Costa Rica. The Oldest People In The World (Episode 4) | Full Documentary

[Music] the village la mancion on the nakoya peninsula in costa rica is in full swing with festive spirit a local celebration is being devoted to the honorable donna chilla lucia aguilar today is her birthday rounding off 100 years is quite the jubilee among the 100 guests or so is the birthday girl's big sister wanna she will turn 103 in two weeks [Music] unlike her the special lady of the evening can't see and hear too well but the centenarian donnachilla is still strong enough to have a festive dance this phenomenon has not been properly explained there are places of power and healthy longevity on our planet hot spots with record concentrations of so-called long livers on average in costa rica there are 14 long livers for every 100 000 on the nakoya peninsula this amount is twice as big that is 31 people fantastic what is the secret of these unique regions how can we overcome the powers of aging to answer these and other questions russian scientists are going to travel all around the world god only knows why he still keeps me here without knowing it the long-term residents of these territories have already discovered the secret of a long and active existence the trick is not to get your fingers it might be hard to collect them afterwards the goal of this expedition is to examine the places where centenarians live guided by the examples of their lives we will try to find the optimal formula for longevity a centenarian's rules of life centenarian rules of life costa rica the republic of costa rica this small state about the same size as the varonish region in russia is nestled between two continents the country occupies a part of the neck of land that joins together the two americas north and south my name is konstin lamzayev i work at the belazirski institute of the moscow state university i study biology i'm 33 years old biologist constantine lamzayev studies the mechanisms of aging [Music] his subject of research is an elementary unit of the earth cells the scientist's objective is to slow down the deterioration process of organisms at the cellular level [Music] the inevitability of aging is questionable because in fact there are species which seemingly don't age they are so-called species with negligible aging let's take the example of an albatross these birds live for more than 40 years but with age instead of losing their functional activity to the contrary they become stronger more resilient however they die for absolutely unknown reasons with the age of 79 costa rica leads latin america with the highest life expectancy the most significant contribution to this achievement comes from one of the country's provinces guanacaste situated on the nakoya peninsula scientists from around the world are amazed at the recorded ages of this region [Music] my name is gilbert brenes i'm a demographic analyst of the central america center of demographics a participant of the cre les project i'm 40 years old [Music] in 2004 the center of demographics of the university of costa rica started a large-scale project comparable with a partial census of the population its target audience is costa ricans over 95 years old doctor of science gilbert brenes has been a part of the project since its very beginning [Music] this is the archive of our cre les project the research of agent health these folders hold all the data we've collected on senior people and in this folder is what you are most interested in nikoia yes nikoia are these maps yes demographic maps of the peninsula the segments highlighted in red are special places that have been selected through statistical techniques red zones on the map represent field expeditions and the searches for long livers demographers visited each and every house the scientists wanted to know almost everything the number of old residents their ages diseases social status injuries received by the centenarians in car accidents the results of the surveys were analyzed using mathematical models in the end they obtained a large-scale picture of the country what did the numbers show do you have any statistical summaries sure in costa rica there are 14 long livers per 100 000 of people on average on the nikoia peninsula this figure is twice as large 31 people really fantastic [Music] 31 long livers per 100 000 is a truly extraordinary result [Music] in prosperous european countries this number does not exceed 27 people why do these people live much longer than the average elsewhere what is the reason is it the climate maybe this or some peculiarities of their behavior maybe some local traditions led to such a dense concentration of long livers i think you need to look at the big picture because no single factor would significantly affect life expectancy i think there's a little this a little of that and as a scientist i want to understand and compare with other places where there are no long livers like this you know why there are so many long livers here in nikoia we are still in the process of researching so far we have several hypotheses but we do not know the exact answers one version is the mild climate it is less rainy here than in other parts of costa rica maybe the older population in nikoi is surrounded by a larger number of relatives perhaps the people of nikoi are genetically different from the rest of costa rica there's one more thing that is distinctive about the seniors of the guanacaste province even in their advanced age they preserve strength and physical activity really exceptional for their