The Caucasus. The Oldest People In The World (Episode 3) | Full Documentary

[Music] will celebrate his birthday working on his plot of land after 101 years he still hasn't learned to be idle he works two months he's restless whether it is winter or summer i keep telling him work less take a rest [Music] worked as a cook most of her life at the age of 107 she is still the main lady in the kitchen is the mince meat ready yes [Music] the elderly lady dana from the accession village of sork de gora has just been helping her family to husk the corn now she's spending some time in front of a mirror an extreme age is not a reason to forget that you are a woman [Music] i am dana bichikova i'm over 100 years [Music] old how to cheat old age how to add years to your life to answer these and many other questions a team of russian researchers embarked on a journey across the world [Music] yes 167 years a human being cannot live that long the aim of this expedition is to study the history customs and locations of the oldest representatives of the humankind unaware of it these age record holders have already found the recipe for healthy longevity [Music] we will now try to do a little test could you please fold this piece of paper using only one hand according to the example set by these fascinating people we will try to determine an optimal formula for longevity centenarian rules of life the caucuses are one of the largest mountain ranges on earth the highest peak of russia and europe mount elbrus is located here this 5000 meter high mountain is the most iconic landmark of the little north caucasus republic of cabardino bakaria ever since 2012 scientists have been searching for the keys to its longevity and its capital nalchik i am 24 years old i am a postgraduate student of the department of genetics at the cabardino bukhari state university a doctor of historical sciences ethnic genetics researcher is an active participant in the scientific program together with his colleagues he analyzes the biological material collected all over the caucasus blood and dna samples of the longest living people once the children and grandchildren would not allow me to take a blood sample from their grandmother they explained that their grandmother has never had blood tests taken has never had any injections and has never taken any medications this year the grandmother is turning 108 years old [Music] the researchers aim to find the key to healthy longevity in the genes of the carriers of age anomalies there are a lot of different people ethnic and sub-ethnic groups living in the caucasus each group differs from the other some people live in the mountains others in the foothill regions or on the plane however all of these groups boast a considerable number of longest living people or at least of people who themselves claim to be long lived as a rule the year of birth was recorded based on the words of the longest living people the birthday was memorized based on certain events the events which happened in this village or in a particular family naturally this technique is not foolproof for instance the oldest officially acknowledged citizen of the ussr charale sharale muslimov died in 1973 at the age of 160 aids [Music] lives in a village high up in the mountains he is 150 years old he's a contemporary of pushkin and lementov unfortunately this record cannot be verified that is why gerontologists often doubt the reliability of the age records it is hard to believe that a human being can reach that age speaking specifically about the balkan people there is a term in their dialect 100 year anniversary there is also a term to donate a 150-year birthday therefore we can conclude that back in time people used to live up to 150. or rather from a scientific point of view it is hard for me to believe that a human being can live past 120 years old [Music] those bars on the monitor are the associated dna fragments that is associated with a serious disease like cancer heart attack or alzheimer's disease those dna fragments of the longest living people are normally dormant until extreme old age scientists are researching the prerequisites for such genetic peculiarities in the genes of 50 centenarians and the caucasus one of the first to contribute to the database of the gerontologist was a person who our expert morad jaber miazov has known since he was a child [Music] they live in the same village [Music] [Music] is a true mountain dweller he spent the first 20 years of his life high up in the mountains his family village upper chegem is located at an altitude of 2 000 meters above sea level since i was 10 years old i have helped my father look after the cattle then i worked in a state farm i was a shepherd i would climb mountains that i would not wish on anyone else to ever climb moved to the plains in the 1930s it turned out that he had a talent for singing national songs but his singing career was interrupted by the war lutely was sent to a cavalry regiment we defended crimea with a sword [Music] have stayed in the austrian prisoner of war camp until was liberated in 1945 he tried to escape three times every attempt failed he was caught severely beaten and sent back to the galleys again the orders given in german have been imprinted in the memory of this cabardino bulkarian centenarian [Music] today they are preparing a feast on the summer terrace the first of july is a special day for the mirzoya family today muttalif turns 101 years old the first year after the big 100th anniversary is celebrated in a modest way only close friends and relatives are invited to the house of his daughter in the yanekoi village modern caucasian cuisine is steeped in tradition its foundation is traditional dishes which have remained the same for centuries the signature dish of any housewife is the pastries with mincemeat called [Music] kichini those are rounded pies with potatoes cheese fresh herbs or meat it is the favorite dish of the kabardians and bakars other than that the national cuisines of these people are vastly different some people are more engaged in livestock so their main foods are dairy products or meads others are more engaged in planting so they grow different plants and they eat