But not tonight.   We’ve converted Thea's place into a den of din and confusion.  We sit in clusters:  the science team around one table, the video editors around another and the writers around a third, illuminated by ghoulish computer-screen light.   At our feet a snarl of cables create a chaotic network that will somehow fuse a daily video, photographs, the ballot  and this Dispatch into one neat file.   At about 8:00 am tomorrow, after a sleepless night, our Producer Nick will drive that file across the island to the only dependable Internet connection.  At about that same time, the rest of us will be waking up to start all over again.

And we do this for fun.

The science team, led by the esteemed Drs. Pes and Poulain, have conducted surveys with everyone they can find over 90.  These surveys take hours and involve asking patient, kindhearted islanders hundreds of profound questions: like what day is it and what they ate in 1923.   If you conduct  enough of these surveys, some real insights emerge.   We have, for example, discovered that NO ONE suffers dementia.   This is  huge.  Why?   Half of Americans 95 and older are demented; they suffer for Alzheimer’s disease or they've suffered the ravages of poor brain circulation--something called vascular dementia.   Not here.  People are staying sharp to the very end.  That means that the Ikarian lifestyle yields not only more life but better life too.

We've also discovered that all of the old, quick-witted grown ups have drunk teas from wild herbs for most of their lives.

In February 2008, when here on a our reconnaissance trip, I noticed that old people had an afternoon habit of picking a fistfuls of herbs and seeping them in boiled water for a day’s end beverage.   I also noticed that they started their day with teas brewed from dried herbs.   This was an important lead.  Now, if I could confirm two things:  1. That there were compounds in them that favor health and 2. that old people have been drinking these teas most of their lives, I could make a strong suggestion that these herbs explain the longevity here.

My first step was to send these herbs to the effusively helpful and consummately capable Dr. Ioanna Chinnou at the University of Pharmacology for analysis.   Ioanna  spends much of her day using enormously expensive machines to discover the minutest of compounds.  Our Greek partners at The National Hellenic Foundation had introduced us to Ioanna,  She agreed, after an international cold call, to unleash the resources of her lab to help.   I sent her five Ikarian herb that are commonly used as teas  last fall.  She examined them for their medical uses and sent me a 20-page report. Here’s the shortened version:

Wild Mint – for gingivitis, skin diseases, flatulence, and ulcers.

Spleenwort – for gallstones and bronchial problems.

Purple Sage – for stomach aches

Rosemary – for gout and to help stave off alzhiemers’ disease;

Artemisia – to ease the pain of labor, improve blood circulation.

Most of these herbs are also diuretics; they make you pee.  But in so doing, they help flush our bodies of natural waste products. (If you don't pee enough, toxic nitrogen-based compounds from our cells build up and cause damage over time.)  More interesting--and more likely to explain Ikaria's greater life expectancy--is that diuretics lower blood pressure in a way not unlike letting water out of a water balloon reduces pressure in the balloon.   High blood pressure is a leading cause of heart attacks and stokes.

It’s also a major of cause of—get this-- dementia. High blood pressure stresses out blood vessels in the brain making them more susceptible to a rupture and/or blockage.   Little by little, the brain cells die from last of oxygen and pretty soon, you forget what you ate in 1923--or even what day it is.

So, smug with the notion that our Blue Zones team has done it's part to add to science, I am going to disconnect from this snarl of wires and go bed.  But first, I shall have a cup of wild mint tea.

Live Large,
Dan