years the nakoya peninsula is an agrarian region as in the days of spanish colonization the nikoians have been engaged in agriculture and cattle ranching mostly cows the land here is cheap village houses with allotments of land are scattered great distances apart from one another at the age of 88 kalisto castilla has still not learned to drive a car he's visiting his mom the same way he always does by bicycle kalista's elder brother pablo celebrated his 91st birthday in 2013. for more than 80 years pablo has been plowed tailing he got his first working area on the family field right after he finished elementary school pablo didn't attend any kind of school after that his whole life has been this habit of working i harvest rice i sharpen hatchets spades and hoes i've learned everything i can do anything and i continue to do it but now i work only in the morning when the sun isn't as hot the rest of the day until sunset the old man spends in the shade of trees lounging in his favorite hammock adjacent to a cool ravine [Music] i never feel bored there's no meaning in feeling bored it's stupid rejoicing over life that's much more fun when i'm there for too long i take my donkey and ride to a place where i can chill out that's where one of my daughters lives i produced a whole bunch of children i had about 18 kids it's a twist of fate that pablo has never succeeded in having his own household [Music] he found a shelter in this bungalow my name is francisca castillo i am 107 years old [Music] out of respect people call francisca castillo carilo dona panchita dona panchita is a local celebrity her 168 direct descendants are living in costa rica of them eight are her great-great-grandchildren [Music] today the old lady is scheduled to visit a doctor from the local costa rican social insurance facility one of these women is dona panchita's distant cousin we go dancing i used to be good at dancing i topped everyone but now i'm too old for this no way we'll dance certainly but first let the doctor examine you i've already danced enough i passed the 100 year mark already and by the way i go in and out of the house walk in and put my shoes on all by myself donna banchita is a strong woman back in her 90s she used to visit her relatives on foot covering up to 15 kilometers a day the old lady began to complain about her health only on the threshold of her 100th birthday [Music] as for the physical state of these aged people i'd rather call them aged because they look pretty good for their age indeed they have they suffer from hypertension of course i mean they have high blood pressure sometimes it's 110 over 70 doctor how's my blood pressure it's excellent see they say the pressure is excellent here you communicate with patients and understand that many of them are more than 100 years old like donna francis they are perfect they have special personalities they have a great desire to live which is vital [Music] old age in costa rica is specially monitored by the state medical care in this country is free monthly in-home visits of doctors are part of a special program to help the elderly the highest level of this program is a unique medical institution that is located in the capital of the country the city of san jose i'm dr fernando morales martinez the general director of the national geriatrics and gerontology hospital i am 65 years old [Music] [Applause] chief physician fernando morales martinez is a gerontologist with 40 years of experience when he began his career the average life expectancy in costa rica was barely over 60 years now people of this age are his youngest visitors to the national geriatrics and gerontology hospital there's an age limit in its reception ward its lower limit is 60 years and there's no top limit for example these two roomies have already stepped over 80. hello violetta how are you doing this senora suffers from several diseases atrial fibrillation elevated blood pressure and heart problems [Music] is she the oldest patient of yours no no no we have older people more than 100 currently we have patients of 101 and 103 years old they undergo some treatment and we don't want to disturb them and who was the oldest one among those to have treatment here they were a senior and senior of 111 years we have a team of multi-disciplinary specialists who practice a comprehensive approach to the problem of aging we investigate memory loss alzheimer's disease vascular and mixed diseases [Applause] diseases related to brain activity are an expected sign of aging our expert constantine lomzayev was allowed to witness a series of diagnostics tests in 2013 maria elena turned 82 her relatives noticed that the elderly senora had experienced slight memory lapses [Music] this is the spanish version of cdr clinical dementia rate in how many questions dementia is an acquired mental disability the result of disintegration of neural connections age-related dementia has another trivial name senile a questionnaire and drawing tasks can detect it listen to me carefully because i can only explain it once you should draw a clock large and round put all the numbers on it the arrows should indicate 11 10. the team members of the centenarian rules of life are already familiar with this kind of test another expert of our project biochemist boris carried out this testing on another island of long livers italy sardinia [Music] 100 year old giovanni brilla from the town of onoferi has shown self-sufficiency and social adequacy which are extraordinary for his age the simplicity of the questions actually perplexed them