Health Update: Wellness Wednesday: Can the ‘Blue Zone’ approach help you live longer? – What Experts Say

S1: Welcome in San Diego. It’s Jade Hindman on today’s show. Could we have a blue zone nearby ? A look at a new partnership between San Marcos and the Blue Zone Project. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. What does it take to live a happier , healthier and longer life ? Well , this Wellness Wednesday , we’re trying to answer that question by exploring the idea of blue zones. The term is used to describe communities where people live very long lives. And just last month , the city of San Marcos announced that it’s partnering with the Blue Zones Project. So with me now to talk more about Blue Zones. Is Doctor George or Tanya’s ? He’s an associate chief medical officer at True Care San Marcos. He’s also a blue zone certified physician , doctor , or Tonya or Tanya as. Welcome to the show.

S2: Thank you so much for having me. Happy to be here today.

S1: So glad to have you here. And I’m so interested in this conversation. So first , what was your reaction to the news that San Marcos was talk was really taking this blue zones approach to the community health.

S2: I was very happy with it. San Marcos is where I live , where I work , where we see the majority of our patients at True Care , and it just made a lot of sense. We as an organization have been doing a lot of work when it comes to prevention of diseases and just helping help patients live healthier and longer lives already. So when I saw that , I was like , oh , this is this is great. It just makes a lot of sense that we extend this work far beyond our clinics as well. Hmm.

S1: Hmm. And Doctor Otani says , what does it mean to be a Blue Zones community.

S2: For it to be a blue sense community. It means that you are , in a way , ready , and you have a lot of resources and tools for patience for people and communities at large to be able to live healthier , longer lives. There is one thing that I am seeing patients in the room , in the exam rooms , and I know their medical history , and I can talk about how you could be eating healthier , you should be exercising , you should be doing this and that. I think it would be beneficial if you do and apply those principles to your personal life. And when they leave the room , what happens when they go back to their homes and the community ? Are those are those spaces available for them to exercise , to be able to do this freely without having to worry about , you know , different things that potentially happen. Are there spaces where they can find and access healthy , nutritious foods , places where they can connect with others ? And that’s more of that blue films approach is taking things outside of the exam room and thinking about communities at large and making sure that those resources are available and easily accessible for for people.

S1: I want to talk more about those principles , because I’m curious how you would sum up the blue Zones approach. At an individual level , I know it’s guided by the Nine Power principles , right ? Correct.

S2: Yes. I think a good way to look at those principles and try to sum those up are I would sort of bucket them in three big ones , one being the movement and turn that people can move naturally to encourage them to do some sort of physical activity like that can look very different for everyone. I don’t I’m not , you know , writing specific prescriptions and saying , like , you need to do this exercise so you can do better so things can look different for everyone. It’s just encouraging movement. And even if you’re at work , if you’re , you know , sitting most of the day , like there are ways and things that you can do to help you with that. The other one and there’s different things around nutrition where the Blue Zones principles focus specifically on a more plant based diet. People have different options and they can choose to do whatever they want. And that’s where you come to health care providers , and we can partner with you to help you make those decisions. But that’s the approach that those blue zones typically have. There’s something called the 80% rule where , you know , encouraging people to eat 80% of their plate. Don’t wait until you’re full because oftentimes you’re like , oh , I need to finish this. I need to do this. I need to do that. That’s something else. And then the last one , the last big bucket is more on the social connection. There’s a lot of research that shows that social isolation can be very damaging to your health as well. So that’s where again , those principles can be summed into lumped into those three big buckets.

S1: Is San Marcos meeting these principles.

S2: So we are doing what’s going to happen right now with this Blue Zones project , is that there’s going to be some research and questionnaires and reaching out to the community. And so there’s this whole process where an investigation is going to be launched to see whether the city is ready and what’s lacking. Reaching out to community members , health care organizations. So that’s we’re currently in the process of trying to understand a little bit more about the community at large.

S1: All right. Well , you’re a blue zone certified physician.

S2: So I’m a family medicine physician , and I’ve been practicing medicine for for some years now. A couple years ago , I acquired my lifestyle medicine certification , which is actually a requirement to obtain a Blue Sense certification. I think with lifestyle medicine , it’s helped me look at things in more in a more. More on the prevention side of things. And then help me as , as a health care administrator , to also bring those programs to our patients and to the communities that we serve. So I’m not no longer saying like , oh , eat healthy exercise. I can say , here’s this program that a partnership we have with the YMCA where you can come and see us and then we can help you how to do this x , y and Z. When it comes to blue sense and why I pursue the certifications as certification is because it takes again things beyond the clinic wall and looking at the community and the environment so I can get involved in initiatives like this so I can know what’s actually happening outside of the patient’s rooms. Because oftentimes what happens in healthcare is that we have recommendations. People come back and see us in a month , three months , and then some people can get frustrated. The patient , the clinician , like , oh , you didn’t do what I told you. Like , we need to understand what we call the social drivers of health. And that’s where people live , where they eat , where where they spend most of their time. So I think it’s helped me a lot to look beyond what we do at a , on a clinic level and on a one on one case. Wow.

S1: Wow. And that’s so true , right ? A clinician could recommend someone start walking every day and then but then their reality is , is when they walk outside of their front door , the sidewalk pavement is so uneven that it’s unsafe to do so. So it’s it’s so important to to really look at how people are living. Right ? Correct.

