GREECE: Public suicide of an indebted pensioner in Athens

BERLIN, Germany: Der Spiegel International, April 5, 2012

Austerity Suicide

Pensioner's Death Sparks Clashes in Athens

DPA

Violent protests have erupted in Athens following the public suicide of a 77-year-old retired man. A note he left behind accused the Greek government of impoverishing him with its debt crisis austerity measures, a message that resonated with demonstrators. Many are blaming the state for his death.

The public suicide of an indebted pensioner in Athens on Wednesday has touched a nerve in the Greek capital, sparking violent clashes with police.

The 77-year-old retired pharmacist shot himself in the head during the morning rush-hour near the central Syntagma Square, police said on Wednesday. In a note found in his clothing, the man reportedly blamed the debt crisis and austerity measures for his suicide. After paying into his pension for 35 years, the government had rendered it too small to survive, he said in the message, published by local media. "I find no other solution than a dignified end before I start searching through the trash for food," it read.

The square where the incident occurred, just opposite the parliament building, has already been the site of frequent protests during Greece's debt crisis, and people gathered once again on Wednesday to mourn the unnamed pensioner's death. The death is the latest in a growing number of suicides in Greece, a country grappling with dramatic financial troubles that have led to high unemployment, lower wages and shrinking pension payments.


Some people posted notes to the tree under which he died, with messages like, "It was a murder, not a suicide," and "Austerity kills." Meanwhile, hundreds of others marched toward parliament chanting similar slogans.


'Difficult Hours'


"This suicide is political in nature and heavy in symbolism," Vassilis Papadopoulos, protest organizer and spokesman for the "I won't pay" group told the Associated Press. "It's not like a suicide at home."

The man's suicide quickly became a political issue in the country, with Prime Minister Lucas Papademos issuing a statement as protesters gathered. "It is tragic for one of our fellow citizens to end his life," he said. "In these difficult hours for our society we must all -- the state and the citizens -- support the people among us who are desperate."


An estimated 1,500 people attended the anti-austerity protests, and by nightfall they turned violent. Young people reportedly threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at riot police, who fired tear gas and flash grenades in response. No injuries were reported.


No relief is in sight for Greece, despite international financial aid. By the end of 2012, the country's economy is expected to contract by 4.5 percent and remain in a recession until the following year, according to the Bank of Greece's annual report, released last month. The country's economy already took a 7 percent hit in 2011
.

© SPIEGEL ONLINE 2012
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GREECE: He invented 19 fictional offspring to claim benefits

ATHENS, Greece / Reuters / Life / December 15, 2011

ODDLY ENOUGH

A former Greek policeman who invented 19 fictional offspring to claim benefits for what would have been the largest family in Greece has been arrested for benefit fraud, police said.

FAMILY LIFE: This scene at a home in Crete shows two pillars of Greek culture: food and family. Paradoxically,
there is no word for "family" in ancient Greek. Oikos, the word for household, is the closest equivalent,
encompassing family, property, and animals. Photograph by Reagan Wheeler, My Shot.
Illustrative photograph by courtesy of National Geographic

The former police officer, divorced and with no children of his own, quit his 1,000-euro-a-month ($1,300) job in 2001 and has been living solely on benefits ever since, police said on Thursday.

Using photographs of children he found online, the 54-year-old man forged birth certificates and other documents needed to claim benefits for at least one child a year since 1996.

Police estimate he made at least 150,000 euros in claims over 15 years, but the actual amount is probably much higher.

The fraud was so expert, police said, that they only realized something was amiss when they noticed his was the only Greek family with that many children. The average Greek family usually has two or three children.

"We have never seen (a scam) like this before," said a police official who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

The former policeman, who under Greek law cannot be named, was arrested Wednesday as he was about to collect 8,000 euros in benefits from an Athens branch of Greece's employment agency OAED. He was taken to the prosecutor's office Thursday.

Widespread fraud, a generous welfare state and a notoriously inefficient public sector have been blamed as root causes of Greece's financial trouble that threatens to break apart the euro zone.

A team of tax investigators recently discovered that a seemingly humble Greek farmer on the island of Thasos, who owned a red Ferrari and a Porsche, was in fact into loan sharking. ($1 = 0.7721 euros)

Reporting by Karolina Tagaris and Tatiana Fragou; Editing by Michael Roddy

Copyright: Thomson Reuters
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GREECE: Acclaimed director Cacoyannis passes away at 89

ATHENS, Greece / Express.gr / Greek News / July 26, 2011

Internationally acclaimed film director, screenwriter and producer Michael Cacoyannis died in and Athens hospital in the early morning hours on Monday at the age of 89.

