For Understanding Health Risks, Evolutionary Medicine is Your New Go-To

This is a sample news story I wrote for my NYU journalism class covering a TED Talk by Dr. Lara Durgavich. Here is the link to her talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/lara_durgavich_an_evolutionary_perspective_on_human_health_and_disease

A screengrab of Dr. Durgavich's talk from the TED website.

21 JUNE 2020

Evolutionary medicine has the potential to revolutionize our understanding of genetic diseases and personal health according to Dr. Lara Durgavich, a respected biological anthropologist and science communicator.

In a recent talk at TEDxTufts University, Durgavich explains how evolutionary medicine gives us insight into why a disease exists in the first place, not just why an individual might contract it. Citing over six decades of scientific research and examples of common genetic diseases like Tay-Sachs and sickle cell anemia, Durgavich describes the concepts behind evolutionary medicine and addresses common misconceptions.

“Understanding that your health is affected not just by what’s going on in your body right now, but also by your genetic inheritance, culture and history can help you make more informed decisions about predispositions, risks and treatments,” says Durgavich in her talk.

The central concept Durgavich uses to illustrate the utility of evolutionary medicine is called heterozygote advantage, the idea that a heterozygote (an individual with one normal copy of a gene and one mutated copy) has an increased chance of survival. An “unfortunate side-effect” of heterozygote advantage can be that while heterozygotes thrive, any individuals with two copies of the mutated gene can become sick and die.

Durgavich employs the example of the fatal childhood disorder Tay-Sachs disease, caused by a genetic mutation found at unusually high frequencies in Ashkenazi Jewish populations. Durgavich explains that this is because the Tay-Sachs mutation is protective against tuberculosis, so populations which currently carry the mutation at a high frequency descend from the countries with the highest incidence of tuberculosis in the past.

The theories behind the research on Tay-Sachs extend to many other genetic diseases where one copy of a gene protects from a disease, while two copies cause a different and often more severe one. Durgavich argues that this understanding of a disease’s evolutionary history has enormous implications for evaluating personal health.

“Insight into nonimmediate factors that affect our health is crucial, because it can suggest ways by which you can mitigate your own risk or that of friends and family,” says Durgavich.