A real Indian…
Senile hypertension turned out to be a "disease of civilization"
Observations of the life of the famous primitive "cruel people" Yanomamo and other Amazonian Indians have shown that they do not suffer from hypertension in their advanced years of life. This indicates the special role of the "Western diet" and civilization in the development of heart disease, scientists write in the journal JAMA Cardiology (Mueller et al., Association of Age With Blood Pressure Across the Lifespan in Isolated Yanomami and Yekwana Villages).
"The main dogma of cardiology is that the pressure inevitably increases with age. On the other hand, observations of non-European peoples show that this dependence may not exist among them. We tested this idea by observing two tribes of Indians, one of which lives in isolation from the rest of the world," write Noel Mueller from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore (in a press release Study of Two Tribes Sheds Light on the Role of Western-Influenced Diet in Blood Pressure).
Lessons of the Stone Age
Today, most scientists believe that diet and individual foods have a strong impact not only on a person's weight, but also on the health of his brain, blood vessels, heart and other key organs of the body.
For example, scientists have recently shown that eating large amounts of olive oil and Mediterranean dishes significantly reduces the chances of dying from a stroke or heart attack, and an excessively large amount of salt in food, on the contrary, worsens the health of the heart and blood vessels.
Some of these beneficial and harmful effects are related to how food affects the intestinal microflora, while others are caused by various molecules and trace elements that directly affect the functioning of organs and the chemical composition of the blood.
Muller and his colleagues found unexpected confirmation of this hypothesis by observing how often representatives of two tribes of Amazonian Indians – Yanomamo and Yekwana – suffered from hypertension in old age, adulthood and youth.
Both of these groups of Indians, "stuck" in the Stone Age, have been studied for many years by anthropologists arguing around the theories of Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau about the "natural state" of man. Yanomamo, as Muller notes, are still not in contact with civilization, and the yequana have already managed to get acquainted with its fruits.
Gifts of civilization
Scientists tried to use these differences to test whether the Western diet, medications and other attributes of "modern life" affect the health of their hearts and blood vessels. To do this, scientists interviewed representatives of these tribes, and also measured their blood pressure, blood sugar, weight, height and other vital signs.
As it turned out, even the short-term influence of civilization was enough to radically change the life of the Yequan Indians. Their average weight increased by about 7 kilograms, and their pressure increased by 5-10 millimeters of mercury.
Such differences became more pronounced as the age of the Indians increased. This was due to the fact that the pressure of the "civilized" Indians on average increased by about 0.25 millimeters of mercury for each year of life, whereas in Yanomamo this indicator was almost zero.
As a result, hypertension developed more often in elderly Yequans than in young representatives of this tribe, which was completely uncharacteristic for Yanomamo. Interestingly, in civilized countries, these differences are even more pronounced – in the United States, each year of life adds 1.5 millimeters of mercury in children and 0.6 millimeters in adults.
All this, according to Muller, suggests that senile hypertension and related diseases are caused not by the work of the "aging program" of a person, but by some social, cultural and dietary factors. Their discovery and correction will protect humanity from one of the main causes of death of people today.
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