Posted on 09/24/2024 3:56:26 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A recent analysis of classical medical texts suggests dementia was extremely rare in ancient Greece and Rome 2,000 to 2,500 years ago.
The USC-led research, published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, bolsters the idea that Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias are diseases of modern environments and lifestyles, with sedentary behavior and exposure to air pollution largely to blame.
“The ancient Greeks had very, very few—but we found them—mentions of something that would be like mild cognitive impairment,” said first author Caleb Finch, a University Professor at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology.
“When we got to the Romans, and we uncovered at least four statements that suggest rare cases of advanced dementia—we can’t tell if it’s Alzheimer’s.” said Fich, “So, there was a progression going from the ancient Greeks to the Romans.”
Dementia in ancient Greece was not mentioned by Hippocrates Ancient Greeks recognized that aging commonly brought memory issues we would recognize as mild cognitive impairment or MCI, but nothing approaching a major loss of memory, speech, and reasoning as caused by Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia.
Grecian Delight supports Greece Finch and co-author Stanley Burstein, a historian at California State University, Los Angeles, pored over a major body of ancient medical writing by Hippocrates and his followers.
The text catalogs ailments of the elderly, such as deafness, dizziness, and digestive disorders, but makes no mention of memory loss.
Centuries later in ancient Rome, a few mentions crop up. Galen remarks that at the age of eighty, some elderly begin to have difficulty learning new things.
Pliny the Elder notes that the senator and famous orator Valerius Messalla Corvinus forgot his own name.
Cicero prudently observed that “elderly silliness…is characteristic of irresponsible old men, but not of all old men.”
Finch speculates that, as Roman cities grew denser, pollution increased, driving up cases of cognitive decline.
In addition, Roman aristocrats used lead cooking vessels, lead water pipes, and even added lead acetate into their wine to sweeten it, unwittingly poisoning themselves with the powerful neurotoxin.
Scientists turned to indigenous people to learn about Greece and Rome For this paper, Finch did not just think about the Roman Empire or the Greeks.
In the absence of demographic data for ancient Greece and Rome, Finch turned to a surprising model for ancient aging: today’s Tsimane Amerindians, an Indigenous people of the Bolivian Amazon.
The Tsimane, like the ancient Greeks and Romans, have a preindustrial lifestyle that is very physically active, and they have extremely low rates of dementia.
An international team of cognitive researchers, led by Margaret Gatz, a professor of psychology, gerontology, and preventive medicine at the USC Leonard Davis School, found that among older Tsimane people, only about one percent suffer from dementia.
In contrast, eleven percent of people aged sixty-five and older living in the United States have dementia, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.
“The Tsimane data, which is quite deep, is very valuable,” Finch said.
“This is the best-documented large population of older people that have minimal dementia, all of which indicates that the environment is a huge determinant on dementia risk. They give us a template for asking these questions.”
Ping
The Greek Mediterranean diet was MORE Mediterranean? (but the real secret is olive oil and wine). Italians debased their olive oil, just like the crap they ship to America.
When the average life expectancy was 30 or so, one would not expect to find much dementia.
Sirach 3:12-14 196-175 BC
12 My child, support your father in his old age, do not grieve him during his life.
13 Even if his mind should fail, show him sympathy, do not despise him in your health and strength;
14 for kindness to a father will not be forgotten but will serve as reparation for your sins.
That’s because they forgot to write about it.
What was the average life span back then? An important point that is missing in the article.
A thought that crossed my mind, perhaps in these early civilizations elders who were losing it would be put out to pasture.
Maybe the Greeks did not have this faulty gene that makes it more likely that people have type 3 diabetes.
https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/mayo-clinic-minute-is-alzheimers-type-3-diabetes/
And no covid vaxx
Simple...No SOY-derived foods.
Did they live long enough to get senile?
IMHO-
It’s our food and water supply.
We live in a world where our food smells and tastes good, is free of visual defects, and it meets all the USDA, FDA and health code requirements may it be wearing a beard mask, refrigerating eggs and pasteurizing milk.
(((BUT))), it is actually horrible quality:
—Pesticides
—Antibiotics
—Plastic containers the leach
—Herbicides
—Fungicides
—Irradiation
—Pasteurization
—Artificial colors
—Artificial aromatics
—Artificial preservatives
—Use of ammonia in meats
—Artificial flavors
—Hormones
—The feed which some of the livestock eat
—The way some animals are held
—HFCS
—GMO
—Taste intensifiers
—Heavy fertilization and depleted soil (reduces the level of certain minerals in vegetables etc)
Almost everything you buy in a grocery store is loaded with chemicals, has been altered at a chemical or even genetic level or has chemical residue on it.
Some of the food we eat, is outright fake, pretending to be something else, American sliced cheese which is mostly hydrogenated oil, why it is called a “cheese like product.” Cool-whip, which is oil...
***America is a nation of fat people who are malnourished.***
Our food and water supply merely looks and tastes good, but do not look at the ingredients and actually try to understand what you’re putting into your body. Even with the FDA kowtowing to big corporations and allowing for some level of deception on these labels, it should still scare you.
The food you’re eating is a little bit better than a food prop in a furniture store: https://displayfakefoods.com/
Lol. What a bunches made up nonsense.
People probably did not live long enough to show it. the average life span in Rome was 21 years of age. I found that on several web pages. 21 years average!
At that time, they has no tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, potatoes, corn, etc.
A “study”, or yet another subtle leftist hit piece on modern life? (underlying pollution complaint).
Question 1) How long did people live in ancient greece? A shorter life expectancy would have fewer elder folks and thus fewer dementia cases.
Question 2) Do we tend to have more, or fewer writings, from older cultures? Fewer writings means fewer chances to find something written on your subject of interest.
Exactly.
“Dementia Was Rare in Ancient Greece, New Study Finds”
So were old people - life expectancy was around 35!
“Dementia Was Rare in Ancient Greece”
Well, they hadn’t (yet) re-engineered their food supply, so nothing surprising.
Average probably isn’t the best thing to look at, given high infant mortality.
Here’s an interesting study that looks at popes and artists living in the Vatican. It’s identifying the median age a cardinal becomes pope and how many years he lives after that. Much longer.
https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/34/6/1435/707557
Longevity of popes and artists between the 13th and the 19th century
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.