Are there true stories about the people who do not know diseases?

In Russian -speaking blogs, stories about the people of Hunza are widespread, whose representatives live on average to 120 years and do not suffer from any diseases. We checked the reliability of this information.

In the posts of the people of Hunza, it is said: “They have the average life expectancy of 120 years, and about 160 the oldest resident, who was no longer there. They say that women can give birth to 65.” Hunza is allegedly owed to a special diet, the basis of which are apricots and vegetables. In addition, in the spring, when the winter supplies end, the Hunza hunger starvation for one or two months, supporting her strength only with a drink from dried apricots. Some posts also states that Hunza does not have oncological diseases at all, referring to a certain statement made in August 1977 in Paris at the International Cancer Congress. On Facebook, stories about the extraordinary longevity and good health of the Hunza people are gaining dozens, Hundreds And even thousands reposts. In addition, they are popular in VKontakte (1, 2) and on YouTube.

Hunza, or Burishi, is a people living in the north of Pakistan, in the mountain valleys of Hunza, Yasin and Nar. Due to the inaccessibility of these places until the 20th century, Huns were extremely little in contact with the outside world. For the first time, Europeans learned about this people thanks to John Biddalf - a British officer who served in Gilgit from 1877 to 1881, a small administrative center in the north of Kashmir. He was fond of ornithology and ethnography and wrote several books about this region, including labor "The peoples of Gindukush", In which, among other local tribes, he also described Burisha (as the inhabitants of the Hunza Valley called themselves). “Little is known about these people,” he wrote. - Living surrounded by high mountains, they are proud of independence, which they always preserved. Perhaps they are a unique example of a people who still live in almost the same conditions as their ancestors 14 centuries ago. ” Hunza, according to him, is distinguished by courage and belligerence. They say in the language of Burushaski (it should be noted that scientists to this day could not attribute it to any of the existing language families), but have no writing (it began to be developed only in the 1970s).

Biddalf did not write anything about the health of this people. The doctor was the first to speak on this subject Robert McCarrison, at the beginning of the 20th century, served in the Indian medical service (Indian Medical Service). The sphere of his scientific interests was the effect of nutrition on health. In his work "Studies of diseases associated with a deficiency of nutrients"He pointed out the limited diet of Hunza and wrote:“ Among these people, life expectancy is unusually great; And the help that I could provide for those for about seven years that I spent among them was mainly reduced to the treatment of random damage, removing senile cataracts, plastic surgery for trachoma or treating diseases that have no connection with nutrition. If we take into account the severity of the winter in this part of the Himalayas and the fact that their dwellings and sanitary conditions are extremely primitive, it becomes obvious: a forced restriction of the diet to the protozoa of nature is quite compatible with longevity, persistent vital force and perfect physique. ” 

Based on the works of Biddalf, McCarrison and some travelers who were in the Hunza Valley, the Swiss-German doctor Ralph Birher in the 1930s wrote the book “Hunza: NOT BECALLY AND DISEASES". Around the same time, a similar book was published in the UK - “Health wheel"Dr. Guy Rench. In the preface, the author noted that the description of Hunza Robert McCarrison as “unsurpassed by any Indian people by the perfection of physique” inspired him to focus on studying the “truly healthy people” to give the British a guide to a healthy lifestyle. Like Birher, he studied them according to few sources at that time, and not personally.

Gradually, the literature on the extraordinary health of Hunza became more and more - their remoteness from civilization was the perfect soil for any fabrication. In the article "Healthy savage myth"Professor William Jarvis, founder of the National Council for Combating Medical Fraud (National Council Against Health Fraud) Curses several examples of such publications: “In 1964, Rene Taylor published the book“ The Secrets of the Health of the Huns ”, in which she talked about people who“ do not have cancer, no heart attacks and practically no other diseases that take the lives of men and women in the prime. ” <...> Another enthusiast of a healthy diet, the optometrist Allen E. Banik, who visited the Hunza with sponsorship support for the People Are Funny television show, claims that he examined the Junzakutov and found a lively embodiment of health legends. <...> In the journal about healthy nutrition Prevention, Jane Kinderler writes that the cancer has not yet been invented in the Hunze. All the perfect vision of 20/20. Cardiologists do not find the slightest signs of heart disease. No one ever suffers from an ulcer, appendicitis or gout. There is nothing surprising in the fact that men and women enjoy active life in the age of 100 or 120 years "."

Moreover, already in the middle of the 20th century there was another point of view on the longevity and health of Hunza. So, geologist John Clark, who lived among this people for a year and, among other things, providing Hunza, medical care, He wrote: “I would like to apologize to those travelers whose impressions were refuted by my experience. During my first journey through Hunze, I ran into almost all the same errors as they: “Healthy Huns”, “Democratic Court”, “A country where there are no poor” and so on - and only a long stay in Hunze made it possible to see how things really are. I do not give me pleasure to debunk or confirm any statements, but I had to clearly state the truth, as I saw it. ” 

In 1955, a group of doctors from Kyoto University spent A comprehensive study Health of 277 residents of the Hunza Valley. Scientists revealed many diseases in them (the most common were rheumatism, tuberculosis, asthma and goiter), and also found a high level of child mortality (about 30% of children did not live up to ten years). “Heart diseases, malignant neoplasms and appendicitis, which were previously considered absent in this region, were actually discovered,” the research materials said. As for longevity, according to the same study, 10% of the Hunzakuts died without reaching the 40th anniversary. Doctor Alexander Lifstudying the issues of life expectancy, He wrote: “In Hunze in 1972, I was introduced to Tulahu, who, according to the then world (king), was 110 years old. The next age was a 105 -year -old man, and the rest of the elderly, as I was told, were at the age of 90 or 80 years. The population of the principality of Hunza, according to the world, then amounted to about 40,000. However, no census was made and there were no documentary evidence of this ruler. ” 

Thus, no objective data confirming the special longevity of the representatives of the Hunz people exist. But there are scientific studies proving that hunzakuts suffer from various diseases. The region also recorded a high level of child mortality.

Photo on the cover: Facebook screenshot

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