Abstract

Evolutionary medicine (EM) is an emerging field of medical studies that uses evolutionary theory to explain the ultimate causes of health and disease. The field’s main objective is to reconceptualize bodily vulnerabilities and pathophysiologies as evolutionary tradeoffs—many the result of an evolutionary mismatch between our ancient genome and modern lifestyle. This conceptual shift allows EM to describe health and disease in terms of adaptive functions and to prescribe treatments that best complement our evolved bodies. The goal is to “transform the way patients and doctors see disease” (Nesse and Williams 1994, p. 245) in order to harness a renewed “feeling for the organism as a product of natural selection” ..