A man with terminal cancer has been told by doctors that he only has a few months to live.
He returned to Ikaria, Greece – a blue zone – and lived for another three decades.
Moraitis, who had spent most of his adult life living in the suburbs of New York and Florida, was starting to have trouble breathing and couldn’t finish a day’s work like he used to. It’s terminal lung cancer, all his American doctors have told him.
So the Greek father-of-three decided to move back to his native country on the isolated Mediterranean island of Ikaria with his wife Elpiniki. He didn’t want his family burdened with the thousands of dollars he knew an American funeral would cost.
But in Ikaria, the Greek island halfway between Athens and Turkey, something remarkable happened. Moraitis didn’t know it at the time, but he was returning to a unique and isolated place, an island where people routinely live for over 100 years. He had entered a blue zone.
Slowly, he began to move. He breathed the fresh air, admired the clear blue water, drank wine and reconnected with old friends. He also decided to take up gardening.
Eventually, he began planting vines for a backyard vineyard. He recognized that he wouldn’t be around to enjoy the wine when the plants were ready to harvest, but at least his wife would have the vine as a way to remember him.
Three decades later, he was growing all kinds of fruits and vegetables—including grapes for wine and olives for oil—on his family’s property when author and longevity expert Dan Buettner visited Icaria to learn about the island’s longevity tricks.
“I asked him: what is your secret?”. said Buettner, in the new Netflix documentary series “Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones.” “He kind of shrugged and said, ‘I don’t know! I think I just forgot to die.'”
It’s possible that Moraitis had some unique genetic qualities that so-called “SuperAgers” often exhibit, which may protect them from diseases like cancer that take hold of them.
But Buettner suspects there’s probably also a major component to our longevity that isn’t about who we are on the inside, but rather what surrounds us—the people, the plants, the air, the lifestyle. An oft-cited study of Danish twins suggests that genetics is only responsible for about 20-25% of our longevity.
“Blue Zones” are geographic areas with lower rates of chronic disease and higher life expectancy. Diet, fasting and exercise are factors associated with Blue Zones. Italy, Greece, Japan, Costa Rica and the USA have a blue zone.
Chronic diseases are increasingly common in old age.
Although genetics determine to some extent life span and susceptibility to these diseases, lifestyle probably has a greater impact.
Several places in the world are called “Blue Zones”. The term refers to geographic areas where people have low rates of chronic disease and live longer than anywhere else.
Blue Zones
Ikaria (Greece): Icaria is an island in Greece where people have a Mediterranean diet rich in olive oil, red wine and home grown vegetables.
Ogliastra, Sardinia (Italy): The Ogliastra region of Sardinia is home to some of the oldest people in the world. They live in mountainous regions where they usually work on farms and drink a lot of red wine.
Okinawa (Japan): Okinawa is home to the world’s oldest women, who eat a lot of soy-based foods and practice tai chi, a form of meditative exercise.
Nicoya Peninsula (Costa Rica): The Nicoyan diet is based on beans and corn tortillas. People in this area regularly perform manual labor until old age and have a life goal known as “plan de vida”.
Seventh-day Adventists in Loma Linda, California (USA): Seventh-day Adventists are a very religious group of people. They are strict vegetarians and live in close-knit communities.
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