just a clock face [Music] elena from costa rica is younger than the italian long liver by 18 years this significant age difference did not affect the outcome they didn't go any further than the clock face circle end isle the task is meant to estimate attention concentration so-called working memory visual and spatial functions and practical activity of a patient the estimation ranges from zero to ten in this particular case the senora has scored five points which means she might have dementia we need to do some laboratory tests and research of the brain five points isn't a guaranteed sentence so to speak quite possibly this nice senora just has mild cognitive impairment the reasons for this may vary hypertension diabetes high cholesterol or problems with the brain vessels memory lapses are not normal when people grow old they are always preceded by some prerequisite yes aging is unavoidable it cannot be stopped but it is possible to change it load your mind with reading learning new languages and of course get more physical activity for example in the area of guanacaste in nicoya people adhere to traditional means of moving like walking to a workplace to school like riding a horse despite public transport buses cars motorcycles you should move walk all the time it's high time to visit the peninsula of energy and health it takes five hours of trialing along narrow roads to get from the state capital san jose to the guanacaste province [Music] our target lies in the middle of the nicoya peninsula the town of the same name nikoia is the most ancient in costa rica it was founded in 1523 in this town our moscow biologists had an appointment with the man who became constantine's guide on this mysterious peninsula [Music] my name is jorge vinda lopez i'm 50 years old i am preoccupied with research of the longevity phenomenon on the nakoya peninsula jorge lopez is a real devotee since 1998 he has been voluntarily meeting and supporting the guanacaste province's inhabitants [Music] it's not even a job it is something that i enjoy i learn a lot from these people i spend many hours talking to them in the province there are 62 long livers i have 10 people left who i have not met yet and who recently celebrated their birthdays constantine this is the nakoya peninsula three centenarians live not far from here five live here and ten more people right here who are we going to visit panchita is the nearest she's 107. here is jose he is 104 and here is don chale 105. choose the first one the very fact of long livers is not surprising any population even if it is genetically homogenous lives in the same conditions in any case there will be people who live longer than others what is surprising is the high concentration of these long livers it's really unusual here where we have stopped and within a radius of 20 kilometers around us we've talked with three long livers and in fact there are many more of them this is where don chali lives he's 105. let's go i will introduce you to him good afternoon don charlie good afternoon thank you everything's good as usual how old are you already don chali i'm going to turn 106. that's a lot how many more years do you want to live don charlie well as many as god will give me a few more or many many would be better as many as possible jose guterres donchali meets his guests on the porch of the family manor in the district of la ella dia his father built a sugar king processing plant he used to own hundreds of heads of cattle his son was successful in business too he gave a substantial fortune to his children and grandchildren today they are a real support to the long liver grandpa it's too hot today drink some [Music] water [Music] i'm happy and content with my life i'm surrounded by my family i want to live up to 110 at least although death doesn't scare me whether you're afraid of death or not it will come anyway so it is useless to be in fear entrepreneurship demands considerable intellectual expense relatives still regard the head of the family a wise and discerning man they've never seen him having forgetfulness the old man remembers the events that happened 95 years ago pretty well like the names of his classmates felix alvarez pedro aurora paulino duran that's the boys and girls felipe villado alvarez ernestina ernestina aguilar and louisa gutrez they were my friends it's hard to find a better candidate for research the 105 year old man boldly agreed to an unusual proposal passing a rapid memory test don chalet do you know what the date is today what day is today wednesday today's the 10th i suppose do you know where we are la elidia even moderate forms of dementia are marked by loss and time in space so the first questions of the test are related to them this man is blind that's why the day question was not quite correct i mean if he had heard what the date is today he would surely have answered it right otherwise it's just down to his internal clock he must have imagined it approximately and in his case it's difficult but he said the weekday was wrong about the day but just literally by one day that is overall he passed it i think repeat three words after i've said them the words are a tree sun and a pencil a tree sun and a pencil the next questions are meant to be distracting this is the last one of them do you have any problems with memory [Music] well currently i don't have such problems but i think i will probably lose it later [Music] the last question do you remember the three words which i said to you before a pencil [Music] and i can't recall the other two i got