The Provincial Council of Ourense is financing the quantitative and qualitative study, unique in the world, that we are carrying out from Ourenstividad in the province of Ourense called: “The phenomenon of the centenarians of Ourense” which consists of carrying out more than 100 interviews with centenarians of the province to learn more about longevity in Ourense, our great healthy heritage. They are variables related to food, the water they drink, physical activity, intellectual capacity, spirituality or sexuality, among many others. There will be 50 transcripts of the interviews that can generate new bibliography for science. We are also analyzing the water that centenarians drink and we hope to have the microbiota analysis.
Ourenstividad is a longevity platform that houses doctors, nutritionists, pharmacists, nurses and associations related to health as well as other professionals from other perspectives. It is a luxury to have such a team that, together with the University of Valencia and the University of A Coruña, will obtain the answers to all the variables that are being analyzed, such as the water consumed or the microbiota. Even Ángel Carracedo would be interested in analyzing the DNA methylation of centenarians and collaborating with this team.
A challenge for the Provincial Council that will position it at the top of world longevity.
There is a proper name for the study, and that is our main researcher is @Roberto Fernández, doctor in Allariz, Blanco Amor de Novela Award, coordinator of all and father of the study
We have been able to talk about it this week in two important media outlets in Ourense, Radio Cope and Radio Voz. There are several international media that were also interested in it, such as Antena 3, La Sexta, TVE, Onda Cero, La Vanguardia or El Mundo.
We have also had the opportunity to talk about all this with the renowned international demographer and scientist, father of the Bluezone, the Belgian Michel Poulain and his right hand, the scientist Ana Canelada, who see in the province of Ourense a high number of centenarians and a land of high longevity. The determinants of longevity affect our DNA and the almost 300 centenarians will clarify some of their long-lived secret.
In the province of Ourense we have several determinants of longevity supported by various Grade A scientific evidence. For example, diet is an established determinant of longevity in our province. It is now observed that there is also a high number of centenarians, which is consistent with this scenario. In the case of Ourense, it is a scenario conducive to the “causality” of longevity, that is, there are genetics and epigenetics that produce conclusive results, the number of centenarians. The declaration in the province of Ourenstividad as a region of “high longevity” will be a reality, regardless of whether it is blue or transparent.
The Atlantic Diet has several very important eating patterns. On the one hand, the most nutritious nursery in the world, the Atlantic Ocean. A drop of its waters, analyzed in our Galician estuaries by the CSIC, has a great variety and diversity of photosynthetic microorganisms. This generates a food chain rich in micronutrients, giving rise to fish and seafood with high nutritional value. On the other hand, in our self-consumption gardens, mainly in Ourense, we plant vegetables rich in glucosinolates, which when cooked break down into sulforaphane, powerful antioxidants and anti-cancer agents. These vegetables of the brassica genus are turnip greens, cabbages, turnips or red cabbage, among others. Furthermore, in our diet we are large consumers of extra virgin olive oil, with 16 g per day. We are not as big producers as the Mediterranean, but nevertheless we are more consumers. Olive oil has hydroxytyrosol and oleocanthal which have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties. Additionally, as long-chain carbohydrates, instead of rice and pasta, we consume more potatoes. The cooked potato, known in Galicia as “cachelo” is a source of water-soluble vitamins, fiber and potassium. Finally, boiling and roasting predominate in our culinary techniques, which do not denature the ingredients as much.
The pattern of the Atlantic diet is very important, as well as another factor: its freshness because it is a local and seasonal diet. Galicia is the Autonomous Community that consumes the most fresh food per capita income and the last in processed foods. Within Galicia, Ourense is the province that has the most self-consumption orchards, with a total of 5,000 hectares dedicated to horticultural plantations. This freshness in their foods means that they have fewer preservatives and additives, in short, fewer toxic compounds.
Food, water, thermalism, customs ingrained thanks to the environment and a certain isolation that gives undeniable identity, are epigenetic factors that directly influence our DNA, and, ultimately, our longevity.
Thermalism has several therapeutic indications among which are the most important ones related to health prevention, thus we have antirheumatic properties, respiratory properties, hepatobiliary properties and, above all, an interesting finding due to the many pathologies that exist in this field, properties dermatological. We also have top-of-the-line international waters regarding their gastro-digestive properties.
Therefore, the Ourenstividad study is the only existing quantitative and qualitative study in the province with so many variables and sample size. On the other hand, “mapping” and demographic studies of certain municipalities have been carried out two weeks ago to see if they meet the characteristics to be called “bluezone”.
“We have to be aware that every process takes time. Don’t give up on something you really want because the results haven’t been seen yet. No harvest bears fruit overnight and any scientific process has its temporal constraints.”