To Your Health: ‘Blue Zones’ provide model for heart health

Feb. 1 kicks off American Heart Month, and we’ll be addressing a heart-related topic each week this month. Perhaps the most widely relatable topic is how to keep your heart healthy, and we’ll examine the best ways to do that by looking at some of the healthiest places on Earth. As hard as it may be to believe, there really are some places where it’s not uncommon for people to live to at least their 100th birthday. There’s a company that calls these areas “Blue Zones”, and they’re home to some of the oldest, healthiest – and possibly happiest – people on the planet.

What are they doing right?

It isn’t geography that makes these places special, but the residents’ daily habits. Whether they’re in Japan, Italy, or California, the remarkable longevity comes from what they eat, how they move and how they spend their time. And that can make all the difference – particularly in terms of heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States.

In Loma Linda, California, for example, death from heart disease is 34 percent lower and death from stroke is 28 percent lower than elsewhere in the states where heart disease is the leading cause of death. The residents of Loma Linda enjoy a lifespan that’s on average 10 years longer than most Americans.

Habits for longevity

While “Blue Zones” across the globe differ in many ways, they have nine qualities in common. The research into these communities suggests that most of us can live longer, healthier lives if we adopt these characteristics into our lives:

1. Move naturally. Residents have gardens and do yard work, climb stairs, and take long walks. They exercise without thinking about it because exercise just a part of daily life.

2. Have a purpose. They wake up in the morning with a sense of purpose, a feeling that they have a mission to accomplish.

3. Cope with stress. They have ways to reduce stress, whether napping, praying, or enjoying a glass of wine in the evening.

4. Eat less. They tend to eat smaller meals later in the day and stop eating when they’re 80 percent full.

5. Eat mostly plants. They rarely eat meat, getting most of their protein from beans and plant sources.

6. Moderate alcohol use. Most enjoy no more than one or two glasses of wine or other light alcohol in the evening.

7. Belong. Most centenarians, but not all, belong to a faith-based community.

8. Put family first. They keep aging parents nearby, commit to a life-time partner, and invest time and love in their children.

9. Have life-long friends. They have a social network of old friends who they still spend time with regularly.

Put all these habits and qualities together and you just happen to have the full picture of a heart-healthy life of exercise, food, family and friends. As the “Blue Zones” concept proves, it’s the most powerful preventive medicine we’ve got.

The good news is that you don’t need to move to have a longer, healthier life. Yet building a life around these qualities may be easiest if you’re just starting out.

Still in your twenties? Establish healthy habits now. Then you won’t need to alter how you eat and move later in life when it’s harder to change and heart disease may already be developing.

Too late to start early? That’s okay. Changing your daily habits at any point in life can prevent, manage, and even reverse heart disease. Begin with the foods you eat. Make your plate colorful with fruits, vegetables, beans and dark, leafy greens like kale. Cut back on saturated fats and the trans fats found in processed and fast food. In general, try to eat as few packaged foods found in the center and frozen aisles of supermarkets,and shop instead around the edges where the produce and fresh foods are displayed.