distracted a little there were many questions and generally he managed to remember all the words at the first attempt it wasn't hard but then which i did not expect he managed to reproduce one of the initial words as we continue talking it's becoming clear that don chali is not the first long liver in the guterres family his mother died in 1978 when she was 104 years old [Music] it seems that a tradition of longevity has existed on the nakoya peninsula for a long time but it has not been explored having started to investigate asking questions conducting two three-hour interviews with the long livers and their families i found a senior whose mother died at 110 father at 104. at the moment his brothers who are more than 100 years old live on negoya [Music] whether there are dynasties of centenarians is an open question in the world of gerontology one of the tasks of our scientific journey is to find out the history of longevity of each of the unique zones the simplest way to do this is to visit a local cemetery in italy on the island of sardinia our project's expert faced a setback after thorough searches only one woman who lived to be a hundred years old has been found there over there giovanna brow she was born in 1886 and died in 1986 yes just a couple of months after she celebrated her 100th birthday [Music] constantine this is the santa cruz cemetery many long livers found their peace here a similar investigation on the nakoya peninsula led to the opposite result [Music] to live long in this region is a tradition [Applause] this is pedro de narte coronaro he was born on june 10 1857 died in august of 1957. he is a long liver from the century before last and how many long livers are here in total about 20 20 yes 20 and how many burials in total about 15 000 people from the entire santa cruz region are buried across the cemetery there are three settlements the graves of three long livers were found at the santa cruz cemetery during just a 10-minute survey two of them died in the middle of the 20th century when there were only a few hundred year old people on the whole planet [Music] at the depths of the nakoya peninsula is a kingdom of traditional costa rican culture the advances of civilization on this territory coexist with the century-old lifestyle of the nakoya peasants people here still cook food on open fires the basic ingredient of national cuisine maize that is corn is ground using simple appliances [Music] in the pizarro family this maze grows on their own field every day agricultural activity set the rhythm of life [Music] hot climate determines the strict daily schedule the oldest pizarro don jose has obeyed this regime for more than 100 years my name is jose ibarra bizarro i was born in 1909 [Music] i'm over 100 years old 104 year old pizarro wakes up at the first light of day at 5 30. he has breakfast at six o'clock his menu consists of the three main dishes a maze flak cake tortilla then a dish named gallo pinto this is a fried mixture of rice and beans the breakfast ends with tamale a roll of banana leaf with pieces of pork and maize flour the long liver washes down this rich breakfast with a huge cup of coffee for lunch he is going to have the same [Music] this is a very interesting place here the nikon food is cooked the way it was before there's no better place to understand the national cuisine [Music] this tradition has existed since colonial times when the spaniards mixed with the locals and a place emerged where people would gather together to have a lunch is it regular food or do you have some kind of celebration now this is normal the long livers used to eat this food in their adolescence and childhood and some of them still do the meaning of cofradia is to cook all together and hand out part of it to the poor want to try yes [Music] taste it this is chichame it is made of red maize called pujagua how do you find it interesting taste a little sweet it's me with rice what kind of meat pork [Music] pork not bad how do you find the meat good and this is tortilla they have a lot of corn and beans do these people stick to a specific diet they eat local food that is the food they have been used to since childhood to me this is unusual of course it is like fasting almost without salt it contains few spices but it is quite nourishing and people here are used to little portions they eat a little but they have enough fruit [Music] according to statistics long livers from the guanacaste province almost never suffer from stomach cancer local gerontologists consider simple nakoya cuisine a precondition for health and longevity this diet is very modest but sufficient as it contains necessary carbohydrates fats and proteins these people need plenty of energy the countryside requires them to be active because they need to harvest crops [Music] the old family nest is a pride of the pizarro family 80 years ago don jose himself built this house from valuable cedarwood a workday in this region begins early at 6 30 and continues until 11 in the morning jose pizarro stopped working in the field in his eighties [Music] now this is the place where he walks down memory lane [Music] when i was 20 [Music] only sugar cane was growing here and now there are orange trees all over and a river over there back in the day i used to go there quite often as in his youth the long liver goes to bed at sunset at about six in the evening during the day he eats about 10 oranges don jose almost never falls sick he reads newspapers without glasses and he can hold a machete tightly in his hand at 104. [Music] the trick