In 2000, based on a WHO report that showed that Okinawans have the longest-disease free life expectancy in the world, explorer Dan Buettner led an expedition to the Japanese island.
A year later, with funding from the NIA and on assignment from National Geographic, he set out to find other longevity hot spots, and soon met Dr Giovanni Pes, who had identified an area in Sardinia with extraordinary longevity, and had coined the term 'Blue Zone' to describe it. Dr Pes had hypothesised that he would find a genetic variant supporting longevity in Sardinia, but instead found that close family and social bonds, daily physical activity and a plant-based diet seemed to be key to living a long life.
Buettner expanded the term Blue Zones into a concept – a method of identifying the world's longest-lived people and distilling their common denominators – and in addition to Okinawa, discovered three other areas where people live the longest: Nicoya, Costa Rica; Ikaria, Greece; and the Seventh-Day Adventist community in Loma Linda, California.
With a team of medical researchers, anthropologists and demographers, Buettner spent eight years studying these Blue Zone populations in an attempt to further discover why they lived so much longer – at least 12 years more than the 71-year global average – and were so much happier.
His work has earned him celebrity status in the wellness world. He's had a National Geographic cover story and written four best-selling books. Buettner gets over 300 requests for speaking engagements every year and most recently addressed spa professionals at the Global Wellness Summit in Italy (see p78).
He feels hotels – and by extension spas – are the perfect places to incorporate the lessons of these Blue Zones, by offering some recommendations of the lifestyle characteristics that have produced the world's longest-lived people. By doing this, they could make a real difference. He also says spas should be measuring the life expectancy of their clients as an "uber-measure of wellbeing".
So, what are the lessons? Buettner identified what he calls the 'Power 9' – shared lifestyle behaviours that keep people thriving to the age of 100. These include moderate regular physical activity in the form of natural movement, life purpose, moderate caloric intake, plant-heavy diets, stress reduction, moderate alcohol consumption, social engagement, a strong family life, and engagement in spirituality or religion.
On the back of this, Buettner founded the Blue Zone Projects, which takes lessons from Blue Zone regions and applies them to communities looking to improve the health and wellbeing of their residents. Blue Zone Project developers work with governments, employers, health insurance companies, schools, grocery stores, restaurants and engineers to help people naturally move more, eat wisely and connect with others.
Since 2010, the organisation has worked with 26 communities – from US states to cities – with impressive results. In Albert Lea, Minnesota, for instance, after five years, the smoking rate plummeted 17 per cent; the average BMI was down 15 per cent; stress was down 9 per cent; exercise was up 9 per cent; and life satisfaction was up 12 per cent.
Buettner has achieved these remarkable numbers by applying things he's seen in the Blue Zones. In Okinawa, for example, women are born with a moai – a committed social network of friends who support each other throughout their lives. With loneliness shaving eight years off life expectancy, these connections are vital for longevity. In Buettner's Blue Zone Projects, he creates 'moais' for residents around shared interests.
It's these small things that help change a community, along with larger ones, like creating pedestrian-friendly roads and riverfront parks where people can walk and see friends, or working with restaurants to create smaller portion sizes and offer fruit – rather than fries – as the default side item.
The key, says Buettner, is to focus on long-term system changes. "When it comes to longevity, there's no pill, there's no supplement, there's no magic serum that's going to reverse, stop or slow ageing," he explains. "The best shot is shifting the focus from trying to change people's behaviour to trying to change their environment."
In the US, Buettner reports that a staggering 84 per cent of all medical costs are explained by physical inactivity, food choices and portion size, tobacco and unmanaged stress – all preventable and changeable factors.
"For the first time in human history, people are not dying of overwork and hunger. In fact, over two-thirds of the world population will likely die from largely avoidable chronic disease brought on because we've engineered physical activity out of our lives, and we consume too many of the wrong kind of calories," says Buettner. "The key to improving world health – and living longer lives – is reshaping our environment to make the healthy choice the default for people everywhere."
