Rapid access to our latest thinking on the "Old Friends mechanism", a reformulation of the hygiene hypothesis as a crucial branch of "Darwinian" or "Evolutionary" medicine.
The pages that follow contain mostly recent publications, together with their abstracts, and links that will enable most of them to be downloaded.
We discuss the evolutionary theory and immunological mechanisms behind the Old Friends mechanism, and point out the implications for human health and wellbeing in rich developed countries.
The current emphasis is on on reduced stress resilience in modern city-dwellers, and on depression.
A new extension of the Old Friends mechanism considers its role in the beneficial effects of living close to Green Spaces.
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CONTENTS
The pages first describe the "Old Friends" mechanism, and why this Darwinian concept usefully expands and corrects the original hygiene hypothesis, and increases its explanatory power in several clinical domains.
Then the site deals with the implications of faulty immunoregulation for psychiatry, and in particular for depression and stress resilience. It is postulated that one reason that depression is increasing is a reduction stress resilience in rich countries that has an immunological basis
Several of the papers refer to autoimmunity, but this page shows one that deals almost exclusively with this topic, and attempts to reconcile the many hypotheses about the recent increases in autoimmune disorders.
A failure of immunoregulation can lead to cancer, and also drive the cancer after it has developed. Inflammation drives mutation and provides angiogenenic factors, and tumour growth factors. The increase in the incidence of some cancers (such as prostate) parallels the increases in other chronic inflammatory disorders.
Exposure to green spaces improves physical and psychological health. The Old Friends mechanism provides a mechanism that can be documented by physiological measures relating directly to the disorders from which green spaces protect us. We may have evolved to need psychological input from the natural environment. But just as important, our immune systems have evolved to require inputs from biodiversity of the natural environment.
There are several recent interviews, all on the topic of the "Old Friends" mechanism and its clinical implications
The book "The Hygiene Hypothesis and Darwinian Medicine" gathered together experts in different fields, to discuss the potential role of failing immunoregulation in the aetiology of chronic inflammatory diseases of different organ systems
The page on tuberculosis reflects my earlier interest in this infection.
Then the site deals with the implications of faulty immunoregulation for psychiatry, and in particular for depression and stress resilience. It is postulated that one reason that depression is increasing is a reduction stress resilience in rich countries that has an immunological basis
Several of the papers refer to autoimmunity, but this page shows one that deals almost exclusively with this topic, and attempts to reconcile the many hypotheses about the recent increases in autoimmune disorders.
A failure of immunoregulation can lead to cancer, and also drive the cancer after it has developed. Inflammation drives mutation and provides angiogenenic factors, and tumour growth factors. The increase in the incidence of some cancers (such as prostate) parallels the increases in other chronic inflammatory disorders.
Exposure to green spaces improves physical and psychological health. The Old Friends mechanism provides a mechanism that can be documented by physiological measures relating directly to the disorders from which green spaces protect us. We may have evolved to need psychological input from the natural environment. But just as important, our immune systems have evolved to require inputs from biodiversity of the natural environment.
There are several recent interviews, all on the topic of the "Old Friends" mechanism and its clinical implications
The book "The Hygiene Hypothesis and Darwinian Medicine" gathered together experts in different fields, to discuss the potential role of failing immunoregulation in the aetiology of chronic inflammatory diseases of different organ systems
The page on tuberculosis reflects my earlier interest in this infection.
Meanwhile, here is a link to those of my publications that are listed in PUBMED.
Many of them can be downloaded free of charge by anyone.
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Prof Graham A.W. Rook, BA, MB, BChir, MD.
Centre for Clinical Microbiology
UCL (University College London)
email:- g.rook@ucl.ac.uk
