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.
Blue Zones Project
Recent posts by Blue Zones Project
3 min read
What the residents of the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica can teach us about living longer
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
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
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.
