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A comment on Decreasing human body temperature in the U.S. since the industrial revolution.

Re:Decreasing human body temperature in the U.S. since the i... by DaniFong on Thursday January 09, 2020 @03:52PM (#22005580)
This study suggests that from DNA evidence that natural human lifespan is 38 years old, the same age that was the life expectancy during Wunderlich's 1851 survey.

https://elifesciences.org/articles/49555

Additionally, our heating systems were vastly less sophisticated, and we were outdoors more.

Together I think that these suggest that we get a sort of genetic gift of our bodies in our prime, but the growth program kind of peters out in our late 30's. After that it's a genetic maintenance program, with which, in concert with modern society, we have a good chance to keep the machine going for quite a long time.

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Re:Decreasing human body temperature in the U.S. since the i... by laurencerowe on Thursday January 09, 2020 @05:59PM (#22006787)
The 38 years figure is misleading since it's skewed by high infant mortality rates. If you made it to 15 then for most of human history you'd probably live into your 50s or 60s.
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Re:Decreasing human body temperature in the U.S. since the i... by DaniFong on Friday January 10, 2020 @01:25AM (#22008775)
yeah, I think you're definitely right about this, this skews the picture to your 50's or 60's for sure -- I think that like, human growth hormone levels also bear this out.
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Re:Decreasing human body temperature in the U.S. since the i... by cjensen on Thursday January 09, 2020 @08:24PM (#22007679)
The discussion suggests heating and air conditioning as partial causes. It also discusses reduced infection (which is correlated with lifespan) as time passed due to antibiotics and anti-inflamatories drugs.
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