Evolutionary Thinking in Medicine

Advances in the Evolutionary Analysis of Human Behaviour

Alexandra Alvergne

Crispin Jenkinson

Charlotte Faurie Editors

Evolutionary

Thinking in

Medicine

From Research to Policy and Practice

Advances in the Evolutionary Analysis

of Human Behaviour

Series editor

Rebecca Sear, London, UK

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/11457

Alexandra Alvergne • Crispin Jenkinson

Charlotte Faurie

Editors

Evolutionary Thinking

in Medicine

From Research to Policy and Practice

123

Editors

Alexandra Alvergne

Oxford

UK

Crispin Jenkinson

Oxford

UK

Charlotte Faurie

Montpellier

France

Advances in the Evolutionary Analysis of Human Behaviour

ISBN 978-3-319-29714-9 ISBN 978-3-319-29716-3 (eBook)

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-29716-3

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016931844

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016

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Preface

Evolution in medicine?! Never heard of it! This quote, in essence, sums up the

reaction of a medical doctor who kindly accepted to review the proposal for this

book. Far from substantiating the received idea according to which doctors are

against any new approach to their field, it shows that health professionals know

little about the relevance of evolutionary thinking for medical practice. At first, this

may be surprising: the idea that evolution can inform medicine is not new—

Erasmus Darwin, Darwin’s grandfather and a medical practitioner, hinted at this

conceptual breakthrough more than 200 years ago—and evolutionary biologists

have pleaded for more evolution into medicine for about two decades. In addition,

medicine is repeatedly confronted to evolution: practitioners have to deal with

antibiotic resistance, the rapid changes of a virus, or the evolution of tumour cells.

Yet, evolution is not part of the medical curriculum of most universities and what is

more, most medical students and doctors have just “never heard of it”. At second

glance, however, this is not surprising.

Until recently, most evolutionary medicine publications did not really target

medical practitioners or were published in evolutionary rather than medical jour￾nals. Further, most books on the topic are organized into a structure that reflects

evolutionary biology sub-fields which are not familiar to medical doctors (e.g. life

history theory, host–parasite co-evolution) rather than sub-fields of medicine (car￾diology, oncology, obstetrics). Medicine is highly specialized and already requires a

considerable amount of knowledge, and one cannot expect its practitioners to teach

themselves the basis of evolutionary biology that are required to dive efficiently into

the growing literature of evolutionary medicine, a still secondary discipline to

medicine. But this is not the whole story. For those medics who have “heard of it”,

the relevance of an evolutionary framework for the practice of medicine is yet to be

demonstrated. Some have argued that in the consultation room, evolutionary

thinking may offer little more than a nice story to tell, but will not fix the broken

arm. Are they wrong? Arguably the answer is neither yes nor no, but rather that it

depends on the field of specialization, the amount of attention it has received from

evolutionary scholars and the type of practical implication that is sought

v

(communication with the patient, rethinking the hallmarks of a disease, finding new

avenues in cancer therapy, etc.). Still, the question of the impact of evolutionary

thinking for practice and policy is one to be asked explicitly.

This book, a collection of 23 chapters, is using a number of unique features to

tackle the issues outlined above and in so doing, will enable medical doctors to

think evolutionarily: (1) It is organized by medical sub-fields: obstetrics, paedi￾atrics, nutrition, cardiology, oncology, immunity, geriatric, psychiatry and psy￾chology. Those sub-fields that are missing are not omissions from the Editors’ part,

but rather the expression of a lack of evolutionary studies in some particular

medical specialties. For some, it has been either impossible (e.g. toxicology,

urology, gastroenterology, dermatology) or extremely difficult (e.g. cardiology) to

find contributors. (2) At least half of the contributors are M.D. (medical doctors).

The other half is composed of anthropologists, psychologists and population health

scientists. This leads to different “cultures” in the manner with which the evolu￾tionary approach is used to address medical issues, and we think it illustrates the

richness of the applicability of the evolutionary “toolbox” to serve health and

medicine. (3) Each chapter contains a lay-summary and a glossary. A special effort

has been made to make the content of this book accessible to a lay reader, whether

in evolutionary biology or in medicine. (4) Each chapter contains a section

“Implications for policy and practice”. The authors have been forcefully instructed

to provide an answer to that question, however difficult it might be, pointing out

whether or not such implications indeed had already emerged and/or the extent to

which they were still speculative at this stage. The result is a collection of sections

that contain far-reaching implications for contemporary biomedicine and/or brilliant

ideas in waiting to be tested. Indeed, the point of the exercise was not to provide a

definitive answer or account of an evolutionary approach to a particular medical

topic, but rather to challenge the current state of knowledge and provide the reader

with a new lens with which to think about health and medicine.

