Why hundred(s) year ago people have had a shorter life span if...?

Question

if the food they ate and air they breathed was MUCH better and less commercially toxiciated than today's food and environment in North America? How did these people even get sick in the first place if there was an absense of harmful toxins and artifical and commercialized foods? Why was there lifespan shorter???

Answer 1

Hunger, lack of appropriate knowledge of medicine and drugs that cure are two. Superstitions played a large part. Their homes, such as they were, were often filled with smoke due to faulty chimneys and inappropriate ventilation. Many women died in childbirth from reasons that no longer happen. I could go on. Sanitation was non-existent. Trash and feces were thrown into the streets. People did not keep their hands clean. Often their livestock lived in the house with them.

Answer 2

People years ago may have been healthier than people today. Most cancers are preventable, with many caused by environmental and chemical exposures that people living years ago did not have.

* More than 7 million recognized chemicals are in existence, and approximately 80,000 of them are in common use worldwide (GAO 1994b).

* A 1979 inventory of chemicals mandated by the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) contained 62,000 chemicals that were reported by manufacturers as being in commercial use at that time. The inventory is up to 73,757 chemicals as of February 2001.

* EPA and the FDA have no idea exactly how many chemicals are used in consumer products, nor what products they are used in.

* An unknown number of new chemicals are not among this total. Only new organic chemicals - chemicals that contain carbon - are added to the list. New chemicals that are exempt from the official listing process include inorganics, pesticides, food additives, some large polymer molecules, and any chemical produced in low quantities.

Life expectancy is a statistic influenced by how it is calculated. Often it is calculated from birth.

Dramatic increases in life expectancy are the result of sanitation and sewers as well as other public health measures. Reducing infant mortality was a major factor increasing life expectancy.

Medicine is a minor contributor to increased life expectancy.

Eliminating the three top causes of death today (cancer, heart attack, stroke) would not appreciably change the current life expectancy.

So, are we living longer? Yes and no.

Answer 3

Why do you say that the food and water were better?

The conditions under which most of the planet lived
can compare with the worst that we see today, once you include the working conditions and unhealthy living conditions.

Any injury could result in death from infection- no pharmacy down the street. Remember- as recently as the American Civil War, most deaths occurred under the surgeon's knife due to infection.
Food was a daily challenge- either farming or hunting...one crop failure due to weather, or a failed hunting trip could put you at risk.
One other thing- the infant survival rate [ 20 % died under age 5 ] added to the lifespan measurement.

Answer 4

We don't just get sick from toxins. We get sick from bacteria and viruses. Some bacteria can be found in soil. Some is passed from animals (like poorly cooked beef and other meats). Some is just passed from human to human.
When they didn't know what bacteria was, or where it came from (rare steak, anyone?), it was hard to protect against it. Hand-washing wasn't so important. Neither were other forms of proper sanitation.
Some of these things are still visible in third-world contries, where they simply don't have the means to fend of illness.
In one city I visited in Guatemala, they didn't name their babies until they were at least a year old, because many of the babies didn't live that long.
Dirty water, unsanitary conditions, tainted food... all can lead to illness, despite the lack of other toxins.

Answer 5

Without proper medical care many people died from what today are thought of as minor conditions. Combine that with the fact man kind had no knowledge of germs thought little of proper hygiene.

Before the advent of antibiotics the most common causes of death was abscesses, typhoid fever, typhus, influenza, bubonic plague and small pox.

Answer 6

Because pretty much none of what you just said is true. They had food that wasn't as well protected from germs which made them much more susceptible to diseases. Things weren't nearly as clean and they weren't as advanced medically.

Answer 7

People live longer now than those who lived hundredrs of years ago due to medications, doctors and other conveniences which were not available then.

Answer 8

They didn't care for themselves as we do now. Dental health, women's and men's health exams, and general health checkups weren't common or practiced at all.

Now that we have a lot of prevention with certain diseases and illnesses (like vaccination and testing), we keep the diseases that killed them from ever becoming a problem for us!

Answer 9

We have better medications ,science have come a long way