January 21, 2010
“The best age is the age you are. " --Maggie Kuhn, founder of The Gray Panthers
Two friends emailed me recently on the same day with the same message, "Do you want to live to be a 100 or look and feel younger at every age?"
"OK, sure," I thought suspiciously, "but why are you asking? Do I need to look younger?" I don't think I want to know the answer to my own question.
"Take twenty minutes of your time and watch this video about Blue Zones," they each continued in lock step.
Since they are friends and they were asking, I decided to check out the website and Google search Blue Zones, wondering where or what in the world they were.
I soon learned that "where in the world" was the key point. Blue Zones are indeed geographic locations; places where climate and lifestyle can help you live to be a centenarian.
If I recall my geography studies from high school correctly and that is a reach, there are temperate zones, frigid zones and torrid zones in the world. But what are Blue Zones? I am sorry to admit that I never heard of them.
I know of Red Zones, Green Zones, Orange Zones, and Purple, but not Blue.
Red Zones are easy--the area between the 20-yard line and the goal line in football. If you are on defense, better keep your opponent out of the Red Zone!
The Green Zone was in the news for years--the international area protected by coalition forces inside the City of Baghdad.
Then, there is the Orange Zone. It has something to do with making calls abroad with one's mobile phone, but don't hold me to that. I suspect fans of Tennessee football would not agree with this definition since they have a completely different meaning for the term Orange Zone.
The Purple Zone was a funky 2006 comedy that few people watched, and it is also refers to a football program at a small university in Texas, a newsletter, a store, a blog and who knows what else.
But, back to Blue Zones.
People who live in these zones live longer and are reportedly happier and healthier than the rest of us. They do not get sick often and can function for many years without dementia or pain.
Here are the five (and there are only five) such spots that scientists believe offer health utopia: Sardinia, Italy; Islands of Okinawa, Japan; Loma Linda, CA; Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica; and Icaria, Greece.
If I have to choose one of these Blue Zones, as my two email friends recommended, then I pick Sardinia, Italy, which sounds heavenly.
However, that was just until I learned that Sardinia's100-year longevity principal only applies to males who live alone in mountain villages and eat goat cheese.
The other four locations weren't much different except for perhaps Loma Linda, and I have no idea why it is on the list.
My friends asked if I was ready to move to one of these Blue Zones because they were ready to relocate.
"No, absolutely not," I said remembering what Abraham Lincoln once said on the subject--"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."
But I might visit Loma Linda.
