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Humans evolved in sunlight receiving constant low doses of radiation. It seems logical to me that something in which is part of, the environment a species evol

Humans evolved in sunlight receiving constant low doses of radiation. It seems logical to me that something in which is part of, the environment a species evolved to, would tend to have positive effects.

knodi123 10y ago
> It seems logical to me that something in which is part of, the environment a species evolved to, would tend to have positive effects. Not to me. Now, "tend not to have a negative effect on reproduction", sure. But there's no reason evolution should make it beneficial, nor even neutral to those past breeding years. For instance, if radiation caused humans to die younger than otherwise due to cancer, but still to live long enough to crank out a litter of babies and raise them to adulthood.... then evolution probably wouldn't care. Hell, evolution would love the way it gets rid of the chaff and frees up resources for the breeders.
- Tossrock 10y ago
  Well, the grandmother hypothesis actually suggests that among humans, living healthily into old age to help rear one's grandchildren has evolutionary benefits, even if one stops reproducing.
ori_b 10y ago
Why? It may be harmful, but we've evolved to cope tolerably.
- dsmithatx 10y ago
  I should of said it wouldn't surprise me if it had positive effects. It would surprise if we hadn't evolved as you said to tolerate low doses. I can't think of anything else all land creatures evolved exposed to that is really harmful.
tpeo 10y ago
Do large predators have a positive effect on human health? I'm not trying to be funny with this, I'm just pointing out that human benefit isn't strictly increasing on all environmental factors, and that some of the evolutionary adaptation our species went through was about strictly avoiding sources of harm. Being present in the environment doesn't imply being somehow beneficial.
- dsmithatx 10y ago
  Not just humans evolved in low doses of radiation but, all land creatures have. Also not all life on earth was necessarily constantly exposed to large predators.

knodi123 10y ago

> It seems logical to me that something in which is part of, the environment a species evolved to, would tend to have positive effects. Not to me. Now, "tend not to have a negative effect on reproduction", sure. But there's no reason evolution should make it beneficial, nor even neutral to those past breeding years. For instance, if radiation caused humans to die younger than otherwise due to cancer, but still to live long enough to crank out a litter of babies and raise them to adulthood.... then evolution probably wouldn't care. Hell, evolution would love the way it gets rid of the chaff and frees up resources for the breeders.

Tossrock 10y ago
Well, the grandmother hypothesis actually suggests that among humans, living healthily into old age to help rear one's grandchildren has evolutionary benefits, even if one stops reproducing.

ori_b 10y ago

Why? It may be harmful, but we've evolved to cope tolerably.

dsmithatx 10y ago
I should of said it wouldn't surprise me if it had positive effects. It would surprise if we hadn't evolved as you said to tolerate low doses. I can't think of anything else all land creatures evolved exposed to that is really harmful.

tpeo 10y ago

Do large predators have a positive effect on human health? I'm not trying to be funny with this, I'm just pointing out that human benefit isn't strictly increasing on all environmental factors, and that some of the evolutionary adaptation our species went through was about strictly avoiding sources of harm. Being present in the environment doesn't imply being somehow beneficial.

dsmithatx 10y ago
Not just humans evolved in low doses of radiation but, all land creatures have. Also not all life on earth was necessarily constantly exposed to large predators.