The director of the award-winning films 'Zorba the Greek' and 'Stella', Michael (Michalis) Cacoyannis was born in Limassol, Cyprus, and was sent by his father to London in 1939 to become a lawyer, but after producing Greek-language programmes for BBC World Service during WWII he developed an interest in film instead, ending up at the Old Vic school and enjoying a brief stage career as "Michael Yannis", before beginning to work on films. Having trouble finding a directing job in the British film industry, Cacoyannis moved to Greece and in 1953 made his first film "Windfall in Athens".

He is best known for his 1964 film 'Zorba the Greek', and in 1983 directed a Broadway revival of the musical based on Zorba.

Most of his work is rooted in classical texts, particularly those of the Greek tragedian Euripides. He was nominated five times for an Academy Award (Oscar), receiving the Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film nominations for 'Zorba the Greek' and two nominations in the Foreign Language Film category for 'Electra' and 'Iphigenia'.

Anthony Quinn and Alan Bates during filming for Zorba The Greek in 1964. Photo: REX

Cacoyannis worked on many occasions with renowned Greek actress Irene Papas, teaming up with her in 1971 for the film 'The Trojan Women' starring Hollywood legend Katharine Hepburn, and was a close friend of Darryl F. Zanuck and George Cukor.

A pioneer of post-war Greek cinema and director of international hits, Cacoyannis refused a career in Hollywood, opting for quality theater. He also founded the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation for the study and support of the film and theater arts.
He died early Monday at Evangelismos Hospital in central Athens, where he had been hospitalised for 10 days.

Copyright ©2011 express.gr

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GREECE: Threat Of Widespread, Long-Term Poverty

HAMBURG, Germany / Spiegel International / Europe / July 19, 2011

Greece is tightening its belt -- and the number of people living in poverty is surging as a result. Thousands line up in front of food banks and resort to rifling through rubbish bins. The country's financial crisis is rapidly turning into a social one -- while wealthy tax evaders manage to get off scot-free. Getty Images


Click here to read the report By Manfred Ertel in Athens


© SPIEGEL ONLINE 2011

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GREECE:104 New Job Positions Implemented in Mani, Lakonia

EAST MANI, Laconia / Greek Reporter / Life / July 15, 2011

By Anastasia Chaini

The municipality of eastern Mani intends to hire 104 people as part of a community service program, by implementing major activities. The Municipality signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Institute of the Greek General Confederation of Labour on the implementation of the program.

Landscape in Kardamili/East Mani
By Dimitris Baltzis/Panoramio

The major activities, in which the job required concerns:

* Firstly, projects of fire protection, forest protection, preservation of areas of high natural beauty, reforestation and introduction of preventive measures.
* Secondly, restoration, aesthetic enhancement, improvement of the quality of urban environment, urban green enrichment, enhancement of important monuments in the municipality.

* Thirdly, care and support of people in need and promotion of active aging.
* Finally, sports promotion, improvement of public health and actions to preserve cultural heritage, promote tourism and development of municipality’s sustainability.

The 104 people who will be hired through the community service program must be unemployed, and must have a valid unemployment card, or OGA (Agricultural Insurance Organisation) low-income farmers and Greek citizens.

© 2011 Greek Reporter
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Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

Seniors World Chronicle's Fascinating Face of July 2, 2011

Proud Greek shepherd, living in the high mountains of Pindos in central Greece.
© Photograph by Karolos Trivizas. Click here for more.
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Seniors World Chronicle, a not-for-profit, serves to chronicle and widen their reach.

USA: Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical Science

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WASHINGTON DC / The Atlantic Magazine / November Edition / October 13, 2010

Brave Thinkers

Much of what medical researchers conclude in their studies is misleading, exaggerated, or flat-out wrong.

So why are doctors—to a striking extent—still drawing upon misinformation in their everyday practice?

Dr. John Ioannidis has spent his career challenging his peers by exposing their bad science.

