The Lifestyles of Long-Lived People

By David Tuffley

It’s the thing that most people desire – a long-life, well-lived -- yet achieving it can be elusive. Sure, medical technology goes a long way, but what about staying healthy in the first place? This eBook is a summary of the collected wisdom of hundreds of researchers who have studied the ingredients of a healthy, long-lived lifestyle.

It should be good news to us all that there are relatively simple rules that we inherited from our evolutionary past that have been proven to be true for everyone, everywhere; a few simple rules that you can apply to your life, wherever you live.

Much research has been done into what makes people live a long time and be healthy. We now know that there are certain common factors that are true at a human level, true for everyone, everywhere. Of course, how these factors are put into practice is going to be different from place to place, but if we know what those underlying factors are, we can use our imaginations to work out how to live them ourselves.

Looking at it from an evolutionary point of view, these factors describe the ideal way for humans to live. This is the key to understanding a long and happy life.

The fossil record tells us that the human lineage split from our closest living relative, the chimpanzee, around five million years ago. By 200,000 years ago, humans were anatomically similar to people today. If a human from that time were brought into the modern world, cleaned up, given a haircut and dressed in regular clothes, it would be difficult to tell them apart from someone born in the modern era.

Darwin’s Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection tells us that the creatures that survive are those that are best suited to life in a particular environment. Humans evolved on the African savannah, so we are well-adapted to those conditions. Our ancestors lived in small family groups on the vast grassy plains along with all the other species, many of which still there today.

Humans were not at the top of the food-chain. That position was occupied by Lions and other big cat predators. Our ancestors foraged for whatever they could find. For millions of years early humans lived like this.

Then, about 120,000 years ago, our ancestors wandered north and found their way across the narrow seas to Eurasia. So began the human diaspora that resulted in humans spreading across that vast land-mass to the Americas and down to Australia.

Logic would suggest that the key to long life is to adapt your lifestyle so that it is similar to what has been called the Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness. This is the set of what anthropologists might call the ‘recurring selection pressures’ that have shaped us into the creatures we are today.

A less scientific way of expressing this idea is to say that we should learn to live in harmony with Nature; to harmonize our inner world with the outer world.

The chapters that follow outline the essential features of the lifestyle of early humans. They serve as a model that you can use to adapt your lifestyle so that it is in harmony with our inner nature.

I do not suggest that we should leave our homes and become hunter-gatherers on the African savannah again. Let us make full use of the modern conveniences at our disposal, but let us do so in full knowledge of the grounding principles that make us human. If you can find a way to combine the two, you are well on your way to achieving a long and happy life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Altiora Publications
• Release date: Apr 6, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311201027

David Tuffley

David Tuffley (PhD) is a Senior Lecturer in Applied Ethics & Socio-Technical Studies at Griffith University in Australia.David writes on a broad range of interests; from Comparative Religion, Anthropology, Psychology, Ancient and Modern History, Linguistics, Rhetoric, Philosophy, Architectural History, Environments and Ecosystems.

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Lifestyles of Long-Lived People

David Tuffley

Altiora Publications

© Copyright 2014 David Tuffley

Pick the day. Enjoy it - to the hilt. The day as it comes. People as they come... The past, I think, has helped me appreciate the present, and I don't want to spoil any of it by fretting about the future ― Audrey Hepburn

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CONTENTS

Why You Should Read This Book

Introduction

Sense of Purpose

Community

Belief in Something Larger

Exercise

Nutrition

Manage Stress

Sense of Humor

Stimulate your brain

General Advice For A Long Life

Beating addiction

Conclusion

About The Author

Other titles by David Tuffley

WHY YOU SHOULD READ THIS BOOK

It’s the very thing that most people desire – a long-life, well-lived. Medical technology makes it possible to keep people alive for longer, but that alone is not enough. We need to know how to think in order to live long and happily.

It should be good news to us all that there are relatively simple rules that we inherited from our evolutionary past that have been proven to be true for everyone, everywhere; a few simple rules that you can apply to your life, wherever you live. The guidelines presented here are the distilled essence of the long-lived lifestyle, condensed from a multitude of sources across cultures and over many years.

INTRODUCTION

Much research has been done into what makes people live a long time and be healthy. We now know that there are certain common factors that are true at a human level, true for everyone, everywhere. Of course, how these factors are put into practice is going to be different from place to place, but if we know what those underlying factors are, we can use our imaginations to work out how to live them ourselves.

Looking at it from an evolutionary point of view, these factors describe the ideal way for humans to live. This is the key to understanding a long and happy life.

The fossil record tells us that the human lineage split from our closest living relative, the chimpanzee, around five million years ago. By 200,000 years ago, humans were anatomically similar to people today. If a human from that time were brought into the modern world, cleaned up, given a haircut and dressed in regular clothes, it would be difficult to tell them apart from someone born in the modern era.

Darwin’s Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection tells us that the creatures that survive are those that are best suited to life in a particular environment. Humans evolved on the African savannah, so we are well-adapted to those conditions. Our ancestors lived in small family groups on the vast grassy plains along with all the other species, many of which still there today.

Humans were not at the top of the food-chain. That position was occupied by Lions and other big cat predators. Our ancestors foraged for whatever they could find. For millions of years early humans lived like this.

Then, about 120,000 years ago, our ancestors wandered north and found their way across the narrow seas to Eurasia. So began the human diaspora that resulted in humans spreading across that vast land-mass to the Americas and down to Australia.

Logic would suggest that the key to long life is to adapt your lifestyle so that it is similar to what has been called the Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness. This is the set of what anthropologists might call the ‘recurring selection pressures’ that have shaped us into the creatures we are today.

A less scientific way of expressing this idea is to say that we should learn to live in harmony with Nature; to harmonize our inner world with the outer world.

The chapters that follow outline the essential features of the lifestyle of early humans. They serve as a model that you can use to adapt your lifestyle so that it is in harmony with our inner nature. These guidelines are the essence of what makes humans live a long time, condensed from