The island where people forget to die

In 1943, a war veteran in Greece Moraitis Stamatis (Stamatis Moraitis) came to the US in order to cure his hand, damaged in battle. He survived the gunshot wound, and fled to Turkey, which eventually led him to the ship "Queen Elizabeth", which at that time was used as a military transport. Stamatis on it crossed the Atlantic Ocean.

Moraitis settled in the village of Port Jefferson, NY, in the enclave of his countrymen from the home island of Ikaria. He quickly found work related to manual labor. Later he moved to Boynton Beach, Florida. During this time, Moraitis got married on the Greek-American, to have three kids and buy a house with three bedrooms and a Chevrolet in 1951.

One day in 1976, Moraitis noted in his shortness of breath. He has not mastered climbing stairs and had to leave work in the middle of the day. Moraitis was X-rayed and the doctor found him cancer lungs. As Moraitis says nine other doctors confirmed the diagnosis. The doctor found that men live no longer than nine months. While he was walking seventh decade.

Moraitis invited to stay in America and be treated in local hospitals. So at least he could stay close to their children as adults. Instead, he decided to return to Icaria, to be buried where his ancestors lie in the cemetery with oak trees and overlooking the Aegean Sea.

He thought that the funeral in the United States will cost several thousand, while the rite on Ikaria costs only $ 200. So that most of the pension savings can be passed to his wife Elpiniki (Elpiniki).

Moraitis and Elpiniki arrived at Icaria and settled in a small whitewashed house of his parents on two acres of vineyards around Evdilosa, in the northern part of Ikaria.

Initially Moraitis spent days in bed, as advised by his mother and wife. He turned to his faith: every Sunday climbed up the hill to the small Greek Orthodox church where he once served as a priest by his grandfather.

When childhood friends Moraitis learned that he had returned to the island, they began to come to visit every day. They talked for hours over a bottle of local wine. "At least I die happy," - thought Moraitis.

In the following months there was something incredible. He started to feel the strength. One day, being in a good state of health, Moraitis planted some vegetables in the garden. He did not expect to survive until the harvest, he was just a pleasure to be in the sun and breathe the sea air. Fresh vegetables will delight Elpiniki when it will no longer be in the world.

It has been six months. Moraitis did not think to die. Instead, he gathered his harvest vegetables and feeling Encouraged and helped harvest in a family vineyard.

Plunging into the domestic affairs of their native island, he is awakened, he felt, he loves it all: to work in the vineyard before dinner, then cook their own lunch and immersed after his long afternoon slumber. In the evenings, he often walked to the local tavern, where he played dominoes until late at night. Years passed. His health continued to improve.

He added a couple of rooms in the house of the parents of children who might come to visit him. He extended the vineyards, until they began to bring 400 gallons of wine per year.

Today, 35 years later, when Moraitis turned 97 on official documents and 102 years old - in his words, he was cured of cancer. He never passed chemotherapy, I did not take drugs and it was not treated in other ways. Everything that he did, - returned home to Icaria.

Longevity Research on Ikaria

Dan Buettner (Dan Buettner) met Moraitis on Ikaria during one of his visits to the island to study the unique longevity of its inhabitants. With the support of the National Geographic Society study places were organized, in which people live the longest.

At the root of the study were Gianni Pes (Gianni Pes) from the University of Sassari in Italy and Dr. Michel Poulin (Michel Poulain), Belgian demographer.

In 2000, they identified the province of Nuoro in Sardinia region as the place with the highest concentration of male centenarians. Scientists have conducted a blue border on the map and started to call the area inside her blue area. In 2002, we identified three other places where people live much longer than in the rest of the world. The oldest women were discovered on the Japanese island of Okinawa. On the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica found 100,000 Métis with the lowest mortality rates in middle age. In Loma Linda, in California, discovered a community of Seventh-day Adventists, the life expectancy of whose members exceeds the average for the United States for 10 years.

In 2008 began the study Icaria. Poulain according to plan, it was necessary to keep track of people born between 1900 and 1920, and to determine when and how they died. It was not easy, because people are often moved. So, it was necessary to gather information not only about where they were born and died, but also to emigration and immigration.

By collecting information needed to be approached very seriously. Earlier data showed centenarians in Ecuador Vilcabamba Valley, Pakistan Hunza Valley and in the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia. All these data were disproved when researchers found that many people do not know exactly how old they are.

