When we’re feeling stressed or pressed for time, many of us are tempted to give up a few precious hours of sleep to tick a few more items off our to-do lists. But trading too much sleep for wakefulness comes at a cost.
1 min read
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Health Begins at Home
Winston Churchill once said, “We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.” While this quote was part of a statement following the WWII destruction of Britain’s House of Commons, many have shifted the words over the years to read, “We shape our homes and then our homes shape us.” Not exactly a historically accurate quote, but no less true today.
2 min read
Depression—the Under Recognized and Growing Problem
Do you ever feel sad or irritable, lose interest in usual activities, not been able to experience pleasure, feel guilty or worthless, and have thoughts of death or suicide? Or have you had difficulty concentrating or making decisions? How about fatigue, feeling restless, slowed down, insomnia, change in appetite or activity?
Topics: Well-being Bulletin
3 min read
6 Reasons Why Spring Cleaning is Good For Our Physical and Mental Health
When we hear the term, “spring cleaning,” we all know what this means - it’s that time of year again when deep cleaning and decluttering of our living spaces are in order. Why is it that spring is the best time to clean our homes, and why do we need to do this anyway?
Topics: Purpose Move Naturally Right Outlook
2 min read
Genetics in Medicine—Predicting Your Future
This beginning of this century may be known as the “Age of Genetics,” just as the end of the last century was known as the “Information Age.”
Topics: Bulletin
2 min read
No Gym? No Problem! How To Get Fit at Home
The decision to start a new exercise routine can be downright daunting. Even more so if you’re juggling a full-time job, a family, and all the other time and energy life can demand. But you don’t need to spend a lot on an expensive gym membership or a monthly stationary bike rental to move your fitness needle. Here are a few tips for establishing an effective fitness routine in the comfort of your own home.
Topics: Move Naturally
3 min read
Smoking Induced Lung Cancer—Who’s at Risk?
The harmful effects of smoking have been known since the mid-1950s when the link between smoking and lung cancer was statistically proven. Dr. Morton L. Levin of the Roswell Park Memorial Institute in Buffalo, NY a state cancer research-treatment center, made this connection. Subsequently, he boldly wrote to the presidents of seven leading tobacco companies suggesting that they voluntarily label all cigarette packaging with a warning that excessive smoking is dangerous to health. At that time, it created a firestorm of controversy, with the tobacco companies defending their positions. I had the good fortune to work under Dr. Levin during the summer of 1965 in a National Summer Science program. Packages were finally labeled in 1964.
Topics: Bulletin Tobacco Policy
4 min read
Mental Health Month, Reminders to Stay Strong
Our mental health—how we consider the world and our role in it—is every bit as important as our physical health. And just as we must work to stay physically fit, so, too, must we work to keep our minds “in shape.”
Topics: Health Wellness Bulletin
3 min read
Weight Loss—What Works and What Doesn’t
We are the second fattest nation in the world. (Nauru, the third smallest nation in the world, is fatter.) What can we do about this? What diet is best? How can we best motivate people to lose weight, keep it off, or—better still—not become overweight in the first place? Statistics show that in 2017, more than two-thirds of the U.S. adult population were considered overweight or obese. Obesity is the second most common cause of preventable death in our country, ranked just after smoking.
Topics: Health Wellness Bulletin
2 min read
Start a Healthy New Family Tradition Today
The importance of spending time together as a family (or chosen family) is pretty indisputable. Fostering healthy connections with family members is crucial for our social well-being, and for our overall wellness.
Topics: Family First connect Loved Ones First
2 min read
Our Amazing Body
The human body is amazing. We take for granted the underlying, almost autonomous functions that keep us healthy and functional. Most times, with a casual nonchalance, we don’t even realize what goes on second by second inside our bodies as we direct our conscious attention to interaction with the outside surrounding environment. Our bodies are more complex than most computers. Organ system examples are fascinating.
Topics: Health Wellness Bulletin
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May is Mediterranean Diet Month
May is Mediterranean Diet Month, a campaign started in 2019 by the Mediterranean Foods Alliance to celebrate the good-for-you foods associated with this region of the world.
Topics: Eat Wisely Plant Slant
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The Difference Between a Longer Life and a Healthy Longer Life
What is the value of making lives longer and healthier? Is living longer no matter what more valuable than staying healthy? How does the value of treating aging comprehensively compare to eradicating diseases specifically? These thoughtful questions were addressed using an economic model rather than the traditional biological model in a University of Oxford study, “The Economic Value of Targeting Aging,” and a McKinsey Health Institute paper entitled “Adding Years to Life and Life to Years.”
Topics: Wellness Bulletin Right Outlook
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Best Salad Recipes for National Salad Month
The month of May brings warmer temperatures and longer days as well as many delicious fresh fruits and vegetables at their peak. It’s no wonder then that May is also National Salad Month.
