Blue Zone Secrets That Help You Stay Sharp and Active at Any Age
Nearly 100% of Blue Zone centenarians place a high priority on their faith—some attend church; others pray or give thanks. And Italian scientists say nurturing your spiritual side could add up to 14 years to your life and cut your risk of memory loss, heart disease and other ills by 43%. The sense of calm that faith provides activates nerves that keep blood pressure low and organs working at their peak.
Instead of trying to spread out your 'me time' evenly over the whole week, focus on one special day and carve out as much time as possible to relax and pamper yourself. That's what folks in the Blue Zone of Loma Linda, California, do, and a study in Biomedicines suggests weekly R&R could add up to 10 years to your life. A day filled with contentment produces a long-lasting drop in your body's production of the tissue-aging stress hormone cortisol.
Start each day by choosing a small, upbeat task to accomplish (like sending a cheery message to a friend), and you'll cut your risk of premature aging in half, Harvard research suggests. Experts found that waking up with a sense of purpose quashes cortisol release.
A strong immune system makes healthy aging easier since it helps you bounce back quickly from infections and destroys cancerous cells before they can grow and spread. To keep your immune system in fighting form, try what folks in the Blue Zone of Nicoya, Costa Rica, do: Nosh on sweet, juicy fruit every day. A Tufts University study found that anti-aging compounds in fruit (flavonoids) help keep immune cells energetic long past the age when they normally become a bit sluggish. And experts say enjoying two servings daily could add happy, illness-free years to your life.
Caring for plants stimulates the release of proteins that keep immune cells young and energetic, Finnish investigators report. Give your houseplants a little TLC every day, and you'll increase your immune system's ability to quickly trounce viruses and other invaders.
Drinking 4 oz. to 6 oz. of wine daily (red or white) could be your ticket to a long, healthy life free of memory lapses. Even the most elderly people living in Sardinia, Italy, enjoy a glass of wine daily, and Italian scientists say that's why they stay sharp into their 90s and beyond. It's also the reason rates of dementia and Alzheimer's disease are so low in this Blue Zone. Thanks goes to wine's brain-nourishing polyphenols.
Sneaking in a few Zzzs whenever you feel weary is a proven way to keep your memory sharp and your dementia risk low. So say SUNY Upstate scientists, who found that sleep is when your body's ability to repair and replace aging brain cells peaks.
Centenarians living in the Blue Zone of Ikaria, Greece, don't have treadmills or gym memberships. French experts say they stay in shape by puttering around their homes, yards and neighborhoods (they spend less than two hours daily sitting down!). Stand and stretch more often each day, and studies show you'll enjoy the same anti-aging benefits as Ikarian women do: strong muscles and the healthy bones of someone up to 12 years younger.
They're packed with minerals, healthy fats and protein essential for building and repairing muscles and bones. Enjoy a handful of nuts daily, and Australian scientists say you'll cut your risk of muscle loss and bone thinning by up to 40 percent.
In Okinawa, Japan, a moai is a group of friends who get together regularly to chat and support each other. Purdue University researchers found that the happiness surge that comes from spending time with treasured friends switches on anti-aging genes in the body, keeping arteries healthy, plaque-free and flexible. This dramatically reduces your risk of heart disease.
Scottish researchers say admiring joyful photos daily reduces your risk of heart troubles by as much as 44 percent by activating several genes that keep you young.
For more health news, keep scroling!
How to Improve Your Health and Mood Without Stepping Outside This Winter
U.S. Surgeon General Calls for Alcohol Warning Labels to Highlight Cancer Risks: How to Protect Your Health
It Comforts But Does It Heal? Here's the 411 on the Study-Backed Health Benefits of Chicken Soup
This content is not a substitute for professional medical advice or diagnosis. Always consult your physician before pursuing any treatment plan.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Axios
8 hours ago
- Axios
Gates Foundation pledges $2.5 billion for women's health research through 2030
The Gates Foundation is committing $2.5 billion to fund women's health research over the next five years. Why it matters: These projects, including several in the Boston area, aim to reduce the centuries-old gap in research to treat conditions that primarily affect women. Driving the news: Boston-area hospitals, universities and startups are getting funding, many in the millions, to advance women's health research. Tufts University will get funding to support maternal nutrition. Fenway Health will use its funding for data and advocacy around STIs. Several Harvard schools will use the funds to focus on maternal and vaginal microbiome, contraceptive technology and preeclampsia research. Zoom in: Comanche, a Concord-based biopharma startup, previously received funding from the Gates Foundation to help develop an RNA-based medicine for pre-term preeclampsia. Now the company is getting $3 million from the Gates Foundation to continue its research, says Rasa Izadnegahdar, the foundation's director of maternal, newborn, child nutrition & health. The foundation will help Comanche fund its work and expand its research outside the U.S., says Scott Johnson, Comanche's CEO and co-founder. Reality check: The Gates Foundation's funding may help get certain products to market faster or advance underrepresented areas of research, but much more support is needed to close the gender gap in medical research. What they're saying: "I don't think it even starts to scratch the surface of that," Izadnegahdar, tells Axios.
