more let's see how they do. on the sidelines of the u.n. general assembly the u.s. president and the emea of qatar met to discuss the gulf crisis the emir described kept his relationship with the u.s. as very strong earlier in his address to the u.n. general assembly the emir renewed his call for unconditional dialogue to end the blockade on his country. more than one thousand people have died in mexico after a seven point one magnitude earthquake hit in the central state of puebla the quake was registered near the town of at the single set seventy kilometers to the southeast of mexico city rescue workers are trying to find survivors in damaged or collapsed buildings. one person has been killed on what a loop after hurricane maria battered the island it's now moving towards puerto rico which is being warned of catastrophic damage. near mars leader has sought to rebut criticism of the country over the alleged ethnic cleansing over hinge on

muslims and son suchi says those who have violated the rights of her him to muslims will be held held accountable but she rejected accusations that the army has orchestrated the violence. well those are the top stories and that is all for me and the rest of the team here in london we'll see you tomorrow coming up next though it's techno the longevity. germany is electing a new parliament poll suggests angela merkel is poised to win a fourth term as chancellor of europe's largest economy with crises in the e.u. and president trump in the white house some call merkel the leader of the free world but the voters here green watch al-jazeera as germany decides. the centenarians of italy one hundred years old and counting. the months behind their extended life spans scientists identify a fire and often seems to protect their organs from the effects of aging but why

techno expose the science of pleasing regions where people live it stream live long lives. this is a show about the pace of change life. we're going to explore the intersection on the planet doing the way this is about science by science. and welcome to techno from southern italy. this is an absolutely beautiful part of the well but it's also a giant birch tree for scientists this is one of the wild so-called blue zones an area where an unusually large percentage of the population lived to one hundred years or more and that's exactly what attracted a team of international scientists to find out exactly why.

this is all children of. a village where time seems to stand still. long enough for people like i'm twenty of a son and mina for do you know to grow old he's a hundred and ninety three. she's the younger woman they're married and have been for more than sixty four years. and you're. on your. own here. these days if you stroll by the seaside apartment you're likely to catch a glimpse of the newly minted celebrities they're becoming famous for growing old. i think turner has been waiting so long for his lunch do you have lunch at the same time every day. they say that they have like time table

regularly and i have it they have lunch at twelve in the morning and they have dinner at five invading every time like that since sixty four here's a girl. just a few doors down. at ninety five years old he's also active and independent enough to freely work the streets of the village. he lives alone on the top floor of this villa. he has no trouble heading back downstairs to show off his garden. in most cases just antonio and mina would turn heads but a part of a robust community. is the unwinding right leads to

one of the many villages that all scattered along the coast of japan time and they all share something very unique and special and celebrates a thing in common and not so that every village has at least one and sometimes more centenarians living there. according to research is from rome some pm so university and the university of california at san diego. in archer only one in every sixty residents is at least ninety years old. by comparison according to statistics from canada one of every one hundred sixty three canadians was at least ninety. who's ninety five years old grows these in his garden. must be hard work. it's never easy. i can hang they've been telling me i can take these hopefully this will prolong my life. the time blue

zones was first established by two scientists gianni pes and michael who used blue lines to chart demographic data in sardinia their two thousand and four landmark study identified suddenly as neuro province as a region with an extraordinary high concentration of male centenarians denoted by their blue lines since then scientists have expanded the blue zone concept from sadhana to include a canal in japan nicoya costa rica icaria greece and loma linda california the question what can be learned from the high concentration of centenarians living in our charlie. actually is part of what's known as the challender coast of italy situated one hundred four kilometers south of naples. is a rugged picture perfect region that features mountaintop villages that spill out to the mediterranean sea residents spend

a lot of the time outdoors here working the land and walking nearly all the time. the region has become synonymous for good health rich in fresh produce passed on of oil and rosemary. this is where the so-called mediterranean diet was first scientifically studied by american scientists i'm so. he keys landmark seven country study found diets and italy in greece highly protective against heart disease is now about to become the focus of twenty first century science. get out of here. with a tough century castle as an impressive backdrop a decidedly twenty first century team of researches descended on the hearts of children tied to announce the results of their preliminary study of the region. first of all i think i think he means very longer than me. would you rather

be embedded in one of the men. when you talk with that people like these and you reason these you think that you are abusing a person with seventy five or seventy and the man they thought we knew the man at the head of the study on the italian side is dr salvatore a disarm a professor of medicine and imagines he medicine director at university he explained what happened the first time blood samples from the centenarians were tested when we sent the days of samples to san diego university we found that the group that is studying profitable and geraghty went to private to see that they found some a protein in longevity lincoln in days a subject they never saw in a million so somebody said what does that mean you've you've discovered proteins in the human body that has never been so excited this means a lot that we don't know enough. to get

a proper glimpse of the centenarian population of. we headed up into the hills in a hurry to reach our destination before the sun set. we arrived at this home high atop the mountain village of cod in one of the village centenarians lives on the second floor turns out we didn't have to worry about the late. evening hour one of. the. giovanni average arrow was awake and spending time with her family one hundred years of age this is one incredible woman a face shows a lifetime of experience and grace she greeted me warmly this is a very nice place to live it's nice to have your independence through translator she told me she does sleep her life and i have family is close by her daughter nor lives downstairs and is always that help. we didn't speak the same language it

