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The Babushkas

Holly Morris is a journalist who in 2011 visited Chernobyl for it’s 25th year anniversary. In 1986, Chernobyl experienced the most disastrous nuclear reactor explosion ever in history releasing some 400 times the radiation seen from Hiroshima's atomic bomb. Two hundred thousand residents had to be forcibly evacuated following the disaster.

As Holly approached what appeared to be an abandoned area, her Geiger counter started clicking with increased frequency. There was still a high level of background radiation and she would not be able to stay long.  Before she went there though, she had heard rumors that there were people still living there. When the area was being evacuated, some apparently refused. “This is my homeland, and I will not leave!” They stayed and Holly wanted to meet these people.

To Holly’s surprise, she found some 200 people still living in Chernobyl. They were called “Babushkas,” or old grandmothers. Amazingly, these women not only survived but outlived those that left by an average of 10 years when mortality was compared. How was this possible, and how did these people manage to survive and thrive in such an environment?

There are many surprising findings when one studies human longevity. It does not appear to be a simple factor of good genes and healthy life styles. There are many intangibles that are likely to be more crucial.

Dr. Terman from Stanford University wanted to tackle this very question in 1921 when he gathered 1521 bright California kids with an average IQ of 135 and started following them for life. These kids would become the most examined and observed group in human history for the following 90 years. Following Dr. Terman’s 3 books and over 300 published articles before his passing in 1945, additional 300 PhD researchers from 4 different universities continued to pour over these people’s lives to see what they ate, did, thought, felt and to try and find out who would ultimately live happy and long lives. A gargantuan study of epic proportions, the longest running longitudinal study in science history would conclude with a published book called The Longevity Project in 2012.

What is the secret to long and happy life? The answer was surprisingly simple. The most important factor did not turn out to be the life style, what they ate or how much they exercised. How smart they were, how educated and even good genetics seemed to matter little. Compatible marriages, jobs that were loved or hated, how much money made, how successful in careers all seemed insignificant. People with very little stress in their lives actually lived shorter lives. Introverts lived well and perhaps longer than the extroverts.

One element would stand out, however, in predicting how long and happy they were going to live. In fact, when this trait was high, it showed that they were happy, content, healthy and well adjusted at all stages of life.

The secret was the person’s level of conscientiousness, a trait defined as a simple desire to do a task well, being thorough, and careful. Better than looks, IQ, genetics, environmental and other traits, this longest longitudinal study spanning 90 years showed that one’s simple commitment to do things better and thoroughly mattered the most when it came to longevity.

What about the Babushkas of Chernovyl? How are they beating the odds and living longer than those that left? Well, no one really knows and it’s too small of a population sample to make much of it. But Holly is thinking that it had something to do with their resolve to stay, to decide against all odds to continue and live in their homeland. She theorizes that the home and community are forces that rival even radiation. Yes, she exclaims, that these Babushkas give us a powerful new template to think about the “magnificent tonic of personal agency and self-determination.”

Yes, indeed! It’s when we choose and decide things for ourselves that we find vigor in life. It’s when our lives are inflamed in the desire to do things well that the elixir of life begins to flow. This is what propels us to defy the odds and overcome the daily toxic radiation of disappointments, stress and anxiety. I choose because this is what I want, and the simple desire to do a given task well, is what gives us the tonic that is the fountain of youth, the source of our joy and happiness.

Dr. Carl Shin is a physician at a private practice for chronic pain management in Sacramento, CA. He graduated from Andrews University in 1988, with a degree in Theology. After earning a bachelors degree in biochemistry from UGA in 1991, he graduated from Loma Linda Medical School in 1995 and completed a Physical Med and Rehab residency in 1999. He also did his Fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania in 2000.


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