Abstract
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved. Evolutionary medicine is a set of concepts and tools with which to address medical problems. This young science asks novel questions, starting from why the human body is vulnerable to diseases to how to exploit evolutionary dynamics to improve cancer therapy. In an attempt to assess why, how, and to what extent evolutionary medicine sheds light on medical issues, this article reviews (1) the conceptual tools borrowed from evolutionary biology and their medical relevance, (2) how evolutionary medicine is evolving and its main criticisms, and (3) what practical medical applications are or can be derived.
Tags
- antibiotic
- behavior,helminthic
- diseases,darwinian
- health,senescence
- hypothesis,parenting,public
- legacies,life-history,mismatch
- management,cancer
- medicine,emergency
- medicine,health
- of
- therapy,causes
- therapy,historical