Fox News
13 hours ago
- Fox News
Alzheimer's researchers say targeting brain sugar could help protect against dementia
The brain has a hidden "sugar code" that could lead to better treatments for neurological diseases like Alzheimer's, according to new research. A study recently published in the journal Nature Metabolism found that breaking down glycogen (stored glucose) in the brain could reduce the buildup of toxic proteins linked to the common dementia. This was one of the first studies to show that glycogen may actively influence brain health and disease, according to lead author Dr. Pankaj Kapahi, a professor at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in California. "The study began with fruit flies (Drosophila) that were genetically modified to mimic tauopathy, a condition where a protein called tau builds up in the brain, similar to what happens in Alzheimer's disease," Kapahi told Fox News Digital. The flies used in the study were found to have brain damage and shortened lifespans, according to the researcher. To ensure that the results could translate to humans, the research team also studied nerve cells made in the lab from human patient cells carrying tau mutations, as well as postmortem brain samples from people who had Alzheimer's or related conditions, according to a press release. In both the fly and human models, the researchers found increased levels of glycogen (stored glucose) in the brain, as well as signs that glycogen breakdown was impaired, Kapahi told Fox News Digital. This was a surprising discovery, as researchers previously thought glycogen was mainly stored in the muscles and liver. They also found that the excess glycogen contributed to disease. The tau proteins in the scientists' models interacted with glycogen, blocking it from breaking down, and the nerves lost their ability to ward off cell damage. However, the researchers found they could decrease damage to the fruit flies and human nerves by boosting an enzyme called glycogen phosphorylase (GlyP), which breaks down glycogen. "The next step in the process may be mopping up potentially damaging free radicals roaming our brains." The nerve cells used the glycogen to fight against cell damage, suggesting that the enzymes responsible for breaking down sugar could be promising targets for future therapies. The researchers were also curious whether a restricted diet could improve the flies' brain health. When they reduced the amount of protein in the insects' diet, the flies indeed lived longer and their brain health improved. "We then discovered this improvement was linked to an increase in the breakdown of glycogen," Kapahi said. This led to the study's main finding — that breaking down glycogen in neurons can protect the brain from damage caused by tau buildup. The scientists also developed a drug using a special molecule called 8-Br-cAMP that replicated similar effects of dietary restriction, the press release noted. The authors clarified that they are not recommending low-protein diets just yet — but said this research could pave the way for dietary or drug-based strategies to help slow Alzheimer's and related diseases. Dr. Michael Okun, a Florida neurologist and medical advisor to the Parkinson's Foundation, was not involved in the study but commented on the significance of the findings. "Instead of funneling sugar into energy-burning processes, the broken-down glycogen seemed to be routed into an antioxidant-producing pathway," Okun, who is also author of "The Parkinson's Plan," told Fox News Digital. "The next step in the process may be mopping up potentially damaging free radicals roaming our brains," he said. Okun also confirmed that dietary restrictions activated a protective brain pathway and boosted the breakdown of brain sugar. "It ultimately reduced damage from the Alzheimer's-related tau protein," he said. The study — which was supported by the National Institutes of Health, as well as the American Federation of Aging Research and other sources — did have some limitations, the experts acknowledged. The researchers did not clarify whether breaking down brain glycogen could stop human brain cells from dying, Okun noted. "We still don't know if targeting glycogen breakdown will work in human patients — and most importantly, whether it will be a safe approach." "We don't yet know why glycogen builds up in disease, or whether it's a cause or a result of tau pathology — though our data suggest it may amplify disease progression," Kapahi added. The research was also conducted only on fly and human cell models and has not yet been tested on living humans. "We still don't know if targeting glycogen breakdown will work in human patients — and most importantly, whether it will be a safe approach," Okun said. Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia in the U.S., affects more than seven million people in the U.S., according to the Alzheimer's Association. For more Health articles, visit The neurological disorder affects memory, thinking and behavior. There is no cure for the disease, but some medications can temporarily slow progression and improve quality of life.
Boston Globe
2 days ago
- Boston Globe
‘Great news but a weird twist.' After the NIH moved to restore hundreds of grants, researchers remain in limbo.
