Lessons from the Blue Zones

Living to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones is a Netflix documentary that examines the lifestyles of people in several regions of the world that have a high proportion of people who live to 100. It’s a review of the observations of Dan Buettner, who has spent the better part of 30 years finding and examining cultures that have a larger than normal number of residents who live to 100. He’s written several books, films, and articles on the topics over those years. In this series, he goes back to look at those cultures again.

In the next several Memos, I’m going to give you my thoughts on each of the four areas he describes in his summary. I came away with a new perspective on a couple of areas including exercise and nutrition. In reality, they might contribute to longevity the least. While I think that each area is important, I’ll start with what I see as the weakness of his approach.

We know a lot about how people in these cultures ate and moved. We also see the social interactions they develop and their outlook on life. But they were already in their 80s, 90s, and 100s; we don’t know anything about people who were in their 70s when he began his observations 30 years ago and where they are today. Could someone adapt these lifestyles in their 50s, 60s, even 70s and live well into their 80s, 90s, or 100s? It sounds reasonable, but unless there are studies ongoing that will be published in the future, we don’t know that for sure. We can only look at the present.

I’ve decided the answer would be yes which is why I’m developing aging with a vengeance. The goal isn’t to live to 100; it’s to live well to 100 years or whatever your goal is. We’ll begin with outlook on life on Saturday. What’s yours? We’ll find out how important that can be.

What are you prepared to do today?