How does Dan Buettner stay healthy? For one thing, his job keeps him busy writing and speaking about longevity hot spots.

Buettner, 52, is author of The Blue Zones: 9 Lessons for Living Longer from the People Whove Lived the Longest ($14.95, National Geographic).

It is a one of several books he has written about people whose lifestyles and locales blue zones have kept them alive and kicking longer than most of us.

The essentials of what hes saying are at bluezones.com, the online component of what has become a mini-industry and a mission for Minneapolis-based Buettner. In an interview, he talked about:

What prompted his research: Its a scientific approach to longevity, knowing that only about 20 percent of how long you live is genes; the other 80 percent is lifestyle.

The National Geographics Expeditions Council and the National Institute of Aging wanted me to learn about demographically-confirmed areas where these (long-living) people are. It was a three-year, half-million-dollar project to statistically identify them through birth and death records, etc. Once these pockets of people are identified, you can reverse-engineer the long-life formula, and thats what we set out to do.

It was kind of an uber-assignment for me to research and write.

The point I try to make is that theres no silver bullet no magical vegetable or supplement. We found it was a swarm of silver buckshot that adds up to extraordinary longevity in five places.

The long-living places: There are five places. For women, its the main island of Okinawa, Japan. For men, its the Nuoro highlands of Sardinia. For the best chance of reaching 90 or 95, its the Nicoya Peninsula of Costa Rica. The longest-living Americans are Seventh-day Adventists who are concentrated around Loma Linda, Calif., and the strictest Adventists live about 10 years longer than their counterparts.

The final blue zone is Ikaria, Greece (an island in the Aegean Sea). It is not only among the places for people who live longest, but theres hardly any dementia there. The team that followed up on my work surveyed people there who were

Read more from the original source:
The world's places for longevity