wasn't long before she began to hold my hand in hers. so this is your husband. is the new one and how long ago was this thirty five years thirty five years ago wow bella. her husband died just last year at the age of one hundred and one they were married seventy five years a life now exists around the next two generations of family including her five month old great granddaughter giovanni like most centenarians in the study moves around easily scientists say is unusual for anyone over ninety to walk around without a cane or walk and research is also observed centenarians strong cognitive abilities sharing almost no signs of dementia or alzheimer's disease this was measured in

terms of what is called functional status the ability to prepare food for themselves move about on their own what's her favorite thing to eat or to favorite . everything it's like they. didn't. significant to the team as. scientist g. of honor doesn't wear glasses for her eyesight nor does she need a hearing aid and they see here in hay without any aids that's interesting this is another important they say finding no one of these the need for glasses. though while no news was needed to be cited for. that let's say i never see people the end of ninety leaving we don't have. the idea behind the research project is to determine what factors contribute to the centenarians good health and if they can be replicated magically all through diet and lifestyle the pilot study was

conducted over six months starting in the spring of two thousand and sixteen scientists took a close look at a select group of eighty one centenarians and their families they focused on physical cognitive lifestyle family diet and genetics they do blood samples from both the centenarians and their offspring. tecno was given access to the duran a laboratory this is where the majority of the centenarians blood work was taken for analysis technicians charted basic cholesterol levels monitoring both good cholesterol h.d.l. and the bad l.d.l. levels. they measured triglycerides or fat levels and major organ functionality. in the slighting. was one. hundred one years old now with. the director of this lab is getting so excited about the results of this one

hundred and one year old woman because of that is somehow big meat donated and uses the word bambina harm a lot is like the blood of a young girl an interesting picture began to emerge from the lab centenarians shared some of the typical signs of aging. what makes them unique researches say if those factors did not result in heart disease hypertension is a problem with the centenarians in the area but oddly not sickening of the arteries how does that work together. subjects'. they ever station some of these expected because all the people of the age of more than eighty five and ninety as increase on brother pressure due to defect and there is a kind of a stiffness of the ass to realize that makes the level of pressure increased but that we would not be able to follow the same consequence here we see this this

official so we see people of the age old and i think. without that faith. so in times of peace or pathology. we've means that they all know these people have got their vascular risk that covers danger they seem to be protected they seem to be protected or we did something that is going to interfere with the process of what they're up with no involvement of the heart. it took a team of scientists from germany to starts one battle the mystery they began by measuring specific biomarkers in the blood of the study of. the blood so and this is the authority read how good or bad someone is from my own marcus affair because they are the blood is telling you anything going into nor almost everything you need to know about healthy or eccentric. andres backman and the to kill on a small biotech company in germany both hold doctorate degrees in biochemistry they

supply to test for hormone and join imagine him they say is able to predict the health of the micro-second a tree system the vast blood supply network the supports the body's organs the signal was. concentration of hormone which is named reno manually in this home or in controlled the microsecond nation so and if the micro circulation is very good there's no need of this home on it's very low and if it's a bad micro circulation it's up and very low when used in the centenarians. this was a surprising finding so you know lois very young so when we saw that these people have micro circulation like very young people we couldn't believe it this blot told us that the micro circulation is much better in the centenarian than you would

expect if you look at these arguments because the audience have a normal process of aging and strong contrast there too it seems that the micro circulation of these people has never aged the companies report results made it even clearer since all of the eighty one subjects sampled were related comparing generations was easy one punch or will process of future struck by a child as if it is fair to our younger relatives are fifty very old people and day had a good kid their function eighty percent of them had a kid their function ninety percent i had got heart function hundred percent of them had good an eye for circulation and in addition to neri and this was more striking to see that almost all of them had better kidney eighty percent had a weak heart or a stress cardiac function but all of them got micro-second lation so that was the common factor between old and young yes good markers circulation it was

a common factor and it seems that they have maintained their good micro circulation over long lifespan for that what i hypothesize how surprised were you at your findings because it really surprised me to normally you have. given you make an hypo to the generating that you didn't seek nerve with you must. confirm that in one thousand two souls intense holes in subjects but here we do not need to confirm anything that strong that there is no question about the future of the show what we can find here in the chalange two that makes these people. so extraordinary bill because if you look at them they smoke as well they have a high up take off for difficult in restaurants to see that they have no diets at all except that they have to mediterranean food tear but you don't have to impression that they are trying to live

a healthy life they have just one so really thing and that's a hypothesis that maybe years something in the food in the plans in the her whatever in the microbiome that headstone to maintain this x. and micro circulation you come into this region where there is no story for things that no make donitz no burger king so they have the smallest shops mainly selling and productive produce of this region therefore i think we have an extraordinary chance that somehow big part of the history of lifestyle and nutrition is preserved in this region anstice could come see the next more advanced phase of study will focus on actually east diet i must say i wonder how they can eat all the for all the things that they smoke a lot and they drink more than the average in people and in italy so they have more

