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The Secret to Longevity: The Blue Zones

“Can we live longer?” has been a frequently-asked question. I mean who doesn’t want to live as long as possible! It has been long considered a myth that genetics is the main cause of longevity and thus, this motivates us to search for proven solutions to increase our longevity. Over here, we would like to share with you a proven secret to longevity that you may not know about: The Blue Zones.

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Image 1: Location of Blue Zone Cities, Adapted from World Economic Forum (left) and Power 9® Chart, Adapted from bluezones.com (right)

The Blue Zones

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“The Blue Zone” refers to the five cities stated in the map above that are known to have a population with a much higher life expectancy than any other city, and house the most number of centenarians (people who live till 100). Through studying these five cities, it was discovered that there are 9 key principles that all of the people living in the 5 Blue Zones follow. These 9 principles are called the Power 9®. Based on these principles, a 3-minute vitality test was created. This test will calculate your life expectancy based on your current lifestyle habits and recommends what are the lifestyle changes that need to be made based on the principles stated above.

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Since the focus of the blog is on heart aging, we shall be focusing on the principles under 'Eat Wisely', namely 'Wine at 5' and 'Plant Slant', and why they are so important for us to live healthier.

Sources of TMAO

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in this interview above, Dr. Steven Gundry talks about why people in the blue zones live longer and healthier lives. Most of his interview is centered around a very important idea about a chemical named trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO). When we consume meat (in particular red meat), the bacteria in our stomach (that aid the digestion of proteins) will break down specific nutrients (eg. choline, lecithin and carnitine) that are abundantly found in animal protein, to form trimethylamine (TMA) which will be converted to TMAO. 

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Created using Flaticon & Microsoft PPT

What happens when there’s too much TMAO?

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Created using Flaticon & Microsoft PPT

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Created using Flaticon & Microsoft PPT

Normally, excess TMAO is removed by the kidneys before it can do the body any harm but when the level of TMAO in the body is too high, it can accumulate in the blood vessels and cause cholesterol to be deposited on the inner arterial wall faster than it is being removed. Thus, large quantities of TMAO can promote atherosclerosis (hardening of the inner arterial wall) which can lead to high blood pressure and other complications associated with heart disease.

What can we do to reduce TMAO?

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Studies on the people living in the blue zones showed that they have very little to no amounts of TMAO in their bodies. There are two big reasons for this and they are  'Wine at 5' and 'Plant Slant', two of the Power 9®.

“Wine at 5” Principle

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Firstly, 'Wine at 5' essentially focuses on the moderate but regular consumption of alcohol (about 1-2 glasses a day). While the Adventists in Loma Linda, California do not drink any alcohol, they instead consume a lot of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Now, what do red wine, olive oil and balsamic vinegar have in common that enables these people to stay so healthy? All three foods amongst others contain a chemical called 3,3-dimethyl-1-butanol (DMB).

Created using Flaticon & Microsoft PPT

DMB prevents the enzymes produced by the bacteria in the stomach from breaking down nutrients found in red meat into TMA. Lesser TMA means lesser TMAO. Thus, resulting in low TMAO levels in the blood. Clinical studies in mice with previous heart failure have shown that DMB can not only reduce TMAO levels but also improve cardiac function and reduce cardiac hypertrophy (abnormal enlargement of the heart muscle) amongst other effects which are important to reduce the aging of the heart muscle.

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Created using Flaticon & Microsoft PPT

"Plant Slate" Principle

Studies were also conducted on vegans where they were fed animal meat to see if they would produce TMAO and it turns out, they did not. This means that like vegans, people in the Blue Zones have a different kind of stomach bacteria that has been accustomed to a diet that contains very little animal protein. This is based on the principle ‘Plant Slant’ where the majority of their diet consists of mainly plant-based food. Meat is only consumed occasionally and very little fat is present in their diet, only coming from non-meat protein sources like cheese. This principle is constantly followed despite each Blue Zone community eating different types of grains, vegetables or proteins.

Thus, from knowing what the people living in Blue Zones eat, can we adapt this diet to help us eat more healthily? Recipes of different dishes consumed by people in the Blue Zone were created by Dan Buettner in a book called “The Blue Zones Kitchen”. As seen in the video, different families were asked to consume such diets by following the recipes for several months. At the end, the results were very promising as all of them have reduced in weight and their cholesterol levels have dropped significantly. Other studies also showed that switching to the Blue Zone diet would lead to a reduction in TMAO levels in people who ate large quantities of meat. 

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So what are you waiting for? Let’s adapt the Blue Zone way of living in an attempt to live longer and healthier! To learn more about the Blue Zones project, head over to www.bluezones.com and who knows, maybe we can live to a 100 too!

References

Written by: Gautum Vasnani 

Edited by: Ying Hui and Christy Liam 

Diagrams by: Christy Liam

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