Blue Zone Scam

[Gyakuto]

It isn’t behaviours, diet or genes…it’s down to poor record keeping!

Supercentenarian and remarkable age records exhibit patterns indicative of clerical errors and pension fraud

The observation of individuals attaining remarkable ages, and their concentration into geographic sub-regions or ‘blue zones’, has generated considerable scientific interest. Proposed drivers of remarkable longevity include high vegetable intake, strong social connections, and genetic markers...

www.biorxiv.org

‘The data on extreme human ageing is rotten from the inside out’ – Ig Nobel winner Saul Justin Newman

Saul Newman’s research suggests that we’re completely mistaken about how long humans live for.

theconversation.com

The “Blue Zones” have long been considered the holy grail of longevity — geographic areas where people appear healthier and live significantly longer lives.​

But now, a Nobel Prize winner suggests that the regions might be too good to be true.​

New research suggests that the longer lifespans found in Blue Zones are not due to healthy behaviors but to birth certificate fraud and poor census management. ​

The shocking discovery was made by Saul Justin Newman, an Ig Nobel Prize winner and senior research fellow at the University College London Centre for Longitudinal Studies.​

Newman was able to track down 80 percent of every person on record aged 110 or older. Instead of learning their healthy living secrets, he found something much more shocking, as outlined in this fascinating article. These “longevity hot spots” were created by poor record-keeping.​

Of those, almost none have a birth certificate. In the US there are over 500 of these (110 year-old) people; seven have a birth certificate. Even worse, only about 10% have a death certificate.​

The epitome of this is blue zones, which are regions where people supposedly reach age 100 at a remarkable rate. For almost 20 years, they have been marketed to the public. They’re the subject of tons of scientific work, a popular Netflix documentary, tons of cookbooks about things like the Mediterranean diet, and so on.​

Okinawa in Japan is one of these zones. There was a Japanese government review in 2010, which found that 82% of the people aged over 100 in Japan turned out to be dead. The secret to living to 110 was, don’t register your death.​

The Japanese government has run one of the largest nutritional surveys in the world, dating back to 1975. From then until now, Okinawa has had the worst health in Japan. They’ve eaten the least vegetables; they’ve been extremely heavy drinkers.​

And it’s not just in Japan. In Greece, another Blue Zone, Newman found that 72 percent of centenarians were dead, missing, or part of pension fraud.​

We’ve often warned about magic pills for longevity, but even we didn’t see this coming.​

Does that mean all findings about the Blue Zones are worthless? Not exactly.​

Many of the traits linked to Blue Zones — such as moving more, social connection, having a purpose, eating more plants, and stressing less — are supported by additional studies and are very likely to support better health and longevity.​

 

[Bill Mattocks]

I think the secret is there is no secret. Eating and being healthy is better than not. Moving is better than being sedentary. Random chance and genetics play a large part. You live and then you die. That's all. I take Metformin and buy lottery tickets.

 

[Gyakuto]

I think the secret is there is no secret. Eating and being healthy is better than not. Moving is better than being sedentary. Random chance and genetics play a large part. You live and then you die. That's all. I take Metformin and buy lottery tickets.

You know, it’s like Schopenhauer never died!