The second rule of our 10 Rules for Life is to take care of your body and mind. Personal Kaizen has several upcoming posts focused on longevity – the secret to living a longer, healthier life. We will summarize the new book Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity and share our research on behaviors and habits to adopt for a long, happy life. Today’s post shares highlights from bestselling author Dan Buettner’s research into why people living in “blue zone” have much higher than normal life expectancies. He has a new Netflix series we will be watching this winter.
Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones
Dan Buettner is a National Geographic Fellow and bestselling author who studies the five “blue zones” in the world where people live the longest, healthiest lives. He has written:
- The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest
- Thrive: Finding Happiness the Blue Zones Way
- The Blue Zones Solution: Eating and Living Like the World’s Healthiest People
- The Blue Zones of Happiness
- The Blue Zones Kitchen: 100 Recipes for Living to 100
Buettner and his research partners focus primarily on what they have found to be the biggest contributors to living a longer, healthier life:
- A healthy diet – estimated to add 12 years to your life. Buettner shares nine common diet and lifestyle habits to focus on, and focuses on eating primarily complex carbohydrates.
- Companionship: socializing with family and friends – estimated to add 7 years to your life. Buettner has studied some of the happiest countries in the world and finds companionship is key.
- Policies that promote healthy habits and discourage unhealthy ones. For example, approximately 165K Americans died in the past year from guns and drug overdoses.
- Simple habits that Buettner estimates add 10 years to your healthy, happy life – read more below!
Personal Kaizen Adds 10 Years to Your Life!
Dan Buettner was recently interviewed by PBS Newshour about his new Netflix series. Here is our highlight of the video:
Buettner Notes:
“The big revelation, and you never hear about it because it’s not sexy and marketers can’t sell you things, but an extra 10 years of life expectancy is the sum of lots of small improvements we make in our lives (mostly in our environments) applied for decades.
Feel free to watch the entire PBS interview above and check your inbox for future posts on the secret to living a longer, healthier life. In the next few months, we will be watching Buettner’s four-part Netflix series and sharing a summary of his tips with the Personal Kaizen community.
