Latest / Single Payer Health Care / Single Payer Radio Blue Zones Dr. Don Henderson 07-15-2026

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Single Payer Radio Blue Zones Dr. Don Henderson 07-15-2026 · Single Payer Health Care

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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Single Payer Radio. I'm Paul Hoppey,
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1:02
And remember, this is an all volunteer radio station and
1:05
relies on your ideas and donations to keep us on
1:07
the air. For today's show, I'd like to take a
1:10
moment to remind you that on November fifth, we're going
1:13
to have what may be the most consequential election in
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our lifetime. It could very well be that the survival
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of our democracy's at stake. So be prepared to vote
1:24
and encourage others to do the same. Once again, doctors
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Mike Flynn and Gene Shavely joined me as co hosts
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with their special guest. Let's get started.
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Speaker 2: Doctor Flynn, this is Michael Flynn, retired surgical oncologist from
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the Surgery Department at the University of Louisville. Let me
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begin with the usual disclaimer. Any comments I make represent
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my personal views and do not represent the views of
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the Department of Surgery or of the University of Louisville.
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Speaker 3: Jane, this is R. J.
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Speaker 4: Shavely. I amn't retired role surgery from Cambellsville, Kentucky, and
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anything I say do I represent the University of Louisville
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or Taylor Rational Hospel in Cameelsville, Kentucky.
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Speaker 2: So our topic today is something that I had almost
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no knowledge about before this was was scheduled, and I've
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been listening to a podcast or too, so I could
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learn something about it. So we could have an intelligent conversation.
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We have a special guest. The topic is blue zones.
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I'm not going to try to define it anymore than
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saying that these are locations in different parts of the world,
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at least that's my understanding of it, where Pete, where
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there's a somewhat larger component of the population that lives
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to be one hundred years old or older. Our special
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guest is Don Henderson. Don has been on this program two,
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three or four times. The last two programs he discussed
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private equity in healthcare with US and artificial intelligence in healthcare.
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Speaker 3: He is on the.
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Speaker 2: Faculty of the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine in Bradenton, Florida,
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and is a Doctor of Health Administration. He also has
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an MA in Healthcare Administration and the Bachelor of Arcs
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and Economics and Government. So Don, thank you for coming on.
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We're all looking forward to an interesting conversation, and as
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we have done in the past, we're going to give
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you an opportunity to make whatever comments you'd like to
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make for as long as you'd like to make them,
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and then Jane will begin the conversation. So Don, again,
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thanks for coming on, and the floor is yours.
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Speaker 5: Well, thank you all for having me today, and I'm
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very excited to talk about this topic, which is blue zones,
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and I hope that the listeners will bring something out
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of this that they might be able to use in
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their own personal health journey. I thought I might start
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out today, if it's okay, just talking about just health
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in general, and then just a short definition of what
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blue zones actually are so that the readers can get
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some context for what we're going to talk about.
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Speaker 3: Is that okay, Yes, that sounds excellent, Okay.
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Speaker 5: Well, I wanted to start out today to talk about
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what is the definition of health? And we teach healthcare
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administration here at the Leecom Medical University, and the World
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Health Organization defines health as a state of complete mental, physical,
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and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of a
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disease or infirmity. And this definition goes all the way
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back to nineteen forty eight and it talks about the
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philosophy of a shift from a purely medical treatment model
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to a more holistic view of well being in health.
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And I would argue there's a spiritual component as well,
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which we can certainly talk about more later on the
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origins of blue health. Go back to the year twenty
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twenty six years ago where there was a French professor
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of demographics, doctor Michael Poulane, and he was studying demographics
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and he noticed that an area of Sardinia, which is
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an island off the coast of Italy, had a very
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large number of people who lived to be over one
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hundred years old with relatively good quality of life. Beginning
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in two thousand and four. Four years later, his work
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was adopted and expanded upon by a gentleman by the
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name of Dan Buttener, who was a fellow of the
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National Geographic Society. So the National Geographic Society sponsored him
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on a research project to go and study other areas
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of the world where this phenomenon is also occurring. So,
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in addition to the island of sar Dan identified an
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additional four areas, which for which he coined the term
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blue zones. So may I go ahead and tell you
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a little bit about these other blue zones besides.
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Speaker 3: Sardinia, Yes, yes, please, Okay.
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Speaker 5: So Sardinia is a relatively small island that has a
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largely rural and agricultural population. One of the other identify
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areas that Dan Buttner identified was a part of the
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south of Japan known as Okinawa, and Okinaw is a
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series of three islands off the coast of southern part
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of Japan. The average lifespan in Japan in the United
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States is eighty five years, which is seven which is
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eight years greater than the US a average lifespan of
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seventy eight years, so the eight years differences is significant.
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In addition, another area was identified which is called the
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Nkoya Peninsula and I've actually been there. That's an area
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western Coasta Rica, largely surrounded by water and islands. There's
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also another island called the Island of Acaria, Greece, which
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was named after the Greek legend of Icarus who flew
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too close to the Sun if you remember that story,
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And that's an island, relatively isolated island in Greece. And
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the final area was lom Molando, California, which is a
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medium sized city located in the mountains about sixty miles
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of east of Los Angeles. So, based on his study
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beginning in two thousand and eight, going into twenty ten,
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he began to publish this. There have been several National
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Geographic Society television specials, so he has become known as
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the Guru of the Blue zones.
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Speaker 2: Done from my limited experience listening to podcasts. They benefits
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are I guess of living in a blue zone or
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combination of diet, exercise, social interaction, intellectual stimulation, and genetics.
