[ExI] addiction and alcohol

Keith Henson hkeithhenson at gmail.com
Thu Apr 30 04:50:30 UTC 2015


On Mon, Apr 6, 2015 at 9:34 AM, Keith Henson <hkeithhenson at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 6, 2015 at 5:00 AM,  William Flynn Wallace
> <foozler83 at gmail.com> wrote:
snip

>> Stathis Papaioannou wrote:
>
>> Evolution has not had long enough to act on addiction, which is a
>> maladaptive hijacking of a physiological system.
>
> Let me supply a hint.  Every characteristic in living things is the
> result of positive selection unless it is a side effect of something
> that is (or was) under positive selection.
>
> Which is the capacity to be addicted?  Direct or a side effect?

It was either to easy a question or too hard.

Addition is a side effect of substances that activate the brain reward
system by being similar to natural brain reward chemicals.  Given the
relatively low percentage of the population that can be addicted at
all, makes it likely that the ability to be addicted is under
selection.

Alcohol is another substance that has been with some groups of people
long enough to have weeded most of the genes that make people
susceptible.  Peoples with no history of exposure to alcohol do poorly
when it becomes available.

It would be politically incorrect to study the subject, however
informal information makes a case that the drop in some groups
incidence of addiction to alcohol can be accounted for by changes in
gene frequencies over the last few generations.



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