6It’s my birthday, the last healthy one of my life.
Or so The Blue Zones website tells me.
Blue Zones, if you’ve been missing out as I have for the past few years, are discrete populations that are known for unusual longevity, and especially for having an unusual number of centenarians. Dan Buettner is the author of a book by the same name and giver of TED Talks, and he led teams of scientists to study these populations and figure out what makes the people live so long. After traveling to Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Loma Linda, California; Nicoya, Costa Rica; and Ikaria, Greece, Buettner and his teams think they figured out the “secrets”. Of course, they aren’t so secret: eat healthy, plant-based diets and don’t overeat; make exercise a regular part of your life; have a good social support network; and have a purpose in life. Those are the four points highlighted in his TED talk; the book list a few more.
Anyhoo, the reason I’m bringing this up now, on my 51st birthday, is that three weeks ago I took the 12-question quiz on The Blue Zones website to see how many years of healthy living I had left. See, these really old people weren’t just still alive, but were also living healthy, active, vibrant lives. The quiz asked me questions about my health, diet, social network, etc. and predicted how many healthy years I’d live, how many years I’d live, and how many I’d live if I adopted their recommendations.
The upshot was that I was predicted to live 51 healthy years then decline into old age before finally wasting away at 96. Okay, their language might not have been so dramatic, but you get the idea. Needless to say, I wasn’t too excited to look forward to only another three healthy weeks. Today, now that that time is over, I’m wondering which system I can expect to fail first. I’m betting on my memory since that’s been showing signs of ditching me anyway. At least I won’t remember what it was like to have been young and active as I descend into decrepitude.
Before I forget, I want to say thank you for having been part of my wonderful journey up to this point.
Oh, to hell with it. What does the internet know anyway? It’s been a great ride, and I look forward to many more years of adventures. Happy birthday to me!