Topics: Eat Wisely Recipes Plant Slant
2 min read
Benefits of Breakfast
Over 70% of illnesses are caused by our own behaviors. Most everyone knows there is an association among heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and hypertension with high lipids (fats in the blood). Equally understandable is the concept that we are what we eat.
Topics: Eat Wisely Wellness Bulletin
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The Future of Community Benefit Programs
Rethinking Community Benefit Programs—A New Vision for Hospital Investment in Community Health, co-authored by Dr. Jay Bhatt, a friend and former Chief Medical Officer of the American Hospital Association (AHA), makes the case for healthcare systems to invest in the community outside their walls. Moving upstream from a “repair shop” to a “prevention program” will eliminate unnecessary misery, decrease cost, and ultimately save the healthcare industry from bankrupting itself and the nation.
Topics: Wellness Healthcare Bulletin HEDI
2 min read
How Your ZIP Code Affects Life Expectancy
If you are you interested in your life expectancy based on your location, place your ZIP code into Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s internet site. You can easily compare ZIP codes’ results if you are thinking of relocating.
Topics: Bulletin HEDI
2 min read
Embracing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are appropriately top-of-mind in America today, particularly for health professionals, governmental officials, influential leaders, and concerned others—all who have witnessed the disproportionate devastation of socio-economically disadvantaged populations from the pandemic as well as those who desire to eradicate systemic racism.
Topics: Bulletin HEDI
4 min read
Volunteering is Selfish: Here's Why That's a Good Thing
The word “selfish” carries a negative meaning which is appropriate in most respects. In the case of volunteerism, selfish is good! We’d like to think of volunteering as a selfless good deed, but at its core, we are being rewarded and know it.
Topics: Volunteer Purpose Right Outlook
1 min read
Helping Communities Embrace Well-Being and Health
Earlier this week, Pete Delgado, President and CEO of Salinas Valley Memorial Health System (SVMH), and Dr. Steve Packer, President and CEO of Montage Health, shared their success with almost a hundred senior healthcare executives at the annual American College of Healthcare Executives Congress.
Topics: Bulletin
2 min read
Keep Connecting Virtually With the Ones You Love
If you hadn’t made the leap before, the COVID-19 pandemic and shutdown aggressively shoved most everyone into the virtual world, whether it was by streaming movies at home instead of going to a theater, or buying dinner via a food delivery app. Some of these things will no doubt be ditched ASAP, but others will be permanently woven into our culture going forward.
Topics: Right Tribe Family First connect
3 min read
How Well Would You Survive in Poverty
Understanding poverty, unemployment, homelessness, drug-addiction, or any other socio-economic stress was a topic addressed last week. How well would you survive in poverty is the subject of this week’s Blue Zones Bulletin. Ruby Payne’s “Understanding Poverty” quiz is revealing.
Topics: Food Access Bulletin
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Understanding Poverty
Understanding poverty, unemployment, homelessness, drug-addiction, or any other socio-economic stress and unfortunate situation is a challenge for those of us who are so fortunate not have such an affliction. This essay is the first of two raising awareness to those living nearby folks with these overwhelming conditions.
Topics: Food Access Bulletin
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Why is Sustainability so Difficult?
"Up and Down with ecology—the issue-attention cycle” by Anthony Downs is celebrating a golden anniversary this year. The example fifty years ago relates to ecology, but the principles are the same for current and re-emergent issues such as Civil Rights, HIV/AIDS, obesity, immigration, natural disasters, homeland security, global warming, and oil spills, as well as COVID.
Topics: Bulletin Sustainability
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The Complexity of Sustainability
Sustainability is a timely, important, and complex subject. Thoughts, shared last week in the first of three BZP Bulletins on the topic, are summarized as follows: Sustaining well-being and good health for people, organizations, and communities is mission critical for equity, diversity, social cohesion, and quality of life.
Topics: Bulletin Sustainability
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Why is Mindbody Medicine Important?
Dan Buettner did all of us a great favor when he set out to answer the perennial question: what keeps some people healthier, longer? By finding the longest-lived people on earth, and spending time with them, observing their habits and lifestyles, he isolated specific commonalities among these groups. His books grace us with the wisdom he and his team gleaned from this research.1
Topics: Well-being Mindful Right Outlook #BlueZonesProjectBrevard
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The Question of Social Sustainability
Well-being and good health are mission critical for individuals, organizations, and communities. Equally important is sustainability once the quintessential qualities that add healthy life expectancy have been accomplished. The quote, “The ability of a community to develop processes and structures which not only meet the needs of its current members but also support the ability of future generations to maintain a healthy community,” captures the need for a long view according to the Business Dictionary.
Topics: Bulletin Sustainability
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Five Easy Ways to a Better Weather Winter
There's no doubt about it: We are smack-dab in the middle of winter. As beautiful and fun as these colder months can be, they can also bring challenges to our physical and mental health. Some can be mild, like dry skin or holding a few extra pounds, and others can be more serious, like seasonal depression.
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What can you do for yourself to remain brain healthy at any age?
