If you read the book of Genesis in the bible you know how the story goes. Abraham and Sarah lived into their 90s and Sarah gave birth very late in life. Although the ability of Sarah to give birth that late could be disputed, I hypothesize that living into their 90s was not at all impossible, but actually the most likely scenario of all.
Having just finished reading the book Healthy at 100 by John Robbins, son of the Baskin-Robbins tycoon, I began to think about the likelihood of our ancestors living healthy, vigorous lives l into old age. In his incredible book, Robbins talks about more recent cultures in which people regularly lived into their 80s, 90s, and even the low 100s while enjoying good health even in their advanced years. These cultures include the Abkhasians of the Caucasus, the Hunzians of Pakistan, the Vilcabambans in Equador’s Andes Mountains, and the Okinawans of Japan. Likely you have heard of the last group but not of the other cultures.
Sadly these cultures have not maintained this amazing longevity because of the encroachment of Western society. As we’ve done all over the world, we exported our fast food and sedentary way of life as the “norm” for progress. Before coming into major contact with Western cultures, all of these cultures named above farmed their own food, which was organic and not filled with the junk that we identify as food today; because many of them are mountainous peoples, they walked or hiked on a daily basis to farm their food and just do all the things necessary to survive, and in addition they all had closeknit and loving societies where the elderly were revered as were the children and people of all ages.
Because of the healthy lifestyles they led, they had none of the chronic diseases that we have today–and so cardiovascular disease, diabetes, arthritis, and other diseases were unknown. He does not talk in his book about infectious diseases but I’m guessing that with the level of biodiversity prevalent at that time and certainly at the time of our ancestors, infectious diseases were probably not that prevalent. And because there weren’t many people at the time in these areas, diseases like the plague, malaria and TB that often come with large populations living in close proximity, did not have the opportunity to take a foothold. Fresh water was bountiful and predators to feed on rats–often vectors of disease–kept the rodent population in check, so these diseases did not have a chance to reach humans–,or if they did, they rarely spread.
Living thousands of years before these cultures, the early Jewish people would have been in a similar situation to the Abkhasians and the other cultures named above. Hard work and healthy food would have been abundant. Pollution and other causes of disease would not have existed. People would have lived communally and, although warlike at times, would have spent most of their lives living in peace.
