Why Darwin Matters in the Health Professions
Medicine without an understanding of evolution is simply sub-par.
Photo credit: GDJ/Pixabay
In 2017, renowned evolutionary scholar, Randolph Nesse, spoke on my home campus (SUNY New Paltz) about the importance of integrating an evolutionary framework into understanding all facets of health. Having coined the term “Darwinian Medicine” in the 1990s, Nesse has been a leader in working to help make sure that healthcare professionals have a deep understanding of evolutionary principles, as well as how profoundly these principles matter.
Of the various facts that Nesse provided in his talk, one particular fact that stood out to me was this: The MCATs, used as a screen for students to get into medical schools in the United States, did not include questions regarding evolution until 2015. Less than 10 years ago. Think.about.that.
On this point, my colleague Hamilton Stapell led a study of evolution knowledge and attitudes among American nutritionists. His team collected data from a large sample of nutritionists. In short, the lion’s share of nutritionists generally failed to see the relevance of evolutionary principles in their work. This is, to my mind, kind of a shame because a landslide of research (see Wolf, 2010) has shown that eating relatively high proportions of pre-agrarian (~non-processed) foods has extraordinary health benefits. And this approach is fully based on evolutionary principles.
Evolutionary concepts have helped to shed important light on such issues as pregnancy sickness (Profet, 1992), post-partum depression (Gallup, 2019), anxiety (Nesse & Williams, 1994), and cardiovascular disease (O’Keefe et al,. 2006). And more. Way more.
Darwin first published his now-classic treatise on evolution and natural selection, On the Origins of the Species, in 1859. Alas, so many fields of inquiry are barely aware of how these foundational ideas shed light on their particular areas of study. To the minds of myself, my co-author Nicole Wedberg, and so many others, this is a problem. In a sense, our book Positive Evolutionary Psychology is an attempt to push the needle on this issue—with hopes to help makes things better for the broader human condition.
Below are targeted streaming talks that were given, over the years, in the SUNY New Paltz Evolutionary Studies (EvoS) annual Seminar Series. Each of which deals with Darwinian medicine from a different angle.
SUNY New Paltz Evolutionary Studies Seminars on Darwinian Medicine
Amanda Guitar’s talk on Darwinian Medicine writ large (2017).
Bottom Line
Understanding human health without a strong understanding of evolutionary principles is like trying to understand how to build a car with a bunch of pieces and no instructions manual. Evolutionary principles help us see the entirety of the human experience, including all facets of human physical and mental health, with a birds-eye view. In a single frame.
Want to work toward improved human health—in a big sense? I’d say that supporting evolution education would be a great start.
References
Darwin, Charles (1859). On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (1st ed.). London: John Murray. ISBN 1-4353-9386-4.
GG Gallup Jr, JA Stolz, RL Burch, JA Bremser (2019). In D. S. Wilson et al. (Eds.). How evolutionary studies enables people to think outside the box. Darwin’s Roadmap to the Curriculum. Oxford University Press
Nesse RM, Williams GC: Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine, Times Books, New York, 1994.
O'Keefe JH Jr; Cordain L; Jones PG; Abuissa H. ( 2006). "Coronary artery disease prognosis and C-reactive protein levels improve in proportion to percent lowering of low-density lipoprotein". The American Journal of Cardiology 98 (1): 135–39. doi:10.1016/j.amjcard.2006.01.062. PMID 16784936.
Profet, M. (1992). Pregnancy Sickness as Adaptation: A Deterrent to Maternal Ingestion of Teratogens. The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture. Oxford University Press. pp. 327–365.
Stapell, H. M., Anthony J. Basile, David B. Schwartz, and Joseph B. Rigdon (2018). Status of Evolutionary Medicine within the Field of Nutrition and Dietetics: A Survey of Professionals and Students. Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, no. 1 201-210.
Wolff, R. (2010). The Paleo Solution. Las Vegas, NV. Victory Belt Publishing.