Hi, we're here from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes.

I'm Cody Gough.

And I'm Ashley Hamer.

Today you learn about whether our ancient ancestors were healthier than we are,

why Neptune is sometimes further away from the Sun than Pluto, and how to know if you're an

Echoist, which is the polar opposite of a narcissist.

But satisfy some curiosity.

The notion that you should eat healthy and get more exercise is all the rage these days.

And there's an idea that humans didn't evolve for our modern lifestyles, which is helping drive these trends,

from herbal remedies to the paleo diet. But the human race survived for

thousands of years without easy access to food or hot Pilates classes at the

local gym. So have you ever wondered, were our ancient ancestors healthier than we are?

The answer is complicated, but here's what we know.

In 2017, Georgia Tech researchers analyze the DNA of humans from a wide range of time periods,

dating all the way back to 50,000 years ago.

Then they compared these genes to modern variants that we know cause diseases to see how genetically

healthy each sample was. And they concluded that things are about the same for

modern people as they were for ancients, with similar risks for hereditary diseases and

percentiles for a thing called genetic risk score. Of course, whether or not our

genes are similar to ancient humans, you could still argue that our lifestyles are less healthy.

Hunter-gatherer civilizations had fewer cavities than we do, since the advent of farming brought

sugar and carbohydrates into our diets that scientists believe changed the bacteria in our mouths.

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