30.
Ikaria, Greece
The Enchanted Island Of Centenarians.
Ikaria, an island of 99 square miles and home to almost 10,000 Greek nationals, lies about 30 miles off the western coast of Turkey. Its jagged ridge of scrub-covered mountains rises steeply out of the Aegean Sea. People here are three times more likely to reach age of 90 than anywhere else in the World.
Amid the lush green forests and beautiful waters, you find people who practically live longer than anywhere else on Earth.
Ikaria was the subject of repeated invasions by the Persians, Romans and Turks, causing the population to move away from the sea to the central area of the island. This created an isolated population, rich in tradition, family values, health and long life. Ikaria is also famous for its mineral thermal hot springs, which reportedly have numerous therapeutic benefits.
Amid the lush green forests and beautiful waters, you find people who practically live longer than anywhere else on Earth.
Ikaria was the subject of repeated invasions by the Persians, Romans and Turks, causing the population to move away from the sea to the central area of the island. This created an isolated population, rich in tradition, family values, health and long life. Ikaria is also famous for its mineral thermal hot springs, which reportedly have numerous therapeutic benefits.
This island is mostly insulated from the mechanized conveniences and the fast-food culture of modern society. This has helped them to preserve age-old customs and lifestyle habits that scientists believe explain their exceptional lifespan.
Chronic diseases are a rarity in Ikaria. The biggest drain on our health care system are diseases like cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes. The people here in Ikaria are eluding those diseases at incredibly high numbers.
Hidden somewhere on this remote, mountainous Greek island, may be the answer to one of life’s most enduring questions: How can we live longer, healthier lives?
Ikaria seems to laugh in the face of modern life- the greedy rush through time, the loss of identity through globalization and homogenous life styles, consumerism, materialism and an official, or unofficial police state that observes and dictates the rules of living where there is meant to be freedom.
In the village of Raches, the police station that had been built has remained unused for the last seven years after the villagers got together and agreed that they didn’t want or need cops to run their lives - they could do it perfectly well themselves. Yet the island remains one of the safest places to live, and local as well as foreign female residents emphasize that not only do they feel safe but that they feel free to live as they like.
Ikarians are an impressively self-sufficient people, mainly shepards who own goats in the thousands. They farm their own land - with most households tending their own supply of organic fruit, vegetables and herbs. Some others are shop or taverna owners. Youths start learning to tend the land and herd goats, as well as other traditional labour, as early as their adolescent years.
Chronic diseases are a rarity in Ikaria. The biggest drain on our health care system are diseases like cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes. The people here in Ikaria are eluding those diseases at incredibly high numbers.
Hidden somewhere on this remote, mountainous Greek island, may be the answer to one of life’s most enduring questions: How can we live longer, healthier lives?
Ikaria seems to laugh in the face of modern life- the greedy rush through time, the loss of identity through globalization and homogenous life styles, consumerism, materialism and an official, or unofficial police state that observes and dictates the rules of living where there is meant to be freedom.
In the village of Raches, the police station that had been built has remained unused for the last seven years after the villagers got together and agreed that they didn’t want or need cops to run their lives - they could do it perfectly well themselves. Yet the island remains one of the safest places to live, and local as well as foreign female residents emphasize that not only do they feel safe but that they feel free to live as they like.
Ikarians are an impressively self-sufficient people, mainly shepards who own goats in the thousands. They farm their own land - with most households tending their own supply of organic fruit, vegetables and herbs. Some others are shop or taverna owners. Youths start learning to tend the land and herd goats, as well as other traditional labour, as early as their adolescent years.
In the United States, when it comes to improving health, people tend to focus on exercise and what we put into our mouths — organic foods, omega-3’s, micronutrients. They spend nearly $30 billion a year on vitamins and supplements alone. Yet in Ikaria and the other places like it, diet only partly explained higher life expectancy. Exercise — at least the way we think of it, as willful, dutiful, physical activity — played a small role at best.
~Dan Buettner
Towns here exist beyond the normal confines of time. In all Ikaria, the people live exclusively at their own pace; if a shop owner feels like opening his store at 18:00, so be it. After all, the mentality goes, it’s their life, and their store, and there is no need to live life throttled by some artificial social compulsion.
These inhabitants live on average 10 years longer than the rest of Western Europe. Six out of 10 of people aged over 90 are still physically active. Experts says only about 20 percent of how long we live is dictated by genes; the rest is lifestyle.
These inhabitants live on average 10 years longer than the rest of Western Europe. Six out of 10 of people aged over 90 are still physically active. Experts says only about 20 percent of how long we live is dictated by genes; the rest is lifestyle.
Diet
Most food is cooked in extra-virgin olive oil. Large quantities of wild greens and herbs are gathered from the hillsides for both food and medicinal purposes.
Many older people make a daily brew of mountain tea from dried herbs such as sage, thyme, mint, and chamomile, and sweeten it with honey from local bees. It’s supposed to cure everything. These are rich in antioxidants and also contain diuretics which can lower blood pressure.
