Why there are so many Methuselahs on Crete?

As in all Greece, there are many Methuselahs on Crete, especially in some remote villages. Scientists have discovered the reason of longevity of so many healthy people in remote Greek villages in the north of Crete.

The reason lies in a newly discovered variety of a gene that is available to all residents of these villages and, apparently, protects the heart, reducing the level of harmful fats and cholesterol. And besides they are very like cheese.

The inhabitants of the region of Mylopatamos do not suffer from cardiovascular diseases despite the fact that their food is rich in animal fats!

What is special in these places?

The remote villages of Zoniana and Anogeia (you can read about this village in the New Crete – issue № 6, 2016) are located high in the mountains in the north of Crete. The population of the villages remains unchanged: few people come there for permanent residence, and very few people leave them, but there are many Methuselahs there.

Heart diseases, heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular ailments are rare in these places, despite the fact that locals eat a lot of lamb as well as their own Cretan cheese. It is interesting that the annual festival of cheese is held exactly in these villages.

Usually, this food leads to the health problems because it contains a large amount of saturated fats that raise the level of cholesterol in the blood, and a high level of low density lipoproteins (LDL-protein compounds that carry cholesterol from the liver to the tissues) increases the risk of heart disease, and stroke.

However, residents of these villages do not have anything like that.

It is true that diabetes type 2 occurs among them, as among the population of Greece in general, but they do not suffer from its usual consequences, such as diabetic nephropathy (kidney failure).

And now, what is so special about genes of the Zoniana’s inhabitants? This question was posed by scientists from the Sanger Institute – the British genomic research center established by the charitable foundation the Wellcome Trust. Has genetic material of these people something that protects their heart muscles from diseases?

The results of a study, published in the online edition Nature Communications, indicate that these people have an unknown kind of gene having some positive impact on the heart function. It lowers essentially the level of the “bad” natural fats and “bad” cholesterol and is actually unique, and characteristic of the population living in these two mountain villages.

According to scientists of the Sanger Institute, only one person was found (in Italy) with the same variety of the genome, out of many thousands of inhabitants of other European countries subjected to the process of sequencing (decoding) of it.

To solve this puzzle, the scientists deciphered genomes of 250 inhabitants of these villages. From their blood samples, they obtained DNA’s and made detailed analysis of their structures consisting of long chains of three billion base pairs, which make up the human genome.

Unfortunately, this discovery does not mean that we can eat as much cheese and other animal fats as possible – quite the contrary because we do not have such kind of gene like Cretan centenarians.

However, scientists say that this discovery can help to understand which variety of gene play a role in the occurrence of vascular diseases. In turn, this can help explain why some people suffer from cardiovascular diseases, while others not.

During the study, the scientists discovered a variant of gene that was previously completely unknown, but they do not know why the inhabitants of these two isolated populations have it. Is it related to the way of life of the inhabitants of Zoniana and Anogeia, to the environment, or is it a simply transmission from generation to generation?

Hence, does the study of isolated populations bring benefit? A great one! Other studies of isolated populations, such as the Amish in the US or the Inuit living in the north of Greenland, as well as the inhabitants of the Orkney Islands in Scotland, also help to understand how representative of these communities manage to rarely get sick and live long.

July 2017