By David H. Freedman



















Dr. John Ioannidis. Image credit: Robyn Twomey/Redux


In 2001, rumors were circulating in Greek hospitals that surgery residents, eager to rack up scalpel time, were falsely diagnosing hapless Albanian immigrants with appendicitis. At the University of Ioannina medical school’s teaching hospital, a newly minted doctor named Athina Tatsioni was discussing the rumors with colleagues when a professor who had overheard asked her if she’d like to try to prove whether they were true—he seemed to be almost daring her. She accepted the challenge and, with the professor’s and other colleagues’ help, eventually produced a formal study showing that, for whatever reason, the appendices removed from patients with Albanian names in six Greek hospitals were more than three times as likely to be perfectly healthy as those removed from patients with Greek names. “It was hard to find a journal willing to publish it, but we did,” recalls Tatsioni. “I also discovered that I really liked research.” Good thing, because the study had actually been a sort of audition. The professor, it turned out, had been putting together a team of exceptionally brash and curious young clinicians and Ph.D.s to join him in tackling an unusual and controversial agenda.

Last spring, I sat in on one of the team’s weekly meetings on the medical school’s campus, which is plunked crazily across a series of sharp hills. The building in which we met, like most at the school, had the look of a barracks and was festooned with political graffiti. But the group convened in a spacious conference room that would have been at home at a Silicon Valley start-up. Sprawled around a large table were Tatsioni and eight other youngish Greek researchers and physicians who, in contrast to the pasty younger staff frequently seen in U.S. hospitals, looked like the casually glamorous cast of a television medical drama. The professor, a dapper and soft-spoken man named John Ioannidis, loosely presided.

One of the researchers, a biostatistician named Georgia Salanti, fired up a laptop and projector and started to take the group through a study she and a few colleagues were completing that asked this question: were drug companies manipulating published research to make their drugs look good?

Salanti ticked off data that seemed to indicate they were, but the other team members almost immediately started interrupting. One noted that Salanti’s study didn’t address the fact that drug-company research wasn’t measuring critically important “hard” outcomes for patients, such as survival versus death, and instead tended to measure “softer” outcomes, such as self-reported symptoms (“my chest doesn’t hurt as much today”). Another pointed out that Salanti’s study ignored the fact that when drug-company data seemed to show patients’ health improving, the data often failed to show that the drug was responsible, or that the improvement was more than marginal.


Salanti remained poised, as if the grilling were par for the course, and gamely acknowledged that the suggestions were all good—but a single study can’t prove everything, she said. Just as I was getting the sense that the data in drug studies were endlessly malleable, Ioannidis, who had mostly been listening, delivered what felt like a coup de grâce: wasn’t it possible, he asked, that drug companies were carefully selecting the topics of their studies—for example, comparing their new drugs against those already known to be inferior to others on the market—so that they were ahead of the game even before the data juggling began? “Maybe sometimes it’s the questions that are biased, not the answers,” he said, flashing a friendly smile. Everyone nodded. Though the results of drug studies often make newspaper headlines, you have to wonder whether they prove anything at all. Indeed, given the breadth of the potential problems raised at the meeting, can any medical-research studies be trusted?

That question has been central to Ioannidis’s career. He’s what’s known as a meta-researcher, and he’s become one of the world’s foremost experts on the credibility of medical research. He and his team have shown, again and again, and in many different ways, that much of what biomedical researchers conclude in published studies—conclusions that doctors keep in mind when they prescribe antibiotics or blood-pressure medication, or when they advise us to consume more fiber or less meat, or when they recommend surgery for heart disease or back pain—is misleading, exaggerated, and often flat-out wrong. He charges that as much as 90 percent of the published medical information that doctors rely on is flawed. His work has been widely accepted by the medical community; it has been published in the field’s top journals, where it is heavily cited; and he is a big draw at conferences. Given this exposure, and the fact that his work broadly targets everyone else’s work in medicine, as well as everything that physicians do and all the health advice we get, Ioannidis may be one of the most influential scientists alive. Yet for all his influence, he worries that the field of medical research is so pervasively flawed, and so riddled with conflicts of interest, that it might be chronically resistant to change—or even to publicly admitting that there’s a problem.

The city of Ioannina is a big college town a short drive from the ruins of a 20,000-seat amphitheater and a Zeusian sanctuary built at the site of the Dodona oracle. The oracle was said to have issued pronouncements to priests through the rustling of a sacred oak tree. Today, a different oak tree at the site provides visitors with a chance to try their own hands at extracting a prophecy. “I take all the researchers who visit me here, and almost every single one of them asks the tree the same question,” Ioannidis tells me, as we contemplate the tree the day after the team’s meeting. “‘Will my research grant be approved?’” He chuckles, but Ioannidis (pronounced yo-NEE-dees) tends to laugh not so much in mirth as to soften the sting of his attack. And sure enough, he goes on to suggest that an obsession with winning funding has gone a long way toward weakening the reliability of medical research.