different food [Music] the elders of the region the aqsa quals have followed different diets from childhood it is hard to find a common source of longevity in their gastronomic history but similarly to the way it was 100 years ago all foods are organic and locally produced a rare exception is a cake bought in a shop for a special occasion so [Music] hello [Music] on the same day 100 kilometers away from the village of yanukovy in the foothills of elbrus another centenarian is celebrating his birthday the passport of the head of the uzdena family states his birthday is july 1 1909 [Music] my [Music] was born and still lives in the village of upper baksan in the vicinity of mount elbrus in contrast to most of his neighbors he learned to read and write he went to elementary school at the local mosque his parents were very religious two of my elder brothers died within a week i was taken out of school and appointed as a record keeper in 1944 all of us were taken as prisoners and sent to kazakhstan we lived there for a long time we barely survived but they wouldn't give us any work here i could only find work as a shepherd this [ __ ] was then i've worked as a shepherd up the mountains until he was 70. religious commandments and traditional values determined his lifestyle i never smoked a cigarette in my entire life it's very bad for you cigarettes destroy [Music] someone added some vodka to my glass of wine [Music] and after that i stopped drinking alcohol thanks to allah he supports me [Music] this wise man lived happily with his wife who was the same age as him for 70 years she died in 2013. shortly before she died a local newspaper published an article dedicated to this unique long-living couple entitled 200 years between two [Music] someone with a soul has a desire to live at any age despite hardships old age and a loss of the woman he loved iskak uzdenov is far from being miserable according to local gerontologists a love of life is inherent to the caucasian centenarians i'm 65 society of the russian academy of sciences [Music] professor alla in narokova has been keeping an eye on the health of her older countrymen since the late 1990s since then the republic gerontology center has conducted hundreds of psychological tests having a chance to compare people in our girontology center we arrived [Music] [Music] it is about their attitude towards life and possibly just possibly some genetic pre-resequence [Music] high tolerance distress equitability of mind and optimism these are the qualities of most locals who reached the age of 100 and one more constituent regarding their longevity they are not alone in their old age the families of old people in the caucus take very good care of them they are treated as something fragile like a crystal vase [Music] a centenarian from the vicinity of mount elbrus is taken care of by six children 20 grandchildren and 28 great-grandchildren relatives emphasize his clear thinking and interest in the events happening way beyond his own village his [ __ ] is the perfect candidate for a short test we will do a little test now you'll have to answer a few questions when were you born in 1909 in july this is one of the first tests in the history of gerontology a set of 10 questions aimed at appraising one's mental abilities was developed by professor henry hawkinson from great britain in 1972. [Music] one more question when did the first world war start the last one the first one i [Music] of course he did not answer all the questions but he did provide answers to such difficult questions as who the current president is with astonishing knees can you tell me the name of the president of russia [Music] the last task was the most challenging he was asked to count down from 20 to 1. and he managed that task perfectly not only did he count in his own language but also in russian [Music] 20 19 18 17 16 [Music] completed a half of the task successfully an excellent result for someone born in 1909. [Music] an important task of our program is to verify the age of our participants it turned out to be rather challenging in the north caucasus the project expert mara jabar mizu had to immerse himself in the history of the region making a lot of discoveries along the way it is remarkable that a lot of the longest living people celebrate their birthday on the same day in the beginning of july most of the oldest living people of this region have their birthday on the 1st of july the thing is that in the time of the soviet union if one did not know their birthday it was assigned to the middle of the year that is the first of july [Music] as a result of a thorough investigation the researcher from nalchik managed to find out the real age of iskaku's den of but to start with we are going to find the oldest citizen of cabardino bakaria [Music] my database has around 200 old people the oldest one is 108 years old but there is an old lady in the village who i have never met before they say she is over 120 years old [Music] her family calls her nana which means grandmother she raised eight children now she takes care of her great-great-grandchildren my beauty my honey i wish i could be at your wedding the family considers nana to be a descendant of centenarians nana's father lived to be 114. however there is no documentary evidence of this the old lady does not remember the exact date of her birth to be honest i don't remember my last the officially registered record of a human longevity is 122 years and 164 days the only proof of the extreme age of this caucasian centenarian is her id according to this document nanushiva was born before the previous century first of all there is no exact date of birth in her passport no day or month specified it means that nobody including herself knows the exact date of her birth secondly the grandmother's youngest daughter was born in the 1960s so having done some mathematical calculations we can say that the grandmother was 70 years old at the time she really looks no older than 90. the russian passport of this woman is the legal successor of the soviet one gerontologists have a theory that in the past in some countries one in the same passport was passed from one generation to another [Music] it is