Evolution and Medicine
Robert Perlman
Abstract
This book provides an introduction to the new field of evolutionary medicine. Evolutionary concepts help explain why we remain vulnerable to disease, how pathogens and cancer cells evolve, and how the diseases that affected our evolutionary ancestors have shaped our biology. This book interweaves the presentation of evolutionary concepts with examples that illustrate how these concepts enhance our understanding of disease. It discusses the theory of evolution by natural selection, the genetic basis of evolutionary change, evolutionary life history theory, developmental plasticity, and host-pat ... More
This book provides an introduction to the new field of evolutionary medicine. Evolutionary concepts help explain why we remain vulnerable to disease, how pathogens and cancer cells evolve, and how the diseases that affected our evolutionary ancestors have shaped our biology. This book interweaves the presentation of evolutionary concepts with examples that illustrate how these concepts enhance our understanding of disease. It discusses the theory of evolution by natural selection, the genetic basis of evolutionary change, evolutionary life history theory, developmental plasticity, and host-pathogen coevolution, and uses these concepts to provide new insights into diseases such as cystic fibrosis, cancer, sexually transmitted diseases, and malaria. It incorporates the latest research in rapidly developing fields such as epigenetics and study of the human microbiome. The book ends with a discussion of the ways in which recent, culturally constructed changes in the human environment are increasing the prevalence of man-made diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and stroke. Just as evolutionary biology is concerned with populations and with changes in populations over time, evolutionary medicine is concerned with the health of populations. The book emphasizes the role of demographic processes in evolution and disease, and stresses the importance of improving population health as a means of improving the health of individuals.
Keywords:
demography,
developmental plasticity,
host-pathogen coevolution,
life history theory,
man-made diseases,
natural selection,
population health
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2013 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199661718 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: December 2013 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199661718.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Robert Perlman, author
Professor Emeritus, Department of Pediatrics and the College, University of Chicago
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