Source: www.mymedholiday.com
Ever wonder why there is such a huge craze to maintain attractiveness among men and women? Contrary to popular belief, attractiveness is actually equally important in both sexes. For various reasons, attractiveness however plays much more important roles in women than in men. Since ancient times, attractiveness in both men and women are highly priced in all known civilisations.
The study of attractiveness and health (aesthetic medicines) is a very complex web of biological and psychosocial interplay. However it can be simplify in a modest understanding of how unbelievably close health is to beauty, which we will try to explain in this article. (In this article, beauty refers to both male and female attractive qualities). Aesthetic medicine believes a person can only be truly healthy in all senses only if he/she is also beautiful in the eyes of the prevailing culture. In order to understand this, unfortunately, we also have to believe in the most controversial concept of science: the theory of evolution.
The theory of evolution believes that for a character (or genetic trait) to be passed to the next generation, it has to possess at least three inherent properties:
- The first one is that the trait has to confer some survival advantages. A trait without superior survival advantage will eventually disappear from gene pool due to natural selection favouring the fittest.
- The second property of inheritable trait is that it has to confer some attractiveness to the mating partners. Without mating partners, the genetic traits, no matter how superior they are, will die with that poor lonely man (or woman).
- The third property of the inheritable trait is that it must not interfere with the desire to mate. If the trait is deemed superior and very attractive, but it renders the person into an ancient celibacy life, again the gene will not be passed to the next generation. The matter of health and sexual desire has been briefly explained before in previous article at https://www.mmgazette.com/sex-health-and-longevity-dr-rizin-h-kusop/
It is in that second property of inheritable traits that links beauty intricately to health. The first organisms on this earth, long time ago, that has the ability to pass their genes to their offspring by mating, must have decidedly agreed that they are ‘attractive’ to each other before they can mate. Whether they are simple slugs or royalties of the ancient kingdom, they have to be at least ‘not killing each other’ before they can mate and produce an offspring (carrier of their newly combined genes). Since understandably, majority of mating acts happen in the presence of mutual attraction, it is logical to believe that after several millions of years, these attractiveness traits become dominant and strengthened in that species.
The story however is not limited to the attractiveness genes alone. Remember, the first property of inheritable traits? It also has to be advantageous in the survival of the species. An attractive trait, for example having blue eyes, but offers no advantage to survival (Let’s say, the blue eyes renders the individual more sensitive to day light) will make the future person or future offspring less likely to survive in the harsh world of the ancient. Equally, a superior trait, for example a third breast of a woman may provide superior ability in feeding babies, but may not be attractive to men! (I can see some men not agreeing with this) Thus, the genes will be eventually eliminated from the succeeding generations.
The interplay between advantageous genes and attractiveness genes continued on for several millions of years. These advantageous genes for most parts (after physical traits are refined well enough) are what we now attribute to as ‘health’. Obviously, after such a long time of refinement, humans are now genetically programmed to equate attractiveness to health and vice versa.
Once health and attractiveness can be accepted as a single entity, it is easier to understand why when beauty starts to recede; chronic illness is just a few steps behind. It is also well known that a healthy person looks attractive and an attractive person is often quite reasonably healthy. Anybody has to agree, even today, a man lying on a sick bed with advance stage of liver cancer will not be too appealing to many women, no matter how Brad Pitt-look-alike he is!
Finally, just to complete the ‘argument’, consider these facts. Is it just a plain coincidence that we are at our most attractive selves when we are young (18-25 years of age)? Is it just so happens that most of us are also the healthiest around that time? Isn’t it strange that we have no qualms about accepting the fact that health and attractiveness goes hand in hand in our youthful days, but when we are old, we adamantly strive to maintain one (health) and ignore the other (attractiveness)? Could it be that the wrinkles, sagging skin, big tummy, fat and pigmentation is not just skin deep?
Thus, beauty treatments should not be limited to just skin deep procedures. Skin wrinkle is obviously not a ‘Botox’ deficiency syndrome. The same culprits causing skin wrinkles could very well caused diseases in the blood vessels of human heart as well.
The poets and philosophers may attribute attractiveness to the matters of love and heart, but scientists believe it is just a programmed desire for us to choose the healthiest mate to share our genes and subsequently pass on to our offspring.
Next time when we are looking at a man or a woman who is trying hard to be beautiful and macho, we now know that they are just trying to tell their ‘potential partners’ this:
‘Hey… I am healthy enough to share your genes with, for your offspring, take me home!’
Now we know why there is this huge craze about beauty. It is just in the genes!
This article was written by the Malaysian Medical Gazette’s permanent columnist Dr. Rizin H Kusop who is currently the proprietor and MO in charge of a group practice franchise in Sabah who has a special interest in Anti-aging, Regenerative and Aesthetics medicine. Find out more about him at The Team page.
[This article belongs to The Malaysian Medical Gazette. Any republication (online or offline) without written permission from The Malaysian Medical Gazette is prohibited.]
References:
- Grammer, K et al. Darwinian aesthetics: sexual selection and the biology of beauty. Biological Reviews. 2003; 78(3):385-407.
- Alam, M et al. On Beauty. Evolution, psychosocial considerations, and surgical enhancement. Arch. Dermatol. 2001; 137:795-807.
- Singh, D et al. Did the perils of abdominal obesity affect depiction of feminine beauty in the sixteenth to eighteenth century British literature? Exploring the health and beauty link. Proc. R. Soc. B. 2007; 274:891-894.