likely that people's wish [Music] to live long and healthy lives and it requires further investigation [Music] it is challenging to define the age of the cabardino bulkaria elders they were born at the start of the last century usually they were muslim and the mosque did not record the date of birth the tsar was not interested in those details in the past before the revolution the dates of birth were not recorded age details are only mentioned in family lists of the districts region as of 1886 and 1905 but unfortunately those lists for other areas of our region did not survive in the past hundred years the republics of north caucasus went through a lot the revolution civil war fascist occupation deportation the forties as a result the archives are missing data about entire villages [Music] we tried to find data about their birth and their families but unfortunately the biography of one of our participants prompted the direction for our search seventy years ago a citizen of upper bakson is became a victim of stalinist purges the records about him have been kept in the archives of the ministry of home affairs the result is as follows we only managed to verify the age of the third longest living person interviewed the age of the second one does not coincide with the one specified in his passport he was younger than the day stated in the passport as a result of the investigation we found out that iskack was the one of his 10 years younger than the stated age so he is 95 years old and according to the classification of the world health organization he is still classified as a centenarian [Music] the old village of kashka tao is 30 minutes away from nalchik the purges of the 1940s involved those villages too according to the encounter data the landlady of this house was then 35 years old [Music] i'm 108 years old spent almost 13 years in exile since returning home she has never left cabardino bakaria again most of her life she worked as a cook in the local collective farm she retired in 1968 is the mince meat ready yes [Music] at the age of 108 mr khan bakiramna helps her family around the house her eldest daughter turned 83 recently at present there are 86 living descendants of the centenarian in russia there are seven great great grandchildren alone [Music] i eat the same food everybody does buttermilk the oldest villager of kashka tao looks much younger than her age the only signs of her age are bad hearing and a slow measured walk it is exceptional that 108 year old woman still sees very well she can still sew on a button good hand control is a sign of mental alertness we can test it with a seemingly simple exercise please try to fold this piece of paper using only one hand the a4 paper test is one of the standard assignments used with old people it is used in medicine to appraise fine motor skills and to diagnose the psychological stay of a patient [Music] the way the assignment is completed is also important whether it's fully completed or only partially completed whether the mistakes are corrected or left as they are based on this we can make a conclusion on the psychological state of this person if they feel depressed or apathetic all this can be deduced based on the results of this test thank you very much you've done very well excellent [Music] and i don't want to die i want to continue healthy centenarians are the subject matter of the research of gerontologists according to the statistics 10 of all centenarians have never been sick mr khan is one of those phenomenal people [Music] your blood pressure is 130 over 70. this is very good if only everyone could boast these similar numbers this fragile woman has never gone to a hospital in her life her clinical score is good the cardiogram does not raise concerns there are no abnormal deviations the rhythm is good i can diagnose a left atrium enlargement but in general the cardiogram is perfect been studying the cardiovascular diseases hypertension and ischemia their regional distribution even within the little carbadino baccaria having divided republics into mountainous regions foothills and plains we analyze the geographic distribution of those diseases in the mountainous region the situation is much better the climate most probably affects the elderly very much as you know also living high in the mountains they are more physically fit for people living in the mountains physical work is the natural way to exist when local centenarians were born everyday physical work was required to survive the elders of the caucasus have kept this habit of working hard all their life there are over 50 ethnic groups in the caucuses there are a lot of people living up to an extreme age here in each group they have attracted scientists attention since the time of the soviet union the first large-scale expedition was conducted in 1957 and it was done not in caprara but in the neighboring north ossetia the republic of north essecia alania is located in the very center of the russian part of the caucasus mountains nearly half the territory the republic is mountainous similarly with their neighboring cabardino balcaria this republic has had a cult of longevity from time [Music] immemorial i am 46 years old a doctor of historical sciences aslan has been interested in the history of his land since he was a student he has gone on a lot of archaeological expeditions all around north essecia and he found evidence of special treatment towards the longest living people in the most surprising locations here is a true monument to caucasian longevity it's probably the most peculiar monument in secession but of course we understand that a human being cannot live for 167 years so is it a mythical or a real character i know his great grandchild who is turning 90 next year [Music] he told me that the gravestone was erected in 1913 by the offspring of gizo marzagano so this person is absolutely real although as far as the inscription is concerned i am sure it was corrected at some point you can see it too this consonant should be followed by another letter according to the language rules of the pre-revolutionary russia and it would have most likely stated the monument and also here under arrest a large stone with a carving is