I just don’t get it. Her regular night is 4 cans of Super Dry + half a bottle of wine/2 servings of shochu.
We talk often and I only remember her being hungover once in the past 3 years, after 2.5 bottles of wine.
How? She passes every health check and blood test with flying colors. Broke her collar bone in the summer. Had a pretty ordinary recovery period of 2 months.
She’s been widowed for 7 years. No children. Living alone. Some friends. Socialise 1-3 times/week. Sits home and watches Chinese/Korean drama most days.
Thin as a twig, sharp as a whip, always has been. Great hearing / eyesight. Looking young for her age. Dresses well. Paints her nails with Daiso polish. Spine straight as an arrow. Works part-time occasionally at community events… Yk the drill.
Her only “healthy” habit may be to never overeat? Most days, she eats whatever tickling her fancy that morning for breakfast, tea and small sweets for lunch, a well-balanced, beautifully arranged plate and BOOZE for dinner.
Well also since she’s childless, she never had “mom stress”???
Why’s she still so healthy with that kind of drinking??? Genetics??? How???
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She’s happy and stress-free, and that’s what you need to live a healthy life.
How is Ozzy Osbourne still alive?
Some people are probably built different lol
Strong zeros make strong heroes
There is a small chance that she’s killing the hangover with more booze in the morning. But it doesn’t really sound like it.
Which leaves the other option: she’s lucky with her genetics/ health in general and particularly in regards to processing alcohol.
Japanese people eat healthy. Even their fast food is healthy (compare sukiya/hotto-motto to chick-fil-a). Old people also bike to do their errands (compare that with driving to Walmart). In other words, healthy-eating and being on your feet is key on top of genetics.
Active lifestyle for sure. My boss’s mom is closing 90 something this year and she is active as fuck.
Some are just built different. Many people who smoke and drink all their life live long enough to see their grandchildren get married. These people usually look weirdly healthy and young for their age too. Definitely not common though.
Some people are just built different.
She’s an absolute unit
Genetics are not fair! I know a guy who weighs 200 kg and has perfect blood pressure and cholesterol. Genetics!
Effects of alcohol on your body, especially on liver, is easy to underestimate. Liver is known to be a “silent” organ. You may look completely healthy and be very active, not knowing that your liver is slowly shutting down. At the point where you start having serious symptoms, it’s usually too late. This is in contrast to say smoking, where you can easily see these effects – shortness of breath, decreased lung capacity and so on.
So, I would think twice before calling your friend “so healthy” until you see his blood work, especially liver enzymes. His real physical condition might be much worse than you think.
Won the gene lottery. Every place has them. From my own experience, my great grandma smoked unfiltered cigarettes and still did chores until she passed at the age of 102, while my uncle, her grandson, had all sorts of health problems by the time he was in his 40s
Genetics
Everyone’s genes are different, personally she sounds fun.
Everything comes down to chance. You may lead a relatively unhealthy lifestyle, simply be lucky and live long. You may also live in the healthiest way imaginable and actually be healthy, then the next day you die of stroke (Look up Emilia Clarke’s case who got stroke at the age of 24 and was incredibly lucky to be properly diagnosed).
In either case, you simply hurt or improve your chances.
How healthy? There’s a difference between looking young and physically normal and being able to do activities like running or hiking without any difficulties.
My grandfather smoked, drank, chewed, ate everything covered in some form of grease, did physical labor his entire life. Had some health issues, cancer at some point, but he just beat it all.
The fucker outlived everyone in his family except for me. Until he just passed in his sleep–no real cause, just got old.
Some people are built different, some people are lucky, some people are just immortal and decide to die because they finally got bored. I don’t fucking know.
Close to our place is a Showa café owned by a 89 year old, she cooks, she serves and is open 7 days a week, I think 360 days a year? She only closes during New year’s, but told me she got bored and opened it up after few days lol . It’s even ok to smoke, she doesn’t smoke, but gets 2nd hand smoke right? She wears these colorful dresses, says whatever crosses her mind, is not a fan of women (her words) and is super sweet to men lol a few months back she fell and twisted her wrist I think, but the doctors told her, her bones are of a 40 year old!! She recovered quickly.
I honestly think it’s not only the food or genetics. It definitely plays a big role. I think it’s also the Japanese way of living, thinking and approach to life.
Also when this elderly generation were babies, and kids, they ate very simple food, but very healthy! It was during WWII and after, there was not much. What you eat as a kid is also the foundation to your health. Not like now with all the processed stuff and junk food.
Genetics. Also, luck. Quite possibly not the never having “mom stress”, but can’t really rule that out! Just remember George Burns (oh, I miss him still).
She may have started that late in life…
Some people’s bodies just defy logic like that. My grandpa’s been a diabetic for the last 30 years. When I was growing up, he regularly ate pasta and all other sorts of carbs. He had a huge sweet tooth and would hide sweets around the house and car because my grandma would scold him if she found them. The man basically ignores the fact that he has diabetes. He only had to go on insulin like 5ish years ago. He’s in a nursing home now and has ice cream with dinner every night. He’s still going strong at 87 and honestly the whole family’s kind of confused about it
Lifetime of healthy eating and active lifestyle probably offsets the alcohol consumption.