He first stumbled on the sorts of problems plaguing the field, he explains, as a young physician-researcher in the early 1990s at Harvard.  Continue reading....

Click for more Brave Thinkers

Copyright © 2010 by The Atlantic Monthly Group.

GREECE: Greek Government Halts Pension Payments to the Deceased

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ATHENS, Greece / Greek Reporter / Money / News / August 27, 2010

By Anny Tzotzadini

The Greek government determined that it has been paying pensions to people who passed away years ago. There were even cases in which the payments went to someone who died ten years ago.


As part of its waste tackling regime, the government has discovered that 321 of the people dead still recieving pensions are over 100 years old. The money had been deposited into their bank accounts.

The country’s Labour Ministry has now said it will review the circumstances of people under 100 in order to ensure all false payments are stopped.

© 2010 Greek Reporter

GREECE: Somebody has to pay

. ASHEVILLE, North Carolina / WORLD Magazine / Money / March 13, 2010 edition Money The Greek debt crisis has no easy solution By Timothy Lamer The problem with out-of-control government spending is that, at some point, somebody has to pay for it. Governments tend to ignore that fact, but Greece, over the last few weeks, provided a reminder that it cannot be ignored forever. The drama of street protests in Athens and angry remarks from leaders across Europe is largely an exercise in determining who will pay for years of Greek profligacy. Nobody wants to pay, but somebody must. Associated Press/Photo by Petros Giannakouris The crisis was brought on by a swelling Greek budget deficit and national debt, which have grown to almost 13 percent and 113 percent of GDP, respectively. These numbers raised the possibility of the Greek government defaulting on its debt. Such a move would shake confidence in the European Union and the euro, and so other EU nations, especially financial leader Germany, demanded budgetary reform. The Greek government responded by freezing the wages of government workers, raising the Greek retirement age from 61 to 63, and raising some taxes. Thousands of Greek government workers, union workers, and pensioners—the biggest beneficiaries of high levels of government spending—in late February took to the streets to protest the moves. If the Greek protesters get their way and "austerity" measures are repealed or softened, then someone else will have to pay. Observers have pointed to three options: • Greek taxpayers: Tax avoidance is a problem in Greece, but decades of low fertility rates have created a bigger problem: Greece has a rapidly aging population. The Greek fertility rate dropped below replacement level (2.1 births per woman) in 1981, hit 1.4 in 1990, and has floundered between 1.25 and 1.4 since then. It will be increasingly difficult for Greek taxpayers to bear the burden of their government's debts, because not enough of them exist. • Those who hold Greek debt, a majority of whom are non-Greek: The Greek government could default on its debt, and those who took the risk of lending to such a demographic basket case would lose money. But this option concerns the rest of Europe, because several other countries—Spain, Ireland, and Italy among them—are on the verge of a Greek-like collapse. If the EU allows the Greeks to default, then investors will likely flee those other countries. Buyers of Spanish government bonds were beginning to demand higher interest rates last week. • European taxpayers, especially the Germans. The most likely scenario is a bailout led by the Germans, but such a move is extremely unpopular in Germany. Greece's early retirement age is a big sticking point for Germans, who recently raised their own retirement age from 65 to 67. "The Greeks go onto the streets to protest against the increase of the pension age from 61 to 63," said the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper in an editorial. "Does that mean that the Germans should in the future extend the working age from 67 to 69, so that the Greeks can enjoy their retirement?" Greek politicians, dismayed by such comments, said the Germans, because of the sins of their grandfathers during World War II, owe at least patience to Greece, if not a bailout: "They took away the Greek gold that was at the Bank of Greece, they took away the Greek money and they never gave it back," Greek Deputy Prime Minister Theodoros Pangalos told the BBC on Feb. 24. "This is an issue that has to be faced sometime in the future." As friction between the two nations grows, the next big date to watch for is March 16. That's the deadline EU finance ministers have given for Greece to show progress in bringing its budget under control. If Greece doesn't do so, then the EU may dictate specific reforms. The really bad news in all of this is that Japan, the United States, and the rest of Europe—all with low fertility rates and big government debts—will soon face their own versions of this Greek tragedy. And somebody will have to pay. [rc] Copyright © 2010 WORLD Magazine

