1 00:00:02,913 --> 00:00:06,932 It's basically simple. Now, many operations can be difficult. 2 00:00:06,967 --> 00:00:10,917 Sometimes just finding the coronary artery can be difficult. 3 00:00:10,952 --> 00:00:16,953 Dr Ellsworth Wareham has just turned 92 and is about to perform open heart surgery. 4 00:00:16,988 --> 00:00:20,313 I've seen open heart surgery right from the very beginning, 5 00:00:20,348 --> 00:00:23,512 find it to be very stimulating and invigorating. 6 00:00:26,112 --> 00:00:30,393 Marge Jetton is finishing a six-mile bike ride and lifting a few weights 7 00:00:30,428 --> 00:00:34,272 before she plans what to do for her 103rd birthday. 8 00:00:34,307 --> 00:00:36,077 I was lifting ten pounds when I... 9 00:00:36,112 --> 00:00:38,673 If something doesn't hurt, it's not worthwhile. 10 00:00:41,073 --> 00:00:43,277 On the other side of the world, 11 00:00:43,312 --> 00:00:47,472 92-year-old Mr Miyagi has just started teaching karaoke. 12 00:00:49,113 --> 00:00:53,353 Among the members of this group, he's considered a mere youngster. 13 00:00:57,472 --> 00:01:00,993 You may not have heard of the island of Okinawa, 14 00:01:01,028 --> 00:01:03,770 the town of Loma Linda 15 00:01:03,805 --> 00:01:06,478 or the village of Ovodda, 16 00:01:06,513 --> 00:01:09,793 but if you want to live a long, healthy life, 17 00:01:09,828 --> 00:01:12,553 there's no better place to look. 18 00:01:16,473 --> 00:01:22,112 These are the places on earth where people live longer than anywhere else. 19 00:01:22,147 --> 00:01:25,718 In these unique communities, a group of scientists 20 00:01:25,753 --> 00:01:29,872 have dedicated their lives to trying to uncover their secrets. 21 00:01:29,907 --> 00:01:31,637 Now within this tomb, 22 00:01:31,672 --> 00:01:35,357 some of the secrets to healthy ageing are contained 23 00:01:35,392 --> 00:01:40,157 so that is your longevity, too. The secrets are right there. 24 00:01:40,192 --> 00:01:45,472 Horizon has travelled the globe to meet the people who can show us all 25 00:01:45,507 --> 00:01:50,472 how to improve our chances of living longer, healthier lives. 26 00:02:21,312 --> 00:02:26,152 From the first time that my brother and I landed in Okinawa, 27 00:02:26,187 --> 00:02:30,993 the feel and the smell of the place, I just, I was inspired. 28 00:02:31,028 --> 00:02:34,353 You walk down the street and there's an elderly lady 29 00:02:34,388 --> 00:02:38,277 sweeping outside of a little restaurant. 30 00:02:38,312 --> 00:02:42,392 You look at her and think, "There's a nice 65-year-old lady, 31 00:02:42,427 --> 00:02:46,473 "she's probably retired, a part-time job, keeping busy," 32 00:02:46,508 --> 00:02:50,753 and then you find out she's 90 or 95 or 99. 33 00:02:50,788 --> 00:02:53,198 the market and you see... 34 00:02:53,233 --> 00:02:56,473 "Oh, there's a lady, she looks like she's in her 70s," 35 00:02:56,508 --> 00:02:58,952 and you find out, "Oh, yeah she's 101." 36 00:03:02,432 --> 00:03:04,037 And I thought, wow! 37 00:03:04,072 --> 00:03:07,633 Do we have a Shangri la here, a real Shangri la? 38 00:03:11,432 --> 00:03:17,553 The remote island of Okinawa is home to one of the longest-living communities in the world. 39 00:03:17,588 --> 00:03:22,750 In a population of only one million, there are 900 centenarians, 40 00:03:22,785 --> 00:03:27,912 a percentage that's over four times higher than Britain and America. 41 00:03:27,947 --> 00:03:30,832 It's a place where age has a different meaning... 42 00:03:33,313 --> 00:03:35,397 ..where people like Mr Miyagi 43 00:03:35,432 --> 00:03:38,352 can expect to live way beyond his 92nd year. 44 00:03:42,313 --> 00:03:47,993 He's lived in Ogimi Village in the north of Okinawa all his life. 45 00:03:48,028 --> 00:03:52,278 Unaware of the latest diet or lifestyle fad, 46 00:03:52,313 --> 00:03:56,752 Mr Miyagi has developed his own way of defying the ageing process. 47 00:04:21,832 --> 00:04:24,513 The Okinawans themselves don't think about 48 00:04:24,548 --> 00:04:26,953 cheating science or beating science. 49 00:04:26,988 --> 00:04:28,918 They're not thinking about, 50 00:04:28,953 --> 00:04:32,013 "Gee if I do this, I'm not going to live as long." 51 00:04:32,048 --> 00:04:35,073 "If I have one extra drink or if I eat this food." 52 00:04:35,108 --> 00:04:37,873 They're not thinking about that at all. 53 00:04:39,233 --> 00:04:42,553 Most of them couldn't care less what the scientists think. 54 00:04:42,588 --> 00:04:45,730 They just go about their business and live... 55 00:04:45,765 --> 00:04:48,872 They just happen to live a very long time. 56 00:04:50,952 --> 00:04:53,837 Since the 1970s, scientists like Bradley 57 00:04:53,872 --> 00:04:57,197 and Craig Willcox have been trying to understand 58 00:04:57,232 --> 00:05:02,477 what is enabling Okinawans to combat old age so successfully. 59 00:05:02,512 --> 00:05:06,352 For the past 30 years, we've focused on a lot of different things. 60 00:05:06,387 --> 00:05:10,130 We look and see if there's a family history of longevity, 61 00:05:10,165 --> 00:05:13,873 past medical history of all of the people in their network - 62 00:05:13,908 --> 00:05:15,517 their parents, their... 63 00:05:15,552 --> 00:05:18,553 their brothers and sisters, their children. 64 00:05:23,673 --> 00:05:28,432 Year after year, this research has revealed a remarkable fact - 65 00:05:28,467 --> 00:05:31,312 the Okinawans actually age more slowly 66 00:05:31,347 --> 00:05:33,753 than almost anyone else on earth. 67 00:05:35,793 --> 00:05:38,873 The calendar may say they're 75 or 80, 68 00:05:38,908 --> 00:05:41,510 but their body says they're 50, 69 00:05:41,545 --> 00:05:44,077 and the most impressive part of it 70 00:05:44,112 --> 00:05:48,317 is that a good lot of them are healthy until the very end. 71 00:05:48,352 --> 00:05:53,992 Over 70% of Okinawan centenarians are still functioning independently 72 00:05:54,027 --> 00:05:56,478 at age 97. 73 00:05:56,513 --> 00:06:02,753 That's 97% of their life has been healthy. 74 00:06:04,273 --> 00:06:07,432 But finding the cause of their exceptional longevity 75 00:06:07,467 --> 00:06:08,673 has not been simple. 