• April 26, 2024

Understand how different parts of the world have evolved and evolved body Human, from our first ancestors until today, allows us to know how our physiology works.

A recent article by Gertrudis Uruchurtu, chemistry pharmacobiologist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico , published in ¿Cómo ves ?, a journal of scientific divulgation of the UNAM, illustrates the way in which certain habits have contributed to the evolution of our body.

Examples of our evolution

Dr. Uruchurtu's article, based on the researches of biologist Dennis Bramble, of the University of Utah , and the paleoanthropologist Daniel Lieberman, from Harvard University , offers several examples:

1.- Humans are not made to run fast, but to run long distances. According to Bramble and Lieberman, the endurance race was crucial in the evolution of Homo Sapiens and the body has the anatomical and physiological elements necessary to go at a fast pace for a long time.

This is the evidence that we are better adapted to the endurance race than many other mammals. Contrary to what many people think, the marathon is not a sport that requires body more than what he can give.

2.- When running, the animals maintain their stability thanks to the tail. The movement of this counteracts the tendency to fall forward that causes the inertia of each stride. In our case, as we do not have a tail, the trunk leans forward every time the foot hits the ground , and the gluteus maximus, which is the most powerful muscle in the human body, contracts and prevents falling.

The relatively narrow waist attached to the mobile thorax allows the alternate movements of arms and shoulders also counteract the tendency to fall.

3.- To work well, the organism must be kept at a temperature of less than 40 ° C, otherwise the biochemical processes of the cells begin to fail and some proteins lose their structure. All organisms have a system of cooling , but none is as efficient as ours.

Humans, unlike most animals, have millions of sweat glands in the skin to eliminate water through sweat. The amount of water removed is directly proportional to the rise in temperature. When evaporating, the sweat absorbs large amounts of heat, which cools the skin and through it throughout the body. As, unlike animals, our skin is not covered with hair, air can also contribute to our cooling.

4.- Our immune system is designed primarily to defend ourselves from the microorganisms that surround us. However, our life develops in an increasingly clean environment which can cause that, in the absence of infectious stimuli and the massive use of antibiotics, immunity is directed erroneously against ourselves, through allergies , hypersensitivities or auto immune diseases.

5.- The anatomy of the foot is the result of years of evolution. Most of the time, the man has walked barefoot and the lower extremities have adapted to that circumstance. So, why wear sneakers?

A study by Daniel Lieberman revealed the biomechanical advantages of running barefoot, which will have medical consequences, for athletes and for the footwear industry.

Lieberman explains that sneakers facilitate a form of running (heel support) that seems to be different from the way barefoot do it and this could have certain implications for helping some people avoid injury, hypothesis that must still be tested ".

There is no doubt that the history of human evolution allows us to better understand our organism , with all its defects and virtues.

Video Medicine: Proof of evolution that you can find on your body (April 2024).