Many older people make a daily brew of mountain tea from dried herbs such as sage, thyme, mint, and chamomile, and sweeten it with honey from local bees. It’s supposed to cure everything. These are rich in antioxidants and also contain diuretics which can lower blood pressure.
Seeking to learn more about the island’s reputation for long-lived residents, I called on Dr. Ilias Leriadis, one of Ikaria’s few physicians, in 2009. On an outdoor patio at his weekend house, he set a table with Kalamata olives, hummus and heavy Ikarian bread. “People stay up late here,” Leriadis said. “And always take naps. I don’t even open my office until 11 a.m. because no one comes before then.” He took a sip of his wine. “Have you noticed that no one wears a watch here? No clock is working correctly. When you invite someone to lunch, they might come at 10 a.m. or 6 p.m. We simply don’t care about the clock here.”
Pointing across the Aegean toward the neighboring island of Samos, he said: “Just 15 kilometers over there is a completely different world. There they are much more developed. There are high-rises and resorts and homes worth a million euros. In Samos, they care about money. Here, we don’t. For the many religious and cultural holidays, people pool their money and buy food. If there is money left over, they give it to the poor. It’s not a ‘me’ place. It’s an ‘us’ place.”
~Dan Buettner
Probably it’s this regular, ritualistic consumption of these herbal teas that explains low rates of heart disease and also low rates of dementia. Many of the teas are traditional Greek remedies.
Rates of smoking are relatively low. Goat’s milk is available in plenty and its drunk warm from the goat’s udder. It’s rich in tryptophan, which lowers stress hormones and is a natural anti-depressant.
The Mediterranean Diet at its core is whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and olive oil. People who most strongly adhere to the Mediterranean Diet have 6 extra years of life expectancy than people who don’t.
Rates of smoking are relatively low. Goat’s milk is available in plenty and its drunk warm from the goat’s udder. It’s rich in tryptophan, which lowers stress hormones and is a natural anti-depressant.
The Mediterranean Diet at its core is whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and olive oil. People who most strongly adhere to the Mediterranean Diet have 6 extra years of life expectancy than people who don’t.
On a trip the year before, I visited a slate-roofed house built into the slope at the top of a hill. I had come here after hearing of a couple who had been married for more than 75 years. Thanasis and Eirini Karimalis both came to the door, clapped their hands at the thrill of having a visitor and waved me in. They each stood maybe five feet tall. He wore a shapeless cotton shirt and a battered baseball cap, and she wore a housedress with her hair in a bun. Inside, there was a table, a medieval-looking fireplace heating a blackened pot, a nook of a closet that held one woolen suit coat, and fading black-and-white photographs of forebears on a soot-stained wall. The place was warm and cozy. “Sit down,” Eirini commanded. She hadn’t even asked my name or business but was already setting out teacups and a plate of cookies.
The couple were born in a nearby village, they told me. They married in their early 20s and raised five children on Thanasis’s pay as a lumberjack. Like that of almost all of Ikaria’s traditional folk, their daily routine unfolded much the way Leriadis had described it: Wake naturally, work in the garden, have a late lunch, take a nap.
At sunset, they either visited neighbors or neighbors visited them. Their diet was also typical: a breakfast of goat’s milk, sage tea or coffee, honey and bread. Lunch was almost always beans (lentils, garbanzos), potatoes, greens (fennel, dandelion or a spinachlike green called horta) and whatever seasonal vegetables their garden produced; dinner was bread and goat’s milk.
~Dan Buettner
Included in that diet are lots of healthy greens. Over 150 varieties of wild greens grow on this island. Most Ikarians can walk out their front door to harvest a healthy feast.
There is very little consumption of white sugar, white flour, or meat. They consumed about six times as many beans a day as Americans. Food is mostly unprocessed and free from chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
Honey is treated as a panacea. They have types of honey here that you won’t see anyplace else in the world. They use it for everything from treating wounds to curing hangovers, or for treating influenza. Old people here will start their day with a spoonful of honey. They take it like medicine.
In an interview, a 93 years old woman attributed her longevity to avoiding red meat and surrounding herself with friends.
There is very little consumption of white sugar, white flour, or meat. They consumed about six times as many beans a day as Americans. Food is mostly unprocessed and free from chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
Honey is treated as a panacea. They have types of honey here that you won’t see anyplace else in the world. They use it for everything from treating wounds to curing hangovers, or for treating influenza. Old people here will start their day with a spoonful of honey. They take it like medicine.
In an interview, a 93 years old woman attributed her longevity to avoiding red meat and surrounding herself with friends.
During our time on Ikaria, my colleagues and I stayed at Thea Parikos’s guesthouse, the social hub of western Ikaria. Local women gathered in the dining room at midmorning to gossip over tea. Late at night, after the dinner rush, tables were pushed aside and the dining room became a dance floor, with people locking arms and kick-dancing to Greek music.
