Parallel Observations: The Rise of Neurodivergence and the Decline of Human Health in a Homogenized World
For millennia, human populations adapted to their environments—their diets, microbiomes, and even cognitive styles shaped by regional conditions and cultural practices. The modern world disrupts these long-established patterns, leading to a rise in metabolic disorders, cancer, autoimmune diseases, and neurodivergence. In both physical and cognitive health, what was once regionally specialized and naturally integrated is now homogenized, standardized, and often incompatible with human biology and development.
1. The Disruption of Human Health: From Adaptation to Dysfunction
Historically, humans lived in regionally specific environments, consuming diets based on local food availability, preservation techniques, and seasonal variations. Their gut microbiomes evolved symbiotically with these foods and their environment, forming mutualistic relationships that supported immune function, metabolism, and mental health.
What Has Changed?
•Globalized Diets & Loss of Food Specialization → Modern supply chains provide all foods year-round, disconnecting us from seasonal and regional eating patterns.
•Microbiome Disruption → Processed foods, excessive hygiene, and antibiotic overuse wipe out beneficial gut bacteria, altering metabolism and immune function.
•Nutrient Dilution → Industrialized farming prioritizes yield over nutrition, reducing the micronutrient density of foods.
The Consequences:
•Metabolic disorders (diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease) →Mismatched diet and metabolism.
•Autoimmune diseases and allergies → Microbiome destruction and immune dysregulation.
•Cancer → Environmental toxins, chronic inflammation, and processed food consumption disrupt cellular function.
In short, millennia of adaptation are being overturned in a few generations, leaving human biology struggling to keep pace.
The Disruption of Neurodivergence: From Functional Roles to Forced Homogenization
Just as the human microbiome and metabolism adapted to regional diets, cognitive variations were once naturally integrated into society. For most of history, people engaged in specialized tasks suited to their neurological inclinations:
•Asperger-like traits → Clockmakers, astronomers, scribes, and mathematicians—meticulous, detail-oriented roles.
•ADHD-like traits → Hunters, scouts, traders—high-energy, exploratory, quick-decision roles. These individuals functioned well within their societal niches. Guild systems, apprenticeships, and task-based learning allowed for neurodivergent traits to thrive as strengths rather than being labeled as deficits.
What Has Changed?
•Homogenized Education System → Standardized schooling assumes all children should learn the same way, forcing diverse cognitive styles into a one-size-fits-all model.
•Expectations of Sustained Attention & Rigid Knowledge Acquisition→ ADHD-type learners struggle in static classroom settings, while Asperger-type individuals may be forced into socially demanding environments that deplete their mental resources.
•Loss of Apprenticeship & Natural Learning Environments →Kinesthetic learners, creative thinkers, and pattern recognizers are at a disadvantage in an education model built around rote memorization and passive learning.
The Consequences:
•Rising diagnosis rates of ADHD, autism, and learning disabilities →The system penalizes natural cognitive diversity instead of leveraging it.
•Mental health disorders (anxiety, depression, burnout) → Cognitive styles that once thrived in specialized roles now struggle in standardized environments.
•Over-reliance on pharmaceuticals → Instead of modifying environments to fit neurodiverse individuals, we medicate them to fit the system.
3. A Broader Pattern: Over-Sanitization and the War on Complexity
The loss of microbiome diversity and the suppression of neurodivergence follow the same destructive trend: Over-cleaning and over-sterilization wipe out microbial mutualisms, leaving us more vulnerable to disease.
•Over-standardizing education and career expectations suppresses cognitive diversity, leading to a mental health crisis.
For thousands of years, humans adapted to complexity, diversity, and specialization—whether in diet, immune function, or cognition. The modern world disrupts this natural balance, leading to unprecedented levels of chronic disease, cognitive distress, and social dysfunction.
Conclusion: Reclaiming Diversity in Health and Cognition
Just as the solution to modern metabolic disorders lies in reconnecting with ancestral eating patterns, the solution to the rise in neurodivergence lies in restoring environments where different cognitive styles can thrive.
•Diet & Health: Prioritize seasonal, whole foods and restore microbial diversity through exposure to natural environments.
•Education & Work: Embrace alternative learning models, apprenticeship systems, and specialized skill development rather than forcing all cognitive styles into the same mold.
•Mindset Shift: Instead of seeing biological and cognitive diversity as problems, recognize them as strengths that need the right environments to flourish.
The homogenization of food, education, and work is an experiment only a few generations old—and the consequences are becoming increasingly clear. Restoring human adaptability means honoring the complex systems that shaped us, rather than forcing conformity at the expense of health and function.