In October 2012 the New York Times dedicated the cover of its Sunday magazine to a Greek island that most didn’t even know where it was. The title was lapidary: The Island Where People Forget to Die. Dan Buettner, explorer and National Geographic fellow, had already described Ikaria in a 2009 article, but it was that piece that brought the island to the world’s collective imagination. The case that opened the story was that of a Greek immigrant who in the United States had received a diagnosis of lung cancer considered terminal. He decided to return to his native island to die, and thirty-five years later he was still there, free from the tumor and fully active.
One of the five “Blue Zones” of the planet
The term “Blue Zone” was coined by Dan Buettner to refer to those rare areas of the planet where people live much longer and healthier lives, often reaching the age of one hundred at extraordinarily high rates. There are five areas identified: in addition to Ikaria, there are Sardinia, Okinawa in Japan, the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica and Loma Linda in California. Ikaria is one of the few in Europe.
About ten thousand people live on the island, with a life expectancy eight to ten years longer than Americans, half as many cases of heart disease, much lower rates of cancer and, perhaps most surprisingly, almost no cases of dementia. One in three of the inhabitants reaches the age of ninety. To be clear, in the United States, those over 85 have a high probability of developing Alzheimer’s, while in Ikaria that probability drops below ten percent.
Scientific research confirms
An observational study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health analyzed the life profile of 71 inhabitants of Ikaria with an average age of 94 years, in the municipalities of Evdilos and Raches. The results: 77.9% of these nineteen-year-olds had daily social contact; the rate of adherence to the Mediterranean diet was 62.7%; Depression scores measured with the Geriatric Depression Scale were significantly lower than those recorded in the other Greek islands studied.
A second study, conducted over a year between 2012 and 2013, had already photographed the same sample: although hypertension was present in 70% of the participants and chronic diseases affected 66%, cognitive and physical functionality was surprisingly preserved. Data that contradicts the automatic equation between advanced age and decline.
What do you eat in Ikaria
Diet is probably the most studied factor. Over 50% of Ikaryotes’ daily calories come from fat, of which olive oil makes up about half. Legumes (chickpeas, lentils, cowpeas), potatoes and wild vegetables are the basis of the diet, meat appears approximately every two days, fish only six-eight times a month.
Over 150 varieties of wild herbs grow on the island, some with antioxidant levels ten times higher than those of red wine. Local honey, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory according to tradition, is used to sweeten, instead of refined sugar. Mountain herbal tea (mint, chamomile, sage, rosemary, dandelion) is a daily ritual that accompanies your whole life. Many of these herbal teas have mild diuretic properties, which helps keep blood pressure low and arteries healthy. The connection with the low rates of dementia, according to the researchers, could be at least partly here.
Time, sleep, community
Diet alone does not explain everything, because Ikaryots drink robust red wine, play dominoes until late at night and live at a pace that ignores clocks, without forgetting the mountainous terrain, which forces them to walk every day, almost without realizing it. The afternoon nap is sacred and the villages empty in the early afternoon, as in a collective ritual. Another aspect is that the Orthodox religious calendar traditionally included fasting for almost half the year, a form of calorie restriction that, according to some researchers, is the only proven method of slowing aging in mammals.
Then there is the social fabric. In Ikaria it is difficult to isolate oneself, the constant presence of everyone is expected at village festivals, religious functions, celebrations, and those who do not show up receive a visit from their neighbors. Loneliness, a documented risk factor for dementia and early mortality, is virtually unknown.
Geography as destiny
There is also a historical explanation. The island was the target of successive invasions (Persians, Romans and Turks) which over the centuries pushed the inhabitants to retreat inland, away from the coasts. The result is an isolated culture, rich in almost intact family traditions and values. That isolation, which for centuries had meant backwardness, turned out to be an involuntary form of protection, from food fads, from the stress of the global economy and from the speed of modern life which swallows everything up.
