Cardiovascular disease rates have increased because people now live long enough to develop it, as they are no longer primarily killed by infectious diseases or conflict.

“Um, some of the most prevalent species on the planet don't live very long, but what matters is that they get to pass on their genetic material. That the favorable traits are passed on in the genetic material. And so when it comes to cardiovascular disease, yes, rates of cardiovascular disease have gone up because you actually have the chance to get cardiovascular disease now because you're not killed by a virus or you're not killed by a waring tribe or you're not killed by bacteria. Um even if we go back into the the 1860s because one of the this book I read, one of the things it said was cardiovascular disease is a 19th or 20th century disease.”