Read more from this issue of Spa Business magazine
Interview: Thomas Klein
Senior living, family resorts and urban retreats are all on the cards for Canyon Ranch says COO and president Thomas Klein. Katie Barnes finds out more
Trends: Spa Foresight™ 2018/19
Spa Business’ predictions for the future include vegan spas, blue light antidotes, home wellness and plastic-free facilities
Interview: Dietmar Mueller-Elmau
The owner of Germany’s Schloss Elmau tells Spa Business why music, culture and spa feed the mind and soul
Promotional feature: Living Earth Crafts
Living Earth Crafts has distinguished itself with furniture for the spa industry that combines high design with seamless functionality. Brian Paris gives us insight into the company’s stylish new introductions
Event report: GWS 2018 - Bella vita
An Italian inspired Global Wellness Summit featured fashion, food, fitness and spa… and cameos from Hugh Jackman and Oprah Winfrey. Spa Business gives its highlights
Research: Growing up
Spa is the fastest growing sector of the US$4.2tn global wellness economy according to the latest GWI research
Event report: WTA Conference
What do wellness travellers want? And what issues need to be addressed as the wellness tourism sector grows? Anne Dimon reports from the inaugural meeting of the Wellness Tourism Association
Fitness: Inhale the future
Ashley Neese tells Spa Business about the possibilities of breathwork and opening up the practice to more people
In 2000, based on a WHO report that showed that Okinawans have the longest-disease free life expectancy in the world, explorer Dan Buettner led an expedition to the Japanese island.
A year later, with funding from the NIA and on assignment from National Geographic, he set out to find other longevity hot spots, and soon met Dr Giovanni Pes, who had identified an area in Sardinia with extraordinary longevity, and had coined the term 'Blue Zone' to describe it. Dr Pes had hypothesised that he would find a genetic variant supporting longevity in Sardinia, but instead found that close family and social bonds, daily physical activity and a plant-based diet seemed to be key to living a long life.
Buettner expanded the term Blue Zones into a concept – a method of identifying the world's longest-lived people and distilling their common denominators – and in addition to Okinawa, discovered three other areas where people live the longest: Nicoya, Costa Rica; Ikaria, Greece; and the Seventh-Day Adventist community in Loma Linda, California.
With a team of medical researchers, anthropologists and demographers, Buettner spent eight years studying these Blue Zone populations in an attempt to further discover why they lived so much longer – at least 12 years more than the 71-year global average – and were so much happier.
His work has earned him celebrity status in the wellness world. He's had a National Geographic cover story and written four best-selling books. Buettner gets over 300 requests for speaking engagements every year and most recently addressed spa professionals at the Global Wellness Summit in Italy (see p78).
He feels hotels – and by extension spas – are the perfect places to incorporate the lessons of these Blue Zones, by offering some recommendations of the lifestyle characteristics that have produced the world's longest-lived people. By doing this, they could make a real difference. He also says spas should be measuring the life expectancy of their clients as an "uber-measure of wellbeing".
So, what are the lessons? Buettner identified what he calls the 'Power 9' – shared lifestyle behaviours that keep people thriving to the age of 100. These include moderate regular physical activity in the form of natural movement, life purpose, moderate caloric intake, plant-heavy diets, stress reduction, moderate alcohol consumption, social engagement, a strong family life, and engagement in spirituality or religion.
On the back of this, Buettner founded the Blue Zone Projects, which takes lessons from Blue Zone regions and applies them to communities looking to improve the health and wellbeing of their residents. Blue Zone Project developers work with governments, employers, health insurance companies, schools, grocery stores, restaurants and engineers to help people naturally move more, eat wisely and connect with others.
Since 2010, the organisation has worked with 26 communities – from US states to cities – with impressive results. In Albert Lea, Minnesota, for instance, after five years, the smoking rate plummeted 17 per cent; the average BMI was down 15 per cent; stress was down 9 per cent; exercise was up 9 per cent; and life satisfaction was up 12 per cent.
Buettner has achieved these remarkable numbers by applying things he's seen in the Blue Zones. In Okinawa, for example, women are born with a moai – a committed social network of friends who support each other throughout their lives. With loneliness shaving eight years off life expectancy, these connections are vital for longevity. In Buettner's Blue Zone Projects, he creates 'moais' for residents around shared interests.
