On Tue, 22 Feb 2000, Gawen Harrison wrote:

> Does anyone know what's  the average life span of the Inuits (when you factor
> out accidents, disease and child birth problems)?
> I am asking about the Inuits when they eat their traditional diet.

I have posted this before, but I suppose it is relevant to this
question.  It was originally posted on the lowcarb list.

Todd Moody
[log in to unmask]

        Studies of primitive Eskimos in the late 1800's
        and early 1900's revealed no evident cancer and
        heart disease among them. These robust and happy
        people, living in their natural state existed
        almost entirely on animal protein and fat, and so
        impressed were some of the observers, they adopted
        all-meat diets themselves.
        What these people overlooked was that the Eskimos
        vigorous health was enjoyed only by the young, and
        that by middle age when their vital organs began
        to break down, eht Eskimo aged rapidly, and
        suffered severe osteoporosis.  At the same time,
        the Eskimos had a very low resistance to
        infectious diseases whenever exposed to them. Dr
        Samuel Hutton,one of the observers (1902-1913) in
        his book 'Health Conditions and Disease Incidence
        Among the Eskimos of Labrador', confirmed the fact
        that cancer and other diseases of civilisation
        were not evident among the Eskimos but had this to
        say about their life expectancy:
        "Old age sets in at fifty and it's signs are
        strongly marked at sixty. In the years beyond
        sixty, the Eskimo is aged and feeble.
        Comparatively few live  beyond sixty and only a
        very few reach seventy. Those who live to such an
        age have spent a life of great activity, feeling
        on Eskimo foods and engaging in characterisically
        Eskimo pursuits...Careful records have been left
        by the missionaries for more than a hundred years.
        Perhaps the most striking of the peculiarities of
        the Eskimo constitution is the tendency to
        haemorrhage*. Young and old alike are subject to
        nose bleeding and these sometimes continue for as
        much as three days and reduce the patient to a
        condition of collapse".

        *The reason for this haemorrhaging is the large
        quantities of EPA in the fats of the Eskimo diet
        as described in Chapter 10. EPA and the improved
        circulation it affords, accounts also to a great
        extent, for the Eskimos freedom from cancer and
        heart attack.

        Horne also goes on to talk about their consumption
        of most of their food raw, including large amounts
        of fat uncooked, and thereby to a great degree
        were protected from hypercholeserolemia as
        explained in the discussion on raw food.
        (p145-46  Horne, Ross The Health Revolution 1985)