11-27-2024 Primetime Living - Flipbook - Page 6
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A Special Advertising Section of Baltimore Sun Media Group | Wednesday, November 27, 2024
HEALTH
Blue Zones and
Super Agers
Who wants to live forever?
By Margit B. Weisgal, Contributing Writer
“
The term “blue zones” was first coined by Blue Zones founder Dan Buettner,
a National Geographic Explorer and Fellow and journalist, during an exploratory project he led in 2004. After an expedition to Okinawa, Japan in 2000
to investigate the longevity there, he set out to explore other regions of the world
with reportedly high longevity.
In 2008, his book, The Blue Zone: Lessons
for Living Longer From the People Who’ve
Lived the Longest, was published by National
Geographic Books and new words entered
our vocabulary, like Super Agers. It’s also
the title of a Netflix documentary, recounting
Buettner’s travels and what he discovered.
Wise & Well Center for Healthy Living, part
of Keswick in Baltimore City, was host to Dr.
Nishant Shah’s talk on Blue Zones and Super
Agers. Dr. Shah, M.D., M.P.H., works with the
Maryland Department of Health, consulting
on addiction health, and at Keswick MultiCare
as its Community Health Consultant, supporting the expansion of Keswick Community
Health and its role in population health and
aging in place.
Shah recounted how Buettner identified
five Blue Zones with a large population of
centenarians, although reaching that age is
becoming more common. What sets these
locations apart is that they have 10 times the
number of centenarians than other places.
The five places are Okinawa, Japan; Ikaria,
Greece; Sardinia, Italy; Loma Linda, California
(USA); and Nicoya, Costa Rica.
In the 1950s, there were around 34,000
centenarians worldwide. Today, 75 years later,
there are almost 575,000. However, living
longer doesn’t necessarily mean living well. At
the age of 60, you have less than a 10 percent
chance of living to 100. The probability goes
down until you get to 85 when it starts going
up. It all comes down to the quality of the life
you are living.
What do these super agers have in common? There is the genetic lottery, which these
centenarians have won. Buettner found there
is no rule book, no one single behavior, diet,
or program to follow. They are all different.
However, for most of us, chronic diseases,
cancer, obesity, mental health issues and
smoking prevent us from having optimum
health.
Even so, there are some commonalities. One is that they tend to be a part of a
community. They are more social, so they
connect strongly with other members of their
community. In the Okinawa Blue Zone, there
is a group of five women with an average age
of 102, who have been together for 97 years.
Conversely, in the U.S., we used to average
three close friends with whom we shared our
lives. Today, it’s down to one and a half.
They also move naturally. What does that
mean? They do it daily, but it’s movement,
not exercise. “It’s purposeful, connecting to
nature,” explains Shah. “They don’t belong
to gyms or have equipment in their homes.
Rather, they walk everywhere they go, they
garden, they dance, climb stairs, clean the
house, and play sports. They simply keep
moving.”
Says Shah, “Having a sense of purpose
is important for health, resilience, increased
activity levels and self-worth. It’s why you
wake up in the morning. It’s your purpose in
life. Maybe it’s your children, or something
that brings you joy that you do regularly. Or
it’s people or a mission that gives you a reason to make a contribution today.”
He raised questions that were particularly
insightful after our shared experiences over
the last few years with the pandemic. “In
your life, where does meaning come from?
Sometimes it’s through therapy, a higher
power (religious), or spirituality. A benevolent
higher power allows you to let go of baggage,
to let go of the negatives in your life. And,
depending on how you were affected during
the pandemic, what is your path forward?”
Another commonality is being part of
nature, something associated with lower levels of stress hormones and an improved
sense of well-being. Other ways to de-stress:
connect with friends, laugh, take a nap, slow
down.
You can take a page from the many
12-step programs and believe in a force
greater than ourselves. You can call it faith
or spirituality, or just connecting with people
with a shared purpose.
Shah then talked about causation versus correlation. “All the Blue Zone factors
represent correlation, not causation. These
locations and their populations just happen to
share these similarities.” Buettner talks about
how we take on the traits and behaviors of
those around us. It’s probably why, after a
hundred years together, they act in similar
ways. Then Shah asks this question: “Are
people who move more, more likely to move
since they have less chronic disease, or do
they have less chronic disease because they
move more?”
Next is moderation. “Excess calories that
lead to obesity are associated with decreases
in longevity,” Shah states. “There are two
parts to this. First, stop eating when you are
80 percent full. It takes your body 20 minutes to signal to your brain that you’ve had
enough. Second, the quality of the nutrition
you are moderating matters.”
In all five Blue Zones, residents eat a
mostly plant-based diet, including fresh fruits
and vegetables, beans and nuts. This provides fiber, reduced calories, good gut bacteria and polyphenols. This last item, according
Live forever, continued on page 14
