Sun, Dec-12-21, 11:43
|
|
Senior Member
Posts: 4,042
|
|
Plan: Very LC, Higher Protein
Stats: 227/186/185
BF:
Progress: 98%
Location: Herndon, VA
|
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by bkloots
Last night I watched a documentary on Evolution. Peoples from all over the present world were shown: hunter/gatherers in Africa, the "runner" people in the mountains of South America, Europeans bearing genetic strains of Neanderthal. Not surprisingly, the epidemic of "diabesity" worldwide was covered.
With the breakthrough of sorting out the human genome, further advances are enabling humans to create "new" humans through genetic tinkering (in the earliest embryos) and the manufacture of human organs like ears and hearts from stem cells. In short, evolution is speeding up via human intervention.
Meanwhile, natural selection may still be operating by way of the ongoing mysteries of the human body, and, needless to say, by heedless behaviors. Next to skin, fat is the largest human organ, active in undiscovered ways. Those of us here who have been monitoring its effects all our lives understand the problem.
|
Good points. Given the emerging information on Epigenetics first identified in the 40s, but understood better in the 90s, we now realize that while human genes take many, many generations to mutate and change, epigenetic factors at the cellular level are able to express or continue to repress genetic characteristics and tendencies. The other realization is that epigenetic tendencies at the cellular level are passed on to subsequent generations, both good and bad influences on health and lifespan. So, knowing this, the power of lifestyle practices and environmental exposures become paramount in living a healthy life. What I like about this realization is that individuals are able to play an active and immediate role by influencing health in positive ways without being passive victims of an inherited genome. Can people avoid or resolve T2D despite it being a family characteristic? Yes, but unfortunately, those drug commercials frame it like a life sentence that could never be treated differently; meanwhile, those people in the drug commercials look so happy.
|