The transition to meat eating, increased pathogen pressure, and the constitutive and inducible use of pharmacological plants in Homo

submitted by jet199 from threadreaderapp.com

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newinsightfulfun

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 4 fun3 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 4 fun -  (0 children)

This is a neat read.

Our bodies seem to recognize that animal foods pose a pathogen threat -- they increase inflammatory responses -- whereas plant foods are often anti-inflammatory (perhaps because they are anti-infective

There are some amazing success stories with carnivore diets for people with auto-immune and inflammatory issues.

Final argument: how to defend the brain from increased zoonotic disease? Psychotropic drugs! They cross the blood-brain barrier, are toxic to many parasites, and can therefore treat infections of the CNS.

Fuck yeah! Get high for your health.

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It's false. The premise that pathogens were such a big problem during that era is wrong. In fact, Terrain medicine pretty much demonstrates that if you aren't poisoned and eating relatively well, pathogens are not likely to be much of a problem.

That is, until population concentration reached certain thresholds with cities, but that was MUCH later.