Do you know what a BLUE ZONE is?

I looked here on the site for this term but couldn't find it. Apologies if it has been covered in another thread but if not, I would like to just put it out there because I think it's fairly incredible news and also good useful information anyone can use immediately to improve their life - if they choose to. I hope you find it interesting and a break from the everyday doom and gloom.

I did not know Oprah and Dr Oz did a segment on the topic so, for a few of you this maybe old news. I stumbled upon it looking up something else on Wiki dealing with Costa Rica, a portion of which is in one of the BLUE ZONES. The other BLUE ZONES are Loma Linda California, Okinawa Japan, Sardinia Italy, and Icaria Greece.




I wonder why such isolated populations and so scattered around the globe?
I am surprised the Penn Dutch or Amish and Tibetan Monks are not on this list. I wonder what contribute to their relatively shorter lives since many of the principles of their faiths and lifestyles are the same?


Here is the Wiki definition of a BLUE ZONE.

A Blue Zone is a region of the world where people commonly live active lives past the age of 100 years. Scientists and demographers have classified these longevity hot-spots by having common healthy traits and life practices that result in higher-than-normal longevity. The name Blue Zone seems to have been first employed in a scientific article by a team of demographers working on centenarians in Sardinia in 2004 en.wikipedia.org...

This is a short youtube video of a speaker Dan Buettner, (foremost on the topic - see link to his book below) discussing what contributes to the longevity of these centenarians.

Facebook link to bluezones.com: www.bluezones.com...

CNN did a special called Chasing Life that also discusses Dan Buettner and his findings from trips to the BLUE ZONES around the world. This is a clip from that episode..

Here are the TED Talks with Dan Buettner - which I highly recommend even if just to check out the TED page and TED Talks. They have interesting speakers cover a vast array of fascinating topics www.ted.com...


Oprah did a very good show here with Dr Oz.Here are parts one and two:

"She's 103 and still pumps iron. Wait'll you meet Marge."

This graphic illustrate the over lapping commonalities between 3 of these unusual groups:

Yes, genetics are a factor, but there are other elements that these communities all share. Garr Reynolds created a succinct graphic to depict the points that Buettner distilled in the talk. chalkdust101.wordpress.com...

If had to condense the message of these long lived communities and this thread for that matter - I think it is best summarized in this particular graphic.


Here is an excerpt to the ABC News story:
Report from the 'Blue Zone': Why Do People Live Long in Costa Rica?

In 2005, Dr. Luis Rosero-Bixby, a Costa Rican demographer trained in the United States, presented a paper at an international conference claiming to have discovered that 60-year-old Costa Ricans have the longest life expectancy of anyone in the world. In other words, if you are middle aged and live in Costa Rica, you are more likely to reach, say, a healthy age 90 than your counterparts worldwide.

We found that not only was Rosero-Bixby's data accurate, but in looking at it more closely we noticed something extraordinary -- a Blue Zone: In northwestern Costa Rica, residents live even longer than people in the rest of the country.

For the 75,000 or so people who live here, life proceeds much the way as it has for hundreds of years. Nicoyans make their living as small farmers, laborers or sabaneros -- cowboys who work the area's huge cattle ranches. Judging by the dusty villages where neighbors hang out on porches, or the rural homes where women still cook on ancient wood-burning stoves, you'd never guess that the Nicoya is the longest-life place in the Americas. abcnews.go.com...

This is an anti-aging website takes everything a step farther and suggests further reading and supplements. What was good is their summary and list of the POWER 9:

Buettner has drawn up a list of what he calls the Power 9. These are lifestyle changes we each can make that will help us live up to another 10 years.
antiagingremedies.org...

I enjoyed reading this information and found many of the people they covered endearing. It offers some hope for a simpler lifestyle and a longer life for anyone that gives it a try. That is good news and I hope that you find it useful in your travels and life. Viva la reader!!!

