http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2001/05/26/rheumatoid-arthritis-part-three.aspxRheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an ancient disease, although the condition was not recognized by European &quot;official medicine&quot; until the 1800s. Studying the fossil remains of people with the disease, along with their environmental surroundings,enCommunityServer 2008.5 SP1 (Build: 31106.3070)http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2001/05/26/rheumatoid-arthritis-part-three.aspx#39401Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:41:29 GMT24451277-a5aa-4add-96dc-64081bfd86fa:39401nonsumdignus<p>Nice article, till we learned that &quot;people rarely lived beyond 40.&quot; &nbsp;All those Greek philosophers, apostles, kings, saints, &amp; founders of America must really have died at 42, I guess?</p> <p><a rel="nofollow" target="_new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longevity">en.wikipedia.org/.../Longevity</a></p> <p>Human beings have regularly reached 70 years and more, in excellent health, for millennia. &nbsp;As long as they &nbsp;didn't die in childhood &amp; outran the saber toothed tiger, they tended to live quite long, and w/o the degenerative lifestyle diseases that are rampant today. &nbsp;</p> <p>Because of that line (a silly, non-scientific bit of &quot;common knowledge&quot; much like &quot;Columbus was trying to prove the earth was round&quot;), I don't know whether to trust the rest of their conclusions (that these ancient peoples had RA). </p> <img src="http://articles.mercola.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=39401" width="1" height="1">