Darwinian Medicine

Question 1

Why learn about medicine?

Answer 1

Behavior is a critical component to health (in both positive and negative ways) and some peeps want to go to med school

Question 2

What does traditional medicine seek to do?

Answer 2

Classify symptoms, identify the mechanisms and processes that lead to them, and relieve symptoms & prevent their reoccurrence

Question 3

Which level of analysis are traditional medicine type of questions?

Answer 3

Proximate - Mechanistic

Question 4

What does Darwinian medicine seek to do?

Answer 4

Understand the evolutionary origins of disease, determine whether or not symptoms should be treated, and predict where medical problems may arise in the future

Question 5

Which level of analysis are Darwinian medicine type of questions?

Answer 5

Ultimate - Functional/evolutionary

Question 6

Is Darwinian medicine an alternative for traditional medicine?

Answer 6

No, it is only another way of analyzing medical problems

Question 7

Who should study Darwinian medicine?

Answer 7

Anyone entering a medical profession, anyone interested in studying any animal (or plant) which is subject to illness, anyone who possesses a human body or cares about someone who does

Question 8

What are the things that cause us to get sick?

Answer 8

Defenses (pain), infectious diseases, novel environments, genes, design compromises, and evolutionary legacies

Question 9

Why do we get sick - Defenses:

Answer 9

We have pain so we know something is wrong. Rapid pain occurs to arrest damages, persistent pain for protection during healing, learning to avoid damages.

Question 10

Why do we get sick - Infectious diseases:

Answer 10

Infectious diseases will come into our body, make us sick and use us to spread them, and then we become immune to them (think of replicator and vehicles). They want to get us sick, but not too sick (so we don’t die and then we can’t spread them).
Ex: Cholera in the pool

Question 11

Why do we get sick - Novel environments:

Answer 11

The environment can do damage to us. UV rays can cause cancer, and obesity is a big problem.

Question 12

Why do we love eating fat?

Answer 12

It tastes good to us. We love it because (on a mechanistic level) when we eat a molecule of fat, the taste buds send to the brain that we love it and the brain releases serotonin. We love it because (on an evolutionary/functional level) our ancestors ate fat, lived longer and produced more offspring, so now more people love to eat fat.

Question 13

Why do we get sick - Genes:

Answer 13

Can make us sick. For example, sickle cell anemia causes inflexible chains of hemoglobin, damaging nerves and supplies less oxygen. In certain parts of the world, this can be helpful. In places where malaria is prevalent, people with this condition are immune to malaria.

Question 14

Why do we get sick - Design compromises:

Answer 14

Back pain is now an ongoing problem in society. This is because over time our center of gravity changed, and now we are upright but could not “update” our backs well enough.

Question 15

Why do we get sick - Evolutionary legacies:

Answer 15

Choking is an issue with our throat design. We have a rare ability to chew and breath at the same time. If you have a single hole for two purposes, then you have to close it when you do one thing so you won’t die. Sometimes, this does not happen and people choke.

Question 16

All animals have a _____________ which protects their bodies from parasites and pathogens and repairs damage.

Answer 16

Physiological immune system

Question 17

What is the behavioral immune system?

Answer 17

Helps animals avoid infections and injuries before they get to the physiological immune system. It works in conjunction with the physiological immune system to help it fight off pathogens or prevent further injury.

Question 18

Would you rather eat ice cream or poop? Why wouldn’t you want to eat the poop?

Answer 18

We have a physiological behavior of disgust of poop that keeps us from eating it and dealing with the functional consequences.

Question 19

What are the different behavioral immunities?

Answer 19

Fecal aversion, sympathetic vomiting, self-grooming, self-medication

Question 20

What is fecal aversion? What is an example of an exception?

Answer 20

Averse to their own feces. The exception would be koalas, because they love “pap” (poop slurry that is full of microorganisms). A young koala will accumulate microorganisms by eating the pap of mom, inoculating themselves so they can eat a specialized food source when they are older.
Note: They need to be behaviorally drawn to feces to be able to eat it

Question 21

Why does sympathetic vomiting happen?

Answer 21

The person that is vomiting has something wrong with them, so I might too… So I need to vomit with them so I am not sick for long

Question 22

Why do organisms self-groom?

Answer 22

A behavior that keeps them from getting sick. Social animals grooming is a good thing for hierarchy and takes care of things like ticks and diseases.

Question 23

What do animals do to self medicate?

Answer 23

Animals will use compounds from the wild. Ex: Bonobo will ear a particular plant that will cause diarrhea to get rid of a worm problem. Don’t have to be “smart” to self medicate… Moths, ants, and fruit-flies also self medicate.

Question 24

With something like a fever that causes a deviation in body temperature, what would a traditional doctor do?

Answer 24

Traditional doctor would recognize the deviation and want homeostasis within the body, so will treat the symptom with medicine.

Question 25

What are some of the problems associated with providing medicine to someone who has a fever?

Answer 25

When a patient receives the drugs, they become sicker for longer. With a condition like pneumonia, it is better to leave the fever, as data tells us that the higher the temperature gets, the less likely they are to die.

Question 26

What are examples of organisms with “fevers?”

Answer 26

White rabbit: Higher body temperature, smaller mortality rate (to an extent)
Desert Iguanas: Iguana can not produce a fever but they can move to an environment that can mimic a fever
Honey bee colonies: The whole colony can heat itself up to kill the infection in the brood.

Question 27

Should you treat a fever?

Answer 27

It may depend on the infection and the fever.

Question 28

What is the fever caveat?

Answer 28

Mortality kicks up when the fever keeps going and exceeds what the host can handle temperature wise.

Question 29

Is it fair to say the two different doctors are “versus” each other?

Answer 29

No! Complementary approaches are important for a more complete understanding.

Question 30

What is horizontal transmission?

Answer 30

Independent of host reproduction. Direct contact (no vectors) and indirect contact (insect vectors, unclean water)

Question 31

What is vertical transmission?

Answer 31

Dependent on host reproduction (offspring).

Question 32

How might we predict an infected person’s behavior to change depending on the route of infection?

Answer 32

Host behavior in direct contact: less deleterious
Host behavior in indirect contact: more deleterious (do not need host to be healthy enough to go out and about and spread it)

Question 33

What is a host’s behavior when they have malaria?

Answer 33

Flat out on death bed - can’t get away from mosquitos so great way for it to spread. The sicker the better

Question 34

What is a host’s behavior when they have influenza?

Answer 34

Horizontal transmission, so need more direct contact. Sick, but not too sick. Need them to share the air with others

Question 35

What is a host’s behavior when they have HPV?

Answer 35

Vertical and direct intimate contact, the less symptoms the better.

Question 36

Which disease is more successful? Ebola or coronavirus?

Answer 36

Covid because is has become less fatal and more infectious. Ebola kills its patients, so rarely does it spread much

Question 37

What is an example of host manipulation?

Answer 37

An infection in rats will spread when a cat eats the rat. The disease is transmitted through the cat’s feces. The infections causes rats to change their behavior that makes them attracted to cat urine when they are infected (so then the cat eats them, basically suicide). Don’t forget vehicles and replicators

Question 38

What can we conclude about Darwinian medicine?

Answer 38

Darwinian medicine can answer questions about the origin of disease on an evolutionary (ultimate) level of analysis. This evolutionary insight can help us: decide whether or not to suppress a symptom, predict susceptibilities to sickness, and predict behavioral consequences depending on infection route.