Why Doesn ' t the State of Having High Blood Cholesterol Cause Pain?

Progress in the sciences is as much a matter of finding novel questions to ask as it is a matter of answering existing questions. The novel question here is this: given that high blood cholesterol is harmful over the long term, accelerating the progression towards atherosclerosis, so why haven't we evolved to feel pain and discomfort from being in that state, leading to avoidance? The answer is mostly likely that issues that arise in later life, after reproduction is carried out, are not subject to selection pressure to anywhere near the degree needed to improve the situation for the individual. Evolution optimizes for early life success and reproduction. To avoid any kind of potential harm to the body, to restore physiological functions when out of balance, and to satisfy the biochemical needs of the organism by giving itself signals that favour respective behaviour. Acknowledging this, one may ask why causal drivers of cardiovascular disease do not prompt the individual to behave in a way that diminishes these risk factors. Why does the insult to the vascular endothelium by smoking, high blood pressure, or high blood sugar not cause discomfort? Why does the vasculature of a person with familial hypercholesterolemia not hurt? Why does a person with high cholesterol not feel antipathy for fatty and high-caloric meals? From an evolutionary perspective, the mentioned physiological functions preserve the integrity of the body with the ultimate goal to enable the ...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs