politburo diktat 2.0

So Big and Healthy Grandpa Wouldn’t Even Know You - New York Times

People of [the 19th Century], like those before and after them, expected to develop chronic diseases by their 40’s or 50’s. [Civil War veteran] Keller’s descendants had lung problems, they had heart problems, they had liver problems. They died in their 50’s or 60’s.

Now, though, life has changed. The family’s baby boomers are reaching middle age and beyond and are doing fine.

The Keller family illustrates what may prove to be one of the most striking shifts in human existence — a change from small, relatively weak and sickly people to humans who are so big and robust that their ancestors seem almost unrecognizable.

New research from around the world has begun to reveal a picture of humans today that is so different from what it was in the past that scientists say they are startled. Over the past 100 years, says one researcher, Robert W. Fogel of the University of Chicago, humans in the industrialized world have undergone “a form of evolution that is unique not only to humankind, but unique among the 7,000 or so generations of humans who have ever inhabited the earth.”

The difference does not involve changes in genes, as far as is known, but changes in the human form. It shows up in several ways, from those that are well known and almost taken for granted, like greater heights and longer lives, to ones that are emerging only from comparisons of health records.

The biggest surprise emerging from the new studies is that many chronic ailments like heart disease, lung disease and arthritis are occurring an average of 10 to 25 years later than they used to. There is also less disability among older people today, according to a federal study that directly measures it. And that is not just because medical treatments like cataract surgery keep people functioning. Human bodies are simply not breaking down the way they did before.

Even the human mind seems improved. The average I.Q. has been increasing for decades, and at least one study found that a person’s chances of having dementia in old age appeared to have fallen in recent years.

A fascinating article; I only excerpted a small portion of it. Using the Keller family as an example it describes the differences in health and longevity over time. A study of Civil War veterans, and their lifetime health histories, provided much of the comparative data. Really fascinating.

I’ve researched my own family history, and can anecdotally confirm this. My great-grandfather was a Civil War veteran, and the skimpy information I have on him fits this pattern.

One quibble. This is not evolution. If it’s not in the genes, it’s not evolution. AFAIK, the precise term is the “range of phenotypic variation within the genotype.” That is to say, as a population, we are genetically indistinguishable from our 19th Century ancestors, but just live longer, are bigger and healthier. Like zoo animals. It’s obvious that animals in a zoo, that are well-fed, that receive veterinary care, and are not stressed, live longer than animals in the wild.