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Can you kind of break these down for us and
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our listeners or put them together in some sort of priority.
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Speaker 3: Zone or are they all equally important?
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Speaker 2: I just never quite understood exactly how social interaction would
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be better or less important than diet.
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Speaker 5: Yeah. Well, first of all, I want to say that
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I am not a physician, so I don't really plan
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to speak about any kind of medical expertise, but I
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can quote studies that have been done. Probably we might
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want to start out with talking about what the public
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health side of this is, because you know, there is
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a science known as public health in the United States,
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and so through the years, the people that do public
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health have determined the prevalence of different factors that determine
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eventual physical health, morbidity, mortality. So there are five areas
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that public health talks about. So I'm going to give
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you the rough percentages, and please don't quote me on
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this specifically, but about thirty percent or almost a third
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of your health and eventual longevity revolves around individual behaviors
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such as your diet, your activity, your smoking or whether
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you smoke or not, and the other daily lifestyle choices
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that you make. The social determinants of health account for
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about twenty five percent. And there was a very famous
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public health study that was done in the city of Louisville,
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right where you guys are at that talked about the
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fact that people that had higher income and higher education
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and higher employment status actually lived on average about eleven
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years old from one side of the city of Louisville
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to another. So we can find that study and quoted
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if we want to, but that was done by the
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public health director in the county there in Louisville at
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the time, very famous public health study. Genetics and biology
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account for about twenty five percent, which are inherited traits,
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biological factors. Medical care. I'm sorry to tell you this
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because I know you guys are physicians, but organized medical
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care accounts for only about ten percent of eventual public
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health status, although obviously you cannot live without good medical care.
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And finally, the environment accounts for about ten percent. So
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I hope those numbers add up to one hundred percent.
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That environment would be the air, the water, quality of
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your housing, quality of your physical surroundings, and that includes
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even public safety. So I hope that was a quick
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and kind of a quick and succinct summary of what
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public health believes at this time.
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Speaker 4: Yes, now you mentioned social and having good friends and
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a social environment, and also spiritual environment and spiritual belief.
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Can you elaborate a little bit more on.
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Speaker 3: That, right?
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Speaker 5: So I thought we might, you know, I thought we
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should start with sort of the public health definition of
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what brings community health together. And there are lots of
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communities that have taken this knowledge and apply it. You know,
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one of the communities I'm familiar with is Tallahassee, Florida,
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which is the state capital down in the south, and
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they didn't use blue zones, but they used a very
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similar philosophy to improve the quality of the life there.
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There are large sections of Tallahassee that have lower income
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and disadvantage people, so they don't you don't necessarily need
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to adopt blue zones. But let me let me talk
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about the four main things of blue zones, if that's
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okay to talk about how that's been a opted and
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then tied to these air blue zone areas around the world.
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So the first area is the freedom of movement and
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the environment. So blue zone communities, when they studied them,
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they found that they are very condensed environments where people
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use foot transport or walking as the primary mode of
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getting around versus automobiles. In fact, many of these areas
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are poor areas when people don't even have automobiles, so
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they use constant, low intensity physical activities such as walking, gardening,
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and doing household chores and they have to do that
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to survive. So then diet, you guys mentioned diet and nutrition.
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Diets are very heavily plant based, relying on beans, rice, greens,
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and nuts. Meat is not eating every day, it's consumed lightly, sparingly.
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The third item is outset and mindset, which gets back
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to what you were talking about Dutch, such as knowing
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your reason for waking up in the morning. It's associated
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with added life expectancy. This includes for the elderly, assigned
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task giving them something to do, nurturing their passions and hobbies,
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veneration of the wisdom of the elderly, and frequent social activities.
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That also includes downshifting after work for those people that
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are working. The residents actively manage and reduce stress through
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daily rituals such as napping, praying, or enjoying a happy
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hour which is also known as wine at five, which
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I find funny, but they have moderate alcohol consumption that's associated.
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And then finally, something that you also alluded to is
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community and social connections, and that includes belonging to spiritual
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faith based community which which provides a consistent support and
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sense of longing. And that also includes loved ones coming
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first with multi generational households, keeping aging parents and grand
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parents nearby, committing to a life partner and a testing time,
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and love in their children. So all that is kind
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of elaborate, but those are the components of the blue
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zone philosophy.
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Speaker 2: How much of an issue is genetics in this? And
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the reason I'm asking is my parents lived until their
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late eighties. My father smoked. He had a watch that
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had an alarm that went off at four o'clock in
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the air afternoon, which was time to get the first drink.
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And from a dietary standpoint, they almost never ate vegetables.
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He called them rabbit food. So my question is how
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did these people live so and they never exercised.
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Speaker 3: How did these.
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Speaker 2: People who were doing all the wrong things last that long?
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Speaker 5: Well, yeah, I grew up in rural Kentucky too, out
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in Campbellsville, and you know, there are a lot of
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things that play against that, I would argue. You know,
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for example, most of the people that I knew when
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I was growing up lived on farms and they and
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they did a lot of physical activity, and they they
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did have faith based communities, and they did have social structures,
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which we've lost a lot of that now, Doctor Sharvey,
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you wanted to also make a comment.
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Speaker 4: Oh yeah, just give you an example. My mom and
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father had a group that they played cards with at
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least once a week. And these were five or six
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very close friends that they dealt with at least once
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a week, sometimes more, and they were very loyal to
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each other. They didn't always agree on everything, but they
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were still good friends. And that it's different now there
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are a lot of people and who don't have that
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type of social interconnection. The same way with small towns.
