Why We Get Sick (43 page)

2
Use of wild plant products to cure scurvy is discussed by Ingolfur Davidsson in
Natturufraedingurinn
, 42:140–4 (1972). Nutritional deficiencies and other problems evident in the 1500-year-old Amerind skeletons are documented by J. Lallo et al. on pp. 213–38 of
Early Native Americans
, edited by D. L. Browman (The Hague and New York: Moulton, 1980).

3
The supernormal stimulus idea is discussed in many general works and textbooks, for instance, on pp. 27–9 of John Alcock’s book cited for pp. 16–17.

4
For discussions of the role of dietary fat in modern medical problems, see H. B. Eaton’s article in
Lipids
, 27:814–20 (1992);
Western Diseases, Their Emergence and Prevention
, edited by H. C. Trowell and D. P. Burkitt (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1981), and H. B. Eaton et al.’s
The Paleolithic Prescription
(New York: Harper and Row, 1988). For a convincing work on the profound role of environment in public health and the relative unimportance of medicine, see Thomas McKeown’s
The Role of Medicine: Dream, Mirage, or Nemesis?
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press, 1979).

5
The discussion of thrifty genotypes follows J. V. Neel’s article in
Sorono Symposium
, 47:281–93 (1982), and Gary Dowse and Paul Zimmet’s in
British Medical Journal
, 306:532–3 (1993). The effects of intermittent dieting are discussed in an article by J. O. Hill et al. in
International Journal of Obesity
, 12:547–55 (1988). The findings on artificial sweeteners are presented by D. Stellman and L. Garfinkel in
Preventive Medicine
, 15:195–202 (1986). Evidence for a long-term metabolic effect of intermittent food restriction is presented by G. L. Blackburn et al. in
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
, 49:1105–9 (1989). Our conclusions and recommendations on diet and weight control summarize a detailed discussion published in a series of articles in
The New York Times
, November 22–5, 1992.

6
The incidence of dental caries in prehistoric Georgia is discussed by C. S. Larsen et al. in
Advances in Dental Anthropology
, edited by M. A. Kelley and C. S. Larsen (New York: Wiley-Liss, 1991).

7
For an example of a tribal society’s use of a psychotropic drug, see Napoleon Chagnon’s discussion of the use of
ebene
in Venezuela in
Yanomamo: The Last Days of Eden
(New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992).

8
The inheritance of susceptibility to substance abuse is discussed by C. R. Cloninger in
Archives of General Psychiatry
, 38:961–8 (1981); by M. A. Schuckit in
Journal of the American Medical Association
, 254:2614–7 (1985); and by J. S. Sear les in
Journal of Abnormal Psychiatry
, 97:153–7 (1988). See also R. M. Nesse’s article in
Ethology and Sociobiology
(in press).

9
Alan Weder and Nickolas Schork have published their theory in
Hypertension
, 24:145–56 (1994).

10
Skin color in relation to rickets is discussed by W. M. S. Russell in
Ecology of Disease
, 2:95–106 (1983). The rapid evolutionary loss of pigment and eyes by animals living in caves is discussed by R. W. Mitchell and collaborators in “Mexican Eyeless Fishes, Genus
Astyanax:
Environment, Distribution and Evolution,”
Special Publications. The Museum. Texas Tech University
, 12:1–89 (1977). Evidence for the importance of introduced diseases in the destruction of New World peoples is summarized by F. L. Black in
Science
, 258:1/739–40. See also the work of M. Anderson and R. M. May cited for p. 52.

A good introduction to pollen allergies is N. Mygind’s
Essential Allergy
(Oxford: Blackwell, 1986). A more detailed review is in
Allergic Diseases: Diagnosis and Management
, edited by R. Patterson (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1993). A useful book on pollen is R. B. Knox’s
Pollen and Allergy
(Baltimore: University Park Press, 1978).

1
For details on the IgE system, see O. L. Frick’s article on pp. 197–227 of
Basic and Clinical Immunology
, 6th ed., edited by D. P. Stites, J. D. Stobo, and J. V. Wells (Norwich, Conn.: Appleby and Lange, 1987), and C. R. Zeiss and J. J. Prusansky’s on pp. 33–46 of Allergic
Diseases: Diagnosis and Management
(Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1993). Amos Bouskila and D. T. Blumstein provide a detailed discussion of what we call
the smoke-detector principle
in
American Naturalist
, 139:161–76 (1992).