It is normal for the residents without a birth certificate. Today a person tells you that he was 80, and after a couple of months - that he was 82. Maybe he'll say that he has knocked 100. And when the city's reputation with longevity attracts tourists to him who will understand, though it 100 years or he simply did not remember how many.

Even on Ikaria it was difficult to establish the truth. Stories like this one - the miraculous healing Moraitis - turned into local folklore, they retold dozens of times, and gradually lose the accuracy (the story of Moraitis was told in Greek television). When the researchers conducted a study in 2009, there were many men, who told this story about himself.

The study was to get through all of these stories and to establish the fact of longevity on Ikaria island. Poulain used to study the birth record in a Baptist or military documentation.

After collecting all the data, Poulin with colleagues from the University of Athens, concluded that people on the island of Ikaria live up to 90 years in two and a half times more likely than Americans. And if we talk only about men, then four times more likely, though with better health. Moreover, the residents of Ikaria by an average of 8-10 years later develop cancer or cardiovascular disease, less likely to suffer from depression and senile dementia.

About half of Americans 85 and older have symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. On Ikaria people manage to stay out of my mind until the very end.

island centenarians

Ikaria - it is an island, which is home to 10,000 Greeks. It is 30 miles from the west coast of Turkey. Toothed ridge of the island, covered with bushes, rises steeply from the Aegean Sea.

More 2500 years ago on the island came to be treated Greeks visited Icaria, to swim in the hot waters near the Baths. In the XVII century Dzhordzhirenes Joseph (Joseph Georgirenes), Bishop of Ikaria, described the inhabitants of the island as a proud people who sleep on the ground.

The most valuable thing on the island - the air and water that are so healthful that the islanders live very long, and seen here a hundred years of human - is the norm.

Bishop Joseph Dzhordzhirenes

To learn more about the island of centenarians, Dan Buettner has asked Dr. Ilias Leriadisa (Ilias Leriadis), one of the few doctors Ikarisa.

"Here, people go sleep late - says Leriadis. - We wake up late and occasionally dozing. I did not even open the office before 11 am, because before no one will come exactly. Have you noticed that we have no one wears a watch? No, the clock is fine, just no one cares about time. When you invite someone to dinner, it can come from 10 am to 6 pm, and that's fine. We just do not care about the time. "

Pointing to the Aegean sea, the neighboring island of Samos, he said: "Just 15 kilometers away, a totally different world. They are much more developed. They skyscrapers, resorts, homes of millions of euros. Samos people care about the money. But not here. Many religious and cultural holidays people are thrown off and bought food and wine. If money remains, they give it to the poor. Our island is not a place for "I", this is the place for the 'we'. "

Unusual past Ikaria can explain this tendency toward collectivism. Strong winds of the island mentioned in the "Iliad" and the lack of natural harbors of the island kept away from the maritime trade routes throughout history. Therefore, Ikaria island remained independent.

Then, in early 1940, after the civil war in Greece, exiled to the island of thousands of communists and radicals. About 40% of adults, many of whom are frustrated by rising unemployment and thinner stream resources from Athens, still vote for the local Communist Party.

About 75% of the population over 65 years of Ikaria. Younger adults, many of whom are returning home after college, live in homes with parents.

Leriadis also talked about the local "mountain tea", which is made from the dried herbsGrowing on the island (wild marjoram, sage, mint tea varieties, rosemary) and broth dandelion leaves with lemon. Islanders drink it simply as an evening cocktail, but is also used for medicinal purposes. More honey. It is considered a panacea. The inhabitants of Ikaria there are varieties of honey, which does not exist anywhere in the world. They use it for everything from treatment of a wound to treat a hangover or the flu. Older people here start their day with a spoon of honey. They take it as a medicine.

Old people on Ikaria live a full life: 95-year-old man playing the violin, 98-year-old woman contains a small hotel and has been playing poker for money on the weekends.

75 years under the same roof

In the study, Dan Buettner has visited the elderly, who live together for 75 years, Thanasis (Thanasis) and Eirini Karimalis (Eirini Karimalis).

"Both are low, about five feet tall, they were very welcome guests. He is dressed in a shapeless cotton shirt and a baseball cap, it is - in a house dress, with her hair pulled back in a bun. In the house they have is a table, a fireplace, which zakopchonny pot rack with a wool coat and a black-and-white photos of ancestors to the soot-stained wall. The house is warm and cozy.

