Life expectancy has drastically increased the last century. However, nobody just wants to live longer, but also in a good healthy state. Many researchers have been working on this challenge for years, and some factors that influence the quality of life are regularly suggested through studies.
As a company we are also striving to find solutions for this challenge as supporting healthy living is an important part of our DNA.
But first, what do we consider as healthy living and ageing? There was a very interesting finding by the Harvard Study of Adult Development (1), a longitudinal study that has tracked
the health and mental well-being of a group of 724 American men for 75 years (and still continues to track).The main outcome of the study was that good relationships keep us healthier and happier! Not wealth as many would think, but social
connections with family and friends. And we will see that this fact is
supported by many other studies.
In 2016, another research performed by the team of Dan Buettner (2) discovered five places in the world where people live the longest, healthiest lives (called “blue zones”) and studied the factors that
influence their quality of life and life expectancy. Those five regions were: Okinawa island (Japan); Sardinia island (Italy); Nicoya (Costa Rica); Icaria (Greece) and the Seventh-day Adventists community in Loma Linda, California.
The observation allowed to bring out nine lifestyle habits that
are common to all studied regions and largely explain why people there tend
to remain healthy and happy till and past age of 100 years old.
We will see that those rules are also supported by other various evidence.
- Move Naturally: This does not mean to have an intense physical activity, but rather moving regularly during your everyday activities. Creating a daily physical routine is the best way to maintain your health in good condition. The best example is walking. Just imagine: only 30 min of walk per day reduces the risk of ischemic stroke (3). The keyword here is regularity.
- Know your purpose: In Japan, there is a tradition, called “ikigai”, pushing people to find meaning in what they are doing. We have communicated about this concept some time ago – finding the ikigai means to find the purpose to wake up every day. In our complex world, knowing this can somehow help to feel less “lost”, and decreasing the everyday life stress.
- Slow down and learn to manage your stress: Stress is a complex issue that appears to be one of THE biggest issues of the 21st century and creates a lot of damage to our health, both psychological and physical (4).
In “blue zones” regions, researchers noticed that people manage to find ways to prevent or effectively deal with stress: meditation, sport, positive attitude, and friendly relationships. Follow this month’s healthy challenge on our social media to learn how to slow down in your daily life. Also, in one of our previous articles, we suggested movement as a good way to deal with stress – Stress prevention through movement, why and how? Perhaps an opportunity for you to adopt it to counter your daily stress? Eat wisely: “You are what you eat”, says a common proverb. The three following rules concern the nutrition habits were identified as essential to stay healthy longer: - Plant-based diet: “Blue zone” inhabitants prefer plants as a base for their diet. Plants contain (contrary to stereotypes) enough proteins for muscle mass build-up and maintenance, as well as many other elements to keep your body (and mind) in good condition. In studied regions, around 80 % of food comes from locally grown vegetables and cereals. Meat is consumed only rarely, for special occasions. And as the study has shown, this diet influence positively the quality of life and increases the life expectancy. In a previous article , we already wrote about what a diet rich in fibre and certain vitamins and minerals – such as a plant-based diet – can do for your oral health. Another study suggests that a shift toward a plant-based diet may confer protective effects against atherosclerosis(5).
- Good nutrition is also in the core of our company’s health vision, that we promote with our brand Kenkodojo®. Built on Japanese tradition and modern nutritional science, these foods and beverages combine the power of green vegetables and brown rice with a holistic program of physical exercise and mental relaxation techniques to help rebalance the mind and body.
- 80% rule or “Hara Hachi Bu”: Coming from Japan, the concept “Hara Hachi Bu” means “Eat until you are 80% full”. Which is very clever, considering that the brain takes about 20 min to understand that you are full, and if you eat too quickly, you might get a message from your brain 20 min after you have already overeaten. Moreover, several cross-sectional studies have shown that eating quickly is associated with overweight in children and adolescents (6). Eating slowly might also help you enjoy more your meal, which is essential as we will see in the next rule! Pleasure of eating
- Eating is not all about calories. Pleasure is also very important for healthy nutrition, as observed in the “blue zones”. Make the most out of it: drink some wine if you like it or eat a dessert! But conscientiously, enjoying it at 100%.
- If you want to know more about the impact of nutrition on the overall health, please check our article How does your diet impact on your overall health? Move Naturally: This does not mean to have an intense physical activity, but rather moving regularly during your everyday activities. Creating a daily physical routine is the best way to maintain your health in good condition. The best example is walking. Just imagine : only 30 min of walk per day reduces the risk of ischemic stroke (3). The keyword here is regularity.
