Paradoxical statistics show that Israelis who survived the Holocaust are more likely to get sick than the average, but live longer.
Older people who survived the horrors of the 1930-1940 Holocaust suffer from chronic diseases more often than their “ordinary” peers, but they live on average seven years longer. These are the unusual conclusions reached by the authors of a study conducted by the insurance company Maccabi Healthcare Services and presented in an article published in the journal JAMA. "This is, to a certain extent, a mystery," admits the head of the work, the famous Israeli-Canadian physician Gideon Koren, "How can you be sicker, but live longer?"
Scientists have compiled data on approximately 39,000 Israelis born in Europe between 1911 and 1945 from extensive health insurance databases compiled by Maccabi Healthcare Services. and Holocaust survivors, as well as about 35 thousand of their peers who were born and spent their entire lives on the territory of their country. The analysis showed that the incidence of serious chronic diseases in the first group was significantly higher. This has been shown for cancers before, but the same has been shown to apply to other problems, from dementia to osteoporosis, leading to increased bone fragility and dangerous fractures.
The prevalence of chronic diseases in people born in 1911-1945; on the right - the average for Israelis, on the left - for the Holocaust survivors. From top to bottom: high blood pressure, osteoporosis, diabetes, obesity, chronic kidney disease, cancer, dementia / Gaby Galvin, USN & WR, JAMA, Gund et al. 2019.
However, when looking at the mortality rate in this group, the picture was exactly the opposite: for the victims of the Holocaust by the end of 2017 it was 25.3 percent, while the average for the population was 41.1 percent. Their median life expectancy was 84.8 years, versus 77.7 years on average in the country. The reasons for this remain unknown - it is possible that such people are simply generally more attentive to their condition and are more likely to seek medical help, which provides both more extensive medical records and longer life expectancy.
However, the authors note that old psychological and physiological trauma can also contribute to a longer life. People who survived genocide could develop habits, character and behavior that contribute to longevity: attention to their own health and condition, active and mutually beneficial social ties, optimism, etc.
"This is a very special group," continues Gideon Koren, "who survived what most of the people who ended up in the camps failed … They are very unusual, both emotionally and genetically." In fact, one cannot discount the impact of severe stress on the genome - more precisely, on the epigenetic regulation of gene activity, which can not only long-term effect on the body, but also be inherited. Only future research and a better understanding of the long-term effects of stress can help identify the ultimate cause of this paradoxical longevity.
Sergey Vasiliev
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