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Not only small towns, but cities who have faith based
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communities that they people interact with and a lot of
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these people have something that they do to help others
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practically every day when they get up in the morning,
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they have something to do and they have meaning to
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their life rather than just sitting around watching TV or
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something like that.
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Speaker 5: Yeah, so I think I think there are a lot
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of variables in play here. And you know, one thing
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we can't deny is that these people in these in
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these blue zone communities live ten ten years longer than
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the rest of us. And I don't know about you,
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but I'm kind of getting up there in years and
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I'd like another ten years of healthy existence. But we
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really can't say which of the factors have the have
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the biggest impact. I don't think anybody can determine what
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those variables are. But when you put them all together,
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all of the four or five components that I just mentioned,
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you lived ten years longer. So I think it's I
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think it's a philosophy. I don't think I think it's
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almost a I hate to say this, but I think
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it's almost like a pseudoscience. It's not a it's not
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a hard science. It's more of a philosophy when you agree,
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because that acknowledges that that health is more than the
17:35
absence of infirmity. It's a spiritual, it's a social it's
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a mental health thing, don't you think.
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Speaker 4: Oh, Mike asked a question if just a few minutes
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ago about genetics, and I looked that up and I
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was surprised. Supposedly genetics the only place about a twenty
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percent role in this. Now, I think some of the genetics,
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the genes hasn't change, but we've interfered what those genes do.
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For example, just think of all the people you know,
18:06
including myself, who've got a stint in the left hantario
18:11
descending artery, and forty years ago, if somebody had a
18:18
clot and a heart attack, they would be dead. Now
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I know multiple people. I know two people within the
18:25
last month who've had an event with chest pain and
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had a stent placed in that artery and they're now
18:35
essentially back to normal and only overnight stay in the hospital.
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These type of things are certainly intervening with our health
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what's happening to his health was and also increasing our longevity.
18:55
But the interesting thing is, even though the America is
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spending over five trillion dollars a year and and the healthcare,
19:08
our life expectancy is still below a lot of other
19:15
developer countries like Europe and Japan and South Korea, Australia.
19:21
So we're doing some things incorrectly. I think some of
19:26
those things are smoking, not enough exercise, not eating the
19:33
right type of food. We eat a lot of processed foods,
19:40
and obesity is a huge problem in America. It's also
19:46
driving up the cost of health. On the leading causes
19:50
of the increased healthcare costs and in the last few years,
19:57
and particularly last year, is the these new drugs that
20:01
we can use for diabetes and also weight loss, and
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they're great drugs, but they're extremely expensive.
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Speaker 2: Well, we also have a dysfunctional healthcare system where a
20:12
large proportion of the population either doesn't have any healthcare
20:17
coverage or has only got limited healthcare coverage because of
20:22
the cost of it. And it's going to get worse
20:26
after this so called big Beautiful Bill was passed by
20:30
the ideologic Neanderthals in the legislature, the national legislature.
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Speaker 4: Well, Kentucky just starting next month, the second of August,
20:42
they're cutting Medicaid back four point five percent, and then
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Kentucky over the next ten years will probably lose over
20:53
twelve billion dollars worth of benefits just for Medicaid a loan,
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So don you want to make a comment about that
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and how it's going to affect hospitals, And then you've
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had a lot of experiences in rural hospitals, and how
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are you approaching that issue in your school for teaching
21:17
future administrators.
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Speaker 5: Yeah, that's a tough question. You know, I keep I
21:22
stay up in touch with our with our newsletters and
21:27
trade journals and healthcare and that sort of thing. And
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you know, there are largely we think we talked about
21:33
this in a previous session podcast, but you know, there's
21:38
probably twenty or thirty percent of the hospitals in the
21:41
United States that are sort of on the ropes. The
21:44
latest the number that keeps getting thrown out is seven
21:48
hundred and fifty to eight hundred hospitals that are primarily
21:51
rural will probably close. And so again trying to switch
21:58
this over to a blue zone discussion, you know, the
22:00
question is if the cutbacks are going to need to occur,
22:05
then what can communities do. And one of the things
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I was going to mention is that the Blue Zone
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Project was formed, but then it was acquired as a
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not for profit subsidiary. Now the California Adventist Health System,
22:22
which is a religious based health system, starting in twenty ten.
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So although the Blue Zone program does not operate for profit,
22:31
it does charge fees to municipalities and other sponsors to
22:36
promote and then certify communities as Blue zones. So more
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than eighty communities across the United States have signed up
22:43
and paid the fees to establish and maintain a Blue
22:47
Zone designation. So I can't solve the problem of royal
22:51
hospitals today, and I regret all of the cutbacks that
22:55
are occurring. But one thing that communities could do is potentially,
23:00
you know, they have to do this, and as I said,
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I think it's more philosophy than a science, but they
23:06
have to decide they want to do something to improve
23:10
healthcare in their community. We know that the great majority
23:14
of health status is not determined by organized medicine. So
23:18
then the question is what can they do? And every
23:22
community's got to face that decision, whether it's a county
23:25
or whether it's a city, whether it's a region. And
23:29
I do have some data that I would like to
23:32
share later about the Collier County, which is one of
23:35
the counties in Florida that has adopted the Blue zone
23:39
designation when you feel the times.
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Speaker 2: Right, Well, DoD let me ask you, because this is
23:46
something I didn't realize. Now, what can you explain what benefit?
23:51
Just for the sake of discussion, we live in Jefferson County.
23:55
Speaker 3: So if they went to the.
