jah05r t1_itv1l2z wrote
Reply to comment by [deleted] in Vitamin D deficiency linked to premature death. Over a 14-year follow up period, researchers found that the risk for death significantly decreased with increased vitamin D concentrations, with the strongest effects seen among those with severe deficiencies. by Wagamaga
Oh, that is total nonsense. People today are much, much healthier than they were in our Hunter-gatherer state. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have room for improvement or that every change made resulted in improved health.
Andydan777 t1_itvgf9d wrote
How so? I would wager the bloodwork of old humans is better than your average overweight american.
jah05r t1_itvj15q wrote
Mostly because everything from availability of calories to quality of sanitation to quality of shelter to near-universal vaccination in today’s society is leaps and bounds better than it was in Hunter-gatherer days.
grumble11 t1_itv2mov wrote
We are because we don’t get hurt as much, have better medical care and have more reliable food access, and have better support systems to keep people alive in extreme old age who would normally age naturally died. Those are technological adaptations, not lifestyle ones
jah05r t1_itv35hi wrote
They are absolutely lifestyle adoptions. The widespread adoption of sanitation practices (especially clean drinking water) is the single most important lifestyle adoption we have made. Farming is a close second, which has both increased the food supply consistency and resulted in less dangerous behaviors.
grumble11 t1_itv46ee wrote
Sure which is all technology. Sanitation isn’t a lifestyle change.
Farmers also weren’t exactly healthier - the average size of a farmer shrank materially versus hunters and signs of malnutrition were obvious and frequent - but they were more reliably able to access calories over time so it won out. Do you believe that you are unable to access calories now?
Spend a large amount of time outdoors, moderate exercise for hours a day, whole unprocessed food you could find a thousand years ago, sleep adequately and early.
jah05r t1_itv6ct3 wrote
Sanitation was absolutely a lifestyle change. Things like washing your hands and bathing regularly were nowhere close to standard practice until quite recently.
And the reason it seems like farmers shrank in size is because so many more of them lived into old age. You no longer had to be the biggest or strongest to survive, and the extraordinary steps that Hunter-gatherers took to control population size (aka infanticide) were no longer necessary because enough food was available for a larger population.
Do you honestly think calories were more accessible to Hunter-gatherers than they are now?
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