On the other hand, cats -- for example -- are highly prone to kidney failure in a way that humans are not.
Evolutionary gene loss may explain why only humans are prone to heart attack
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Re: Evolutionary gene loss may explain why only humans are prone to heart attack
#32So now we're including "survival of the unfittest" as part of evolutionary theory? Sorry, this makes zero sense. If humans really did evolve, then we hit the lottery - several times.
Re: Evolutionary gene loss may explain why only humans are prone to heart attack
#33If this turns out to be true, I wonder if this is something CRISPR could fix...
This could also be "fixed" by dietary supplement, but you run the risk of aggravating your immune system. One way to introduce this back into the system is by consuming red meat. The conclusion from this is EMPHATICALLY NOT that to reduce the risk of CVD due to meat consumption you should eat more red meat. The immune effects likely are more damaging.
Re: Evolutionary gene loss may explain why only humans are prone to heart attack
#34So now we're including "survival of the unfittest" as part of evolutionary theory? Sorry, this makes zero sense. If humans really did evolve, then we hit the lottery - several times.
Where did you guys suddenly appear out of nowhere on HN? On a programmer forum, skeptical of evolution?
This is the second time I see skepticism about evolution is brought up on HN comments. Science literacy of the community definitely went down.
Re: Evolutionary gene loss may explain why only humans are prone to heart attack
#35> Atherosclerosis -- the clogging of arteries with fatty deposits
What a way to start an article in a website with "science" in its name.
Atheroma is an accumulation of white blood cells. White. Blood. Cells. Not fat.
"Meat bad, saturated fat bad, eat your necessarily fortified grains and heart-healthy industrially extracted seed oils."
Re: Evolutionary gene loss may explain why only humans are prone to heart attack
#36Perhaps we evolved a heart overclocking ability. Sometimes we just push the heart too hard.
Re: Evolutionary gene loss may explain why only humans are prone to heart attack
#37On the other hand, cats -- for example -- are highly prone to kidney failure in a way that humans are not.
Cats, being obligate carnivores and lacking a proper mechanism for extracting energy out of fatty acids (e.g. ketogenesis in humans), have actually very efficient kidneys to dispose of all the nitrogen coming from their protein-exclusive metabolism.
Domestic cats are at risk, but that is more a result of domestication and improper feeding (carbohydrate) than evolution or genetics. Unless I am missing something, of course! Care to elaborate?
Re: Evolutionary gene loss may explain why only humans are prone to heart attack
#38So now we're including "survival of the unfittest" as part of evolutionary theory? Sorry, this makes zero sense. If humans really did evolve, then we hit the lottery - several times.
Fitness doesn’t mean what you think it means. As others have noted on this post, this mutation confers some resistance to malaria.
When the options are “malaria with high probability from birth onwards” or “heart attack after multiple decades with high probability if nothing else kills you first”, this is fitness.
Besides which, if humans didn’t evolve, you need to explain why the creator didn’t use a better mechanism to prevent us from getting malaria. For example: not creating malaria when they created us.
Re: Evolutionary gene loss may explain why only humans are prone to heart attack
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Malaria is a fascinating one, with the prevalence of sickle cell anemia and G6PD blood deficiency in some populations with high exposure. Both of those cause health issues but they both confer some level of resistance to malaria.
Isn’t the recessive gene for cystic fibrosis also linked to malaria resistance? Edit: apparently it might be linked to a resistance to cholera.
I was taught (undergraduate genetics) that it was TB, but I see the relevant Wikipedia page also lists cholera, typhoid and diarrhea shrug
Re: Evolutionary gene loss may explain why only humans are prone to heart attack
#40> Atherosclerosis -- the clogging of arteries with fatty deposits What a way to start an article in a website with "science" in its name. Atheroma is an accumulation of white blood cells. White. Blood. Cells. Not fat. "Meat bad, saturated fat bad, eat your necessarily fortified grains and heart-healthy industrially extracted seed oils."
-oma is a suffix that means tumour. E.g. lymphoma.
-sclerosis is a hardening. E.g arthrosclerosis for a hardening of joints.