76 00:06:11,112 --> 00:06:12,958 Thousands of tests have been run 77 00:06:12,993 --> 00:06:16,198 in an attempt to unlock the Okinawan secret. 78 00:06:16,233 --> 00:06:20,593 In the last few years, the first answers have begun to emerge. 79 00:06:22,873 --> 00:06:28,473 The spotlight has fallen on one particular hormone, known as DHEA. 80 00:06:30,593 --> 00:06:34,753 DHEA, it's a precursor of both oestrogen and testosterone. 81 00:06:34,788 --> 00:06:36,958 It's produced in the adrenal glands. 82 00:06:36,993 --> 00:06:41,113 We don't know exactly what it does - nobody knows exactly what it does - 83 00:06:41,148 --> 00:06:47,833 but we do know that DHEA as a hormone drops with age. 84 00:06:47,868 --> 00:06:50,757 But as Okinawans grow older, 85 00:06:50,792 --> 00:06:56,392 their levels of DHEA appear to decline at a much slower rate. 86 00:06:56,427 --> 00:06:59,758 You might think of DHEA as the marker on the clock. 87 00:06:59,793 --> 00:07:03,873 Maybe think of it as backward, the clock's gone backward, right? 88 00:07:03,908 --> 00:07:07,690 You're at 12, it goes to 11, 10, 9, 8... 1. 89 00:07:07,725 --> 00:07:11,619 When it hits 12 again, life's over, OK? 90 00:07:11,654 --> 00:07:15,513 So Okinawans, their clock runs more slowly. 91 00:07:19,513 --> 00:07:21,872 Something about the Okinawan lifestyle 92 00:07:21,907 --> 00:07:24,197 is slowing down their ageing clock, 93 00:07:24,232 --> 00:07:27,632 keeping their levels of crucial hormones higher 94 00:07:27,667 --> 00:07:30,998 and their bodies fitter and healthier for longer. 95 00:07:31,033 --> 00:07:35,712 Here we have a society that has... the lowest, it seems, of everything - 96 00:07:35,747 --> 00:07:39,797 the longest lifespan, the lowest breast cancer, 97 00:07:39,832 --> 00:07:44,193 the lowest prostate cancer, the lowest colon cancer, 98 00:07:44,228 --> 00:07:46,598 the lowest coronary heart disease, 99 00:07:46,633 --> 00:07:49,358 so those kinds of things fascinate me. 100 00:07:49,393 --> 00:07:53,872 How could it be low in almost every disease and have this incredibly long lifespan? 101 00:07:56,233 --> 00:08:00,512 The explanation for this extraordinary phenomenon begins 102 00:08:00,547 --> 00:08:02,710 in the most ordinary of places. 103 00:08:02,745 --> 00:08:04,838 Like every town in Okinawa, 104 00:08:04,873 --> 00:08:07,613 the fruit and vegetable shop in Ogimi 105 00:08:07,648 --> 00:08:10,020 lies at the heart of village life. 106 00:08:10,055 --> 00:08:12,357 It's here that Bradley and Craig 107 00:08:12,392 --> 00:08:16,232 believe the source of the Okinawan miracle can be traced. 108 00:08:16,267 --> 00:08:19,918 These veggies are a type of a sweet potato. 109 00:08:19,953 --> 00:08:23,393 It's called, in the local dialect it's called beni-imo 110 00:08:23,428 --> 00:08:26,833 and beni-imo, it's a purple sweet potato and that... 111 00:08:26,868 --> 00:08:29,038 Oh, look at that purple colour. 112 00:08:29,073 --> 00:08:32,638 The purple really comes out more when you cook it. 113 00:08:32,673 --> 00:08:38,213 The key is to get a lot of vegetables that are very colourful - 114 00:08:38,248 --> 00:08:43,753 oranges like these carrots here, dark greens and yellow vegetables. 115 00:08:43,788 --> 00:08:46,552 You might think of it as a rainbow diet. 116 00:08:50,713 --> 00:08:52,997 For the past 20 years, Bradley and Craig 117 00:08:53,032 --> 00:08:56,713 have been analysing the life-enhancing Okinawan ingredients. 118 00:08:56,748 --> 00:09:00,872 Got reds here in the tomatoes, the peppers, 119 00:09:00,907 --> 00:09:03,072 you've got green peppers here. 120 00:09:03,993 --> 00:09:07,432 They've identified a number of crucial properties 121 00:09:07,467 --> 00:09:09,990 that guard the Okinawans from disease, 122 00:09:10,025 --> 00:09:12,513 from the anti-oxidant rich vegetables 123 00:09:12,548 --> 00:09:14,557 that protect against cell damage 124 00:09:14,592 --> 00:09:17,117 to the high quantities of soya protein. 125 00:09:17,152 --> 00:09:24,073 The Okinawans probably consume more tofu and more soy products 126 00:09:24,108 --> 00:09:26,757 than any other population in the world. 127 00:09:26,792 --> 00:09:30,873 We believe that this is playing a part in their low rates 128 00:09:30,908 --> 00:09:33,232 of hormone-dependent cancers. 129 00:09:35,272 --> 00:09:41,192 Okinawans have among the lowest rates of breast and prostate cancer in the world. 130 00:09:41,227 --> 00:09:46,072 Studies suggest that this could be to do with the levels of soya 131 00:09:46,107 --> 00:09:48,998 they consume across their lifetime. 132 00:09:49,033 --> 00:09:54,152 I am amazed by those statistics because if we lived in the west 133 00:09:54,187 --> 00:09:56,237 more like the Okinawans, 134 00:09:56,272 --> 00:10:01,072 you could probably close down 80% of the coronary care units, 135 00:10:01,107 --> 00:10:03,318 one third of the cancer wards 136 00:10:03,353 --> 00:10:07,553 and a lot of nursing homes would be out of business, 137 00:10:07,588 --> 00:10:10,312 simply because these people are so healthy. 138 00:10:12,673 --> 00:10:16,353 He passes the test, this is really good. Go ahead, sample. 139 00:10:16,388 --> 00:10:18,117 Thank you! 140 00:10:18,152 --> 00:10:20,957 But it's what the Okinawans don't eat 141 00:10:20,992 --> 00:10:24,553 that may be at the heart of their exceptionally long lives. 142 00:10:24,588 --> 00:10:27,838 In Ogimi, 100-year-old Matsu is preparing 143 00:10:27,873 --> 00:10:32,552 a traditional Okinawan dish using all the vital ingredients. 144 00:11:01,753 --> 00:11:03,877 It's only after the food is served 145 00:11:03,912 --> 00:11:07,953 that the most significant Okinawan tradition can be observed. 146 00:11:09,792 --> 00:11:14,793 The Okinawans developed, also, cultural habits over the years 147 00:11:14,828 --> 00:11:18,117 that appear to have health-protective properties. 