What is brain health?” is the first question asked in a National Institute on Aging article addressing cognitive health in older adults. Defining brain health includes the following:
Topics: Bulletin
2 min read
Relationships can have a Powerful Influence on our Health
“Good genes are nice, but joy is better” is a summary thought of an ongoing 75-year-old Harvard longitudinal study that followed the lives of 268 Harvard educated men, the majority of whom were members of the undergraduate classes of 1942, 1943, and 1944. This informative survey has run in tandem with The Glueck Study," which included a second cohort of 456 disadvantaged, non-delinquent inner-city youths who grew up in Boston neighborhoods between 1940 and 1945.
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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy—A Potential Quick Cure
Defining the Need for New Forms of Therapy, an Ode to Dr. Beck
Topics: Bulletin
3 min read
8 Habits of successful retirees
Leading a happy, healthy retired life is a goal regardless of one’s current stage during a journey to retirement. Most of us want to have had successful careers followed by a long, enjoyable, and satisfying dividend at the end of our formal working years.
Topics: Retirement Bulletin
3 min read
Transform Your Kitchen into a Blue Zones Kitchen
Sure, the kitchen is where you cook, but it can also be the heart of your home. It may be where you gather with family to share stories about your day over a meal. Or your kitchen may be the place where you share recipes, and good times with friends.
Topics: Power 9 Right Tribe 80% Rule Eat Wisely Healthy Eating Plant Slant Right Outlook BZP Resource
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Top 10 Suggestions for Leadership, Well-being and Health
Following her own sage advice and life-long professional career of helping others, Terri Merritt-Worden, Vice President of Operations of the Blue Zones Project by Sharecare, celebrated the start of retirement. Upon request for advice about wisdom accumulated during her career, Terri shared her top ten suggestions for leadership, well-being and health during a final good-bye with the Blue Zones Project team. Senior Project Manager, Mandy Butters codified these recommendations, which are good for anyone from youth to old age. Terri was a big fan of David Letterman, so in his style, here is her Top 10 List:
Topics: Retirement Bulletin
3 min read
10 Happiness Practices a Doctor Prescribes to His Patients
Positive emotions, calm feelings, warm connections, and good thoughts all contribute to excellent health. Healthy people typically enjoy good mental attitudes. The opposite is also true—namely, sad folks have more disease and misery.
Topics: Bulletin
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New study shows positive outcomes of collective impact models in community health
Third party validation based on legitimate metrics makes accepting positive change essential for altruistic leaders. Well-being and health can be measured and statistically improved using proven principles and processes. No longer will the tyranny of the present nor learned helplessness validate persistent misery and disease.
Topics: Community Beach Cities Bulletin
2 min read
Home for the Holidays
“
Home for the Holidays” conjures up many thoughts ranging from the comforting memories, sights, tastes, and smells of reunited families at the holiday dinner table to the title of the humorous 1995 movie directed by Jodi Foster, describing the antics of a multigenerational dysfunctional family. Modern society’s stresses, now with the additional complications brought on by COVID-19 variants, make enjoying family connections even more essential for good mental health and well-being.
Topics: Bulletin
2 min read
Could app-based therapy be effective first line in decreasing anxiety?
Therapies are constantly advancing, spurred on not only by new enabling technology but also sadly by increasing need. Two weeks ago, a paper entitled “Clinical Efficacy and Psychological Mechanisms of App-Based Digital Therapeutic for Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Randomized Control Trial,” was published showing for the first time that digitally delivered mindfulness can be effective for treatment of anxiety.
Topics: Bulletin
3 min read
Work with your Circadian Rhythm to Boost Effectiveness
Why are some folks more creative, charismatic, and energetic at various times of the day? Are you a morning person or a night creature? If you have a difficult problem to solve, do you try to do it first thing in the morning or hold it until the still of the night? Do you fall to sleep easily or have trouble getting out of bed in the morning?
Topics: Bulletin
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Engage in a healthy lifestyle and decrease your change of a dread disease
Cancer, a dread disease, is somewhat preventable. Healthy habits, careful vigilance, and good care including new therapeutics make a significant difference, as noted in a National Institute of Health and
National Cancer Institute report released last week.
Topics: Bulletin
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"Healthy Multipliers" can change the course of health and well-being
Aspiring to health and wellness rather than turning to sickness and healthcare is beneficial in at least two ways—avoiding both the misery and the expense of disease. A
Journal of the American Medical Association statistical analysis published last month, entitled “
Social Determinants of Health and Geographic Variation in Medicare per Beneficiary Spending,” addressed this thesis by comparing the Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) with the cost per Medicare fee-for-service enrollee within 3,038 counties. About 100 counties’ populations were too small or did not have data and therefore were excluded.
Topics: Bulletin
2 min read
Personal health care and the pandemic
“
A surprising pandemic side effect: People have become more engaged with their health” is the headline of an
engaging essay, highlighting positive outcomes from people becoming self-sufficient when traditional services were in short supply.
