Longevity

Vitality

“Abkhasians dislike being rushed, loathe deadlines, and never work to exhaustion. In the same vein, they consider it extremely impolite to eat quickly or eat too much...Their routines have a tempo more linked to biological rhythms than the helter-skelter patterns that predominate in most developed countries.”

Dan Georgakis (The Methuselah Factors)

Remember those yogurt commercials back in the 1970's featuring the very elderly people in the Soviet state of Georgia? One showed an old man eating from a cup of yogurt; then his cheek was pinched by an even older woman, who we were told was his mother. For a while there was buzz about this particular area called Abkhasia where people routinely lived into their 140's and beyond. Well, it turned out that their record keeping was extremely flawed, and that many churches where birth and baptismal records had been kept, were burned by Stalin in the 1930's.

Never the less, the people of that area do live to be very old, and yet remain vigorous. Their diet is heavy on dairy products; seventy percent, in fact, is milk, cheese, yogurt and vegetables grown in their own gardens. They also walk up to 20 miles a day, ride horses, work in the fields, and in general, live mostly out of doors in a climate that is cool, but not freezing—in the 50's for most of the year. Their daily intake of calories, even given their level of activity, is half that of the typical western diet. Few people smoke, especially women, though they love their locally produced applejack. They do not keep left-overs, believing that they are unhealthy. There is no McDonald's, no Burger King...in fact, if you want meat, they will show you the goat before they slaughter and cook it.

I hear your collective sigh. I know, we can't live like that in America. We have important business to do, money to make, bills to pay. We have to eat on the go because there is no time to sit quietly and digest our food. And it's hot, really hot, here. Besides, who wants to live to be 140?

Still, there are a few tips there about diet and longevity; about vigor and activity, about pace and sanity. We could adopt a few of those habits, moderate ever so slightly, and probably greatly influence our overall health and vitality. Here are a few characteristics of long-living people sited by Deepak Chopra in his book, Ageless Body, Timeless Mind:

Not seriously overweight or underweight

Little weight fluctuation over their lifetime.

Good general muscle tone; good grip.

Young appearance to the skin.

Still drive a car and engage in physical activity.

Keen interest in current events, good memory, native intelligence.

Freedom from anxiety, few illnesses, not prone to worry.

Independence in their choice of vocations.

Enjoy life; not preoccupied with death.

Sleep between six and seven hours; early risers.

Use less medication in their lifetimes than many people use in a week.

Most drink coffee.

Sounds good to me. How about you?

In the spirit,

Jane