Living
Long
“If
you are respectful by habit, constantly honoring the worthy, four
things increase: long life, beauty, happiness and strength.”
The
Buddha
I
am an NPR junkie. I listen while I do almost everything else, from
driving in traffic to sewing in my basement. Last week on the Diane
Rehm Show, the guest was Dan Buettner, who has written a couple of
books titled, Blue Zones and Blue Zones: Second Edition,
about places where there are especially long living people. These
include Okinawa, Japan, the Highlands of Sardinia, the Nicoya
Peninsula of Costa Rico, Ikaria, Greece, and, believe it or not,
among the Seventh Day Adventists in Rio Linda, California. People in
these places have the highest percentage of healthy elderly folks,
and very low death rates in the middle aged group.
Buettner
found nine common denominators within these far flung groups and none
of them had to do with genes or genetic predisposition toward long
life. They were: 1) A mostly plant based diet, especially high in
beans, though they did eat meat, particularly pork. 2) They stayed
active, though they did not exercise in the traditional sense (by
going to a gym). Instead, they worked in their homes and in gardens
and walked for recreation as well as for transportation. Most of the
time, they belonged to cultures that sat on the floor, and so they
were getting up and down multiple times a day, which strengthened
their legs and improved their balance. 3) They tended to belong to a
faith-based community and had a good network of social connections
with friends and family. 4) They had no word for retirement and
instead could clearly articulate their 'reason for getting up in the
morning'. 5)They expressed a sense of purpose. Volunteerism was big,
especially among the Adventists. 6) They had a support system that
kept their lifestyle in place. They were not isolated, they lived within a community that also adhered
to the habits of long living. 7) They ate only until they were 80%
full—in other words, they limited their caloric intake by about
20%. Many of them did this by preparing a plate, and then putting the
remaining food away rather than putting bowls of food on the table,
and thus encouraging seconds. 8) They had an equal system of activity
and rest. 9) They took naps! That's the
part I liked best. In all cases, they took an afternoon nap for at
least 30 minutes.
An
interesting side note was that while Okinawa has the longest living
culture, with the average life expectancy being 89 years, it is also
true that people under 55 in that culture now have high rates of
heart disease. There is a large American military base surrounded by the typical sprawl of fast food restaurants. The
Okinawans have developed a taste for hamburgers and Spam! They import
5-million pounds of Spam per year! OMG!
Buettner
stressed that our diet-driven culture was not the answer; that at
best, people stay on a diet for about nine months before relapsing.
For the people in these Blue Zones, healthy living is their
lifestyle and has been for decades. According to Buettner's research,
human beings should routinely be living to 90 or 91 years of age, and
with a balanced lifestyle, almost anyone can achieve that.
In
the spirit,
Jane
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