NESC 3180 Lecture Notes - Red Queen Hypothesis, Basal Metabolic Rate, Lipid Peroxidation
23 Nov 2012
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
The basic principle of this is that disease kills (or reduces fitness at the very least) Pathogens evolve even more rapidly than you do. For example, if tape worms are able to reproduce every few weeks, think how many generations they would go through in your 70+ year lifespan. Much more chance to evolve more rapidly than you. You must pay something to maintain them. Immune system is damaging: energy you invest in your immune system cannot be used toward reproduction, so the more you give to immunity, the more you have to take from somewhere else. Energy (calories from food: some must be used to keep your immune system online, hard to measure energy consumed when not in use, but can and have measured it when in use (using these methods) Increased metabolic rate = increased demand for energy, increases during increased immune response (as much as 15% increase in basal metabolic rate)
