Scientists have compiled a list of the secrets of longevity

• Scientists compiled a list of the secrets of longevity

Live happily ever after - who does not want that? Scientists have analyzed the features of the lives of those who celebrated the three-digit anniversary, and made a list of recommendations that may help others!

"Blue Zone" - this regions of the world where people live longer than in other places. In these areas there are 80-, 90- and centenarian people, and some crossed the milestone of 110 years.

These regions are named in honor of the Belgian demographer Michel Poulain and Italian doctor Gianni Pesa, who opened the first "blue zone" in Barbale in Sardinia and mark it in blue on the map. Later, the American researcher Dan Bettner found four Okinawa (Japan), Ikaria (Greece), Loma Linda (USA, California), Nicoya Peninsula (Costa Rica). In each - a lot of long-lived, and all of these areas have their own unique features. For example, on Sardinia's most centenarians, Costa Rica is the second largest in Okinawa - a lot of female centenarians on the island of Ikaria in the Aegean long live literally everything, but still almost not affected by senile dementia. A Loma Linda - the birthplace of the commune for the Seventh-day Adventist Church, whose life expectancy is 10 years longer than in the United States as a whole.

What is their secret? The whole team of specialists - doctors, anthropologists, demographers, nutritionists, epidemiologists - under the leadership of Bettnera few years to explore these "blue zones". They managed to allocate as much as 9 factors that influence life expectancy:

1. Intensive regular physical activity in the performance of daily activities. The concept of a sedentary lifestyle unknown to them.
2. "ikigai" - the Japanese word for a personal "reason to live" for each person. Something for which we wake up in the morning.
3. The low level of stress - a factor that is relevant to the majority of diseases of advanced age. Reduce stress - is to cease to worry over trifles, and to participate in the ceremonies of the "blue zones": to pray with the Adventists to participate in a tea ceremony with women in Okinawa, etc.

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4. "Hara hachi bu" - Confucian doctrine, which means that we should not have to complete saturation, enough to satisfy the hunger of 80%.
5. The priority of fruits and vegetables in the diet. You can eat meat and fish, but little by little.
6. A small amount of alcohol. This is indirectly supported by studies that those who drink alcohol in modest quantities, live longer than teetotalers.
7. Participation in social groups, helping to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
8. Participation in religious communities with common spiritual practices.
9. Build and maintain strong relationships with family members: parents, brothers, sisters, etc.

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10. All of these factors can be reduced to two: healthy lifestyle (in a broad sense - food without eating and drinking, exercise, distraction from everyday stress) and the staff (other than personal use, there are common goals to be pursued).

Of course, life expectancy is influenced by other factors, including genetics. And it is unlikely many will want to join a religious sect that - maybe! - live a little longer. But in general, these recommendations are certainly useful, even here and now, not there and then!