Fundamental paradox of survival determinism: the ur-etiology disease paradigm

Theory Biosci. 2013 Jun;132(2):65-71. doi: 10.1007/s12064-012-0169-9. Epub 2012 Nov 6.

Abstract

Following a common practice in medicine, biomedical researches tend to view various disease conditions as direct results of preceding, disease-causing events. Such events are commonly those that could have been previously detected and which have given the history of studies of particular diseases, been previously recognized as playing an important role in an onset and/or progression of the disease in question. Although such practice is justified from the very principles of experimental investigation and scientific observation, it comes short of finding the fundamental causes behind these disease conditions. This manuscript proposes a different view to the origin of some types of diseases as well as some other biological phenomena. Namely, the focus of the concept relates to a notion of survival determinism, proposed to have been in the very core of evolution of primordial organisms. Thereby, as various disease models are discussed in the light of the proposed mechanisms for adaptation, they could be seen as relicts of the early evolutionary history of life on Earth.

MeSH terms

  • Adaptation, Physiological
  • Aging
  • Animals
  • Bacterial Infections / physiopathology
  • Biological Evolution
  • Disease / etiology*
  • Disease Progression
  • Genetic Diseases, Inborn / genetics
  • Genetic Diseases, Inborn / physiopathology
  • Humans
  • Immune System
  • Metabolism, Inborn Errors / physiopathology
  • Models, Theoretical
  • Parthenogenesis
  • Stochastic Processes*