Eclampsia: How a pregnancy complication may have quietly ended the Neanderthals

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A stunning 2026 paper in the Journal of Reproductive Immunology proposes that eclampsia — a hypertensive seizure condition of pregnancy unique to Homo sapiens among all 4,300 mammal species — may have quietly driven the Neanderthals to demographic extinction. In this episode, we trace the whole extraordinary story:

🧠 Why building a human brain requires a biological hostile takeover of the mother's circulatory system

⚡ Why ancient healers across Egypt, India, China, and Greece all concluded the same pregnant woman was being struck by demons or lightning — and why they weren't entirely wrong to reach for something otherworldly

🔬 Why, in 2026, we still don't know exactly what causes eclampsia — despite 5,000 years of documentation and every tool modern medicine has

🧬 The evolutionary circuit breaker modern humans developed that kept our mothers alive — and that the Neanderthals likely never got

💔 The quiet mathematics of demographic collapse: what a 5% maternal mortality rate does to a band of 30 people over generations

🚪 And the moment two researchers in adjacent buildings finally opened the door between them — and solved both mysteries at once

Reference: Why reproduction has probably been very problematic in Neanderthals: The fabulous history of (pre)eclampsia

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