Category Archives: Constraints

So when will you lose your health – Part 5 – What to do

Posted on August 3, 2011 by

As we all worry about the current fiscal situation – this is the time bomb. As so many of us age AND as so many of us who are not that old, get sick from the diseases of Modern Civilization, … Continue reading →

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The Great Return – Part 4 – The Inquisition and why it always fails

Posted on July 12, 2011 by

First they ignore you – then they laugh at you – then they fight you – then you win. Today I am going to explore how we are about to experience all of this as we see the power of … Continue reading →

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Why did we stray so far from our Evolutionary Best Fit?

Posted on July 11, 2011 by

I think this quote is the best answer I can find:  Consider the feature common to all of the above: we have chosen comfort and short-term convenience over the option presented to us by our genome and the Pleistocene environment … Continue reading →

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Why are we so fat in rural settings? – Part 3 – Our Ancestry!

Posted on June 30, 2011 by

Prince Edward Island, where I live, has a very high obesity rate. So do many rural parts of America and of cource the rest of Atlantic Canada. We have looked at why there is an physical environmental difference between cities and … Continue reading →

Posted in "Paleo", A New Vision, Aging, Ancestry, Constraints, Context, Diet, Environments, Evolutionary Novelty, Physiology, Plateau, Population, The Plateau, The Science, Theses | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Why are people in rural setting fat – Part 2 – Because our friends are – It’s Social!

Posted on June 29, 2011 by

For reasons that we are exploring in this series, there are environmental reasons why people who live in rural settings tend to be more overweight than those living in urban settings. But there are social environmental factors as well. And I … Continue reading →

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How do you get control and power – Riot or take it for yourself?

Posted on June 19, 2011 by

Lack of power and control and low social status is a major factor in making us ill. So if we cannot change the system, how can we get more power, control and social status? This week we will look at how we might do … Continue reading →

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Your Baby – Bathtime – What is safe? – Novel Environments

Posted on June 18, 2011 by

My grand daughter Sophia when she was very little not so long ago. Bath time is the best part of the day for babies and parents. Little did I know what might have been going on. What is in the … Continue reading →

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Diet – Where your ancestral heritage is important

Posted on June 16, 2011 by

Surely we must have adapted to agriculture by now? The answer is no and sort of yes to that question. It depends on what your ancestral heritage is or how long you have been exposed to agriculture. Let’s take dairy. … Continue reading →

Posted in Ancestry, Constraints, Context, Diet, Environments, Evolutionary Novelty, Forces of Natural Selection, Physiology, Population, The Science, Theses | 10 Comments

Talking about Environments – What about your mouth?

Posted on June 8, 2011 by

Ideally our mouths should be on the alkaline side. Before the modern diet, they were. Before the modern diet there was next to no caries. Today we brush our teeth to give us a chance of beating caries. But what … Continue reading →

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Thesis # 2

Posted on March 18, 2011 by

Thesis #2 – Natural selection reliably produces high levels of biological fitness, and thus good health, only under the environmental conditions in which it has been acting for many generations. A common caricature of evolution by natural selection is that … Continue reading →

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Thesis # 3

Posted on March 18, 2011 by

Thesis #3. Health and adaptation thus reflect the action of natural selection on a population in its previous environments, not its present environment, when these differ. For the purpose of re-founding medicine scientifically, theses 2 and 3 direct us to … Continue reading →

Posted in Constraints, Environments, Physiology, The Science, Theses | 2 Comments

Thesis #4

Posted on March 18, 2011 by

Thesis #4 Natural selection results in the evolution of good health only when there is sufficient heritable variation affecting survival and reproduction. Natural selection accomplishes nothing without an adequate and appropriate supply of genetic variation on which to act.  That … Continue reading →

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Thesis 14

Posted on March 18, 2011 by

Thesis # 14 - Aging hypotheses based solely on supposed universal imperfections of molecular, cell, or organismal physiology are wholly falsified by the existence of biological species that do not exhibit falling average rates of survival and reproduction among large cohorts … Continue reading →