GREECE: Greek unions launch first assault on austerity plan

. BEIRUT, Lebanon / The Daily Star / Regional News / February 11, 2010 By Elena Becatoros, Associated Press ATHENS: A strike by civil servants grounded all flights and shut down public services across Greece on Wednesday, as labor unions mounted their first major challenge to austerity measures in the debt-plagued country.Air traffic controllers, customs and tax officials, hospital doctors and schoolteachers walked off the job for 24 hours to protest sweeping government spending cuts that will freeze salaries and new hiring, cut bonuses and stipends and increase the average retirement age by two years to 63. The strike left state hospitals working with emergency staff only and disrupted national rail travel, although urban mass transport was unaffected..... Demonstrators hold an effigy of Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou dressed in a harlequin's costume during a protest in central Athens on Wednesday. The banner attached to the effigy reads "State social insurance and free healthcare for all. No professionals' funds," a pledge made by Papandreou when in opposition and which has been crossed out. Photo Credit: Thanassis Stavrakis/The Associated Press A weekend newspaper poll showed that 70 percent of Greeks were against measures that could affect them individually like new taxes or a higher retirement age. The average retirement age will increase to 63 by 2015. “It wasn’t the workers who took all the money, it was the plutocracy. It’s them who should give it back,” said Alexandros Potamitis, a 57-year-old retired merchant seaman. Vassiliki Romanou, 50, an employee at the state Social Security Foundation, conceded that a great number of civil servants enjoyed high salaries and that some can retire after working only 20 years. “I can’t say the government’s measures are totally wrong, but I think they are unfair to me,” she said. The government has insisted that those on low incomes will be protected and will even enjoy lower taxes, with the austerity plan targeting the better off. “I do not care about the [country’s] problems. I didn’t steal a single euro, why should I pay?” asked Christos, an elderly man who said he retired after working for 47 years and was now barely able to survive on a pension of $880 a month. Christos refused to disclose his surname, saying that he was afraid he would lose his pension if he complained. [rc] This report is an extracted version. Click here for the full article in The Daily Star Copyright © 2010, The Daily Star.

GREECE: More Good Years - The Amazing Story of Yiannis Karimalis of Ikaria

. WASHINGTON, DC / AARP The Magazine / Health / August 21, 2009

More Good Years By Dan Buettner AARP Magazine Edition of September & October 2009

Want to live longer—and healthier? 
These ancient secrets from a sleepy Greek island could show you the way


In 1970 Yiannis Karimalis got a death sentence. Doctors in Pennsylvania diagnosed the Greek immigrant with abdominal cancer and told him he'd be dead within a year. He was not yet 40 years old.


Photo by Gianluca Colla

Devastated, Karimalis left his job as a bridge painter and returned to his native island of Ikaria. At least there he could be buried among his relatives, he thought—and for a lot less money than in the United States. Thirty-nine years later, Karimalis is still alive and telling his amazing story to anyone who will listen. And when he returned to the States on a recent visit, he discovered he had outlived all the doctors who had predicted his death. On Ikaria, a mountainous, 99-square-mile island, residents tell this story to illustrate something they've known all their lives: on average, Ikarians outlive just about everyone else in the world.


Related report Want to live to 100?

For three weeks in April, I led a scientific expedition to Ikaria to investigate the reasons for the islanders' remarkable longevity. It was part of my research into the earth's few Blue Zones: places where an extraordinarily high proportion of natives live past 90. Our team of demographic and medical researchers—funded by AARP and National Geographic—found that an amazing one in three Ikarians reaches 90. (According to the U.S. Census Bureau, only one in nine baby boomers will.) What's more, Ikarians suffer 20 percent fewer cases of cancer than do Americans and have about half our rate of heart disease and one-ninth our rate of diabetes. Most astonishing of all: among the islanders over 90 whom the team studied—about one-third of Ikaria's population who are 90 and older—there was virtually no Alzheimer's disease or other dementia. In the United States more than 40 percent of people over 90 suffer some form of this devastating ailment.


