The Holocaust Paradox
The victims of the Holocaust turned out to be long-lived
Sergey Vasiliev, Naked Science
Elderly 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. Such unusual conclusions were 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 (Fund et al., Comparison of Mortality and Comorbidity Rates Between Holocaust Survivors and Individuals in the General Population in Israel). "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 more ill, but live longer?"
In the extensive medical insurance databases collected by Maccabi Healthcare Services, scientists collected data on approximately 39 thousand Israelis born in Europe between 1911 and 1945 and survivors of the Holocaust, as well as about 35 thousand of their peers who were born and spent their entire lives in their country. The analysis showed that the incidence of serious chronic diseases in the first group was significantly higher. For oncological diseases, this has been shown before, but the same, as it turned out, applies 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 – on average in Israeli residents, on the left – in 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, compared to the national average of 77.7 years. The reasons for this remain unknown – it is possible that such people are simply generally more attentive to their condition and more likely to seek medical help, which provides both more extensive medical records and a longer life expectancy.
However, the authors note that an old psychological and physiological trauma can also contribute to a longer life. People who survived the 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," he continues Gideon Koren is a survivor of what most of the people who got into the camps failed to do... They are very unusual both emotionally and genetically." In fact, it is impossible to discount the impact of severe stress on the genome – more precisely, on the epigenetic regulation of gene activity, which can not only have a long-term effect on the body, but also be inherited. Only future research and a better understanding of the long-term effects of stress will help to name the final reason for this paradoxical longevity.
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