How the Inhabitants of this Island Cheat Death

this episode is made possible by dashlane protect your valuable data from prying eyes with a free account from the new and improved dash line most of us live in a society of amazing technologies cutting-edge medicine and abundance of food and enough time to hang out with friends and family on the weekends thanks to breakthroughs in modern medicine and a general rise in standard of living life expectancy in the u.s. is about seventy eight and a half years up from 71 years in 1970 residents of the UK and Canada fare a bit better with life expectancies of 81 and 82 respectively you'd think that highly developed modern countries like these would offer the best chance of living a long life but what if I told you there was an island without all the staples of hyper modern society where the inhabitants lived well into their 80s 90s and even into their hundreds as strange as it sounds this island does exist and it's located here in the Aegean Sea approximately 50 kilometres from the coast of Turkey a Korea is a small hundred square mile island under the jurisdiction of nearby Greece and is home to just shy of 9,000 people this rocky outcropping named for the story of Icarus the boy who flew too close to the Sun has a fascinating history the island has seen invasions by Persians Romans and Turks forcing the inhabitants to become a hardy and self-sufficient people after the Second World War during which the Koreans had suffered a huge loss of life thousands of Communists were exiled to Korea bringing with them some of their ideas on community the result of all their past hardships is a population with some truly amazing characteristics not only do a koreans live longer often in excess of a hundred years of age they're also almost entirely free of common afflictions like dementia depression and other chronic diseases that like Americans with a life expectancy an average of 10 years longer than the rest of Europe and America what is it about this unassuming Island that earns it the title the island where people forget to die it's a tough question and one that scientists are still trying to unravel fully but we can draw some conclusions by comparing a Korea with other places let's start with diet for many years the winds near Korea were too severe to make the island easily accessible for merchant vessels which meant the locals had to fend for themselves almost every a Korean maintains a garden where they can grow their own food wild greens potatoes beans nuts and other organic produce make up the bulk of the Islanders diet along with goats mail wine fish honey and every once in a while small amounts of meat the food on a Korea is incredibly nutritious with some of the wild greens containing ten times the antioxidants as red wine everything is naturally grown no pesticides or other harsh chemicals to taint the soil and there are very few refined sugars or processed foods anywhere on the island in the remote northern reaches of it Korea where the highest rates of longevity are reported the local diet is largely untouched by the encroaching Western lifestyle the inhabitants drink lots of seasonal herbal teas around two cups of coffee per day and daily calorie consumption is fairly low the island's diet as a whole is in stark contrast to that of somewhere like america here we have an overabundance of processed foods refined sugars chemically treated vegetables genetically engineered meats and all manner of thoroughly modern junk foods it's not uncommon for Americans to consume in excess of 3,000 calories per day or even more which wouldn't in itself be too bad except the calories often come from horribly unhealthy food and our lifestyle generally doesn't require that kind of caloric intake 3,000 calories for an athlete might be a modest amount but for someone who works a desk job and likes to watch TV in the evening it's enough to cause serious health problems it's no wonder that 75% of adult males in the US are overweight and those on Korea remains slim and healthy throughout their lives but diet is only one aspect of the Koreans extreme longevity another equally important factor according to experts is the a Korean lifestyle the locals generally walk from their homes to their neighbours houses or into town or just for fun the twisting rocky roads of the island make for rigorous exercise and over the course of a lifetime help to keep the locals in excellent cardiovascular shape well into their 90's besides walking everywhere the Islanders have the habit of taking afternoon naps one study suggested that these naps could help reduce the risk of heart disease by 40% the locals also have the interesting habit of completely disregarding the clock when you invite someone over for lunch you accept that they might show up at 10 in the morning or 6:00 in the evening or anywhere in between the II Koreans don't feel bound by the time often their afternoon naps will essentially make two days out of one the morning is spent working in their garden or at work and in the post nap after noon the locals will visit with friends then maybe go into town to socialize and stay out until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning including the older people the next day they wake up naturally and do it all over again while I Korea may sound like a sanctuary for leisure and well-being it's not without its troubles nearly 40 percent of the population is unemployed that being said relative poverty as we would see it in the West does not have quite the negative effect one might expect on a Korea the people may not have much in the way of luxuries or disposable income but they don't need it nearly everyone grows their own food and is self-sufficient and neighbors will always share what they have with one another this again is in contrast with much of the West our lifestyle is fast-paced driving everywhere requiring constant stimulation infrequent physical activity and more of a what's mine is mine philosophy that's not to say that driving or living a fast paced lifestyle is bad but when it Koreans are asked what keeps them healthy for so long many of them cite a slower paced more relaxed life that focuses on community sharing and family rather than constant engagement and money it Korea is what researchers call a Blue Zone a place where for reasons they're still investigating people live much longer than in other parts of the world other such blue zones include small parts of Okinawa Costa Rica Sardinia and California it Korea is perhaps the most exceptional of these and a very useful place to study because since it's an island it's naturally isolated the fascinating thing about the it Koreans is that they're unintentionally living such long lives they never set out to extend their healthy years or live to be a hundred this is just the way that they are the people work outside in their gardens eat naturally beneficial food rest when they want to spend time with friends family and complete strangers breathe fresh clean air walk everywhere and generally live a life free of unnecessary distraction and stress is there something special about it Korea maybe even Americans who live this kind of lifestyle still tend to die around their late 70s or early 80s maybe there's something we still haven't figured out one thing that all a Koreans cite as a crucial part of their well being is peace of mind they identify the things that cause them stress and remove them in places like America that's a little more difficult but we can work to minimize strain on our mental health as someone whose livelihood depends on online security maintaining secure passwords and keeping my personal data safe is something that I stress about that's why I like to use dashlane to help give me that peace of mind that seems so hard to find these days the new and improved dashlane is more than just a multi device password manager even though it does do that really well it also offers a super secure VPN to keep your browsing 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Channel: Second Thought

