OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, JULY 2013Shakespeare memorably described the human life course, from “the infant,/ Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms” to the “mere oblivion” of the aged, “Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.” Scientists now appreciate that human life histories have been shaped by natural selection. Evolutionary life history theory provides a valuable, if less poetic, framework for understanding our life cycle and the diseases that accompany aging.
Natural selection adjusted how humans use energy and other resources throughout our life cycles in ways that optimized the reproductive fitness of our evolutionary ancestors. Optimizing fitness has meant devoting energy to growth and development and to reproduction, at the expense of maintaining and repairing our bodies. Our evolved mechanisms of bodily maintenance and repair are sufficient to keep us alive and healthy long enough to have and raise our children, and perhaps contribute to the development of our grandchildren. But these mechanisms are not perfect. Over time, we accumulate unrepaired damage that leads to the diseases of aging and, ultimately, to death.
In my new book, Evolution and Medicine, I discuss the emerging field of evolutionary medicine. I show how integrating life history theory ...
