Why has the human life expectancy increased so much over the past couple of centuries if we are getting weaker?
“Why has the human life expectancy increased so much over the past
couple of centuries if we are getting weaker?”
I’d humbly suggest: the long hours put in by a bunch of
“pencil-necked geeks”
in research laboratories and medical research foundations.
Probably 10-15 years ago, PBS (as much as I dislike their funding scheme)
produced a short series on medical advances that have prolonged
human life-spans (and improved “quality of life”).
It’s STUNNING to see what happened when the action and need for insulin
was discovered. That episode showed a girl that looked like an escapee
from a concentration camp: skin and bones. And she was saved by
insulin injections that became available “in the nick of time”
(IIRC, she was the daughter of a prominent politician; impotent to
save the life of his beloved daughter, but for the contribution of
some geeks.)
Also, the show covered the eventual cure of pelagra (sp?) when it
was learned folks subsisting on a common diet in “The South”
(fat-back?) were not getting enough some vitamins.
Overall: the PBS series showed how a bunch of lab/medico geeks
that might have trouble bench-pressing a typewriter of their day
did a disproporionate amount to help humanity.
All that said, I do feel like I should get out in the sun, run, labor
with working on my lawn, exert my muscles...
just to stay in touch with “the human condition”.
“Why has the human life expectancy increased so much over the past couple of centuries if we are getting weaker?”
Because of improvements in sanitation. Most of the life expectancy increase has to do with lowering infant mortality. Despite what you are taught, people have always lived to about 80-90 years, just there were fewer of them because more children died in infancy.
As for the Romans, they were trained to stand behind their shields and poke holes in whomever charged them. You die of sepsis back then, as a cut was as good as death.
Personally, I disagree with the author’s contention. I don’t see any evidence (beyond anecdote, which is unreliable), that ancient man was more physically capable.