Evolutionary Medicine Viewed Through the Lens of Pregnancy and the Obesity Epidemic

Abstract

The rapid rise of the global obesity epidemic is one of the most significant microevolutions of the past century. Identification, evaluation and weight-altering interventions are sustainable only with an understanding that evolution occurs both at a macro level over centuries as well as on a micro level across a decade. Among the genes related to metabolism, on a global level, variation at the DNA coding level is to be expected. The unique distribution of these variants is shaped through hundreds of years of macroevolution to mature a population for survival of the fittest based on reproductive success. Over shorter time periods, these varied gene pools are further influenced by proximate response mechanisms within microevolution and co-inheritance. Microevolution prompts individuals’ responses to internal and external environmental pressures by changing gene activation and silencing.