"Sit down", - says Eirini. She did not ask me my name and what business I have come, but brought tea and a plate of cookies. Thanasis contrary, ran around the house, tidying vigorously. "

They said that they were born in neighboring villages and were married in the early 1920s. Thanasis worked as a lumberjack, and they raised five children. Like most islanders, their way of life is similar to the one described Leriadis.

They wake up whenever you want, work in the garden, dine late, asleep. At sunset, visit neighbors, or neighbors come to visit them. Their food is also quite typical for the residents of Ikaria: breakfast from goat's milk, wineTea with sage or coffee, honey and bread.

Lunch mainly of beans, potatoes, greens (fennel, dandelion and Hort - plant resembling spinach) and seasonal vegetables that they grow in the garden. Dinner of bread and goat's milk. At Christmas and Easter, they slaughtered a pig and enjoy small portions of pork in the next few months.

When Thanasis and Eirini show his farm, they list the names of pigs. After sunset, when they return home to drink tea, another elderly couple comes to visit them. They greet each other with kisses on the cheek and seated around the table. They gossip, drink wine and laugh.

Healthy eating inhabitants of Ikaria

Dr. John Chino (Ioanna Chinou), Professor, University of Athens, one of the main experts in the bioactive properties of herbs and other natural ingredients, claims that teas that consume the islanders - a traditional Greek medicinal facilities.

Wild Mint helps fight gingivitis and diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, rosemary is used as a remedy for gout, mugwort helps restore blood circulation. The seven most common herbs that are used to Ikaria for brewing tea, rich in polyphenols - powerful antioxidants. Most of these herbs are also mildly diuretic. Doctors often use diuretics for hypertension. Perhaps, daily afternoon tea helps islanders gently lower blood pressure throughout life.

Researchers Dog and Poulin joined Dr. Anton Trichopulu (Antonia Trichopoulou) from the University of Athens, an expert on the Mediterranean diet. She often asked citizens to remember and recreate their childhood eating habits.

Anthony noticed that the diet of the islanders, as well as the diet of people from other areas of the Mediterranean, rich in olive and vegetable oil, it little dairy products (except goat milk) and meat and alcohol present in moderate quantities. The main diet food - grown in my garden potatoes and beans, herbs, goat's milk and honey of local production.

As we know from research each product Ikaria island residents diet helps to increase life expectancy. Low in saturated fat from meat and milk helps reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. Olive oil, especially without a heat treatment reduces the amount of cholesterol. Goat's milk contains tryptophan, which increases the amount of serotonin, in addition, it is easy to digest. The wild greens are so many antioxidants as red wine. Wine in moderation useful for the organism as a part of the Mediterranean diet because it helps the body produce more flavonoid antioxidants. BUT coffee It is associated with a reduced risk of diabetes, heart disease and Parkinson's disease. Bread from a local sourdough may reduce the glycemic load of the food, and the potatoes provides the body with fiber, useful for cardiac potassium and vitamin B6.

More importantly, many of the products from the diet of the islanders cultivated them in their own gardens and gardens, so they do not have a lot of pesticides and nutrients.

Dr. Anthony Trichopulu believes that when you combine the diet of people with Ikaria with the standard American diet, it can extend the life of Americans an average of four years.

Of course, it's not only what they eat, but also what you do not eat. Tobes Gary (Gary Taubes), the founder of Nutrition Science Initiative and author of "Why we get fat" considers that one of the reasons why the islanders on Ikaria live so long, is that their diet based on plant food. Or because they do not eat sugar and white flour. As far as we know, they eat very little sugar, and their bread is traditionally cares of wholegrain wheat.

Following the report of the Pesa and Dr. Christine Poulain Krizohu (Christina Chrysohoou) School of Medicine at the University of Athens It has teamed up with other scientists to organize Icarian study, which includes the study of diet 673 inhabitants island.

She discovered that the islanders consume six times more legumes than Americans eat fish twice a week, and the meat - five times a month, drink two to three cups of coffee a day and eat about a quarter of the standard for the amount of sugar Americans, older people do not like soda. It also found that the islanders consume a lot of olive oil and two to four glasses of wine a day.

