CARTA - Mismatch: Human Origins & Modern Disease
The human body is a mosaic of features with an enormous range of evolutionary ages. This series covers that range by discussing the impacts on health of vulnerabilities that originated from 1.5 billion to 2 million years ago. Multicellularity (1.5 bya) made tissues, organs, large size, and cancer possible. The vertebrate immune system (450 mya), which protects us against rapidly evolving pathogens, has inflammation and autoimmune disease built into it. The hunter-gatherer lifestyle (2 mya) expanded our microbiome, with new elements playing an immunoregulatory role, but it made women vulnerable to polycystic ovarian syndrome. It became the reference lifestyle for the mismatch diseases of civilization.