Although this book is first targeted at health practitioners and medical students,

its guiding purpose will serve anyone who is keen on finding out about “evolu￾tionary thinking in medicine”, what it means and what it has to offer to mainstream

biomedicine, be it patients, students, researchers or the general public.

July 2015 Alexandra Alvergne

Charlotte Faurie

vi Preface

Contents

1 Applying Evolutionary Thinking in Medicine: An Introduction ... 1

Prof. Gillian R. Bentley, Ph.D.

Part I Obstetrics

2 “Foetal–Maternal Conflicts” and Adverse Outcomes

in Human Pregnancies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Jimmy Espinoza, M.D., M.Sc., FACOG

3 Obstructed Labour: The Classic Obstetric Dilemma

and Beyond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Emma Pomeroy, Ph.D., Prof. Jonathan C.K. Wells, Ph.D.

and Jay T. Stock, Ph.D.

4 Bottle Feeding: The Impact on Post-partum Depression, Birth

Spacing and Autism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Gordon G. Gallup, Jr., Ph.D., Kristina N. Spaulding, Ph.D.

and Fatima Aboul-Seoud, B.A.

Part II Paediatrics

5 Sudden Infant Death Syndrome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Charlotte K. Russell, Ph.D., Lane E. Volpe, Ph.D.

and Prof. Helen L. Ball, Ph.D.

6 The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease:

Adaptation Reconsidered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Ian J. Rickard, Ph.D.

7 Is Calculus Relevant to Survival? Managing the Evolutionary

Novelty of Modern Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

P. Douglas Sellers II, Ph.D., Karin Machluf, Ph.D.

and Prof. David F. Bjorklund, Ph.D.

vii

Part III Nutrition

8 Binge Eating, Disinhibition and Obesity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Prof. Stanley Ulijaszek, Ph.D. and Eleanor Bryant, Ph.D.

9 Evolutionary Aspects of the Dietary Omega-6/Omega-3

Fatty Acid Ratio: Medical Implications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Artemis P. Simopoulos, M.D.

Part IV Cardiology

10 Evolutionary Paradigms in Cardiology: The Case of Chronic

Heart Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Prof. emeritus Bernard Swynghedauw, M.D.

11 Evolutionary Imprints on Cardiovascular Physiology

and Pathophysiology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Robert S. Danziger, M.D.

Part V Oncology

12 Darwinian Strategies to Avoid the Evolution of Drug

Resistance During Cancer Treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

John W. Pepper

13 Why Chemotherapy Does Not Work: Cancer Genome

Evolution and the Illusion of Oncogene Addiction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Aleksei Stepanenko, Ph.D. and Prof. Vadym Kavsan, Ph.D.

14 Evolution, Infection, and Cancer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Prof. Paul W. Ewald, Ph.D. and Holly A. Swain Ewald, Ph.D.

Part VI Immunology

15 Microbes, Parasites and Immune Diseases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

Gabriele Sorci, Ph.D., Emanuel Guivier, Ph.D., Cédric Lippens, M.Sc.

and Bruno Faivre, Ph.D.

16 Evolutionary Principles and Host Defense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Prof. Neil Greenspan, M.D., Ph.D.

17 Helminth Immunoregulation and Multiple Sclerosis Treatment . . . 241

Jorge Correale, M.D.

Part VII Geriatrics

18 Inflammaging and Its Role in Ageing and Age-Related

Diseases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Prof. Claudio Franceschi, Ph.D., Zelda Alice Franceschi, Ph.D.,

Paolo Garagnani, Ph.D. and Cristina Giuliani, Ph.D.

viii Contents

19 Dementias of the Alzheimer Type: Views Through the Lens

of Evolutionary Biology Suggest Amyloid-Driven Brain

Aging Is Balanced Against Host Defense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

Prof. Caleb E. Finch, Ph.D. and George M. Martin, M.D.

Part VIII Psychology and Psychiatry

20 The Evolutionary Etiologies of Autism Spectrum

and Psychotic Affective Spectrum Disorders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Prof. Bernard J. Crespi, Ph.D.

21 Why Are Humans Vulnerable to Alzheimer’s Disease? . . . . . . . . . 329

Daniel J. Glass, M.A. and Prof. Steven E. Arnold, M.D.

22 Evolutionary Approaches to Depression: Prospects

and Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

Somogy Varga, Ph.D.

23 The Ups and Downs of Placebos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

Pete C. Trimmer, Ph.D. and Prof. Alasdair I. Houston, Ph.D.