148 00:11:18,152 --> 00:11:21,672 They have a saying called - eat until you're only 80% full, 149 00:11:21,707 --> 00:11:25,192 and that's something you hear in the rest of Japan as well, 150 00:11:25,227 --> 00:11:28,712 but it was particularly common to hear that in Okinawa 151 00:11:28,747 --> 00:11:32,513 where people tended to push away from the table 152 00:11:32,548 --> 00:11:34,792 when they were only 80% full. 153 00:11:37,953 --> 00:11:43,153 In a typical day, Matsu only consumes around 1,200 calories, 154 00:11:43,188 --> 00:11:47,750 about 20% less than most people in Britain and America. 155 00:11:47,785 --> 00:11:52,312 It's a phenomenon scientists call caloric restriction. 156 00:11:52,347 --> 00:11:55,918 Nobody understands entirely in science 157 00:11:55,953 --> 00:12:00,357 why caloric restriction works, but what we do know 158 00:12:00,392 --> 00:12:05,752 is that caloric restriction seems to signal to the body 159 00:12:05,787 --> 00:12:10,157 that there is going to be an impending famine. 160 00:12:10,192 --> 00:12:17,153 What do you do when there's a famine about or some type of crisis? 161 00:12:17,188 --> 00:12:22,033 Well, the body goes into this self-preservation mode 162 00:12:22,068 --> 00:12:26,998 for a future when food becomes more plentiful. 163 00:12:27,033 --> 00:12:30,573 It's this ability to trick their bodies into starvation 164 00:12:30,608 --> 00:12:34,113 that may be keeping Okinawans physiologically so young. 165 00:12:35,193 --> 00:12:38,198 It's a stark contrast with the cultural habits 166 00:12:38,233 --> 00:12:42,117 that drive food consumption in other parts of the world. 167 00:12:42,152 --> 00:12:47,438 In the west, we're very much focused on getting more for our money. 168 00:12:47,473 --> 00:12:52,593 I mean, one of the most popular things is these "all you can eat" restaurants. 169 00:12:52,628 --> 00:12:58,472 You go, and you load up at the all you can eat restaurant 170 00:12:58,507 --> 00:13:01,550 and you walk away with this bloated feeling 171 00:13:01,585 --> 00:13:04,558 and you may have got your money's worth, 172 00:13:04,593 --> 00:13:07,798 but you probably didn't get your health's worth 173 00:13:07,833 --> 00:13:11,752 because what you're doing is just digging yourself into an early grave. 174 00:13:19,593 --> 00:13:23,073 6,500 miles away in the mountains of Sardinia, 175 00:13:23,108 --> 00:13:26,553 there's another place competing for the title 176 00:13:26,588 --> 00:13:29,073 of the world's longest-living community. 177 00:13:39,472 --> 00:13:43,277 In the town of Ovodda, Alessandro Vacca and his family 178 00:13:43,312 --> 00:13:47,193 take a very different approach to living a long and healthy life. 179 00:13:53,353 --> 00:13:56,473 Today, he's invited his relatives to celebrate the birth 180 00:13:56,508 --> 00:13:58,192 of a new addition to the family. 181 00:14:23,433 --> 00:14:27,712 The Vaccas don't count their calories or watch what they drink. 182 00:14:32,193 --> 00:14:36,072 And none of them had met a vegetarian before. 183 00:15:04,312 --> 00:15:07,792 The Vacca family history is littered with centenarians. 184 00:15:07,827 --> 00:15:09,478 The oldest lived to 107, 185 00:15:09,513 --> 00:15:12,872 and most of the family live well into their 90s. 186 00:15:27,913 --> 00:15:31,753 And in the town of Ovodda, the Vaccas are not alone. 187 00:15:36,313 --> 00:15:39,758 In this small town, there are five centenarians, 188 00:15:39,793 --> 00:15:46,072 but perhaps even more remarkably, it's the only region in the world 189 00:15:46,107 --> 00:15:50,193 where as many men as women live to be 100 years of age. 190 00:16:09,153 --> 00:16:11,892 It's a phenomenon that Professor Luca Deiana 191 00:16:11,927 --> 00:16:14,632 has spent his life trying to understand. 192 00:16:20,552 --> 00:16:24,912 He's convinced that the long-known benefits of a Mediterranean diet 193 00:16:24,947 --> 00:16:29,237 cannot fully explain the unique longevity he's observed in Sardinia. 194 00:16:29,272 --> 00:16:36,833 TRANSLATION FROM ITALIAN: There are other countries with the same Mediterranean diet 195 00:16:36,868 --> 00:16:41,392 and there are centenarians there, but not as many as in Sardinia. 196 00:16:47,073 --> 00:16:49,637 It's even true that Sardinians 197 00:16:49,672 --> 00:16:53,113 who emigrated at 20, 30 or 40 years of age 198 00:16:53,148 --> 00:16:57,512 still manage to reach 100. 199 00:16:59,873 --> 00:17:01,558 Over the past ten years, 200 00:17:01,593 --> 00:17:05,597 Deiana has tested every single Sardinian centenarian. 201 00:17:05,632 --> 00:17:11,912 Today, he's visiting the oldest member of the Vacca family, 104-year-old Maria. 202 00:17:43,353 --> 00:17:45,952 Deiana is particularly interested in Maria 203 00:17:45,987 --> 00:17:48,769 because as a member of the Vacca family, 204 00:17:48,804 --> 00:17:51,552 she comes from a long line of centenarians. 205 00:17:56,433 --> 00:17:59,313 There are a great number of last names in Sardinia - 206 00:17:59,348 --> 00:18:01,117 more than 30,000, 207 00:18:01,152 --> 00:18:04,953 but not many last names for the centenarians we have certified. 208 00:18:08,832 --> 00:18:11,597 Among these, there are some last names 209 00:18:11,632 --> 00:18:15,833 that show a fairly consistent percentage of centenarians. 210 00:18:22,432 --> 00:18:27,352 It's these ultra-healthy families like the Vaccas that make Sardinia unique. 211 00:18:29,472 --> 00:18:32,953 The challenge for Professor Deiana is to find out why. 212 00:18:41,992 --> 00:18:44,837 Maria's nephew, Alessandro Vacca, 213 00:18:44,872 --> 00:18:47,632 can trace his family history in Ovodda back 214 00:18:47,667 --> 00:18:49,352 over several generations. 215 00:19:12,793 --> 00:19:18,832 For hundreds of years, the Vaccas have lived in relative isolation from the rest of the world, 216 00:19:18,867 --> 00:19:22,072 marrying into almost every other family in the town. 217 00:19:29,433 --> 00:19:33,393 In fact, most people living in the town today are descended 218 00:19:33,428 --> 00:19:35,233 from only a few original settlers. 219 00:19:52,232 --> 00:19:54,638 Marriage among relatives is not the rule, 220 00:19:54,673 --> 00:19:57,513 but there are some cases of this taking place. 221 00:20:02,632 --> 00:20:05,957 From a genetic point of view, when this happens, 222 00:20:05,992 --> 00:20:10,212 there's a higher probability of having genetic diseases 223 00:20:10,247 --> 00:20:14,432 but also of having positive results - like centenarians. 