Posted on 09/24/2024 3:56:26 PM PDT by nickcarraway
People who lived 500BC tended to live to 70 - IF they survived childhood and didn’t die from wars.
“In the early 7th Century BC, the Greek poet Hesiod wrote that a man should marry “when you are not much less than 30, and not much more”. Meanwhile, ancient Rome’s ‘cursus honorum’ – the sequence of political offices that an ambitious young man would undertake – didn’t even allow a young man to stand for his first office, that of quaestor, until the age of 30 (under Emperor Augustus, this was later lowered to 25; Augustus himself died at 75). To be consul, you had to be 43 – eight years older than the US’s minimum age limit of 35 to hold a presidency.
In the 1st Century, Pliny devoted an entire chapter of The Natural History to people who lived longest. Among them he lists the consul M Valerius Corvinos (100 years), Cicero’s wife Terentia (103), a woman named Clodia (115 – and who had 15 children along the way), and the actress Lucceia who performed on stage at 100 years old...
Of 397 ancients in total, 99 died violently by murder, suicide or in battle. Of the remaining 298, those born before 100BC lived to a median age of 72 years. Those born after 100BC lived to a median age of 66. (The authors speculate that the prevalence of dangerous lead plumbing may have led to this apparent shortening of life).”
It is likely that many of the very poor died before 40, but it was normal for the wealthier folks to live 70 years. Or more.
9 Our life is cut short by your anger;
it fades away like a whisper.
10 Seventy years is all we have—
eighty years, if we are strong;
yet all they bring us is trouble and sorrow;
life is soon over, and we are gone. - Psalms 90
Most say the Psalms were written between 1000 and 500 BC.
Reading and memorizing long passages of Holy Scripture, and ruminating on it forms and keeps continually refreshed brain cells, so that leads to a better, rewarding, pleasant, innovative, challenging life, and flourishing old age, to which many others like myself can testify.
No doubt typical of the human race for thousands of years. But best of all, to God be The Glory, who bestows eternal sentient life and fellowship with Him through complete confidence in His Only Begotten-in-the-Flesh Son Who provides it instantly now, a life in the spiritual realm that never ceases even when the organic body ages and finally ceases to function. Think of Methuselah, Enoch, Noah and all his family, Abraham, Jacob, David, Daniel, Ezra, Simon, Anna, Beloved John writing the Apocalypse, holy men and women troughout the last two millenia still productive though aged.
I do not doubt that being a "couch potato," watching someone else's reated video pablum is a debilitating use of one's last hours on earth.
Agreed. Though the average life span might have been 70, that's still usually before dementia is an issue.
The rich lived much longer, but I get your point.
Us “poor” schlubs would never live to suffer dementia...
I wouldn’t have made it to 90.7...
I agree-you are right-I’m hoping if DJT gives RFK jr the whip to bring down on pharma and the big food factories, people will see how bad the drugs and food really are-even though it isn’t what they want to hear...
I was raised on a ranch in a naturalist family-and I committed to the all natural/organic lifestyle early in adulthood. I don’t use any illicit or prescription drugs-and very seldom any OTC-mostly I rely on natural remedies because I have bad reactions to drugs-a flu shot will send me into anaphylactic shock and many common painkillers and chill pills can be fatal for me.
I don’t use chemical pesticides anywhere on my homegrown veggies or trees/grass. I don’t eat processed food-no GMO, all fresh organic produce, grass fed free range meat, locally produced when possible since I live in a rural area, free range eggs, real butter, etc-and I follow a paleo-type diet with no processed sugar or carbs/starch, no sodas packaged snacks, etc. I have no illnesses, haven’t gone to a doc except for an injury, weigh the same 100-105 I weighed at 17, I have a physical job, lift weights and walk in the woods. I am over 70-it is not a lifestyle for everyone, but it works for me...
A rancher friend wasn’t able to raise his arms above his shoulders by the time he was 60. He turned most of the hardest physical labor over to his 3 sons then, and at 70 he’s regaining some of the movement.
A life of hard physical labor is brutal on the body.
Good to know because my level of cholesterol would make me a Mensa candidate.
Ancient Greek doctors and philosophers didn’t write about or treat Polis the chamber pot cleaner or the slave who cleaned out the stables. Besides. Who lived past 40 back then?
When you die before 30... It’s difficult to acquire dementia.
As far as anyone can remember.
“Good to know because my level of cholesterol would make me a Mensa candidate.”
No promises regarding Mensa, but if you manage to stay off statins, you’ll probably recognize your family to the very end.
And their food was not loaded with seed oils and other junk.
Ya don’t say.
Pssst:
It just means that it lacked modern western crap.
Thar’s a lesson in there...
Plato they say could stick it away.
Yep, but that's not dementia, those airheads been woke, it's twice as bad as dementia.
The lifespan in classical Greece was probably much higher, once you remove infant fatalities and account for slaves in poor conditions. We do know that prominent Greeks lived until well into old age 70 to 80.
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