Topics: Bulletin
2 min read
How's Life?
“How is life?” is a question raised by the Office for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to compare countries’ overall standard of living. The answer is found in the
OECD’s Better Life Index, created in 2011 and updated biennially, which compares thirty-seven developed nations’ standards of living. The current results are summarized in “How’s Life? 2020,”
2.5 minute informative video.
Topics: Bulletin
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Embracing Dementia Prevention with Six Healthy Behaviors
“
Adopting healthy lifestyle behaviors may reduce dementia risk in those with family history” is the catchy title motivating six healthy behaviors that statistically lower one’s chances of dementia.
Not in any order of efficacy, the six behaviors are:
- Eating a healthy diet of more fruits and vegetables with less processed meats and refined grains
- Not smoking
- Consuming alcohol moderately at most (less than two drinks per day for men and one drink per day for women)
- Sleeping six to nine hours per day
- Engaging in physical activity of at least 150 minutes per week
- Maintaining a BMI less than 30 (the cut off for obesity)
Topics: Bulletin
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Addressing Inequity is Key for Healthy Societies
Effectively addressing inequity is quintessential for a healthy and productive society.
Health and wellness have been defining issues in the United States. The added stress of COVID-19 has highlighted and exacerbated these imbalances not only for healthcare access and quality, but also for social injustice and civil unrest within communities.
Topics: Bulletin
5 min read
Healthy Multipliers for Our Society
Improving communities’ environments to make the healthy choice the easy choice is the single best intervention to help everyone, regardless of socioeconomic status, live a longer, happier and healthier life.
The “Social Determinants of Health” (SDoH) is a neutral, all-encompassing term that now commonly refers to the metrics that measure health and well-being. Diagnosing and describing the etiology of a disease or condition, in the current example — SDoH, is only the first step to addressing 80% of preventable illnesses.
[1]
Topics: Bulletin
2 min read
How a Global Pandemic Has Impacted Birth Rates
“
U.S. Births Hit 35-year low” is the title of a summary article published in June 2020.
COVID-19 pandemic could cause U.S. births to drop by half a million next year,” a follow-up article, currently predicts the birth rate drop will be exacerbated by economic hardship caused by the pandemic.
Interestingly, the COVID-19 pandemic will have lasting effects in ways not usually considered during the initial acute stress. School populations will dip while this smaller cohort journeys though the educational system. Looking further into the future, the workforce population will shrink exactly when older folks will be needing more assistance and care.
Topics: Bulletin
2 min read
Stress and Life Expectancy
Stress has increased markedly since the 1950s according to a paper entitled, “
The Changing (Dis-)Unity of Work.” Even as modern conveniences have seemingly made life easier and perhaps safer, overall life expectancy has not increased as much as one would have desired or expected. Perhaps the negative effect of increased stress has counterbalanced the positive influences.
Topics: Bulletin
2 min read
Like-minded individuals congregate, reinforcing healthy or unhealthy habits
“
Birds of a feather flock together” has been attributed to Plato as far back as 360 BC, when he is quoted as saying: “
Men of my age flock together; we are birds of a feather, as the old proverb says.” This thought probably exists because people who are similar seek out others like themselves in a variety of ways, recently affirmed by people’s food choices in a cafeteria.
Topics: Bulletin
2 min read
Morbidity and mortality rates worsening among gens x and y
“
Are Recent Cohorts Getting Worse? Trends in U.S. Adult Physiological Status, Mental Health, and Health Behaviors across a Century of Birth Cohorts” is the title of a recent
Journal of Epidemiology article showing worsening health among middle-aged and slightly younger Americans since 2000.
The disquieting news is based on over seven hundred thousand adults surveyed from 1988 to 2018. Notably, all the data were obtained pre-COVID. The academic researchers tried to define whether the deteriorated health was due to physiological factors, environmental effects, and/or behavioral mechanisms.
Topics: Bulletin
5 min read
Prevention: The Cure for Rising Health Care Costs
For both better and worse, COVID-19 has accelerated change, subsequently disrupting the current healthcare ecosystem.
Starting with a picture of the ideal future and working backwards is a productive way to facilitate change while creating hope. Placing the person whose goal is staying well at the center of the model displaces others whose economic interests overwhelmingly motivate the status quo.
Topics: Bulletin
5 min read
Turn Up the Volume: How to Hand Over the Mic to Marginalized Communities for Greater Impact
There is a difference between having an opinion and being asked to share it. We all have the former which is shaped by our experiences, relationships, values, culture, needs and beliefs. The latter, the actual expression of an opinion, only tends to emerge in a safe space where trust has been established and one’s voice feels valued. Conversely, as is often seen in disparate communities, typically quiet voices are raised when that safe space is lacking, and the pain of an experience becomes too much to bear in silence.
Topics: Built Environment Featured
1 min read
Eat wisely for better heart health
“You are what you eat,” has again been confirmed in a recent, erudite
New England Journal of Medicine article entitled, “
Glycemic Index, Glycemic Load, and Cardiovascular Disease and Mortality.”