224 00:20:22,833 --> 00:20:28,393 In Ovodda, this in-breeding actually seems to have enabled people to live longer... 225 00:20:31,312 --> 00:20:35,793 ..and the limited gene pool created by this isolated community 226 00:20:35,828 --> 00:20:38,318 now provides a unique opportunity 227 00:20:38,353 --> 00:20:42,712 to discover specific genes that are associated with long life. 228 00:20:47,313 --> 00:20:48,997 After years of searching, 229 00:20:49,032 --> 00:20:53,233 Deiana has detected a number of unusual genetic characteristics 230 00:20:53,268 --> 00:20:56,232 that seem to link the centenarians of Ovodda. 231 00:20:59,353 --> 00:21:03,392 One particular gene on the X chromosome seems to be faulty, 232 00:21:03,427 --> 00:21:07,798 failing to produce an enzyme known as G6PD. 233 00:21:07,833 --> 00:21:11,077 This can often have a negative impact on health, 234 00:21:11,112 --> 00:21:14,512 but in Ovodda, it may well have had a positive effect. 235 00:21:17,713 --> 00:21:22,192 We have been discovering things of great interest, 236 00:21:22,227 --> 00:21:25,410 such as how certain genetic characteristics 237 00:21:25,445 --> 00:21:28,558 could have determined diseases like malaria 238 00:21:28,593 --> 00:21:35,272 which may be associated with the lack of a very significant enzyme in our centenarians. 239 00:21:40,512 --> 00:21:45,873 The role G6PD may play in living longer remains a mystery, 240 00:21:45,908 --> 00:21:50,317 the genetic elixir of life 241 00:21:50,352 --> 00:21:53,233 lies with the families of Sardinia. 242 00:22:10,913 --> 00:22:14,953 For those without Sardinian genes, there is still hope. 243 00:22:14,988 --> 00:22:18,590 In Loma Linda California, there's another community 244 00:22:18,625 --> 00:22:22,192 that proves that anyone can increase their chances 245 00:22:22,227 --> 00:22:24,432 of living a longer, healthier life. 246 00:22:30,432 --> 00:22:35,313 Today, Dr Ellsworth Wareham is preparing to perform open heart surgery 247 00:22:35,348 --> 00:22:38,998 on a patient many years younger than himself. 248 00:22:39,033 --> 00:22:44,193 There was no open heart surgery when I took my residency. 249 00:22:44,228 --> 00:22:49,353 I've seen open heart surgery right from the very beginning, 250 00:22:49,388 --> 00:22:52,037 so that's 37 years, I guess. 251 00:22:52,072 --> 00:22:57,812 And I probably do three or four a week, something like that. 252 00:22:57,847 --> 00:23:03,552 Do the patients know that a 92-year-old will be supervising? 253 00:23:03,587 --> 00:23:06,553 I would hope not. 254 00:23:06,588 --> 00:23:09,197 I, I personally... 255 00:23:09,232 --> 00:23:15,158 am sort of less than anxious 256 00:23:15,193 --> 00:23:21,153 because there's a lot of incompetence associated with age. 257 00:23:21,188 --> 00:23:25,912 I think the figure is at 85, 85 years of age, 258 00:23:25,947 --> 00:23:28,392 50% of people have Alzheimer's. 259 00:23:31,192 --> 00:23:33,757 Dr Wareham's extraordinary longevity 260 00:23:33,792 --> 00:23:37,032 may not have anything to do with his genes. 261 00:23:37,067 --> 00:23:40,273 I don't have a particularly good heredity. 262 00:23:40,308 --> 00:23:44,798 Three of my grandparents died at 72. 263 00:23:44,833 --> 00:23:48,112 Nobody in my family has lived to be my age. 264 00:23:48,147 --> 00:23:50,838 The community living in Loma Linda 265 00:23:50,873 --> 00:23:56,192 have discovered a secret that's much easier to find than any gene. 266 00:23:56,227 --> 00:24:00,753 Its effect is so powerful that it enables them to live longer 267 00:24:00,788 --> 00:24:03,393 than anyone else in the United States. 268 00:24:11,913 --> 00:24:15,033 I've lived in California all my life. 269 00:24:17,112 --> 00:24:22,078 I was two years old and I can remember the San Francisco earthquake. 270 00:24:22,113 --> 00:24:27,112 I can remember the water being splashed in the trough. We lived on a ranch 271 00:24:27,147 --> 00:24:28,318 and I asked my father, 272 00:24:28,353 --> 00:24:32,313 "The horses won't have anything to drink, why is that water splashing?" 273 00:24:33,352 --> 00:24:37,872 At 102, Marge Jetton is the oldest resident of Loma Linda, 274 00:24:37,907 --> 00:24:42,358 but reaching such a grand age has taken some discipline. 275 00:24:42,393 --> 00:24:48,313 Her daily routine involves cycling at least six miles before breakfast. 276 00:24:49,912 --> 00:24:53,118 I've been getting lazy, I do 15 minutes. 277 00:24:53,153 --> 00:24:57,052 Today I rode seven miles - no, six-and-a-half miles - 278 00:24:57,087 --> 00:25:00,952 and then I ride instead of going this way, you ride back. 279 00:25:03,912 --> 00:25:07,877 Something that doesn't hurt you, it's not worthwhile. 280 00:25:07,912 --> 00:25:14,393 For Marge, sticking to a gruelling exercise regime isn't about living longer. It's a matter of faith. 281 00:25:14,428 --> 00:25:17,913 The whole world should be exercising. 282 00:25:17,948 --> 00:25:19,877 The television is full of it, 283 00:25:19,912 --> 00:25:23,233 everything is full of why you should exercise. 284 00:25:23,268 --> 00:25:25,713 Your body is a temple of the holy spirit. 285 00:25:27,753 --> 00:25:31,998 Marge is a Seventh Day Adventist, a religion whose members 286 00:25:32,033 --> 00:25:35,953 live between five and ten years longer than their fellow citizens. 287 00:25:38,312 --> 00:25:41,392 Our research indicates that we are in control 288 00:25:41,427 --> 00:25:44,398 of at least ten years of extra life 289 00:25:44,433 --> 00:25:48,793 just by virtue of the choices that we make or we don't make. 290 00:25:48,828 --> 00:25:53,153 There's no proof, it's tempting to wonder if the way they live 291 00:25:53,188 --> 00:25:55,912 is affecting some fundamental force of ageing. 292 00:25:57,473 --> 00:25:59,918 Adventists don't drink or smoke 293 00:25:59,953 --> 00:26:04,558 and many stick to the vegetarian diet that the church advises. 294 00:26:04,593 --> 00:26:09,552 You read your bible, we're supposed to eat fruits, nuts and vegetables. 