By Vaughn Gray    Updated 10/28/2009

Our culture abounds with myths about health and disease. Here's our attempt to explode the misperceptions that we think are most pernicious and highlight the facts that we think everyone should know.

Fact: Health is Our Natural State

These days it seems like everyone is fighting some sort of health problem. From depression to allergies to ADD to asthma to cancer, chronic disease is rampant. Amidst all of this, did you ever wonder: is it meant to be this way? Studies of hunter gatherers and primitive farmers living out amidst nature show that they have far lower incidences of chronic diseases in spite of not having any advanced medical care. So with all of our advanced medical technology (which has, no doubt, made some wonderful contributions to our quality of life), why are we so sick? The answer is simple: the way we live our lives in America today is incomensurate with our biological design. Our bodies are designed to eat very specific foods, and move and sleep in very specific patterns. In modern America all of these patterns are disrupted. In a nutshell, a healthy diet, the right type of exercise, the right sleep rhythms, and a low stress, positive mind state are the keys to health. Processed food, inactivity, crazy hours, and stress lead to disease. Check out The Pillars of Health (Mindset, Exercise, Diet, Sleep) for more.

Fiction: People Today Live Far Longer Than Ever Before

Statistics show that the average human lifespan 100 years ago was 40-50 years, whereas today it is around 75 years. From this stat, it seems reasonable to conclude that people are a lot healthier today than they were in the past. But this statistic is misleading. For one thing, a lot of people back then died in infancy due to unsanitary birthing procedures. Think about this – if a baby dies during birth, and another person lives to 100, the average age of these two people is only 50. From this you can see how a lot of infant deaths could make it look like people centuries ago were living much shorter lives. The fact of the matter is that a high percentage of the people who made it through infancy back in 1900 lived almost as long as we do today.

Many of the people who did die in their 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s back then died of infectious diseases that modern medicine has helped control. But, critical to our point, people in previous centuries didn’t suffer from any where near the levels of chronic diseases that we have today (cancer, MS, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, etc). In truth, the longest lived people ever documented on Earth are not found in modern America or any other modern country. They are in places like the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia (the country, not the US state), the Hunza Valley in Pakistan, Vilcabamba in Ecuador or rural China, living out amidst nature. Since we’re not going to be giving up electricity, indoor plumbing, and the rest of the luxuries of modern living and moving out amidst nature anytime soon, the key for us is to learn what we can from studying these people to help us live the healthiest lives possible here in the modern world. What is it about their lives that allows them to live longer, healthier lives than we do without any of our technology? This question is what gave birth to ReEvolution, and hopefully we’re providing part of the answer.