Publicado em 22 de junho de 2023.

From the evolutionary theory, the body is not a product of design but a bundle of compromises
shaped by natural selection to maximize reproduction or genetic fitness, not health. Hence,
life history theory predicts the coordinated evolution of the traits contributing directly to fitness:
age and size at maturation, number and size of offspring, number of reproductive events,
and ageing and lifespan. Major constraints were famine and infection with the trade-offs
of encephalization-gut size; growth-immunological defense and longevity-reproduction. The
major functions involved in lifespan are maintenance, growth, reproduction, and defense,
in which energy can be invested. For those, insulin resistance, sodium preservation and
inflammation are seen as thriftiness in situations such as famine, water privation and infection.
For then, emerged the thrifty genotype. An evolutionary view suggests that many genetic
variants interact with environments and other genes during development to influence disease
phenotypes. Therefore, it is possible to analyze a great number of diseases in terms of
adaptive vulnerabilities connected to our phylogenetic inheritance, such as human bodily
inadequacies in relation to the modern environment. This means that current diseases such
as obesity, T2D, essential hypertension, dyslipidemia and metabolic syndrome may result
from the mismatch of our ancestral thrifty genotype with the contemporary way of life through
epigenetic modification of the gene expression. Additionally, the worldwide burden of NCDs
demands the implementation of effective population-based strategies. This is the basis of the
Behavioral Medicine whose major principles are dietary adequacy and physical activity. As a
model, we propose an ongoing epidemiological experience (“Moving for Health Program”),
described as a costless lifestyle -modification procedure, alternatively to the current
homeostatic model adopted by the Public Service. It could be a natural remedy for recovering
part of the imbalance caused by modern life-styles, costless and without the side effects of
many pharmacological treatments.