Could greed and the weakness of administrations be the secret of the “blue zones” of the world, famous for the longevity of their inhabitants and their high proportion of centenarians? This is what a researcher tends to demonstrate, according to whom the “blue zones” are in fact nothing more than a hoax, based on erroneous data. This term was coined to refer to regions of the world – the Italian island of Sardinia was the first in 2004 – where people are said to live longer and healthier than elsewhere.
This desire to live as long as possible has given rise to a thriving business: dietary advice and advice for a supposedly healthy lifestyle, books, tech gadgets, food supplements… supposed to contribute to longevity.
But for Saul Justin Newman, a researcher at University College London, the existing data on the planet’s oldest humans is simply “bogus, to a truly shocking degree.” His research, currently undergoing peer review, sifted through data on centenarians and “supercentenarians” (who reached age 110) in the United States, Italy, England, France and Japan.
And unexpectedly, he found that “supercentenarians” tended to come from areas with poor health, high poverty levels and poor record-keeping.
In Japan, 82% of centenarians already dead
The real secret to extreme longevity seems to be to “settle where birth certificates are rare and teach your children to cheat your way to a retirement pension,” Saul Newman said in September upon receiving his award. Ig Nobel, an award given to scientists whose research, although eccentric, provokes thought.
Among other examples, Sogen Kato was considered Japan’s oldest person… until his mummified remains were discovered in 2010 – it turned out he had died in 1978. Members of his family have arrested for having received his pension for three decades. The government then launched a study which revealed that 82% of centenarians counted in Japan, or 230,000 people, were in reality missing or dead.
“Their documents are in order, they are simply dead,” the researcher said. Because confirming the age of these people involves verifying very old documents whose very authenticity can be called into question. For him, all the commerce that the blue zones have given rise to stems from this problem.
“Only alive the day they receive their pension”
In 2004, Sardinia was the first to be qualified as a “blue zone”. The following year, the Japanese islands of Okinawa and the Californian city of Loma Linda were designated “blue zones” by a journalist from National GeographicDan Buettner. But in October, the latter admitted to the New York Times only included Loma Linda because his editor told him, “You have to find America’s Blue Zone.”
The journalist then teamed up with demographers to create the “Blue Zones” brand, to which were added the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica and the Greek island of Ikaria. But unreliable public records, such as those in Japan, have cast doubt on the real age of the centenarians counted in these areas.
In Costa Rica, a 2008 study showed that 42% of them had “lied about their age” during a census, reports Saul Newman. In Greece, the 2012 data he collected suggests that 72% of centenarians were dead: “they are only alive the day they receive their retirement pension,” he quips.
Researchers’ quarrels
Researchers who advocate “blue zones” have dismissed Saul Newman’s work as “ethically and academically irresponsible.” Demographers have claimed to have “meticulously verified” the ages of “supercentenarians” using historical documents and records dating back to the 1800s.
But according to Saul Newman, this argument supports his point: “If we start from an erroneous birth certificate, copied from other certificates, we obtain perfectly coherent files… and perfectly erroneous,” he declared. . In conclusion, he says: “To live a long time, start by not buying anything. Listen to your doctor, exercise, don’t drink, don’t smoke, that’s it. »