title: Why is stress so deadly? An evolutionary perspective.
abstract: The reaction of the body to prolonged stress has many harmful effects. Classical theory assumes that stress responses have evolved due to their short-term selective advantages ('flight or fight'), and despite their adverse long-term effects. In contrast, we demonstrate that the adverse effects of stress responses may have a selective advantage. Using an analytical model we show that a gene that causes the early death of a relatively unfit individual can increase in frequency in a structured population even if it has no positive effect on that individual. This result offers a new perspective on the relations between stress factors, stress responses and stress-related diseases.
authors.affiliation: Stanford University, Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. lilach.hadamy@uiowa.edu
authors.forename: Lilach
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hadany
authors.forename: Tuvik
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Beker
authors.forename: Ilan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Eshel
authors.forename: Marcus W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Feldman
mesh_terms: D003468:Cultural Evolution; D005298:Fertility; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D008960:Models, Psychological; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000235:genetics