An Opinion piece by Ling Sing Lin
Bristlecone Pine
The oldest living tree in the world is nicknamed Methuselah, after the longest lived person in the Bible, who lived 969 years. See Would You Like to be 150 Years Old? This tree has been alive for over 4800 years (4854 years as of 2022). It is located in the Inyo National Forest in Nevada. However, although the feature picture shows a Methuselah-lookalike, the actual Methuselah tree is not marked for fear of vandalism. The tree was found by Dr Edmund Schulman in 1957. The core samples were examined and verified by the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona.
This tree is a Bristlecone Pine. Such trees are called extremeophiles, which endure harsh environmental conditions, including extreme temperatures, high altitudes and varying PH levels. They grow very slowly to sustain themselves. Bristlecone wood is very dense and resinous, and resistant to invasion by insects, fungi and other pests.
Blue Zones
These communities have large numbers of centenarians, whose longevity is credited mainly to their diets. These communities are in
-Sardinia, Italy
-Okinawa, Japan
-Loma Linda, California
-Ikaria, Greece
-Nicola, Costa Rica
People live well into their nineties and beyond in the Blue Zones. They experience lower rates of cancer and heart disease, ie they are more resistant to diseases that cause high mortality. They live low stress lifestyles, and eat plant -based diets. Blue Zones attribute their successful aging to diet, exercise and social connectedness. In fact, various longitudinal studies similarly credit social connectedness as being the most important determinant of longevity.
Healthy Agers
At the individual level, there are people whose biological age is much less than their chronological age. They age healthily. Genes probably account for 20-30% of biological age. Environmental and lifestyle factors play a major role in healthy agers, and these are social connectedness, plant-based diets and exercise. In other words, they have physical resilience and social resilience.
Longevity
We may not want to live like Bristlecone pines for thousands of years. But note the common factor of physical resilience in the long living tree and the healthy agers. In the human species, there is in addition the value of social resilience.
lingsinglin
Dr Ling Sing Lin is a medical doctor by training. She worked in MOH HQ for many years, in policy making and administrative positions, until her retirement.
