January 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 38

DR . SANJAY GUPTA
and I always want to make sure I
frame it properly because I'm not
suggesting people can go live as an
Indigenous people in the middle of
the Amazon rainforest.
But what I think is interesting
is that they essentially don't have
most of the chronic diseases that
we're talking about when defining
that 70 to 80 percent. There [were]
three main things
that
sort
of
jumped out at me about them. And
again, I tried to put this in terms
that I could understand, [like] their
movement. Running is probably
not a very human...[or the] most
efficient way of actually moving; it
expends a lot of energy for not as
much return on that expenditure.
The healthiest people down there
don't run, they walk a lot and...
we actually tracked [it] and it was
about 17,000 steps a day. It's a lot,
but it seemed doable.
Their diet is mostly food that
comes out of the ground or what
they hunt. Seventy percent of what
they eat are carbs, [which have] a
really bad reputation. But it's not
the carbs,
it's the processing of
the carbs that's causing almost all
the problems. And then [third],
they sleep a lot. They were sleeping
about nine-and-a-half hours a
night on average - no devices, no
connectivity, obviously. So, it's just
a very different sort of lifestyle.
The one thing I'll say...[is] if you
live in a rainforest almost your entire
life, you live with some degree
of parasitic disease - hook worm,
round worm, Giardia [and] things
like that. And you usually get an
infection early in life and you get
sick. Most people
some days of illness. And then you
basically cohabitate with that parasite
your entire life, which is kind
recover after
of a wild thing to think about, but
for most of human existence, that
is just how it was. The idea of antiparasitic
medications is a relatively
new thing. I bring it up only to
say that when we think about these
chronic diseases, what is...becoming
clear is that our own immune
systems are either igniting or exacerbating
a lot of these chronic
diseases as well - even things like
heart disease and diabetes. We
know about things like rheumatoid
arthritis and a lot of the obviously
autoimmune-type diseases, but just
about every chronic disease has
some component of autoimmunity
to it. Our immune system turns
on ourselves, and if you talk to the
scientists who really study the Tsimane
[people], they believe that the
parasitic
infection
actually gives
the immune system something else
to occupy. So, it's not increasingly
focusing its attention inward on the
human body and igniting or exacerbating
these diseases. Again, I'm
not suggesting that people should
go out and get a parasitic infection,
but I do think understanding how
our own immune systems factor
into this [is] a big deal. And I think
that relationship with our environment
is a part of that.
If you're living outside in nature,
what your body is comprised of -
in terms of your microbiome, the
organisms that live on your skin,
even things like parasites - is very
different than if you're living inside
in a hygienic bubble. And it's pretty
clear that people who live outside
[reflect] how we [as] humans lived
most of our existence. And it gives
us greater protection against some
of these chronic diseases.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta says, " In saving nature,
we save ourselves. "
38 Parks & Recreation |
J ANUAR Y 2 0 2 3
| PARK S ANDRECRE AT ION . OR G
January 2023 - Parks & Recreation

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