OT: Longevity

Taera · #1 May 29th, 2004, 06:01 PM

Hello all, long time no see. I wanted to bring this to your attention:

My mom brought to my attention an odd article today. The article was published in a Russian magazine, and while this raises some doubts in me, im starting to wonder.

It was talking about how humans achieve longevity. The research was that all of those who lived for longer than normal (120 years? longer?) had had so many differences - smoked or not, drank or not, etc.
One thing united most of them - they lived in small settlements. And whats so special about those?

These people dont bathe as often. And dont use soap to wash themselves.

According to the article, the oily coating that the body coats itself with serves as the natural protection for the body. When in place, it stops bacteria from entering the human body whatsoever.

It also says that a few test subjects, who previously had serious health problems, hadn't bathed for 9 months - and their conditions improve drastically.

Where does washing with soaps come from? From Europe, and quite recently. People had always bathed - but they used water, steam, and many many oils and other ingridients that would make them smell better. Romans, Egyptians, Arabs, Chinese, you name it.

The article is very pursuasive. I am extremly skeptical as this hadn't been posted anywhere, at least not to my knowledge. Abd i dont realy believe in miraculous regeneration of human body. But the oil part makes perfect sense. After all, the coating does have a purpose and even our cells are coated with oil, which stops other materials.

Any thoughts? I'll try to get exact translation of names in the article.

[ May 29, 2004, 17:01: Message edited by: Taera ]

primitive · #2 May 29th, 2004, 06:48 PM

Just another proof that statistics can be used to prove (almost) anything you want. The contemporaries of these old people (born before 1900) didn't wash much either. Of course they are long dead by now so they can be easily omitted

As mentioned; the Romans did use steam and oils, but for most of the Roman era a man of 40 would be considered old.

Phoenix-D · #3 May 29th, 2004, 07:08 PM

I can say right now that this is false. Why? Well, everyone knows that sweat stinks. It stinks not because of itself (though it does have some smell), but because of the bacteria that eat it. The skin itself is your primary defense against bacteria.

The oily feeling you get when not washing, BTW, comes from having a -lot- of oil on your skin. You always have some.

If that's not enough proof check the life expectancy before and after soap was introduced. There is a very big difference. That's not to say being excessive with it helps either; you do always have bacteria, mites, etc living on you. Killing them all off is a bad thing because it clears room for ones your immune system can't handle to come in.

The biggest difference with these people is probably that they live in small communties. Assuming everything else is equal a small community means less chance to get a disease from a random stranger on the street.

Taera · #4 May 29th, 2004, 08:27 PM

yea, thats true. i am not sure, and frankly dont know much about skin and science of hygiene. it does make some sense... and it wasn't about not washing at all - my pardon at a bad interpretation - but it was that excessive, (once a day or more) washing doesnt let skin oil serve its role. According to the article, it takes 10-20 hours for the cover to refresh.
And yes... it is mostly about soap. Washing with water isn't bad, they say.

I dont know whom to believe

it makes sense in its essence, but mind opposes to such a simple solution to all humanity's problems.

David E. Gervais · #5 May 29th, 2004, 08:55 PM

Small communties are great for longevity, that's a fact. Why? Simple, that ugly thing called Stress. Yup, you got it, people living in small towns/communities have a much less stressful life and therefore their BP is lower which in turn allows the average lifespan to be extended. Why? Becuase the human body under ideal conditions has a limited lifespan (approx 150 years) Stress is one of the large 'taxes' placed on the human body. Sure there are other things, but stress is a biggie.

Just my 2 cents, and I live happily in a small town.

Cheers!

Slynky · #6 May 29th, 2004, 09:42 PM

Unless I missed it in the Posts below, I suspect less polution would be a possibility in smaller (less urbanized) communities.

Reminds me of a fact I heard once on the news that went a bit like this: "To put things in perspective, smoking one cigarette a day isn't as bad as eating a peanut-butter sandwich a day and neither of those are as bad as breathing city air for a day."