“The Island Where People Forget to Die”

Ok, this is a different kind of cancer survivor story, the story of a cancer survivor who’s now in his early nineties…or maybe over a hundred, it’s hard to tell (actually I think he looks more like the 102 that he claims he is). It’s also the title of an NY Times article that caught my eye - “The Island Where People Forget to Die.”

The story starts with Stamatis Moraitis, a WWII veteran from Greece who immigrated to the US. In 1976 he finds out he has terminal cancer and returns to his hometown on the tiny Greek island of Ikaria to die…only he doesn’t. And as it turns out Ikaria is home to a high concentration of folks who live a lot longer than average. Since I’m hoping to make it to the average, I read this to see if I could gleam any hints on how to do so.

The author, reporter Dan Buettner, dug into this because “For a decade, with support from the National Geographic Society, I’ve been organizing a study of the places where people live longest.”

For his detailed article, try this link: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/magazine/the-island-where-people-forget-to-die.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp&goback=.gde_4196068_member_179399663

Happiness = Longer Life

One of the issues my brain tumor forced me to think about was my longevity. As I went into the operation fully aware that, while the odds were in my favor, I might not survive it.

And while I’ve survived, articles that give me ideas on how to live even longer are still of special interest to me.

The most recent one I read was by Dr. Gov Michaeli who was a professor at the University of California San Francisco before leaving to enter the world of biotech. He is now the founder and CEO of Madah Medica, an early stage biotech company developing products to improve post-surgical pain control.

He recently reported that “There are many studies showing a relationship between happiness and longevity, some of which are scientifically excellent.”

He went on to cite a study from the U.K. which tracked the happiness of 3,800 people ages 52 to 79 over time (yes, I fall in that age group). Here’s his synopsis of the findings of that study: 

“Happiness has been shown before to be a strong factor in longevity. But the magnitude of the effect uncovered in this study is truly surprising. Here they are:Five years on from their assessment, just 3.6 per cent of the happiest participants – those who had the highest positive affect – had died.
In contrast, some 4.6 per cent of those who were averagely happy and 7.3 per cent of the group with the lowest positive affect had died during the same time frame.”

Here’s a link to the article: http://www.thedoctorweighsin.com/give-thanks-be-happy-and-live-longer/