The reason our species finds itself in the ever-constricting clutches of atherosclerosis — the insidious buildup of cholesterol-filled plaques in blood vessels leading to heart attacks and stroke — might be that human evolution inadvertently led us into its labyrinthine lair.
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[P]rotection from our ancient adversaries — infection, injury and starvation — now allows us to live long enough to gain prolonged deadly exposure from our modern lifestyles.
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Recent dramatic reductions in heart disease are proof that through lifestyle improvements and medical therapy, we can exert real agency over our fitness, and that we are not beholden to our genetic biology. While the DASH and Mediterranean diets have the best evidence for heart health, the problem seems to be not too much of either fat, salt, sugar or meat in our diets, but too much of everything.
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The solution is to transform our lifestyles so that we can come up to speed with evolutionary mechanisms set in motion millenniums ago. Heart disease is still a new disease, and if we respect our evolution, adapt accordingly and follow evidence-based medical advice, we can revert it to a speck in the history of mankind.
Read full, original post: Evolution Gave Us Heart Disease. We’re Not Stuck With It