located at the side of a road along a popular route this is clear proof that longevity is a source of pride for the locals [Music] i knew the grandmother of my wife very well she recently died she was 100 13 years old according to her passport she was born in 1895 and even at her old age she was hiding it in a [Music] boy [Music] and he was her first child of her second marriage according to statistics there are 93 centenarians in north session now only 30 of them live in cities the others live in villages dana bichigura was born in an old mountain village at an altitude of one thousand seven hundred meters above sea level she moved to the foothills in the eraski district at a late stage of her life i am donna i come from the gorge gorge i am over 100 years old [Music] dana has never had a birth certificate there is no mention of her in the archives we managed to determine her age based on the village residential registration [Music] one of the sources which can at least indirectly confirm the date of birth or the approximate age of a citizen is the rural household register maintained by the local councils and the information was frequently updated [Music] the rural household register is a unique source of information about the population age education and personal property of the villagers those annual reports the local authorities have been kept in russia since 1935. many royal administrations still keep those archives and the village of dana is no exception this is rural household register number one for 1976. what did you say your last name is [Music] let's see okay [Music] [Music] no no in the 1950s they moved from stair to gorsk to the gorse gorge it is far from here around 70 kilometers in the mountains [Music] thank you can i write it down of course [Music] [Applause] [Music] today [Music] in the past life was very difficult a hungry life we had a lot of children and there wasn't enough food we had to work very hard to survive [Music] we ate berries various herbs artichokes in summer we went to the plains there was a field camp there yeah we worked all summer and in late autumn we returned home we harvested wheat and corn like a hundred years ago the life of the bichiglia family is all about the household in traditional caucasian families there is a strict division of duties into male and female a woman is responsible for most of the household chores along with raising her children [Music] i love either at work or completing household chores [Music] not a minute to rest [Music] after retiring dana continued to work around the house she only had more free time at a later stage of her life today dana's life is about communicating with her family and doing handicrafts but despite her old age dana looks after herself like a true woman this old lady of over 100 years old takes care of herself like a young woman she likes to do a manicure and to put on makeup according to her relatives she still applies fruit mask to her face and what's most peculiar she makes all the women do the same things to take good care of themselves thank you everything is good [Applause] on the other side of the araski district on the border with cabardino bakaria lives another fascinating woman [Music] she was born two months before the start of the first world war in 2014 kulimat katsuyanova turned 100s [Music] [Applause] [Music] 100 years old coolimate's husband died in 1973. so for the past 40 years she has been the head of the katsionova family relatives still listen to her advice [Music] the youth are very good of course they live differently from us but times are different too our life was easier it isn't easy for the youth now young people get sick very often these days we were healthier probably that's the most important thing in life the centenarian doesn't only demonstrate perfect health but also a good example of a positive attitude towards life which all caucasian elders are remarkable for the villagers call her the most cheerful person in the village active and life-loving she straight away agreed to undergo an unusual experiment [Music] we will test your physical coordination now i will throw a ball to you and you will have to throw it back let's start aging is accompanied by the degeneration of all physiological parameters however hundred-year-old hulimad proved that even at an extreme age you can maintain a good reaction and coordination [Music] i never imagined that i would ever play ball with a centenarian you did very well was it challenging it was easy where does the energy and resilience of this phenomenal old lady originate from she does not hold a longevity secret the main rule of hulimad is shared by most of the local longest living people [Music] you have to work and never be lazy then you'll be healthy the old village of leskin is the final point of our scientific journey around the north caucuses having studied the biography habits and psychology of the local age record holders [Music] is ready to compile his own rating of the caucasian longevity [Music] certainly heredity is an important factor but you can't choose your parents that's why as a first step you need to move somewhere that is at least 1000 meters above sea level secondly the care of your family is very important feeling needed and loved all this helps to prolong one's life thirdly one should give preference to local seasonal foods and finally physical activity is indispensable at any age [Music] the russian scientist formed his own conclusions mountain climate a large family organic foods and physical activity each of those elements contributes to extending one's life [Music] the aim of the next expert in our series is to extend the set of rules for longevity [Music] [Applause] you

Channel: Science

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Rating: 4.8914456 out of 5

Keywords: caucasus, science, documentary, centenarian rules of life, how to live to 100, centenarian in Caucasus, Caucasus 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 long, how to live 100 years, stop aging, aging, how to stop aging, russia, centenarian in russia, russia centenarian

Id: ADXJPJkzjtQ

Length: 44min 36sec (2676 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 28 2021