What is “Evolutionary Medicine?”
Simply put, Evolutionary Medicine is the confluence of medical science and evolutionary theory. Evolutionary medicine utilizes principles of evolutionary theory to better, or more completely, understand human disease. It also uses medical phenomena and phenomena related to human disease states to add to our current understanding of evolution and evolutionary processes.
The groundwork for evolutionary medicine was first laid out in the early 1990’s in the seminal book, “Why We Get Sick” by Randolph Nesse and G. C. Williams (1994). You can read reviews of it in Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews. In short, the book briefly discusses some of the most relevant principles of evolution, such as natural selection and trade-offs, and then proceeds to describe why the human body is vulnerable to pathogens, toxins, allergies, cancer, and the maladies associated with aging (Williams did some of the pioneering work on the evolution of aging and senescence). They also published an earlier (1991) scholarly review in the Quarterly Review of Biology
What Evolutionary Medicine IS NOT.
Evolutionary medicine is not an alternative to medicine as it is customarily practiced today, unlike naturopathy or homeopathy. Evolutionary medicine is another tool, like x-rays or blood analyzers, physicians can use to better understand human diseases. Any treatment recommendation made by a physician should be based on sound medical knowledge which is based on research and controlled medical trials. Evolutionary medicine really just gives physician-doctors another perspective from which to consider disease. Some biomedical researchers determine mechanisms of the development of disease states. It only makes sense to also consider WHY those disease states occur. The why perspective is the evolutionary perspective.
Is Evolutionary Medicine a bona fide field of study?
I once approached an administrator for regionally prestigious biomedical graduate program about adding a degree in evolutionary medicine to their degree offerings. He told me it wasn’t necessary because all of their labs already utilized evolutionary medicine because they used rodents and various cell cultures lines as model systems. While based on a the evolutionary similarities between humans and mice, there is obviously much more to evolutionary medicine.
There are currently no undergraduate nor graduate degrees in Evolutionary Medicine at any universities in the U.S. The university of California-Los Angeles offers a minor in Evolutionary Medicine. Rutgers offers a certificate in Evolutionary Medicine. Arizona State University has perhaps the most vibrant research program in evolutionary medicine at their Center for Evolution and Medicine. Though students and faculty associated with the center are housed in various departments across campus.
The International Society for Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health is an international scientific organization dedicated to creating and disseminating knowledge of evolutionary medicine through their journal Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health and The Evolution and Medicine Review. The Human Behavior and Evolution Society another scientific organization at the forefront of evolutionary medicine.
Where can you learn more about Evolutionary Medicine?
Besides checking in on this blog regularly and following some of the links provided above, below are a few other good places online to become familiar with Evolutionary Medicine.
International Society for Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health
ASU-Center for Evolution and Medicine
Randolph Nesse’s personal webpage
10 questions answered about evolutionary medicine
Benevolentheathen 