Excellent cardiovascular health but also very low dementia levels …
Here, the risk of making a heart attack is low or even zero, “It is the population whose heart is the healthiest in the world” explains Professor Benjamin Trumble, author of a study published in the journal Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health. It also has little risk of developing dementia like Alzheimer’s and, in general, to get sick. How is it possible?
Professor Trumble’s team has looked into the lifestyle of these inhabitants and their blood characteristics. They selected 1121 women of all ages (15 to 92) and analyzed several markers such as cholesterol and triglycerides. Why target women? To see if having an excellent health heart protected them from cardiovascular damage associated with menopause. “Most research on menopause is carried out in industrialized populations, where the risk of cardiovascular diseases gradually increases during the menopausic transition” recall the authors. However, their volunteers are not installed in this type of geographic regions. Far from it …
“Working with populations like Tsimané allows us to study the global variations in menopause, as well as health and human diseases” explained the researcher. The Tsimané belong to an native people who live in Bolivia in the Amazon forest. Their lifestyle is ancestral and very simple: hunting, fishing, picking and agriculture. Their meal consists of fish, wild meats, rice, plantain, cassava, corn and fruit. And they are very active physically. According to a 2013 study, this population spends 2 to 5 hours a day to productive tasks and 4 to 6 hours for domestic works. A rhythm very contrasting with the sedentary lifestyle that dominates industrialized countries, and a diet devoid of processed foods.
Researchers have finally shown that, even if Tsimanous women have better heart health, they undergo the effects of menopause. According to the main author, this proves that the increase in heart disease after menopause is “A universal phenomenon that is part of physiology, whatever our life choices “. On the other hand, having “The healthiest heart in the world” There remains a major asset: their lifestyle, based on simple foods and a lot of physical activity, still protects them from many other diseases.