295 00:26:09,587 --> 00:26:12,878 No meat in heaven, no. 296 00:26:12,913 --> 00:26:16,318 You eat from the garden, the tree of life, 297 00:26:16,353 --> 00:26:19,918 give you vitamins and you're going to live for ever. 298 00:26:19,953 --> 00:26:26,112 Not all Adventists are able to stick to Marge's strict health regime, 299 00:26:26,147 --> 00:26:29,553 but even THEY live significantly longer than average. 300 00:26:30,952 --> 00:26:32,317 In this community, 301 00:26:32,352 --> 00:26:36,192 living longer isn't only about what people are doing. 302 00:26:36,227 --> 00:26:38,632 It's also about what they believe. 303 00:26:46,873 --> 00:26:50,713 # I'll take the highway 304 00:26:50,748 --> 00:26:54,553 # Straight up to heaven 305 00:26:54,588 --> 00:26:57,477 # And I won't stop 306 00:26:57,512 --> 00:27:03,233 # Till the good lord lets me in Lets me in 307 00:27:03,268 --> 00:27:09,438 # I'm leaving this old life behind me 308 00:27:09,473 --> 00:27:16,153 # And I'm so glad I finally found my way... # 309 00:27:17,272 --> 00:27:24,878 Jesus lived to be 33, 33-and-a-half... 310 00:27:24,913 --> 00:27:29,792 30 years of which are almost virtually gone 311 00:27:29,827 --> 00:27:32,078 in the mists of time. 312 00:27:32,113 --> 00:27:34,478 At this point, we have to imagine 313 00:27:34,513 --> 00:27:38,633 that the good experience that Adventists have with health 314 00:27:38,668 --> 00:27:42,753 may not only be related to their diet because after all, 315 00:27:42,788 --> 00:27:44,797 they are religious people, 316 00:27:44,832 --> 00:27:47,197 and so it does certainly raise the question 317 00:27:47,232 --> 00:27:53,352 if there's something about spiritual life that also has an impact. 318 00:27:53,387 --> 00:27:56,193 At this moment, we don't really know that, 319 00:27:56,228 --> 00:27:58,630 but there's been one interesting fact 320 00:27:58,665 --> 00:28:00,997 that's been known now for 20 or 30 years 321 00:28:01,032 --> 00:28:03,793 and that is that people that go to church regularly - 322 00:28:03,828 --> 00:28:05,890 whatever faith they have - live longer 323 00:28:05,925 --> 00:28:07,918 and there's no question about that. 324 00:28:07,953 --> 00:28:12,592 The data is very robust, but it's probably not sitting in the hard pew that does that. 325 00:28:12,627 --> 00:28:14,592 There's probably something else. 326 00:28:16,593 --> 00:28:20,272 As part of a longer-term study on Adventist health, 327 00:28:20,307 --> 00:28:22,437 Dr Kelly Morton is running a clinic 328 00:28:22,472 --> 00:28:25,713 examining the effect of religion on life expectancy. 329 00:28:26,312 --> 00:28:30,993 We are following a particular theory that says that the effects of stress 330 00:28:31,028 --> 00:28:33,158 accumulate across your entire life 331 00:28:33,193 --> 00:28:38,912 so each major stressor of your life is pushing on your organ systems 332 00:28:38,947 --> 00:28:42,158 and these organ systems slowly but surely 333 00:28:42,193 --> 00:28:45,593 have effects of all of these stressors that are accumulating. 334 00:28:47,752 --> 00:28:50,332 From samples of their blood and saliva, 335 00:28:50,367 --> 00:28:53,019 Dr Morton is testing for lower levels 336 00:28:53,054 --> 00:28:55,637 of stress hormones such as cortisol. 337 00:28:55,672 --> 00:28:59,272 This would be a sign that they may be better equipped 338 00:28:59,307 --> 00:29:01,798 to cope with the challenges in life. 339 00:29:01,833 --> 00:29:06,312 There's many things in life, many stressors that are not controllable, 340 00:29:06,347 --> 00:29:08,398 that are not really your choice, 341 00:29:08,433 --> 00:29:10,798 but you still have to cope with them, 342 00:29:10,833 --> 00:29:14,998 and religion and connection to something higher than oneself, 343 00:29:15,033 --> 00:29:20,672 connection to the sacred, connection to a tight-knit religious community 344 00:29:20,707 --> 00:29:24,637 allows you to modulate your reactions, your emotions, 345 00:29:24,672 --> 00:29:28,753 to believe that there is a broader purpose, and therefore, 346 00:29:28,788 --> 00:29:32,473 your body can stay in balance and not be destroyed 347 00:29:32,508 --> 00:29:35,553 by those stressors and traumas over time. 348 00:29:38,512 --> 00:29:40,837 Who's that? That's me. 349 00:29:40,872 --> 00:29:44,552 Who are you with? And that's me and that, there, that's my husband. 350 00:29:44,587 --> 00:29:49,032 He died two days before our 77th anniversary. 351 00:29:49,067 --> 00:29:51,397 Is it hard living a long time? 352 00:29:51,432 --> 00:29:54,198 Hard living a long time? You lose people? 353 00:29:54,233 --> 00:29:59,432 Oh, yes, it is, there's nobody you can talk to the same as that person, so... 354 00:30:01,072 --> 00:30:05,913 You know, time heals things a lot, so... 355 00:30:05,948 --> 00:30:08,850 Where do you think he is now? 356 00:30:08,885 --> 00:30:11,717 Well, sleeping up here on a hill, 357 00:30:11,752 --> 00:30:16,232 waiting for me to come and occupy the rest of the room. 358 00:30:24,553 --> 00:30:26,893 The Adventists aren't the only people 359 00:30:26,928 --> 00:30:29,198 who have learnt to cope with stress. 360 00:30:29,233 --> 00:30:34,633 It's the one thing that links all the world's longest-living communities together. 361 00:31:05,752 --> 00:31:08,632 Although Mr Miyagi and his karaoke partners 362 00:31:08,667 --> 00:31:10,952 try not to take life too seriously, 363 00:31:10,987 --> 00:31:14,518 always been easy. 364 00:31:14,553 --> 00:31:17,998 We call their personality stress-resistant personality. 365 00:31:18,033 --> 00:31:21,772 They certainly don't lead stress-free lives, they never have. 366 00:31:21,807 --> 00:31:25,512 They had to survive famines when they were young - poverty - 367 00:31:25,547 --> 00:31:27,910 they had to survive the Second World War, 368 00:31:27,945 --> 00:31:30,273 in which a quarter of the population died. 369 00:31:30,308 --> 00:31:31,958 These people are survivors. 370 00:31:31,993 --> 00:31:35,773 Now how did they survive? Part of it, we think, was the stress. 