is not to hit your fingers it might be hard to collect them afterwards too blunt to cut a good sense of humor is a distinguishing feature of the nakoya long livers despite their advanced years all of them joke they often laugh for example our granddad jose complained that our expert didn't bring any russian girls with him [Music] i love to listen because i'm bad at telling jokes but i myself can make one here or there if they can stand it or else they can punch me the sense of humor of these centenarians is a sign of mental alertness this was the motive for us to do one more experiment don jose could you repeat this picture right here here's a task from the cognitive ability test to copy a picture of two crossing pentagons conclusions are made depending on the number of angles drawn [Music] i had some doubts that he would be able to pass this test the essence of which is to redraw geometric figures which are quite complex but don jose really surprised me because first truly he was going through it with difficulty but he kept going that is very important he made sure he kept going to the end [Music] when leaving don jose surprised us once more the 104 year old always carries a wallet with him with money and an identification card a modern passport of a costa rican citizen is a plastic card it has a barcode with data during the exchange of old paper passports owners of the new information card had to pass a multi-stage check it was conducted by employees of the country's central archives the national civil archives of the republic of costa rica is a massive sixth floor building made of concrete three floors are underground biologist konstantin constantly was allowed into the sanctuary of the archives minus the second floor parish books from all over the republic ones older than 100 years are collected here was born on september 13 1909 the birth record was made on november 8 1909 it was started on july 15 1909 and was finished on june 25th 1910 there are books dating back to 1888. they contain everything all births marriages and deaths these shelves carry 15 000 volumes the catholic church keeps strict documentation if there's no such seal next to the record of the newborn it means that the person is still alive we asked archivist rodrigo vargaza to find a long liver who will have a birthday soon here she is lucia usilda aguilar diaz she was born on december 13 1913 exactly 100 years ago thank you pleasure to help you on the day of her centenary lucia aguilar dona chila grows younger in front of your very own eyes she's getting a makeover taking pauses to receive congratulations from her numerous relatives half of la mancion is taking part in preparations for the celebration lucia aguilar is the oldest resident of this urban village when she was born there was a simple village in its place [Music] i didn't think i would live for so long but trust me at the age of a hundred i don't feel so bad thank god girls in the front row her cousin is next to her 102 year old juana came to the celebration from another town of nicoya today lucia gets all the attention let's congratulate lucia aguilar from the bottom of our heart she turns 100 today the next point of the program is 10 minutes walk from the church that is the local recreation center a hangar that can accommodate 200 people inside everything is ready for a banquet balloons with a photograph of donachila a treat and no alcohol public events on the peninsula are non-alcoholic to have fun the nikoia citizens need only one motive good company and a marimba that is a type of xylophone they are special people i've never seen anything like this before you can feel a whole wave of optimism coming from them i think it's because of the lifestyle here well there's just no reason to feel bad so many people around and they're all pleased to see you the climate is good it's nice and comfortable to live here [Music] [Applause] it's getting dark the party is in full swing [Music] another resident of guanacaste has become a centenarian the culmination of the holiday is the pinata with the number of one hundred the candies inside the paper mache ball are a symbol of longevity the battle for sweets is getting earnest to live long you have to constantly move forward the scientific expedition to the nakoya peninsula is coming to its end the expert biologist of the project constantine lamzayev writes on the sand his centenarian rules of life certainly an important factor is physical activity even very old people here try to get on the move at every possibility apart from that the bright impression that i had after communicating with the long livers are because of their optimism which is simply over the top especially for some of them and the last factor most likely affordable medical care without doubt you must look after your health every now and then the next expert of our program will have a different longevity zone ahead of them [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Science

Views: 553,145

Keywords: science, documentary, centenarian rules of life, how to live to 100, centenarian in costa rica, costa rica centenarian, longevity, old age, longevity diet, how to live longer, live longer, how to be healthy, long life, science of aging, health science, healthiest diet, why do we age, how to live forever, reverse aging, slow aging, education show, live to 100, live long, extend life, how to live 100 years, stop aging, aging, how to stop aging, costa rica

Id: oBhkN1MCRFM

Length: 47min 12sec (2832 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 30 2021