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ANH eAlert No 6 | 7 February 2018 |
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e-ALERT |
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Statins and palm oil – who gains, who loses? |
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Humans have come a long way since our Palaeolithic hunter gatherer ancestors roamed small parts of this delicate planet. Given some of the tensions we now face, it was interesting to read today that genetic studies of ‘Cheddar Man’, from which it’s estimated 10% of current Brits share genes, most likely had "blue eyes, a very dark brown to black complexion and dark curly hair”. They also had great teeth and it was in late Paleolithic era that increasing numbers of people lived beyond 30 leading to a big jump in human lifespan that some anthropologists link to the arrival of grandparents (yes, at 30!) providing social, cultural and technological knowledge, skills and wisdom.
These skills of the elders probably led to the dramatic drop in infant mortality, allowed children to be looked after freeing the parents, with grand parental guidance, to do the very things that provided the foundation for the astounding success of our species. That included the development of ever more complex technology, the colonisation of inhospitable environments and the creation of complex art. All this success has obviously come at a cost and now, with the environment, healthcare and food production systems close to breaking point, we now face some very challenging situations that don’t just involve the survival of our own species. Played out the wrong way, humanity and most natural ecosystems as we know them are at risk.
Lifespans are now around twice as long as those in the Upper Palaeolithic. That’s got less to do with modern medicine and more to do with public health and social support synonymous with so-called civilised societies. Water sanitation and food security have been key, and most of us get to shelter in secure housing safe from wild animals and feuding communities.
One of the ongoing challenges facing our species’ very recent post-industrial, exponential expansion has been looking at ways of keeping people alive and in sufficient health to allow them to remain productive for most of their lives to build economic power. Big businesses particularly in the post-WWII era have played a major role in this – and it hasn’t all been bad, with huge numbers having benefited both from having access to cheap food and being given jobs either in healthcare or somewhere along the food production or distribution chain.
The same goes for medicines. Some diseases, especially infectious ones, have been dealt with using the fruits of Pasteur’s germ theory. But we’ve not done well in treating successfully the complex diseases of ageing, or the diseases associated with our increasingly sedentary behaviours. Big business on the other hand, being built on the premise of exploiting circumstances to maximise profit, has done very well at least financially. The increasing unpopularity of corporate globalism is testament to this apparent imbalance – a lot’s been taken, while it appears much less has been given back in return as compared with a few decades ago.
Statins and palm oil each epitomise the paradox we, the human race, face in the two intimately linked areas of medicine and food, respectively. At the ANH, we put sustainability — both in healthcare and in relation to the environment on which we all ultimately depend — at the forefront of our thinking. Find out in each of our main pieces this week how we see a ‘way through’ on each of these complex issues. There probably is no one way, but we need to take concerted action on each to prevent outright exploitation of humans and the environment, while finding solutions to our basic needs.
These are among some of the many issues we’ll be picking up this weekend at the Inaugural Integrative Medicine Conference in Kuala Lumpur – about which you’ll find more information at www.intlimc.com.
In health, naturally and sustainably,
Rob Verkerk, PhD
Founder, executive & scientific director |
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