2
The
New York Times
quotation is from section 6, p. 52, March 28, 1993. The textbook quoted is E. S. Golub’s
Immunology: A Synthesis
(Sunderland, Mass.: Sinauer, 1987).

3
The history of ideas on the function of the ampullae of Lorenzini is discussed in a delightful article, “The Sense of Discovery and Vice Versa,” by K. S. Thomson in
American Scientist
, 71:522–5 (1983). More recent work is reviewed by H. Wissing et al. in
Progress in Brain
Research, 74:99–107 (1988).

4
For discussions of IgE in relation to helminth infections, see A. Capron and J.-P. Dessaint’s work in
Chemical Immunology
, 49:236–44 (1990), and K. Q. Nguyen and O. G. Rodman’s in
International Journal of Dermatology
, 32:291–7 (1984).

5
Profet’s article is in
Quarterly Review of Biology
, 66:23–62 (1991).

6
For more information on the apparently increasing incidence of allergy, see works by L. Gamlin in the June 1990 issue of
New Scientist
and by Ronald Finn in
Lancet
, 340:1453–5 (1992). The genetics of atopy is reviewed by J. M. Hopkins in
Journal of the Royal College of Physicians (London)
, 24:159–60 (1990). Evidence of the prevalence of genetic deficiencies in detoxification enzymes is reviewed by M. F. W. Festing in
Critical Reviews in Toxicology
, 18:1–26. Unfortunately, most of the research relates to variation in detoxification of drugs, not to routinely encountered toxins.

7
The study of prevention of allergy is by S. H. Ar shad et al. and is published in
Lancet
, 339:1493–97 (1992).

8
See citations for pp. 162–64 for indications of the increasing frequency of allergies. The redundancy and complexity of the immune system are well described in S. Ohno in
Chemical Immunology
, 49:21–34 (1990).

1
Our perspective on cancer derives from Leo Buss’s book
The Evolution of Individuality
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press, 1987). Liles’s article is in MBL
Science
, 3:9–13 (1988).

2
Our account of the cellular, hormonal, and immunological mechanisms of cancer control is a greatly simplified retelling of that provided by two collections of articles in
Science
, 254:1131–73 (1991) and 259:616–38 (1993). The data on the p53 gene are from Elizabeth Culotta and D. E. Koshland’s article in
Science
, 262:1958–61 (1993). Many of our statements on genetic factors in cancer are supported by Chapter 5 of D. M. Prescott and A. S. Flexner’s
Cancer. The Misguided Cell
, 2nd ed. (Sunderland, Mass.: Sinauer, 1986). Cosmides and Tooby’s observations were made in a talk presented to the 1994 meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society.

3
On sunshine as carcinogen and its effects on the immune system, we recommend David Concar’s easily readable account in the
New Scientist
, 134 (1821):23–8 (1992).

4
Our discussion of women’s reproductive cancers summarizes that of W. B. Eaton et al. in
Quarterly Review of Biology
, 69:353–67 (1994). The reduction in uterine and ovarian cancer risk as a result of oral contraceptive use is documented by B. E. Henderson et al. in
Science
, 259:633–8 (1993).

1
The current debate over the evolutionary origins of sex is well presented in Matt Ridley’s
The Red Queen
(New York: Macmillan, 1993). For a more technical discussion, see R. E. Michod and B. R. Levin, editors,
The Evolution of Sex
(Sunderland, Mass.: Sinauer, 1988). For the parasite theory of sexuality, see W. D. Hamilton, R. Axelrod, and R. Tanese’s article in
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
, 87:3566–73 (1990). For some origins of the current debate, see G. C. Williams’
Sex and Evolution
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press, 1975) and J. Maynard Smith’s
The Evolution of Sex
(New York: Cambridge Univ.
Press, 1978). A recent review by S. Sarkar appears in
BioScience
, 42(6):448–54 (1992). The evolution of genetic diversity is reviewed by Wayne K. Potts and Edward K. Wakeland in
Trends in Ecology and Evolution
, 5:181–7 (1990)

2
For a discussion of why there are large eggs and small sperm, see pp. 151–5 of Maynard Smith’s
The Evolution of Sex
, cited above. Pp. 130–9 of the same work present the currently accepted view of why some organisms are hermaphrodites and others have separate sexes. A more detailed treatment is found in E. L. Charnov’s
The Theory of Sex Allocation
(Princeton N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press, 1982).

