

Blue Zones - Places In the World Where People Live to 100 and Stay Healthy - kkleiner
http://singularityhub.com/2009/07/20/blue-zones-places-in-the-world-where-people-live-to-100-and-stay-healthy/

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manifold
_do they have special genes? ... the answer is no_

That's not true. In Sardinia and Okinawa studies have shown that genetics play
a significant factor in longevity. For example, Sardinians have historically
tended to reproduce later in life. This has favoured genes that contribute to
longevity, or at least it has selected against those that contribute to early
mortality.

A healthy lifestyle will contribute to a longer life, but it's misleading to
imagine that everyone could achieve 100 if they just made the effort.

~~~
derefr
Wait, wait... so you're saying that all we have to do to make ourselves live
longer as a species, is to not let anyone procreate until they hit whatever
that generation considers "old age"? Interesting; I'm surprised this has never
been a part of any sci-fi description of a utopia...

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jerf
The Heinlein "Howards Families" comes pretty close:
[http://sciencefictionbiology.blogspot.com/2007/07/heinlein-a...](http://sciencefictionbiology.blogspot.com/2007/07/heinlein-
and-human-breeding.html)

That link doesn't reference your exact idea, but I thought that was part of
that. However, since I can't grep my collection I can't prove if that's
actually something Heinlein said, or a confabulation on my part.

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araneae
So basically... anyone who wants to do YC is doing it wrong.

Sure, if you have a stress free life you'll live longer. If you eat 30% fewer
calories, you'll live longer as well.* But you'll be poor and hungry.

*Although that was a really crappy study. They excluded all the primates that died from the statistical analysis.

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zimbabwe
There're a lot of philosophies that say poor and hungrier is in some ways a
happier way to live.

Perhaps there's no "wrong" way to live life, and the people who die young and
the people who die old are both happy with the choices they made.

~~~
rw
Yet perhaps many are frustrated by never having agency to make those choices
in the first place.

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huhtenberg
Virtually the same material was presented on "How to Live to 101" episode of a
BBC show called "Horizon" -
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/broadband...](http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/broadband/tx/101)

One notable difference was that the whole part about Sardinia revolved around
a group of people roasting whole lamb and then washing it down with copious
amounts of wine. "Low on meat" diet, right :-)

As far as I remember their conclusions were (a) eat less (b) stay active (c)
keep an interest in life. With (c) being the most important part.

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davi
Anybody know how many 'hot-spots' like this would be predicted due to
clustering at levels predicted by chance?

"The only way to determine whether a cluster is a "real" cluster or just a
"chance" cluster is to do a full scale epidemiological study, which is an
expensive and time consuming process, and may still give disappointing
results."
[http://pmep.cce.cornell.edu/profiles/extoxnet/TIB/epidemiolo...](http://pmep.cce.cornell.edu/profiles/extoxnet/TIB/epidemiology.html)

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helveticaman
I wanted a map.

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wmeredith
How is their no map in this post?

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noodle
because i think the point of this post is that location doesn't actually
matter. the "blue zones" are places where culture and/or circumstances have
forced all of the people in the area to live a healthier lifestyle. makes it
impossible to live there and not be healthy, so the area's statistics improve.

~~~
benmathes
Given how much one's behavior is impacted by external constraints, location
_does_ matter quite a lot. I suspect that if you moved the newborn offpsring
of two morbidly obese Americans into a family on Okinawa the child would most
likely live a rather healthy lifestyle.

~~~
noodle
the point, though, is not that that there is anything special in the water or
something. its just circumstances that promote general health as we currently
understand it. want to live longer? exercise and eat right.

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michaelawill
Thanks for this, very awesome!

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kingkongrevenge
With nothing on how exactly he identified the groups this is just silly pop
sci. You can't arbitrarily select your subjects.

The whole thing immediately looks very suspicious if you go to
<http://www.bluezones.com/> Obviously somebody is out to build a cult and make
a lot of money.

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GrandMasterBirt
The lesson I walked away with is: live a stress free happy life with plenty of
continuous low stress excersize and a healthy diet not consisting of fried
fatty sugary foods.

Sub points Excersize can lead to stress - incorporate a lifestyle of excersize
Have good relations with family -- less stress but out of your controll often
Organic food is good.

