Introduction to Evolutionary Medicine

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

Wikipedia entry

Don’t keep the keg by the TV during an Evolution/Creation debate

I just watched the Nye-Ham debate on YouTube.  I intend to give a more thorough treatment to the debate tomorrow, but I wanted to get a couple of thoughts into cyberspace tonight as the blogoshere explodes in the aftermath.

1.  Don’t keep the keg of homebrew next to the tv during a science vs creation debate.  Much imbibing will ensue.

2.  Citing your cadre of hack PhD ‘s may impress those who have not been in graduate school.  Those of us who have are not impressed (I am can at least say I did not go to the same Oklahoma university as Fabich)

3.  Evolution does not mean antiGod

4.  Did Ken Ham really have to make a statement about gay marriage in a Creation/Evolution debate?  No he’s a prick. (Again homebrew by the TV a bad idea)

5.  Observational science/historical science is a false dichotomy.  Both follow the same process called the scientific method.

6.  Are we really still confusing methodological naturalism with philosophical naturalism?

7.  Yes, science does make assumptions in formulating radiometric dating, the big bang, etc.  But isn’t divine creation by THE CHRISTIAN God  an assumption, too? (see next)

8.  Why is the Bible the “Go to” book?  Why not the Quaran,  Taiji tushuo, or one of the Native American creation myths?

9.  What is a “kind” anyway?

10.  It’s okay in science to say, “We don’t know, yet.”

More on the Nye/Ham “debate”

Alright, As promised I have a bit more intel for you regarding the Nye/Ham smackdown in the primordial ooze (What else can you call a creation museum?).  The event press release can be seen here.

The event is scheduled for February 4th at 7:00 pm in the Legacy Hall (and that’s one hell of a legacy!). The topic of the “debate” is, “Is Creation a Viable Model of Origins?” According to WWW.WDRB.com, the $25 tickets sold out in less than 20 minutes. Personally I think buying fossilized dinosaur poop would have been a better way to spend the $25 bucks.

I forced my self to visit the answers in genesis website (I kept one eye closed and held my Darwin fish emblem to my heart). Apparently this is being billed as an “historic event.” Since Monkey trial has already been used, Kentuckians will need to come up with something different.  Let’s help them out.  Post your suggestions in the comments below.

The folks at AiG af fantastic marketers (NSF and AAAS needs needs to recruit these masterminds).  According to their website you can purchase a live stream of the event for $5 bucks, a DVD  and stream for $20, or the Stream, DVD, and video download for $25. Though I did see on their website that they were scuttling the live stream  because of demand and that they were looking into other exciting opportunities for people to watch the event live.

I still think this is a bad idea.  As I said before there is nothing to debate since creationism is not science.  There is nothing to be gained from debating creationist.  Their minds are made up.  In the worst case scenario Nye can come off looking like a fool and those folks still on the fence about the issue fall over on to the otherside.

What are your thoughts on the event.  Is it a good idea to get the issue out in to the open so it can be discussed or is this a huge mistake?

Cheers.