Parikos cooked the way her ancestors had for centuries, giving us a chance to consume the diet we were studying. For breakfast, she served local yogurt and honey from the 90-year-old beekeeper next door. For dinner, she walked out into the fields and returned with handfuls of weedlike greens, combined them with pumpkin and baked them into savory pies. My favorite was a dish made with black-eyed peas, tomatoes, fennel tops and garlic and finished with olive oil that we dubbed Ikarian stew.
Despite her consummately Ikarian air, Parikos was actually born in Detroit to an American father and an Ikarian mother. She had attended high school, worked as a real estate agent and married in the United States. After she and her husband had their first child, she felt a “genetic craving” for Ikaria. “I was not unhappy in America,” she said. “We had good friends, we went out to dinner on the weekends, I drove a Chevrolet. But I was always in a hurry.”
When she and her family moved to Ikaria and opened the guesthouse, everything changed. She stopped shopping for most groceries, instead planting a huge garden that provided most of their fruits and vegetables. She lost weight without trying to. I asked her if she thought her simple diet was going to make her family live longer. “Yes,” she said. “But we don’t think about it that way. It’s bigger than that.”
~Dan Buettner
Plenty of Rest
Wake up naturally, work in the garden, have a late lunch, take a nap. One cherished custom of Ikarians is the mid-day siesta or afternoon nap. You walk in one of these villages in mid-afternoon and it’s like a ghost town. People are taking their naps and it’s said that taking a 30-minute nap at least five times per week decreases the chance of heart attack by one-third. It also reduces stress and makes you look and feel younger.
People here have a low sense of time urgency. Take your time - is a popular slogan here.
When you ask people what time it is they say “late thirty.” When you invite somebody to come to lunch you don’t say come at noon you say come on Thursday and they may come any time between ten in the morning and six in the evening.
There is very little stress of any kind. People don’t wear watches in Ikaria. Showing up late is socially accepted. This attitude reduces stress and wrinkles. They seem to prefer owning rather than being owned by time.
People here have a low sense of time urgency. Take your time - is a popular slogan here.
When you ask people what time it is they say “late thirty.” When you invite somebody to come to lunch you don’t say come at noon you say come on Thursday and they may come any time between ten in the morning and six in the evening.
There is very little stress of any kind. People don’t wear watches in Ikaria. Showing up late is socially accepted. This attitude reduces stress and wrinkles. They seem to prefer owning rather than being owned by time.
Although unemployment is high — perhaps as high as 40 percent — most everyone has access to a family garden and livestock, Parikos told me. People who work might have several jobs. Someone involved in tourism, for example, might also be a painter or an electrician or have a store. “People are fine here because we are very self-sufficient,” she said. “We may not have money for luxuries, but we will have food on the table and still have fun with family and friends.
~Dan Buettner
Strong Sense Of Community
Ikaríans have preserved a traditional lifestyle that maintains the importance of family and strong social connections. Strong social connections have been shown to lower depression, body weight and chances of death.
Elders here stay busy and involved. Social structure and a cultural attitude that celebrates the elderly keeps them engaged in the community and in extended-family homes. Extended families give older people an important role in society. Levels of depression and dementia are low.
Children might see a grandparent every day, an arrangement that improves the health and well-being of both the younger and older generations.
Their relaxed sense of time, festive spirit (dance and song) and physical work in the great outdoors seem to make a huge difference to lifespan as well as their quality of life.
Studies have linked isolation and loneliness among some workers in industrialized economies to reduced life expectancy.
Elders here stay busy and involved. Social structure and a cultural attitude that celebrates the elderly keeps them engaged in the community and in extended-family homes. Extended families give older people an important role in society. Levels of depression and dementia are low.
Children might see a grandparent every day, an arrangement that improves the health and well-being of both the younger and older generations.
Their relaxed sense of time, festive spirit (dance and song) and physical work in the great outdoors seem to make a huge difference to lifespan as well as their quality of life.
Studies have linked isolation and loneliness among some workers in industrialized economies to reduced life expectancy.
Natural Exercise
Due to the natural rugged terrain, Ikarians get their daily exercise without thinking about it. These islanders herd their own goats every day. It’s a five-hour process that includes bringing the animals down from the mountain, feeding them and milking them. The milk is then filtered and prepared into local cheeses.
(Some edited excerpts from NBC News on Dan Buettner’s research with National Geographic Society have been included here.)
(Some edited excerpts from NBC News on Dan Buettner’s research with National Geographic Society have been included here.)
“Do you know there’s no word in Greek for privacy?” she declared. “When everyone knows everyone else’s business, you get a feeling of connection and security. The lack of privacy is actually good, because it puts a check on people who don’t want to be caught or who do something to embarrass their family. If 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’s more about how we eat. Food here is always enjoyed in combination with conversation.”
~Dan Buettner