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The island where people forget to die

nytimes.com

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Re: The island where people forget to die

#11

Post by pedrocr »

reasonattlm wrote: post #6

Arguing anything other than differences in levels of exercise/activity and calorie intake has a large mountain of evidence to overcome. The effects of those two are very large, the effects of everything else comparatively small per decades of animal and longitudinal human studies. Nonsense about antioxidants in the diet is exactly that: nonsense. The weight of evidence suggests that, if anything, ingested antioxidant…

The research I've read seemed conclusive that what you eat is as important or more important as how much. Intuitively it makes sense that giving you body the correct building blocks would make it healthier and that's definitely not just a function of quantity. And from what I've read the science supports it as well. Here's a relevant book about it:

http://www.amazon.com/Anticancer-New-Way-Life-Edition/dp/067...

Re: The island where people forget to die

#12

Post by dschiptsov »

It is not that much about diet, it is about having less stress and worries of all kinds, and have good habits, such as mixing periods of physical activity and with total rest (taking naps).

It is not like staying all the time in a passive stress (or depression) - having a high level of stress hormones without any physical activities.

And the last but not least, there are emotion contagiousness - one can see it a subway. "Toxic people" is very real thing.

Then comes the media with its pressure about sex (which is about youth and health) and wealth (which is a weak substitute for the two former), and these material pseudo-achievements that one must accomplish.

All these factors together, plus many more - such as drinking water, air, soil in which vegetables and grapes grown, contributes to longevity, of course. But it seems like there is no one which makes it all - no shortcut, no way to buy it.

I believe it is much more about the state of the mind, which influence everything, including inner bodily processes and rhythms. Mind is first, environment is second, adversaries is third. ''Hell is other people'', you know.)

Re: The island where people forget to die

#13

Post by OldSchool »

That the guy survived lung cancer seems more likely a misdiagnosis or rare spontaneous remission than some kind of cause-effect.

My vote however does go for: stress level, diet, and enough physical activity. Genetics too but you can't control that.

Re: The island where people forget to die

#14

Post by ozgune »

I wonder if this article has some sort of selection bias. After all, communities that have the lowest and highest rates of cancer in the US are small towns of It's easy to find several small towns in the US where people have unusually high longevity. After all, you have many to choose from.

What's more curious is to make a hypothesis around diet and exercise, and then show causality across all similar islands in Greece.

Re: The island where people forget to die

#15

Post by GiraffeNecktie »

kolinko wrote: post #9
reasonattlm wrote: post #6

Arguing anything other than differences in levels of exercise/activity and calorie intake has a large mountain of evidence to overcome. The effects of those two are very large, the effects of everything else comparatively small per decades of animal and longitudinal human studies. Nonsense about antioxidants in the diet is exactly that: nonsense. The weight of evidence suggests that, if anything, ingested antioxidant…

Not to mention the fact, that the man could've been simply misdiagnosed. It was 60s after all...

It's possible but not so likely, the 60s was not the Middle Ages. In any case, he was clearly very sick when he returned to the island and eventually felt better, became strong and lived into his 90's. Not that that proves anything in itself. It's just a journalistic device to illustrate the point of the story which is that people on this island do live a remarkably long time and that it's worth asking why this is so.

Re: The island where people forget to die

#17

Post by shasta »

CWuestefeld wrote: post #7

I hate this kind of reporting. I read through the entire first page without the slightest clue as to what the article is actually about -- I'm pretty sure it's not all just for one guy's life story. But by that point I was tired of reading, and quit. Cut it out with the pathos and human interest, and get some of the real point in there quicker.

I completely agree. If I follow an interesting link, read an interesting opening paragraph or two, and then hit a paragraph that completely changes the subject with something like "Paul Steve, a little hobbit of a man, sits before me sipping a glass of warm tea as he gazes out across the morning Texas plains", then I scroll way down to verify the page 1/10 before getting the hell out of Dodge.
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