By DAN BUETTNER, founder, BlueZones.com
NICOYA, Costa Rica, Feb. 2, 2007
If you like a mystery, you're going to love this.
In
2005, Dr. Luis Rosero-Bixby, a Costa Rican demographer trained in the
United States, presented a paper at an international conference
claiming to have discovered that 60-year-old Costa Ricans have the
longest life expectancy of anyone in the world. In other words, if you
are middle aged and live in Costa Rica, you are more likely to reach,
say, a healthy age 90 than your counterparts worldwide.
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The
academics at the conference did not believe Rosero-Bixby. After all,
Central America is still considered "Third World," a place of poverty,
tropical disease, and, during the 1990s, terrible wars. How could the
people here live longer than "First World" countries like those in
Europe and the United States?
Centenarians and Census Records
In
August, thanks to a grant from National Geographic and Allianz Life, I
traveled with a world-renowned longevity expert, Dr. Michel Poulain, to
meet Rosero-Bixby and examine his data. We interviewed
90-to-100-year-olds to verify their ages, and then doubled-checked in
the archives (Costa Rica has an excellent record-keeping system that
has recorded everyone born since 1888) to make sure our subjects
weren't lying or misguided about their dates of birth.
We found
that not only was Rosero-Bixby's data accurate, but in looking at it
more closely we noticed something extraordinary -- a Blue Zone: In
northwestern Costa Rica, residents live even longer than people in the
rest of the country.
This area -- the Nicoya Peninsula -- is
about 70 miles long and 30 miles wide. Surfer beaches and upscale
resorts hem the peninsula's western edge. But inland, forest-covered
hills and cow pastures blanket most of the terrain.
For the
75,000 or so people who live here, life proceeds much the way as it has
for hundreds of years. Nicoyans make their living as small farmers,
laborers or sabaneros -- cowboys who work the area's huge cattle
ranches. Judging by the dusty villages where neighbors hang out on
porches, or the rural homes where women still cook on ancient
wood-burning stoves, you'd never guess that the Nicoya is the
longest-life place in the Americas.
We've recruited a world-class team of scientists and media to unravel the mystery as to why people here are living so long.
Genetics vs. Lifestyle
Scientists
generally agree that less than 25 percent of how long we live is
dictated by genetics -- how long our parents and grandparents lived.
The other 75 percent or so is determined by our lifestyle -- our habits
day-in and day-out. Over the next three weeks, our team will be
carefully examining the culture of Nicoya, searching for clues in their
habits and behaviors that may explain how long they live.
So
here's your briefing. We've already uncovered several leads. For
example, we know that Nicoya is the driest part of Costa Rica, that it
used to be part of Nicaragua, and that more Indians intermarried with
the Spanish who began settling here in 1510.
We know that the
diet here is different than that of the rest of the country, and that
the character of the people here is unique in the world.
Finally, we know that there is literally something in the water.
All
in all, we have about 20 clues that we're going to pursue. Each day,
we'll search for new evidence. The secret of longevity is not a magic
pill or supplement, it's an a la carte menu. Over the next couple of
weeks, we will hope to identify some of the entrees…
Live Large,
Dan Buettner
NOTE:
Dan Buettner is a writer, adventurer and entrepreneur who is working to
identify 'longevity Blue Zones' -- places in the world where people
live longer, and in better health, than most of the population around
them.
His goal: to understand what in these people's lifestyles
protects them against the diseases of old age, so that others may learn
from them.
We reported on his work as he was preparing to leave
with a team of scientists to go to Costa Rica, and invited him to tell
us what he was finding.
Dan Buettner has written for National Geographic, and is posting more details at http://www.bluezones.com.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/LivingLonger/story?id=2843049&page=1