I have not watched them all, but i see the points being made. What utter rubbish, how can these people be so healthy and well balanced without government intervention, no vaccinations, no flouride in the water or anything like it, no big mac n fries 3 times a week. SARCASM OFF

Thanks for posting this o/p, if only i could move!.

Nuclear fallout.
We know about Japan, and S Kalifornia is desert testing, Sardinia is close to Ukraine... Chernobyl.
Is there something we do not know about Costa Rica?

Thanks for posting this! It's a nice change from the usual gloom and doom we see every day. I can't speak for the Penn Dutch or the Tibetans, but I'm in the midwest and we have a large Amish community here. I am not surprised that the life expectancy for the Amish isn't longer than everyone else's. They lead very simple lives but also physically speaking very hard lives. You can be driving down a country road during the dead of winter and see amish women out hanging up clothes on the clothesline. They work very hard from the time that they become old enough to work. Most of them only go to school until the end of 8th grade which kind of sentences them to either farming or physical labor jobs. Also, the amish women bear alot of children which is hard on thenm physically. It is not unusual for an amish family to have 12 kids.

Originally posted by g146541
Nuclear fallout.
We know about Japan, and S Kalifornia is desert testing, Sardinia is close to Ukraine... Chernobyl.

Sardinia is not closer to Chernobyl than all the other areas in between, so that couldn't explain it.

Also, considering things like this, I don't think radiation would help to live a long life...

reply to post by newcovenant


That's an interesting subject, and one of the things I know are part of the diet in two of those areas (Sardinia and Japan) is fish, and that has been connected to several cases of long, healthy lives.

As a kind of a PS, my father knew a man that was on a Nazi concentration camp, and when he got out at the end of the war the doctor told him to eat raw sardines to get back in shape as fast as possible, so he moved to Portugal and lived for many years.

Originally posted by brommas
I have not watched them all, but i see the points being made. What utter rubbish, how can these people be so healthy and well balanced without government intervention, no vaccinations, no flouride in the water or anything like it, no big mac n fries 3 times a week. SARCASM OFF

Thanks for posting this o/p, if only i could move!.

Sometimes it seems like the oldest and least complicated are still the best ways. It is ironic that even with all our modernizations, the safety nets and watch dog groups we still have very high rates of cancer and disease.

Originally posted by g146541
Nuclear fallout.
We know about Japan, and S Kalifornia is desert testing, Sardinia is close to Ukraine... Chernobyl.
Is there something we do not know about Costa Rica?

I saw this earlier and hesitated to respond because I did not know quite what you were driving at. I found it strange myself Okinawa can still be on this list but I don't think there is a correlation between the longevity of these people and the proximity to nuclear facilities. If anything I would expect it to be just the opposite and living around some of these facilities would cause you to die young or age faster. I doubt Costa Rica would allow any nuclear testing since they are very environmentally responsible so I guess it must be just a simple diet and a slower paced more relaxed lifestyle?

reply to post by ArMaP


Raw sardines? I wonder if you can eat them out of a can and get the same benefits? I know someone once told me that if you eat enough fish oil such as from salmon and sardines you will never suffer from arthritis symptoms or have back problems. "Did you ever see a fish with a bad back?"

It is an interesting topic and those 7th day Adventist have got my curiosity up. I wonder if belief plays into this longevity thing at all? Thanks for the response!

Originally posted by newcovenant
Raw sardines? I wonder if you can eat them out of a can and get the same benefits?

Maybe, if they are canned in the same way we use here in Portugal, in olive oil and with a little salt.

This was just announced in my town. They are making our town a little blue zone project. I looked on here to see if there was any information; I was skeptical of it being part of agenda 21 or something. It doesn't all seem bad, but who knows. I, for one, look forward to healthier options and community.

www.heraldandnews.com... ail&utm_content=20735936&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--Invk5uADFfWuuiS4KvkoM5pePaX3JPshCQ8-QtpRdK6aoc09v7PjBkA_6kssc4tfTNZAECDwk6zC03c6A-WZPasu0mply3UDeTqj7L2B-sE4r lMk&_hsmi=20735936