Genetic lottery.
Some people are just genetically lucky.
Also, she may have had a very easy and non-stressful life.
Are you her doctor? Lmfao dude you know nothing about her health otherwise. My cousin’s girlfriend was “healthy” and drinking all the time. It started becoming excessive. Besides not eating as much as she should, she otherwise looked fine and was able to “function”. Around this time last year he found her unconscious on the bathroom floor in a pile of her own vomit, she died a few weeks later and had 0 brain function left. The toll of drinking excessively and not eating so well finally just shut down her organs. She wasn’t even that “drunk” on a blood alcohol scale when she died. Sometimes you can look and “function” to the outside world perfectly, but that doesn’t mean you’re healthy.
Japanese genes
My friend’s mom basically lol
We spent the entire night drinking and being rowdy at her house, called it a night at 2am. I woke up at 6am and saw her smoking and drinking beer. She’s a war machine.
You said it yourself, no stress.
“*Her only “healthy” habit may be to never overeat?*”
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That my friend, is actually an underated health tips that is often overlooked
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If I have to make a bet, she also doesn’t drink much soda or those heavily sugared drinks.
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Often, good genetics definitely play a big role here
There’s this old dude in his 70s.walks his dog everyday.
Says he never goes to the doctor.
His secret is one beer at lunch and one at dinner everyday.
Genetics.
Some people eat terribly but have perfect hair and skin.
Some people smoke every day for decades but never develop cancer.
Some people do nothing but watch TV yet never develop dementia.
Genes are wild like that.
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My father is 74 years old and has for the last 58 had a glass of wine for lunch, a glass of wine for dinner and, for the last 30 or so, a glass of whisky (a finger and a half high) before going to bed (gin tonic on weekends). And he is healthier than anybody else in the family.
I think it’s basically a combination of good luck, living a healthy life in all the other aspects, and not falling into alcohol abuse. It’s probably much more harmful to binge-drink for 10 years like many young people do nowadays than drink like my father has for the last 58.
For every person like her there are hundreds who drank themselves to death.
Genetics and stable stressless life can do wonders. Assuming you do not see her every day, she may also be exaggerating.
Balanced health. She has probably eaten healthy well balanced diet most of her whole life compare of years of drinking. Otherwise she would have damaged her liver and kidney already from drinking. My SIL’s grandfather is like that. He drinks every night but has been eating well balanced food for his whole life, and rarely eats sugary food so that pretty much explains it
There cannot be a single word answer to this question, longevity and health is an extremy complex topic that is only now being slowly unravelled by science. So far most research suggests that the strongest correlation to longevity is calorie restriction but obviously its only a part of the equation.
What surprises me is the Japanese women who sleep 4 -5 hours and they get enough rest. I’d die after a week of only 4 hours a night.
The never-overeating thing is huge. To digest food is a demanding job for the metabolism.
Genes
let me know if you found out an answer 😅 I had to give up drinking at age of 22 (now 24) due to dangerous levels of liver enzymes and my 65year old co-worker drinks and smokes a pack everyday and healthy as a horse 😂
and hear i was that drank… fairly heavily for 5 years in my late 20s/early 30s & required a liver transplant! while alcohol undoubtedly was the largest contributor, based on the state of my other organs, several doctors independently told me it shouldn’t have been just my liver that had shut down, but my kidneys & stomach should be in much worse condition, but they were both perfectly fine.
so i’m 2 years sober but was told i have 3 weeks to live & a high chance i wouldn’t survive surgery with the state of how impending liver failure was.
… then i have friends a decade older than me that have been drinking harder than i ever did for years and years before i met them and still to this day!
everyone else has commented on various reasons, but *damn* genetics are wild.
Dad is a drinker, a smoker, and had cancer. Died at the same age as your friend. For someone with cancer and bad habits, he lived very long.
90 percent of staying healthy as you age is not being overweight
Lots of Japanese have bad liver and diabetes. Your friend is at risk for both. Most health checks especially yearly ones are very basic not detailed enough to actually state the truth
Genetics. I saw a man in a pub. He walked in, ordered a beer and two shots of something. After he lit a cigarette, he said ‘Everyone I knew, who didn’t smoke, died.’ He was 93. His exercise was basically going to a pub for a beer or two, two shots, and then walk to another pub for the same order. I live in a tiny town. At that time, you could find 5 pubs on one street here. He went through all, and then home. During covid, pubs were closed, and he died.
Here in Slovakia, that thing is normal. You can see 80 plus years old guys drunk all the time in villages, yet then still are very functional. (Knew a dude who built a little cabin by himself, at the age of 82-ish. He went through a pack per day during those times, and was smoking since 12… according him) They are all alright, until they are not. You can look fine and seem healthy and all together, eventually, it’ll snap. It’ll snap and you with it.