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Thesis 15

Posted on March 18, 2011 by

Thesis # 15 - Aging evolves because of the previously adduced evolutionary genetic limitations to the forces of natural selection, which are affected by physiology, but aging is nonetheless not a merely physiological process.  Do the last five theses imply that … Continue reading →

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Thesis 16

Posted on March 18, 2011 by

Thesis #16 - Among the most important physiological constraints on the action of natural selection are trade-offs between the biological functions underlying age-specific rates of survival and reproduction. One of the most important features of physiology that affects the evolution of … Continue reading →

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Thesis 23

Posted on March 18, 2011 by

Thesis #23 – Repairing all types of cumulative damage during the aging phase will provide at most partial amelioration for the problem of declining adaptation with age, because some of this decline will be due to failures of signaling and other features … Continue reading →

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Thesis 25

Posted on March 18, 2011 by

Thesis #25 – Repairing all forms of cumulative damage and altering all types of regulatory signaling during the aging phase will also fail to fully alleviate aging, because some features of aging will arise from the absence of structural gene-products … Continue reading →

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Thesis 29

Posted on March 18, 2011 by

Thesis #29 – Species with fully symmetrical fission as the sole means of reproduction do not have a declining force of natural selection acting on survival, and they do not evolve aging phases in which all individuals show declining survival. … Continue reading →

Posted in A New Vision, Aging, Complexity, Constraints, Forces of Natural Selection, Reproduction, The New Science, Theses | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Thesis 32

Posted on March 18, 2011 by

Thesis #32 – Before the forces of natural selection plateau, it is possible for genetic drift, due to small population sizes among other possibilities, to weaken the ability of natural selection to distinguish among genetic variants affecting later adult life, … Continue reading →

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Thesis 34

Posted on March 18, 2011 by

Thesis #35 – Severe antagonistic pleiotropy can cause the evolution of zero late-adult survival probability even under ideal conditions, when genetic trade-offs between early reproduction and subsequent adult survival are sufficiently strong. Not all organisms have three phases to their … Continue reading →

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Thesis 37

Posted on March 18, 2011 by

Thesis #37 – Patterns of aging, including the rates of decline of functional characters and the timing of any cessation in such decline, depend on the environments in which cohorts are raised and live as adults. (Picture of Einstein talking … Continue reading →

Posted in A New Vision, Aging, Constraints, Environments, Forces of Natural Selection, The New Science, The Plateau, The Science, Theses | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Thesis 39

Posted on March 18, 2011 by

Thesis #39 –  Patterns of adaptation are jointly determined by long-antecedent evolutionary patterns of natural selection, mutation, and inbreeding, as well as the immediate impact of environmental manipulation. In studying the aging phase and other patterns of adaptation in an … Continue reading →

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Thesis 40

Posted on March 18, 2011 by

Thesis #40 – Experimental strategies for the study of aging that involve the introduction of novel mutations or increased levels of inbreeding will systematically impair the scientific study of aging, as they degrade and disrupt adaptation generally. At this point, … Continue reading →

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Thesis 41

Posted on March 18, 2011 by

Thesis #41 – Experimental strategies for the study of aging that involve the use of environments that are evolutionarily novel will systematically impair the scientific study of aging, as natural selection will not have previously fostered adaptation to such novel … Continue reading →

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Thesis 47

Posted on March 18, 2011 by

Thesis #47 – This novel agricultural lifestyle initially depressed adaptation and health, leading to intense natural selection for adaptations to the digestion of foods derived from grasses and milk, which has since produced adaptation to agricultural conditions at early ages. … Continue reading →

Posted in A New Vision, Aging, Complexity, Constraints, Context, Environments, Forces of Natural Selection, Physiology, The New Science, The Science, Theses | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Thesis 53

Posted on March 18, 2011 by

Thesis #53 – Young people with significant agricultural ancestry can sustain their health with agricultural patterns of nutrition and activity, but not with an evolutionarily novel industrial lifestyle. It is tempting to suppose that young people with agricultural ancestry are … Continue reading →

Posted in A New Vision, Aging, Ancestry, Constraints, Context, Diet, Environments, Evolutionary Novelty, Forces of Natural Selection, Physiology, Population, The New Science, The Plateau, The Science, Theses | Tagged , | 1 Comment