A few years ago, I was your typical office-worker: stressed out, uneven energy, overweight, and inconsistent complexion. Now I'm just your typical 28-year old urban hunter-gatherer on a quest to be healthy, and having a few adventures along the way. See my full bio.
Say you have an injury. Maybe you tore your rotator cuff, and you can't throw a baseball for the rest of your life. Call it a career-ending injury for a professional baseball player. Now, imagine that you are trying to become a professional hunter-gatherer. What kinds of injuries are standing in your way? And which are permanent and which are temporary?
Let's start simple. Poor eyesight will prevent you from surviving in the wild without corrective lenses or surgery. There are no dietary changes or vision exercises that will restore your vision. As far as I know (and I may be wrong), this is a permanent injury -- a career-ending injury for a hunter-gatherer wannabe. What other permanent injuries have modern people sustained? We've seen all the temporary injuries from the before and after photos: weight loss, strength gains, immune system improvement, digestion, and general health improvement that can come from lifestyle changes. But what can't we change? Are there ways in which we are permanently deformed, perhaps without even realizing it?
Permanent Injuries
What else? I realize not all of these are not career-ending, but they should be permanent. Put your thoughts in the comments.
Comments
scarring from acne? really?
scarring from acne? really? not clear on how this is a game changer.
scarring from acne? really?
scarring from acne? really? not clear on how this is a game changer.
Why did you have to bring up
Why did you have to bring up a torn rotator cuff!? My shoulder was dislocated about 2 months ago from a bike/car collision. I'm starting rehab and slowing restoring motion to it, but I can't draw my hunting bow for the time being. I bet had a Cavemen dislocated a shoulder back then, it would have been the end of him.
I have to bring up the fact
I have to bring up the fact that this is an assumption. Humans are communal creatures, and while we think of ancient people as being self-centered-every-man-for-himself, this view probably isn't true. There's plenty of evidence that ancient people took care of their own.In Florida (Windover Bog dig site), they found the remains of a man, estimated to be late teens or early twenties, who suffered from Spina Bifida. He was estimated to have lived 7-8k years ago. Spina Bifida is a *birth* defect, meaning that the group of people he was with, took care of him for 15-20 years. He probably wouldn't have been able to walk, and by extension hunt.I have also read about skeletons (paleolitihic and neolithic) found in Turkey and the near East that had severe injuries that had healed. This means someone cared for them while they recuperated.
Collapsed lung- it just
Collapsed lung- it just happened to me as a result of a fall off a bicycle. Modern medicine fixed me up and I'm back to 100%
Use a Tibetan eye chart and
Use a Tibetan eye chart and palming of the eyes to naturally improve eyesight.
Loss of hearing could bring
Loss of hearing could bring an abrupt end to a caveman's carreer. I would hate to be happily gathering berries and not hear that mountain lion roaring behind me.
Collapsed arches may or may
Collapsed arches may or may not be permanent. As a massage therapist, I have worked with people to restore their arches with some success. It depends on if there is an actual bone deformity or genetic anomoly, or if it is merely a chronic holding pattern from years of bad foot posture. People who had to have braces on their legs when they were children, for example, in my experience don't have the same capacity to rebuild the arches as somebody who merely walked on their arches their whole life or is/was very heavy.It takes a continuous conscious effort every time they put their foot down, awareness of weight distribution/foot position when standing, repatterning excercises done faithfully, and intervention via massage (to help release the muscles from their negative holding patterns), but with time and effort I have seen feet go from flat to normal. Knee problems can improve with improvement in foot posture as well.
Potentially, bone breakage is
Potentially, bone breakage is career-ending, particularly if the break is extensive. Same goes for significant cartilage tears, which could prevent fluid or sustained movement (e.g. a badly torn miniscus).
gettingstronger.org/2010/07/
gettingstronger.org/2010/07/improve-eyesight-and-throw-away-your-glasses/The above link is to Todd Becker's site, one of the lesser known bloggers in the paleosphere. I agree that eye exercises, such as the Bates Method, do not work. But there is some real science behind this. Results my vary, and it is a lot of work, but it can work. Over the course of several months of constant work I have been able to improve my vision from 20/40 to 20/20.
A paleo diet and vitamin d
A paleo diet and vitamin d supplementation have almost completely eliminated the eyestrain and inability to switch focus problems I was having previously.
Extensive tooth decay and
Extensive tooth decay and loss of teeth is permanent and damned close to career-ending for a meat eater.
Paleolithic people didn't
Paleolithic people didn't have tooth decay. Dental caries are not seen in humans until the advent of agriculture :D
I remember reading in the
I remember reading in the book Cro Magnon by Brian Fagan about a paleolithic skull that didn't have any teeth. As other readers have remarked, I believe that paleolithic people with injuries or disabilities were helped by others in their band, and probably pitched in as best they could.
Well, poor eye-sight may not
Well, poor eye-sight may not be entirely irreversible. See blog post from Modern Paleo on the topic: http://blog.modernpaleo.com/2010/08/how-to-reverse-nearsightedness-without.html
Also check "the bates method"
Also check "the bates method" for eye-sight improvement therapy.