{"id":3748,"date":"2012-11-06T08:37:30","date_gmt":"2012-11-06T13:37:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/citings\/?p=3748"},"modified":"2012-11-06T08:37:30","modified_gmt":"2012-11-06T13:37:30","slug":"the-island-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/2012\/11\/06\/the-island-of-life\/","title":{"rendered":"The Island of Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Beach<\/a>
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In 1976, a Greek veteran who had immigrated to the United States was diagnosed with lung cancer and given nine months to live.\u00a0 Facing death, he decided to return to his native Greek island, Ikaria.\u00a0 There, he prepared to die.\u00a0 But, after a few months, he starting feeling better. \u00a0In fact, today, three-and-a-half decades later, he’s still alive.<\/p>\n

This story, remarkable in its own right, isn\u2019t the only one of its kind.\u00a0 The island of Ikaria is being studied by several demographers who are investigating the places in the world where people live longer. \u00a0Dan Buettner, who travels the globe in an effort to better understand longevity, recently explained in the New York Times<\/a> <\/em>that he, Dr. Gianni Pes of the University of Sassari in Italy, and Dr. Michel Poulain, a Belgian demographer, work together to study these \u201cblue zones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starting in 2002, we identified three other populations around the world where people live measurably longer lives than everyone else. The world\u2019s longest lived women are found on the island of Okinawa. On Costa Rica\u2019s Nicoya Peninsula, we discovered a population of 100,000 mestizos with a lower than normal rate of middleage mortality. And in Loma Linda, Calif., we identified a population of Seventhday Adventists in which most of the adherents\u2019 life expectancy exceeded the American average by about a decade.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These researchers had their work cut out for them.\u00a0 Tracking down the ages of people, especially those who didn\u2019t have birth certificates, proved difficult to say the least.\u00a0 \u201cOne year they were 80; a few months later they were 82. Pretty soon they claimed to be 100.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s easy to lose track.<\/p>\n

Once they were assured that these blue zones were real, they turned to studying their ways of life. \u00a0Buettner spent time learning more about the Greek Island of Ikaria, which you can read here<\/a>.\u00a0 As he details, their diets are important, consisting of much olive oil and wild greens, low amounts of dairy (except goat\u2019s milk) and meat products, and moderate amounts of alcohol. \u00a0\u00a0But, communal lifestyle also seems to matter.\u00a0 Ikaria is a communal place\u2014an \u201cus place,\u201d not a \u201cme place.\u201d \u00a0As a resident told Buettner,<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cDo you know there\u2019s no word in Greek for privacy?…When everyone knows everyone else\u2019s business, you get a feeling of connection and security\u2026If your kids misbehave, your neighbor has no problem disciplining them. There is less crime, not because of good policing, but because of the risk of shaming the family. You asked me about food, and yes, we do eat better here than in America. But it\u2019s more about how we eat.Even if it\u2019s your lunch break from work, you relax and enjoy your meal. You enjoy the company of whoever you are with. Food here is always enjoyed in combination with conversation.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In fact, social structure might be one of the most important reasons behind their (and other Blue Zones’) secrets to longevity.\u00a0 Beyond community, the centenarians in these locations often live engaging lives together, which gives them meaning. \u00a0As the Nicoyans in Costa Rica like to put it, they have a \u201cplan de vida,\u201d or a lifelong sense of purpose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1976, a Greek veteran who had immigrated to the United States was diagnosed with lung cancer and given nine months to live.\u00a0 Facing death, he decided to return to his native Greek island, Ikaria.\u00a0 There, he prepared to die.\u00a0 But, after a few months, he starting feeling better. \u00a0In fact, today, three-and-a-half decades later, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":337,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39074],"tags":[135,17262],"class_list":["post-3748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sightings","tag-demography","tag-longevity"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/337"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3748"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3758,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3748\/revisions\/3758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}