Vivek V. Venkataraman
@vivek123.bsky.social
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Biological anthropologist at the University of Calgary
https://www.vivekvenkataraman.com/
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Vivek V. Venkataraman
Pat Savage
10 days ago
I really enjoyed this paper. I wish more people wrote these kinds of intellectual histories of complex debates quoting both sides in their own words. Bravo! That said, I have two issues I'd love to see discussed in the promised commentaries:
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Ed Hagen
11 days ago
Our review of the import of the Man the Hunter conference and volume, which contrary to recent media coverage actually expressed diverse views on hunter-gatherers and inspired decades of research, is now published 🧪
#BioAnth
authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...
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Vivek V. Venkataraman
I’m happy to announce that our paper "The Meanings and Dividends of Man the Hunter" has now been published in Evolution and Human Behavior.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
14 days ago
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Duncan Stibbard Hawkes
14 days ago
"Man the Hunter" is often conflated with Dart's "killer ape theory"; A pity because, though imperfect, the MTH conference was a departure from previous Hobbesian colonial Hunter-Gatherer narratives. In this new Target Article we map out some of that intellectual history.
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The Meanings and Dividends of Man the Hunter
The phrase Man the Hunter is associated with disparate meanings across communities of scholars, journalists, and the public, which has led to unnecess…
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S109051382600019X?ref=pdf_download&fr=RR-2&rr=9dbce49cf8f4d8fc
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I’m happy to announce that our paper "The Meanings and Dividends of Man the Hunter" has now been published in Evolution and Human Behavior.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
14 days ago
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Zach Garfield
20 days ago
Priceless interview for all anthropologists and fieldworkers. Thank you,
@ilarimakela.bsky.social
& RB Lee!! Lee’s discussions on establishing new field sites closely parallel my experiences in the Omo in Ethiopia with the
@omovalleyresearchproject.org
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Ed Hagen
about 1 month ago
I've been using this image for years to illustrate prestige bias in my lecture on cultural evolution, assuming everyone would recognize him. This year I asked the class if they knew who this was, and the only student who did was the one black student. He was shocked that no one else did. 🧪
#BioAnth
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Ruth Mace
about 1 month ago
Women’s mental health: current status and evolutionary perspectives by Carol Worthman | Evolutionary Human Sciences | Cambridge Core -
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
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Women’s mental health: current status and evolutionary perspectives | Evolutionary Human Sciences | Cambridge Core
Women’s mental health: current status and evolutionary perspectives - Volume 8
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/evolutionary-human-sciences/article/womens-mental-health-current-status-and-evolutionary-perspectives/17A010850FCEB76D901CB810E7CADDB2?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=bluesky&utm_source=socialnetwork
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The Dissenter
about 1 month ago
New episode (1218), with Dr. Edward Hagen. We discuss whether sex is binary, the distinction between sex and gender, and more.
#Anthropology
#Biology
#Science
YouTube:
youtu.be/DjIqDREBOqI
Podcast:
bit.ly/4avxMHW
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#1218 Edward Hagen: Is Sex Binary?
YouTube video by The Dissenter
https://youtu.be/DjIqDREBOqI
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Vivek V. Venkataraman
Ed Hagen
about 1 month ago
1. After I posted my critical review of
@anthrofuentes.bsky.social
Sex is a Spectrum, a colleague pointed out that his figure of adult heights by sex (bottom panel👇) can't be right: there aren't that many US adults shorter than 4' or taller than 7' Turns out Fuentes' data are made up 🧪
#BioAnth
🧵
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Ed Hagen
about 1 month ago
A much-needed critique of the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES) as applied to human evolution, by
@evoroseman.bsky.social
and Ben Auerbach (2026). Evolving a Field: Can Evolutionary Theory Provide What the Study of Human Evolution Requires? 🧪
#BioAnth
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
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Graeme Warren
about 1 month ago
The International Society for Hunter-Gatherer Research are delighted to announce that CHAGS 14 will take place in Belém, Brazil Mon 12 - Fri 16 July 2027. Events/trips immediately before/afterwards. Tx to hosts: Goeldi Museum & Federal Univ. of Pará. More details to follow. Please share widely!
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A new podcast interview by
@ilarimakela.bsky.social
with Richard B. Lee about Man the Hunter! Should be fascinating.
onhumans.substack.com/p/the-origin...