In plain English, eating a diet that is low in refined sugar and high in fiber minimizes the rise in blood glucose level, thus subsequently decreasing chances of having a heart attack or other major cardiovascular event.
Topics: Eat Wisely Bulletin
2 min read
Why we aren't embracing effective prevention
Prevention has always proven successful. Healthcare systems, foundations, healthcare support businesses, and philanthropic partners have supported efforts to help people, communities, and even entire states embrace wellness and become healthier. During a recent thoughtful conversation between senior leaders of a group engaged in prevention and thought leaders from an iconic national healthcare organization, the following question surfaced:
“
Why don’t all communities and organizations embrace effective prevention?”
Topics: Bulletin
2 min read
Volunteering is good for community and personal well-being
April is volunteer month. Thanks to all the volunteers who tangibly support wellness for the world. Recognizing folks who volunteer has the dual purpose of expressing gratitude and enlisting others to share their talents. Importantly, from the volunteers’ point-of-view, helping others also helps oneself.
Topics: Purpose Bulletin Right Outlook
3 min read
What the residents of the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica can teach us about living longer
Grab a bike and pedal along a path on the Nicoya Peninsula, situated on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast. You’ll find colorful houses, exotic fruits, and residents twice as likely as American’s to reach a healthy age 90. Though the Central American country isn’t that far from the U.S. geographically, it is way ahead of us in longevity.
2 min read
Batman and Dr. Glenn Gailis—Together Saving the World
Even Batman needs a hero; he could find one in Dr. Glenn Gailis of Klamath Falls, Ore. Both Batman and Dr. Gailis share a common goal of helping others live longer and safer lives.
Topics: Purpose Bulletin
4 min read
Resilient Southwest Florida
On March 3,
leadership from Southwest Florida joined us to discuss how Blue Zones Project helped build a more resilient community. Paul Hiltz (president and CEO of NCH Healthcare System) and Bill Barker (founder and CEO of Barker Strategic Solutions) spoke about the partnerships and implementation of initiatives across the community that foster well-being, especially in challenging times.
We caught up with Deb Logan, executive director of Blue Zones Project – Southwest Florida, to find out more about the initiative’s work to maintain resilience amid the COVID-19 pandemic and tips for other communities looking to do the same.
Topics: BZP Communities
2 min read
Moving Forward with Gratitude
One’s reaction to a stress can be more important than the challenge. As society approaches the “Post-COVID era,” people’s pre-existing personalities and communities’ resiliencies may have determined how well they have done during the most threatening times, which have hopefully passed. Equally vital going forward, how can society not only recover, but also thrive?
Topics: Bulletin Right Outlook
2 min read
How SDOH impact cardiovascular outcomes
Over the past half century cardiovascular death has declined 50%, presumably due to addressing many of the major risk factors—smoking, high cholesterol, hypertension, physical inactivity, and diabetes—according to a
New England Journal of Medicine Perspective last week, extolling the progress of traditional medical research and practice.
Topics: Bulletin
2 min read
6 Trends for the Next Decade
Last week Dr. Rod Hochman, American Hospital Association (AHA) Chair, friend, and fellow rheumatologist/immunologist, during an informative call with former AHA Board members and leaders, named six major trends for the next decade. Although very unwelcome, COVID-19’s overall noxious effect on the world has highlighted and accelerated these anticipated developments:
Topics: connect Bulletin COVID-19
9 min read
Hunger, Food Insecurity, and Obesity—Finding a Common Cure
The stress of COVID-19 has exacerbated the paradox of worsening hunger and food insecurity superimposed on a pre-existing overweight and obese population. What is a cure for these intersecting maladies?
Topics: Bulletin
3 min read
Four Simple Ways to Prioritize Family
Blue Zones researchers discovered the happiest, healthiest people in the world tend to build their lives around family. Centenarians in the original blue zones areas put their loved ones first. Keeping aging parents and grandparents nearby or in the home is common, and can lower disease and mortality rates for everyone in the home. Blue zones area residents commit to a life partner, which may add up to three years of life expectancy, and they invest in their children with time and love. This lifelong devotion to family pays off, and there are small steps you can take today to make sure your putting loved ones first.
Topics: Loved Ones First
3 min read
10 Household Chores That Burn Calories
As part of my job being an OSU Extension Educator, I teach people about the balance between calories in and calories out. Or more importantly, what happens when you take more calories in than you use up. (Hint: your body stores them up. I’ll let you guess where and how.) I have always been a small statured person, which sometimes has people believe I have a good physical activity routine. However, I struggle with this habit and would much rather eat less (or more sensibly) than move more! I really wish it worked this way, but being active does more than keep your waistline in check.
But who doesn’t like to burn some calories while also accomplishing a needed task? So, here you go...a list of calorie-burning household chores!
