Sure, we've got opposable thumbs and larger brains, but was the path of human evolution all that it's cracked up to be? At Smithsonian magazine, Rob Dunn points out ten problems that we face today as a result of the evolution of our species. Here's one:
Link via reddit | Photo by Flickr user Ryan Somma used under Creative Commons license
4. Unsupported intestines
Once we stood upright, our intestines hung down instead of being cradled by our stomach muscles. In this new position, our innards were not as well supported as they had been in our quadrupedal ancestors. The guts sat atop a hodgepodge of internal parts, including, in men, the cavities in the body wall through which the scrotum and its nerves descend during the first year of life. Every so often, our intestines find their way through these holes—in the way that noodles sneak out of a sieve—forming an inguinal hernia.
Link via reddit | Photo by Flickr user Ryan Somma used under Creative Commons license
I have never experienced mitochondrial myopathies, Leigh’s disease, or inguinal hernias ever let alone on a daily basis.