24:00
Speaker 2: This blue Zone organization that's run by the Healthcare system
24:04
in California and paid them a fee to be designated,
24:09
do they have to prove something or do they just
24:12
pay the fee and then they can get the title.
24:15
Speaker 5: I think they pay the fee to the consultants, but
24:18
the consultants basically work over a period of months. I
24:22
don't think it's a for profit enterprise. I don't want
24:24
to try.
24:24
Speaker 2: To No, I understand that. But still they're paying a
24:29
fee to get a title if you like, or a
24:32
designation you don't need.
24:35
Speaker 5: You don't need to again, going back to Tallahassee, because
24:38
I'm very familiar. I've been to Tallahassee numerous times for
24:41
legislative reasons. But you don't have to do it with
24:44
the blue zone designation. It's just that some communities choose
24:49
to adopt that philosophy and pay the fees, and they
24:54
don't get the blue zone designation easily. It takes three
24:58
to five years. So it's not something that people have
25:03
to do. It's something that different communities around the country,
25:07
and they're scattered out. There's places in the Midwest, places
25:10
in California, places in the East. They have bought, they
25:14
have drank the kool aid that that would be the
25:16
right term, and they have decided that this philosophy is
25:20
something that they want to adopt as a community.
25:24
Speaker 2: Well, what specifically, aside from drinking the kool aid, what
25:28
specifically do they have to do to justify that designation.
25:34
Speaker 5: Well, I'll jump in if it's okay, if I jump
25:38
into Collier County, which is located.
25:40
Speaker 3: In Sure, whatever way you need to answer that is fine, Okay.
25:45
Speaker 5: So this program in Collier County, which is the city
25:47
of Naples and the surrounding area. This program, the Blue
25:51
Zones program, was started ten years ago by a physician,
25:55
doctor Alan Weissu. I know personally he's a pulmonologist, but
25:59
at the time he also was the CEO of the
26:02
Big Community Hospital in Naples Community Hospital, and he he
26:06
learned about the blue Zone philosophy, he studied it, and
26:09
then he made a pitch to the county commissioners that
26:13
they should adopt the Blue Zone program. And as we mentioned,
26:17
there are a number of components. I think there's nine
26:20
or ten philosophies that the community adopts. So it basically
26:29
involves the community members sort of like taking a pledge
26:31
that they will engage. And there are things that there
26:35
are specific things which we don't have time to go
26:38
in today, but the Blue Zone people's basically become like
26:41
health coaches and they will explain what's worked, you know,
26:44
because we've got eighty other communities that are doing this,
26:47
so there's a lot of data on what works, what
26:49
doesn't work. But I'll give you the results and then
26:53
we can talk about how they got there. So since
26:56
twenty fifteen to the present time, which is ten plus years,
27:00
Collier County has reported a fifty nine point one percent
27:03
drop in tobacco usage. It has one of the lowest
27:06
rates of tobacco usage in Florida in the country. The
27:11
Residence Report Improved Mental Health Status. The surveys have shown
27:16
a seventeen percent reduction in stress and a four percent
27:21
decrease in depression, with seventy nine percent of the population
27:25
feeling that they are in a state of improved mental health.
27:29
The county received a reduction in chronic illness of twenty
27:34
three percent, in obesity and a twenty eight percent drop
27:38
in poor nutrition, and that was even before ozempic was invented.
27:43
Twenty percent of the residents began exercising regularly at least
27:47
thirty minutes a day, three times a week. One thing
27:50
that I can attest to because I visited Naples is
27:53
that the entire downtown area was reconfigured to make it
27:57
more pedestrian and bike friendly. So there are expanded sidewalks,
28:04
there's a lot of traffic circles that have been put
28:09
in place of lights. They're safer pedestrian crossings. And there
28:14
was also over seven hundred and eighty local restaurants, schools,
28:18
and workplaces became Blue Zone approved by altered their environments
28:24
to make healthy choices easier, such as modifying their menus,
28:28
encouraging walking, providing bike cracks. So some of that's fairly
28:35
easy to quantify. Something maybe a little bit harder, I
28:39
will say. One thing about Collier County is a very
28:41
wealthy county with high income people. Most people know that
28:46
Napoles is one of the richest retirement areas, but like
28:49
most areas. They also have lower income folks as well,
28:52
but it was something the community and the county commissioners
28:56
got behind and decided to do. I hope that at
28:59
least answer part of your questions.
29:01
Speaker 2: Well, that's interesting because some of that stuff is going.
29:04
Speaker 3: On here in Louisville.
29:06
Speaker 2: I don't know that anybody's trying to get a blue
29:08
zone designation, but we've got more bicycle lanes the sidewalks,
29:14
and they're adjusting that, making some some of the main
29:19
streets two way instead of one way in order to
29:23
cut down on the speeding and accidents that go on there.
29:28
So that's very it's very it's a good answer, thank you.
29:32
Speaker 3: Yeah. I think that.
29:35
Speaker 5: My own belief is that you don't have to pay
29:37
any money to the blue zones people. Although you know, coaching,
29:42
why does anybody have a coach, whether you're playing sports,
29:44
whether you're practicing medicine, you know, you have a mentor
29:48
you have a coach. Is it worth the investment of
29:52
hiring a full time coach to coach you to improve
29:56
your performance. Only the community as a whole can answer
30:00
that question. I don't think that blue zones is ripping
30:03
people off. I think they're covering their costs because it
30:07
is a not for profit health system that sponsors this.
30:10
But they're also certainly not free, so you know, you
30:15
have to make your own choice.
