Evolution and Stress, Natural and Artificial

A friend just passed this link along to me about the relationship between our bodies and psyches as they have evolved and the stressful environment in which we now live in modern society:

http://www.npr.org/2013/09/30/22777...dies-struggle-to-stay-healthy-in-modern-times

Interesting how what evolutionary biologist Daniel Lieberman says here reinforces what Bruce Lipton, Dr Gabor Mate and Peter Levine all are saying too about how modern stressful situations are altering the biochemistry of our bodies and brains, isn't it? It seems to me as if it's all part of a paradigm shift in the way we look at the origins and causes of what I like to call "diseases without germs".

 

I grew up before television, computers, the Internet, Facebook, iPhones,
multi-tasking, etc., and those were less hectic, stressful days.

A few years about our neighborhood lost all power in an electrical storm and
we were without electricity for three days and nights.
I just read some books by daylight and in the evening listened to classical music
on my battery operated Walkman, and took my dog for extra walks.

I was unplugged and loved it.

Don't give me an i-Phone or i-Pad or anything to hold in my hand except a
can of beer or a glass of wine.

 

I found an iPhone someone had left last night at the gym, let it lay there a while to see if anyone claimed it, then turned it in at the front desk as I a left a couple of hours later. Lo and behold: a young man had just been at the desk frantically searching for his cell phone. Staff went outside on the side walk and returned it to him. As I walked by on the sidewalk, I told him I was the one who had found and returned it. He practically went down on his knees as he repeatedly thanked me. His eyes were wide and he was thoroughly anxious, then relieved upon the return of the lost phone. It was apparent that without his cell phone his whole life would have come crashing down. And remember the life we're talking about is totally vicarious and composed of pictures and audio/video files. It seemed to me that I was witnessing living proof of just how anxious we are as a society when we're disconnected from cyberspace. I can see how all those images and auditory clips are really functioning as replacements for immediate, vital human contact. No wonder people are so stressed out today!

 

Here's a little precise of what Daniel Lieberman's book is all about:

"Many of the illnesses that we confront today are what evolutionary biologists called "mismatch diseases": ... Diseases that occur because our bodies are poorly or inadequately adapted to environments in which we now live. An example would be eating large amounts of sugar or being very physically inactive leads to problems like diabetes or heart disease that then make us sick. So mismatched diseases are diseases that are more modern in the sense that they're more prevalent, or even novel or more severe, because we don't live in the way in which our bodies are adapted."

This must be one of the reasons that you feel so disconnected with modern society and the people in it when you return from a 3-month backpacking trip into the interior ranges of British Columbia. You've gotten synchronized with your natural self and body as it has evolved for eons and now suddenly your back in a world driven by stress and anxiety and fueled by foods with an overabundance of sugar and fat. Talk about body-mind culture shock! It's at moments like this that you become really aware of what's wrong in modern society and the cultural and social environments it supports and perpetuates.