you know risk factor us if you will from from lifestyle point of view but they must have something which helps to help them to control their microcircuits then there is i must say it's to the speculation you know it may be this specific a nutrition in this area whether this something scientifically notable to the diet or even in the soil actually residents say that it has been a long part of the lives of the region. the subpoena family runs hotel in the playa one of the great waters. resorts sitting on the shore of the mediterranean sea. while they don't have a centenarian in their family it was their grandfather who saw the importance of the region and made sure to connect this generation to the land the food. the menu at the hotel features fresh ingredients and shooting portuguese grown

locally they own a farm just a few kilometers up the hillside. there's something about this area that. is helping long jetty of life and i wonder if it's in the food that you're growing here i mean organic here is not a trend here is i mean is is what you have i mean they would not eat tomatoes because they know there are no tomato in december did it represents our next generation but on how far they still go the traditional crops including rosemary scientists from the study tell technique the looking closely at the very sweet grown head because it may hold such medicinal benefits they don't yet know why but say on the surface it is more intensely favored than cultivated outside the region everyone here have their own garden and know how to grow stuff and know how

to eat seasonal but not because they choose it as a because it's health here like we do it's because that's what they have because even this piece of men i mean i've just never smelt men like this before the thing is that here to lend it's kind of virgin i mean here for example before the farm there was nothing there was nothing even not even someone like growing stuff so there is no danger that someone would have poisoned the herd or you know any the plants or anything and there are no industry here. all the lands here it's not you. because you have heard it like fear it's yours because it was yours from your great grandfather then left it to your great father and your father and then you may still be alive telling you how to cultivate it yeah they don't have to hear and although they are eating and. smoking and so on so there must be

a secret. finding the answer to that could be the key to no one can i would say so i think it might be an important factor of might be one of the key but i think life is using more complex the research team also cited the importance of another lifestyle factor the family multiple generations provide support as does the community at large. there is of course all these psychological factors and that you live in a social environment that you live in your family that you talk to people every day that you train your brain to feel responsible for you know all these factors you may call it soft as in town parton research is also looking at other psychological factors in this study centenarians are resilient group they survived two world wars famine and poverty when i visited antonio and mina i os was single event in his

life time was most important the centenarian spoke of hard times during world war two when he was stationed in north africa. one might think that unknown life involves a lot of comfort and. ease of living but it doesn't seem to be the case hair from turner what i'm understanding is that he's been through a lot in his hundred years and all of that has given him the strength of character . one hundred year old giovanna expressed similar so. during our evening together she often reflected on hard times she became emotional what describing life in this village a generation ago. life hasn't been easy working barefoot in the countryside certainly tough for anyone but that kind

of resilience that we see it's clear that she has a real strength of character. many different facets of life being examined mental health experts like anna scales are studying the impact of psychological factors on the longevity of this unique population. the interesting thing is that they were only one point six percent. of the centenary and depressed versus four point seven percent of the group control depressed so the younger the children were more depressed then. the centenarians their. their fathers or mothers but this is just a pilot study and the younger generation may live to one hundred we don't know if it's genetic we have yet to find out but what's your prediction of people suffering more from depression. well because i work a lot with the lessons. i can see there are more stressed there are more anxious

they are getting more panic attack they centenarians don't even know what it is a panic attack. facing difficulties and traumas i have lived through two worlds alice exactly so i'm really wondering no saying what will happen to the younger generation. no one knows why just yet that will be for the longer term study but the clues are there the world has discovered. bringing outside influences to this quiet waterfront community the younger generation is finding reasons to leave. leaving to largest cities like naples and right still as the sun sets save on a small group of seniors gathered at the local church for a saturday night press religious say this something special about the simple way of life that they say cannot be measured by a blood test or

a biomarker i don't sing at the end of the day we get a pill and if you have to peer down and initially morry about anything else that's a bit too easy i guess. you know on never forget one hundred year old giovanna wishing me a life longer than has as we parted and that could be a reality for all of us as the results unfold from that research is happening in this region and it could significantly influence or even change the way we think about diets health and ageing in the future for technology i'm dr shinee so mara and it's only see you next time. a new level of luxury has arrived. and experience that will transform the way you treat. our impeccable service remain. but none come breaking.

business class. for this. meeting. with the conducting business sharing a special. thanks to. the ship that. was. trying so many. centuries in the school. system to use. cars are we going places together. we all have stories. some that enrich our memories. others that define our futures. in

a breathtaking new season al-jazeera staff members open their hearts and invite us into that extraordinary lives al-jazeera correspondent coming soon. tensions are high little has changed and new village officials are struggling to demonstrate goodwill. among morial is trying for a comrade who sacrificed his life the political change. but will the event unite or drive a wedge between the villages fractures part three of a six part series filmed over five years to crank china's democracy experiment at this time on al-jazeera. this is al-jazeera.