General Education Science of Living Systems 16 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Horizontal Transmission, Cultural Evolution, Vertically Transmitted Infection
7 Apr 2016
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Caused by too much sugar in system resulting in not producing enough insulin. Paleolithic diet: eat what we evolved to eat. This is erroneous because we didn"t evolve to necessarily crave healthy foods. We evolved to be relatively fat and to be good at storing it. Health is only affected by evolution insofar as it affects reproductive success. Symptoms are what we notice when we get sick. Fevers raise internal temperature to prevent bacteria from reproducing. Billirubin can be symptomatic of jaundice, a liver dysfunction, but billirubin is actually a potent antioxidant. Ex: testosterone increases muscle mass, libido, competitiveness but also increase rates of heart disease. Uric acid is the body"s most potent antioxidant, however too much of it causes gout. Other trade-offs: leg length, fur, sweating, fat, stomach ph, bipedalism. Organisms aren"t engineered, they evolve and thus accrue adaptations, some of which conflict with each other.
