Have you ever read about longevity in the ‘Blue Zones’? Well, it is possible that they do not exist at all. Anyway, this does not prevent some researchers from making money from “creating” new zones in large cities. The scandal began in the popular magazine Science, which published an article by journalist Ignacio Amigo about how researchers discovered the ‘Blue Zones’. It turned out that the researchers themselves are actively capitalizing on the topic, and the work of critics is simply not published. We publish a short story from this podcast.
When the host of the Science podcast asked journalist Ignacio Amigo if he thought their existence was real, he replied that it remained a mystery to him, and perhaps the truth was somewhere in the middle.
The first talk about places where many long-livers live was in the 1990s. At that time, the scientific community had a lot of skepticism
In 1999, Italian doctor Gianni Pez presented at an international conference the results of a study he and his colleagues had conducted on the island of Sardinia. Scientists decided to understand whether there are really so many long-livers there, as it is believed, and what is their peculiarity. It turned out that people who live more than 100 years, there are really more than average (though, only in some areas).
The announced data caused disbelief of the gathered scientists. They suggested that these results are a consequence of errors in official birth records.
Belgian demographer Michel Poulain traveled to Sardinia and, together with the authors of the original study, repeated their journey. The result was the following scientific paper, which confirmed the original findings. This is when the term “blue zone” was coined. It arose from the fact that long-livers whose age was confirmed, the researchers marked on the map with dots, which put a blue pen. Yes, yes, such a simple explanation.
In 2005, National Geographic magazine published an article (not a scientific study) by journalist Dan Buettner about why people on the islands of Sardinia and Okinawa and in the city of Loma Linda (USA) live so long. He cited five recommendations cited by residents of all three places:
- don’t smoke;
- eat fruits, vegetables and whole grain products.
- put family first;
- replace sports with activities;
- be socially active;
Soon Büttner joined Pez and Poulin to find new “Blue Zones”. For an area to be called a ‘Blue Zones’, the concentration of long-livers must be higher there than in the country. Concentrations of long-livers were sought, in particular, in the city of Vilcabamba (Ecuador) and on the island of Crete (Greece). But in the end it turned out that they cannot be called ‘Blue Zones’. However, they were able to add the Nicoya Peninsula (Costa Rica) and the island of Ikaria (Greece) to the list.
To talk about how the environment, habits, and other factors, except genetic ones, help people live beyond a hundred years, we need more research on a larger scale. Ai birth chart reading, of course, will potentially tell us about the strengths and weaknesses of a person’s astrological portrait and life cycles, but is unlikely to change conclusions about the veracity of “Blue Zones.” Therefore, regardless of public criticism, Dan Buettner began distributing a list called the Power 9. As you may have realized, it consists of nine points that sometimes contradict current scientific evidence. For example, there is advice to drink alcohol regularly.
This Story Quickly Became a Source of Profit
Determining what the cause of longevity is is not easy. Most likely, it’s a combination of factors. Researchers find some variants of genes that are more common in long-livers. However, the mystery is not really solved.
Dan Buettner went even further, registering the word combination “Blue Zone” as a trademark. He has already published seven books on the subject and registered a company that helps to create a longevity-friendly environment in cities (as Biewettner himself believes). After that, even Netflix produced a mini-series, “Living to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones,” in which he serves as chief expert.
Eventually Michel Poulin couldn’t take it anymore and stopped communicating with Dan Buettner. But both continue to work on defining “Blue Zones”, and each compiles his own list.
The main question is not only which areas can be called “Blue Zones”: almost 30 years after the research began, it is clear that some of the identified “blue zones” are not blue zones at all. Not enough people over the age of 100 live there anymore. Which means the theory doesn’t work in the long run.
Criticism of Blue Zones Research
Saul Newman, a researcher at University College London, is the main person in the scientific field to question the very existence of “Blue Zones”. His skepticism stems from the fact that “Blue Zones” are not located in the wealthiest hinterlands, and it’s likely that the paperwork there is simply poor, resulting in incorrect age determinations. Newman claims to have found other signs of falsified documents. His findings are formalized in a 67-page scientific article, which, however, has not yet been published anywhere. Nevertheless, the scientist was awarded the Shnobel Prize for his work.
