Inuit and Aleut Life Span

[Guest guest]

An old post by Marla on Native Nutrition shows the life expectancy of

various primitive Inuit and Aleut groups:

http://onibasu.com/archives/nn/14535.html

Among the Aleuts of the Unalaska District, according to this post, 23%

of deaths were under the age of 7, 17% occurred between ages 7 and 25,

21% for ages 25-45, 20% died between the ages of 45 and 60, 10%

between 60 and 70, 7% for ages 70 to 80, 5% for ages above 80.

For the Eskimos of Labrador:

< 10 -- 30%

11-25 -- 20%

26-50 -- 18%

51-60 -- 15%

61-70 -- 13%

>70 -- 5%

At the most northern station of Cape Chidley, only 50% of those born

between 1902 and 1922 survived past age 48 (this passage could be

read a few ways so check Marla's wording for yourself if you'd like).

These numbers are not very impressive, but do demonstrate that at

least SOME native Alaskans lived to old age.

Marla quotes Steffanson's conclusion:

Steffanson writes, " Thus the most nearly " primitive " sample group I was able

to obtain does not support Dr. Keys very strongly in his contention that " a

primitive Eskimo over the age of 50 is a great rarity. " Nor does it quite

confirm Dr. Greist's statement that " the Eskimo of the North . . . lived to

a very great age. "

I would like to know WHAT these deaths were from. Wars and accidents

are essentially unrelated to diet. Diet will play some role in death

from infectious diseases, but many other factors will play a role.

Degenerative diseases like heart disease and cancer might be primarily

dietary.

So, we still don't have enough data. However, they clearly had, on

the whole, a low life expectancy and this was NOT simply due to high

infant mortality. For example if the Aleuts made it to age 25, they

were just as likely to die by age 45 as they were to die between ages

45 and 60, and twice as likely to die at these ages as they were after

them.

Can anyone who has read Cancer: A Disease of Civilization, from whence

these figures come, shed more light on the cause of death?

Chris

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