Celebrating All Those Centenarians
Their amazing numbers just keep rising, which is an indication we humans as a species are doing something right, at least in certain countries of the world. The rise in elders who are reaching 100 years old continues to increase in some countries as indicated below.
Centenarian populations:
Japan 2008: 36,000 – Japan 2009: 40,000 – France 2000: 8,000 – France 2008: 20,000
There are mounting brigades of nonagenarians [these are folks in their 90’s] that are poised to join the incredible ranks of the centenarians around the world and Japan and France seem to have the market cornered for advanced senior citizenship.
A Reuter’s news report cited the number of Japanese hundred year olds has increased to more than forty thousand and that is a growth of ten percent in a portion of the population that is as well known for its mortality rate as it is for its longevity. Even more amazing is that Japan has a population of just one hundred twenty seven million people.
Still more impressive is the French, with a population of sixty five million people they had eight thousand centenarians only eight years ago and their population of centenarians has swelled to over twenty thousand as of 2008. With France’s current life expectancy by 2050 there will be more than eighty thousand folks living in France who are over the age of one hundred!
For comparison purposes, based on the U.S. Census Bureau, The American population of approximately three hundred million has the highest number of centenarians anywhere at ninety six thousand. The U.S. longevity numbers are not too precise because of lousy record keeping so many years ago. The exact number of centenarians just cannot be tallied.
The Japanese have the longest life spans in the entire world and they have the well preserved birthing data to back this up. The Japanese also ingest about one thousand fewer calories each day and because they must import their bovine meat and dairy items they have a lower iron and calcium consumption, which means according to popular theory, they age much slower.
Those nations around the globe that have the available grazing land and fresh water to sustain their cattle herds have greater incidences of cardiovascular disease and cancer known as age related illnesses. Iron from the red meat and the calcium from dairy, required more in the formative years, just increase the oxidation and calcification [aging] in mature males and postmenopausal females.
The Japanese who inhabit the island of Okinawa have been lauded in the past for their prolonged life spans but this is changing. At one time, it was the region with the longest life expectancy in Japan but now it is ranked at twenty six among the forty seven districts in Japan for longevity.
Since 1988, the consumption of meat and dairy in Okinawa and the intake of veggie pod pulses daily were both about ninety grams, roughly twenty to thirty percent higher than the nation average – respectively. During this same time span, daily consumption of green and yellow veggies in Okinawa was around fifty percent greater than average. Nevertheless, by 1998, the daily meat consumption and the fat energy ratio passes the 100 gram mark and thirty percent – respectively, the per day consumption of pulses and green and yellow veggies dropped to levels of the nations average. In recent times the young men of Japan, and in particular the Young male population of Okinawa, have been displaying a propensity to shun the traditional Okinawa cuisine.
Men in Japan between the age of sixty one and eighty one years of age living in country are three times more apt to smoke tobacco than a Japanese male residing in Hawaii and they also have a higher death rate than Hawaiian men do. It makes a person think of how long these Japanese citizens would survive if they did not consume alcohol or smoke.
Tobacco Use Declines
It is likely that a decrease in smoking by French women is the reason for such a large increase in the longevity rate in that country. Just 8.7 percent of females smoke tobacco in France against 16.9 percent in Greece and 26.1 percent in Italy, amongst other Mediterranean nations that have a high life span. According to the WHO. In Japan, around forty three percent of men and thirteen percent of women smoke tobacco as of 2007. In America, less than twenty percent of the population is smoking.
The Anti Aging, Magic Pill Is Aged With A Cork In It!
The French are not waiting around for the magic anti aging elixir, they already have it. Red wine that has been fermented for a number of weeks and aged for several years in oak barrels will do fine for their anti aging medicinal support. In point of fact, the red wine drinking French population is living past all prior forecasts, this inspite of eating a fairly high fat diet. This was known as the French paradox in the 1990’s.
Lately, there seems to be a decline in the amount of alcohol intake and smoking amongst the adult population over the age of sixty in France. However, the consumption of red wine still runs high in older French people. In addition, the unexpected fatalities of elder French citizens during the heat wave of 2003 inspired change in the manner that French families looked after their senior members of the family. Air conditioning now is common in homes occupied by French senior citizens.
To verify the French paradox, a study recently displayed that an additional five years could be added to those who toasted modestly with wine when evaluated alongside the teetotaling population.
Will Future Generations of French Continue Their Ardent Wine Consumption?
There was a time in France when the population was forced to fight for their wine. During the Nazi occupation in the Second World War the German military apprehended huge supplies of the grape, sending thousands of barrels of fine French wine home to Hitler’s Germany and converting acres of prime vineyards into war time production. One has to wonder if the current generations of young French would be just as willing to fight the good fight as their elders were bent on doing against the Nazis. The French are drinking half the quantity of wine that they did forty years ago so say the International Organization of Vine and Wine.
