All of my sources list 20-30 years as the average life expectancy of cave people in prehistoric times. I knew that 40 year figure, as above, was a bit high. (Yeah, I know, there are sites on the internet touting paleo diets that give that upper range. Bah humbug!)
Some Vets seem to have a feel for some of the old remedies used in the distant past. I expect some of our home remedies brought forth from older generations may work but not work on every individual. Probably the people who know most about what medications in nature worked best for our ancestors are pharmaceutical research scientists, or perhaps those holy women or medicine women, and witches throughout Africa, Haiti, Dominican Republic and Jamaica. This is an interesting subject and some of you have a knowledge and know they work.
It's crazy, isn't it? I sometimes tell my doctors "What you do here thwarts Darwin." I wonder what the Earth's population would be if it were not for penicillin?
I think we agree that all these specialty diets are taken out of context of the lifestyles of those who eat them. "Hunting/gathering" and "Sitting-at-desk" hardly support metabolic equivalents.
Years ago I read an article in the newspaper stating the some women in the Appalachia Mountains still use Queen Anne's Lace as birth control. They brew it in a tea. I forget the degree of efficacy. You gotta imagine that there must have been some women who were having a hard time conceiving, and as the group was chatting about it, someone offhandedly said "Constance, don't you ever stop drinking that stuff?" Then light bulbs went 0ff.