Nine Secrets to a Longer Life

I am not a frequent reader of “National Geographic Adventure” magazine. It tends to be a little over the top for my taste – adventure is healthy, but too often this magazine is talking about a safari to Africa, a guided hike to Machu Picchu, or a cruise in Alaska – all trips that cost in the range of $3,000 per person and up.

I fall squarely in the demographic of their readers, but I am not after one of these “once in a lifetime” excursions that are probably just that because of the cost. I’ll take my adventure a little bit at the time, like biting an apple, thank you very much. Besides, I’ve never been fond of that kind of touring, preferring to come and go as I please, based on research I’ve done ahead of time on my own.

…oh yeah, and just now, this bear strolled through my yard…here is a phone cam image, so look for the little black object (in some browsers, you can enlarge by clicking on the photo) – I was lucky to have the camera handy at all.

Back to my post, there was an interesting article in the magazine’s June/July edition, describing the travels of cyclist Dan Buettner to the places on earth where people tend to live longer than average, and there are high concentrations of long-lived people. He documents these areas in a book – they include Sardinia, Okinawa, Costa Rica, and Loma Linda, but his travels are taking him to the Greek Island of Ikaria this year.

Buettner summarizes nine tips – “secrets of long life from the world’s healthiest humans,” repeated below.

· Move: find ways to stay active
· Plan de vida: discover your purpose in life
· Downshift: take a break
· 80% rule: don’t overeat
· Plant power: choose greens (a dietary choice)
· Red wine: a glass a day
· Belong: stay social
· Beliefs: get ritualistic
· Your tribe: family matters

The article’s author, Josh Dean, summarized the book into these bullet points. Both the article, which presents the information Q&A/interview-style, and the book, goes into more detail about each of these items.

After the post last week about sustainable business rules (http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/2009/07/sustainable-business-strategy.html), this article seemed to make a nice bookend by talking about the individual, as opposed to the social or cultural group that one is part of – in that case, the workplace.

Here
is the link to the Buettner book.