371 00:31:35,808 --> 00:31:39,553 They built coping mechanisms over time which we can all learn from. 372 00:31:42,513 --> 00:31:47,473 They have this expression - "Don't worry, it'll work out." 373 00:31:47,508 --> 00:31:50,450 You hear that always, over and over - 374 00:31:50,485 --> 00:31:53,392 and those that age the most healthily 375 00:31:53,427 --> 00:31:54,993 tend to have this attitude. 376 00:31:56,593 --> 00:32:01,157 Mr Miyagi attends this silver club several times a week. 377 00:32:01,192 --> 00:32:04,712 The club was first established to provide financial assistance 378 00:32:04,747 --> 00:32:06,277 in times of hardship, 379 00:32:06,312 --> 00:32:10,652 but today it provides a different but equally crucial function. 380 00:32:10,687 --> 00:32:14,992 Most of these people have a sense of what they call "ichi gai" - 381 00:32:15,027 --> 00:32:17,952 in other words, something that gives their life 382 00:32:17,987 --> 00:32:20,197 a sense of meaning, coherence, purpose - 383 00:32:20,232 --> 00:32:23,512 something that gets them out of bed in the mornings, 384 00:32:23,547 --> 00:32:26,110 something that they look forward to doing. 385 00:32:26,145 --> 00:32:28,673 You know whether it's your gardening - 386 00:32:28,708 --> 00:32:30,677 whether it's a volunteer activity, 387 00:32:30,712 --> 00:32:33,192 whatever these older people are involved in - 388 00:32:33,227 --> 00:32:36,037 it's meaningful to them. 389 00:32:36,072 --> 00:32:41,073 Without that, it makes ageing successfully difficult. 390 00:33:14,233 --> 00:33:20,872 We're going to the first house that I can ever remember... 391 00:33:22,792 --> 00:33:25,753 ..and just on the right-hand side here, 392 00:33:25,788 --> 00:33:28,953 there's these modern houses now... 393 00:33:31,432 --> 00:33:35,837 ..but that's 230- and it's still 230- 394 00:33:35,872 --> 00:33:39,793 and that was where I used to stay, up at the top flat, 395 00:33:39,828 --> 00:33:43,353 but it didn't look like that when I came here. 396 00:33:43,388 --> 00:33:45,158 It was... 397 00:33:45,193 --> 00:33:48,273 just dirtier and greyer looking. 398 00:33:50,073 --> 00:33:52,592 I have great memories. 399 00:33:52,627 --> 00:33:55,077 Some sad ones, obviously. 400 00:33:55,112 --> 00:33:58,157 When my dad died, I remember... 401 00:33:58,192 --> 00:34:00,278 I remember being locked in a bathroom 402 00:34:00,313 --> 00:34:03,233 and I could see people passing by with a big, big box 403 00:34:03,268 --> 00:34:06,553 and...I didn't know what it was at the time, 404 00:34:06,588 --> 00:34:08,673 but it was my dad. 405 00:34:11,592 --> 00:34:13,392 47, he was. 406 00:34:27,313 --> 00:34:30,993 Graham still lives in Glasgow with his wife Moira. 407 00:34:33,873 --> 00:34:37,832 Five years ago, just after his own 47th birthday, 408 00:34:37,867 --> 00:34:40,593 Graham was rushed into hospital. 409 00:34:40,628 --> 00:34:43,798 He died three times 410 00:34:43,833 --> 00:34:45,637 and I'm saying to my children, 411 00:34:45,672 --> 00:34:49,157 I think youse better prepare yourselves. 412 00:34:49,192 --> 00:34:52,992 I don't think your dad's going to make it through the night 413 00:34:53,027 --> 00:34:56,793 and then I stood back and looked at myself standing there, 414 00:34:56,828 --> 00:34:59,752 and thought, "Who said that?" 415 00:34:59,787 --> 00:35:02,638 It was so unreal. 416 00:35:02,673 --> 00:35:04,552 But we came through it. 417 00:35:04,587 --> 00:35:06,397 The next morning... 418 00:35:06,432 --> 00:35:11,193 There was intensive care and I says, "How are you feeling?" 419 00:35:11,228 --> 00:35:14,830 He says, "I just feel really tired," 420 00:35:14,865 --> 00:35:18,432 and, "When am I getting out of here?" 421 00:35:22,033 --> 00:35:27,952 Moira and Graham's experiences are a familiar story in Glasgow, 422 00:35:27,987 --> 00:35:29,718 where in parts of the city, 423 00:35:29,753 --> 00:35:33,033 life expectancy is amongst the lowest in Europe. 424 00:35:38,152 --> 00:35:42,513 In some areas, male life expectancy is as low as 57, 425 00:35:42,548 --> 00:35:50,392 no better than it was 50 years ago. 426 00:35:52,632 --> 00:35:55,197 Comparing Glasgow around the world, 427 00:35:55,232 --> 00:35:58,157 you can see that we don't fare too well. 428 00:35:58,192 --> 00:36:01,912 Some of the poorer parts of Glasgow have a life expectancy 429 00:36:01,947 --> 00:36:05,113 that's on a par with poorer parts in central Europe 430 00:36:05,148 --> 00:36:06,757 or even in South America. 431 00:36:06,792 --> 00:36:09,592 A life expectancy of just below 60 years 432 00:36:09,627 --> 00:36:12,153 is not is not a good thing to have. 433 00:36:13,552 --> 00:36:16,558 Hello, welcome. Thanks for coming today, Moira. 434 00:36:16,593 --> 00:36:20,793 Professor Chris Packard is studying families like the Jacksons 435 00:36:20,828 --> 00:36:22,798 to try to understand why Glasgow 436 00:36:22,833 --> 00:36:26,077 is at the wrong end of the life expectancy charts. 437 00:36:26,112 --> 00:36:29,552 And we'll see how many you can do within the two minutes, OK? 438 00:36:29,587 --> 00:36:31,397 Go. 439 00:36:31,432 --> 00:36:35,553 Been treated for a few things - damage to... 440 00:36:35,588 --> 00:36:38,073 Physiotherapy, sciatica. 441 00:36:39,393 --> 00:36:43,478 I feel about 70, maybe 80 sometimes, 442 00:36:43,513 --> 00:36:46,958 trying to get out of the seat when I can't. 443 00:36:46,993 --> 00:36:51,193 I can actually stand, but my right leg stays bent 444 00:36:51,228 --> 00:36:53,433 and will not straighten. 445 00:36:55,033 --> 00:36:58,952 It's like.. I think I'm learning to cope with it. 446 00:37:02,353 --> 00:37:06,672 Moira's body is showing signs of age-related disease. 447 00:37:06,707 --> 00:37:09,398 We're interested in the carotid artery here. 448 00:37:09,433 --> 00:37:12,753 Quite happy with that, actually - that's quite nice and clear. 449 00:37:12,788 --> 00:37:15,077 But the most obvious causes - 450 00:37:15,112 --> 00:37:19,312 like diet, smoking and alcohol may not be to blame. 451 00:37:19,347 --> 00:37:21,398 One of the challenges for Glasgow 452 00:37:21,433 --> 00:37:24,392 is to explain why it has this record of ill health. 453 00:37:26,913 --> 00:37:28,598 We start where everybody starts 454 00:37:28,633 --> 00:37:30,993 in looking at the classical risk factors - 455 00:37:31,028 --> 00:37:33,438 diet, smoking, blood pressure. 