Yoan Valat / EPA
A new study warns that we are evolving too slowly for the world we have built. The world we experience daily is having a profound impact on our mental and physical health as a species.
As our evolution slows and industrialization and technology accelerate, the human biology is struggling to keep pace.
As a study last week in Biology Reviewsmany of the stress-related chronic health problems we face today are not personal failings or modern inconveniences – they are the predictable result of forcing a Stone Age physiology onto a world it was never built for.
The study, carried out by researchers from University of Zurichinvestigated whether the rapid and extensive environmental changes of the current Anthropocene have compromised the fitness of A wise man.
We didn’t have time to adapt
Synthesizing data relating to industrialization and urbanization and health, the researchers report that there are many signs that Humans have not had time to adapt to the rapid changes in the world in the last century.
Declining global fertility rates, the rise of chronic inflammatory conditions, and other chronic health trends are signs/evidence that humans “have been fighting on Earth since the Industrial Revolution”.
The truth is that city noise, air and light pollution, microplastics, pesticides, artificial light, processed foods, sedentary lifestyles, and sensory overload are all new experiences for us. H. sapiens.
The relief went away without us realizing it
Colin Shawhead of the Human Evolutionary EcoPhysiology (HEEP) research group, explained that “in our ancestral environments, we were well adapted to deal with acute stress to avoid or confront predators”.
For example, before, “the lion would appear occasionally, and you had to be ready to defend yourself or run”.
Now, on the contrary, we get little relief from an onslaught of stressors – traffic, work, social networks, constant sensory stimulation – which trigger the same ancestral biological responses, except without a “off” switch – which happened when the lion disappeared.
“Our body reacts as if all these stress factors were lions”explained Daniel Longmanthe other author of the study.
“Whether it’s a difficult argument with your boss or the noise of traffic, your stress response system remains the same as if you were facing lion after lion. As a result, you have a very powerful response from your nervous system, but no recovery,” he added.
Many studies have already investigated how this constant buzz of high stress affects interconnected endocrine systems, which has been linked to disorders of anxietythe development of chronic illnesses and an expectation of reduced life.
“There is a paradox in that, on the one hand, we have created enormous wealth, comfort and healthcare for many people on the planet, but on the other hand, some of these industrial achievements are having harmful effects in our immune, cognitive, physical and reproductive functions,” said Shaw.
“One could argue that what we are seeing today is a form of natural selection, but letting chronic stress kill people for hundreds of generations until we obtain resistance does not seem like a solution to me“, considers the evolutionary anthropologist.