Topics: Move Naturally Healthier Movement at Home
7 min read
Pandemics Cubed: Social Injustice and Chronic Disease Amplify COVID-19's Virulence
America’s current response to COVID-19 ranges from “no worries” to struggling episodically to acutely overwhelmed. The uneven response has led to catastrophic disease spread and death. Setting the stage and amplifying COVID-19's virulence are two previous and insidious pandemics.
Topics: Bulletin Featured
2 min read
Setting Goals and Taking Charge of Your Day to Cope with Covid-19
Taking control of your day-to-day life is always a worthwhile and admirable goal. The current acute worldwide threat of COVID-19 has created some opportunities for positive goal setting despite misery, morbidity, and mortality. The world is not going back to the past, and neither should smart people.
Topics: Bulletin Featured
2 min read
5 Simple Ways to Add Movement to Your Day
Move more, naturally. Music to my ears, since I know I should be moderately active 30 minutes or more each day, but at my core…I am a couch potato! I have often said, the only time you will see me running is if I’m being chased or I’m chasing something. I strive for movement with a purpose. So, if going to the gym or implementing a formal work out program isn’t for you, here are a few ways to add movement to your day and get moving more, naturally.
Topics: Move Naturally Healthier Movement at Home
3 min read
Forward-Thinking Southwest Florida Community Finds Success with Blue Zones Project
It takes strength to stand up against the tyranny of the present and invest in imagination. Moments of uncertainty hold great entrepreneurial potential. Organizations [communities] don’t just prepare for the future. They make it.
The above excerpt is from the July-August issue of Harvard Business Review in the article “The Future: A Glossary” by J. Peter Scoblic. Blue Zones Project communities create their futures as shown below—one of over fifty examples. The perplexing question is: Why do many organizations and communities suffer with unchanging metrics for social determinants of health while others thrive?
The above excerpt is from the July-August issue of Harvard Business Review in the article “The Future: A Glossary” by J. Peter Scoblic. Blue Zones Project communities create their futures as shown below—one of over fifty examples. The perplexing question is: Why do many organizations and communities suffer with unchanging metrics for social determinants of health while others thrive?
Topics: Bulletin
2 min read
A Healthier Holiday with the Power 9
Celebrating our heritage should bring back recollections of better times. Currently, the nation’s challenges seem overwhelming, thus making a trip down memory lane more important than before to improve mental health.
Topics: Bulletin
3 min read
Confronting America's Obesity Epidemic
The average non-obese healthy adult gains about one pound per year, according to a study conducted by the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) involving 120,877 people over a twenty-year period. Obesity is defined as 20% over one’s ideal body weight for a given height.
Topics: Bulletin
2 min read
The Physical and Mental Health Benefits of Laughter
Connecting now is more important than ever for physical and emotional health in the face of “social distancing.” Laughing together is a great way to connect during the new normal in which meetings—professional and family—are convened via video connections.
Topics: Bulletin Featured
8 min read
Wealth and Income Inequality as a Cause of Societal Inequity
Wealth and income inequality have been defining issues in the United States. The added stress of Covid-19 has highlighted and exacerbated these imbalances not only regarding the economy and personal finances, but also for social injustice and civil unrest within communities.
Frighteningly, the most stressed communities have become the epicenters for additional tragic events. Multigenerational income inequality, geospatially identifiable within regions, facilitates further degradation of already fragile neighborhoods.
Topics: Bulletin
3 min read
Finding Ways to Connect Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic
Most everyone has spent more time in front of a computer screen lately than ever before. While many people worry that this behavior is harmful to all age groups, screen time is proving to enhance three Blue Zones Principles.
Topics: Bulletin
4 min read
Delayed Gratification Could Saves Lives
As the nation sputters back to normalcy, individual behaviors may contribute to survival for oneself as well as family, friends, and strangers.
Delaying gratification—continuing to shelter in place, using face masks assiduously, conscientious hand washing, and practicing other validated actions to avoid getting or giving Covid-19—may confer better outcomes for individuals and society in general.
Topics: Bulletin Featured
5 min read
Life Has Changed and So Must We
Our world has changed fundamentally from the impact of two events. The first, acute and most noxious, is COVID-19. The second, enduring and most beneficial, is the digital age. COVID-19 is terrible for health and the economy but has unwittingly served as a transformational catalyst for business and society.
Topics: Bulletin
1 min read
Get Caught Reading
Get Caught Reading is a nationwide campaign to promote the fun of reading books for all ages. Launched in 1999 by the Association of American Publishers, the initiative is now managed by Every Child a Reader with support from the Lois Lenski Covey Foundation. Supporting well-known figures, including First Lady Laura Bush, Drew Carey, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Donald Duck, Patty Duke, Billy Graham, Derek Jeter, Dolly Parton, Sammy Sosa, Spider Man, Erik Weihenmayer, and others, have all been "caught reading" their favorite books and magazines for print ads and posters seen by millions of people across the country. In addition, more than 200 Members of Congress have been photographed "caught reading" on Capitol Hill. All of these images are available online. Click
here to see pictures.