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The Original Affluent Society? Lessons from 60-Years of "Man the Hunter" Research
To mark the 60th anniversary of the 1966 'Man the Hunter' symposium, On Humans is proud to publish the first-ever podcast interview with Richard B. Lee.
https://onhumans.substack.com/p/the-original-affluent-society-lessons?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1077886&post_id=187490787&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1z3i8q&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
about 2 months ago
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Duncan Stibbard Hawkes
about 2 months ago
As we've argued in a recent preprint, Ardrey might have benefited from paying more heed to the anthropologists.
osf.io/preprints/os...
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Arvid Ågren
2 months ago
Everyone should read the Spandrels paper. But too often it's discussed without context of the other contributions. Esp. Clutton-Brock & Harvey on how the comparative method can be used to test adaptive hypothesis, and Cain’s final critique (which SJG called “tame” compared to the oral remarks).
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Haneul Jang
2 months ago
Our new paper in Hunter-Gatherer Research! We explored women’s decision-making power within households in two subsistence communities with different gender norms (BaYaka foragers & Bandongo fisher-farmers) in the Congolese rainforest ✨
www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/abs/10.3...
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Duncan Stibbard Hawkes
3 months ago
Latest crop of early online papers at HGR includes some bangers - if I do say so myself. Not just this report on BaYaka Women's autonomy and my own article about cage traps, but also Sterelny on quasi-darwinian mechanisms in cultural evolution.
www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/abs/10.3...
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Mauro Silva Júnior
3 months ago
"The problem...which recurs throughout 'Spandrels', is not that this criticism is wrong, it’s that Gould & Lewontin...make only cursory and superficial remarks about how test those alternatives, or about how to pursue an alternative research programme built on different conceptual foundations"
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Duncan Stibbard Hawkes
3 months ago
Not to forget this extremely interesting paper on consensus-based decision-making in egalitarian societies.
bsky.app/profile/vive...
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Duncan Stibbard Hawkes
3 months ago
And don't miss out on Vivek's absolutely sterling interview with Bob Kelly.
bsky.app/profile/vive...
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Gearing up to teach my grad Theory class again, I am reminded that the Spandrels of San Marcos is not a good paper.
dynamicecology.wordpress.com/2011/08/26/w...
(but I'll probably assign it anyway, for precisely this reason)
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Why "The Spandrels of San Marco" isn't a good paper
Stephen Jay Gould & Richard Lewontin’s 1979 article “The spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian paradigm: a critique of the adaptationist programme” is one of the most wid…
https://dynamicecology.wordpress.com/2011/08/26/why-the-spandrels-of-san-marco-isnt-a-good-paper/
3 months ago
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Graeme Warren
3 months ago
Great to read Vivek's interview with Bob - lots of interesting things here. And not just the insights into Binford's data collection 😱. Thanks to both Vivek and Bob for the publication!
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Check out my interview with Bob Kelly in Hunter Gatherer Research. The view from 30,000 feet: An interview with archaeologist Robert L Kelly
liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/10.3828/...
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The view from 30,000 feet: An interview with archaeologist Robert L Kelly: Hunter Gatherer Research: Vol 0, No 0
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
https://liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/10.3828/hgr.2026.11
3 months ago
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New article in Hunter Gatherer Research! Foraging societies practice consensus-based politics. We conduct a xc review and argue that it helps to boost collective intelligence. Consensus, cooperation and collective intelligence in foraging societies
liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/10.3828/...
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Consensus, cooperation and collective intelligence in foraging societies | Hunter Gatherer Research
Consensus-based collective decision-making is a common feature of political life in hunter-gatherer (forager) societies. In this paper, we ask why. Synthesising evidence from anthropology and experimental social psychology, we argue that consensus-based ...
https://liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/10.3828/hgr.2026.9
3 months ago
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Duncan Stibbard Hawkes
3 months ago
🎄 New paper! 🎁 Since the 20s it's been said that "the Hadza don't use traps". Except sporadic snaring, none have been reported. So I was excited to find baited cage traps in use. More exciting, this was cross-cultural transmission — seldom seen in action! 1/5
tinyurl.com/cagetrap
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(PDF) First recorded use of cage traps by the Tanzanian Hadza: A case of cross-cultural transmission
PDF | While hunting is a critical subsistence strategy for the Tanzanian Hadza, reports of trapping have traditionally been minimal. Snare trapping of... | Find, read and cite all the research you nee...
https://tinyurl.com/cagetrap
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Vivek V. Venkataraman
Dr Dan Shugar 🇨🇦
3 months ago
Perhaps a late Xmas/Chanukah/Festivus/Kwanzaa present for some research hot shot currently not in Canada but who might like to move here - the new Impact+ Research Chairs. Note the strategic areas in Arctic, environment, climate resilience and water security. 🧪⚒️
careers.ucalgary.ca/jobs/1717054...
