Blue About Blue Zones

Have you heard about The Blue Zones? Twenty years ago, five areas around the world were identified where people supposedly lived long, happy lives free of stress and disease. A best selling book came out of some initial research: Blue Zones: Secrets of A Long Life, by Dan Buettner. Media picked up the idea. Blue Zones were much in the news.

In 2004 two researchers, Gianni Pes and Michel Poulain, had zeroed in on Sardinia’s Nuoro province with a high concentration of male centenarians. The actual numbers are less than exciting, however.  Out of a population of 2,500, there were 7 men over a 100 years old. Still, it’s statistically significant compared with the United States where only one man in 20,000 reaches a 100.

Dan’s book added four more Blue Zones, and extolled the dietary and lifestyle habits of these small populations that made for long life. 

Here’s a summary of the somewhat less than scientific research (as later revealed) on the  lifestyle habits of Blue Zone residents.

In Sardinia, demographers found a ‘hot spot’ of health and longevity.

Nicoya residents pride themselves on having a sense of life purpose: the “plan de vida”.

Loma Linda in California is home to a large group of Seventh-Day Adventists who are some of North America’s longest-lived people.

Okinawans eat a diet of soy, sweet potatoes, rice, veggies. They practice the meditative form of exercise Tai Chi.

Ikaria One in three people who live there will live to be 90 or older.

The five longevity inducing habits of Blue Zone people, as presented by The Blue Zone book, are: 

  1. Moderate, regular physical activity through work and daily tasks.

  2. Purpose – A reason to get up and get going each morning.

  3. A plant-based diet – Much less meat, much more beans and vegetables. Less food overall.

  4. Moderate alcohol – One or two glasses of red wine is common practice in the Sardinian and Icarian Blue Zones. Doing so may help prevent heart disease, lower blood pressure, lower blood sugar, and improve sleep.

  5. A rich spiritual, social or family life – Research has shown stress levels go down when one’s life is enhanced by community.

Dan Buettner gave nine factors in his book. Though a few redundant. Five is pretty much it.

Into every life a little rain must fall. Mr. Buettner’s Blue Zone book is all wet according to health and nutritionist author, Sarah Pope, and her web site Blue Zone Baloney.  Ms. Pope dismantles the dietary claims of the Blue Zone and presents data that shows most of these areas have normal demographics and dietary habits.

Of the five factors making for a long life, there is only one that has been rigorously researched by actual scientists, and you are not going to like it. That is #3: Eat less. Not plants so much, but just eating less of everything over a lifetime. Severe calorie restriction has been shown in lab animals (probably because they can’t get humans to do it for any serious amount time) to decrease incidence of disease generally and increase life span by 20%.

Ms. Pope does not quibble with the benefits of regular physical activity, stress reduction and community engagement. However, the data on drink less alcohol, don’t smoke, avoid junk & processed food, and wear a seat belt show more positive effect on longevity than meatless eating.

So, a lovely idea is once again dismantled by pesky facts. But, to end on a happy statistical note, in 1980 2.8 percent of people in the US lived to age 90, today 4.7 percent do. Yay for us!

If you want to delve further into the pros and cons of The Blue Zones, do check out the web links for entertaining reading.

At The ER… Again

Hello, friends.  Here, for your amusement, is my latest adventure at the ER, which seems to be my favorite place these days. I had a bandage on my neck the past few days. It was covering a painful swelling. It was not a boil, but an infected sebaceous cyst. I was soaking it and using antibiotic cream, hoping it would get better on its own. Not to be.

So a few days ago we were off to the emergency room at HeywoodHospital in Gardner, Massachusetts. Though not an actual emergency, they don’t have walk-in clinics that can handle day surgery out here. Rosemary and I were there from 1:30 PM till 8:00 PM.  The first hour was an efficient intake process. I saw four people at four locations, answered forty questions, and presented three forms of ID: Picture ID, Medicare Card, Secondary Payer Card. Since I just turned sixty-five, my retiree medical plan via Proctor & Gamble now takes a back seat to Medicare.

Finally alone in the exam room, the intake nurse asks where my problem is (neck).  “OK,” she said, “Just checking whether you have to get naked.” And that is the last laugh for a good while.

After an hour or so, Rosemary joins me. We wait together. Misery does indeed enjoy company.

Then the fun begins. They inserted an IV, drew lots of blood, took multiple pulse and pressure, and queried about my level of pain (one through ten).  “Five or six,” I said.  Whereupon I was offered Vicodin.  I hate taking opiates. So I passed on the pill. Fool that I was.

After an initial exam, I was sent to the CAT scan room where I was given an iodine injection (via my permanent I.V.). I told them I was allergic to shrimp. They told me one of the side effects of iodine, for those allergic to shrimp, is:  DEATH!  However rare. But we went ahead, with emergency teams standing by. Such drama. All was well and it was back to the exam room to await administration of pain.

Finally, the efficient, but humorless, nurse practitioner entered with a tray full of bandages, swabs, needles, and various other torture implements. I make jokes under pressure. But not good enough for this serious lady.  Rosemary, however, laughed at the good ones:

Preparing a needle of anesthetic (useless, by the way), the nurse asks,

“Do you have any other allergies, Mr. Rapson?”

“I am highly allergic to pain,” I said.

Unamused, she proceeds with the usual deceptions during torture.  My favorite:

“You’ll feel a pinch,” she says.

I have been pinched a few times, Gentle Reader. And I have done some pinching myself. I am well acquainted with the giving and receiving of pinches. I can confidently tell you that what I felt next was well outside the set of sensations categorized as “a pinch.”  More accurately, she might have said, “You’ll feel a white hot poker knifing into your flesh.”

After repeated stabs, comes another deception, “One more, ” she says. And delivers three or four. She did occasionally apologize for the torture. Something even real torturers might do.

After several minutes of me pretending to be brave, and cracking jokes to avoid whining like a girly man, it was over. At least the administration of the pain was over. Pain lingers, however. And linger it did. So when drug pusher nurse walked in—Chelsea was her name and she was lovely—I begged for those drugs earlier refused.

“And your pain is now what…?” she asked. Keeping up the tough guy front, “Oh, eight or nine, I guess.”  It felt like eleven or twelve.  A small white pill was produced. Fifteen minutes later I was heavy lidded, smiling a silly smile, and nearly painless.  So this is what all the fuss is about!

After being instructed what to do if things don’t get better (they have), we filled prescriptions, bought pizza, watched The Voice.  And so to bed.

And that is my latest ER adventure. Coming so soon after three months of bliss in Florida, I have a new appreciation for the difference between pleasure and pain. They may be different sides of the same coin, but it must be a darn fat coin.