30:17
Speaker 4: Well, one of the interesting things is that it's becoming
30:21
more and more more interesting is exercise. And I don't
30:27
mean exercising like an athlete, but Susan and I recently
30:33
have started going to exercise about the last nine months,
30:44
and we have our exercise coach and we do it
30:49
about three times a a week and it makes you
30:54
feel better. And the Europeans have done some really interesting
30:58
studies with depression. They found that they had one group
31:05
who took the ordinary medication for nature depression, and then
31:10
they had another group. They got them involved in an
31:13
exercise program, and the long term results were the same
31:18
the people who took the medication and the people who
31:22
did the exercise. The people of the exercise depression did
31:28
as well as the ones who took the medication.
31:31
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think you've got to go back to the
31:34
to the science of public health and what they call
31:37
the built the built environment, that's what they call it
31:40
in public health circus circus. So let's talk about the
31:43
city of Minneapolis. Minneapolis is considered the number one city
31:48
in Minnesota for both the overall state of health as
31:52
well as the quality of medical care, so they don't
31:55
really cut corners up there. And the whole city of
31:58
Minneapolis has been designed to be bike and walking friendly.
32:04
And the way they get around it snows a lot
32:06
up there, but the way they get around it is
32:08
they have a lot of tunnels, so all the buildings
32:11
are connected with tunnels underground so that you don't need
32:14
to use public transport. You can walk or you can bike,
32:18
and there actually are separate bike lanes and walking lanes
32:22
that are separate from traffic from automobile traffic. So that's
32:28
just part of the idea. But the whole idea is
32:30
that cities and communities need to be redesigned so that
32:34
people can live their life and go about the activities
32:37
of daily living without having to get in a car.
32:41
And then once you do that, then naturally, over time,
32:45
people will walk more and they will socialize more because
32:48
they're not trapped in their own watching TV or being
32:52
on the internet. So, once again, I would not call
32:55
this science, I would call it a philosophy.
32:57
Speaker 2: Well done. I don't know if you know the answer
32:59
to this, but I want to ask the question anyways,
33:03
what kind of quality of life does an individual have
33:09
who is one hundred years old or older. I mean,
33:13
it's not like are going to be running marathons and
33:17
things like that, or swim elo. What's his name, Dick
33:20
van Dyke apparently swims in the pool every day, So
33:24
I mean, I guess there's I'm just kind of curious.
33:28
Is there any I've got any information about the quality
33:33
of life of you know, people who are over a
33:35
hundred or one hundred plus years old.
33:38
Speaker 5: Well, I think you have to go back to those
33:40
rural communities such as Okinawa. I recently went to Japan
33:45
to visit my daughter who lives there in a rural
33:48
community outside of Tokyo, and you will see elderly people
33:52
walking around. The communities are very compact. You can walk
33:57
and get from point A to point B. You will
33:58
see elderly people out walking. They seem to be enjoying themselves.
34:04
I've been to the Decoya pennsil Peninsula in western Costa Rica.
34:07
Very few people can afford cars there. They're out walking,
34:10
they're socializing. I've never been to Greece or Loma Linda, California,
34:14
so I can't really say I've never been to Sardinia.
34:18
But it's the built environment, it's the socialization, it's the
34:21
spiritual side. And I would say that people living in
34:24
those communities, yes, they do get out, they do walk,
34:28
and I can't really argue, you know, talk about their
34:31
mental health or their quality of life. But it's not
34:35
unusual to see people that look to be in their
34:37
nineties out walking around in Japan. I just saw that
34:40
a few months ago when I was there.
34:42
Speaker 4: Down there a lot of adventaged hospitals in Florida, Which
34:47
been your impression of them? And are they different than
34:52
other hospitals.
34:53
Speaker 5: I think that they definitely incorporate the spiritual element into
34:57
everything that they do. Act they had talked about I
35:02
had an Adventist hospital that was close to the hospital
35:05
that I was running a few years ago, and they
35:07
actually even talked at their hospital about the idea that
35:10
if you use the Avenue Hospital, you live to be
35:13
one hundred, you know, So they were thinking about that
35:17
even then. And many of the practices of the Adventists
35:21
Seventh day Adventist religion are fitting right into this blue
35:25
zone philosophy. For example, they don't they don't eat meat.
35:29
They believe very much in spiritual wellness, they believe in
35:33
physical fitness. So I think this is a very good
35:37
match for the Avenue Health System, and the and the
35:42
and the and the health system is close closely tied
35:44
to their medical mission. They are building retirement communities all
35:49
over Florida, and they are really not only talking the talk,
35:53
but walking the walk about trying to make a significant
35:57
improvement in the health status not only for their fishers,
36:00
but before the community as a whole.
36:03
Speaker 4: Let me just explain some people may not know about
36:08
Seven Day Advents. They're a Christian group. The only difference
36:12
between them and most other Christian groups is that they
36:17
celebrate the Sabbath on Saturday, the traditional Jewish Sabbath, and
36:24
they worship on Saturday instead of the first day of
36:28
the week on Sunday. And they do have some very
36:35
strong ideas about not drinking and smoking and and there
36:40
are a close group of people who who socialize a
36:46
lot together. And the ones I've known is have been
36:51
extremely very good Christians and good people to know. Uh myke,
37:00
you remember the radiation therapist I'm trying to think of
37:05
his name, who was at Loyal was one of the
37:07
first the radiation therapists, and he came to Campbellsville and
37:13
did radiation therapy for a while before he moved back
37:16
to California.
