Searching for longevity secrets around the world

Jeanne Calment is known to hold the record for the longest life ever lived – 122 years. Born in 1875, in France, she passed away only in 1997, meeting both Vincent Van Gogh and the rise of the internet.

Jeanne was quite a feisty spirit. It’s rumoured that she smoked, drank alcohol, ate excessive amounts of red meat and consumed 2 pounds (900 g) of chocolate per week – habits that usually lead to early death. Yet she lived to celebrate her 122nd birthday.

To add context, Jeanne also cycled a lot (till she was 100), was born into a wealthy family, ate a lot of olive oil, and lived quite a stress-free life in a small town in the South of France called Arles where she enjoyed plenty of non-polluted air and warm social activities. Now, these things are usually associated with a longer life.

What was Jeanne’s longevity secret?

So was she just lucky, or was it her lifestyle? Well, in 2015 researchers from UCLA decided to compare ninety smokers who lived past 80 with 730 smokers who died at the ages of 52-69. And surprise! The 80+-year-old smokers had specific differences in their genes which protected their health and made them relatively as healthy as non-smokers. It’s like they hadn’t smoked! They just got lucky with their genes.

Jeanne might have been one of those lucky ones too. But for the rest of us, smoking is still severely unhealthy. If you have the right genes, it might not be. But the vast majority of us don’t have those genes. Unfortunately. Jeanne’s longevity secret was probably in her genes.

But Jeanne Calment is just one person. There are whole communities of people around the globe who often live past 100. We know of 5 distinct ones: Okinawa, Japan; Nicoya, Costa Rica; Loma Linda, California; Sardinia, Italy; and Icaria, Greece. These places are called “Blue Zones” (just because the people who coined this term circled those places in blue on the map), and people there do live quite long lives and outstanding lifestyles. We can certainly learn something from them.

Learn the secrets of exceptional blue zone long-livers

In 2016 researchers Dan Buettner and Sam Skemp from Minneapolis, USA published a paper in which they summarize their years of studying these long-liver communities. For which we want to give them immense credit. They have crystallized 9 common things these people in the blue zones do, and here they are:

1. Move naturally
   Physical activity doesn’t have to be about HIIT exercises or regular morning runs. The people living in the blue zones have all their needs for physical activity embedded into their daily routines. They upkeep gardens, walk up and down hills to the market, and don’t mechanize their yard work. And it seems to be completely enough.
2. Purpose
   The long-livers of Okinawa, Japan have a word for it – Ikigai. It vaguely translates to “why I wake up in the morning”. The researchers say knowing your purpose can add up to 7 years to your lifespan.
3. Downshift
   Stress is ubiquitous, even for people in the Blue Zones. But they don’t just tolerate it, they deal with it. Loma Lindans pray, Ikarians take a nap, Sardinians do a happy hour, and Okinawans spare a few minutes to remember their ancestors. Adding stress-less activities into your life is essential for longevity.
4. 80% rule
   Hara hachi bu – Okinawans say before meals. This 2500-year-old mantra reminds them to stop eating when they’re 80% full. Those 20% could make all the difference between gaining weight and losing weight.
5. Plant slant
   Most of the blue zone communities eat primarily plant foods. Beans, whole grains, vegetables, fruits – these are their staples. They can sometimes include meat like pork, but the serving size is just about the size of a deck of cards and is only eaten about once per week.
6. Wine at 5
   Most long-livers in the blue zones drink alcohol. And quite a lot of it – about 1-2 glasses per day. But they don’t drink it alone. They drink it with friends, and/or with food, and at least in Sardinia, they drink Sardinian Cannonau red wine, which has 2-3 times more artery-cleansing, inflammation-reducing flavonoids than other wines. For the record, years of research have shown there is no such thing as a “healthy” dose of alcohol so take this point with a grain of salt.
7. Belong
   258 out of 263 of the interviewed long-livers belong to some faith-based community, and it doesn’t matter which one. The researchers say attending faith-based services 4 times a month can add between 4-14 years to one’s lifespan.
8. Loved ones first
   Blue zone long-livers don’t do retirement homes. All their elders live with them (or at least nearby), and they care for them. Surprisingly, it lowers the disease rate of children living in the home too.
9. Right tribe
   Your habits are composed of the habits of your friends. Okinawans create so-called moais – groups of 5 friends that commit to each other for life. Smoking, obesity and loneliness are contagious, but so is happiness! So choose your social networks wisely, and stay determined to nurture them.

So do these 9 “longevity secrets” seem like secrets to you? Hardly. The truth is that longevity lies as much (or even more) in these simple things than in cutting-edge scientific breakthroughs. This might seem disappointing to some, but we think it gives us hope. We don’t have to guess what will make us live longer, we already know! Science already knows what things you can do right now to greatly increase your longevity. Not just through secrets but through years of scientific evidence.

You may also like:

• 4 common lifestyle habits that impact your lifespan
• Extra 13 years of lifespan. Researchers have found the optimal longevity diet
• What are the best exercises to do every day to increase lifespan