Dr. Daniel Lieberman, Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, discusses the benefits of exercise for good health and in ageing from an evolutionary perspective.
Unmukt co-founder Monimita Sarkar interviewed Professor Daniel Lieberman of Harvard University as part of Unmukt Bytes. Professor Lieberman spoke about how an evolutionary perspective can shed light on many modern health issues, including the chronic lack of exercise that many of us face today.
Professor Lieberman explained how the lifestyles of individuals living in hunter-gatherer societies can help us understand how humans in modern, industrialised societies often suffer from “mismatch” conditions, or medical conditions such as diabetes and obesity that arise because the environments we currently live in are very different from the environments that we evolved to live in. For example, intensive physical activity is a routine feature of hunter-gatherer life, and our ancestors engaged in regular physical exercise for millions of years. That is the lifestyle that our bodies are adapted for, and though the world has changed, our bodies have not. Today, we can go through an entire day without raising our heart rates even once.
Though many people know that exercise is important for physical fitness and maintaining body weight, Professor Lieberman explained how exercise also affects the immune system, mental health, and ageing. Indeed, exercise is the most successful way to prevent Alzheimer’s disease. In contrast, inadequate exercise can actually accelerate ageing and osteoporosis.
Professor Lieberman also told us about the uniqueness of human grandparents to the survival and success of their grandchildren, and how “active” grandparents may have played an important role in our evolutionary past. This is in contrast to the widespread modern stereotypes of grandparents as being inactive and tangential to the lives of their grandchildren.
To watch the full interview with Prof Daniel E Lieberman, click here