Aging is nothing new for humans. So why are we so bad now?

Aging is inevitable, but it has not always been the same throughout the long history of humanity. This is one of the main premises of Michael Gurven’s new book, Seven decades: how we have evolved to live longer.

Gurven is an anthropologist at the University of California in Santa Barbara, who has spent a large part of his career studying and living alongside communities like the Tsimané in South America, indigenous groups that largely remain on a combination of small cultures, hunting and collection. Although these people have increasingly started to get in touch with the modern world, they always give an overview of the past of humanity before generalized industrialization.

By building his work of sound and others with today’s subsistence communities, Gurven shows that if the typical lifespan of the average person has widened considerably and that our health has generally improved, there is nothing particularly new in human longevity itself. The elderly have always existed, even in past times where survival was much more perilous than it is today. In addition, he adds, there are a lot of things that we can learn about the best way to age in our modern times by studying how our ancestors have done so many.

Gizmodo spoke to Gurven about his decision not to approach longevity drugs, the most common false ideas on aging, and how groups like the Tsimané could better help us better appreciate our elders. The next conversation was slightly modified for grammar and clarity.

Ed Face, Gizmodo: I think that many people who collect a book on aging would expect to read the breakthroughs at the corner of the street which will suppose supposedly and significantly our lives. What made you want to focus more on the evolution of human aging?

Michael Gurven: Thank you for asking this, because I always worry that the first question I will understand is exactly that: “What are the secrets? What are the hidden jewels?”

Everything is the potential of where we can finish – the power of regenerative medicine and technology. But I really wanted to look back to wait forward. One of the premises of the book is that longevity is not something that is so incredibly recent, but that it is integrated into our DNA. It is integrated into our biology. We have already accomplished the potential for longevity.

And because of this, I see a different type of optimism. There is this fear on the tsunami in money and everything that goes hand in hand with the aging of the world’s population. I wanted to emphasize that this is not a new type of problem. It is not that there were never elderly people and now all of a sudden, there are tons of the elderly. So I wanted to give a history of understanding that we have already experienced with the elderly in the context of our population.

And I wanted to say that rather than longevity being a consequence of our success as a species, the causal arrows can actually be in the opposite direction. That we were a very successful species because of our longevity potential.

We have already solved problems, and we can solve it in the future, but it will not be a problem that will be resolved only with new technologies and improvements in molecular medicine. There are lessons to learn here by enjoying our natural history.

Gizmodo: Your book covers many different aspects and attitudes on the way people age today in relation to the past. What do you think are the biggest false ideas on human longevity and aging?

Gurven: The biggest is just a misunderstanding of what life expectancy is generally.

When people say that life expectancy was much shorter in the past and perhaps even as low than the 1930s, it does not mean that everyone lived up to 30 years, then died. Even with shorter expectations of life, you can have people who are much more to live than that, because it is an average. And because we used to have a lot of death early in life, this essentially reduces this average.

Gizmodo: Conversely, are there any ways that people can romanianize the past and how we have lived and died before industrialization?

Gurven: Everyone turns to hunter-gatherers and they see what they want to see. Either they see the infernal landscape of “all against all” and how life was really horrible, or some people see a very romantic scenario, where everyone was vegetarian and hugging trees and in line with nature, this kind of thing.

So, in fact, paying attention to the way in which hunter-gatherers live is an important type of lesson that I try to transmit, with a first-hand experience having worked and lived with this kind of groups. Which of these myths are somewhat out of the base, and which could really be true?

Gizmodo: When we got to this, what are the things we have learned by studying longevity and older members in communities like Tsimané?

Gurven: One thing, which may go hand in with the thought that no one really lived as long, is just the idea that so many aging diseases that we hold for acquired will simply happen to us, because it is difficult to think of aging without thinking of heart disease and dementia and this kind of thing. But the very fact is that in these fairly high populations of mortality (like the Tsimané), you do not see this kind of disease, and it is not because no one lives at these ages when these diseases generally manifest. Even when we follow people from 40 years old, we can see that people do not develop heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease or diabetes.

It is therefore like a kind of really important lesson because it tells us that there is so much to learn about these diseases, which are our main sources of mortality in the industrialized world.

We already know that if you do not smoke, are physically active, keep a reasonable weight and eat well, you can live a healthier life. But when you can see this at a level of whole population, where almost an entire population can live without heart disease, diabetes and Alzheimer’s, it’s quite surprising. And he therefore demonstrates that these big risk factors – smoking, physical inactivity, excess weight, etc. – have the number of deaths of non -transmitted diseases, which represents more than half of the deaths that we are experiencing today; This shows that these deaths are really avoidable with things that people already do.

I also think there are just wider lessons on what the elderly and their expectations do. There is no official retirement at 65 or at any age with hunter-gatherers. We do not expect that you now have a leisure life; You know, choose your cruise. And so, I certainly like the idea that with this type of spirit of growth, learning is a process throughout life, right? And aging is not only the reverse of growth. It is not only the decline; There is continuous growth.

This does not mean that everyone continues to do exactly the same thing until they die. In fact, there are great changes in what men and women tend to do in these societies. But the important point, in a way zoom out, is that they remain relevant, they remain committed and they remain involved.

Gizmodo: What do you hope that people remove the most from this book-those who reach their elders as well as those who have grandparents or other elderly people in their lives?

Gurven: I hope to inspire, a kind of new type of optimism. Not an optimism which is simply based on the maximization of our lives, our longevity or even our duration of health. I mean, these things are essential, and I am happy that there are other books and other people who work there. But what I try to get is that people are thinking about a deeper level where we are now and where we are heading in the next two decades.

There are no medical solutions that will be 85 years old biologically as 35 -year -old children, right? And if in a realistic way, in the next two decades, I hope that people will be newly inspired on how to rethink the cash register and to think respectfully of our elderly people as an animal, realizing that we have something to learn from them, that there is a place for them, and that it is not only a service to these elders, but that we all benefit from living them in our lives.

Part of the backtracking in this book is to show all the different ways that we have already made throughout our evolutionary history.

Seven decades: how we have evolved to live longer is published by Princeton University Press and is available online or on a rigid cover.