One also must wonder if the French can identify the clinical value of their wine as a cure for the obesity and diabetes epidemics occurring in Western Society. When you introduce red wine into the diet of lab rats, they appear to be able to steer clear of the many health ailments caused by obesity. One characteristic of red wine is its capability to control weight by monitoring the development of estrogen occurring from fat producing cells or [adipocytes]. When animals are fed red wine at the molecular level, they gain less mass than their teetotaling counterparts do and they live about a one third longer life span. This might be the reason why the French, though they eat a high amount of calories, remain fairly well physically proportioned.
The French have at their disposal a potential curative to the plague of obesity and diabetes overtaking western society and in the U.S. alone it signifies the largest expenditure of healthcare dollars and there are much fewer debates concerning the cost of health care in France.
The WHO recently ranked nation health care and France was number one while the United States came in thirty seventh place. There is a distinct disparity in fatalities due to respiratory ailments, specifically the margin of 31.2 per one hundred thousand persons in France, compared to 61.5 per one hundred thousand in the U.S. There is also the fact that French consumers of wine have a much lower coronary artery illness death rate at 78.4 per one hundred thousand than the U.S. at 163.4 per hundred thousand. France only spends 10.7 percent of its GDP on health care and America is doling out sixteen percent more than any other single country in the world as of July 2007.
Am I the only one who thinks the French Government should have a roving French Wine Export Marketing Minister in their government’s cabinet?
The American population would much prefer to simply pop a pill to drinking wine with their menu. Therefore, the French whine about the decline in the popularity of their wine while people are purchasing cheaper wine while dishing out billions of dollars in huge health care expenditures…and they call the French population haughty!
There was a period when the French had a strangle hold on global wine exports however; today they rank third behind the U.S. and Spain in wine exporting. They are currently garnering only fifteen percent of the international wine market. The business news in France cries that the “party is over” regarding French wine global distribution. It is very disappointing that international sales of French wine have dropped in recent history due to a surge in cheap wine out of Australia. The French must also shoulder partial responsibility as experts say their quality has fallen off somewhat.
The French do not believe in pumping out their fine wine as if it were an assembly line product. They take care to age their wines and ferment them over a period of time in order to achieve a wine that is deep in color and loaded in molecules only now getting massive media attention – resveratrol, quercetin and proanthocyanidins. It is truly a medicinal type of wine we are talking about here.
If you were perplexed about which variety of French wine to consume first you should test the wine from the Tannat grape in the southwestern district of Madiran, they are all laden with the healthy molecular compounds mentioned above.
Not all French wine is created equally; there are exceptions to the medicinal wine class. It was 2006 when masked raiders converged on a port pier in France and poured out tens of thousands of gallons of wine to dispute mass produced or what they termed – industrial French wine companies. A few disguised looters were charged but let go by the courts. The government of France is currently paying its vintners to uproot their vineyards so they can proceed with planting different crops to avoid a saturated market. France’s vintners – or winemakers – indeed understand they have a special anti aging, medicinal natural beverage. The despise the fakers out there who make wine and stick a label on the bottle that reads “made in France” but is far from the homegrown quality values.
If French wine is not of interest to you, customary dark red wines developed using Malbec and Carmenere grapes in the high mountainous regions of Chile and Argentina actually compete with French wines.
Should Wine Be Hyped For Its Longevity Properties?
Pretty sure, there will be those who cry foul over the promotion of wine as a healthful product. There are most certainly prideful debates about the virtues of one wine over another. In order to alleviate any argument, the preference of which alcoholic drink does have a bearing on the death rates of males.
Finland is time and again chosen for health evaluations due to the lofty use of tobacco and alcoholic beverages. They collected data over a twenty nine year from two thousand four hundred sixty eight executives regarding their choice of alcoholic drink. Of all of them, wine drinking Finnish men recorded the lowest mortality numbers because of lowered cardiovascular illness rates. The information clearly displayed that Finnish wine drinker had a thirty four percent lower mortality rate, beer drinkers were nine percent lower versus males who drank the “hard stuff”.
French wine drinkers consume about three to five glasses of wine daily and enjoy most favorable health gains, however, this amount of alcohol will negatively affect driver ability and suggests that a portion of the French population are drunk regularly. Even the bible discourages over indulgence in wine – tarrying too long with the wine. To this point, even with the enormous health advantages and anti aging properties of red wine, physicians have been unenthusiastic about extolling the medicinal value of red wine and do not “prescribe it” to their patients as if they condoned over indulgence in the nectar of the grape. There could well be a place for a red wine capsule – removing the alcohol leaving only wine solid material for ingestion. There is slow advancement in this field of research with inadequate human study.
The Japanese and French have each forged their own path to genuine longevity. Both countries are deep in one hundred year old plus – citizens. The world should be taking notice of how one nation is doing via diet and another by beverage. The rest of the world could benefit from some sushi and sake, red wine and baguettes!
Anti Aging, Anti Aging Products, Anti Aging Theories, Health And Aging, Longevity
Wed, Jan 13, 2010
Anti Aging, Anti Aging Products, Anti Aging Theories, Health And Aging, Longevity