Between the early 70s and late 80s specific ethnic groups such as the Tarahumara
in Mexico, the Caucasus in Georgia and the Huma in Pakistan earned the interest
of longevity researchers around the world since higher than average percentages
of these peoples were reportedly living into their 90s, 100’s and
more.
Intense study of their lifestyles and surroundings followed. Some interesting
similarities were found even though some of these groups lived half a world
away from each other:
1) they live in semi-mountainous habitats,
2) in largely farm oriented settings,
3) by western standards are considered very poor,
4) had low caloric mainly vegetarian based diets,
5) smoked natural tobacco,
6) the men consume an average of 40 oz. of beer daily,
7) they live in socially tight knit communities with animistic religious
beliefs,
8) they revere their elderly.
One of the communities most frequented by international longevity researchers
is the small village of Vilcabamba (pop. 1500) in southern Ecuador about
one hundred kilometres north of the Peruvian border.
As a fitting 40th birthday gift I decided to visit Vilcabamba to see
if I could glean any information about aging and longevity. Did people
indeed live longer there and if so why?
After a nine-hour flight from Toronto, an hour small plane flight from
the capital Quito, a two hour car ride and a small taxi jaunt you arrive
through twisting, lush greenery lined roads to find the so called, ‘Valley
of Longevity’ to be truly magnificent.
The first thing that strikes you is the sheer physical beauty of the
place. It is visually stunning lying in a fertile valley nestled in ever
widening and heightening circles of surrounding Andean mountains. But
the sensory stimulation you feel there goes well beyond the visual: the
air, the quiet, the temperature, the sunlight and the truly tranquil atmosphere
envelope you in a feeling of surprisingly moving peacefulness of body
and mind.
Vilcabamba lies adjacent to Podocarpus national park, an extremely eco-diverse
mountainous region where many plant and insect species exist which remain
uncatalogued by the scientific community today. This explains Vilcabamba’s
incredible lush and abundant greenery with a plethora of beautiful wildflowers
and birds.
The Amazon basin, the so-called ‘air filter’ of the world,
directly borders Podocarpus Park and Vilcabamba. In fact Vilcabamba is
one of the first bits of civilization the purified Amazonian air hits
on its journey from the Atlantic westward to the Pacific Ocean. The result
is truly magnificent air, startlingly fresh, fragrant and invigorating.
I found myself continuously taking deep breaths as if I was in an aromatherapy
session.
Then there’s the climate: it’s perfect! Vilcabamba lies at
1500 metres above sea level it is surprisingly cool for its proximity
to the equator (4 degrees south). All year round temperatures fluctuate
between 23 Celsius in the day and 15 at night with very little humidity.
According to the locals the sparse rainy season isn’t really an
issue.
The Vilcabamban water is also noteworthy. Scientists have found high
concentrations of 21 minerals and speculate this may help explain the
total lack of cardiovascular disease and extremely low level of osteoporosis
found here. Vilcabamba’s 1500 metre elevation allows an optimal
amount of mineral filtration as the waters descend from their 3000 metre
start in the Andes. By the time this same water reaches sea level mineral
levels are markedly lower. And yes it tastes good too.
It really is easy to ‘just be’ in Vilcabamba. No internet,
few phones and only one through road to the world make life here truly
quiet and peaceful. Time is not the same in such an environment. I couldn’t
find anyone who wore a watch. Most of the villagers I met used the sun’s
position in the sky for time.
The incredibly relaxed pace of the place is so effortless and intoxicating
you could swear your body was made for it. I watched people come to the
small town square and just hang around for hours at a time. In contrast
to life in the big city Vilcabamba is in serious slow motion. Many an
afternoon is spent in a healthy mix of working and socializing for hours
at a time. They talk a bit, then walk over to someone they know, which
is basically everyone, then talk some more.
In investigating claims for longevity it right away becomes apparent
that there’s no way to know for sure how old someone is. Because
old people are venerated in Vilcabamba, people commonly exaggerate their
age. There were however a few people who the townsfolk and Ecuadorian
authorities agree really were as old as they claimed. The oldest reportedly
being the well-known Miguel Carpio, who died in 1978, at the age of 130!
It is noteworthy that world gerentological authorities refuse to consider
these claims because they can’t substantiate them (the oldest verified
people being 117 and 122 from France).
In my search for the current elderly in Vilcabamba I met a reasonably
healthy 107 year-old man who stopped smoking five years ago but continues
to drink daily. His diet consists mainly of squash and beans. Although
his hearing and sight were weak he certainly could talk up a storm and
seemed in good spirits. In marked contrast to our society the elderly
here never ‘retire’. They simply shift what they do to less
physically demanding tasks such as sorting corn or watching infants but
they remain a valued resource. Retire at 65? These people work until the
day they die.
I couldn’t help but wonder if we weren’t losing out on a
potentially valuable pool of wisdom and labour by removing our elderly
from everyday work life. In Vilcabamba the elderly are a familial source
of pride. They are considered as living testament to the wisdom and strength
of the families they came from. Contrast this mindset with the expectations
we’ve created in North America in our elderly about aging. (The
field of Mind-Body medicine would have a field day with the implications:
just how powerful a factor in longevity would being revered for your age
be? Could this mindset foster cellular processes that enhance tissue life?)
I was very impressed by a delightfully virile 96 year old lady I met.
She stood straight as a rod, walked with a fluid grace I would never have
associated with someone over fifty and worked 8-10 hours a day helping
her family farm. She was without a doubt the healthiest 96 year old I’ve
ever seen and it should be noted was a valued contributor to her family.
This was all great but we all know people right here in Canada who live
to be productive well into their 90’s. Where were the really old
people, the 120 year old legends I’d heard about?
It seems that the golden age of longevity had in fact ended about fifteen
or twenty years ago in Vilcabamba. Hospital staff, the town doctor and
an American expat who’d lived there for 33 years all remarked that
the ‘modernization’ of Vilcabamba that began with the arrival
of processed foods, cars and tourists, had effectively changed life and
dramatically decreased the number of people living to really old age.
Whereas everyone had grown their own food before, now many were buying
their food and introducing processed foods to the Vilcabamban diet. Cars
and trucks transported farmers whereas previously 5-10 km hikes through
the mountain valley used to be the start of every farmer’s day.
Tourism had made some people wealthier than others causing competition
and stress.
A hospital was donated by Japan in ‘75 and interestingly many of
the locals believe the drug treatments dispensed by the hospital were
particularly hard on the elderly who had never used pharmaceuticals. Until
the hospital was built locals relied completely on natural cures from
surrounding mountain and jungle plants. Now almost no one performs the
arduous labour of picking and preparing natural cures. Pills are just
so much easier to use.
So what do we learn from all this? A combination of pure air, vigorous
daily exercise, mainly vegetarian low caloric diet, cultural respect for
the elderly, great climate, semi-mountainous habitat, highly mineralized
water, low stress with little time concerns and daily community based
socializing is really good for people. The magic seems to leave however
when ‘modernization’ arrives: cars, processed foods, hospitals,
higher productivity requirements necessitating time constraints and stress.
The bigger question Vilcabamba raised for me is why we in the modern
world think we need to be so productive in the first place? Who really
gains when we work ourselves to exhaustion?
Come to think of it I don’t remember seeing any tired people in
Vilcabamba.
