How to Bring the Blue Zone Home [Video]

Living to 100 years old in the Blue Zone sounds great…for those who live in the Blue Zone – Ikaria, Greece; Loma Linda, California USA; Nicoya, Costa Rica; Sardinia, Italy; and Okinawa, Japan.

But what if you don’t live in some beautiful international location but inside reside in the simple suburbs of North America, a sleepy little town on the outskirts of anywhere, or in the inner city.

Can you find happiness and longevity in these places…your home?

That’s the question that longevity and happiness expert, Dan Buettner, asked when he travelled the world to see if anyplace was able to go from unhealthy to healthy and sustain those results. If so, how did they do it? What worked? What are the challenges? And could that be right for you. In your own home right here, right now.

In his TedMed talk, Dan Buettner, discusses why so many of our current efforts to get healthy don’t work and tips for how to bring the Blue Zone home. Watch the video and find out:

Minute 1:22

Which 9 things healthy populations are doing that set them apart and allow them to age in a way most of the world does not. Simple things such as moving naturally and daily (exercise); having the right outlook about life; being smart with how you eat; and connecting with those you love and the community in which you live. There is a perfect balance between intuitive health and those things that seem counter intuitive to your health yet play a crucial role.

Minute 2:40

Find out how you make a connection between telling people how they can do the things that will increase their health and happiness and encouraging them to do those things. The staggering amount of money we spend each year on what may be preventable diseases is eye opening:

• Heart Disease and Stroke – $503.2 Billion
• Cancer – $228 Billion
• Diabetes – $174 Billion

Then, see what percentage of these diseases fall into the category of genes and how many fall into the category of lifestyle When you consider how much money is being spent on programs and education targeted toward the real cause of some health challenges, you will begin to wonder if we are, in fact, looking in the correct areas when it comes to increasing our health.

Minute 3:58

Discover how much we are spending on “prevention” in the form of diets, supplements, and gym memberships and then consider how well those efforts are working. Is something else missing from that prevention equation?

Minute 6:00

Find out what happened when Dan Buettner went on a quest to find unhealthy communities that turned themselves around. Were they able to increase the health of their community? If so, how? And more importantly, was how they did it something that could be replicated someplace else?

Minute 7:35

What one special thing did the communities that became healthier discover which is often so different from how we usually approach health, diet, and exercise?

Minute 8:25

How to optimize a community for health.

Minute 10:55

Find out what happens when a U.S. cities steps up and volunteers to become an epicenter of health based on Dan Buettner’s findings. This is not an exotic location. This is a town in the heart of America which provides the perfect backdrop for a healthy turnaround. Because the city was ready to implement changes, they were also able to plan and provide funding aligned with their purpose. Did it work?

Minute 12:35

One super simple “trick” to encourage healthier habits for kids at school.

Minute 14:05

After all the time and effort to make the test community healthier, what were the results?

• 51% of the large employers participated and found a 20% reduction in absenteeism
• Smoke-free work campuses rose from 3% – 24%
• Grocery stores reported a 46% sales gain in 36 healthy foods
• There was an average life expectancy gain of 3.2 years
• Average weight loss: 2.8 pounds
• Lower rates of reported “feelings of sadness”
• 40% drop in city workers health care costs

Minute 14:30

Why is this all so important?

• Rising health care costs.
• Rising incidences of preventable disease.
• For the first time in history life expectancy of our children is going down.

Our life of ease and abundance seems to have brought with it unintended consequences. Luckily, there is a solution right in your own backyard…