Unleashing The Secrets Of 'Blue Zones' Could Save Iowa $16 Billion By 2016 and help you live past 100 years

Dan Buettner is a happy person. "On a scale one to 10, I'm a 9," he says confidently. "I'm more apt to knock off work early and go to happy hour because I know that hour of socializing is quite literally going to yield more happiness than that extra hour of work." 

This is not the rationale of a slacker. It's an argument based on Buettner's decade-long research on places around the world where people live remarkably long, healthy and happy lives, which he calls "Blue Zones." 

After studying longevity hotspots in Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Costa Rica; the Seventh-day Adventists in California; and the island of Ikaria in Greece, Buettner devised a formula for living beyond 100. The findings were published in his book "The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest," released in 2008.

In Blue Zones, people reach age 100 at rates 10 times greater than in the United States. This is thanks, in large part, to their faith-based communities (worth between 4 and 14 years of life expectancy), plant-based diets, walkable environments, and rituals that force them to slow down every day like meditation, naps and prayer. Buettner's challenge today is crafting ways to get Americans to adopt these lifestyle habits.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/dan-buettner-blue-zone-iowa-2012-8#ixzz23Aza7qFk