Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 July 2003
Data from the Human Genome Programme has clearly established that the human race is unique. Attempts to identify separately Black, Caucasian and Asian, did not establish a biological basis, which is an interesting socioeconomic point. Evolutionary medicine takes the view that many contemporary diseases are likely to result from the incompatibility between a contemporary lifestyle and dietary habits and the conditions under which the evolutionary pressure had modified our genetic inheritance. The search for gene variants or mutations, which could be associated with arterial hypertension, atherosclerosis and/or cancer, should be directed towards such metabolic genes.