There Are No Long Lived Cultures

- Roger Mason

     

There is a popular myth that several cultures exist in far off places where the people live to be over 120 years old and they enjoy almost perfect health until they die.

None of this is true. The longest lived people on earth are the Japanese Okinawan's who merely live until their 80's, but do enjoy far better health in their old age than Americans do. This is due to their DIET and general lifestyle and not due to munching on coral calcium or some such other fantasy. What do they eat? They eat whole grains like brown rice, lots of fresh vegetables, seafood, soups, salads and very, very little eggs, meat, poultry and no milk or dairy at all. They work hard and keep bad habits like drinking, smoking and coffee to a minimum. There is little stress in their lives and their culture is not technological.

The myth of long lived cultures started in 1973 when National Geographic magazine published an article claiming that people in certain far flung areas lived to be incredibly old and had amazing health and stamina in their golden years. None of this was true, but it sure sold a lot of magazines!

People kept repeating the myth until it was accepted as fact by many. Some clowns like the fat little guy who hawks colloidal minerals and claims he was nominated for the Nobel Prize make the most asinine claims concerning life span. This one bozo says there are six cultures where the populace "routinely lives to be 120 to 140 years old" and this is "well documented"!!! He goes on to say one Chinese doctor lived to be 256 years old and this was "fairly well documented". He says the Hunzas in Pakistan, the Georgians in Russia, the Armenians in Armenia, the Titicacas in Peru and the Vilcabambas in Ecuador all routinely live to be 120 to 140 years old.

This is too ridiculous to comment on. Again, the oldest living people on earth are the Japanese Okinawans who merely live to their 80's. Hardly more than us Americans, but they do enjoy a much better quality of life in their final years.

In the journal of the American Geriatrics Society (volume 30, 1982) an expose was done of this. The author went to see the Vilcabambas in Ecuador and found out only 3 people out of every 100,000 even live to be 100 years old. Let's repeat that- only 3 people out of every 100,000 live to be 100. He also found out these people, like the other five cultures were characterized by poor sanitation, infectious diseases, high infant mortality, extreme illiteracy, almost no medical care and dismal poverty. Hardly an ideal to live up to.

You have to understand that primitive cultures like this have very little in the way of formal record keeping. When the citizens found National Geographic photographers who wanted to hear about extreme ages, they told them whatever they wanted to hear. The more they fabricated the more they were rewarded. Who can blame them? Often if there were any records at all they would give the journalists the records of their fathers or mothers (or even grandfathers and grandmothers) and claim to be them. In one village of almost 1,000 it was found not one single inhabitant was 100.

The Geriatrics Society author then went to Pakistan to see the Hunzas and found there simply were no records at all. The Georgian Russians proved to be the same story. A Dr. Medvedev exposed the whole Georgian hoax in the journal "Gerontologist" (volume 14, 1974) right after the National Geographic fiasco.

I obtained that journal article as well and found a seven page well documented article proving beyond any doubt that anyone in Russia anywhere is lucky to make it to the age of 80. How long can you expect to live? That depends on a lot of factors, but if you can live to be about 85 years old and still independent, reasonably healthy and happy you've done about all you're going to do no matter how well you eat, how much you exercise, how good your genetics are and how many supplements you take. It's not the length of life but the QUALITY that matters anyway. Quality of life is everything.