There are quite a few examples of zoonotic diseases that are carried by animals without showing symptoms that when transferred to other species cause death or severe disability.  Rabies is not the only disease carried by bats that largely leaves the bats unaffected but is deadly to humans.  To my knowledge there is only one case in history of someone surviving rabies - a teenage girl who is alive but who has suffered severe neurological and other damage.  
   
  Bats eat fruit and insects and some feed on the blood of other animals.  As for me, I'll stick to my paleo diet and forego the bat diet.
   
  gale

william <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
  Marilyn Harris wrote:
> 
>
> I know that the North American Indians were supremely healthy but I 
> don't think they generally lived very long (what was the mean 
> lifespan?). If they had (let's assume for argument's sake they had 
> advanced medical care) would they be as long lived as present day man? 
> I don't think we know that answer. Although, my gut feeling is that 
> they would outlive us, and with far less disase.
>
What has tweaked my curiousity is that there are not only no records of 
pre-contact lifespan, there are no credible estimates. Only bias, 
bigotry, superstition and disinformation.

One way of guessing might be to set a target of, say, 400,000 years and 
see if the fragmentary records of their culture supported such a 
lifespan. Bias has prevented such a tool, so far.

Why would they need advanced medical care? Care for what? They had no 
disease, except syphilis, and even that is disputed recently.


BTW, re disease, I learned recently that rabies is not, as I had 
assumed, invariably fatal.
Turns out that bats have it all the time, and they get over it. If they 
can, why not us?
Maybe we should eat what bats eat, and see if it heals such otherwise 
deadly disease.

William



       
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