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Shakar & Shakar on Sickness Behavior, 2015

Discussion in 'Other health news and research' started by Manganus, Nov 2, 2018.

  1. Manganus

    Manganus Established Member (Voting Rights)

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  2. Trish

    Trish Moderator Staff Member

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    PLOS Biology: Why Do We Feel Sick When Infected—Can Altruism Play a Role?Keren Shakhar, Guy Shakhar, Published: October 16, 2015

     
  3. alktipping

    alktipping Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    sickness behaviour is and always has been a way of protecting the herd nature is quite happy to sacrifice the few for the benefit of the many . basic common sense why dress it up as anything else .
     
  4. Manganus

    Manganus Established Member (Voting Rights)

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    My impression too!
    (I was taught the concept in the 1980s. I never understood its being controversial.)
     
  5. Jonathan Edwards

    Jonathan Edwards Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    I don't believe a word of it. All those things on the left can be seen as self-protection, not herd protection. Also it is worth remembering that sickness behaviour is a microbe strategy as much as a host strategy.

    To me this diagram is exactly the sort of pseudoscience that psychologists get up to.
     
  6. Mithriel

    Mithriel Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Sickness behaviour could be seen as conserving energy to use to fight infection. If you don't feel like eating you don't have to go and hunt. Hiding away until you can outrun a predator is a good strategy so you can survive to pass on your genes.

    Or sickness behaviours could be a side effect of the body's way of fighting infection.
     
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  7. rvallee

    rvallee Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    WTAF? The level of delusion is something to behold.

    Humans have existed for 300K years. 95% of our species' existence has been as hunter-gatherers. "Sickness behavior" meant death for most of that history. If you cannot follow the tribe, the tribe cannot sustain you. Not "will not", but "can not".

    If there is any evolutionary advantage it's in culling the herd, but considering how high infant mortality was until the 20th century, that's a horribly flawed hypothesis.

    Who broke these people's brains?
     
    Last edited: Nov 3, 2018
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  8. Trish

    Trish Moderator Staff Member

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    That assumes all tribal hunter gatherer communities moved on every day. Some had seasonal home bases such as caves or huts for some of the time with hunters going out to hunt and bringing food back to base. Anyone with a short term infection could retreat to a dark corner of the cave and rest for a few days while recovering. I agree people with potentially long term debilitating conditions might lag behind when the tribe moved and be less able to run from predators, hence 'survival of the fittest'.
     
  9. rvallee

    rvallee Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Oh that's definitely the big difference: acute vs. chronic. Acute response is manageable when resources are scarce.

    But this goes beyond chronic illness mediated by the immune system. Someone falling from high enough and breaking both legs is unlikely to survive those circumstances. Technically that's an acute medical problem but it has lasting impact that turn it into a chronic problem, since without proper care broken legs don't heal themselves well enough to enable hunting or walking long distances. Outcome is likely to remain the same as the local food reserves get depleted and the tribe has to move on or starve.
     
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