How do we explain these numbers? History tells part of the story. In antiquity Ikaria was known as a health destination, largely for its radioactive hot springs, which were believed to relieve pain and to cure joint problems and skin ailments. But for much of the ensuing two millennia, civilization passed over this wind-beaten, harborless island. To elude marauding pirates, Ikarians moved their villages inland, high up on the rocky slopes. Their isolation led to a unique lifestyle. Over centuries with no outside influences, island natives developed a distinctive outlook on life, including relentless optimism and a propensity for partying, both of which reduce stress. Ikarians go to bed well after midnight, sleep late, and take daily naps. Based on our interviews, we have reason to believe that most Ikarians over 90 are sexually active. But what about the Ikarians' culture best explains their long lives? To find out, we let visitors to AARP.org/bluezones direct our team's quest. Our online collaborators voted on what we should research next. One day, for example, we interviewed hundred-year-old Ikarians to discover what they'd eaten for most of their lives. The next day we investigated the chemical composition of herbal teas.

13 likely contributors to Ikarian longevity In all, we found 13 likely contributors to Ikarian longevity. The formula below may be the closest you'll get to the fountain of youth: Graze on greens More than 150 varieties of wild greens grow on Ikaria. Some have more than ten times the level of antioxidants in red wine.


Sip herbal teas Steeping wild mint, chamomile, or other herbs in hot water is a lifelong, daily ritual. Many teas lower blood pressure, which decreases the risk of heart disease and dementia.
Throw out your watch Ikarians don't worry about time. Work gets done when it gets done. This attitude lowers stress, which reduces the risk of everything from arthritis to wrinkles.
Nap daily Ikarian villages are ghost towns during the afternoon siesta, and science shows that a regular 30-minute nap decreases the risk of heart attack.
Walk where you're going Mountainous terrain and a practice of walking for transport mean that every trip out of the house is a mini workout.
Phone a friend With the island's rugged terrain, family and village support have been key to survival. Strong social connections are proven to lower depression, mortality, and even weight.
Drink goat's milk Most Ikarians over 90 have drunk goat's milk their whole lives. It is rich in a blood-pressure-lowering hormone called tryptophan as well as antibacterial compounds.
Maintain a Mediterranean diet Around the world, people who most faithfully stick to this region's diet—a regimen high in whole grains, fruits, vegetables, olive oil, and fish—outlive people who don't by about six years. The Ikarian version features more potatoes than grains (because they grew better in the mountains) and more meat than fish (because the sea was a day's journey away).
Enjoy some Greek honey The local honey contains antibacterial, anticancer and anti-inflammatory properties. (Unfortunately, the health benefits of Ikarian honey do not extend to American honey, as far as we know.)
Open the olive oil Ikaria's consumption of olive oil is among the world's highest. Residents drizzle antioxidant-rich extra-virgin oil over food after cooking, which preserves healthful properties in the oil that heat destroys.
Grow your own garden (or find farmers' markets) Fruits and vegetables eaten soon after picking are higher in compounds that decrease the risk of cancer and heart disease.
Get religion Ikarians observe Greek Orthodox rituals, and regular attendance at religious services (of any kind ) has been linked to longer life spans.
Bake bread The island's sourdough bread is high in complex carbohydrates and may improve glucose metabolism and stave off diabetes.
Do Ikarians possess the true secret to longevity? Well, some combination of their habits is helping them live significantly longer than Americans, who live on average to age 78. We can't guarantee that Ikarian wisdom will help you live to 100. But if Yiannis Karimalis's example is any indicator, it may help you outlive your doctor. [rc]


Dan Buettner is the author of The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest (National Geographic, 2008). Copyright 1995—2009, AARP

