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.”
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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