Topics: Downshift Healthier Outlook at Home
4 min read
Let's Get Moving to Reverse America's Dismal Life Expectancy
American "exceptionalism" has its limits. “Our workforce is dying faster than any other wealthy country,” a Journal of the American Medical Association article
[1] from Virginia Commonwealth University stated last year, as reported by USA Today.
Topics: Bulletin
2 min read
Celebrate Mediterranean Diet Month
Summer is coming and all too often we look for the next quick fix or fad diet to look good in our bathing suits or short sleeves. However, what may work in the short term, is not necessarily what is best for our health for the long term. It’s time to take a look at the Mediterranean diet. This traditional diet has rooted itself over 5,000 years based on regional environment, culture, seasonal foods and local products. Only in the last 50 years has it been the subject of intensive clinical research and gained traction in the health and scientific community as one of the healthiest diets in the world. In fact,
U.S. News & World Report recently announced the Mediterranean Diet as the No. 1 Best Overall Diet for the third year in a row.
Topics: Eat Wisely Plant Slant Healthier Eating at Home
3 min read
Rediscover Cycling During National Bike Month
This is a challenging time we are experiencing. For many of us, we are relearning how to navigate our daily lives and I would dare say, if my own experience is any indication, that is resulting in surprising things. You are probably tired of reading about the horror that has accompanied our current situation. I know I am. To help my mental state in this time I have tried to take a look at the good that has developed around us…change always brings good and bad.
Topics: Move Naturally Healthier Movement at Home
5 min read
Adjusting to Life with Spreading Covid-19: Stay Safe and Be Productive
Covid-19 is stressing American society and us all in fundamental ways. The obvious and most important impact is the potential loss of life, particularly for the frail elderly and medically compromised folks among us. Not to be overlooked are the psychological, emotional, and financial stresses arising from the uncertainties surrounding the spread of the disease.
Topics: Bulletin Featured
2 min read
Movers and Shakers Moai Fosters New Friendships
Who enjoys meeting new people? Who could benefit from more exercise and movement? For me, these were some of the reasons I was drawn to attending a moai meeting hosted by Blue Zones Project Pottawatomie County. I definitely enjoy meeting people, especially smaller groups, and I am always looking for ways to stay more active while having fun! So in September of 2017, I was able to take part in this adventure not knowing where it exactly it might lead me.
Topics: Moai Walking Moai
4 min read
Why Your Heart Will Love the Power 9
It is no secret that the heart is one of the most important organs in the body. That’s why it’s important to consider ways to keep your heart at its very best so you can live a long, healthy life. The Blue Zones Power 9
®, a set of principles followed by the world’s longest-lived people, provides an easy-to-follow way of living that your heart will love.
Topics: Power 9
3 min read
Pisgah Health Foundation Provides Innovative COVID-19 Support for Western North Carolina Residents
In the rapidly changing and often confusing time of COVID-19, Sharecare and Blue Zones Project have had the opportunity to witness how individuals, organizations and communities are working together to help address the fallout of this virus. One of the most dynamic and active organizations that we have observed is the
Pisgah Health Foundation (PHF), a public 501 (c)(3) charity that was founded in 2019 by a board of seven individuals. Their focus was, and remains on improving the health, wellness, and lives of Western North Carolina residents by targeting underlying social determinants related to health, food insecurity, housing, social cohesion, and education. The organization evolved from the Transylvania Regional Hospital Foundation and serves five counties in Western North Carolina.
Topics: Bulletin
3 min read
Blue Zones Project Collaborators Support Essential Workers, Community Initiatives
Innovation, self-motivation, and altruism when blended are a great combination, particularly in stressful times. Blue Zones Project colleagues from across the nation have been effective responding to the rapidly changing environment. Two examples, representative of many others, are below.
Topics: Bulletin
2 min read
Belong to live long
“People who pay attention to their spiritual side have lower rates of cardiovascular disease, depression, stress, and suicide, and their immune systems seem to work better … To a certain extent, adherence to a religion allows them to relinquish the stresses of everyday life to a higher power.”—Dan Buettner, Blue Zones
In the world’s original blue zones areas, all but five of the 263 centenarians studied belonged to a faith-based community. The act of regularly attending a religious service is a common thread among extraordinary cultures across the globe. Denomination doesn’t seem to matter—gathering with others to worship, even just once a month, seems to have a positive effect on an individual’s overall health and happiness.
Topics: Belong
2 min read
Practice the Okinawan Art of Eating and Mind Your Hara Hachi Bu
People living in the original blue zones region of Okinawa, Japan have a strategy for maintaining a healthy weight. Before each meal, they say “Hara Hachi Bu,” a Confucian teaching that instructs people to eat until they are 80 percent full. This mealtime mantra can help you cut calories and lead to better health and longevity.
