ArticleAmerican journal of physical anthropology2016
High resting metabolic rate among Amazonian forager-horticulturalists experiencing high pathogen burden.
Article in American journal of physical anthropology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers.
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42 citing papers in PubMed, 69 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Nonuniversality of inflammaging across human populations.Nature aging · 2025Article
- Physical activity mediates age differences in cognition among Tsimane forager-horticulturalists.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2025Article
- Energy expenditure and obesity across the economic spectrum.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
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- Metabolic scaling, energy allocation tradeoffs, and the evolution of humans' unique metabolism.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Contemporary small-scale subsistence populations offer unique insights into human musculoskeletal health and aging.Science advances · 2024Review
- Increases in regional brain volume across two native South American male populations.GeroScience · 2024Article
- Total daily energy expenditure and elevated water turnover in a small-scale semi-nomadic pastoralist society from Northern Kenya.Annals of human biology · 2024Article
- Limits of Ultra: Towards an Interdisciplinary Understanding of Ultra-Endurance Running Performance.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2024Review
- Age-related physiological dysregulation progresses slowly in semi-free-ranging chimpanzees.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2024Article
- The 24-h activity cycle and cardiovascular outcomes: establishing biological plausibility using arterial stiffness as an intermediate outcome.American journal of physiology. Heart and circulatory physiology · 2023Review
- Energetic costs of testosterone in two subsistence populations.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2023Article
- Total daily energy expenditure has declined over the past three decades due to declining basal expenditure, not reduced activity expenditure.Nature metabolism · 2023Article
- Impact of energy availability and physical activity on variation in fertility across human populations.Journal of physiological anthropology · 2023Review
- Natural selection of immune and metabolic genes associated with health in two lowland Bolivian populations.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesResting metabolic rate (RMR) reflects energetic costs of homeostasis and accounts for 60 to 75% of total energy expenditure (TEE). Lean mass and physical activity account for much RMR variability, but the impact of prolonged immune activation from infection on human RMR is unclear in naturalistic settings. We evaluate the effects of infection on mass-corrected RMR among Bolivian forager-horticulturalists, and assess whether RMR declines more slowly with age than in hygienic sedentary populations, as might be expected if older adults experience high pathogen burden. MATERIALS AND
methodsRMR was measured by indirect calorimetry (Fitmate MED, Cosmed) in 1,300 adults aged 20 to 90 and TEE was measured using doubly labeled water (n = 40). Immune biomarkers, clinical diagnoses, and anthropometrics were collected by the Tsimane Health and Life History Project.
resultsTsimane have higher RMR and TEE than people in sedentary industrialized populations. Tsimane RMR is 18 to 47% (women) and 22 to 40% (men) higher than expected using six standard prediction equations. Tsimane mass-corrected TEE is similarly elevated compared to Westerners. Elevated leukocytes and helminths are associated with excess RMR in multivariate regressions, and jointly result in a predicted excess RMR of 10 to 15%. After age 40, RMR declines by 69 kcal/decade (p < .0001). Controlling for lean mass and height accounts for 71% of age-related RMR decline, and adding indicators of infection minimally affects the age slope. The residual level of age-related decline from age 40 is 1.2% per decade.
conclusionHigh pathogen burden may lead to higher metabolic costs, which may be offset by smaller body mass or other energy-sparing mechanisms.
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