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Poor oral health is associated with cardiovascular disease and dementia. Potential pathways include sepsis from oral bacteria, systemic inflammation, and nutritional deficiencies. However, in post-industrialized populations, links between oral health and chronic disease may be confounded because the lower socioeconomic exposome (poor diet, pollution, and low physical activity) often entails insufficient dental care. We assessed tooth loss, caries, and damaged teeth, in relation to cardiovascular and brain aging among the Tsimane, a subsistence population living a relatively traditional forager-horticulturalist lifestyle with poor dental health, but minimal cardiovascular disease and dementia. Dental health was assessed by a physician in 739 participants aged 40–92 years with cardiac and brain health measured by chest computed tomography (CT; n = 728) and brain CT (n = 605). A subset of 356 individuals aged 60+ were also assessed for dementia and mild cognitive impairment (n = 33 impaired). Tooth loss was highly prevalent, with 2.2 teeth lost per decade and a 2-fold greater loss in women. The number of teeth with exposed pulp was associated with higher inflammation, as measured by cytokine levels and white blood cell counts, and lower body mass index. Coronary artery calcium and thoracic aortic calcium were not associated with tooth loss or damaged teeth. However, aortic valve calcification and brain tissue loss were higher in those who had more teeth with exposed pulp. Overall, these results suggest that dental health is associated with indicators of chronic diseases in the absence of typical confounds, even in a population with low cardiovascular and dementia risk factors.

 

To address claims of human exceptionalism, we determine where humans fit within the greater mammalian distribution of reproductive inequality. We show that humans exhibit lower reproductive skew (i.e., inequality in the number of surviving offspring) among males and smaller sex differences in reproductive skew than most other mammals, while nevertheless falling within the mammalian range. Additionally, female reproductive skew is higher in polygynous human populations than in polygynous nonhumans mammals on average. This patterning of skew can be attributed in part to the prevalence of monogamy in humans compared to the predominance of polygyny in nonhuman mammals, to the limited degree of polygyny in the human societies that practice it, and to the importance of unequally held rival resources to women’s fitness. The muted reproductive inequality observed in humans appears to be linked to several unusual characteristics of our species—including high levels of cooperation among males, high dependence on unequally held rival resources, complementarities between maternal and paternal investment, as well as social and legal institutions that enforce monogamous norms.

 

Women experience higher morbidity than men, despite living longer. This is often attributed to biological differences between the sexes; however, the majority of societies in which these disparities are observed exhibit gender norms that favor men. We tested the hypothesis that female-biased gender norms ameliorate gender disparities in health by comparing gender differences in inflammation and hypertension among the matrilineal and patrilineal Mosuo of China. Widely reported gender disparities in health were reversed among matrilineal Mosuo compared with patrilineal Mosuo, due to substantial improvements in women’s health, with no concomitant detrimental effects on men. These findings offer evidence that gender norms limiting women’s autonomy and biasing inheritance toward men adversely affect the health of women, increasing women’s risk for chronic diseases with tremendous global health impact.

 

El grado de igualitarismo o jerarquización social en el seno de las sociedades prehispánicas del norte de las tierras altas del suroeste de Estados Unidos y los cambios de dicho aspecto a través del tiempo continúan siendo objeto de debate. Este trabajo examina la plausibilidad del surgimiento de sistemas de gobierno a nivel de villas múltiples en la región del Suroeste a través de simulaciones sobre la coevolución de la jerarquía y del conflicto utilizando una extensión de la modelización basada en agentes del proyecto Village Ecodynamics. Además, recopilamos datos empíricos sobre la distribución de los tamaños poblacionales en los lugares de habitación y los espacios rituales (kivas), y sobre los grupos sociales que las utilizaron, para tres de las mayores regiones del Suroeste norteamericano, analizando estos datos a través del tiempo. Todas evidencias refutan el modelo de villas autónomas durante el periodo Pueblo II (890–1145 d.C.). Al contrario, las evidencias sugieren el surgimiento de sistemas de gobierno a nivel de villas múltiples durante el periodo Pueblo II y probablemente durante el Pueblo III (1145–1285 d.C.) en algunas áreas. Parece plausible que durante el periodo Pueblo II, uno o más sistemas de gobierno conectaron la zona norte del suroeste de Estados Unidos mediante un sistema de tributos que fluyó hacia un epicentro situado en Chaco Canyon. Probablemente durante el periodo Pueblo III y hasta la despoblación de la región del final del siglo XIII, las organizaciones locales ganaron en influencia.