I recently came across blue zones through, believe it or not, Netflix. I was watching Down to Earth with Zac Efron, and in an episode, he visited Sardinia, a blue zone. I remember hearing about blue zones before, but they didn’t pique my interest back then as they do now. Blue zones are basically regions of the world that are home to the oldest people. Dan Buettner is the founder of this concept and named five places in the world as blue zones: Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Nicoya, Costa Rica; Ikaria, Greece; Loma Linda, California. Through researching, Buettner and his team discovered specific lifestyle habits that were common to all blue zones, which they call the Power 9. Blue Zones is now an organization with the mission to create healthy communities throughout the United States based on the lifestyles of people in the original blue zones.
Blue zones are not without their critics and skeptics, though. One in particular is Dr. Saul Newman. From an interview I saw here, Dr. Newman believes that there is fault in the classification of blue zones. For example, he questions why Okinawa was chosen as a blue zone, even though it has the shortest average lifespan within Japan. He also believes that there could be data fraud, like people lying about their ages in order to claim higher longevity rates. Nevertheless, I believe blue zones are interesting to discuss, as they’ve been researched extensively into. Even if they aren’t necessarily different from places that weren't dubbed as blue zones, the research done on the elderly population in these places makes it valuable to learn from. Therefore, for the next couple of blog posts, I’m excited to learn about and discuss research discoveries of a particular blue zone!
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Forgetting: often seen as a sign of aging. But how do we know the difference between “normal” memory loss associated with age and memory loss caused by disease? Why does memory even get worse as we age? Let’s start with the second question. Here are a few potential contributors to our forgetfulness:
Now for the first question, I found a couple comparison charts that serve as good visualizations, although please keep in mind that everyone's situation is different: Because the brain does change as we age, memory loss could be a part of aging that we can't avoid. However, there are ways to lessen the impact, by ensuring that we are keeping our brains healthy and active for as long as possible. Alzheimer's and other dementias are not a normal part of aging, so it's important to know the differences.
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