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Canada Impact+ Research Chairs, University of Calgary in Calgary, AB, ...
Canada Impact+ Research Chairs, University of Calgary in Calgary, AB, ...
https://careers.ucalgary.ca/jobs/17170542-canada-impact-plus-research-chairs-university-of-calgary
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It never ceases to amaze me how flexible and multi-purpose the human foot can be. Pics taken with the Batek of Malaysia.
4 months ago
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The Dissenter
4 months ago
In episode 1022, I talk with Dr. Vivek Venkataraman about tree climbing, running, and hunting across human societies.
#Anthropology
#Science
youtu.be/QirFyPqN3e0
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#1022 Vivek Venkataraman: Tree Climbing, Running, and Hunting across Human Societies
YouTube video by The Dissenter
https://youtu.be/QirFyPqN3e0
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Brian Wood
4 months ago
"At Brown and Harvard, more than 20 percent of undergraduates are registered as disabled. At Amherst, that figure is 34 percent." Accommodation Nation: America’s colleges have an extra-time-on-tests problem.
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
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Accommodation Nation
America’s colleges have an extra-time-on-tests problem.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/01/elite-university-student-accommodation/684946/
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Check out our new paper in the journal Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, led by Ian J. Wallace. "Dampened inflammation and reduced risk of osteoarthritis among non-industrialized societies"
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
5 months ago
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Bruce Winterhalder was once asked to share some professional insights. Here they are:
6 months ago
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Vivek V. Venkataraman
SAPIENS Magazine
7 months ago
From the archive. Societies divide labor by gender and age. A biological anthropologist considers when and why this behavior arose. Read more:
www.sapiens.org/biology/labo...
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How Allocating Work Aided Our Evolutionary Success
Many societies divide labor by gender and age. A biological anthropologist considers when and why this behavior arose.
https://www.sapiens.org/biology/labor-division-gender-human-orgins/
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Vivek V. Venkataraman
A great piece on the women's hunting debate by Elena Bridgers that covers some of our work:
elenabridgers.substack.com/p/did-women-...
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Did Women Hunt in Our Evolutionary Past?
When Western gender ideology gets in the way of good science
https://elenabridgers.substack.com/p/did-women-hunt-in-our-evolutionary
7 months ago
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A great piece on the women's hunting debate by Elena Bridgers that covers some of our work:
elenabridgers.substack.com/p/did-women-...
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Did Women Hunt in Our Evolutionary Past?
When Western gender ideology gets in the way of good science
https://elenabridgers.substack.com/p/did-women-hunt-in-our-evolutionary
7 months ago
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Vivek V. Venkataraman
Ed Hagen
7 months ago
My review of Sex is a Spectrum, by Agustín Fuentes 🧪
#BioAnth
blog.edhagen.net/posts/2025-0...
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Review of Sex Is a Spectrum: The Biological Limits of the Binary by Agustín Fuentes – Grasshoppermouse
Blog posts and talk slides
https://blog.edhagen.net/posts/2025-08-07-review-sex-is-a-spectrum/
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Zach Garfield
7 months ago
Some thoughts on how preferences for
#leaders
change with our environments: Leaders for the World We Think We Live In | Psychology Today
www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/ecol...
#LeadSciSky
#EvPsych
#CultEvol
#socialpsyc
#BehSci
🧪
@zohrankmamdani.bsky.social
@psychologytoday.com
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Leaders for the World We Think We Live In
Why do we trust steady hands in some contexts and risk-takers in others? Evolutionary theory reveals how environments shape our shifting choices of leaders.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/ecology-of-minds/202508/leaders-for-the-world-we-think-we-live-in
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Sonja Drimmer
7 months ago
Do not accept the premise that education is to blame for abysmal jobs outcomes. “The fantasy economy's framing of economic inequality… focuses exclusively on education…deflects attention away from decades of public policies and changing business practices that have…contributed to stagnating wages”
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Roope Kaaronen
10 months ago
Published two years ago in
@science.org
: "Body-based units of measure in cultural evolution" We looked into how, and why, human societies have measured things with their bodies. A little thread about the deep ancestry and cross-cultural heritage of measurement:
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
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Body-based units of measure in cultural evolution
Measurements based on body part length have cognitive and behavioral advantages, which accounts for their widespread and persistent use.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adf1936
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Vivek V. Venkataraman
I’ve been trying to figure out which scientists in the human evolutionary sciences were directly influenced by Robert Ardrey’s books. Mostly the answer is a resounding no.
