SECRETS TO LONGEVITY
There are other factors, besides Greek coffee, residents of Ikaria live so long
The Greek island of Ikaria is named after Icarus, who according to mythology, tried to soar like a bird with wings he had fabricated out of feathers. Unfortunately he plunged into the sea after the wax with which he had attached the wings melted as he flew too close to the sun. While Icarus had a short life, modern Ikarians boast of impressive longevity, and unlike the inhabitants of the Hunza Valley of Pakistan who claim extreme longevity, Ikarians have birth certificates to prove their age.
On Ikaria, 10 times as many people live to the age of 90 as in the rest of Europe. They have lower rates of heart disease and cancer, suffer less from depression and dementia and apparently maintain an active sex life into old age. The question is, what are they doing right? According to researchers at the University of Athens, a factor in their longevity may be the Greek coffee they drink.
Scientists used ultrasound to study how arteries in the arm respond to changes in blood flow as they applied and then released pressure through a cuff on the arm. How effectively the arteries dilate after being constricted is a measure of the health of the artery and a determinant of cardiovascular risk. Because of contradictory studies on the links between coffee consumption and heart disease over the years, cardiologist Gerasimos Siasos and colleagues thought that assessing the coffee consumption and arterial health of senior Ikarians could prove to be fruitful. In a sample of 71 male and 71 female subjects over the age of 65, he found that chronic Greek coffee consumption was associated with improved endothelial function.
The endothelium is the inner lining of blood vessels and produces the chemicals that dilate or constrict the vessels. In endothelial dysfunction there is an imbalance in these substances, leading to cardiovascular disease. Subjects who consumed mainly Greek coffee had better endothelial function than those who drank other types of coffee. Most drank 200- 450 mL a day with the beneficial effect being proportional to the amount consumed.
Greek coffee, made by boiling finely ground coffee, differs in composition from other coffees. Coffee beans contain hundreds of compounds and the boiling process is more efficient at extracting these than other methods of preparation. Based on laboratory experiments, some of these compounds, cafestol for example, may increase blood cholesterol; others, like kahweol and an array of polyphenols, may protect against cancer and heart disease. It is therefore theoretically possible that different methods of preparing coffee may have different health effects.
As one might expect, the study generated headlines around the world like “Greek coffee may help you live longer,” and “Greek coffee may be the key to long life.” That may well be so, as long as you live on the island of Ikaria and follow the lifestyle of the Ikarians. There is a lot more to their impressive longevity than drinking Greek coffee. What that might be is of course of great interest.
Diet is a prime consideration. Ikarians eat little meat, little refined sugar and lots of olive oil. They eat six times more beans than Americans and lots of locally grown greens that are especially high in antioxidants.
You won’t find many processed foods or soft drinks in Ikarian households. So the answer to their longevity may lie not only in what they are eating or drinking, but also in what they are not consuming.
Then there is the Ikarian habit of taking afternoon naps, the benefit of which is bolstered by a study of Greek adults that showed a 40 per cent reduction in the risk of heart disease associated with regular napping.
Most Ikarians admit to drinking a couple of glasses of red wine a day, which may be an underestimate. They drink goat’s milk as well as local “mountain tea” made from herbs like sage, marjoram, mint, rosemary and dandelion. Some of these have diuretic properties that may lead to a slightly lower blood pressure throughout Ikarians’ lives. Honey is often taken as medicine.
There’s more. Ikarians walk a lot on their hilly terrain, dig and plant in their gardens, and take part in many festivals that involve dancing through the night. They are active people. They don’t go home at night to sit on the couch and watch TV. They are very social, have close relationships with friends and neighbours. As one of the few physicians on the island points out, Ikaria is not a “me” place, it’s an “us” place. Almost nobody wears a watch. And nobody takes dietary supplements.
What appears to link all the places in the world where unusual longevity has been documented is social structure and a mostly plant- based diet. It is easy to take naps, eat vegetables and dance at festivals when everyone else does the same thing.
How long the people of Ikaria will maintain their longevity will likely depend on the extent of the encroachment of a western lifestyle. On Okinawa, the Japanese island also noted for longevity,
On Ikaria, 10 times as many people live to the age of 90 as in the rest of Europe.
this is already happening. Okinawans have gone from a diet of a low 1,800 calories a day, centred around sweet potatoes, vegetables, beans and small amounts of fish, to one based on fast foods with a corresponding decline in longevity. Seventh Day Adventists, on the other hand, maintain their totally vegetarian traditional lifestyle, and have seen no such decline.
The bottom line here? Remember that the coffee study only measured epithelial function. The assumption is that improved function leads to greater longevity. But the researchers did not determine if the subject with better epithelial function actually lived longer. I think we can safely assume that substituting Greek coffee for your morning Starbucks is not going to increase your life expectancy. Substituting an Ikarian type of lifestyle for our western one, however, might.
joe. schwarcz@ mcgill. ca Joe Schwarcz is director of McGill University’s Office f or Science & Society ( mcgill. ca/ oss). He hosts The Dr. Joe Show on CJAD Radio 800 AM every Sunday from 3 to 4 p. m.