Blue Zones | Senior Living Link

Donna Mae Scheib

Blue Zones

Posted by Donna Mae Scheib on February 15, 2017

Blue Zones

Okinawa, Japan; Ikaria, Greece; Sardinia, Italy; Nicoya, Costa Rica; and Loma Linda, California: what do these cities all have in common?

These five cities, dubbed “Blue Zones,” boast incredible longevity statistics: the highest concentration of centenarians in the world, lowest mortality rate, or most amount of people reaching 100 at the highest rate. After a decade-long study by author and explorer Dan Buettner, in conjunction with National Geographic, these cities were found to harbor healthy eating habits, meaningful community connection, and naturally- integrated exercise in a daily routine, among other significant factors. With whole communities embracing these “Blue Zone” tenets, citizens were leading longer, healthier lives than anywhere else in the world.

In an interview with the Huffington Post, Buettner said, “Only 25 percent of how long you live is dictated by your genes. The other 75 percent is lifestyle and environment, so what we did working for a decade with National Geographic is essentially reverse-engineer longevity. Find places where we know people are already reaching a healthy age 90, and work backwards from there to figure out exactly what they do.”

So what makes a Blue Zone a Blue Zone?

Key Components of Blue Zone Cities

According to the Blue Zones website, the main factors are:

  • Move naturally
  • Purpose
  • Plant slant
  • 80% rule
  • Wine at 5
  • Down shift
  • Family first
  • Right tribe
  • Belong

None of these factors are groundbreaking or surprising. We’ve known a healthy diet, exercise, and connectivity with friends, religion, passions, and meaningful work all combine together to create a healthy, meaningful life. But these regions demonstrate what those efforts achieve when the entire community embraces such a lifestyle.

Diet

In Buettner’s 2012 New York Times article, he noted common dietary themes among the original Blue Zone communities:

“As I knew from my studies in other places with high numbers of very old people, every one of the Ikarians’ dietary tendencies had been linked to increased life spans: low intake of saturated fats from meat and dairy was associated with lower risk of heart disease; olive oil — especially unheated — reduced bad cholesterol and raised good cholesterol. Goat’s milk contained serotonin-boosting tryptophan and was easily digestible for older people.”

Other common factors included a steady intake of local, fresh greens (lower amounts of pesticide), a regular diet of fish, and regular but moderate amounts of alcohol, specifically wine.

Again, the emphasis is on fresh and local, and less on processed, dairy, and sugars. Groundbreaking? No. But when fresh and local is all that’s available, health happens.

Connectivity

In the five original Blue Zones, older generations maintain proximity with younger ones, with grandparents and great-grandparents living with the family or living in the same communities, rather than being relegated to a nursing home. While this arrangement isn’t feasible for all Americans, it is interesting to note the healthy bonds it fostered as the older generations were able to feel connected and useful by sharing their wisdom and experiences.

Community events promote healthy socialization and a sense of belonging. When you know your neighbors are expecting you to show up to a church or social event, when your presence and wisdom is counted on, a new dimension of purpose opens up.

“The big aha for me, having studied populations of the long-lived for nearly a decade, is how the factors that encourage longevity reinforce one another over the long term. For people to adopt a healthful lifestyle, I have become convinced, they need to live in an ecosystem, so to speak, that makes it possible…the power of such an environment lies in the mutually reinforcing relationships among lots of small nudges and default choices,” Buettner observed in the New York Times article.

The Movement Continues

Outside of Loma Linda, the other original Blue Zone communities lay outside of the US. But the research didn’t stop there. Buettner wanted to see if other communities could implement these findings to spread Blue Zone living across the globe. And that’s just what’s happening. Other communities in the US that are taking the Blue Zone pledge include:

  • Klamath Falls, OR
  • Beach Cities, CA
  • Albert Lea, MN
  • Dodge City, WI
  • Iowa
  • Fort Worth, TX
  • Hawaii
  • Southwest Florida

In big and small ways, these towns and communities are taking steps to make healthful living a community phenomenon. Check to see if your hometown has already taken the Blue Zone pledge, and if you don’t see it listed, you can sign up here to get more info about involving your city.

While we can’t all move to Greece or Costa Rica, we can all start making changes today that impact longevity chances and make our communities healthier places to live, work, and play.

Photo courtesy of Tommie Hansen