Hello there amazing folk and welcome to my fifty-seventh blog.

Nowadays most of my physio patients are elderly folk, or the more mature folk, as I like to refer to them. They range in age from 70 t0 100. What astounds me is that my centenarian chap has far fewer chronic health issues than a few my septuagenarians. This made me think and ponder. What is the scoop with longevity and healthy longevity?

 

Longevity may be defined as long life or a great duration of life, and biologists sometimes define longevity as the average lifespan expected under ideal conditions. Its difficult to say what is ideal, but you can rest assured, plenty of medical research is ongoing about the best way to help improve your longevity.

 

Historically, we all believed that our genes determine our longevity, but the truth is that genetics accounts for thirty percent of our life expectancy. The rest comes from behaviours, attitudes, environment, and a little bit of luck! I think this is really quite cool, as then I feel that I may be able to influence my life span somewhat.

 

When I started thinking about this whole longevity lark, I began researching, as is my wont, and very quickly I came across the concept of the Blue Zones. I knew a little about them, as I am sure do most of you, but I thought I would recap and delve a little deeper into this story. The founder of the Blue Zones is Dan Buettner, an explorer, National Geographic fellow, award-winning journalist, and producer. He has written several bestselling books, including Blue Zones, and has appeared on many reputable TV shows.

 

Blue Zones are 5 regions in the world where a higher than usual number of people live much longer than average. The 5 places are:

• Ogliastra, Sardinia, Italy, home to some of the oldest men in the world where people live in mountainous regions, work on the farms and drink lots of red wine.
• The islands of Okinawa, Japan, home to the world’s oldest women who eat plenty of soy-based foods and practice tai chi, a meditative form of exercise.
• Loma Lida, California where the Seventh-day Adventists, a very religious group of people, live in tight-knit communities and are strict vegetarians.
• Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica, where the diet is based around beans and corn tortillas and the people regularly perform physical jobs into old age and have a sense of life purpose known as “plan de vida”.
• Icaria, Greece, an island in Greece where people eat a Mediterranean diet rich in olive oil, red wine, and home-grown veggies.

 

The people inhabiting Blue Zones share common lifestyle characteristics that contribute to their longevity and we can learn several lessons from them. Buettner identified nine, and after a little more reading, I have added some more that I feel may be helpful.

 

1. Moderate regular physical activity

The health benefits of regular exercise and physical activity are too many to mention, again I feel that I am sounding somewhat repetitive! Exercise can prevent diseases such vascular issues, high blood pressure, diabetes, depression, anxiety, arthritis, and obesity. Exercising helps your bodies release chemicals, neurotransmitters like endorphins, serotonin and dopamine which may help decrease pain and anxiety (chatted about this before, too). What I find so very interesting is that  studies of folk in the Blue Zone show that being physically active for them means to move constantly and to exercise their body while doing daily tasks. So, the exercise is built into daily life, such as walking or climbing the stairs or jogging on the spot whilst on calls (when the video is switched off). Often I get my ten thousand steps easily during a working day, without engaging in any formal physical activity.

 

2. Life Purpose.

This is not necessarily an easy one to follow. My ongoing and evolving mission. These are the central motivating aims and goals of your life, the reason you get up in the morning, enhancing and enriching your very essence. Okinawans use the concept known as Ikigai, a Japanese word for “a reason for being.”

 

3. Stress reduction

A certain amount of stress can be good to prepare the body for threats and to keep one alert. We have chatted about stress often in previous blogs. Suffice it to say, if stressful situations are overpowering your day to day living this can disturb your body’s homeostatic system and cause serious health problems. Social support systems, regular exercise, setting goals and other relaxation techniques may help with this.

 

4. Calorific intake

Studies have shown that eating slowly can reduce hunger and increase feelings of fulness. Interestingly, the hormones that make you feel full only reach their maximum blood levels twenty minutes after you eat. Okinawans follow the eighty percent rule, which they call “hara hachi bu”. This means that they stop eating when they feel eighty percent full, rather than completely full. Shoo, this goes against what most of us were brought up to do. Somewhat similar to eating with mindfulness.

