Emergency Physician, Educator, Researcher, interested in the microbiome, evolution, and medicine
New data on the grandmother hypothesis: http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/1028/1 And, because it relates to a topic Dr. Appenzeller brought up – a bit about the evolution of long distance running: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/health/27well.html?em
Next week we will discuss hypotheses of aging. aging understanding-aging age-old-question Why do you think we age? We will discuss several hypotheses of aging including: Declining power of selection Antagonistic Pleiotropy Read about both with the attached readings.The writing project is: Which is more powerful: natural selection for immunity that […]
Dr. Appenzeller’s article is here: http://stroke.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/37/7/1754 On thursday we will finish our discussion of altitude topics. I am posting my lecture on altitude here: High Altitude Populations Go ahead and read read the slides above. I am not planning on giving the whole lecture, but I will show a few […]
Tuesday 10/27/09 4:00 pm – 5:15 pm Castetter Hall, Room 258 Title: Climate and Evolution of Human Adaptation to Hypoxia Otto Appenzeller MD New Mexico Health Enhancement and Marathon Clinics Research Foundation Dr. Appenzeller has done research on the physiology of altitude adaptation among the Ethiopian highlanders. This population is one of […]
Writing project assigned on 10/20/09 and due 10/27/09: Some suggest that menopause evolved because grandmothers are more successful at passing on their genes by investing in grandchildren than in more babies of their own. Others argue that menopause is a consequence of modern medicine prolonging the lifespan of women past […]
Tomorrow we will discuss the requirements for final projects. Good presentations will include the following elements: 1) A description of a disease or a condition that affects human health. 2) Review or proposal of a disease hypothesis that incorporates an evolutionary point of view (adaptationist, historical) and/or alternative hypotheses (e.g […]
Reproduction: Morning Sickness & Menopause Morning Sickness – why does it occur; does it have a benefit to the fetus or mother? Menopause – why do women cease to reproduce in middle age? Readings: 1. Testing Menopause 2. Nausea and vomiting of pregnancy in an evolutionary perspective. Sherman PW, Flaxman […]
Writing project (due next tuesday). Some have suggested that the age of weaning of infants from the breast is subject to parent offspring conflict. For example, infants might want to breastfeed longer than the mother would like. Breastfeeding tends to suppress ovulation and delay pregnancy. Give an evolutionary hypothesis for […]
Writing project (due next tuesday). Plasmodium falciparum is an extremely difficult organism to eradicate and has developed resistance to most antimalarials. Explain why the way antimalarials are used might lead to resistance. Vaccine efforts have also failed. Come up with a hypothesis why it is harder to make a vaccine […]
Melissa found this video that is a good discussion of causation and correlation and discusses some evolutionary concepts of vaccination. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW1IEqKuf6s
EvolutionMedicine 