Fit and tanned, National Geographic explorer Dan Buettner has spent recent years traveling the globe, analyzing cultures where people live long, healthy lives, teasing out the secrets behind their enduring well-being.
He has christened these longevity hot spots "Blue Zones," and has written a book about them, The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest (National Geographic, 2008). They include Sardinia, Italy, and Hojancha, Costa Rica, and he is just back from the isolated Greek island of Ikaria, where people nap often and enjoy regular festivals -- sometimes five in one week.
Buettner and his colleagues now are taking what they've learned from these bucolic locations to the cozy Midwestern town of Albert Lea, Minn. The aim of non-profit organization AARP, sponsor of the project with Buettner's guidance, was to help the residents there "live longer, better," as the Vitality Project's tagline espouses.
The project's strategies are simple: eat more fruits and vegetables, walk instead of drive, stay productive and social well into old age, and seek inner fulfillment -- things we all know will improve our quality of life, but we don't always do, he says.
"Optimizing where you spend most of your day, minimizing the opportunity to eat unhealthy food, and helping people find meaning and purpose is tied to healthier, longer living," he says.
Albert Lea, a town of 18,000, is typical. Its rates of heart disease, obesity and diabetes rank right up there with other average American towns. For instance, about 40% of the town's residents are overweight, and close to 30% have hypertension.
Vitality Project organizers invited a number of "typical" American towns to apply for the chance to participate in the longevity experiment, and Albert Lea was chosen because its residents were most motivated to change. "Albert Lea's leaders handed in a proposal as thick as Akron, Ohio's phone book," Buettner says.
The Albert Lea High School gym was packed with 1,300 town residents a few weeks ago when the project officially launched, Buettner says. "We had a sea of people, all ages."
The six-month-long undertaking focuses on revitalizing four areas of the lives of Albert Lea's residents, including:
*Community environment. Creating more bike paths, garden plots, a new farmers market.
*Social groups. Forming walking, biking clubs.
*Home and work habitats. Revamping school and business cafeterias, grocery stores and restaurants.
*Building the inner self. Motivational seminars.
With help from the city's civic leaders, so far 20% of residents have signed on, double Buettner's aim of 10% participation.
Albert Lea's city manager, Victoria Simonsen, says she and other local leaders decided to apply at a time when their town needed a pick-me-up.
"We were in the depths of the recession and this was a positive initiative I could offer our community," Simonsen says.
The "walking school bus" has been a hit. Every day, backpack-laden kids, local seniors and stay-at-home moms and dads head to school together.
"It's very much like you would do a carpool, except it's walking," says Jean Jordan, principal of Lakeview Elementary.
Aging well
Buettner is adamant that people are much more in control of their health than they realize and says research suggests only about 20% of our longevity is linked to genetics, while 80% is environmentally influenced.
Thomas Perls, director of the New England Centenarian Study at Boston University Medical Center, agrees. "How well we age is really related to our behaviors. Dan's grasped that. You really want to embolden people and help them realize that how much and how well they age is in their hands."
Wanda Rossi, deputy director for the division of geriatrics and clinical gerontology at the National Institute on Aging, applauds the positive steps underway in Albert Lea, but says it's still unclear how much weight genes vs. environmental factors carry when it comes to extending years and the quality of them.
"We know from research that there is an exceptional group of people surviving to very old ages and who, for some reason, just don't get the major debilitating diseases. We really want to understand what makes these people live so well," Rossi says.
The institute will soon finish its Long Life Family Study, which is looking at 800 families whose members tend to live exceptionally long, healthy lives.
Albert Lea is being encouraged to overhaul its eating routines. Restaurant owners and managers recently sat in on a seminar that promoted improved menus. Families are adopting new kitchen tips to help cut calories, such as serving food from the stovetop instead of at the table, where second helpings are easy to grab.
They're keeping more "longevity" foods on hand, including sweet potatoes, beans, nuts, blueberries and tea -- foods consumed regularly in Blue Zones, says Brian Wansink, Cornell behavioral psychologist and Vitality Project food expert.
Colleen Zeiman, 60, and her husband, Roger, babysit granddaughter Bailey, 11, two nights a week.
"We often get fast-food burgers, but last time we agreed to cook something healthier at home," Zeiman says. The three-generation family also shares a community garden plot and attended a "finding purpose" seminar recently.
Walking the walk
Local schools and businesses are jumping on the bandwagon. AARP's Nancy Graham, editor of AARP magazine, says one of the town's biggest employers, manufacturer Lou-Rich, plans to build an indoor walking path in its building.
Buettner is asking townspeople to get involved by becoming team leaders so the new initiatives will stick. Stay-at-home dad and computer consultant Jeshua Erickson, 33, jumped at the chance to join the "Walkability" committee. It appealed to him, a runner, and his wife, Jennifer, a high school teacher who walks a mile and a half to work every day.
"At first, the kids she teaches were a little freaked out by that. ... Until now, if you saw someone walking around here, everybody thought they had gotten a DWI and lost their license," Erickson says.
Erickson likes the daily e-mail reminder to eat his fruits and vegetables, too.
"At first I thought it would annoy me, but it helps when I've slacked off."
The real question is, when Buettner departs town in October, will the curtain fall on Albert Lea's longevity efforts, or will there be a resounding encore that carries everyone well into their golden years?
Elementary school PE teacher Tom Dyrdal says he plans to continue his newfound Blue Zones habits into next year, at least. "It's really a worthwhile project."
Contributing: Erin Thompson
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