Evolutionary medicine

Reaction Journal Five: Functionalism This week’s reading was over the beginnings of the radical functionalist movement that was lead by Charles Darwin. Darwin was more concerned with how an organism functioned and adapted to change than the perception, sensations, and the structure of consciousness as his fellow psychologists Wundt and Titchener were. Darwin lived a life of privilege and traveled extensively during his lifetime. During his travels, he observed many animal species and made…

Charles Darwin and by extension, Alfred Russell Wallace, were heavily inspired by several intellectual influences while collaborating together on ‘Natural Selection.’ Some are more prominent figures, while others are an inspiration by proxy, such as James Hutton. Charles Lyell’s book Principles of Geology. Lyell’s theory that minute changes would gradually increase over long periods of time helped Darwin theorize and coin the term Natural Selection, and with Lyell’s encouragement, he began…

What is science? Science is a process that we use to discover new things about our world. It is, to quote The Merriam-Webster dictionary science is “knowledge about or study of the natural world based on facts learned through experiments and observation.” Science is realization through observation and experimentation. Science can never truly “prove” anything. All science can do is give us, as humanity, more of an idea as to what goes on in our physical world; however, everything science can…

cooperative behavior to one that is more selfish, either overtly or covertly; 3. When individuals from a cooperative pair or group have repeated interactions, different strategies of cooperation and deception emerge as compared to single interactions; 4. Evolutionary game theory is further complicated by interactions between multiple individuals simultaneously, between individuals of two different species (such as the symbiotic relationship between xxxx), between factions of the same group, and…

The evolutionary arms race is between two organisms competing to out rank and outlive one another. One example in this video of the evolutionary arms race is between humans and microbes. Humans and microbes are big ones because microbes all everywhere and they can get stronger as time goes on. Microbes get stronger by giving humans medicines they don’t not get sick but better. One microbe that has affected many people is tuberculous (TB). Many Russian prisoners had got TB from other prisoners…

How do scientists explain and support the argument for biological evolution? From the recent trip to the Minnesota Zoo, labs performed in class and multiple readings these things have shown students the dynamics of evolution. Scientists, like Charles Darwin, who have focused studies on certain organisms like the Galapagos Island finches have played a large role in our knowledge today about biological evolution, natural selection and descent with modification. Over many generations and an…

Moving into the new millennium, the field of medicine has a history that has allowed it to grow to what we see now in the modern day. Different advancement in evolutionary biology, biomedical science and/or medical technology has allowed physicians to better diagnose and treat their patients since the beginning of the professional practice of medicine. Evolutionary biology has allowed medical practitioners and public health specialists the understanding of the physiological basis of how diseases…

that allow for differentiation between twins and siblings fall to individual genes that play the role of personalization in humans and result in unique coloring or patterning in animals. While this is taking place on the micro level the macro evolutionary changes are being handled by HOX genes the master organizers themselves. On the macro level changes to the body plan are being made. This is of course not to say that micro and macro evolution work in anything but tandem to keep the multiple…

Functional medicine is an evolutionary practice that addresses the unique healthcare needs of those in the 21st century. Rather than treating just the symptoms of any disease, functional medicine focuses on the underlying cause of disease by using an approach that focuses on the body's systems and their primary functions. Practitioners work to engage the patient in a partnership that will lead to overall better health and wellness. Functional medicine practitioners focus on the whole person,…

avidly read science textbooks or articles to understand how cells and other molecular building blocks brought organisms to life and new discoveries unknown to me involving evolutionary existence. Reading about chemical reactions in the body and the functions possible because of these occurrences introduced me to my interest in medicine, despite the slight differences of biology, chemistry, and physiology. Prescription drugs use chemicals and can affect organisms like humans in a multitude of…