It's these small things that help change a community, along with larger ones, like creating pedestrian-friendly roads and riverfront parks where people can walk and see friends, or working with restaurants to create smaller portion sizes and offer fruit – rather than fries – as the default side item.
The key, says Buettner, is to focus on long-term system changes. "When it comes to longevity, there's no pill, there's no supplement, there's no magic serum that's going to reverse, stop or slow ageing," he explains. "The best shot is shifting the focus from trying to change people's behaviour to trying to change their environment."
In the US, Buettner reports that a staggering 84 per cent of all medical costs are explained by physical inactivity, food choices and portion size, tobacco and unmanaged stress – all preventable and changeable factors.
"For the first time in human history, people are not dying of overwork and hunger. In fact, over two-thirds of the world population will likely die from largely avoidable chronic disease brought on because we've engineered physical activity out of our lives, and we consume too many of the wrong kind of calories," says Buettner. "The key to improving world health – and living longer lives – is reshaping our environment to make the healthy choice the default for people everywhere."
Read more from this issue of Spa Business magazine
Interview: Thomas Klein
Senior living, family resorts and urban retreats are all on the cards for Canyon Ranch says COO and president Thomas Klein. Katie Barnes finds out more
Trends: Spa Foresight™ 2018/19
Spa Business’ predictions for the future include vegan spas, blue light antidotes, home wellness and plastic-free facilities
Interview: Dietmar Mueller-Elmau
The owner of Germany’s Schloss Elmau tells Spa Business why music, culture and spa feed the mind and soul
Promotional feature: Living Earth Crafts
Living Earth Crafts has distinguished itself with furniture for the spa industry that combines high design with seamless functionality. Brian Paris gives us insight into the company’s stylish new introductions
Event report: GWS 2018 - Bella vita
An Italian inspired Global Wellness Summit featured fashion, food, fitness and spa… and cameos from Hugh Jackman and Oprah Winfrey. Spa Business gives its highlights
Research: Growing up
Spa is the fastest growing sector of the US$4.2tn global wellness economy according to the latest GWI research
Event report: WTA Conference
What do wellness travellers want? And what issues need to be addressed as the wellness tourism sector grows? Anne Dimon reports from the inaugural meeting of the Wellness Tourism Association
Fitness: Inhale the future
Ashley Neese tells Spa Business about the possibilities of breathwork and opening up the practice to more people
A recent survey by the UK Spa Association (UKSA) into the industry’s approach to cancer care
has revealed that almost half of participating respondents (46 per cent) are unaware that
cancer is a disability and guests with a cancer diagnosis must be given
Mexican operator, Solmar Hotels and Resorts, is hosting a series of events in celebration of
Global Wellness Day, including a Temazcal ceremony at its Playa Grande Resort and Spa in Los
Cabos.
Mandarin Oriental has announced a standalone residence brand, Mansions, which will debut at
Emirates Palace, Mandarin Oriental Mansions, Abu Dhabi, in 2029.
Four Seasons Resort The Nam Hai in Hoi An, Vietnam, has put together a Global Wellness Day
(GWD) agenda with activations rooted in nature and shaped by four pillars of Joy – in
alignment with the day’s theme #JoyMagenta.
The Global Wellness Summit (GWS) will celebrate its 20th anniversary at the 2026 event in
Phuket, Thailand, later this year with the theme: The Science, Art and Soul of Wellness.
Auko, an all-inclusive development, is opening in Phong Nha in Vietnam in Q3 2026, with a
series of 30 tented eco-lodges and wellness hospitality operations by Lumina Wellbeing.
Therme Manchester’s 28-acre development, which will include interconnected glass pavilions
that measure 65,000sq m, will be the largest bathing and wellbeing attraction in the world once
complete, according to prof David Russell, CEO of Therme UK.
Naples Beach Club, a Four Seasons Resort, has opened a 2,800sq m spa called The Sanctuary,
with the design and concept inspired by the Native American people that populated Florida’s
Southwest coast – the Calusa.