Seniors World Chronicle adds:
Click here to Join The Blue Zones Quest - Ikaria

GREECE: Excessive Cola Consumption Can Lead To Super-sized Muscle Problems

. CHEVY CHASE, Maryland / ScienceDaily / Science News / May 20, 2009 Doctors have issued a warning about excessive cola consumption after noticing an increase in the number of patients suffering from muscle problems, according to the June issue of IJCP, the International Journal of Clinical Practice. “We are consuming more soft drinks than ever before and a number of health issues have already been identified including tooth problems, bone demineralisation and the development of metabolic syndrome and diabetes” says Dr Moses Elisaf from the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Ioannina, Greece. “Evidence is increasing to suggest that excessive cola consumption can also lead to hypokalaemia, in which the blood potassium levels fall, causing an adverse effect on vital muscle functions.” A research review carried out by Dr Elisaf and his colleagues has shown that symptoms can range from mild weakness to profound paralysis. Luckily all the patients studied made a rapid and full recovery after they stopped drinking cola and took oral or intravenous potassium. The case studies looked at patients whose consumption ranged from two to nine litres of cola a day. They included two pregnant women who were admitted with low potassium levels. The first, a 21 year-old woman, was consuming up to three litres of cola a day and complained of fatigue, appetite loss and persistent vomiting. An electrocardiagram also revealed she had a heart blockage, while blood tests showed she had low potassium levels. The second also had low potassium levels and was suffering from increasing muscular weakness.It turned out she had been drinking up to seven litres of cola a day for the last 10 months. In a commentary on the paper, Dr Clifford Packer from the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Centre in Ohio relates the strange case of the ostrich farmer who returned from the Australian outback with muscle weakness. He had been drinking four litres of cola a day for the last three years and drank up to 10 litres a day when he was in the outback, causing a rapid reduction in his potassium levels. He also relates a puzzling case he saw in his own clinical practice, which was solved when the patient turned up at his office with a two-litre bottle of cola in the basket of his electric scooter. It turned out he routinely drank up to four litres a day. He refused to stop drinking cola, but halved his consumption and the muscle weakness he had been complaining of improved. In 2007 the worldwide annual consumption of soft drinks reached 552 billion litres, the equivalent of just under 83 litres per person per year, and this is projected to increase to 95 litres per person per year by 2012. However the figure has already reached an average of 212 litres per person per year in the United States. It appears that hypokalaemia can be caused by excessive consumption of three of the most common ingredients in cola drinks – glucose, fructose and caffeine. “The individual role of each of these ingredients in the pathophysiology of cola-induced hypokalaemia has not been determined and may vary in different patients” says Dr Elisaf. “However in most of the cases we looked at for our review, caffeine intoxication was thought to play the most important role. This has been borne out by case studies that focus on other products that contain high levels of caffeine but no glucose or fructose. “Despite this, caffeine free cola products can also cause hypokalaemia because the fructose they contain can cause diarrhoea.” The authors argue that in an era when portion sizes are becoming bigger and bigger, the excessive consumption of cola products has real public health implications. “Although most patients recover when they stop drinking cola and take potassium supplements, cola-induced chronic hypokalaemia can make them more susceptible to potentially fatal complications, such as an irregular heartbeat” says Dr Elisaf. “In addition, excessive consumption of any kind of cola can lead to a range of health problems including fatigue, loss of productivity and muscular symptoms that vary from mild weakness to profound paralysis. “We believe that further studies are needed to establish how much is too much when it comes to the daily consumption of cola drinks.” Dr Packer agrees that the problem needs to be addressed. “Cola drinks need to be added to the physician’s checklist of drugs and substances that can cause hypokalaemia” he says. “And the soft drink industry needs to promote safe and moderate use of its products for all age groups, reduce serving sizes and pay heed to the rising call for healthier drinks.” Source: Wiley - Blackwell (2009, May 20). Excessive Cola Consumption Can Lead To Super-sized Muscle Problems, Warn Doctors.

GREECE: Want to live to be 100? Move to Icaria (or live like an Icarian)

. DENVER, Colorado / Examiner.com / May 5, 2009 By Joanna Shukert Few people have heard of this tiny Greek island in the North Aegean Sea, but it holds a unique distinction that few other places in the world can claim: nearly one-third of its inhabitants live into their 90s. Icaria is the newest of the world's "blue zones," regions where residents have unusually long life spans. For years, demographers and researchers on aging have traveled the globe to study these areas in the hopes of learning their longevity secrets. Dan Buettner is one such demographer. In partnership with the American Association of Retired People (AARP) and National Geographic, he is currently examining the island of Icaria, which boasts a higher percentage of people living into their 90s than anywhere else in the world. In addition, they have 50 percent lower rates of heart disease, 20 percent less cancer, and almost no cases of dementia. Icarians not only live a long time, but they also live well. So what's their secret? Buettner says that about 20 percent of Icarians' longevity can be attributed to their genes. The rest is a result of their healthy lifestyle. People in Icaria live in mountain villages that necessitate activity every day. "They have gardens," he says, for example. "If they go to church, if they go to their friends' house — it always occasions a small walk. But that ends up burning much more calories than going to a gym for 20 minutes a day." Their diet is another major factor. It's very high in olive oil; and also in fruits and vegetables. The island's fertile earth grows over 150 varieties of produce--all of which are loaded with antioxidants. Interestingly, considering they live on an island, Icarians don't consume much fish. Historically, pirates pushed the inhabitants farther up the mountain, where they grew accustomed to having less access to seafood. Especially notable is their consumption of herbal teas, which they enjoy from morning until night. Their average intake is at least several cups a day. "We had five of these herbal teas sent to Athens and analyzed for their chemical composition," Buettner reports. "We found out that most of them were diuretics." Diuretics lower blood pressure, so it's only logical that Icarians would have lower rates of heart disease. Hmmm. A few daily strolls through charming mountain villages, healthy mediterranean food, lots of fresh local produce--and all while sipping a gourmet selection of soothing herbal teas. Not to mention the sparkling sea is a short jaunt away. Does anyone know of a good real estate agent in Icaria? Do you think Examiner.com will give me a good relocation package? Source: NPR Copyright © 2009 Clarity Digital Group LLC d/b/a Examiner.com