37:17
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I remember who it is. I can't remember
37:20
his names.
37:21
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, he was the Seven Day advant He provided
37:27
great service for us for a long period of time
37:31
and really played a big role in getting our role
37:35
Cancer center in Campbellsville, which really changed cancer treatment for
37:43
us because we had lots. We essentially solved the disparity
37:49
of care between rural and urban areas because we were
37:53
able to provide most of the care for cancer patients
37:56
locally and we equalized cantric care. And we're still doing
38:03
that and doing a great job.
38:05
Speaker 3: Well.
38:05
Speaker 2: Don One of the podcasts that I listened to, there
38:11
had been a discussion about a concern that there were
38:16
commercial interests getting involved in the blue zone issue and
38:22
the designations. And this was not the Seventh Day Adventist,
38:28
not for profits, but this apparently where again I'm speaking
38:32
out of ignorance as much as anything else. So my
38:36
question to you is are there issues going on with
38:41
for profit interests getting involved in the whole designation and
38:47
the blue zone activities.
38:49
Speaker 5: Yeah, I have no knowledge of that. I mean, I
38:52
know the ave in the cell system. They're good people.
38:56
They really truly believe that the work that they do
39:00
improves the health of the community, and so I can't
39:04
say anything negative. I would be very surprised.
39:07
Speaker 3: You know. The only the only way that could if.
39:09
Speaker 5: It's one hundred percent owned by the by the health
39:12
system in California. The only way that could occur is
39:14
if some kind of a license was, you know, some
39:17
kind of commercial arrangement. But I'm I'm I'm not aware
39:20
of that, and I would be surprised if that was
39:22
the case.
39:23
Speaker 4: You know, Low Melenda is their lead hospital and medical
39:27
school and they I really do advance medical care there
39:32
and they've been doing that for a long period of time.
39:35
Low Molenda plays a significant role also in global healthcare.
39:42
They have been involved in Packs, a group of of
39:51
hospitals and physicians in Africa which have trained of Africans
39:59
to acts in Africa. In the last twenty years, they've
40:03
trained over one hundred general surgeons to stay and work
40:09
in Africa and they are involved in multiple different countries
40:13
in training not only general surgeons but thrastic surgeons. Cardiothrastic surgeons,
40:23
pediatric surgeons and head next surgeons and or peak surgeons.
40:27
They've made a great contribution to global surgery, and a
40:32
lot of this has been led by Seven Day Adventists
40:36
and using the facilities and the help from Low Molinda.
40:44
Speaker 2: Well a number of we talked about this at our
40:47
last program on mission trips to the Third World countries.
40:51
A lot of religious organizations have established working areas in
40:57
different countries and Third World countries, and as it was
41:02
pointed out, one of the main benefits of doing this
41:06
is training the local physicians and having them stay in
41:11
their country to practice medicine or surgery or whatever the
41:16
specialty that they were involved in.
41:19
Speaker 4: Don One of the things that's about the Blue Zones
41:22
is that I read about that they emphasized was close
41:26
friendships of a lot of the people and who are
41:32
they recognized and the people who lived in these original
41:37
five Blue Zone areas had close friendship with people that
41:42
they talked to every day and that they had a
41:46
close relationship with. I think this for some extent, we've
41:53
lost a lot of that in America, particularly among men.
41:59
There's a problem with men's socializing and having close friends
42:04
and this led to some isolation and loneliness and also
42:12
mental illness. You want to comment a little bit about that.
42:16
Speaker 5: Well, not from the clinical side, but certainly I would
42:18
agree with the comment about that the social component is
42:23
very important. And so you know, in the Blue Zone
42:29
literature they talk about having a tribe, right, that there's
42:33
a tribal In other words, you cannot human beings are
42:37
not really set up to not They're set up to
42:42
thrive in a community and to not thrive if there
42:44
is no community, and they call it a tribe, whatever
42:47
term you want to use. Those are kind of natural
42:51
in smaller, smaller town environments because you know, I partly
42:55
grew up in a small town in Kentucky, and everybody
42:58
knows everybody when I When I went down the street
43:01
as a child, they used to go out and visit
43:04
all the different establishments they I would be at my
43:07
grandmother's jewelry store, and then they'd send me out into
43:09
the road to get rid of me until sundown, and
43:13
I would go around and visit other merchants and walk
43:16
through the streets, and everybody everybody not only knew me,
43:22
but they knew what I was doing and where I
43:25
was going and if I got out of line, they
43:27
would report it. You know, So that tribal thing is
43:32
a real need for human beings, and the question is
43:35
how can we bring that back. I would say people
43:39
generally are tired of just being on the internet all
43:42
the time, and they look for opportunities to socialize. I
43:47
think it's a natural human emotion and we you know,
43:51
maybe we've hit bottom. It needs to come back the
43:54
other way, depending on needs to swing back. And there
43:58
are different ways to accomplish it. You can accomplished in
44:01
a church, in a religious environment. You could accomplish it
44:04
in many different ways. But I would I would certainly
44:10
try to prescribe that if somebody in this listening feels
44:14
like they've been isolated, I feel that that's not good
44:17
for you, and you need to think about what you're
44:20
going to do to try and increase your socialization, especially
44:23
as you age out.
44:25
Speaker 3: Now.