 

5. Plant-based diet

The people living in the countries located in the blue zones are mostly eating foods aligned to the Mediterranean diet. This consists mostly of whole grains, fruits, veggies, nuts, legumes, seeds and spices, meats infrequently and rather fish and lean meat. Let me know if i can help you with meal plans and recipes, as this is how we mostly eat now.

 

6. Moderate alcohol intake

People in some blue zones drink moderately, one to two glasses of red wine per day, which may help prevent heart diseases and reduce the risk of death. It is important to note that these benefits are only seen for moderate alcohol consumption. Sadly, I have not found any studies that have compared no alcohol consumption with moderate alcohol consumption, in terms of health benefits. I will continue to search!!

 

7. Engagement in spirituality or religion.

Studies have shown that spirituality may be beneficial to one’s health. People who attend religious services or who believe they are spiritual may experience lower levels of depression and anxiety, have lower blood pressure, and may generally feel healthier and well. This can also be attributed to the sense of belonging, belonging to a religion or a spiritual group. Also the strong social network that develops among people who worship together may boost their health. My spiritual beliefs definitely help me to live my best life.

 

8. Commitment to family life.

The folk who live in the Blue Zone areas engage in social support and family-oriented practices. From childhood, they learn that their choices and outcomes will have an impact not only on them but also on their families. Their ethos is that they want to grow together and share all their life experiences, celebrating their successes, and commiserating and learning from their failures. As a family we do this consistently, and I believe it enhances  our familial relationships.

 

9. Having a meaningful social life.

Just like family, social ties affect our health according to studies human beings need different social relationship groups, to decrease stress, cardiovascular diseases, and disorders. Physical contact can assist the body in releasing important chemicals such as hormones, that bring biological benefits on top of mental, emotional, and physical ones. Choose your friends wisely. Interact with the ones who bring out the best in you and make you feel great about yourself. I do not struggle with the odd social event or three and my friends are just the bee’s knees!

 

10. Nap

A siesta is standard in many parts of the world and now scientific evidence has shown that napping may help you live longer. Those zzzz  may help your heart by keeping stress hormones down. I have a varied relationship with napping. Sometimes it can make me feel like a million dollars and other times i wake up feeling shocking and desperate for something sweet.

 

11. Fasting

Periodic fasting appears to be beneficial for health. Some people have many periods of fasting for religious holidays during the year, while more recently people fast intermittently which involves fasting for certain hours of the day or certain days of the week. Fasting may lead to lower blood cholesterol and lower body mass index (BMI) and may help reduce blood pressure and other risk factors for chronic disease. i have yet to fully embrace fasting, but it is something that I am planning on exploring further.

12. Forgive

Letting go of grudges and hurts have surprisingly physical health benefits. Chronic anger is linked to heart diseases, stroke.  Poorer lung health and other issues. Forgiveness will reduce anxiety, lower blood pressure, and help you breathe more easily. Sometimes easier said than done but well worth working through and then parking.

 

13. Make quality sleep a priority.

This can lower your risk of obesity, diabetes, heart diseases and mood disorders. A great night’s sleep will also help you recover from illness faster. I have an inconsistent relationship with good sleep quality, mostly good though, since I started taking calcium and magnesium at night.

14. Take your supplements

This may enhance your longevity and  help you to live your best life. In my personal experience, vitamins are the business.

15. Have fun

Laugh, smile, dance and be silly. A recent study has shown that laughter, happiness and humour can have a positive effect on health and longevity by increasing your natural killer cell activity in blood and the free radical-scavenging capacity in saliva, as well as lowering the levels of the stress hormone cortisol. I love this as I spend a lot of time laughing!

 

So friends, by now I am sure you know me well. Bottom line for this blog is let us just try to maximize our time here on earth.

Here is hoping that one of more of the above recommendations resonate with you.

Remember it is always about our Baby Steps, being kind to yourselves, celebrating life and trying to make the most of every day.

Please message me if you would like to learn about something or if I can perhaps hep you, in any way.

Lots of love and a gentle hug for you all.