456 00:37:33,473 --> 00:37:36,952 When we compare Glasgow with other cities around the UK, 457 00:37:36,987 --> 00:37:39,638 we find comparable levels of these things 458 00:37:39,673 --> 00:37:42,712 and therefore our ill health - our excess ill health - 459 00:37:42,747 --> 00:37:44,758 is not explained properly by them. 460 00:37:44,793 --> 00:37:47,793 We're left with a large proportion of the problem 461 00:37:47,828 --> 00:37:50,593 that we have to find new explanations for. 462 00:37:57,553 --> 00:37:59,918 Coming up to Maryhill. 463 00:37:59,953 --> 00:38:02,612 This is the north of Glasgow now 464 00:38:02,647 --> 00:38:05,237 and this was where my mum and dad 465 00:38:05,272 --> 00:38:08,832 spent the early years of their married life 466 00:38:08,867 --> 00:38:11,712 in a place called Hopehill Road. 467 00:38:14,233 --> 00:38:16,198 They lived in a single end 468 00:38:16,233 --> 00:38:20,633 which means just the one room for to eat, sleep and cook and... 469 00:38:20,668 --> 00:38:24,592 There was my mum and dad, my brother and my sister, 470 00:38:24,627 --> 00:38:29,518 myself and a gran that I don't remember, 471 00:38:29,553 --> 00:38:33,952 all living in the one room, all sharing beds except me. 472 00:38:33,987 --> 00:38:35,313 I was in the pram. 473 00:38:37,713 --> 00:38:39,758 Sort of glad I don't remember it, 474 00:38:39,793 --> 00:38:42,792 but this is it - this is Hopehill Road - 475 00:38:42,827 --> 00:38:45,792 and didnae look like this as far as I know. 476 00:38:48,433 --> 00:38:51,077 In the early years of the 20th century, 477 00:38:51,112 --> 00:38:55,033 Glasgow underwent a period of rapid industrialisation. 478 00:38:57,832 --> 00:39:01,552 Tenements were thrown up to house the expanding population. 479 00:39:01,587 --> 00:39:04,957 In the area where Moira and Graham lived as children, 480 00:39:04,992 --> 00:39:09,873 there were a million people living in just a few square miles. 481 00:39:12,592 --> 00:39:15,472 In Glasgow in the middle of the last century, 482 00:39:15,507 --> 00:39:18,317 we had wave after wave of childhood infections - 483 00:39:18,352 --> 00:39:22,397 scarlet fever, typhoid - which were rife throughout the city, 484 00:39:22,432 --> 00:39:26,313 and overcrowding was very common and in those conditions, of course, 485 00:39:26,348 --> 00:39:29,273 infections passed from person to person very quickly. 486 00:39:30,273 --> 00:39:32,278 In order to survive their conditions, 487 00:39:32,313 --> 00:39:35,237 the people living in the tenements at the time 488 00:39:35,272 --> 00:39:39,273 developed heightened immune defences to combat infection, 489 00:39:39,308 --> 00:39:42,358 a condition known as inflammatory response. 490 00:39:42,393 --> 00:39:47,712 So if you have a tendency towards a high inflammatory response, 491 00:39:47,747 --> 00:39:50,437 then when childhood infections come, 492 00:39:50,472 --> 00:39:54,558 you tend to survive long enough to have children yourself, 493 00:39:54,593 --> 00:39:58,433 so people with that tendency will be increased in the population. 494 00:40:01,953 --> 00:40:04,477 Inflammatory response evolved 495 00:40:04,512 --> 00:40:07,953 to protect those living in the tenements at the time, 496 00:40:07,988 --> 00:40:12,552 but it also had a trade-off later in life. 497 00:40:12,587 --> 00:40:14,998 An over-active immune system 498 00:40:15,033 --> 00:40:19,312 can end up attacking the body it is meant to protect. 499 00:40:21,433 --> 00:40:25,238 But of course, when they reach adult life or late adult life, 500 00:40:25,273 --> 00:40:29,512 they've got more of a propensity for inflammatory-related diseases 501 00:40:29,547 --> 00:40:32,310 like diabetes, heart disease and arthritis, 502 00:40:32,345 --> 00:40:35,073 which of course, are common in Glasgow. 503 00:40:37,192 --> 00:40:39,673 Even though their environment has changed 504 00:40:39,708 --> 00:40:41,558 and their lifestyle is healthy, 505 00:40:41,593 --> 00:40:44,078 Moira and Graham are still showing signs 506 00:40:44,113 --> 00:40:48,192 of a heightened immune response they inherited from their parents. 507 00:40:48,227 --> 00:40:50,477 The tenements themselves have gone, 508 00:40:50,512 --> 00:40:52,918 the overcrowding is a thing of the past 509 00:40:52,953 --> 00:40:57,512 and the city fathers have put in new housing where people are being moved to, 510 00:40:57,547 --> 00:41:00,557 and it's improved dramatically their conditions, 511 00:41:00,592 --> 00:41:05,113 but the legacies - through the processes we've described - are still there. 512 00:41:05,148 --> 00:41:08,150 The ill health still hangs over us to some extent 513 00:41:08,185 --> 00:41:11,152 and we have to allow that to work out of the system. 514 00:41:14,392 --> 00:41:17,833 So how can you make it to 101 without trying? 515 00:41:19,353 --> 00:41:22,637 The answer is not only to look at your own life, 516 00:41:22,672 --> 00:41:27,312 but also to understand how your parents and grandparents lived theirs. 517 00:41:27,347 --> 00:41:31,232 Every community has a delicate relationship 518 00:41:31,267 --> 00:41:33,558 between past and present, 519 00:41:33,593 --> 00:41:37,792 between the environment our ancestors evolved to survive 520 00:41:37,827 --> 00:41:40,352 and the one we live in today. 521 00:41:41,512 --> 00:41:44,752 Nowhere is the delicate nature of this relationship 522 00:41:44,787 --> 00:41:47,993 revealed more starkly than on the islands of Hawaii. 523 00:41:49,833 --> 00:41:51,752 This is bad for his health, right? 524 00:41:53,472 --> 00:41:57,238 He lived till 100, let him eat whatever he wants! 525 00:41:57,273 --> 00:42:03,112 101 year old Donald Nago moved from Okinawa to Hawaii as a child. 526 00:42:03,147 --> 00:42:05,672 He's been healthy his entire life. 527 00:42:07,392 --> 00:42:12,393 But the same cannot be said of his children and grandchildren. 528 00:42:12,428 --> 00:42:17,590 I didn't know that I had high blood pressure 529 00:42:17,625 --> 00:42:22,752 until the Okinawans sent a team of doctors... 