Reposted from Island Scene
by Matt Tuohy
If you could add 10 or 12 years to your life, would you say no? We’re talking about 12 quality years, where you can move naturally, enjoy time with friends and loved ones, and eat good food. And all you have to do is make some lifestyle changes. Nine of them, to be exact.
They’re called the Power 9® and are a portion of a larger health initiative called the Blue Zones Project® by Healthways, a company that works with HMSA to offer tools and resources to help people live healthier lives.
To make it even easier, you’re supposed to take on just the changes that you’re comfortable with. “The thing to realize is the Power 9 is an à la carte menu,” says Dan Buettner, the National Geographic explorer and author who helped identify the Power 9. “These are all things that not only the longest-living people do, but are also evidence based.”
Buettner discovered the nine commonalities after leading teams to places like Okinawa, Japan, and Loma Linda, Calif., that were known for having large numbers of people who lived to be 100 years old or older (also known as centenarians). What’s more incredible is these centenarians are active – they still work, eat well, and are an integral part of life in their communities.
Buettner and his teams dubbed these places Blue Zones® and he wrote about them in his book, The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest.
Building a Blue Zone
To go beyond simply laying out nine commonalities centenarians share to live to 100, Buettner is working with Healthways to do something better: trying to replicate what makes Blue Zones successful in other places.
“We learned the lessons of the world’s longest-lived populations and we apply them by helping cities optimize their surroundings,” says Buettner. The Blue Zones Project teams start by educating the population on healthier lifestyles, asking restaurants to add more healthy options to their menus, and working with the local government to create better infrastructure to make walking and bicycling easier. The hope is that these changes give residents access to healthier lifestyle options that in turn increase their life expectancy.
Buettner and Healthways only work with communities that invite them and are willing to make the necessary changes to be successful. “We don’t come in and tell people what to do,” says Buettner. “We listen first, suggest ideas, have a conversation, and then they pick a solution and we help.”
The first Blue Zones Project took place about five years ago in Albert Lea, a small lake town of about 18,000 people in Minnesota. “We’ve seen about a 40 percent drop in health care costs for city workers. People have lost weight and gained life expectancy,” says Buettner. The project was then invited into three municipalities in Los Angeles, which led to a 15 percent drop in obesity and 30 percent drop in smoking rates after two years.
