Hi everyone,

‍

Today we have the opportunity and capability, through medicine, along with better quality food available to most and technology to live longer, but if we were to reach 100 what type of 100-year-old do we want to be?  Bedridden and unable to care for ourselves or an independent and alert individual?

I wanted to write about something I have been interested in for a while and with our current unusual world situation and way of living, I wanted to see how we can start to relate and bring to life some of the common lifestyle factors that are attributed to specific communities across the world known as Blue Zones.

What are Blue Zones?  Well, the Worlds five main Blue Zones have populations that have more than their usual share of independent 100 year old's.

National Geographic journalist, Dan Buettner wrote an article about the “Secrets of a Long Life”. He identified these zones and analysed the shared reasons to why he believed these communities had so many fit and healthy centenarians.

He came up with nine attributes that are linked, specifically to these blue zone populations. Over the course of the next few weeks we are going to take a deeper look at each of these attributes in turn. These common factors are sometimes known as “The Power of 9”

1.      Alcohol: Blue zone communities drink alcohol, but always with food, with friends and in moderation - one or two glasses a day.  No saving up units for a weekend binge in these cultures.

2.      Movement: In these cultures movement is a part of daily life and not considered a structured practice like visiting a gym. Here, natural movements such as walking,gardening, housework, all happen regularly with no sedentary behaviour without purpose, such as rest or relaxation.

3.      Purpose: These communities place a good deal of emphasis on purpose - this is what gets us up in the mornings.

4.      Stress: there is no such thing as a stress-free life, even blue zone residents have stress, however they have routines in their lives that elevate stress. What we need to be aware of is that stress that is a constant factor in our lives leads to chronic inflammation in the body which is associated with all major age-related disease.

5.      Never Full Rule or the 80% Rule: Learning to know when we have had enough to eat and never feeling full.

6.      Plant Slant:  Variations across zones but all consume fresh and seasonal foods, with no or rarely any processed foods.

7.      Belonging: having a faith or a belief in something.

8.      Family:  generational links and bonds with family, living close to each other.

9.      Tribe: Social connection, lifetime friendships, positive support of community.

So these are the main common factors for long life across the globe. Over the next few weeks I will be looking at each of these in turn to explore how we can learn from these blue zones.

My Grandparents were all born at the end of the first World War and were adults during the second world war. When I think about and relate to their hard and difficult lives at times, I can see a common thread of the nine topics running through them, they all lived to their late eighties and early 90’s and in good health for about 98% of their lives.

Our current situation is an opportunity to reflect and build our future resilience around our own health and well-being, as they say, the Phoenix rises from the ashes, and so can we.

‍