S2: It’s very important. And speaking of walking , like one of the things that we did last year was we started a walk with the doc chapter. Does something that happens in many countries , not just here where you get a group of people , you invite them , they come. And we I’ve let some of the walks and I’ve encouraged other clinicians that true care to lead walks where you give a health topic to patients , a small talk outside that this can happen in the park , which is where we do it , and then we walk with patients like we take them on a walk to promote physical activity , and then they can ask questions in an informal setting. So we’re having conversations with them about their health , about things that sometimes they don’t feel comfortable asking , well , they’re in the rooms because it’s health care. It’s just , you know , a lot of people don’t feel very comfortable , and they know I don’t think anyone likes going to the doctor. It is important for prevention. But that’s something that we did as well. So just finding ways that we can actually engage with the community in a different way. Yeah.

S1: Yeah. Well , speaking of prevention , current health care can be very reactive , you know , trying to solve existing problems instead of preventing them in the first place.

S2: I , as a health care provider , I I’m not going to sit in front of anyone and say like , you need to do this because I say so , like my role is to provide them with the information , with accurate information backed by science , and ensure that we’re able to to educate them to and give them the opportunity to ask questions as well. So I think this is something that focuses a lot on the prevention regardless of , you know , what’s happening in different cities and countries , right ? We do have a blue zone already here in California , Loma Linda. So that’s the closest one to us , the other five in , you know , far away from us and other countries. And there’s a lot of things that we’ve learned from them. And then people oftentimes say like , well , like , how are you going to like do what they’re doing ? They’re like , the population is different genetics. There’s so many other components. But the principles are things are things that are very easily , um , replicable. And you can you can apply those to , to patients and then people can make their own choices. Right. That’s as long as I think our , our job is to ensure that we can provide that information , and then patients can decide what to do with that information.

S1: And , you know , there have been some criticisms of the Blue Zones approach , with some claiming it’s based on weak demographic data.

S2: There’s a lot of data and a lot of information that looks into the the eating , for instance. Right. So like eating more plant based , there’s a lot of information that helps with that and prevent disease and treat disease as well. And then the social connection there’s a lot of different studies. I don’t think there is one specific study that’s looked at all the principles. That’s something that people often say , but if you put a lot of those together and we know that things work , the cumulative effect of those actions and when it comes to prevention or when you already have certain conditions that this the principles can apply to , that has proven to be very successful and helpful. And then also there’s how you know , the situation about , you know , you’re not going things that I hear right. You’re not going to affect change. And like it’s very difficult to make people change. And that’s not the goal , right ? I go back to the education. I feel like it is in healthcare. It is our duty to be able to provide accurate and , you know , science backed information for people to ultimately make those decisions in blue zones takes this many steps further , because we need to do this with the community , with the community partners. I cannot do my job on my own when I’m recommending people to eat healthy and to do different things. When you know you leave or you go to different clinics , you’re driving and there’s like different , you know , fast food chain restaurants and this and that , like , and food is expensive. People don’t have access to , to to food sometimes like so that those things are very , very important. And it takes cities , it takes governments. It takes a lot for all of us to come together to really , truly affect change.

S1:

S2: It’s just only Western medicine. I think there’s many , you know , the principles and everything that comes when it comes to like finding meaning in life. And a lot of the things happen outside of where we are in the clinics , right ? Most of the work and most 80% of what goes into your into your health and what determines the outcomes of your health is not what we do in the clinics is not me prescribing medications is not me ordering studies. Those things are important. But there’s this approach , again about the social isolation , making sure that they have the connection , the groups that you’re able to do that together with others. So I wouldn’t say that. It’s just as this approach , there’s a big , big focus on the prevention and looking and learning from what the rest of the world is doing and trying to apply that to what we do here as well.

S1: And so for people who are in search of wellness and really want to want to commit to their wellness , what questions should they be asking themselves or reflecting on.

S2: That’s a great question. And something that comes to mind is and which is something that I put into practice with my patients is are you how are you ready or how ready are you to change ? So if you’re if you’re coming because you have a specific chronic condition or you’re wanting to prevent those problems , then and I think if you’re here today , seen me in my office , I think I always I don’t want to assume , but I always ask that question like , it seems to me that you are ready to make some change. And if you’re not like , you know , this thinks in a scale of 1 to 10 and like if you’re a three , you’re right. So what would it take to go to a five or a six. Right. And then understanding that is is a marathon. It’s not a sprint. Right. So giving giving grace to yourself and understanding that if you’ve had habits for for so long or this is how you grew up , things are not going to change from one day to another. And you don’t have to do everything at the same time , right ? So it’s just pick one , one thing today , focus on this for the next couple of weeks , and then you can , you know , you can continue to work and build upon that.

S1: Well , so it’s building those small habits that actually turn into big , life changing things. Correct.

S2: Correct. It’s all about the habits that you start very , very small. And then everything’s going to add up. Next thing you know , like you’re I don’t I don’t want people to be defined. But what the things that they’re doing like , oh my God , I have to wake up and exercise. I want people to think and say , I am a person who exercise. That’s part of your identity. I’m a person who likes to eat healthy , nutritious foods as opposed to like , I’m on a diet. Oh my God , I have to wake up and exercise like you need to change the way you think about those habits. Indeed.

S1: Indeed. Just some great advice. I’ve been speaking with Doctor George Otani , associate chief Medical officer at True Care San Marcos. There will be a Blue Zones community keynote event in San Marcos on March 17th. More details are found on KPBS. Doctor Otani , thank you so very much.

S2: Thank you for having me.

S1: Thanks for joining us today. If you missed anything , you can download KPBS Midday Edition on all podcast apps. Don’t forget to watch Evening Edition tonight at five for in-depth reporting on San Diego issues. Also , you can always share your feedback or segment ideas at midday at KPBS. Or just give us a call. The number is (619) 452-0228. I’m Jade Hindman. Join us again tomorrow. Until then , make it a great day on purpose , everyone.