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371

Contents ix

Editors and Contributors

About the Editors

Alexandra Alvergne is Associate Professor in Biocultural Anthropology at

Oxford University and a Fellow of Harris Manchester College in the University of

Oxford. She trained as a human behavioural ecologist in France, focusing on the

evolutionary and ecological determinants of male reproductive and parental beha￾viour. She then held a Newton International Fellowship in the Anthropology

Department at University College London, where she researched how biological

and cultural evolutionary processes intersect in shaping diversity in health

decision-making, particularly contraceptive uptake. Now in post at Oxford

University, she runs the course “Evolutionary thinking in medicine” for students in

Human Sciences (BA), Archeology and Anthropology (BA) and Medical

Anthropology (M.Sc.), and she is developing research programmes linking evo￾lution, medicine and anthropology.

Crispin Jenkinson is Professor of Health Services Research, and Director of the

Health Services Research Unit (HSRU), at the Nuffield Department of Population

Health and a Senior Research Fellow of Harris Manchester College in the

University of Oxford. He graduated from Bedford College (University of London)

before coming to Oxford where he gained an M.Sc. in Psychology and then

undertook research on the psychological impact of long-term illness for a D.Phil.

Prior to joining the HSRU in 1992, he was a research fellow at Nuffield College,

Oxford. His main research interests include patient reported outcomes and health

status measurement, the evaluation of patient experiences of medical care, and

methodology. He has extensive experience in developing and validating outcome

measures and, in collaboration with others, has conducted randomized controlled

trials in which such instruments have been primary end-points.

Charlotte Faurie is a CNRS researcher in Human Evolutionary Biology at the

Institute for Evolutionary Sciences in Montpellier University, France. She trained as

an evolutionary biologist, focusing on the evolution of the polymorphism of hand

xi

preference in human populations. She then held a Marie Curie Post-doctoral

Fellowship in the UK, in the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences at Sheffield

University, where she investigated the effects of competitive and cooperative

interactions among siblings on life-history traits. Back in France, she focused on

questions about parental investment, and how sexual selection shapes the evolution

of cooperation in humans. She currently leads research programmes on human

genetic and behavioural adaptations, and on the medicalization of birth. She teaches

evolutionary biology and medicine in several master’s programmes in France. She

is also a student at the Medical School of Montpellier.

Contributors

Fatima Aboul-Seoud, B.A. Department of Psychology, University of

Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA

Prof. Steven E. Arnold, M.D. Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General

Hospital, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA

Prof. Helen L. Ball, Ph.D. Parent-Infant Sleep Lab, Department of Anthropology,

Durham University, Durham, UK

Prof. Gillian R. Bentley, Ph.D. Department of Anthropology, Durham University,

Durham, UK

Prof. David F. Bjorklund, Ph.D. Department of Psychology, Florida Atlantic

University, Boca Raton, FL, USA

Eleanor Bryant, Ph.D. Division of Psychology, University of Bradford, Bradford,

UK

Jorge Correale, M.D. Dr. Raúl Carrea Institute for Neurological Research,

FLENI, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Prof. Bernard J. Crespi, Ph.D. Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser

University, Burnaby British Columbia, Canada

Robert S. Danziger, M.D. University of Illinois, Chicago, IL, USA

Jimmy Espinoza, M.D., M.Sc., FACOG Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine,

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston,

TX, USA; Texas Children’s Hospital Pavilion for Women, Houston, TX, USA

Prof. Paul W. Ewald, Ph.D. Department of Biology, University of Louisville,

Louisville, KY, USA

Bruno Faivre, Ph.D. Biogéosciences, CNRS UMR 6282, Université Bourgogne

Franche-Comté, Dijon, France

xii Editors and Contributors

Prof. Caleb E. Finch, Ph.D. Department of Neurobiology, Davis School of

Gerontology, The Dornsife College, The University of Southern California, Los

Angeles, CA, USA

Prof. Claudio Franceschi, Ph.D. Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and

Specialty Medicine (DIMES), University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy;

Interdepartmental Center “Luigi Galvani” (CIG), University of Bologna, Bologna,

Italy; IRCCS Institute of Neurological Sciences, and CNR-ISOF, Bologna, Italy

Zelda Alice Franceschi, Ph.D. Department of History, Cultures and Civilizations

(DISCI), University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

Gordon G. Gallup, Jr., Ph.D. Department of Psychology, University at Albany,

State University of New York, Albany, USA

Paolo Garagnani, Ph.D. Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty

Medicine (DIMES), University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy; Interdepartmental

Center “Luigi Galvani” (CIG), University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

