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Cancer in the Neolithic?
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Sanctuary
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Re: Cancer in the Neolithic?
Jan 26, 2017, 10:58
Monganaut wrote:
I imagine Cancer was more prevalent than the discovery record would show. I heard a show on Radio 4 some years ago discussing cancer in African tribal peoples, and even thought hey were essentially following a healthy hunter/gatherer lifestyle, the incidence of the disease was higher than you'd expect. The main culprit recognised in the programme was wood smoke/fires.

Much like diabetes, I'm sure the only obvious signs of the disease was that someone was getting sick, and there appeared to be no reason.
If you've ever read 'Cider With Rosie', there's a heartbreaking chapter where one of Laurie Lee's sisters essentially wastes away whilst he's ill in bed, which I think retrospectively has been recognised as un-diagnosed diabetes.



You may well be right re the records. I heard a cancer specialist say once on TV that cancer was an 'alien' disease and unlike anything that one would 'normally' expect to still see today, suggesting it was very old and would normally have been resolved by now. He didn't mean an alien as in little green men of course but the nature of it. If it was indeed prevalent in ancient times but possibly came under control but lying dormant, we could now be seeing a resurgence of it in a somewhat different form and why it has not been zapped permanently by now.
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