolutionary approaches to health. Evolutionary Medicine and Health: New Perspectives features an introductory overview that covers the field's diverse array of topics, questions, lines of evidence, and perspectives. In addition, the editors provide introductions to each essay and an extensive bibliography that represents a state-of-the-art survey of the literature. A companionwebsite at www.oup.com/us/evolmed offers a full bibliography and links to source articles, reports, and databases. Written in an engaging style that is accessible to students, professionals, and general readers, this book offers a unique look at how an evolutionary perspective has become increasingly relevant to the health field and medical practice.

Evolving Health

Evolving Health
Author: Noel T. Boaz
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2002-10-01
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 0471212997

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Human illnesses can be understood as damage to those adaptations that we took on at various stages in our evolution from pre-life molecules to modern Homo sapiens. Preventing these illnesses entails avoiding what causes the damage — which too frequently are the everyday hazards of twenty-first-century life, as the chart below shows: Level of Evolution / Cause of adaptive failure / resulting disease or problem Pre-life / Environmental poisons / Certain birth defects Single cell (bacteria and amoeba-like) / Viral infection / Colds/flu/HIV Morula (sponge-like) / Cellular stress / Cancer Chordate / Physical stress / Back pain Fish / Excess dietary salt / Hypertension/heart disease Amphibian / Tobacco smoke / Lung cancer/emphysema Lower primate / Excess dietary sugar / Diabetes mellitus Higher primate / Vitamin C deficiency / Scurvy Ape / Excess dietary protein / Gout Homo sapiens / Reduced dietary variety / Nutritionaldiseases/food allergies

Evolution and Disease

Evolution and Disease
Author: James Thomas Charles Nash
Publisher:
Total Pages: 90
Release: 1915
Genre: Diseases
ISBN:

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Genetics and Evolution of Infectious Diseases

Genetics and Evolution of Infectious Diseases
Author: Michel Tibayrenc
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 773
Release: 2010-12-17
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0123848903

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Genetics and Evolution of Infectious Diseases is at the crossroads between two major scientific fields of the 21st century: evolutionary biology and infectious diseases. The genomic revolution has upset modern biology and has revolutionized our approach to ancient disciplines such as evolutionary studies. In particular, this revolution is profoundly changing our view on genetically driven human phenotypic diversity, and this is especially true in disease genetic susceptibility. Infectious diseases are indisputably the major challenge of medicine. When looking globally, they are the number one killer of humans and therefore the main selective pressure exerted on our species. Even in industrial countries, infectious diseases are now far less under control than 20 years ago. The first part of this book covers the main features and applications of modern technologies in the study of infectious diseases. The second part provides detailed information on a number of the key infectious diseases such as malaria, SARS, avian flu, HIV, tuberculosis, nosocomial infections and a few other pathogens that will be taken as examples to illustrate the power of modern technologies and the value of evolutionary approaches. Takes an integrated approach to infectious diseases Includes contributions from leading authorities Provides the latest developments in the field

The Future of Public Health

The Future of Public Health
Author: Committee for the Study of the Future of Public Health
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 1988-01-15
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309581907

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"The Nation has lost sight of its public health goals and has allowed the system of public health to fall into 'disarray'," from The Future of Public Health. This startling book contains proposals for ensuring that public health service programs are efficient and effective enough to deal not only with the topics of today, but also with those of tomorrow. In addition, the authors make recommendations for core functions in public health assessment, policy development, and service assurances, and identify the level of government--federal, state, and local--at which these functions would best be handled.