Health
Secrets of longevity from the world's 'blue zones'
The average life expectancy in the U.S. is just over 78 years — but in certain countries and regions, more people make it past 100, seemingly without even trying.
What are the secrets of these pockets of the world — known as “blue zones” — where residents have not only more longevity, but more healthy years?
Dan Buettner, a Florida-based author, explorer and longevity researcher who first coined the term “blue zone,” embarked on a mission to find out.
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“Only about 20% of how long you live is dictated by your genes,” he told Fox News Digital during an on-camera interview.
“The other 80%, we reason we might find among the longest-living populations.” (See the video at the top of this article.)
Dan Buettner, a Florida-based author, explorer and longevity researcher who first coined the term “blue zone,” embarked on a mission to find the secrets of longer-living areas. (Fox News)
For the recent Netflix documentary “Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones,” Buettner visited five destinations — Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Ikaria, Greece; Nicoya, Costa Rica; and Loma Linda, California — to discover why these areas have the highest rates of living centenarians.
“We verified ages and found that in these areas, people were living about 10 years longer at middle age,” he said.
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“It’s because they’re not suffering from the diseases that are plaguing us, like type 2 diabetes. They’re not dying of cardiovascular disease prematurely, or dementia, and they have 40% lower rates of cancer.”
Buettner and his team of demographers and researchers investigated the lifestyle and environmental characteristics in these five areas to determine what people may be doing differently.
‘Healthy choice is easy’
“The big insight we learned from blue zones is that in places where people are actually living longer, it’s not because they try,” Buettner said.
“In America, we tend to pursue health. We try to identify the right diet or exercise program or supplement regimen — but our brains are hardwired for novelty.”
Studies have shown that people who wake up and have a sense of purpose, whether it’s a duty, a passion or an outlet, have greater health outcomes. (iStock)
“We’re constantly bombarded and bamboozled by new health news and people — and in blue zones, they never tried to live a long time.”
The reason for this longevity, according to Buettner, is that they live in environments where the healthy choice is easy.
Nutrition and exercise
One of the characteristics most blue zones share is their walkability, as people walk to work, school, friends’ homes or gardens.
“They’re getting 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day without thinking about it,” Buettner said.
Also, the cheapest and most convenient foods in blue zones are unprocessed.
“The big insight we learned from blue zones is that in places where people are actually living longer, it’s not because they try.”
“People in blue zones also eat healthier, as they consume primarily whole, unprocessed, plant-based foods,” Buettner noted.
The average American eats about 220 pounds of meat a year, which he believes is “too much.”
“I’m not advocating a no-meat diet, but I will tell you, people in blue zones eat about 20 pounds of meat a year, so about once a week as a celebratory food — and they are getting all the nutrients they need.”
One of the characteristics most blue zones share is their walkability, as people walk to work, school, friends’ homes or gardens. (iStock)
People also eat far more fiber in these areas, Buettner found.
“In blue zones, the cheapest and most accessible foods were full fiber,” he said. “They pull them out of their garden … whole grains or beans are the cornerstone of every longevity diet in the world.”
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Fiber is often neglected in the American diet, Buettner said, with only about 5% to 10% of Americans getting enough.
“If you don’t get enough fiber, it often goes to work at the mucous membrane and creates a certain permeability or leaky gut, and that causes all kinds of problems,” he warned.
Passion and purpose
Studies have shown that people who wake up and have a sense of purpose, whether it’s a duty, a passion or an outlet, have greater health outcomes.
“The blue zone purpose almost always includes an altruistic dimension,” Buettner shared.
“There’s almost always doing it for the next generation, or for the community or their church. There’s always some philanthropic dimension to their purpose.”
Power of community
“In blue zones, we see very clearly that people are connecting face to face, probably five to six hours a day,” Buettner said.
People in these areas often live in extended families.
“People in blue zones eat healthier, as they consume primarily whole, unprocessed, plant-based foods.” (iStock)
“Grandma never gets lonely, because she lives upstairs and helps with the garden,” Buettner shared as an example. “She helps cook food and she helps with childcare. And the kids do better because they’re getting better attention. And it’s this virtuous circle.”
In blue zones, people typically live in communities where they care about each other, he added.
“They’re not spending nearly as many stress hormones arguing about things — and there’s more time for laughter when you’re not angry.”
Faith factor
Data shows that people who regularly go to church live anywhere from four to 14 years longer than people who don’t, Buettner noted.
“You can’t measure faith, but you can measure religiosity,” he said. “Scientists simply ask people how often they show up at church, temple or mosque, and then they compare the longevity of the people who show up to those who don’t show up at all.”
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Part of this likely stems from the fact that churchgoers have a built-in community, he said, as loneliness has proven to be “toxic.”
“Religious people are also less likely to get involved in risky behaviors, and they often have a sense of purpose, which is their faith in God,” Buettner added.
Data shows that people who regularly go to church live anywhere from four to 14 years longer than people who don’t, Buettner noted. (iStock)
Those who worship on Sunday may also benefit from having one day a week where they “stop everything.”
“Being human is inherently stressful, and church gives us an hour or maybe a couple of hours where we fully take the focus off of our everyday life and troubles, and we get to sort of elevate to a higher plane and focus on a greater good,” Buettner said.
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The act of prayer itself could also “stack the deck” in favor of longevity and health, he added.
“By the way, people who sing in the choir actually even live longer,” Beuttner said. “So if you want a little extra bump, join the church and sing in the choir.”
Sleep’s role in health
In his visits to blue zones, Buettner found that the residents are usually early to bed, early to rise.
“They have kind of two sleeps, where they’ll go to bed shortly after sunset, and then get up at 3 or 4 a.m. and do some chores, and then go back to sleep until sunrise,” he told Fox News Digital.
Napping is also very common throughout all blue zones.
“And some good research shows that people who take a 20-minute nap five days a week have significantly lower rates of cardiovascular disease and about 30% lower rates of cardiovascular mortality,” Buettner said. “So napping is definitely part of the blue zone approach to longevity.”
“Blue zones give us a very clear set of choices and environmental factors that would help us mindlessly get the years we deserve.”
Overall, he concluded, anyone can benefit from the lessons learned from the blue zones — primarily the importance of keeping people healthy in the first place.
“It’s about shaping their environment so that healthier choices are easier or unavoidable and setting them up for success, so they’re subconsciously making better decisions on a day-to-day basis for years or decades,” Buettner said.
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“Blue zones give us a very clear set of choices and environmental factors that would help us mindlessly get the years we deserve.”
“That’s what works in all the blue zones, and it will indisputably work for you — whether you live in Akron, Ohio, or New York City or Los Angeles.”
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Eating too much salt has long been linked to high blood pressure, but new research suggests it could trick the immune system into prematurely aging the blood vessels.
A preclinical study recently published in the Journal of the American Heart Association has identified a biological chain reaction that links a salty diet to cardiovascular decay.
Scientists at the University of South Alabama observed that mice on a high-salt diet experienced rapid deterioration in their blood vessel function.
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After just four weeks of high sodium intake, the small arteries responsible for regulating blood flow lost their ability to relax, according to a press release.
The team found that the cells lining these vessels had entered a state of cellular senescence, a form of premature cellular aging in which cells stop dividing and release a mix of inflammatory signals that can damage surrounding tissue.
Excess salt has long been linked to high blood pressure, but a new study goes deeper into its effects on the cardiovascular system. (iStock)
The researchers tried to replicate this damage by exposing blood vessel cells directly to salt in a laboratory dish, but the cells showed no harmful effects.
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This suggests that salt isn’t directly causing damage to the vascular lining but that the real culprit may be the body’s own defense mechanism, the researchers noted.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system to release a molecule called interleukin-16 (IL-16), which acts as a messenger that instructs blood vessel cells to grow old before their time, according to the study.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system to release a molecule called interleukin-16, which acts as a messenger that instructs blood vessel cells to grow old before their time, according to the study. (iStock)
Once these cells age, they fail to produce nitric oxide, the essential gas that tells arteries to dilate and stay flexible.
To test whether this process could be reversed, the team turned to a class of experimental drugs known as senolytics.
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Using a cancer medication called navitoclax, which selectively clears out aged and dysfunctional cells, the researchers were able to restore nearly normal blood vessel function in the salt-fed mice, the release stated.
TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ.
By removing the decaying cells created by the high-salt diet, the drug allowed the remaining healthy tissue to maintain its elasticity and respond correctly to blood flow demands.
Excess salt may trigger the immune system into stopping the cells from dividing, the study suggests. (iStock)
The study did have some limitations. The transition from mouse models to human treatment remains a significant hurdle, the team cautioned.
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Senolytic drugs like navitoclax are still being studied for safety, and the team emphasized that previous trials have shown mixed results regarding their impact on artery plaque.
Additionally, the researchers have not yet confirmed whether the same IL-16 pathway is the primary driver of vascular aging in humans.
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Eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables was found to have a surprising link to lung cancer among younger non-smokers, early research suggests.
The observational study, led by Jorge Nieva, M.D., of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center at Keck Medicine, was presented this month at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting in San Diego. It has not yet been peer-reviewed.
Researchers looked at dietary, smoking and demographic data for 187 patients who were diagnosed with lung cancer at age 50 or younger.
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They found that among non-smokers, there was a link between healthier-than-average diets – rich in fruits, vegetables and whole grains – and the chance of lung cancer development.
Young lung cancer patients ate more servings of dark green vegetables, legumes and whole grains compared to the average U.S. adult, the researchers found.
Eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables was found to have a surprising link to lung cancer among younger non-smokers, early research suggests. (iStock)
The researchers hypothesized that pesticides applied to conventionally grown produce could be a possible factor in the disease association.
“Commercially produced (non-organic) fruits, vegetables and whole grains are more likely to be associated with a higher residue of pesticides than dairy, meat and many processed foods,” according to Nieva. He also noted that agricultural workers exposed to pesticides tend to have higher rates of lung cancer.
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“There is a large subset of lung cancer patients whose disease is not caused by smoking,” Nieva told Fox News Digital.
The disease is becoming more common in non-smokers 50 and younger, especially women – despite the fact that smoking rates have been falling for decades, the researcher noted.
The researchers hypothesized that pesticides applied to conventionally grown produce could be a possible factor in the disease association. (iStock)
“These patients tend to have eaten much healthier diets before their diagnosis than the average American,” he went on. “We need to support research into understanding why Americans – and women in particular – who no longer smoke very much are still having lung cancer,” he said.
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The study did have some limitations, Nieva acknowledged, primarily that it relied on survey data and was limited by the participants’ memories of their food intake.
“Also, the survey participants were self-selected, and this could have biased the findings,” he told Fox News Digital.
“There is a large subset of lung cancer patients whose disease is not caused by smoking.”
The researchers did not test specific foods for pesticides, relying instead on average pesticide levels for certain types of food. Looking ahead, they plan to test patients’ blood and urine samples to directly measure pesticide levels, Nieva said.
Although the study shows only an association and does not prove that pesticides caused lung cancer, Nieva recommends that people wash their produce before eating and choose organic foods whenever possible.
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“This work represents a critical step toward identifying modifiable environmental factors that may contribute to lung cancer in young adults,” said Nieva. “Our hope is that these insights can guide both public health recommendations and future investigation into lung cancer prevention.”
“It is possible that the increased lung cancer risk could be due to pesticide exposure in whole farmed foods, but is by no means certain,” a doctor said. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News senior medical analyst, said the study is “interesting,” but that it “raises far more questions than it answers.”
“It is a small study (around 150) and observational, so no proof,” the doctor, who was not involved in the research, told Fox News Digital.
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“It is possible that the increased lung cancer risk could be due to pesticide exposure in whole farmed foods, but it is by no means certain,” Siegel went on. “How much exposure is needed? How much of it gets into food and in which areas? This requires much further study.”
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Kayla Nichols, communications director for Pesticide Action & Agroecology Network, a distributed global network, said the organization agrees with the study’s conclusion that more research should be done on the rise in lung cancer, particularly in individuals eating diets higher in produce and fiber.
“There is a large subset of lung cancer patients whose disease is not caused by smoking,” the researcher told Fox News Digital. (iStock)
“There is a bounty of existing research that already links pesticide exposure to increased risk of multiple types of cancers,” Nichols, who was also not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital. She called for more research on chronic, low-level exposures to pesticides, as well as more effective policies to protect the public from pesticide residues on food.
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The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute, as well as industry partners including AstraZeneca and Genentech, among others.
Fox News Digital reached out to several pesticide companies and trade groups for comment.
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