Gregory Nestor, one of the world’s oldest humans, credits his longevity to barefoot walks, sour milk and never being married. Bi Deben from Beijing says he must eat meat every day. Deben, who is now 103 says he feels uneasy without his daily intake of meat.
Centenarians share many similarities with healthy habits, including exercise, strength training, diet and stress reduction. Many believe that being socially active is key to a long life and studies have shown that they experience less depression, stronger immune systems and lower incidence of heart disease.
Mahbuba Fatullayeya of Peshtatuk, Azerbaijan, who is also 103 years old, was born into the Russian empire ruled by a czar. She remembers the Bolshevik Revolution and Lenin's path to power. “I have always been with nature”, she says, “I knew the value of life. "Sometimes I eat milk, yogurt, honey, anything that comes my way." An 80-year-old neighbor of Mahbuba, who looks much younger, claims that everything she eats, she gets from nature. The cow drinks clear water and eats nourishing grass and she drink the good milk.
Sevinj Huseinova, a biologist who works in the Laboratory of Long Life at the Institute of Physiology in Baku, says an extraordinary number of people do live long lives there - long being about 110 - because of genetic factors enhanced by diet, exercise and fresh air. “. Huseinova counsels that we should forget about the news. "The less information a person has," she says, "the longer he lives. There's less stress."
“Eat yogurt along with garlic and mint“, says Chingiz Gasimov, the laboratory director. “Eat cilantro and chives, saffron and tarragon, and sumakh, a red spice made from dried berries“, he says, “and such a diet will prevent cholesterol”.
In his book, “Secrets of Longevity- Hundreds of Ways to Live to Be 100”, Dr. Maoshing Ni,
who specializes in Tai Chi and longevity offers such tips as eating more blueberries, telling the truth and saying ‘no’ to undue burdens. He believes there are hundreds of proven ways to make everyone’s stay on earth much happier.
And finally, there’s this article published in Science Daily, February 2005, about the deep-sea tube worm, Lamellibrachia luymesi, who is among the longest-lived of all animals, with an incredible lifespan of up to 250 years. How it obtains sufficient nutrients in the form of sulfide to keep going for this long has been a mystery. In a paper published in the online journal PLoS Biology, a team of biologists now provide a solution: By releasing its waste sulfate not up into the ocean but down into the sediments, L. luymesi stimulates the growth of sulfide-producing microbes, thus ensuring its own long-term survival.
So, whether you’re a worm or a human, the key seems to be staying close to nature and maintaining strong relationships, even for the happy hearts in the deep blue sea.