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Lewis Wolpert: 'No one working in the social sciences can ignore the
I recently had lunch with John Tooby and Leda Cosmides of the University of California at Santa Barbara. They have become famous for their contributions to evolutionary psychology, and have revolution...
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/lewis-wolpert-no-one-working-in-the-social-sciences-can-ignore-the-role-of-our-genetic-inheritance-114109.html
8 months ago
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I’ve been trying to figure out which scientists in the human evolutionary sciences were directly influenced by Robert Ardrey’s books. Mostly the answer is a resounding no.
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Lewis Wolpert: 'No one working in the social sciences can ignore the
I recently had lunch with John Tooby and Leda Cosmides of the University of California at Santa Barbara. They have become famous for their contributions to evolutionary psychology, and have revolution...
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/lewis-wolpert-no-one-working-in-the-social-sciences-can-ignore-the-role-of-our-genetic-inheritance-114109.html
8 months ago
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Vivek V. Venkataraman
Hugo Mercier
8 months ago
From ancient Greece to the Arabic golden age, scholars have been driven by their curiosity to investigate astronomy, history, philosophy, and sundry other disciplines. Is there a structure to that curiosity? Are astronomers as likely to also be historians or to also be philosophers?
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Chris Stringer
8 months ago
Changes in diet drove physical evolution in early humans
www.eurekalert.org/news-release...
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Changes in diet drove physical evolution in early humans
A Dartmouth-led study shows that early humans developed a taste for grassy carbohydrate-rich plants 700,000 years before they evolved the ideal teeth to chew the tougher plant fibers efficiently. The ...
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1092585?et_rid=34814771&et_cid=5691587
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Philip Ball
8 months ago
This is fascinating. It is also evidence in favour of taking biological agency seriously, rather than treating it as an "as if" property.
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"Behavior drives morphological change during human evolution" Our new article is out in
@science.org
today
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
8 months ago
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Pleased to present our new preprint on sleep and circadian rhythms among the Orang Asli of Peninsular Malaysia. This is a fascinating system for exploring sleep biology. Lots of variation in light exposure, housing type, and subsistence.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🧵 below.
8 months ago
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Vivek V. Venkataraman
Some fun unpublished data from a talk I gave years ago on the sexual division of labor (SDOL) among the Batek of Malaysia. The Batek have been described as highly gender-egalitarian. Kirk and Karen Endicott collected the data in 1975-76, back when the Batek were fully nomadic foragers.
8 months ago
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Some fun unpublished data from a talk I gave years ago on the sexual division of labor (SDOL) among the Batek of Malaysia. The Batek have been described as highly gender-egalitarian. Kirk and Karen Endicott collected the data in 1975-76, back when the Batek were fully nomadic foragers.
8 months ago
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From our new preprint on physical activity (PA) and cardiometabolic health among the Orang Asli of Peninsular Malaysia. An extreme lifestyle gradient results in drastic variation in PA, w/ especially notable age-related declines in PA with urbanization
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
8 months ago
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Our new preprint looks at how early life environments shape adult cardiometabolic health among the Orang Asli.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
"We find support for the Developmental Constraints model but not the Predictive Adaptive Response model in explaining adult cardiometabolic health"
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Early life environments shape adult cardiometabolic health during rapid lifestyle change
Early life environments can have long-lasting impacts on health and fitness, but the evolutionary significance of these effects remains debated. Two major classes of explanations have been proposed: d...
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.06.658350v1
8 months ago
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Check out our new preprint! We ask: how does urbanization impact cardiometabolic health among Orang Asli and Turkana? Congrats to lead author
@marinawatowich.bsky.social
!
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
"We find that age effects on cardiometabolic health are highly modifiable by lifestyle..."
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Urbanization exacerbates age-associated declines in cardiometabolic health in Turkana and Orang Asli
Declines in cardiometabolic health among older individuals are so ubiquitous in Western, high-income countries that non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascu...
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.06.25329160v1.full.pdf+html
8 months ago
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