The Blue Zone Nine and the Word of God
Often, when I pray for people, I will pray a blessing over them that they will live to be 120 with good health and a sound mind. According to the Bible, Moses lived to be 120, and “his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone” (Deut. 34:7). God said that “...his days (mankind’s lifespan) would be one hundred and twenty years” (Gen. 6:3). When I pray this prayer of a 120 year-long life in good health and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7), the response is often that they’re not sure that they want to live that long, usually do to an expected chronic disease affecting the physical body (such as a stroke) or a chronic mind and brain problem (such as dementia or Alzheimer’s). They don’t want to go to nursing homes. I get all that; I don’t want that either. But that was not my prayer for them.
Dan Buettner, a National Geographic Fellow, and New York Times-bestselling author, has co-authored a documentary and a book called “The Blue Zones.” In the blue zone study, five geographic areas on earth were identified where people tend to have long life spans in good health. Typically living to be over 100 and with their mental faculties intact. These five areas were the Nicoyan peninsula of Costa Rica, the Japanese island of Okinawa, the Greek island of Icaria, the Italian island of Sardinia, and the Seventh Day Adventist city of Loma Linda, California. Dan and his colleagues studied the lifestyles of these people - in all five blue zones - to try to find the common denominators among all five groups that might be universally applicable for all people to be able to live a long and healthy life.
In future blog entries, I will discuss “the blue zone nine” as the authors of this study came to affectionately call these nine long-life attributes. I will also point out the strong correlations between the blue zone behaviors and principles found in the Word of God, the Bible.
