Chapter 25: Why We Die the Way We Do
Six of the top ten causes of death in the industrialized world are mismatch diseases -- conditions driven by modifiable lifestyle factors, not by aging itself.
◆ Key Insights
Heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer's, chronic liver disease, and kidney disease are all primarily lifestyle-driven
Hunter-gatherer populations that survive childhood infections frequently live into their 70s -- disproving the 'ancestral life was short' myth
The average ancestral lifespan wasn't 37 years; that's skewed by infant mortality. Those who survived childhood lived decades longer
The goal isn't longer life but compressed morbidity -- being healthy until close to the end instead of declining for decades
Cancer's relationship with mismatch factors (processed food, sedentism, circadian disruption, chronic inflammation) is now well-documented
Read the full chapter to confront the uncomfortable truth: most of what kills us was preventable -- and evolution explains exactly how.
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