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As humans evolved, we developed technologies to modify our
environment, yet these innovations are increasingly affecting our
behavior, biology, and society. Now we must figure out how to
function in the world we've created. Over thousands of years,
humans have invented ingenious ways to gain mastery over our
environment. The ability to communicate, accumulate knowledge
collectively, and build on previous innovations has enabled us to
change nature. Innovation has allowed us to thrive. The trouble
with innovation is that we can seldom go back and undo it. We
invent, embrace, and exploit new technologies to modify our
environment. Then we modify those technologies to cope with the
resulting impacts. Gluckman and Hanson explore what happens when we
innovate in a way that leads nature to bite back. To provide
nourishment for a growing population, humans developed methods to
process and preserve food; but easy access to these energy-dense
foods results in obesity. To protect ourselves from dangerous
pathogens we embraced cleanliness and invented antibiotics, which
has led to rising rates of autoimmune diseases and
antibiotic-resistant bacteria. More recently, our growing
dependence on the internet and social media has been linked to
mental health concerns and declining social cohesion. And we are
only at the beginning of the digital transformation that will
influence every part of our existence. Our ingenuity has not only
changed our world-it has changed us. Focusing on immediate
benefits, we rarely pause to consider the longer-term costs of
innovation. Yet we are now starting to see how our choices affect
the way our brains develop and our bodies function. The
implications are profound. Ingenious opens our eyes to the dangers
we face and offers solutions we cannot ignore.
The concept of the early life developmental origins of health and
disease (DOHaD) in adults has stimulated a new approach to
understanding disease trajectories, with major public health
implications. Indeed, the principle of the 'lifecourse of disease'
now influences health policies internationally. Environmental
influences during pregnancy and early life that affect lifelong
health are well documented, but there is a new focus on the
preconception period and the significance of paternal health on the
fetus. This fully revised second edition highlights scientific and
clinical advances in the field, exploring new understanding of
mechanisms such as epigenetics and the increasingly recognised role
of external influences, including pollution. The book is structured
logically, covering environment, clinical outcomes, mechanisms of
DOHaD, interventions throughout the lifespan and finally
implications for public health and policy. Clinicians and
scientists alike will improve their understanding of the
developmental origins of health and disease with this essential
text.
Evolutionary science is critical to an understanding of integrated
human biology and is increasingly recognised as a core discipline
by medical and public health professionals. Advances in the field
of genomics, epigenetics, developmental biology, and epidemiology
have led to the growing realisation that incorporating evolutionary
thinking is essential for medicine to achieve its full potential.
This revised and updated second edition of the first comprehensive
textbook of evolutionary medicine explains the principles of
evolutionary biology from a medical perspective and focuses on how
medicine and public health might utilise evolutionary thinking. It
is written to be accessible to a broad range of readers, whether or
not they have had formal exposure to evolutionary science. The
general structure of the second edition remains unchanged, with the
initial six chapters providing a summary of the evolutionary theory
relevant to understanding human health and disease, using examples
specifically relevant to medicine. The second part of the book
describes the application of evolutionary principles to
understanding particular aspects of human medicine: in addition to
updated chapters on reproduction, metabolism, and behaviour, there
is an expanded chapter on our coexistence with micro-organisms and
an entirely new chapter on cancer. The two parts are bridged by a
chapter that details pathways by which evolutionary processes
affect disease risk and symptoms, and how hypotheses in
evolutionary medicine can be tested. The final two chapters of the
volume are considerably expanded; they illustrate the application
of evolutionary biology to medicine and public health, and consider
the ethical and societal issues of an evolutionary perspective. A
number of new clinical examples and historical illustrations are
included. This second edition of a novel and popular textbook
provides an updated resource for doctors and other health
professionals, medical students and biomedical scientists, as well
as anthropologists interested in human health, to gain a better
understanding of the evolutionary processes underlying human health
and disease.
How do we understand and explain the apparent dichotomy between
plasticity and robustness in the context of development? Can we
identify these complex processes without resorting to 'either/or'
solutions? Written by two leaders in the field, this is the first
book to fully unravel the complexity of the subject, explaining
that the epigenetic processes generating plasticity and robustness
are in fact deeply intertwined. It identifies the different
mechanisms that generate robustness and the various forms of
plasticity, before considering the functional significance of the
integrated mechanisms and how the component processes might have
evolved. Finally, it highlights the ways in which epigenetic
mechanisms could be instrumental in driving evolutionary change.
Essential reading for biologists and psychologists interested in
epigenetics and evolution, this book is also a valuable resource
for biological anthropologists, sociobiologists, child
psychologists and paediatricians.
'Why are we losing the war against obesity and chronic disease?'
This is the simple question Peter Gluckman and Mark Hanson ask,
exploring the dominant myth that the exploding epidemic of obesity,
heart disease, and diabetes can be tackled by focusing on adult
life styles. Addressing the flawed approach of the weight-loss
industry, they explain why a continued focus simply on diet and
exercise will fail. Highlighting the implications of the growing
burden of these problems in the developing world, they show that
the scientific enterprise ignores the reality of the social,
cultural, and biological determinants that make different
populations and people respond differently to living in the modern
nutritionally rich world. Gluckman and Hanson review the
overwhelming scientific evidence that much of the problem emerges
in early life and even before birth, identifying that to address
these issues requires considering development in two dimensions - a
life course approach and addressing the developmental challenges of
countries emerging through the socioeconomic transition. Asking why
the major global bodies and vested interests fail to consider these
dimensions and continue with failed approaches, they conclude by
discussing the complex interactions between health and the food
industry, and suggest that the food industry must be co-opted as an
ally in this battle, providing a clear pathway forward.
How do we understand and explain the apparent dichotomy between
plasticity and robustness in the context of development? Can we
identify these complex processes without resorting to 'either/or'
solutions? Written by two leaders in the field, this is the first
book to fully unravel the complexity of the subject, explaining
that the epigenetic processes generating plasticity and robustness
are in fact deeply intertwined. It identifies the different
mechanisms that generate robustness and the various forms of
plasticity, before considering the functional significance of the
integrated mechanisms and how the component processes might have
evolved. Finally, it highlights the ways in which epigenetic
mechanisms could be instrumental in driving evolutionary change.
Essential reading for biologists and psychologists interested in
epigenetics and evolution, this book is also a valuable resource
for biological anthropologists, sociobiologists, child
psychologists and paediatricians.
New discoveries reveal how crucial interactions which determine our
destiny occur before birth, when our genes interact with their
environment as the embryo and fetus develop. These processes - in
the matrix of the womb - are evolutionary echoes of mechanisms
which allowed our hunter-gatherer ancestors to survive. These
exciting insights into predictive adaptive responses suggest new
ways of protecting the health of the fetus, infant and adult. If
inappropriate they can trigger obesity, diabetes and heart disease,
formerly thought to result solely from adult lifestyle. The new
concepts in this book are crucial to understanding the daunting
public health burden in societies undergoing rapid transition from
poverty to affluence. They add an important new dimension to
evolutionary theory. Synthesising developmental biology,
evolutionary history, medical science, public health and social
policy, this is a ground-breaking and fascinating account by two of
the world's leading pioneers in this important emerging field.
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