3
Current controversies on the theory of sexual selection, which deals with male-female differences in reproductive adaptations, are discussed in
Sexual Selection: Testing the Alternatives
, edited by J. W. Bradbury and M. B. Anderson (New York: Wiley-Inter-science, 1987). The historical development and current form of this theory are beautifully presented by Helena Cronin’s
The Ant and the Peacock
(New York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1991).

4
The problems expected as a result of a female-biased sex ratio are discussed by P. Secord in
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
, 9(4):525–43 (1983).

5
The application of the theory of sexual selection to human sex differences is discussed in several eminently readable works: David Buss’s
The Evolution of Desire
(New York: Basic Books, 1994); Donald Symons’
The Evolution of Human Sexuality
(New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1979); and Sarah B. Hrdy’s
The Woman That Never Evolved
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1981).
Sex, Evolution and Behavior
by Martin Daly and Margo Wilson (Boston: Willard Grant Press, 1983) offers an authoritative, yet clear and entertaining overview of animal and human sexuality. The same authors have a short, up-to-date chapter titled “The Man who Mistook His Wife for a Chattel,” pp. 289–322 in J. Barkow, L. Cosmides, and J. Tooby, editors,
The Adapted Mind
(New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1992). For a series of detailed review articles, see L. Betzig, M. B. Mulder, and P. Turke, editors,
Human Reproductive Behavior: A Darwinian Perspective
(Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1988).

6
For an authoritative report on male despotism and harems, see Laura L. Betzig’s
Despotism and Differential Reproduction: A Darwinian View of History
(New York: Aldine, 1986).

7
The quotation from David Buss is from p. 249 in a chapter in
The Adapted Mind
(see above) on “Mate Preference Mechanisms.”

8
David Buss’s data are in
Behavioral and Brain Sciences
, 12:1–49 (1989). See also Bruce J. Ellis’s “The Evolution of Sexual Attraction: Evaluative Mechanisms in Women” in
The Adapted Mind
, cited above.

9
The bond-testing idea is from Amotz Zahavi’s “The Testing of a Bond,”
Animal Behaviour
, 25:246–7 (1976).

10
Information on orgasm in primates is in Donald Symons’
The Evolution of Human Sexuality
(New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1979).

11
For information on concealed ovulation in humans, see Beverly Strassmann’s article in
Ethology and Sociobiology
, 2:31–40 (1981); Paul W. Turke’s in
Ethology and Sociobiology
, 5:33–44 (1984); and Nancy Burley’s in
The American Naturalist
, 114:835–58 (1979).

12
The data on testis size are from R. V. Short’s chapter in
Reproductive Biology of the Great Apes
, edited by C. E. Graham (New York: Academic, 1984). See also A. H. Harcourt and collaborators’ article in
Nature
, 293:55–7 (1981).

13
See R. R. Baker and M. A. Bellis’s “Human Sperm Competition: Ejaculate Adjustment by Males and the Function of Masturbation,”
Animal Behavior
, 46:861–85 (1993), and R. R. Baker and M. A. Bellis, “Human Sperm Competition: Ejaculation Manipulation by Females and a Function for the Female Orgasm,” Animal
Behavior
, 46:887–909 (1993). Baker and Bellis’s work on sperm counts is in “Number of Sperm in Human Ejaculates Varies as Predicted by Sperm Competition Theory,”
Animal Behavior
, 37:867–9 (1989). For a review of work on sperm competition, see M. Gomendio and E. R. S. Roldan’s “Mechanisms of Sperm Competition: Linking Physiology and Behavioral Ecology,”
Trends in Ecology and Evolution
, 8(3):95–100 (1993).

14
For the work on jealousy, see Martin Daly and collaborators’ “Male Sexual Jealousy,”
Ethology and Sociobiology
, 3:11–27 (1982), and Martin Daly and Margo Wilson’s
Homicide
(New York: Aldine, 1989). This book contains abundant data on and detailed discussion of murders motivated by jealousy.

15
For discussions of sex differences in human reproductive strategies, see the works by Buss, Ridley, Cronin, and Symons mentioned above.

16
David Haig’s work is in
Quarterly Review of Biology
, 68:495–532 (1993). Sexually antagonistic genes are discussed by W. R. Rice in
Science
, 256:1436–9 (1992). The classic paper on parent-offspring conflict is R. L. Trivers’s in
American Zoologist
, 14:249–64 (1974). A good description is also found in his book
Social Evolution
(Menlo Park, Calif.: Benjamin/Cummings, 1985). For a recent review and further references, see D. W. Mock and L. S. Forbes’ article in
Trends in Ecology and Evolution
, 7(12):409–13 (1992).