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ACTIVE LISTENING MAIN STORY

HOW TO LIVE TO BE A HUNDRED

Meet California resident Ellsworth Wareham. A multimillionaire at the age of 97, he needed a new privacy fence built around his house in the sunny town of Loma Linda. And when the contractor told him that it would cost $6,000, he said, “For that kind of money, I’ll just do it myself.” Sure enough, Ellsworth spent three days out in the yard, shoveling cement, digging holes, and carrying heavy poles around. On the fourth day, he ended up in the operating room at the hospital. Not as the patient on the table, but rather the guy doing open-heart surgery. That’s right: Ellsworth Wareham is a heart surgeon, who at 97, still does 20 open-heart surgeries a month.

Meanwhile, across the Pacific Ocean on the Japanese island of Okinawa, Ushi Okushima lets out a loud and joyous belly laugh.

She sits cross-legged on the floor of her small wooden house in the seaside village of Ogimi. She wears a simple blue kimono, with her friends Setsuko and Matsu seated nearby. They‟re sipping green tea and gossiping about Ushi’s new job, new boyfriend, and new hairstyle. She recently tried to run away from home, and has now started wearing perfume for the first time. We might predict such behavior from a young woman, but Ushi is 103.

How can Ellsworth and Ushi have such energy and vitality, while the average person passes away from illness in their late 70s or early 80s? Is it genes or is it lifestyle? According to author Dan Buettner, Ellsworth and Ushi are still going strong at such an advanced age because they are residents of Blue Zones. A Blue Zone is a region on Earth with a higher number of centenarians than anywhere else.

Buettner identified five of these “longevity hotspots” around the world and set out to determine what they had in common with one another. Why do people in Blue Zones live healthier and longer lives?

What he discovered boiled down to four simple characteristics, which together could be described as a ‘formula for longevity’.

The first characteristic is natural movement, and you couldn’t find a better example of this than in Mr. Tonino Tola. Although only 75 years of age, Tonino lives in a village in the Nuoro province on the island of Sardinia, Italy. One of Buettner’s Blue Zones, Sardinia has the highest concentration of male centenarians in the world. And like many of his uncles before him, Tonino is well on his way to reaching 100. It’s only 11:00 in the morning, and Tonino has already milked four cows, split a half a cord of wood, slaughtered a calf, and walked four miles of hilly terrain with his 200 sheep. After lunch with his extended family, he’ll head out into the yard to repair a heavy stone wall, and then lead his sheep on another long trek through the mountainous pastures until the sun begins to set.

Tonino, like all people in Blue Zones, doesn’t exercise. That is, he doesn’t exercise as a specific activity, like going to the gym or taking a jog. His daily routines are a form of natural exercise. It’s the same with Ellsworth: he mows his own lawn, prunes his own bushes, and chooses to build the privacy fence around his house rather than pay someone to do it for him. And Ushi Okushima, like other Okinawans, always sits on the floor, which requires her to lift her body up off the ground 30 to 40 times per day. Constant daily movement is crucial to longevity, and is the first characteristic of all Blue Zone residents, regardless of culture.

Tonino washes the dried calf blood from his fingernails, and sits down to a simple lunch of homegrown zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, and fava beans. All of these vegetables reduce his risk of heart disease and colon cancer. His grandchildren drink fresh, raw milk from his grass-fed sheep, while the adults nibble on homemade pecorino cheese made from the milk of the same herd. These give them healthy proteins and omega-3 fatty acids. In the evening, he’ll relax with a glass of red wine made from his small vineyard of Cannonau grapes. These grapes have three times the amount of cancer fighting polyphenols than those used to make average red wines.

Not surprisingly, eating wisely is the second characteristic of Blue Zone longevity. This means a lean, largely plant-based diet. Indeed, Ellsworth Wareham is a vegan, subsisting on mostly fruits, vegetables, and nuts. Like many other residents of Loma Linda, he is part of a religious community of Seventh Day Adventists, who encourage a vegetarian lifestyle.

But it’s not just about the quality of the food that is eaten, but also the quantity. Ushi and her Okinawan friends live by the old saying Hara hachi bun me, which means to eat until your stomach is 80% full. A nutrientrich meal of vegetables, miso, tofu, seaweed, and a little fish or pork can have fewer calories than a hamburger, especially if Ushi stops eating before she is full. Eating healthy foods in modest quantities is the second characteristic of Blue Zone lifestyles.

So that‟s exercise and diet, but what about your outlook on life? For Ushi and many other Okinawans, this means having a clear life purpose, something they call ikigai. It‟s what gets them up in the morning and makes life worth living. Over the course of their life, a person‟s ikigai changes, but it is something they are always aware of. For Ushi, it has become longevity itself, which is a source of pride for her family and village. She simply lives for her immediate community, and that is enough to keep her going.

In addition to having a clear purpose, knowing how to relax and unwind is also part of the Blue Zone way of life. One of the reasons Sardinian men live such a long time, is that their wives shoulder the burden of managing the house and family finances. “I do the work and my wife does the worrying,” says Tonino, as he gives her a playful hug. Indeed, the ratio of male to female centenarians in Sardinia is one-to-one, compared with a one-to-four ratio favoring women in the USA.

But Ellsworth and the Seventh Day Adventists take relaxation a step further: they require it. One day a week, all Seventh Day Adventists must recognize the Sabbath, a religious day of rest. On this day, they vow to do no work, but instead spend time with friends and family, and take hikes in the surrounding mountains.

And in fact, Ellsworth is killing two birds with one stone here on his day of rest. He‟s not just relaxing. He’s relaxing with members of his community. These are people who share the same beliefs,

values, and attitudes as he does. Having a sense of belonging is the fourth and final characteristic of Blue Zone lifestyles. All Blue Zone inhabitants have a strong social network, and they place a strong emphasis on family. They surround themselves with the right kind of people, who are equally as healthy and happy.

For Ushi and her friends Setsuko and Matsu, this sense of belonging is most strongly felt in their moai. A moai is a small group of people who stick together for life, supporting each other financially, socially, and emotionally. If times ever get tough for one person, their moai will help them out. Having this safety net, takes the stress away in times of need.

And for Tonino and the other Sardinian people, family is the bedrock of their lives. Sardinian families are dedicated to supporting each other in times of difficulty and in caring for the elderly. To put a family elder into a nursing home would be considered a great dishonor.

So there you have it. Longevity simply comes down to moving naturally, eating wisely, having the right outlook, and feeling a sense of belonging. Of course, having a long life is no good if the quality of your life is poor. But for the majority of people in Blue Zones, old age seems to be the sweet fruit of a life well lived. People like Ellsworth, Ushi, and Tonino give us a vision of old age that we can aspire to. One that is filled with love, energy, and fun. Reflecting on the lives of these extraordinary people, how can we change our lifestyles to move us a bit closer to the Blue Zone way of life?