Adopt a ‘blue zone’ lifestyle

Researchers have identified five regions throughout the earth with the highest concentration of 100-year-olds. They also discovered that the centenarians, as well as other elderly people in these regions, have low rates of dementia and chronic illness compared to the rest of the world’s population.

Dan Buettner, an explorer and National Geographic Fellow, wrote the national bestseller “The Blue Zones” about these regions. In the book and in other follow-up articles and subsequent books, Buettner identified and studied these regions to determine what made the people in the blue zones live long and healthy lives.

The zones he recognized are Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Nicoya, Costa Rica; Icaria, Greece; and the Seventh-day Adventists in Loma Linda, California.

With the help of a team of evidence-based assistants, including medical researchers, anthropologists, demographers, and epidemiologists, Buettner identified nine traits that individuals in these older and healthier societies share:

1. The move naturally in their everyday life. They get their exercise from walking, gardening, and household chores.

2. They know their sense of purpose – why they get up in the morning.

3. They down shift by finding ways to shed stress.

4. They stop eating when they are 80% full.

5. They have a primarily plant-based diet – eating fist-sized portions of meat less than five times per month.

6. They drink wine moderately, except for the Seventh-day Adventists who do not drink at all. This means one or two drinks a day with family and friends, and not binging on one day of the week.

7. They belong to faith-based communities.

8. They put their family, their loved ones, first. They live near each other and care for one another.

9. They have social networks that support healthy lifestyles.

Buettner and his partners took this initial research and implemented these traits in several test cities. Their approach was not to focus on changing individual behaviors, but on changing the community environment.

In their first test city, Albert Lea, Minn., Buettner reported impressive results: medical costs of municipal workers dropped 40%, large employers reported a 20% drop in absenteeism, more businesses banned smoking, grocery stores reported a 36% sales gain in healthy food sales, life-expectancy increased by 3.2 years, feelings of sadness declined, and reported average weight loss was 2.8 pounds.

How did they do it? Buettner’s team had the support of city and school officials, businesses and residents. Among the things they did were to implement policies that made the environment more walking friendly by creating a path around a city lake and other walking connectivity within the town. They built community gardens and changed the food environment at restaurants and grocery stores. They changed school policies, one of which was to prohibit students from eating in hallways and classrooms (one factor which Buettner said lowers BMI by about 11%), and they helped create more opportunities for social interaction.

The good news to carry forward from Buettner’s work is to acknowledge that we live in a community with many policies that already promote the blue zone traits. Daniel Island has plenty of parks and connectivity through an extensive trail system as well as sidewalks, there are many faith based groups and community activities, wine is readily available, and there are large groups of like-minded people who encourage and support healthy eating and activities.

The lesson learned is that we can work together to improve our health as we age.

Now, the big challenge is to encourage your friends and neighbors, and yourself, to only eat until 80% full!