The Tsimane Health and Life History Project has investigated aging, the economic and social roles of the elderly, and chronic disease risk for more than two decades. The project is a multi-disciplinary effort to understand the aging process in populations whose lifestyles are closer to those practiced by human ancestors during the evolution of our species.

This talk will highlight some recent findings from Dr. Kaplan’s research regarding physical activity, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s disease. His results suggest that both heart disease and Alzheimer’s may have been much less prevalent among the elderly prior to modernization.