Longevity: “Adding years to your life… or life to your years”

Sonya Aristone, Brittany Bushey & Melissa Spring

V/O for segment on the Fountain of Youth with accompanying images

• When Juan Ponce de Léon landed on the northeast coast of Florida on April 2, 1513, he was searching, it’s been said, for a Fountain of Youth- a fabled spring of water that could bestow everlasting life. Historians now know there was more to the story. The reason the Spanish explorer set out to investigate lands north of the Bahamas was probably because Spain has reinstated Christopher Columbus’s son Diego as military governor, effectively removing Ponce de Léon from the office. Nevertheless, the legend behind Ponce de Léon’s voyage stuck. The ideas of discovering a magic source of long life still has so much appeal today, whether it comes disguised as a pill, diet, or medical procedure.

The Fountain of Youth

What is aging exactly?

The following 14 slides will be a series of visuals with titles.Accompanying music: to be determined…

An inevitable process

Of physical change…

Psychological change…

and social change.

Some factors of human life grow and expand,

while others decline…

This decline is typically what causes sometimes irrationals fear in people when they get older.

Representations of longevity in the media

• Play the following song with the following series of images:

• The song will be the same as determined above

A quick fix?

Before and After shots…In her teens In her 40’s

And not only women…

An alternative fountain of youth for a busy society?

A recurring theme on the big screen

Some smoked cigars until they live to be 100

Live Forever

• Title: “Accepting age can be difficult for some, but the question remains how can I life the longest life possible?”

• “The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important” (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

• Interviews of people (of all ages) asking them “How can I live to be 100?”– Approx 1- 1 1/2 minutes

Where are people living long HEALTHY lives?

• Exploring culture • V/O while displaying the following map• “Scientific studies suggest that only about 25

percent of how long we live is dictated by genes, according to famous studies of Danish twins. The other 75 percent is determined by our lifestyles and the everyday choices we make.”

What is a Blue Zone?

• TED – Ideas worth spreading• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-jk9ni4X

Wk• Dan Buettner introduced concept of Blue

Zones• Crop ~ 1 minute of video (focus on

introduction)

• 3 Blue Zone’s will be identified and described with v/o and accompanying visuals

The Sardinian Blue Zone

• Nation: Italy• Location: Island located 120 miles west of

mainland Italy• Sardinia Population: 1.6 million people

• In America, seniors tend to live apart from their children and grandchildren, often sent off to retirement homes when they become unable to care for themselves. But that rarely happens here. A contribution of family duty, community pressure, and genuine affection for elders kept centenarians with their families until death.

• The classic Sardinian diet consists of whole-grain bread, beans, garden vegetables, fruits, and, in some parts of the island, mastic oil. Sardinians traditionally eat pecorino cheese made from grass-fed sheep, whose cheese is high in omega-3 fatty acids. Meat is largely reserved for Sundays and special occasions.

A Record Setter

• Born on February 21, 1875, Jeanne Calment lived for a record-setting 122 years, 164 days. Calment, a French-woman, stayed mentally and physically active for most of her life. She attributed her longevity to port wine, olive oil, and a sense of humor.

A fish farm in Sardinia, Italy, where diners enjoy a midday meal on a Sunday, has been in the same location since the fifteenth century.

The Blue Zone in Okinawa

• Nation: Japan• Location: Ryukyu Islands between the North

Pacific and the East China Sea• Okinawa Population: 1.3 million

• In Okinawa people enjoy what may be the highest life expectancy (~78 years for men and 86 years for women), the most years of healthy life (the Japanese have the greatest number of disability-free years at 72.3 for men; 77.7 for women), and on of the highest centenarian ratios (~5 per 10000). They suffer from diseases that kill Americans, but at much lower rates: a fifth the rate of cardiovascular disease, a fourth the rate of breast and prostate cancer, and a third rate of dementia.

• Older Okinawans can readily articulate the reason they get up in the morning. Their purpose-imbued lives gives them clear roles of responsibility and feelings of being needed well into their 100s.

• Okinawans are active walkers and gardeners. The Okinawan household has very little furniture; residents take meals and relax sitting on tatami mats on the floor. The fact that older people get up and down off the floor several dozen times daily builds lower body strength and balance, which help protect against dangerous falls.

Ushi Okushima, a 105-year-old woman from Japan's southern island of Okinawa.

Costa Rica’s Blue Zone

• Nation: Costa Rica• Location: Peninsula on Costa Rica’s Pacific

Coast• Nicoya Population: 47, 000

• Costa Rica has more than one hundred years of democratic tradition and hasn’t had a military since 1948. That means more money for free education, affordable health care, low-cost housing, a fair labor climate and care for the environment.

• Centenarians seem to have enjoyed physical work all of their lives. They find joy in everyday physical chores.

• Costa Rica spends only 15 percent of what America does on health care, yet its people appeared to be living longer, seemingly healthier lives than people in any other country on Earth.

• The government provides funding to needy students for higher education at public universities where more than 70,000 students are enrolled. In return for this free education, students at public schools and universities are required to donate time toward community service after they graduate.

Local women distribute tiste, a drink made from rice and cocoa, in Nicoya, Costa Rica.

Aging isn’t just a process…it is a LIFESTYLE

-Introduce suggestions for change by contrasting (with the use of images and society) Blue Zone lifestyle to Western society.

- Play song: “Society” by Eddie Vedder (3:56), may have to fade out song in order to time it with the visuals or start it earlier so it finishes with the credits.

Lesson 1

Be active without having to think about it”

Lesson 2

Focus on food; take a seat

Lesson 3

“Avoid meat and processed foods”

Lesson 4

“Drink red wine (in moderation)”

Lesson 5

“Take time to see the big picture”

Lesson 6

“Take time to relieve stress”

Lesson 7

“Participate in a spiritual community”

Lesson 8

“Make family priority”

Lesson 9

“Be surrounded by those who share Blue Zone values”

A “fountain of youth” comes with a cultural context.

Will you choose to consume it?

Credits…