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Comment on Is it true that the natural lifespan of humans is only 38 years old and we only live past that because of loads of modern medicines/technology?

Buffalox@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

Nobody dies “naturally” of old age at 38.
But genetically we were originally nomads, and AFAIK the nomads of a 100000 years ago, had a far shorter average lifespan than after we settled and began farming. Also people of nomadic tribes in the rain forests of South America today, often don’t live longer than that on average AFAIK.

When we look at animals, it is also not uncommon that a tamed animal pet can live twice as long or more than they usually do in the wild. For humans if modern environment has similar impact compared to the harsh life as a nomadic people, the double of 38 is 76 years, and that’s pretty close to our average lifespan today.

So I certainly wouldn’t dismiss the claim outright, but the article is very thin on details on the science of how they arrived at this apart from “DNA”.

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Tuuktuuk@piefed.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

But genetically we come from nomadic tribes, and AFAIK the nomads of a 100000 years ago, had a far shorter average lifespan than after we settled and began farming.

This is mainly because of child mortality. When you get five children, of which two live to be 78 and 89 and the other three die at ages of 2, 14, and 8, your children’s average lifespan is 38,2 years. Typically, you either died very young, or you lived old. And the average is, well, the average of those. Basically nobody died around the age of 38.

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- Buffalox@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  Tribal nomads of 100000 did not live to their 60’s.
  AFAIK they rarely lived beyond 30.
  
  discovermagazine.com/what-was-the-life-expectancy…
  
  Other research reveals that the lifespan of Homo sapiens may have changed from the Middle Paleolithic to the later Upper Paleolithic, since the ratio of older to younger remains increases. The same research shows that starting about 30,000 years ago at the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic, the average lifespan began to push past 30 years.
  
  Note that Lifespan is not the same as life expectancy:
  
  my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/lifespan
  
  Lifespan is the maximum length of time that a person can live
  
  So 30000 years ago 30 years was pretty much the maximum age a person could achieve.
  
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  - Tuuktuuk@piefed.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    
    Note that Lifespan is not the same as life expectancy
    
    In this article it is, though. That’s why they use the phrase “average lifespan”. There is no “average” in maximum.
    In the article the phrase “average lifespan” is used in the meaning “average life expectancy”.
    
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    Buffalox@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    Average disregarding race or culture.
    
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