Health Front (The Who, Where, and How of Health Longevity)

By Dr. Jerry DeCapua, Two Rivers Tribune Contributing Writer

Living a long and healthy life may seem unreasonable or unobtainable in a world of toil, economic struggles and emotional stresses. Personal coping mechanisms are continually ‘stressed to the max’ in today’s American culture. But there are five areas in the world where people live to 90-some while appearing to be content and healthy. These places are called the blue zones – areas in the world where people live longer and healthier than anywhere else on earth.

The blue zones were established by National Geographic to identify the places where people living to 90, or even 100 years is common. Surprisingly, these seniors are living healthy without much medication or disability. The five blue zones are as follows:
The Italian island of Sardinia
Okinawa, Japan
Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula
Ikaria, Greek island
Loma Linda, California

Three or four of the blue zone areas lack sophisticated medical technology, nutritional supplements or exercise treadmills. The secret to these people’s health and longevity appears to be lifestyle. They live a simpler, unexcited lifestyle that includes a healthy diet, daily exercise, low stress, and a life that incorporates family, purpose, religion, and meaning.

A healthy diet may vary within these five geographically separate zones. But one similarity of these areas of extreme longevity is that they lie within 100 miles of the sea.

Well over 200 people of Sardinia’s current 1.6 million people are over 100 years of age. Sardinian diet is not strictly a Mediterranean diet. Meat is served only once a week, but they do eat a lot of pecorino cheese made from their sheep’s milk. The rest of their diet is made up of fava beans, whole grain bread, and vegetables they raise…mainly zucchini, tomatoes, potatoes and eggplant.

Most Sardinians drink moderate amounts of dark red wine made from the Canonau grapes. It is so dark that it is called ‘black wine’.  It has almost three times the flavonoids as other wines. They drink milk mainly from goats that eat a dwarf curry, which has anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties. Central to the elixir of their cooking is mastic oil. Instead of olive oil, mastic oil is derived from an evergreen shrug originating in the Pistachio family. Eating beef is quite rare to them.

In Okinawa, like Sardinia, almost all the people who reach over 90 do so as both physically and mentally functional members of society. When they wake up in the morning, they have a sense of purpose as to why they are alive that day. Okinawa is where life expectancy is the highest on earth.

In 2011, 803 of the 920 centenarians are women. Older Okinawans get up early with a chosen life purpose, especially to tend their gardens.  Mugwort, ginger, and turmeric are the staples of their gardens. Their mostly vegetarian diet has plenty of sweet potatoes, goya (bitter melon), well-cooked tofu, and miso soup. They enjoy sunlight and get lots of vitamin D. They walk everywhere and enjoy a social circle providing them security and social networking. Although hardship has tempered their attitude of easy going confidence, they’ve learned the value of being likeable well into their older years. This seems to keep them humorous and young at heart.

Nocoya is a peninsula in Costa Rica where elders also have a strong sense of purpose and a lifestyle that allows them to contribute. They drink hard water filled from a river with Costa Rica’s highest calcium content. Nicoyan centenarians generally still live with their families. Children and grandchildren provide support and a sense of belonging. They eat light dinners earlier in the evening. While keeping with their indigenous roots, their diet still contains maize and beans.

The Seventh Day Adventist community of Loma Linda, California have always emphasized health and well- being. Their seniors have the very best blood pressure, the lowest cholesterol, and the least cardiovascular disease of all older people.

They eat a vegetarian diet in moderation while avoiding dairy products. They eat about five servings of nuts per week. Their risk of cardiovascular disease is about half that of other healthy populations. Having a blue zone just outside a city like Los Angeles is extraordinary.

Besides less stress, what all the blue zone areas have in common is exceptional local foods, sunlight, moderate food intake, family and community support, a sense of purpose, exercise and hard work, attitude with gratitude, and the pursuit of being positive, while being friendly and young at heart.

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