Ikaria; an Island Where People Forget To Die

We have all heard that joke where a man goes to his doctor and ask what he needs to do to live to be 100 years old.The doctor told him to give up eating meat, drinking alcohol, smoking, and sex.

The man was deep in thought and thanked the good doctor.As he was leaving he asked the doctor if that what will guarantee him 100 years and doctor replied,

"Maybe not, but it would surely feel like it."

Yeah, it is a corny joke but the point is many have always wanted to live for long.

But to the small island people of Ikaria in Greece, living to be 90 is something majority of the populace does. The island got its name from Icarus, the son of Daedalus in Greek mythology, who flew too close to the sun (against the father's advice and the wax in his wings melted and he fell down into the sea) who they believed landed in a sea close by.

^{Source: Octogenarians Couple, Alexandro and Antiiopi Koufadakis holding a portrait here of their younger selves, have been married for 61 years.}

The small beautiful Island is known for having a high number of very old people. Researchers have found that 1out of every 3 citizens of this island tend to live to be 90. They also tend to live ten years longer than most people in other places before developing heart disease.They also have lower cases of cancer and dementia.

An analysis of a researcher Dan Buettner show that people at the island reach 90 years two and half times (2x) faster than an average American.

Ikaria is part of the five blue zones area of the world.

Demographic regions of the world where people commonly live active lives past the age of 100 years. The areas of which are Okinawa Japan, Sardinia Italy, Nicoya Peninsula Costa Rica, Ikaria Greece and the Seventh-Day Adventist Loma Linda in California. ^Source

What is the secret to their longevity?

Many of the residents say it is their lifestyle. They are happy people who have an active lifestyle, eat healthily, take naps, and take sips of plant-based wine. Stress had been known to produce cortisol a harmful hormone in very high or very low amount. So a life filled with stress and anger has long-term negative effects on the body.

^{Free Google Image: A 100+ Ikaria Man}

Science Weighs In.

But scientists and doctors from the University of Athens are now looking for a connection with between their longevity to their DNA. Also, there is a suspicion that there is natural selection at play due to the secluded nature of the Island.

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs pronounced “snips”) are the most common kind of genetic variation among people. It is the basic block of a nucleotide which represents a difference in each DNA building block.Each SNP represents a difference in a single DNA building block, called a nucleotide. It could be recalled that centenarians share common SNP. From past research in centenarians, p21/
(CDKN1A-Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor 1A) a gene which
is a stress-inducible senescence-associated cell cycle inhibitor. There are two alleles found to be missing. These alleles may be potentially bad for longevity, thus rare in centenarians.



^{Source: Agios Kirikos Ikaria.}

A study was done in 2009 by researchers from the University of Athens, revealed that out of 1330 participants (699 women and 631 men) that 89 and 98 men and women respectively were above 80 years.

These old people have been found to be very active too.Their diets are also different from people from other places.

More than 50% of their calorie intake comes from fat – from which olive oil provides around half of this. They eat a lot of legumes (garbanzos, lentils, and black-eyed peas), potatoes and wild greens; additionally, they drink a lot of coffee and herbal tea. The islanders eat meat about every other day and notably, they eat fish only six to eight times per month. Moreover, they eat rarely pasta and grains, instead favouring a lot of fruits. Following on with the sweeter side of their diet – they very rarely eat ordinary sweets but like to sweeten their tea with local honey. Lastly, they do eat dairy products, but mainly from goat’s milk. To summarise, this is evidently an overall plant-based diet.
^Source

While the scientist are still figuring their secrets out, the beautiful people from Ikaria continue to live as they had forgotten how to die :)

Ref: 1,2,3,4,5,6.