Unbelievable! These People Are Living To Be 90 And 100 Years Old Regularly–How Do They Do It?
What if Ponce de Leon was looking on the wrong continent?
The legendary explorer who allegedly sought the Fountain of Youth in Florida may have gone several thousand miles out of his way. If a new report from a team of scientists studying the bizarre ability of the population of an obscure village in Italy to live way beyond the norm, De Leon may well have gone in the wrong direction altogether when he set off from Spain.
There is small village in Italy called Acciaroli where the people are fat, spend way too much time in the sun unprotected from UV radiation, and many of them smoke. Exercise doesn’t seem to move them much, literally or figuratively, and they aren’t interested in watching what they eat.
Yet somehow they have incredibly long life spans.
No, really.
Let’s take a look at some numbers: in a town with a population of 2.000, there are 300 residents who are over 100 years old. That means that 15 percent of the people who live there have made it to 100. to put in perspective just how truly freakish and fascinating this is, let’s have another number:
In the US, people who are over 100 make up 0.0173 percent of the population.
Acciaroli also boasts 60 residents who have made it to 110 years of age.
“I was at the beach,” said Dr. Alan Maisel, a cardiologist and lecturer at the University of California at San Diego, “and I saw all these leather-necked, tanned people in their 90s and 100s who looked nine months pregnant and were smoking cigarettes.”
Dr. Maisel was so fascinated with the seeming disparity between the townspeople’s health and what medical science knows about keeping the human body healthy that he began researching them immediately.
He found a few commonalities among the long-lived villagers:
• Rosemary – noting that the townsfolk consume tons of the stuff, Maisel points out that the antioxidant nature of the spice can help fight free radicals.
• Anchovies – full of omega-3s, anchovies fight cholesterol, reduce inflammation of the arteries, and lower risk of arterioscelerosis
• Clean air – there is no industry to speak of there, and recent research in China shows that air pollution can reduce lifespan by three to five years
• Sunshine – plenty of vitamin D3 could contribute to many health benefits
• Low stress – people in Acciaroli love to hang out and spend time with their neighbors, sipping coffee and just shooting the breeze. And having a bit of wine too.
You know what? It doesn’t really even matter if you can live to be 100 or more there–that sounds like an ideal way of life.
What if the real fountain of youth were slowing down, enjoying our lives and our family and friends, eating some fish with rosemary and enjoying a glass of wine regularly?
In that case, it might be worth it to live to be 100.