Paul W. Ewald

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For other people named Paul Ewald, see Paul Ewald (disambiguation).

Paul W. Ewald (born c. 1953) is an American

agonistic behavior, and pollination biology. He is the author of Evolution of Infectious Disease (1994) and Plague Time: The New Germ Theory of Disease
(2002), and is currently director of the program in Evolutionary Medicine at the Biology Department of the University of Louisville.

Ewald is known for his "theory of virulence”, suggesting that "the deadlier the germ, the less likely it is to spread",

viruses, bacteria or protozoa
.

Education and career

Ewald received his BSc in 1975 from the University of California, Irvine, in biological sciences and his PhD in 1980 from the University of Washington, in zoology, with specialization in ecology and evolution.[2] He was formerly a professor of biology at Amherst College, and is currently director of the program in evolutionary medicine in the Biology Department of the University of Louisville.[3]

Ideas

Ewald asserts, along with a growing body of studies, that many common diseases of unknown origin are likely the result of chronic low-level

stomach ulcers.[7] Ewald argues that many common diseases of currently unknown etiology, such as cancers, heart attacks, stroke and Alzheimer's, may likewise be also caused by chronic low-level microbial infection.[8]

Ewald disagrees with the popular theory that

genes alone dictate chronic disease susceptibility. Ewald, whose background is in evolutionary biology, points out that any disease causing gene that reduces survival and reproduction would normally eliminate itself over a number of generations. Ewald says that "chronic diseases, if they are common and damaging, must be powerful eliminators of any genetic instruction that may cause them."[9] One example of this is schizophrenia; patients with this mental illness rarely reproduce. Ewald argues that, just by evolutionary pressures, schizophrenia would have already been eliminated if its causes were strictly genetic; he suggests that in the future, an infectious cause of schizophrenia will be discovered.[10]

Ewald explains that purely genetic causes of chronic disease will persist only if a genetic instruction provides a compensating benefit (for example, the disease

heterozygotes, protects against malaria, which kills millions worldwide each year).[9]

Further evidence for a non-genetic etiology of diseases like schizophrenia, Ewald also points out, comes from

identical twins, when one twin develops breast cancer
, the other twin has only a 10% to 20% chance of developing the disease, and this concordance rate of just 20% again indicates that environmental factors like infectious microbes or toxins are likely playing large causal roles in breast cancer.

Ewald's curiosity regarding the

AIDS finally manifests, incapacitates, and eventually kills the host.[12]

Awards

In 2010, Utne Reader magazine named Ewald as one of the "25 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World" for his research on the link between infections and cancers.[13]

Quotes

  • "Like many great ideas in biology, the idea implicating infectious causation in chronic diseases, though simple, has far-reaching implications. It is so simple and so significant, that one would think it would have been recognized by many and would be the starting point for any discussion on the causes of disease. Not yet." — Paul W. Ewald.[9]
  • "If I were going to put my money on it, I would bet that by 2050—hopefully earlier—we’ll have found that more than 80 percent of all human cancer is caused by infection." — Paul W. Ewald.[14]
  • Of Ewald's theory: "It opens our eyes to many quite weird possibilities about disease that most medical scientists, tending to be unaware of current evolutionary thought, don't think of." — evolutionary biologist William D. Hamilton. [citation needed]

Publications

Books

Articles

See also

References

  1. ^ Orent, Wendy (16 November 2020). "Will the Coronavirus Evolve to Be Less Deadly? - History and science suggest many possible pathways for pandemics, but questions remain about how this one will end". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 29 November 2020.
  2. ^ a b Proal, Amy (Feb 2008). "Interview With Evolutionary Biologist Paul Ewald". Discover Magazine.
  3. ^ Biology Department Faculty University of Louisville
  4. ^ Plague Time, p.3
  5. PMID 11919208
    .
  6. PMID 15907199
    .
  7. PMID 16670677
    .
  8. ^ Plague Time, p.6
  9. ^ a b c Plague Time, p.56
  10. ^ Plague Time, p.156
  11. ^ Hooper, Judith (Feb 1999). "A New Germ Theory: Part 1". The Atlantic Monthly.
  12. ^ Hooper, Judith (Feb 1999). "A New Germ Theory: Part 2: Antibiotics Against Heart Disease?". The Atlantic Monthly.
  13. ^ "Paul Ewald: Virally Minded". Retrieved 19 October 2010.
  14. ^ Grant, Andrew (Sep 2009). "The Big Idea That Might Beat Cancer and Cut Health-Care Costs by 80 Percent". Discover Magazine.
  15. OCLC 228117631
    .
  16. ^ Plague Time
  17. S2CID 11765810
    .
  18. PMID 7472852
    .
  19. PMID 8969242
    .
  20. OCLC 859154818.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  21. ISBN 9780511525728
  22. ISBN 9780511525728
    , retrieved 2018-09-08

External links
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