Does it not follow that the genetic fitness argument can only work if you're some way below that age? The article doesn't seem to address this at all.
Disclosure: I know next to nothing about this subject so I appreciate my argument may be naive to the point of laughable.
I'm pretty sure that isn't the case, and they died of things that are completely solved now (hence our longer life expectancy).
That's great! Where can we read the detailed data you have?
Nothing is "completely solved". Even the plague is still around, we just avoid it by washing ourselves more -- something you wouldn't do if you followed along with the idiotic notion that what we did "before" was better. It wasn't. People likely died of cardiovascular disease same as today, there was just more competition among "things that could kill you" than there is today. This state of things changed because we stopped doing what we were doing "before".
My point is that, if only a small fraction of the population survived past, say, 65 for 8000 generations, we're unlikely to be genetically pre-disposed to anything much that optimises for long term health. It just wouldn't make genetic sense.
So a regimen that focuses on what is good for our paleolithic selves strikes me as being probably only coincidentally helpful for anything much beyond a healthy 20s or 30s.
TBH it's not obvious why we would be genetically optimised to survive much beyond child rearing age, say, mid 30s to early 40s but, again, I don't know enough about paleolithic society to make anything other than a superficial case.
I'm also not arguing against the likely health benefits of daily exercise etc. Long term or otherwise. Just against the genetic case that uses the "what was good for our ancestors" argument.
"I'm young and strong but starving"
vs
"Before you were born I was killing wild deer down in that obscure valley you overlooked, now you and a couple kids head out there, and drag some meat back for the rest of the tribe, also we're dying of thirst and I used to play in a freshwater spring in that other valley as a kid"
"Ah yes that is a very attractive looking mushroom to a hungry youngster, but I regret to inform you that 37 years ago one looking exactly like it poisoned my great aunt when I was just a kid like you"
http://www.anth.ucsb.edu/faculty/gurven/papers/GurvenKaplan2...
I think one of Goodall's original female chimps is still popping them out every 3-4 years at age 50, if I am not wrong.