44:25
Speaker 2: We talked about this in an earlier program a couple
44:28
of months ago with the doctor Iden, and the topic
44:33
of the program was screen addiction, and it dealt with
44:38
just those things you were talking about don the addictions
44:41
to the screen of your computer, your cell phone, and
44:45
how this is an issue that has a developmental impact
44:50
on the brain, especially of children and adolescents. And one
44:57
of the sort of outcomes of the discussion was that
45:00
that there needs to be a limitation to the screen
45:05
access to older children, well all children and adolescents until
45:11
they get to be into their their late teens in
45:15
early twenties, when the brain where they impact or the
45:20
effect of all of these the screen addiction and the
45:23
isolation does affect the brain and the ability to socialize.
45:33
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I think I think it gets back. You know,
45:35
obviously there's a lot of water that's under under the
45:38
bridge that we can't go back and retrieve because this
45:41
is this has all occurred in the last twenty years,
45:44
all of the screen addiction and stuff. But you know,
45:47
now the question is what do we what do we
45:49
do going forward? And so ultimately people have to be
45:55
adopted or adopt themselves into a tribe. And that's why communities,
46:00
smaller communities especially are you know, religious is important, but
46:07
any kind of a tribal type of activity and loyalty
46:12
to a tribe and identifying with the tribe will do
46:17
maybe not as well as being part of a church.
46:19
So I just think that the long term people that
46:24
want to promote the entire concept of holistic health have to,
46:29
you know, work in their environment, work in their communities.
46:34
A big part of this is discussing this and making it,
46:37
making it public knowledge, like you guys are doing here today,
46:41
letting people know that the solution is not necessarily organized medicine.
46:46
The solution is a whole societal review that's going to
46:50
have to happen in communities like Naples and like Loma Linda.
46:55
They've got to start thinking about what the pathway forward
46:58
is going to be. Because we can't just keep treating
47:01
the the medical outcomes. We've got to do some preventative work.
47:07
So this is part of the preventative opportunities.
47:10
Speaker 2: That we have. Well, that's exactly what the screen addiction
47:14
program what he was recommending. I've got two grandsons that
47:19
are that are nine and five, and I've talked to
47:23
my daughter about this, and they they restrict their their
47:27
activities in front of televisions and cell phones and and
47:32
I think some of the issues that are going on
47:34
in the Jefferson County school system where they're I'm not
47:38
exactly sure where they are with this, but there's some
47:40
discussion about limiting access of children in schools, middle school,
47:47
primary school, middle school, and high school.
47:51
Speaker 3: While they're in school.
47:53
Speaker 2: And and you know, one of the other recommendations was
47:56
this that doctor Iden had was that until they're in
48:02
their late teens in early twenties, they should have a phone,
48:06
but a phone that allows you to communicate with your
48:09
friends or your parents, but doesn't allow you to get
48:12
on the internet or get onto TikTok or some of
48:15
these other some of these other things that are actually
48:21
designed to increase the risk of screen addiction.
48:25
Speaker 5: Well, that would be a good, a good first step.
48:27
Speaker 1: You know, I've been thinking about my own my own
48:30
self during this discussion, and I consider in my retirement,
48:34
I'm an older person, and I consider myself a social activist,
48:37
and consequently I'm involved in a lot of different activities.
48:41
And what I find is that these these social activist
48:45
groups that I've belonged to. Of course, single pair of
48:48
healthcare is one of them. Doing this volunteer radio station
48:52
is another. But I'm often placed in people in my
48:55
age group. Those are the people who inhabited the inhabit
48:59
these organizations, and they tend to be older, but they're
49:02
they're very engaged in social activity. And I think in
49:06
a way, I consider the people who do this that,
49:09
at least that I know, to be sort of tribal.
49:13
This is our tribe, and not only do we function,
49:16
but we flourish in it. I know lots of old,
49:19
older people that they interact with that are very engaged.
49:22
They're very alert, They're on the go all the time.
49:25
So I think I think there's something too that that
49:28
tribalism that helps out in this.
49:31
Speaker 2: Well. I wonder if you're still going to be around
49:33
here when you're one hundred years old.
49:36
Speaker 1: Well, you know I told you before, Well, I don't
49:38
want to be.
49:39
Speaker 2: I'm gonna I'm gonna try to hang around not long
49:42
to see if you're gonna make it.
49:44
Speaker 1: But isn't it true though we all know people out
49:47
in the you know, out in our lives that are
49:50
like that. We know the ninety year olds that are
49:52
still driving a car, they're still very active. Some of
49:55
them still even play golf.
49:57
Speaker 4: It's it's very interesting that when we got to Dollywood
50:03
yesterday afternoon about five o'clock, almost all the Belman are
50:08
senior citizens and they enjoy what they're doing. I talked
50:12
to one guy who restoring our car. And he was
50:16
retired a railroad man, and he said he retired for
50:20
about two months and he was just driving him nuts.
50:23
So he got this job at Dollywood and he's very,
50:27
very happy, and he meets a lot of people and
50:33
he finds fulfillment in his job. And I think that's
50:38
really important for people who are retired to get involved
50:42
in some type of activity, they have to be careful.
50:47
I have a happy to get involved in too much.
50:50
But if you wake up in the morning you got
50:53
something to do. I seem to do be happier and
50:58
I seem to be able to get things done by
51:00
better than if I'm just sitting around doing nothing.
51:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a really good conversation, and I hope
51:06
our listeners are enjoying this and appreciating what we're saying.
51:12
Speaker 1: You know, there's another another thing I just read in
51:14
a recent study about people who live in the blue zones.
