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submitted 2 days ago by Deceptichum@quokk.au to c/memes@lemmy.world
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[-] jaybone@lemmy.zip 10 points 2 days ago

Average life expectancy included early childhood deaths. So if you made it to teenager, you would probably live to an old age close to what you might live to today.

[-] Baguette 11 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Ehh not exactly. Yes infant mortality would skew the data a bit, but modern medicine, along with modern agriculture has definitely increased the average life expectancy by a sizable portion.

Nowadays, people don't have to worry about food stockpiles and periods of shortages. Malnutrition was definitely a big issue back then. Especially with things like baby food being present, which was a big factor in reducing baby death rates

Modern medicine such as vaccines, surgeries, supplements, and even basic hygiene has made wonders for the average health of a person. Things that would normally kill a person, like bacteria infecting a wound, nowadays is mostly recoverable and minor.

If you look back even just a century, life expectancy was a lot lower than the present. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1040079/life-expectancy-united-states-all-time/

[-] fading_person@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 days ago

In isolated communities without any of our tech and science advancement, like the kalahari, it's common for people to live into old age, so getting into your 80s or something isn't something new in our society. Statistically, more people are getting into older age, but that doesn't mean young people were considered old.

[-] nexguy@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

True, but they did die from minor injuries a lot more than they do now.

this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2025
398 points (100.0% liked)

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