There is also ADD or ADHD which some theories link to
hunter/gatherer societies.  We were a real success
then but don't quite fit into modern society.
Unfortunately modern society doesn't look at ADD as a
different way of looking at things but as a disease.
See http://www.thomhartmann.com/websites.shtml for
more on this.

--- Tom Bridgeland <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Schizophrenia, at least the inherited kind, is
> linked to greater
> disease resistance. One book I read claimed that the
> reason it is so
> common in European populations is the Black Plague,
> which left more
> schizos alive than normals. Schizos are linked to
> intelligence as
> well, the blood relatives of schizos tend to be
> above normal
> intelligence. And how about Homosexuality? Seem to
> be unusually well
> represented in any field that requires thinking
> originally, art,
> science etc. A society might benefit from having a
> few people able to
> look at things from new viewpoints. I suspect there
> are lots of these
> things if we look.
>
> For example, arthritis and hay fever are both
> symptoms of an over
> reactive immune system. People with one rarely get
> the other, a small
> blessing, because they represent over-reactions in
> opposite
> directions, so to speak. I would be interested to
> know of any research
> which link these to particular disease resitances.
> The human immune
> system is particularly hair trigger, we are tougher
> than most other
> animals, 10,000 years of steadily increasing
> concentration in squalid
> cities. Read any history and it tells of plauge
> after plague wiping
> cities clear every few years. The result is modern
> humans, able to
> live in any environment and survive most diseases,
> but prone to immune
> system overreactions like allergies and arthritis.


=====
Rachel Aschmann
http://www.geocities.com/Wellesley/Garden/4786/
- They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -
 - Benjamin Franklin, 1759

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