The Disease Delusion: Conquering the Causes of Chronic Illness for a Healthier, Longer, and Happier Life

by Jeffrey S. Bland

endosymbiotic theory of the mitochondrion. Margulis held that mitochondria were originally bacteria that millions of years ago had infected a host pre-human cell, had then adapted to being there, and have remained there ever since thanks to a mutually beneficial symbiosis: the cells provide a harmonious residence, and the bacteria/mitochondria pay rent by producing energy for the cells. It is certainly true that the structure of mitochondrial DNA is very much like that of bacteria and that the genetics of mitochondrial DNA trace back farther than human cells—two facts that seem to support Margulis’s theory. For Margulis, these findings of internal symbiosis, called endosymbiosis, confirmed her advocacy of the Gaia hypothesis, which suggests that the competitive, survival-of-the-fittest concept of evolution is “incomplete,” in Margulis’s word. To complete it, the Gaia hypothesis suggests that it is cooperation rather than competition—networking rather than the struggle of the unfit against the fit—that is the true driving force of evolution. Or perhaps it is that cooperation eventually derives from the competition, the struggle of unfit against fit finally settling into network as each adapts to the naturally selecting “best” of the other.