- Know your purpose: In Japan, there is a tradition, called “ikigai”, pushing people to find a meaning in what they are doing. We have communicated about this concept some time ago – finding the ikigai means to find the purpose to wake up every day. In our complex world, knowing this can somehow help to feel less “lost”, and decreasing the everyday life stress.
- Slow down and learn to manage your stress> Stress is a complex issue that appears to be one of THE biggest issues of the 21st century and creates a lot of damage to our health, both psychological and physical (4).
In “blue zones” regions, researchers noticed that people manage to find ways to prevent or effectively deal with stress: meditation, sport, positive attitude, and friendly relationships. Follow this month’s healthy challenge on our social media to learn how to slow down in your daily life. Also, in one of our previous articles, we suggested movement as a good way to deal with stress – Stress prevention through movement, why and how? Perhaps an opportunity for you to adopt it to counter your daily stress? Eat wisely: “You are what you eat”, says a common proverb. The three following rules concern the nutrition habits were identified as essential to stay healthy longer: - Connect: Finally, it is not all about body and physical health. Your mind needs to be taken care of too. The Harvard Study of Adult Development (1) demonstrated that social connections and relationships are crucial to maintain good health, as also observed in the “blue zones” regions. Therefore, the final three rules of healthy living concern the intangible side of health, which reveals to be as important, if not even more, than the physical one.
- Family first: In all observed regions family represents a major life value: people support their elderly and take care of their children. The increased life expectancy because of this local tradition was explained in this study by the fact that strong and caring family relationships help to face daily issues. Life becomes less stressful if you know that someone is waiting for you at home and is caring about you.
- Belong: Faith reveals to be also an important pro-longevity factor, playing a role of mental support for objectives achievement. Religion and other beliefs always played an essential role in humanity development, allowing people to rely on something, even intangible, to accomplish their short- and long-term life objectives. And the “Blue Zones” population study proved that beliefs could become a good support for the improvement of life quality and expectancy.
- Connect with the right community: Finally, belonging to the “right tribe” is also crucial. There is evidence demonstrating that social networks play an important role in the promotion of health behaviours (7, 8, 9) In a sample of adults aged 18–70, one study demonstrated that a person’s chance of becoming obese increases 57% if a friend becomes obese, 40% if a sibling becomes obese, and 37% if a spouse becomes obese (9). Thereby, the lifestyle of your friends and close relationships has a major impact on your own! That might look obvious, people however often do not take this element into account when trying to understand the cause of their health problems.
To conclude, we just want to point out that it is all about little details implemented in your everyday life that will dramatically change your overall health and quality of life: move, eat wisely, do not worry too much and connect with your community.
Not always easy to adapt all of it, but the result is for sure worth it!
So, after reading this, what would be your next step to a healthier and happier life?
- Vaillant GE. Aging well: Surprising guideposts to a happier life from the landmark study of adult development. Hachette UK; 2008 Dec 14.
- Buettner D, Skemp S. Blue zones: lessons from the world’s longest lived. American journal of lifestyle medicine. 2016 Sep;10(5):318-21
- Zoeller R. Physical activity and fitness in the prevention of cardiovascular disease. InLifestyle Medicine, Third Edition 2019 Apr 17 (pp. 37-51). CRC Press.
- Wilson JL, Wright JV, Wright JV. Adrenal fatigue: The 21st century stress syndrome. Petaluma, CA: Smart Publications; 2001.
- Lea EJ, Crawford D, Worsley A. Public views of the benefits and barriers to the consumption of a plant-based diet. European journal of clinical nutrition. 2006 Jul;60(7):828-37.
- Ochiai H, Shirasawa T, Nanri H, Nishimura R, Hoshino H, Kokaze A. Relationship between eating quickly and overweight: a cohort study of schoolchildren in Japan. Acta Medica Okayama. 2018;72(2):121-8.
- Fowler JH, Christakis NA. Estimating peer effects on health in social networks: a response to Cohen‐Cole and Fletcher; and Trogdon, Nonnemaker, and Pais. J Health Econ 2008;27:1400–1405.
- Piko BF, Luszczynska A, Gibbons FX, Teközel M. A culture‐based study of personal and social influences of adolescent smoking. Eur J Public Health 2005;15:393–398
- Christakis NA, Fowler JH. The spread of obesity in a large social network over 32 years. N Engl J Med 2007;357:370–379.
