From: Brian Atkins (brian@posthuman.com)
Date: Wed Apr 16 2003 - 10:29:33 MDT
Ramez Naam wrote:
>
> My point is that in *all* human cultures prior to the last few
> centuries, the causes of death were very different than the causes of
> death that we see today.
>
> To be specific, heart disease, cancer, and stroke combined made up
> about 80% of deaths in the US last year. They likely made up less
> than 10% of deaths in any pre-industrial society.
>
> Here's what this tells us: the causes of death we now face have been
> almost "invisible" to evolution until just the past few centuries.
> That's why I'm dubious that an evolutionary perspective can tell you a
> whole lot about what kind of diet is going to best stave off heart
> disease or cancer - because heart disease and cancer were virtually
> non-existent in human populations until very recently.
>
Here is quote from an old 1950's diet book I was browsing:
"In 1921 coronary thrombosis was a rarity and accounted for only 746
male deaths in Britain. In 1956 the figure was 45,000. It is still going
up."
Now I don't have figures in front of me, but I would bet that if you
calculated the percentage of people over, say, 50 years old who suffered
heart attacks in 1921 compared to the percentage in 1956 and beyond you
might find a large difference. So I don't believe the argument that we
are only seeing this huge rise in that set of diseases because we are
living longer is accurate. In 1920 people over 50 simply _did not_
suffer from heart attacks very often at all. Something changed in just a
few short decades to make this a much more common event, and so far
science has not figured it out.
It very well could be due to dietary changes- most of which were shifts
away from eating traditional/natural foods. There also are some theories
that the war we wage on bacteria and other food borne illnesses may also
have serious drawbacks... some pathogens actually may have beneficial
side effects. Again though, this idea has not really been explored well
by scientists even though there is plenty of evidence that traditional
cultures used pathogens on purpose to improve their lives.
-- Brian Atkins Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence http://www.singinst.org/
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