Resources

Online Resources

Blue Zones.com: This site offers tips and educational tools meant to improve your healthy lifestyle.

AARP The Magazine, Living Healthy to 100: A remarkable group of centenarians living on Costa Rica's Nicoya Peninsula share their secrets.

AARP The Magazine, Find Purpose, Live Longer: Author Dan Buettner explores the methods of bringing purpose into your life and why this may increase your number of healthy years.

Longevity Calculator: Find out how many healthy years are in you and how many more you could gain.

Sights and Sounds, Secrets of Living Longer: This National Geographic site explores why some residents of Okinawa, Sardinia and Loma Linda, California live longer, healthier lives than just about anyone else on Earth.

International Longevity Center: This New York-based center works to advance the issues surrounding aging and educates people on how to live longer and healthier lives. It aims to help “maximize the benefits of today's age boom.”

Okinawan Centenarian Study: Since scientists first recognized that Okinawans live long and disease-free lives in greater percentage than probably anyone else in the world, attention has been focused on the Pacific archipelago. The Okinawan Centenarian Study, which began in 1975, tracks centenarians and older Okinawans. You can read about the study’s findings here.

Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging: Want to learn more about the nitty gritty details of nutrition and aging? Here’s a good place to start.

Red Wine and Cancer Prevention: This fact sheet from the National Cancer Institute offers scientific studies showing some of the benefits of red wine.

Related Articles

Buettner, Dan. The Secrets of Living Longer. National Geographic magazine (November 2005), 2-27.

Butler, Robert N. The inequality of longevity: Life expectancy gap widens between industrialized world and developing nations. Geriatrics (December 1999).

Fraser, Gary E. and David J. Shavlik. Ten Years of Life Is It a Matter of Choice? Archives of Internal Medicine (July 9, 2001), 1645-52.

Haber, Carole. Life Extension and History: The Continual Search for the Fountain of Youth. The Journals of Gerontology: Series A (June 2004), B515-22.

How To Live To Be 100: New research suggests that a long life is no accident. So what are the secrets of the world's centenarians? Time (August 30, 2004), 40.

Musick, Marc A., James S. House, and David R. Williams. Attendance at Religious Services and Mortality in a National Sample. Journal of Health and Social Behavior (June 2004), 198.

Nagourney, Eric. A Cardiovascular Argument For Eating Whole Grains. New York Times, May 15, 2007, F7.

Olshansky, S. Jay, Douglas Passaro, Ronald Hershow, et al. Peering into the Future of American Longevity, Discovery Medicine (April 2005), 130-134.

Poulain, Michel, Gianni Pes, C. Grasland, C. Carru, L Ferrucci, G. Baggio, C. Franceschi, and L. Deiana. Identification of a geographic area characterized by extreme longevity in the Sardinia island: the AKEA study. Experimental Gerontology (September 2004), 1423-9.

Suzuki, Makoto, Bradley J Wilcox, Craig D Wilcox. Implications from and for Food Cultures for Cardiovascular Disease: Longevity. 
Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition (June 2001), 165–171.

Wade, Nicholas. Gene links longevity and diet, scientists say. New York Times, May 3, 2007, A20.

Willcox, D. Craig, Bradley J. Willcox, Wen-Chi Hsueh, and Makoto Suzuki. Genetic Determinants of Exceptional Human Longevity: Insights from the Okinawa Centenarian Study. Age (December 2006), 28: 313-332.

Willcox, D. Craig, Bradley J. Willcox, S. Shimajiri, S. Kurechi, and M. Suzuki. Aging Gracefully: A Retrospective Analysis of Functional Status in Okinawan Centenarians. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry (March 2007), 252-6.

Related Books

Buettner, Dan. The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest. National Geographic Society, 2008.

In this National Geographic book, Dan relates what he and his team of scientists and writers found when they explored four areas of the world where people reach 100—and stay healthy—at higher rates than anywhere else.

Corder, Roger. The Red Wine Diet. Avery, 2007

What’s all the buzz about the health benefits of red wine? This book by Roger Corder, professor of experimental therapeutics, describes the health benefits of procyanidin, which is found in a number of foods, including the red wine locals drink in Sardinia.

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life. Basic Books, 1997.
This book aims to help you find a “flow” in your life and relates to finding purpose.

Fraser, Gary E. Diet, Life Expectancy, and Chronic Disease: Studies of Seventh-day Adventists and Other Vegetarians. Oxford University Press, 2003.
If you wonder about what the Seventh-day Adventists do that you could incorporate into your life, take a look at this scientific study of their habits. It’s chock full of data.

Koenig, Harold. Is Religion Good for Your Health?: The Effects of Religion on Physical and Mental Health. The Haworth Pastoral Press.
Harold Koenig analyzes how faith and religion interrelate with health.

Willcox, Bradley J., D. Craig Willcox, and Makoto Suzuki. The Okinawa Program: How the World’s Longest-Lived People Achieve Everlasting Health – and How You Can Too. Clarkson Potter, 2001.
What is it about Okinawa—the first recognized “Blue Zone”? This book details the dietary and cultural habits of Okinawans and the lessons that can be learned from them.