Krizohu also suggested that the longevity of inhabitants of Ikaria affect their sleep habits and plan sex. In 2008, the School of Medicine, University of Athens and the Harvard School of Public Health conducted a study in which 23,000 adults Greeks participated. For six years, the researchers observed the participants registering their diet, physical activity and the amount of sleep. They found that people who napped occasionally, for 12% less risk to get coronary heart disease, and those who napped regularly, the risk was reduced by 37%.

Dr. Krizohu also take into account the results of the study Icaria men aged 65 to 100 years, which showed that 80% of its members regularly engage in sex, and a quarter of men said they make it a very long time and pretty successfully.

In general, residents of Ikaria mobile at any age. For example, late in the evening after dinner and tea in the guest house may push the tables and start dancing under the Greek music.

Cook what ancestors ate

A local woman named Parikos (Parikos) helped Dan Buettner learn about the diet of the islanders authentic. Parikos prepares the way prepared her ancestors for centuries.

For breakfast, she filed a yogurt and honey from the 90-year-old neighbor beekeeper. At lunch, she went to the field and returned with a bundle of green, like a weed, mix it with the pumpkin and bake pies. She also served a tasty dish of stewed peas, tomatoes, fennel and garlic, dressed with olive oil.

Parikos was born in America in Detroit, her father - an American, and his mother with Ikaria. She graduated from high school, worked as a real estate agent, was married in the United States. After the birth of her first child, she felt that she pulls on Icaria.

"I was not unhappy in America, - she says. - We were good friends, we had dinner together on weekends. I drove Chevrolet. But I'm always in a hurry. "

When Parikos his family moved to Icaria and opened the hotel, everything changed. She stopped to buy most of the products, growing fruits and vegetables in their large garden. She effortlessly thin. When asked if that helps her live longer it simple diet and her family, she replied: "Yes, but we do not think about it that way. It is much more than longevity. "

Although the unemployment rate on the island is large (about 40%), almost all have their own garden and livestock. We have a few people working professions. Someone working in the tourism sector can be a painter or electrician or contain store.

"People here live well, because they are self-sufficient, - says Parikos. - We may not have money for luxuries, but we have food on the table and fun with family and friends. We do not need to hurry up to do the work during the day, so that we can work at night. At the end of the day we did not go home to sit on the couch.

You know that in the Greek language has no word for privacy? When all all all know, you are born a sense of unity and security. Lack of privacy - it's actually a good thing because people do not want to be caught for the bad things and do not want to compromise your family.

If your children misbehave, your neighbor without problems take the trouble to teach them discipline. There is less crime, not because the police is working well, but because each risk disgracing the family.

You ask me about food. Yes, we eat better than the Americans. But the point is not only in how we eat. Even if you make a break from work to eat, you relax and enjoy your meal. And you enjoy the company of the person with whom you are now. The food here always goes in tandem with dialogue. "

Society for health and longevity

When people in the US want to improve their health, they begin to engage in fitness and pay attention to what to eat: take organic food products rich in omega-3 and microelements.

Americans spend about $ 30 billion a year on vitamins and dietary supplements. On Ikaria and other places like that island food - it's just one of the components that explain the high life expectancy. And exercise, in the sense in which we are accustomed to think of them, that is, as a deliberate and organized physical activity mean for the longevity of the islanders even less.

More important social structure. In Sardinia, for example, the culture itself extols the older generation and engages him in community life and a great family. Studies have noted a link between early retirement among workers in the industrialized countries and the decline in life expectancy.

In Okinawa, for example, there is no artificial division of life, instead there is the concept of "ikigai"Which can be translated as" the reason for which you wake up in the morning. " This concept is accompanied by adults throughout life. It makes centenarians get out of bed or get up from a comfortable chair to teach karate, spiritually guide the residents of his village or transmit traditions to children. Dr. Robert Butler (Robert Butler), the first director of the National Institute on Aging, once said:

The ability to determine the meaning of your life increases its duration.

Previously, the longevity of people from the community of Seventh Day Adventists was due to a healthy diet based on plant foods. Also, it was considered the cause of the low level of incidence of diabetes and heart disorders among community members.

Power Adventist dictated by the Bible ( "And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; - to you it shall be for meat. " Being. 1:29).

But the key to the longevity of Adventists rather hidden in the social structure than in the diet. While most people stick to a diet for a brief period, Adventists eat so for decades.

