Emergency Physician, Educator, Researcher, interested in the microbiome, evolution, and medicine
It has been argued that modern medicine is practical and evidence based. However, this is not always the case. Some medical ideas are slow to die, even when they are poorly supported by evidence. Here is one example: It is common practice in my emergency department, and every other emergency […]
Be sure to check out the links above, including the syllabus. While 2012’s course will rely on the same formula that has made it a success for the last 4 years – including nationally known guest speakers, an interactive format, and an emphasis on the most recent findings on evolution […]
As I mentioned, not all diseases are easily explainable in evolutionary terms. We might argue that a disease, like malaria, reflects balancing selection (with survival penalty of sickle cell counteracted by the benefit of surviving malaria) but it is important to consider that many disease traits have no survival benefit. […]
I hope everybody enjoys Thanksgiving! For myself, I have a lot to be grateful for, including the privilege of teaching this class. So, after you have digested your turkey and pie, and spent time with your families, it will be time to focus on your final presentations. By the way, […]
Building on what you learned last week about fats, we are going to talk about other nutrients, starting with milk. This first article is about the geographic distribution of the lactase persistence trait: Human lactase Next, read about the concept of lactase persistence and the concept of race in medicine:Unkindest […]
As we discussed in class, fatty acids have different effects on gut pathogens because of their structure. Polyunsaturated fatty acids with double bonds have a “kink” in their carbon chains. Saturated fatty acids have a straight conformation, as do trans fats. See the following figure adapted from Desbois & Smith […]
On tuesday November 15th, I will present a hypothesis for the evolution of inflammation from dietary fat, an idea I developed with coauthors Chris Kuzawa and Melissa Franklin. The basic idea is thus: Humans have coevolved with commensal organisms and pathogens probably since our distant ancestors became multicellular. Today, our […]
Click here to read the a pdf version of today’s lecture on the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD). The figure on birhtweight and graphic showing fatness of mammals at birth is adapted from C. Kuzawa (2008)
kuzawa-chapter-for-evolutionary-anthropology The reading for next week is posted above. Please get started early since it is a book chapter. Writing assignment (read especially carefully pages 1-4): Kuzawa points out that humans have the fattest babies of any mammalian species (p. 3-4, look also at Figure 1, p. 15. As he […]
Next weeks topic is Genomic Imprinting and Conflict, which relies heavily on insights of David Haig, an evolutionary theorist from Harvard. Please read the following carefully before class! 1) Haig D. Genetic Conflicts in Pregnancy. Quarterly Review of biology. Volume 68(4). Dec 1993, 495-532: Genetic conflicts in human pregnancy 2) […]
EvolutionMedicine 