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0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest Nov 07, 2009
The concept of the book The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest overwhelmed me. Especially as I have seen the documentary film in the National Geographis channel. I was eager to learn about more indepth reseach findings in the book and was little bit disappointed by the the book subtitle - the lessons for living longer. I estimate the research idea as excellent, but the resarch itself not deeply enough presented. I miss more medical informations, more quatations from the scientists, doctors. I also expected less 'american' writing style - instructions, instant councils what to do. Nevertheless, I love the idea, the crosscountry findings which are somehow universal for all the zones. I do recommend the book!
 Add Ten Years to Your Life: Give up meat and smoking; eat nuts; exercise; stay thin Oct 27, 2009
Let me first get past the one thing I find inexcusable In Dan Buettner's THE BLUE ZONES. I refer to the book's total absence of maps. The author writes at great length about places in the USA, Italy, Japan and Central America that I have never been near. The countries? Okay, I've been to three of them. But northwestern Sardinia? Hard to find longevity pockets on Okinawa? A part of Costa Rica only now being discovered by pioneering tourists? The closest I have been to Loma Linda, California is the LA airport on international flights to places like Viet-Nam. Is it too much to ask for four measly maps from an author who gives a page of credits to his photographers? Who scatters info sidebars like Johnny Appleseed's apple trees along the western trails? I think not.
There, that is out of the way.
As I write, Tuesday October 27, 2009, amazon.com carries 57 reader reviews of THE BLUE ZONES: LESSONS FOR LIVING FROM THE PEOPLE WHO'VE LIVED THE LONGEST. This is beyond doubt a popular book. Moreover, THE BLUE ZONES deserves not only popularity but respect. The author sets out to discover and then personally explore "blue zones," a handful of places on our globe where statistically improbable concentrations of people 100 years old live and have grown up into healthy, happy old age.
He might have contented himself with reading the available scientific and speculative writings on this subject. He might have, but he did not. Dan Buettner went hands-on into his four chosen blue zones. He also persuaded the National Geographic Society to pay for much of what he did. Buettner captured the interest of AARP. He persuaded busy doctors, statisticians, journalists, psychologists, linguists, gerontologists and others to go with him and work long days in generally out of the way places. He describes their teamwork enthusiastically. He cites their opinions at length. Don't be misled by its breezy, chatty mode of presentation. This is a serious book.
There is, be it admitted, a lot of speculation in it, usually presented as conversations with author Buettner or overheard by him. Here is an example. One of the Buettner teams spent weeks in Loma Linda, California among its very large concentration of health worshipping Seventh-day Adventist Christians. Their respected university and its research arm have studied Adventist health practices for decades. One ongoing project, AHS-2, covers 97,000 cases. That's breadth and rigor! Buettner called on two of the academicians behind the work: Drs Gary Fraser and Terry Butler. He then shared with us readers some of their reflections on AHS-1 and AHS-2 work to date in the form of a dialog between the two.
How many years will good health practices add to your life?
-- "First, vegetarian status will get you about two years,' Fraser said." ...
-- 'Second, we found that nut eaters also had a two-year advantage, which seemed to relate largely to heart disease.' ...
-- 'Third is being a smoker,' added Fraser. 'Or even a past smoker, as we found among the Adventists. If you have ever been a smoker, it has a moderately strong impact on lung cancer and some impact on heart disease.'
-- 'Fourth is physical activity,' he continued, 'which again accounted for an extra couple of years. ... most of this benefit comes from modest but regular physical activity. It really flattens out once you get to the marathoner level, which is not necessary for longevity.' ...
-- 'The fifth and final recommendation is to maintain fairly normal body weight.'" (pp. 132f).
Although grounded in published works as well as the hundreds of interviews by Buettner teams, the longevity wisdom presented throughout THE BLUE ZONES is often attractively and popularly packaged along the lines of the example above.
Everyone of the 57 amazon.com reader reviews is different. Each took something unique to himself from a first reading. I, too, learned three new Japanese phrases bearing on long life that will stay with me. I was also intrigued by the early history of Seventh-day Adventism in the United States. I resolved to read a good biography of Adventist prophetess Mrs Ellen G. White and of John Harvey Kellogg whom Mrs White put through medical school and then in charge of the hydrotherapy clinic she had founded in Battle Creek, Michigan in 1866. Coincidentally, my wife and I will be in two weeks at an Adventist conference center near Chattanooga where we can once again ply the staff with health and now longevity questions.
This is a very good book with something for everyone. The author did not set out to write yet another WEIGHTWATCHERS book or focus on diet. He wanted to meet real, living centenarians from around the world and find common denominators in why they had lived so long, purposefully and contentedly. Diet and exercise turned out to be part of the answer. But so were religion, love of family, sociability and a positive world view. Dan Buettner did not force his findings into a pre-conceived politically correct Procrustean bed. He came, he saw, he reported. Better than most people I have read who have made similar attempts. -OOO-
0 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Good Gift for Seniors Oct 02, 2009
This book was recommended to me by a friend that I trust. I have a number of friends who are reaching their 70's in the coming months and have decided it is the perfect gift for them.
2 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Not scientific at all- Let down Oct 02, 2009
This book reads more like a travel book than an actual social study of factors that may increase life span in people around the world. I really is not what I expected. There was so much data they could have shared but instead kept it superficial and full of assumptions. They keep mentioning they took blood samples from people but no comments are presented on any trends. The only thing I learned is that all of these people had low body mass index all during of their lives. Wine, yogurt, goat milk, olive oil were not a common factor at all in all cultures.
I say save your money.
0 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 Blue Zones fantastic book Sep 08, 2009
Blue Zones is a fantastic book, I could not put it down & when I finished it I read it again. It had a great mix of research info & endearing, stories & interviews with centurians in the Blue Zones. Plus it was full of good advice to help you live a long & healthy life from the folks who have done just that! What more could you want from one book?
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