Advertisement In New England, 63 of those grants, worth $126 million, are set to be restored, according to a Globe analysis based on the The grants were restored as the result of a lawsuit filed by the American Public Health Association and 16 state attorneys general arguing that the NIH improperly ended funding tied to topics like gender identity, health disparities, vaccine hesitancy, and DEI efforts. The judge in the case ruled in June that the terminations were 'illegal and void' and ordered the government to immediately make the funds available. The Trump administration has appealed the decision. Advertisement The grants are a fraction of the more than $3.1 billion in funding from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Health and Human Services that the Trump administration has canceled across New England. At a status hearing on the case Monday, attorneys representing the public health association said that more than 50 of its roughly 300 affected research grants across the country have not been reinstated, and that the NIH has not provided a timeline for when all grants will be restored. Researchers face other obstacles as well. At Harvard, virtually all federal funding remains frozen as part of the administration's broader assault on the university. Others face reduced staffing, due to layoffs, and shortened deadlines to complete their research. And funding at the federal level remains subject to sudden reversals, as shown Tuesday night when the White House In a statement Thursday, the NIH told the Globe it 'has been working to reinstate grants to comply with the court's order.' Scott Delaney, a Harvard scientist and co-creator of Grant Watch, said many researchers remain wary despite the win because of further appeals and reviews. 'Every indication is that NIH will continue to cut research on trans health and on DEI. They still remain hostile to broad bodies of research, and they continue to ask researchers to rewrite their grants to avoid certain topics,' said Delaney, who lost his own NIH funding and received a But many are pressing ahead despite the obstacles and hoping for the best. Advertisement Nancy Krieger, a professor of social epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, learned this month that her funding would be restored. She said that despite feeling vindicated by US District Court Judge William G. Young's ruling, she cannot access the funds due to the federal freeze on funds to Harvard. Since 2019, Krieger and her team have been working to measure the impact of six types of discrimination — including racism, sexism, and ageism — on health. The researchers enrolled 699 patients who completed two study questionnaires online and at three Boston community health centers — including Fenway Health, Mattapan Community Health Center, and Harvard Street Neighborhood Health Center in Dorchester — to test how discrimination contributes to psychological distress and sleep disorders. 'We can resume the work because we had completed all data collection and we were in the phase of data analysis and manuscript preparation,' Krieger said. 'Whether or not the funding ever truly gets reinstated for my grant — and I would like that it is — it's important, given the complexities, to make sure these things go from a court order to reality.' At Tufts, the school lost and then suddenly regained a pipeline for young talent, though several young scientists lost out in the process. The university hosts one of just 22 NIH-sponsored programs in the country that trains a diverse group of postdoctoral scholars in both research and teaching. The program, called the Institutional Research Career and Academic Development Award, or IRACDA, focuses on underrepresented groups. 'We were ramping up for another five years after earning highly competitive funding last fall,' said Mitch McVey, program director and professor of biology at Tufts. 'Then the new administration came in, and everything changed.' Advertisement When the NIH terminated funding, four incoming applicants had their offers rescinded just one day after receiving them. Marissa Maroni, 28, celebrated the news with her husband and prepared to move back to her home state. 'It felt like the right next step, personally and professionally,' said Maroni, who is finishing her PhD at the University of Pennsylvania. 'But just a day later, I got an email saying the program was canceled. It was incredibly disheartening.' The loss also affects Bunker Hill Community College, University of Massachusetts Boston, and Suffolk University, where IRACDA scholars like Maroni were slated to teach next year. McVey said Tufts might extend the offers again to the four applicants but, 'We're trying to balance the risk involved here, which would be that if the government wins the appeal, the funding will likely be terminated again. We don't want to put the scholars in a position where their job security is always in jeopardy, so we're trying to figure out how to best navigate this situation. It's not easy.' At Yale, nine NIH grants that were terminated are in the process of reinstatement. Four of those belong to John Pachankis, a Yale School of Public Health professor who has spent the past 20 years investigating why people in the LGBTQ+ community are at higher risk for depression, anxiety, and suicide. The sudden March terminations not only disrupted years of research but also halted the rollout of promising mental health interventions. One of Pachankis's halted trials aimed to train front-line mental health providers working at 90 LGBTQ+ community centers across 35 states in cognitive-behavioral therapy to treat depression, anxiety, and substance use. Advertisement 'Right before the funding termination, we learned that our trained mental health providers had started delivering our cognitive-behavioral therapy to over 4,000 LGBT people in just four months,' he said. The funding cut prevented them from studying the longer-term impact of the therapy and ways to sustain it in local communities. Restarting the work has been slow and resource-intensive, he said. It requires updating ethics approvals, reconvening data safety review boards, updating clinical trials registries, drafting now-overdue progress reports, and restarting trials enrollment while no longer having sufficient staff to do this work. 'The research infrastructure took years to build, was collapsed in a day, and will take months if not longer to rebuild,' Pachankis said. 'My confidence in future federal funding for this research remains shaken, but my team's commitment to asking and answering important scientific questions isn't going away.' Meanwhile, at Brown, Moitra is figuring out how to move forward with his research. Between 2022 and early 2024, he and his team recruited 240 LGBTQ+ participants, offering two counseling sessions to study the mental health impacts from the pandemic. After funding was pulled, Moitra said, they lost 40 participants' worth of data that had timed out after those participants received just one counseling session. Now that the grant has been reinstated, Moitra's team is left racing against the clock as the deadline for the funding to be used remains Aug. 31. The researchers are applying for a no-cost extension to allow them to complete the work without requesting additional funds. 'After five-plus months of uncertainty, we were moving on,' Moitra said. 'It's hard to scramble it all back together.' Advertisement Sarah Rahal can be reached at
