
What Neanderthals' healthy teeth tell us about their minds - diodorus
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160419-what-neanderthals-teeth-tell-us-about-their-minds
======
cyberferret
Fascinating article, and one that reminds me that a police officer friend of
mine told me. It was a few years ago, and he said the local police HQ once got
a call from a dirt bike rider on a remote beach saying that he had discovered
a couple of skeletons half buried in the sand.

Knowing that the area was on a known Aboriginal ancient burial site, the unit
dispatched to investigate (which included my friend) took an anthropologist
from the local university with them to check the scene.

Apparently when they got there, the anthropologist took one look at the skulls
of the skeletons and within a couple of seconds proclaimed that they were
native aboriginal skeletons (possibly a married couple buried together) and
that it pre dated modern civilisation in the area and was probably 100 to 200
years old.

My friend was curious about how she could tell so quickly, and she said it was
the teeth. They showed absolutely no signs of decay caused by modern processed
sugar diets.

That one story alone caused me to pause and change my dietary habits.

~~~
pessimizer
Most tooth loss is caused by bacteria that lots of people are immune or
resistant to, not diet. It's something that people don't talk about much; I'm
immune to cavities, and wouldn't know that such a thing were possible if I
wasn't, and dentists hadn't told me. It's not uncommon around the world, but I
think it's generally recessive. Large groups of native Americans were immune
to cavities, a lot of Melanesian and Polynesian groups, and if you say that
native Australians were, you'd expect to see it in southern India.

Again - I eat piles of processed sugar, I'm middle-aged, I've never had a
cavity, and I've been told that without extreme neglect, I never will.

IIRC, it's difficult to develop a vaccine for cavities because it would also
cause the immune system to attack certain sorts of tissue around the heart and
vascular system. Neanderthals may have just tended to a different biochemistry
that allowed them to develop natural immunity.

~~~
cyberferret
Interesting. Never knew that it was genetically possible to be immune from
cavities. I know that my father (Sri Lankan heritage) never had to have a
filling in his life, but at the rate my parents enforced dental care onto me
and my sisters, I assumed that it was that fact alone. Sounds like there may
have been some genetic predisposition there, and I could have gone to bed the
odd time without brushing my teeth and feel as though some dental caries demon
was going to come along and rot them all green! ;)

~~~
pessimizer
And I was slightly overstating the case - those bacteria eat sugars, so if
you're not immune or resistant, diet does matter. I don't think the bacteria
care if those sugars are processed, though. As a Sri Lankan, you're likely
sharing a lot of DNA with those native Australian skulls with beautiful
teeth:)

------
sakopov
"It is becoming clearer that this was far from the case. One recent study
actually suggests that Neanderthals lost fewer teeth than humans with
equivalent diets."

Is there even such a thing as an equivalent diet? There are potentially
harmful substances in just about everything these days, including foods that
claim to be natural and free of any growth-inducing chemicals. And we don't
even know what kind of effects most of these have on human body.

~~~
davegardner
I assumed they were referring to the diets of those humans that were alive at
the same time as the Neanderthals.