How? Adventists in constant contact with other Adventists. When you come to the picnic, which they want to apply, you will not see it Steak on the grillThere will be a completely vegetarian table. Also, no one will not drink alcohol or smoke.

How to detect a physician and sociologist Nicholas Christakis (Nicholas Christakis), habits related to health, can be just as contagious as the flu virus. According to his estimates, the resident Framingema in Massachusetts, where he conducted his research, with a probability of 57% potolsteet if corrected his friend. This trend is noticed and Adventists, but only in a positive way.

The secret of longevity - in a set of related factors

Ask very old people on Ikaria, how they organize their lives after 90 years, and they will tell you about the clean air and wine. Or, as a 101-year-old woman said, "we just forget to die." In fact, they do not know why they live to this age. And no one knows.

To answer this question we need to keep track of life study group and the control group throughout life.

It is known that people on Ikaria live longer than on the neighboring islands. Samos, for example, which is only eight miles from Ikaria, live people with similar genetic characteristics, they also eat yogurt, drink wine, breathe fresh air and eat fish caught in the same sea as that of the islanders to Ikaria. But the people of Samos live as much as ordinary Greeks. And that makes longevity formula Ikaria even more mysterious and attractive.

If you look closely at how the islanders live with Ikaria, it turns out that the interdependent factors work here. You will get enough rest, if all the people around you wake up late, and after dinner a settlement like dying, because all go take a nap.

The cheapest and widespread food - the most useful, as their ancestors had spent a century trying to make it more and tasty.

On Ikaria you are unlikely to get a day to overcome the less than twenty hills. And you will never experience the pain of loneliness and isolation, or even stress from what you late.

Your community will make sure that you always had food, but public pressure and force you to contribute.

You will be working in the garden, because it makes your parents and so do your neighbors. You do not want to commit crimes, because everyone is busy and feel that society is watching them.

At the end of the day you share a cup of tea from herbs that grow in this season, with his neighbor. Maybe for tea followed by a few glasses of wine, but you drink them in the company of good friends.

On Sundays, you will go to church. Even if you are not a social person, you will not be alone. Your neighbors will be asking you to join them at the village festival that you have eaten their portion of goat meat.

Each of these factors may cause longevity. This does not take into account the multi-billion dollar industry, a healthy diet, nutritional supplements and fitness, convinces us that fitness and healthy eating - that's all you need for excellent health and long life. And it does not mean that they are wrong: a healthy diet and physical activity is really good for your health. The problem is that change their behavior alone when society goes around you in a different way, it is very difficult. You can do sports or go on a diet, but junk food sold at every step, it consumes your friends and family, and sooner or later you will frustrate. At the same time, motor activity decreases. Even elderly people spend more calories per day than a generation of young adults who are used to transport and sedentary work.

But, despite the isolation and independence of the island, globalization and touched him. Now Icaria markets sell chips and sweet drinks, which replaces tea younger generations of islanders. It is likely that such preferences of the next generation will not be so different longevity. In the end, the effect of the rest of the world is getting stronger and is not going to disappear.

There is one feature: the factors that contribute to longevity, strengthen each other in the long run. To people accustomed to a healthy lifestyle, they need to live in an ecosystem that allows you to do this.

If you remove from the overall picture of the culture, identity, purpose or religion, the preconditions for a long healthy life will be destroyed. The strength of such an environment is in a variety of mutually reinforcing linkages. There is not one way, a kind of silver bullet that will destroy death or senility weakness and dementia.

Dan Buettner contacted Moraitis in a few weeks. Elpiniki died in the spring, when she was 85, and now he lives alone. Moraitis picked up in the same house bleached, which returned 35 years ago. On Ikaria arrived early evening. He worked in the vineyard in the morning and just woke up from an afternoon nap.

For a while he was talking to Büttner, and then said that his neighbor went to have a drink with him and he had to go. The researchers remained one question: how, in his opinion, he was able to recover from lung cancer?

"He just disappeared - Moraitis said. - Actually, I came back to America in 25 years after I moved here, the doctor explained to me how this is possible. "

Dan Buettner heard this story before. She became part of the folklore of Ikaria, proof of the exceptional way of life of the islanders. But he still asked him: "And what happened?". "All of my doctors had already died", - said Moraitis.