Stamatis Moraitis was in his 60s when doctors in the United States told him that the tumors in his lungs were incurable and that he had less than a year to live. The unfavorable prognosis was immediately confirmed by several specialists, so he decided to give up aggressive treatment and went to the island of Ikaria in the Aegean Sea, where he was born, he writes.
A veteran of II. After World War II, he immigrated to America in the 1940s and spent his life doing hard manual work, raising a family and living a normal life. After being diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, he returned to the remote Greek island from which he came. “He came back to Ikaria to die,” said longevity expert and National Geographic contributor Dan Buettner. “Instead, he recovered without treatment simply by changing his environment,” he added.
Buettner explained that Stamat’s survival was not the result of some miracle drug, but a change in lifestyle. He was saved by adopting the peaceful lifestyle of the islanders, which consists of natural awakening, daily naps and socialization.
Stamatis was able to gradually return to physical work, spending time growing vegetables, taking care of vineyards and meeting friends every day, with whom they often drank homemade wine late into the night. A few years later, he returned to the US to prove to the doctors that he had survived their prognosis. “All my doctors were already dead,” he stated.
Studies show that people on Ikaria are more than twice as likely to reach the age of 90 compared to Americans and usually get cancer and heart disease much later. People they eat a predominantly plant-based diet, climb steep terrain daily and place great emphasis on social life and community. “We live in a culture that relentlessly seeks comfort. Comfort is linked to disease. In Ikaria, difficulties, movement and social contacts are part of everyday life.” Buettner explained the contrast in habits.
Stamatis lived more than four decades after doctors diagnosed him with a terminal illness, making him an international symbol of the Ikarian way of life. When asked how he beat cancer, he answered simply: „She just disappeared.’
