 If you want to know about something, you go to the expert, right? Someone who has been there, done that.
That's exactly what Dan Buettner did when he decided to search the
globe to find groups of people living the longest.
For
his new book, published by National Geographic, "The Blue Zones:
Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who've Lived the Longest,"
Buettner led teams of researchers across the globe to find the places
where people have the greatest longevity -- places called "blue zones."
These "longevity hot-spots" are located in Okinawa, Japan;
Sardinia, Italy; Costa Rica and -- the only North American spot -- Loma
Linda.
Loma Linda
The Loma Linda blue zone was very different from the others, Buettner said.
The other zones were all geographically isolated. Loma Linda is set in
a large metropolitan area but is culturally isolated, he said.
When Buettner began researching the blue zones, he found there were
already quite a few completed studies relating to longevity and Loma
Linda.
A series of investigations done by Loma Linda
University, globally called the Adventist Health Studies, had been
researching links between diet, longevity and chronic or deadly
diseases for several decades.
"We first got to work with
Dan when he was researching the article on longevity he was putting
together a few years ago for National Geographic," said Gary Fraser,
Loma Linda University Medical Center research director and heart
physician.
The article eventually evolved into "The Blue Zones" book.
In addition to the diet research, Buettner has quite an interest in the
idea of community and social support in relation to health and
longevity, he said. "From the perspective of a scientist, there is some
evidence that might support this idea, but there is greater evidence
showing that diet is more important."
The university is
actively investigating this theory of community and social support with
new studies funded by the National Institute of Health, Fraser said.
The research Buettner initially found showed that the life expectancy
for devout Adventist females is nine years longer than other American
women, and for men, it's 11 years.
There were common
lifestyle, diet and spirituality denominators found among each of the
blue zones, Buettner said. These habits or routines were dubbed, "The
Power 9" and are simple practices that could extend a person's
lifespan.
Many of these habits are integral parts of the
Adventist religion, such as the vegetarian diet, religious community
and quiet times of meditation, he said.
"Places like
Okinawa, Costa Rica and even the American Adventists might seem far
away or very different to many people," Fraser said. But, despite some
differences, there are things anyone can do that could make a big
difference in a person's lifespan.
Okinawa, Sardinia, Costa Rica
Loma Linda was not the first blue zone Buettner and his crew found.
That was Okinawa, where Buettner found population studies showing
"Okinawans were reaching the age of 100 at a rate up to three times
higher than Americans."
Demography is really a new
science, he said. As more countries keep better birth and death
records, it's becoming easier to get a good picture of where people are
living longer.
So, for places like Okinawa, Buettner and
his team of demographers looked at the studies, then flew in and talked
to the people who were at least 100 years old.
They verified the information and then began looking at life practices for any commonalities, he said.
Then Buettner and his team found the Sardinian blue zone and spent
about three weeks there studying life practices and verifying the
research.
The Costa Rican blue zone was a surprise to everyone, he said.
"We heard an obscure Costa Rican demographer giving a speech and
everybody blew him off. No one showed up because no one believed that
Costa Rica could be a longevity hot spot," Buettner said.
Buettner's team, however, knew some of the demographer's background,
which suggested he was well educated and had been in the business for a
long time, so they got to work studying the numbers.
"Sure enough," Buettner said. Costa Rica had "the lowest middle-age mortality in the world."
The research on these blue zones began about seven years ago, he said.
But, this isn't the end. Another blue zone may be on the horizon, he said.
Reach Jennifer Dean at 951-368-9336 or jdean@PE.com
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