A Fiery Forge - The Industrial Revolution, Recent Human Evolution and the Global Burden of Non-Communicable Disease

The profound changes to human demography, life history, morphology, diet and environment wrought by the Industrial Revolution have been of an intensity, velocity and consequence without precedent in the history of our species. These changes have the potential to drive adaptive evolution, just as happened in the Neolithic revolution that preceded it. Two factors likely to have altered selection pressure for traits now linked to chronic and degenerative disease - the dramatic fall in childhood mortality from infectious disease and global increases in calorie and protein intake and food security. A better understanding of the impacts of modernization on human biology and evolution should be an essential part of the concerted global efforts to prevent and treat chronic diseases