The Blue Zones

The Okinawa Centenarian, National Geographic Magazine

They are called blue zones – places in the world where people live longer and healthier than anywhere else on earth. Several of these blue zones exist, and in each of these places people living to 90 or even 100 years is common. And they aren’t just living long either – these people are living healthy – without medication or disability (see video later in this post).

Five blue zones have so far been identified and thoroughly researched by journalist Dan Buettner in a partnership with National Geographic during more than five years of on-site investigation. So what is the secret to longevity and health underlying these fascinating communities? Do they possess modern technology, do they take massive amounts of supplements, do they run on treadmills, do they have special genes? As you may have guessed, the answer is none of these.

The five blue zones are as follows:
* The Italian island of Sardinia
* Okinawa, Japan
* Loma Linda, California
* Costa Rica’s isolated Nicoya Peninsula
* Ikaria, an isolated Greek island

Power 9® are lessons that emphasize making changes to your environment that will influence your habits. Creating the right surroundings and following specific lifestyle habits shared by the world’s longest-lived people is the secret to living longer.

Move Naturally

1. Just Move
The world’s longest-lived people don’t pump iron, run marathons or join gyms. Instead, they live in environments that constantly nudge them into moving without thinking about it.  They live in places where they can walk to the store, to their friends house or places of worship, their houses have stairs, they have gardens in their yards.

Consider making things a little inconvenient.  Make that extra trip up or down the stairs instead of loading things at the top or bottom to take up later, walk to your airport gate instead of taking the moving walkway, park far from the entrance, walk a dog, do your own yard and house work, get rid of some the time saving electronics and power equipment that have "simplified" your life.

Right Outlook

2. Purpose Now
Knowing your sense of purpose is worth up to seven years of extra life expectancy. The Okinawans call it "ikigai" and the Nicoyans call it "plan de vida" for both it translates to “why I wake up in the morning.”  Do an internal inventory. Be able to articulate your values, passions, gifts and talents.  What are the things you like to do and the things you don’t? Then incorporate ways to put your skills into action.

3. Down Shift
Even people in the Blue Zones experience stress. Stress leads to chronic inflammation which is associated with every major age-related disease.  What the world’s longest-lived people have that we don’t are routines to shed that stress. Okinawans take a few moments each day to remember their ancestors, Adventists pray, Ikarians take a nap and Sardinians do happy hour. Find a stress shedding strategy that works for you and make it routine.

Eat Wisely

4. 80% Rule
Marketers tell us we can eat our way to health.  America has been eating its way well beyond health.  Our strategy focuses on taking things out — instead of putting more things in — our diet.   "Hara hachi bu" – the Okianawan, 2500-year old Confucian mantra said before meals reminds them to stop eating when their stomach is 80 percent full.  The 20% gap between not being hungry and feeling full could be the difference between losing weight or gaining it.  Serve food at the counter, store leftovers, then sit down to enjoy the meal. Replace your big dishes with 10" plates. Remove TV’s from the kitchen.  People in the Blue Zones eat their smallest meal in the late afternoon or early evening and then they don’t eat any more the rest of the day.

5. Plant Slant
Go ahead and eat meat if you want.  But consider it a condiment and try the leanest, finest meat you can afford. Try to limit it to a portion the size of a deck of cards and only twice per week.  Beans, including fava, black and soy and lentils are the cornerstone of most centenarian diets.  Snacking on nuts–about a handful a day has been associated with and extra 2-3 years of life expectancy.

6. Wine @ 5
Moderate drinkers outlive non-drinkers.  The trick is to drink 1-2 drinks per day (preferably Sardinian Cannonau wine), with friends and/or with food.  And no, you can’t save up all weekend and have 14 drinks on Saturday.

Connect 

7. Belong
All but five of the 263 centenarians we interviewed belonged to some faith-based community.  It doesn’t matter if you’re Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish or some other religion that meets as a community.  Research shows that attending faith-based services four times per month will add 4-14 years of life expectancy.

8. Loved Ones First
Successful centenarians in the Blue Zones put their families first. This means keeping your aging parents and grandparents near by or in your home. (It lowers disease and mortality rates of children in the home too.) Work on being in a positive, committed relationship (which can add up to 3 years of life expectancy)  and invest in your children with time and love. (They’ll be more likely to care for you when the time comes.)

9. Right Tribe
The world’s longest lived people chose–or were born into–social circles that supported healthy behaviors,   Okinawans created "moais"–groups of five friends that committed to each other for life.  Research from the Framingham Studies show that smoking, obesity, happiness, and  even loneliness is contagious. Assessing who you hang out with, and then proactively surrounding yourself with the right friends, will do more to add years to your life than just about anything else.

Dan Buettner: How to live to be 100+
To find the path to long life and health, Dan Buettner and team study the world's "Blue Zones," communities whose elders live with vim and vigor to record-setting age. At TEDxTC, he shares the 9 common diet and lifestyle habits that keep them spry past age 100.

References:

• Dan Buettner (Biography): National Geographic writer and explorer Dan Buettner studies the world's longest-lived peoples, distilling their secrets into a single plan for health and long life.

Resources:

• www.bluezones.com
• Dan Buettner: TEDMED 2011,
  Uploaded by tedmed on Dec 9, 2011 [YouTube]
  Buettner talks about universal lifestyle behaviors that promote longevity, why they're so hard to adopt in the U.S., and how one town undertook its own Blue Zone experiment, to great effect.
• Dan Buettner: TEDMED 2011 - Q&A,
  Uploaded by tedmed on Dec 9, 2011 [YouTube]
  Author Dan Buettner answers questions about how to make more longevity-promoting Blue Zones in the U.S.

Books: