Blue zone

Last updated May 27, 2024

A blue zone is a region in the world where people are claimed to have exceptionally long lives beyond the age of 80 due to a lifestyle combining physical activity, low stress, rich social interactions, a local whole-foods diet, and low disease incidence.^[1] Examples of blue zones include Okinawa Prefecture, Japan; Nuoro Province, Sardinia, Italy; the Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica; and Icaria, Greece.^[1] The name "blue zones" derived simply during the original survey by scientists, who "used a blue pen on a map to mark the villages with long-lived population."^[2]

The term, Blue Zones, is also used in marketing to promote a healthy lifestyle during aging. The concept of blue zones with longevity, however, has been challenged by the absence of scientific proof,^[3] and by the substantial decline of life expectancy during the 21st century in one of the first proposed blue zones, Okinawa.^[4]

History

A 1999 study of elderly people living on Sardinia found a prevalence of 13 centenarians per 100,000 population, indicating unusual longevity.^[5] A 2004 followup report showed that longevity was concentrated in the Nuoro province of Sardinia, specifically in its mountain regions where locally-born men lived longer than those in the rest of Sardinia, although reasons for the longevity were unknown.^[2]

Beginning in 2005 with author, Dan Buettner, the list of blue zone regions was extended from Sardinia to include Okinawa, Nicoya in Costa Rica, and Ikaria in Greece.^[6]

Sardinia

Nicoya

Icaria

Loma Linda

Okinawa

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Proposed blue zones

Estimating population longevity

In the original study of centenarians living in 14 mountain villages of Sardinia (the first proposed blue zone), the research team developed an Extreme Longevity Index (ELI) representing the ratio between the number of eventual centenarians born between 1880 and 1900, and the total number of births recorded during the same time interval for the region.^[2] The ELI was defined as the number of centenarians per 10,000 newborns, and was equated to the probability for any person born in that municipality to reach 100 years old and remain functional.^[2]

Another longevity index applied was the Centenarian rate (CR) for the 1900 birth group (number of persons surviving to 100 years old per 10,000 people alive at age 60) in December 2000.^[2] The Sardinia and Okinawa blue zones had CR values for men substantially higher compared to several other countries, whereas values for women were mostly above those in other countries, while comparable to others.^[2]

Several possible errors or limitations exist for these estimates, such as failure to validate accuracy of ages, unreliable interviews or missing birth records.^[2]^[6]

Life expectancy in blue zones is proposed to be as much as a decade or longer, compared to the average world life expectancy of 73 years in 2019.^[7]^[8]^{[ medical citation needed ]}

Marketing

In 2008, Dan Buettner established the marketing company, Blue Zones LLC, adding Loma Linda, California, to the list of blue zones.^[7] Buettner described the Seventh-Day Adventist community there as having unusual longevity due putatively to a healthy lifestyle and plant-based diet.^[7]^[8] In 2020, the Blue Zones company was acquired by the Seventh-Day Adventist health care system, Adventist Health.^[9]

Critiques

The concept of blue zone communities having exceptional longevity has been challenged by the absence of evidence-based information.^[3] It has also been questioned by the substantial decline of life expectancy during the 21st century in Okinawa, with the analysis concluding that "male longevity is now ranked 26th among the 47 prefectures of Japan".^[4] A 2011 study by Poulain to validate the claims of longevity in Okinawa was unable to verify whether residents were as old as they reported due to many records not surviving World War II.^[6]

Harriet Hall, writing for Science-Based Medicine , stated that there are no controlled studies of elderly people in the blue zones, and that blue zone diets are based on speculation, not evidence through a rigorous scientific method.^[3]

Related Research Articles

A centenarian is a person who has reached the age of 100 years. Because life expectancies worldwide are below 100, the term is invariably associated with longevity. The United Nations in 2012 estimated that there were 316,600 living centenarians worldwide.

Longevity may refer to especially long-lived members of a population, whereas life expectancy is defined statistically as the average number of years remaining at a given age. For example, a population's life expectancy at birth is the same as the average age at death for all people born in the same year.

A supercentenarian, sometimes hyphenated as super-centenarian, is a person who is 110 years or older. This age is achieved by about one in 1,000 centenarians. Supercentenarians typically live a life free of significant age-related diseases until shortly before the maximum human lifespan is reached.

The Okinawa diet describes the traditional dietary practices of indigenous people of the Ryukyu Islands, which were claimed to have contributed to their relative longevity over a period of study in the 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicoya</span> District in Nicoya canton, Guanacaste province, Costa Rica

Nicoya is a district and head city of the Nicoya canton, in the Guanacaste province of Costa Rica, located on the Nicoya Peninsula. It is one of the country's most important tourist zones; it serves as a transport hub to Guanacaste's beaches and national parks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vilcabamba, Ecuador</span>

Vilcabamba is a village in the southern region of Ecuador, in Loja Province, about 45 km (28 mi) from the city of Loja. The etymology of the name “Vilcabamba” apparently derives from the Quichua “huilco pamba.” Huilco denotes the sacred trees, Anadenanthera colubrina, that inhabit the region; pamba is a word meaning “a plain”. The area has been referred to as the "Playground of the Inca" which refers to its historic use as a retreat for Incan royalty. The valley is overlooked by a mountain called Mandango, the Sleeping Inca, whose presence is said to protect the area from earthquakes and other natural disasters.

The Okinawa Centenarian Study is a study of the elderly people of Okinawa, Japan. The study, funded by Japan's ministry of health, is the largest of its kind ever carried out. Over the years, the scientists involved have had access to more than 600 Okinawan centenarians.

This is a list of tables of the oldest people in the world in ordinal ranks. To avoid including false or unconfirmed claims of old age, names here are restricted to those people whose ages have been validated by an international body dealing in longevity research, such as the Gerontology Research Group or Guinness World Records, and others who have otherwise been reliably sourced.

Villagrande Strisaili is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Nuoro in the Italian region Sardinia, located about 150 kilometres (93 mi) northeast of Cagliari and about 18 kilometres (11 mi) northwest of Tortolì.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dan Buettner</span> American explorer, author and film producer

Dan Buettner is an American author, explorer, longevity researcher and public speaker. He co-produced the documentary TV mini series Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones (2023) based on his book of the same name and holds three Guinness records for distance cycling. Buettner is the founder of Blue Zones, LLC. He is a National Geographic Fellow.

The Gerontology Research Group (GRG) based in Los Angeles, California, US, is a global non-profit scientific organization of researchers in various fields of gerontology, primarily concerned with validating the ages of, recording and researching supercentenarians.

The New England Centenarian Study is a study of persons aged 100 and over (centenarians) in the Boston area.

Jean-Marie Robine is a French social scientist, who works in the field of demography and gerontology, and is an author and journalist, who is best known as being the co-validator of the longevity of Jeanne Calment, the oldest verified supercentenarian of all time, with whom he collaborated.

Adventist Health Studies (AHS) is a series of long-term medical research projects of Loma Linda University with the intent to measure the link between lifestyle, diet, disease and mortality of Seventh-day Adventists.

A centenarian is a person who has attained the age of 100 years or more. Research on centenarians has become more common with clinical and general population studies now having been conducted in France, Hungary, Japan, Italy, Finland, Denmark, the United States, and China. Centenarians are the second fastest-growing demographic in much of the developed world. By 2030, it is expected that there will be around a million centenarians worldwide. In the United States, a 2010 Census Bureau report found that more than 80 percent of centenarians are women.

The concept of Hara hachi bun me (腹八分目) or hara hachi bu is the practise of eating until one is about 80% full, a traditional Japanese philosophy to achieve good health and longevity. The elders of Okinawa, are world renowned for their longevity are also featured in a series of books referencing their traditional

Nir Barzilai is an Israeli geneticist and longevity researcher.

Moais are social support groups that form in order to provide varying support from social, financial, health, or spiritual interests. Moai means "meeting for a common purpose" in Japanese and originated from the social support groups in Okinawa, Japan. The concept of Moais have gained contemporary attention due to the Blue Zone research popularized by Dan Buettner. According to research, Moais are considered one of the leading factors of the longevity of lifespan of the Okinawan people, making the region among the highest concentration of centenarians in the world.

Michel Poulain was originally trained in astrophysics at University of Liège (ULiège). He received a PhD in demography at University of Louvain (UCLouvain). As a demographer, he has specialized in international Migration Statistics and Longevity studies. Currently emeritus professor at UCLouvain, he is also senior researcher at the Estonian Institute for Population Studies at Tallinn University (Estonia). He has been President of the Société Belge de Démographie (1984-1990) and later of the Association Internationale des Démographes de Langue Française (AIDELF), (1988-2000).

Timeblock is a research project that was developed in Switzerland to discover blue zones and aging-process solutions.

References

1 2 Poulain M, Herm A, Pes G (2013). "The Blue Zones: areas of exceptional longevity around the world" (PDF). Vienna Yearbook of Population Research. 11: 87–108. doi:10.1553/populationyearbook2013s87. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 March 2020. These populations succeeded in maintaining a traditional lifestyle implying an intense physical activity that extends beyond the age of 80, a reduced level of stress and intensive family and community support for their oldest olds as well as the consumption of locally produced food.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Poulain M, Pes GM, Grasland C, et al. (September 2004). "Identification of a geographic area characterized by extreme longevity in the Sardinia island: the AKEA study". Experimental Gerontology. 39 (9): 1423–9. doi:10.1016/j.exger.2004.06.016. PMID 15489066.
1 2 3 Hall Harriet (2021). "Blue Zones Diet: Speculation Based on Misinformation". Science-Based Medicine. Retrieved 15 October 2021.
1 2 Hokama, Tomiko; Binns, Colin (October 2008). "Declining longevity advantage and low birthweight in Okinawa". Asia-Pacific Journal of Public Health . 20 Suppl: 95–101. PMID 19533867.
↑ Deiana L, Ferrucci L, Pes GM, et al. (June 1999). "AKEntAnnos. The Sardinia Study of Extreme Longevity". Aging. 11 (3): 142–9. PMID 10476308.
1 2 3 Poulain, Michel (21 July 2011). "Exceptional Longevity in Okinawa:: A Plea for In-depth Validation". Demographic Research . 25 (7): 245–284. doi: 10.4054/DemRes.2011.25.7 .
1 2 3 Alexa Mikhail (2 April 2023). "A look inside America's only blue zone city—home to some of the world's longest-living people". Fortune. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
1 2 Marcia Wendorf (10 February 2022). "People routinely live over 100 years in global "blue zones". Should you move?". Interesting Engineering. Retrieved 4 January 2024.
↑ "Adventist Health acquires Blue Zones as part of transformation into catalyst for overall community health and wellbeing". Adventist Health. 8 April 2020. Archived from the original on 7 March 2023. Retrieved 2 January 2024.