530 00:42:22,787 --> 00:42:23,877 here to Hawaii 531 00:42:23,912 --> 00:42:28,712 to investigate all the Okinawans in Hawaii 532 00:42:28,747 --> 00:42:31,717 and they put down the reason, obese. 533 00:42:31,752 --> 00:42:34,712 Was your family already here, or did you...? 534 00:42:34,747 --> 00:42:37,637 Alongside his work in Okinawa, Bradley Willcox 535 00:42:37,672 --> 00:42:42,232 has also been analysing the health of Okinawans who now live in Hawaii. 536 00:42:42,267 --> 00:42:46,393 One of the things we've noticed with subsequent generations, 537 00:42:46,428 --> 00:42:49,317 their risk for coronary heart disease goes up. 538 00:42:49,352 --> 00:42:54,033 The third generation were born here and are getting much more culturated, 539 00:42:54,068 --> 00:42:57,672 are more obese, have higher blood-sugar levels, 540 00:42:57,707 --> 00:42:59,237 higher insulin rates, 541 00:42:59,272 --> 00:43:02,398 higher levels of calcium in their coronary arteries 542 00:43:02,433 --> 00:43:05,878 and we're worried that they may not achieve the right balance 543 00:43:05,913 --> 00:43:10,353 like their parents did, and they may have actually a shorter lifespan 544 00:43:10,388 --> 00:43:12,952 than their second generation parents. 545 00:43:16,273 --> 00:43:20,673 Bradley has studied the health of over 8,000 Japanese-American men 546 00:43:20,708 --> 00:43:25,198 analysing the impact of immigration on life expectancy. 547 00:43:25,233 --> 00:43:31,233 So, you've got you know a population of Japanese Americans in Hawaii 548 00:43:31,268 --> 00:43:35,638 that evolved eating different foods in Japan 549 00:43:35,673 --> 00:43:40,473 and then, after a couple of generations on a typical Western diet, 550 00:43:40,508 --> 00:43:45,273 they're at higher risk, I think, for certain diseases like diabetes 551 00:43:45,308 --> 00:43:50,310 than are populations that grew up eating western food. 552 00:43:50,345 --> 00:43:55,312 The American lifestyle appears to be far more detrimental 553 00:43:55,347 --> 00:43:58,272 to people of Japanese descent than other Americans. 554 00:44:00,313 --> 00:44:03,592 Having evolved to thrive on a low-calorie diet, 555 00:44:03,627 --> 00:44:05,998 to survive periods of famine, 556 00:44:06,033 --> 00:44:11,512 it seems their bodies are simply not suited to the abundance of food. 557 00:44:13,072 --> 00:44:16,472 It's a case of they've got good genes, 558 00:44:16,507 --> 00:44:19,837 but they're in the wrong environment 559 00:44:19,872 --> 00:44:26,472 so, very much... healthy ageing is a gene environment interaction, 560 00:44:26,507 --> 00:44:29,677 so there's many changes that have occurred 561 00:44:29,712 --> 00:44:34,672 across human populations that grew up in certain circumstances 562 00:44:34,707 --> 00:44:37,552 that affect modern-day populations. 563 00:44:40,552 --> 00:44:43,277 It's a lesson that needs to be heeded 564 00:44:43,312 --> 00:44:47,953 even in the places where people live longer than anywhere else on earth. 565 00:44:57,952 --> 00:45:01,052 What Bradley has discovered in Hawaii 566 00:45:01,087 --> 00:45:04,153 may being replicated in Okinawa itself. 567 00:45:08,112 --> 00:45:10,878 are a younger generation of Okinawans 568 00:45:10,913 --> 00:45:14,112 who have failed to learn the lessons from their grandparents. 569 00:45:29,233 --> 00:45:33,398 In two generations, Okinawans have gone from the leanest 570 00:45:33,433 --> 00:45:39,072 and most robust of the Japanese to the heaviest of the Japanese, 571 00:45:39,107 --> 00:45:41,957 and some diseases such as diabetes 572 00:45:41,992 --> 00:45:45,832 are now higher here than in mainland Japan. 573 00:45:53,472 --> 00:45:55,958 Okinawans are at a crossroads right now 574 00:45:55,993 --> 00:45:58,833 with regard to the future of health in Okinawa. 575 00:45:58,868 --> 00:46:00,997 They go down one path, 576 00:46:01,032 --> 00:46:03,917 they try to recapture the old ways. 577 00:46:03,952 --> 00:46:08,192 Then population health will improve in the younger generations 578 00:46:08,227 --> 00:46:12,433 and they'll continue to lead the world in terms of longevity. 579 00:46:12,468 --> 00:46:15,038 But if they go down the other pathway, 580 00:46:15,073 --> 00:46:20,558 then they'll continue to lose ground in future generations 581 00:46:20,593 --> 00:46:25,593 and may end up even the shortest-lived of the Japanese if things continue. 582 00:46:32,593 --> 00:46:37,253 But for the time being, at least, many of the secrets of long life 583 00:46:37,288 --> 00:46:41,913 can still be found by observing the people who are the living examples 584 00:46:41,948 --> 00:46:44,272 of healthy, active old age. 585 00:46:46,593 --> 00:46:49,952 What's the best thing, Marge, about being older? 586 00:46:49,987 --> 00:46:52,438 The best thing? 587 00:46:52,473 --> 00:46:54,652 I can't, I don't know of any. 588 00:46:54,687 --> 00:46:56,832 I don't know, maybe wiser? 589 00:46:58,472 --> 00:47:02,158 No. Just... 590 00:47:02,193 --> 00:47:04,473 Oh, I know, I get more attention. 591 00:47:40,992 --> 00:47:45,033 But the race is on to learn their unique lessons 592 00:47:45,068 --> 00:47:46,792 before it is too late. 593 00:47:48,392 --> 00:47:52,197 There's a pressing need to study these cultural habits 594 00:47:52,232 --> 00:47:56,478 that have led to this longevity phenomenon before it disappears. 595 00:47:56,513 --> 00:48:01,713 I mean, anthropologists could be out of a job in a couple of generations 596 00:48:01,748 --> 00:48:04,792 because we're all getting this homogeneous culture 597 00:48:04,827 --> 00:48:07,197 where we're all eating the same foods 598 00:48:07,232 --> 00:48:11,397 and local traditions and knowledge is being lost 599 00:48:11,432 --> 00:48:16,232 and unless we try to preserve some of these traditions, 600 00:48:16,267 --> 00:48:20,272 then... then we WILL lose it for ever. 601 00:48:20,307 --> 00:48:22,958 Bye-bye! Bye-bye! 602 00:48:22,993 --> 00:48:26,353 I might have to go study the Sardinians. 603 00:48:45,753 --> 00:48:48,773 Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd 604 00:48:48,808 --> 00:48:51,793 E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk