Emergency Physician, Educator, Researcher, interested in the microbiome, evolution, and medicine
This is a re-post of a previous entry, now updated. Life history theory, a concept first described by Yale evolutionary biologist Stephen Stearns, is the application of evolutionary biology to the entire life cycle from birth to death. It includes the hypothesis that features of life are shaped by natural […]
Disease is a ubiquitous feature of life on earth. All biological life on the plant evolved. Diseases evolved too. Problem is, diseases are fitness reducing for their hosts. By that definition, diseases are maladaptive. Yet the motor of evolution, natural selection, favors traits that are adaptive, not maladaptive. Why then, […]
Multi-cellular organisms have solved a special problem that single celled organisms lack: how to make cells cooperate together and restrain themselves from reproduction. In single cell organisms, there is no, or little, cost to replication. Every division and replication results in higher fitness. Not so for multi cell organisms. Multi-cell organisms […]
A recent study by Kalimouttou et al. used machine learning to conclude that insulin is one of the most effective interventions to promote survival in sepsis. The reaction on Twitter included this from Josh Farkas: Why the laugh emoji? Isn’t machine learning the best way to wade through big data? […]
For a decade or more, evidence has implicated the gut microbiota in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes. Transfer of fecal bacteria from an obese, insulin resistance mouse causes the rapid induction of insulin resistance in recipient mice, for instance. More recent work by Thaiss et al. published in Science demonstrates a […]
I read an early review of Zoobiquity, the excellent and popular book written by cardiologist and evolutionary medicine colleague Barbara Natterson-Horowitz and Kathy Bowers. I was surprised to see the reviewer dismiss the entire book as a just so story. Where did this criticism come from, and what is a just so […]
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Investors who were all in on Enron Corporation or Pets.com could warn you of that. Same goes for how our bodies invest in the microbiome. Investing in the microbiome? Is that a thing? In a way, yes. The microbiome requires investments of […]
Catecholamines are amine molecules important in the autonomic nervous system and cardiovascular system. Catecholamines are produced in abundance when the body is under a severe stress. Epinephrine and norepinephrine (adrenaline and noradrenaline) are catecholamines that prepare the body for a fight or flight response. These stress hormones affect the entire […]
If we view fat purely through the lens of pathology, we are blind to the adaptive function of fat. It is popular to pathologize fatness, and to emphasize the burden of disease that accompanies excessive body weight. Especially when individuals are blamed for being fat, the notion that fat is […]
Does machine learning improve outcomes in sepsis? This possibility was tested by Adams and colleagues in a recent Nature Medicine paper with the title: “Prospective, multi-site study of patient outcomes after implementation of the TREWS machine learning-based early warning system for sepsis.” Background: Sepsis remains a major killer of patients […]
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