The phenomenon of Caucasian longevity is a beautiful myth that arose in the 20th century due to mass confusion with the age of the population of the USSR, geriatrician, neurologist, head of the gerontology department of MOIP, the interlocutor of socialbites.ca at Moscow State University. MV Lomonosov Valery Novoselov.
“There were three main centers of longevity in the USSR: Abkhaz, Azerbaijan and Yakut. People have lived there for over 120 years. For example, Majid Agayev lived 143 years (1835-1978), Mahmud Eyvazov – 151 years (1808-1959), Serali Muslimov – 168 years (1805-1973). But in fact, these people are not longevity, but an example of “successful” aging. They were about 90 years old,” said Novoselov.
According to Novoselov, all these people were born at a time when there was not enough accurate birth registration and regular military service in the region. Therefore, there were no documents by which it would be possible to determine the exact age of the inhabitants.
“There are no such centuries-old people there anymore. Then people themselves overestimated their age. What was this about? Most likely it stems from this tradition: the older it is, the more revered it is. In addition, during the war years, many men overestimated their age to go to the front. After the war, women, on the contrary, underestimated him to marry. There are many such examples, ”Novoselov gave an example.
The gender of white centenarians is also important. The fact that they are all males only adds to the uncertainty of the existence of a long-lived home in the Caucasus.
“And more importantly, there were many men among the Caucasian centenarians, and all of the supercentenarians over 120 were men only. The latter did not particularly add sufficient credibility to this phenomenon. “We know that in this kind of “sport” not only longevity and championships do not always belong to women, but also that they always live longer than men,” Novoselov said.