Into the Blue

BLUE ZONES – LIVING LONGER & BETTER

Loida Medina’s life in her 80s has been both active and  healthy. She practiced medicine until the age of 83 and loved her job. Now at 85, she has scarcely slowed down at all and, in fact, finds she is busier than ever with volunteer work, community activities, and physical exercise. When Medina visits family in Loma Linda, California, she enjoys going to the Drayson Center a couple of times a day to play pickleball, often in the company of people in their 90s.

“I was told I was the baby!” she said with a laugh in an interview with Mind Over Matter®.

Medina is a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which owns and operates Loma Linda University and the Drayson Center on the campus. Loma Linda’s Seventh-day Adventist Church community is identified as one of five blue zones, places, or groups of people, in far-flung parts of the world where residents tend to live longer, healthier lives.

Medina credits her good health to various factors common in blue zones. Along with regular exercise, she eats fresh, unprocessed food in moderate amounts, with no meat and only the occasional fish. She also points to her volunteer work, a strong sense of community within the church, and a general feeling of purpose.

“I chose to do this so I can have a good quality of life and be useful, even to the end.”

Journalist Dan Buettner popularized the blue zones concept after he wrote a 2005 article in National Geographic magazine entitled “The Secrets of Long Life.” Among those diverse communities, he identified nine common principles, which he described to Mind Over Matter®:

1.          Move Naturally. People living in the blue zones tend to be active, not necessarily in the sense of going to the gym, but of walking and doing physical tasks like gardening.

2.         Purpose. Much as Loida Medina described, it translates into “why I wake up in the morning.” Mr. Buettner said: “Knowing your sense of purpose is worth up to seven years of extra life expectancy.”

3.         Down Shift. People in blue zones have methods of reducing stresses. For Seventh-day Adventists, it’s daily prayer; Ikarians like to nap, and Sardinians do their own happy hour where they gather for a glass of wine.

4.         80% Rule. Okinawans have a tradition that advises them to stop eating when their stomachs are 80% full.

5.         Plant Slant. Their diets are dominated by vegetables, with small amounts of meat or none at all.

6.         Wine @ 5. People in all blue zones (except the Adventists) drink alcohol moderately and regularly, limiting it to one or two glasses of wine per day.

7.         Belong. All but five of the 263 centenarians Mr. Buettner interviewed belonged to a faith-based community. 

8.         Loved Ones First. Residents of blue zones place a high value on family, keeping aging parents or grandparents close by or in the home.  

9.         Right Tribe. The world’s longest-lived people chose – or were born into – social circles that supported healthy behaviours.

The blue zones concept has grown into an industry led by Mr. Buettner, spawning a Netflix series, eight books, and what he calls the Blue Zones Project.

“Yes, I am very inspired; it has been my work for the past 20+ years,” he said.  

The Blue Zones Project is a nationwide well-being improvement initiative that helps communities shape their environments to make healthy choices easier.

Airdrie, Alberta, took it seriously enough in 2018 to commit $1.5 million over three years to promote the blue zones philosophy, with the goal of making the city “Canada’s healthiest community.” They proposed promoting more nutritious foods in grocery stores, to decrease smoking rates, and improve the walkability of neighbourhoods.

The initiative had to be abandoned because of pandemic disruptions, so the Airdrie case study is incomplete, although the town has expressed interest in reviving some elements.

The blue zones concept has critics, including some who question the demographic record keeping in some rural communities, suggesting that some people might not be as old as they claim.

However, Dr. Michael Kobor of the University of British Columbia believes it is worthy of study.

“There is some real science to it. It’s pretty clear that folks there don’t just live long lives but healthy lives,” he told Mind Over Matter®.

Dr. Kobor is a professor in the university’s Department of Medical Genetics and was recently appointed to the newly created Edwin S.H. Leong UBC Chair in Healthy Aging – A UBC President’s Excellence Chair.

He specializes in epigenetics, a field that studies how social and environmental factors become biologically embedded in our genes to influence human health and well-being. He notes that many of the healthy living ideas in blue zones are already well-established.

“It’s really an intuitive concept, but now it’s become a bit of a marketing gimmick, with blue zones diets, a cookbook, and now the Netflix show,” said Dr. Kobor.

It does, however, have enough merit to warrant serious research. He and his team are working with colleagues from Stanford University to examine biospecimens from Costa Rica, Greece, and Italy, making comparisons at the molecular level with specimens from non-blue zones residents to try to discover any differences.

WHAT WE’RE TRYING TO UNDERSTAND IS HOW ENVIRONMENTS AND EXPERIENCES GET UNDER THE SKIN TO AFFECT BIOLOGY, AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN ABOUT POSSIBLE PREVENTIONS OR INTERVENTIONS TO HELP US HAVE A LONGER HEALTH SPAN.

As part of his research, he studies differences between the sexes. He says that while women almost universally tend to be healthier than men as they age and have longer lifespans, in blue zones, the differences are smaller.

Dr. Kobor is also keen to discover if there are any of what he calls “mini blue zones” in Canada. He has heard anecdotally of places where people live longer and healthier but needs further investigation.

A better understanding of blue zones can help inform public policy choices to promote exercise, social interaction, and healthy diets, with the goal of lives that are not only longer but healthier.

Since Mr. Buettner’s article launched the blue zones movement, there have been positive and negative changes. He says enlightened public policy choices in Singapore have now made that city-state a new blue zone. At the same time, the encroachment of North American diets onto Okinawa has cut into lifespans.

“Okinawa is fading and should no longer be considered a blue zones location,” said Buettner. “The outlook for all of the blue zones around the world is not promising, as they are all eroding. They will likely be gone in a generation. As soon as the standard American diet comes in the front door, longevity leaves out the back door,” he explained.

Kim Knowlton, the Director of the Drayson Center at Loma Linda University, is Loida Medina’s daughter. Every morning, starting at 7 a.m., Knowlton sees “some pretty healthy seniors,” many in their 80s and 90s, coming in for interval training and water aerobics classes.

“That’s one reason they like to come, but there’s also the social component. It’s the purpose and the community, and that’s what we also promote,” said Knowlton, who takes her mother’s lead in following a principally plant-based diet, with occasional fish.

“It’s not just the blue zones that can do this; anywhere in the world can do it. I’m glad this is getting out,” she added.

Her mother concurs: “I like this concept because it is not only the individual that’s affected, it’s the whole community. It’s good to live well – maybe not long, but well.”