image courtesy of natural history museum

years ago i was at my favorite chinese dentist in california due for a filling and i asked this eloquent doctor of mine, why it was that even though i brushed twice a day and flossed i had to deal with cavities? i said a lion for example, does little of that and seems to be keeping his pearly whites? the answer was mind opening. he said “well… there are really two reasons. for one, man in its natural state consumes a fraction of the sugar humans consume today, but more importantly our organs and bodies have not evolved as quickly as mans life has changed at his own hands. in nature you would have died of a virus, if not eaten by a predator by age 20.” i for one would have been dead at the age of 8 when i got a strep-throat with a fever of 103. without todays available antibiotics, the infection would have reached my heart and i would have met my “baker” long ago. i was telling this story today, and jr looked this up. sure enough the average age of cavemen was indeed 20. you would have mated at age 13 and been eaten by age 20. so count your blessing as most of us are now on borrowed time. by dd+jr