Quest for Longevity Gets Serious (and a good website)

Why do some people live longer than others? That's an interesting question and clicking on the longevity tag will bring up several postings on the topic.

But why do certain parts of the world have people that live unusually long? Now that's a very interesting question. To study that BlueZones.com was created:

An ongoing project that is part of Quest Network, Inc.—co-funded by the National Institute on Aging and National Geographic—Blue Zones studies the world’s longest-lived populations for information and lifestyle characteristics that can help people live longer, better lives.

Okinawa is a blue zone as is Sardinia:

In the highlands of Sardinia there is a cluster of villages where people enjoy extraordinary longevity, where people have lived to 100 years at a rate more than twice the average for the rest of Italy, and where residents suffer a fraction of the diseases that commonly kill people in other parts of the developed world. Scientists have named this region the Blue Zone. Inspired by these mountainous villages, our project "Blue Zones" seeks to understand and promote healthy longevity by formulating a cross-cultural recipe of the world's best health and lifestyle practices.

Blue Zones empowers people to live longer, better lives by exploring the four regions of the world where people live the longest, healthiest lives. Each year, we journey to a new region to unlock the secrets of longevity and identify common factors in lifestyles, diet, outlook and stress-coping mechanisms of the world's oldest and healthiest people. Our interactive quests are led by an award-winning team of experts and are accompanied by lifestyle management tools that facilitate our audience members in achieving their personal Blue Zone.

For the record, the people of Loma Linda have already figured out how to create a Blue Zone.