Views: 1,635,114

Rating: 4.7157984 out of 5

Keywords: Second thought, second thought channel, facts about, facts you didn’t know, things you didn’t know, dashlane, immortal, how to live longer, How the Inhabitants of this Island Cheat Death, health, health tips, healthy, lifestyle, how to be healthy, how to be happy, happiness, island, ikaria, blue zones, icaria, greece, science, learning, education, anthropology, biology

Id: EabKL4j4JoI

Length: 7min 41sec (461 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 09 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

1. Great diet with no excess calories.
2. Stress free lifestyle
3. Healthy social structure

Sounds about right!

[u/eukaryote_machine]

Something that struck me around 6:00, when it's explained that Americans attempting to live this type of lifestyle are still outlived by Ikarians (and as such there may be something unidentified that contributes to this trend):

Perhaps it's the isolated, self-sustaining nature of Ikarians that makes them truly able to "live their best lives."

America isn't exactly an island. Some of our political leaders have since acknowledged the importance of being more like this and our current political leader is making a sad attempt at expressing this sentiment; But nonetheless, the US has historically gotten itself involved in worldly affairs.

Hell, we basically are worldly affairs. Our established holds over the oil market is most of worldly affairs--at the v least, they are the bulk of the economic portion of this.

I would need to see data on this, to see if the Americans mentioned are attempting to live this lifestyle in the US or on Ikaria. If they live on Ikaria, this could still be explained by dominant cultural learning in US citizens.

I think it stands to reason that humans live their longest, healthiest lives when they take care of their own survival in a sustainable, self-reliant way, and proceed to give themselves to their communities with the same fortitude they give themselves...knowing that in all likelihood, their next meal is accounted for.

I suppose you could study this by looking at Ikarians that choose to live out the second half of their lives in the US... if there are any. If survival rates drop, it's almost certainly the culture.