175 - The Myth of the Blue Zones
Blue Zone communities eat vegan, practice faith, and attend garden parties, and it keeps them youthful into their nineties. But…what if Blue Zones were a lie?
For the last two decades Blue Zones have been hailed as medical paradises. These are pocket communities where faithful vegans can expect to see their hundredth birthday, and drinking wine every day keeps them young and spry. For twenty years these Blue Zone books and Blue Zone lifestyles have been touted on Ted Talks, Oprah, Netflix, and magazines. Except, what if the data behind the original Blue Zone studies were cherry-picked to promote one man’s self-help tour? What if Blue Zone living was the original grift health brand, and nobody bothered digging deeper?
On this episode, Todd and Joe talk about the author of the Blue Zones studies, Dan Buettner, and how his career as a celebrity fundraiser and lifestyle promoter may have influenced his choice to publish Blue Zones scientific paper. We’ll also review the work of other demographers, census takers, and scientists, who have attempted throughout the years to highlight the flaws in Buettner's work (and why many of his findings haven’t been replicated). Then we’ll take a look at actual lifespan scientists, whose work has been replicated successfully. This includes Steven Horvath, inventor of the Grim Age Prediction Model, which can take a sample of your blood and tell you how old you are and approximately how long you have left. We’ll also report on the diet and exercise routine that has been proven, in multiple laboratories and across various continents, to extend human lifespan, based on tracking human DNA methylation. AKA: science might have cracked the true secret to long life, and it has less to do with veganism or faith than you might think.
Original Blue Zones Publications:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff40YiMmVkU&ab_channel=TED-Ed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x66MMnJ7wYs&ab_channel=TruthIsLife7
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6125071/
Science Links:
https://slate.com/technology/2023/11/centenarian-blue-zone-health-long-life-netflix.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuQKXux8UlE&ab_channel=TEDxTalks
https://www.businessinsider.com/tips-tricks-longevity-expert-reduced-longevity-2023-10