GREECE: How To Outlive Your Doctor - A Commentary

. IKARIA, Greece / CNN / April 21, 2009 Story Highlights * Yiannis Karimalis moved back to Greece in 1970 after learning he had months to live * Karimalis returned recently to the U.S. to find all his doctors had died * Karimalis' home -- Greek island Ikaria -- boasts among longest life expectancies * Team of experts are exploring Ikarian longevity By Dan Buettner Special to CNN Greek-American Yiannis Karimalis, 73, lives in Ikaria nearly 40 years after a diagnosis of stomach cancer. In 1970, when doctors diagnosed Greek-American Yiannis Karimalis with stomach cancer and only gave him a few months to live, he decided to move back to Ikaria, his birth island. There, he reasoned, he could be buried more inexpensively among his fellow Greeks. But when he moved back to the island he didn't die. He has lived nearly 40 years more. And when he returned to America on a recent visit, he discovered that his doctors were all dead. The people on this 99-square-mile Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea smugly tell this story as yet another example of what they've always known and scientists are now discovering: People in Ikaria live longer than in just about any other place in the world. A recent study of 90-year-old siblings, conducted by the National Hellenic Research Foundation, discovered 10 times more 90-year-old brothers and sisters here than the European average. Why is this important? Most scientists agree that the average human should live to age 90. (You have to have won the genetic lottery to live to 100.) But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says life expectancy in America is 78. Somewhere along the line, we're losing about a dozen years -- most of them to costly and potentially preventable chronic diseases such as heart attacks, diabetes and cancer. These diseases are dragging down our health care system and account for much of the reason why the National Institute on Aging says the average American suffers about three disabled end-of-life years during which they incur 90 percent of our lifelong health care costs. Ikarians are avoiding these diseases and reaching age 90 at a rate of about four times the rate that Americans do. They are getting the good years we're missing, dying quickly and less expensively. For the next two weeks, I'm leading "The Blue Zones" expedition, an AARP and National Geographic sponsored team of the world's best demographers, physicians, medical researchers and media specialists, to explore Ikarian longevity. We already have a few clues. Since at least the sixth century B.C., Icaria was known to the ancient Greeks and Romans as a health destination -- largely for its hot springs believed to relieve pain, joint problems and skin ailments. Our team has reviewed reports of high levels of radon in these baths and will be exploring a theory that chronic exposure to low-level radiation may help protect DNA against the ravages of aging. For much of the ensuing two millenniums, people here lived in relative isolation. The people here evolved a unique diet that we believe is a more heart-protective version of the Mediterranean diet. We're doing pharmacological analyses of dozens of herbal teas and unique honey produced by bees that draw pollen of thyme, fir and erica. We think we'll find anti-cancer, anti-oxidant and probiotic properties in these locally produced products. We also know that people here have a vastly different character than the rest of the Mediterranean. They have volcanic tempers that quickly subside. Despite living on harsh, steep terrain, they're known for relentless optimism and three-day parties. They don't get stressed by deadlines. They go to bed well after midnight, sleep late and take naps. Anecdotally, we know that most people over 90 are sexually active. Do these people possess the true secret to longevity? We're not sure yet, but we'll certainly distill a few clues about living longer, better. Ikarian wisdom may not help you live to 100. But at least they may help you outlive your doctor. Dan Buettner is the best-selling author of "The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who've Lived the Longest." Watch Buettner's reports from Greece all week on "AC360°" © 2008 Cable News Network