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Medicine and evolution: time for a new paradigm?

J Herman1

  • 1Department of Social Medicine, Hebrew University/Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel.

Medical Hypotheses
|May 1, 1997
PubMed
Summary

Evolutionary theory struggles to explain modern diseases. Human-induced environmental changes have altered mutation and selection, potentially impacting the survival of the fittest and necessitating a re-evaluation of Darwin

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Medical science
  • Human adaptation

Background:

  • The theory of Evolution is frequently applied to understand medical phenomena.
  • Counter-intuitive findings like programmed cell death and context-dependent fever responses challenge traditional evolutionary explanations.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To discuss maladaptive adaptations in the context of human evolution.
  • To explore how modern human environments may have altered evolutionary forces.

Main Methods:

  • Discussion of medical examples illustrating maladaptive adaptations.
  • Analysis of the interplay between mutation and selection in contemporary human development.

Main Results:

  • Human environments are increasingly mutagenic yet protective, altering the balance of evolutionary drivers.
  • Increased mutation frequency and reduced adaptive pressure are observed.
  • Emergence of new diseases and a potential decline in evolutionary "benevolence".

Conclusions:

  • Darwin's theory may require re-evaluation for recent human evolution (last few millennia).
  • Evolutionary theory might be best understood as an approximation for very long timescales.
  • Modern human evolution may not strictly follow the "survival of the fittest" paradigm.

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