51:17
This one's specifically done in Sardinia. But they take pleasure
51:24
in doing what they're still able to do, and they're
51:27
not that concerned about the thinking no longer do so
51:30
that makes them feel better. But in our culture, if
51:34
you think about it, we're always driven to do things
51:37
that are beyond our current age group. You know, you
51:41
even see the TV ads of the older people ziplining
51:45
and climbing mountains. The fact is we're not able physically
51:49
to do those things anymore, but we continue or led
51:52
to believe that we can, and we try and inadequate
51:55
or not successful. I know older people that I hear
51:58
it all the time. All they talk about is what
52:01
they used to be able to, but they don't focus
52:03
on what they can do and try to get their
52:05
enjoyment in fulfillment out of those things.
52:08
Speaker 2: Well, don one more one more question about the blue
52:12
zones that I'd learned listening to one of these podcasts,
52:17
and there there seemed to be, at least in some areas,
52:21
some concerns about the accuracy of identifying a blue zone
52:26
with you know, different records of life, life records and
52:33
family records and you know, things like that. Is that
52:37
much of an issue? Again, it was, as I said,
52:41
I listened to a number of these podcasts so that
52:43
we could have some intelligent conversation, and this was one
52:48
of the things that came up that I thought was
52:50
an interesting observation.
52:53
Speaker 5: Well, I think, you know, again, trying to look at
52:57
the scientific side of this. I think that blue zone
53:00
can be transitory, right because everything, everything is in a
53:05
state of constant motion. You know, you've got a dynamic
53:08
system there that all of these variables are playing into
53:12
whether your community could, if you paid the money, be
53:16
designated as a blue zone or not. Now I'll tell you,
53:19
I spent a week and a half in Japan, and
53:22
I'm concerned because you can see that obesity is going
53:27
up in Japan. You can see that they're eating a
53:30
lot of bad food. They've unfortunately the American corporations have
53:34
got them hooked on fried chicken. They're eating fried chicken
53:37
all the time, at least once or twice a week
53:39
there most most Japanese people eat something called kage, which
53:43
is fried chicken, and it's become part of the staple diet.
53:47
So this is the this is the thing. Even in
53:51
these communities that are the blue zones, whether you pay
53:54
to get the blue zone designation or not, you can
53:57
lose many of the factors that are are associated with
54:03
better health. And so I don't know if I'm really
54:07
answering your question or not, but this is a content,
54:10
this is something that needs a constant state of maintenance
54:14
and a and a concerted effort by the whole community
54:19
to try to improve. Over time, you can backslide, you
54:22
can go the wrong way. And as I said, I'm
54:25
concerned about Japan and some of these other areas, as
54:28
they become more developed, more tourists move in, more American
54:31
lifestyles come in, we could we could wind up, you know,
54:37
maybe making the health situation worse.
54:42
Speaker 4: Donnaston is also true that the Japanese drink quite a
54:46
bit of alcohol.
54:48
Speaker 5: I I didn't see that.
54:49
Speaker 3: I didn't see that.
54:50
Speaker 5: I have no idea, you know, I'm only a tourists,
54:53
so I don't I think, I think, but it's you know,
54:56
alcohol consumption is obviously a factor in a and negative health,
55:01
So excessive consumption. So whatever community you're in, you got
55:07
to watch that. And I lived near the Villages, which
55:12
is a very infamous or famous community that's in central Florida.
55:16
And when I used to go out, and I was
55:19
working in the hospital at the time, people would start
55:22
drinking at eleven o'clock in the morning, you know, and
55:25
they would be out socializing and drinking. The socialization part
55:29
was good, but the drinking was bad. Right, So every
55:33
community has got to watch this and put as many
55:36
of these factors in place as possible if they can.
55:41
Speaker 2: Okay, guys, one more thing quickly, we're at we're at
55:45
the four minute level. So Gene, maybe one more question
55:49
and then Don we're going to give you an opportunity
55:51
to make whatever final comments should Mike and then and
55:55
then Paul's going to take us out.
55:57
Speaker 4: Let me like just one comment. Interesting that consumption of
56:01
alcohol in America has gone way down. I know I
56:08
have a friend who owns a vineyard in Norland, California,
56:11
and hey, can you sell its grapes now? And there's
56:14
been several brewery uh distilleries in Kentucky that have gone bankrupts.
56:20
So that's very interesting. Don you want to make a
56:24
final comment?
56:26
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think we just want to recap what the
56:28
blue zone philosophy is. Again, I'm not going to try
56:30
to call it a science, but let's talk about the philosophy.
56:34
You know, if you if you believe in the blue zones,
56:37
you've got to improve your physical activities and put away
56:41
the put away the automobiles and use walking and a
56:45
low intensity physical activity on a routine basis. Uh, You've
56:50
got to change your diet and nutrition to be more
56:54
plant based with whole grains, greens and vegetables, nuts, and
56:59
cut down on your meat consumption. You have to have
57:02
a purpose in life. You have to know your reason
57:05
for waking up, and that's associated with added life expectancies.
57:10
You've got to de stress and downshift if you're working
57:14
to manage stress and reduce stress through daily rituals. And
57:19
you've got to have a tribe, you've got to belong,
57:22
put your loved one first, and maybe even consider joining
57:26
a faith based community. So just wanted to wind up
57:29
with that and as much of that that you can
57:32
incorporate into your life. I think it's associated with certainly
57:35
a happier life, happier life, better health status and who
57:39
knows me you may live to be one hundred.
57:41
Speaker 2: Well, don I want to thank you again for coming
57:44
on and this is really an excellent program and I
57:48
hope our listeners enjoyed as much as I have.
57:51
Speaker 1: That's all for today, Thanks for tuning in and join
57:54
us next time for Single Payer Radio.