Intro and Major Themes

Question 1

Proximate causes

Answer 1

Immediate, short-term mechanisms that produce a phenotype

Question 2

Ultimate causation

Answer 2

Why a phenotype evolved to be the way it is

adaptive explanations: when it evolved, the phenotype conferred an adaptive advantage (increased survival or reproduction)

Question 3

Why do we get fevers?

Answer 3

• body’s adaptive response to reduce pathogen load/ kill pathogens
• symptom induced by a pathogen that doesn’t benefit humans

Question 4

Should fevers be treated ?

Answer 4

depends..
- properties of the host; age, health status
- type of pathogen
- comfort of the patient

Question 5

Medicine vs evolutionary biology concerns

Answer 5

med : proximate causes
ev.bio : ultimate causes

Question 6

evidence that fevers are an adaptive host defense

Answer 6

cold-blooded animals raise their body temp behaviourally when infected

Question 7

Study design : Survey

Answer 7

observing natural phenomena, without manipulating a factor, to determine whether a pattern exists

• cannot determine causation

Question 8

Study design : Experiments

Answer 8

Alter/ manipulate a factor of interest, then test whether it affects a response of interest (by comparing groups with/ without the manipulated factor)

• can determine causation

Question 9

Evolutionary Medicine

Answer 9

applying evolutionary biology to gain new insight into health and disease

Question 10

features of hypotheses in evmed

Answer 10

• incl. an evolutionary concept
• concerned with humans or human-associated organisms (ex. bacteria)
• relate to a human disease or medical condition

Question 11

tremendous variation across species in rates and manifestation of disease

Answer 11

bowhead whale lifespan, naked mole rat cancer

Question 12

fundamental science

Answer 12

understanding the evolution of human health and disease phenotypes

Question 13

applied science

Answer 13

saving lives! - new treatments, medical practices, prevention strategies
- antibiotic resistance, drug resistance in cancer, evolution of new viruses

Question 14

What does natural selection act on?

Answer 14

fitness - in the evolutionary sense

not necessarily for good health, freedom from pain, max lifespan)

Question 15

cultural and environmental change

Answer 15

faster than evolution!

we live in environments that vastly differ from those we evolved in

Question 16

Disease results from

Answer 16

mismatch between current and past enviros

ex. eat more sugar after industrial revolution = increased dental caries

reduced breastfeeding = more palate deformation and impacted wisdom teeth

Question 17

Trade-offs

Answer 17

a gene increases reproduction but decreases lifespan