Topics: 80% Rule Eat Wisely
4 min read
Drawing Longevity Inspiration from Okinawa, Japan Home to the World’s Longest-Living Women
The islands at the southern end of Japan, once called the land of immortals, have been studied for nearly 50 years. Residents of Okinawa have less cancer, heart disease, and dementia than Americans, and women there live longer than any other women on Earth. Over the decades, the lifestyles and genetics of more than 800 centenarians have been well-documented in an effort to answer the question: what is the secret to Okinawan longevity?
3 min read
What the residents of Ikaria, Greece can teach us about living longer
In Ikaria, Greece, life is sweet…and very long. Travel to this tiny island in the Aegean Sea and discover the secrets of residents who live eight to ten years longer than Americans, with half the rate of heart disease and almost no dementia.
2 min read
Making healthier choices may be easier for people with strong life purpose
Many studies have sought to understand the correlation between purpose in life and health outcomes. Blue Zones researchers determined that individuals with a strong sense of purpose—a reason to get out of the bed in the morning—can live up to four good years longer than those without.
2 min read
Drawing Longevity Inspiration from Sardinia, Italy Home to the World’s Longest-Living Men
When Blue Zones researchers set out to identify and study the world’s most extraordinary populations, they were immediately captured by Sardinia, Italy—the “first” blue zones region in the world.
Topics: Blue Zones
4 min read
What the Seventh-day Adventists of Loma Linda, California can teach us about living longer
Pull off the San Bernardino freeway east of Los Angeles and you’ll encounter a community of Adventists teaching us new lessons about the power of faith, friendship and fruit.
America’s only original blue zones region is home to one of the highest concentrations of Seventh-day Adventists in the world. Their faith mandates a healthy lifestyle and acts of service to the church and community, which contributes to their longevity. Adventists in the U.S. live as much as a decade longer than the rest of the country, with much of their longevity attributed to a plant-based diet, regular exercise, and community.
4 min read
Power Up with the Power 9
In 2004, Dan Buettner teamed up with National Geographic, the National Institute on Aging, and the world's best longevity researchers to identify pockets around the world where people lived measurably better, longer. In these five areas, dubbed "blue zones," researchers found that people reach age 100 at a rate that is ten times greater than in the United States and with lower rates of chronic disease.
After locating the world's blue zones areas, Buettner and National Geographic took teams of scientists to each location to pinpoint lifestyle characteristics that might explain the unusual longevity. They found that though the blue zones communities are located in vastly different parts of the world, their residents share nine specific traits that lead to longer, healthier, happier lives. We call these the Power 9
®.
2 min read
The Power of Purpose
When you ask a child what they want to be when they grow up, what response do you get? He or she is likely to respond with big dreams and adventurous ideas such as becoming a sports star, ballerina, or astronaut. Childhood is a time of innocence where any dream is possible, and there are no preconceptions, practical notions, or pressures creeping in to cause feelings of worry or doubt. If a person could approach their entire life with this mentality, it would help free them from constraints, both real and imaginary, that guide their paths and allow them to experience the wonder of what might be. As we age, learn, and grow from life’s lessons, the pursuit of purpose and passion gets lost amidst expectations and responsibility.
1 min read
Engaging Places
Live (Work, Play, Learn) Better, Longer through Blue Zones Project
In blue zones areas, people live longer, healthier lives because their environments make the healthy choice the easy choice. Through Blue Zones Project
® by Sharecare, communities across the United States are adopting practices that replicate these outcomes.
1 min read
Activating People
How Blue Zones Project Enriches Culture and Builds Community
What gets you out of bed every morning? Who in your life supports healthy choices?
Activating people—that is, getting people involved, informed, and excited about their role in a thriving community—is a key component of Blue Zones Project
® by Sharecare, a community-led well-being improvement initiative that helps transform environments for improved well-being.
1 min read
The Life Radius
Where You Live Can Influence How You Live (and How Long)
Residents of the original blue zones areas make healthy choices because those choices are easy, even unavoidable, in their surroundings. That's why Blue Zones Project
® by Sharecare focuses on influencing the
life radius, the area close to home in which people spend 80 percent of their lives.
1 min read
What are Blue Zones?
Building the Fountain of Youth in Your Own Community
For thousands of years, people have sought the secret to longer, healthier lives. The legendary “fountain of youth” appears in biographical texts of Alexander the Great and is said to have inspired Ponce de Leon’s expedition to Florida to seek such healing waters.
4 min read
Power Up with the Power 9
In 2004, Dan Buettner teamed up with National Geographic, the National Institute on Aging, and the world's best longevity researchers to identify pockets around the world where people lived measurably better, longer. In these five areas, dubbed "blue zones," researchers found that people reach age 100 at a rate that is ten times greater than in the United States and with lower rates of chronic disease.
After locating the world's blue zones areas, Buettner and National Geographic took teams of scientists to each location to pinpoint lifestyle characteristics that might explain the unusual longevity. They found that though the blue zones communities are located in vastly different parts of the world, their residents share nine specific traits that lead to longer, healthier, happier lives. We call these the Power 9
®.