Cristina Giuliani, Ph.D. Department of Biological, Geological and

Environmental Sciences (BiGeA), Laboratory of Molecular Anthropology and

Centre for Genome Biology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

Daniel J. Glass, M.A. Department of Psychology, Suffolk University, Boston,

MA, USA

Prof. Neil Greenspan, M.D., Ph.D. Department of Pathology, Case Western

Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA

Emanuel Guivier, Ph.D. Biogéosciences, CNRS UMR 6282, Université

Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Dijon, France

Prof. Alasdair I. Houston, Ph.D. School of Biological Sciences, University of

Bristol, Bristol, UK

Prof. Vadym Kavsan, Ph.D. Department of Biosynthesis of Nucleic Acids,

Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics, National Academy of Sciences of

Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine

Cédric Lippens, M.Sc. Biogéosciences, CNRS UMR 6282, Université Bourgogne

Franche-Comté, Dijon, France

Karin Machluf, Ph.D. Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University,

State College, PA, USA

George M. Martin, M.D. Department of Pathology, University of Washington,

Seattle, WA, USA

John W. Pepper, Ph.D. Division of Cancer Prevention, Biometry Research

Group, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA

Editors and Contributors xiii

Emma Pomeroy, Ph.D. Newnham College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge,

UK; Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge,

Cambridge, UK

Ian J. Rickard, Ph.D. Department of Anthropology, Durham University,

Durham, UK

Charlotte K. Russell, Ph.D. Parent-Infant Sleep Lab, Department of

Anthropology, Durham University, Durham, UK

P. Douglas Sellers II, Ph.D. Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State

University, State College, PA, USA

Artemis P. Simopoulos, M.D. The Center for Genetics, Nutrition and Health,

Washington, DC, USA

Gabriele Sorci, Ph.D. Biogéosciences, CNRS UMR 6282, Université Bourgogne

Franche-Comté, Dijon, France

Kristina N. Spaulding, Ph.D. Department of Psychology, University at Albany,

State University of New York, Albany, USA

Aleksei Stepanenko, Ph.D. Department of Biosynthesis of Nucleic Acids, Institute

of Molecular Biology and Genetics, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine,

Kiev, Ukraine

Jay T. Stock, Ph.D. Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of

Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

Holly A. Swain Ewald, Ph.D. Department of Biology, University of Louisville,

Louisville, KY, USA

Prof. emeritus Bernard Swynghedauw, M.D. U942-INSERM, Hôpital

Lariboisière, Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse, France

Pete C. Trimmer, Ph.D. School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol,

Bristol, UK

Prof. Stanley Ulijaszek, Ph.D. Unit for Biocultural Variation and Obesity, School

of Anthropology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

Somogy Varga, Ph.D. Philosophy Department, University of Memphis,

Memphis, USA

Lane E. Volpe, Ph.D. The Implementation Group, Colorado, USA; Parent-Infant

Sleep Lab, Department of Anthropology, Durham University, Durham, UK

Prof. Jonathan C.K. Wells, Ph.D. Childhood Nutrition Research Centre, UCL

Institute of Child Health, London, UK

xiv Editors and Contributors

Chapter 1

Applying Evolutionary Thinking

in Medicine: An Introduction

Prof. Gillian R. Bentley, Ph.D.

Lay Summary Evolutionary thinking is beginning to infiltrate medical

practice and has the potential to transform how clinicians explain human

diseases. Evolutionary medicine takes a long-term view of why humans suffer

from various diseases and addresses the reasons behind these. Proponents of

this relatively new field argue that clinicians need to understand basic concepts

in evolutionary biology and that these should be embedded in the training

students receive in medical schools. Historically, in the late nineteenth and

early twentieth centuries, medical writings did include evolutionary concepts,

but this approach fell out of favour following the excesses of the Second World

War. Evolutionary medicine emerged again in the 1990s and has slowly been

building momentum around the world with journals, societies, books, and

papers expanding in number and visibility. Although biologists and other

scientists have been the main proponents, a growing number of physicians and

medical students are becoming involved as the field reaches a new maturity.

1.1 A Shift in Perspective in Approaching Medical Issues

What is evolutionary thinking in medicine? In brief, it is the application of basic

evolutionary principles derived from the science of biology to understand human

susceptibility to disease [1–4]. But it is so much more than this! An evolutionary

approach to health and diseases addresses how past and present pathogens, with

which we now coexist, behave and change over time [5], is concerned with how

individual development within specific environmental contexts can shape suscep￾G.R. Bentley (&)

Department of Anthropology, Durham University, Durham, UK

e-mail: [email protected]

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016

A. Alvergne et al. (eds.), Evolutionary Thinking in Medicine,

Advances in the Evolutionary Analysis of Human Behaviour,

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-29716-3_1

1