Funny thing about life expectancy. No-one considered 36 to be an old age. Infant mortality was higher, which greatly skews the average age of death. Life span is estimated to have not changed much for humans, we're just better at not dying as kids now.
Funnily enough, it was modern, shitty life styles that perpetuated this myth
if we think we’re living longer than ever today, this is because our records go back to around 1900 – which they call a “misleading baseline”, as it was at a time when nutrition had decreased and when many men started to smoke.
Another thing that often gets brought up is how people of old would have had 2 teeth because they didn't have access to dentistry. In reality the teeth of your average serf would be better than your average person today, since they didn't have a load of sugar in everything.
Absolutely. We fucked the world with mass trade, exports and the normalising of sugar, tabacco and alcohol... They are the coolest things though, so I'm torn
They still had mouth wash (usually water, vinegar or wine) and they did clean their teeth with linen cloth. And then they'd munch on some good smelling herbs/spices (nutmeg, fennel, etc.) if they could afford it - obviously that was more the purview of the rich but anyone could afford rinsing their mouth with water and giving a vigorous rub. Medieval understanding of healthcare revolved around "bad air" so smelling good was important to them, and of course they tried to keep their mouths and bodies not stanking up and "poisoning" their family and community.
Even cavemen had stonetools and some cavity filling shit they could do for eachother. Only the modern world has people wandering around with shitty teeth and mouths because they can't afford to pay and have shitty diets.
Funny thing about life expectancy. No-one considered 36 to be an old age. Infant mortality was higher, which greatly skews the average age of death. Life span is estimated to have not changed much for humans, we're just better at not dying as kids now.
Funnily enough, it was modern, shitty life styles that perpetuated this myth
Source here
Another thing that often gets brought up is how people of old would have had 2 teeth because they didn't have access to dentistry. In reality the teeth of your average serf would be better than your average person today, since they didn't have a load of sugar in everything.
Absolutely. We fucked the world with mass trade, exports and the normalising of sugar, tabacco and alcohol... They are the coolest things though, so I'm torn
They still had mouth wash (usually water, vinegar or wine) and they did clean their teeth with linen cloth. And then they'd munch on some good smelling herbs/spices (nutmeg, fennel, etc.) if they could afford it - obviously that was more the purview of the rich but anyone could afford rinsing their mouth with water and giving a vigorous rub. Medieval understanding of healthcare revolved around "bad air" so smelling good was important to them, and of course they tried to keep their mouths and bodies not stanking up and "poisoning" their family and community.
Even cavemen had stonetools and some cavity filling shit they could do for eachother. Only the modern world has people wandering around with shitty teeth and mouths because they can't afford to pay and have shitty diets.