BIO220H1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 19: Smoke Detector, Morning Sickness, Guppy
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BIO220H1 Full Course Notes
Verified Note
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Reading article 19 evolution and the origins of disease. Most medical research tries to explain cause of disease + find treatment: based on proximate issues. = straightforward study of body"s anatomic + physiological mechanisms. Evolutionary medicine (darwinian: why is body deigned in way that makes it vulnerable to disease, evolutionary explanations for body"s flaws in categories: = evolved defenses: pain, fever, cough, vomiting, anxiety. Ex: availability of dietary fats: recent so ns hasn"t had chance to select yet. Ex: sickle cell gene: protects against malaria but can make people sick. Suboptimal design features: ex: mammal eye has blind spot. Coughing: need to clear foreign matter from lungs otherwise will die from pneumonia. Pain: if can"t feel pain, will stay in same position for long periods, say in same position for long periods = impair blood supply to joints. Coughs/pain interpreted as disease/trauma but is actually part of solution (not problem)
