Great article and great to read a different perspective on research so important when trying to collect facts rather than theories esp when it comes to health. Personally I think quality it better than quantity where I live people live to their eighties and nineties a lot on tablets and some quite lonely. I live in Argyll Scotland and I’d say most people here dread old age but don’t see health as something they can do something about esp the medical profession. I’m in my sixties the beginning of last year changed my diet by cutting out ultra processed foods etc and feel so good I find it easy to stick too.
Despite age data inaccuracies, which I don’t doubt, the key takeaways of the Blue Zone studies outline lifestyles and dietary habits worth emulating for a well and good life — no matter its longevity. Eat real food, everything in moderation and keep moving preferably outside.
Great article. Poverty is a factor and something that the demographer Michele Poulain on the Blue Zones project has noted in published papers. Likely there are some record keeping anomalies. Poulain has verified the Sardinia cohort so likely there is something there other than record-keeping anomalies. The other factor that's very important is that these are difficult to access regions. I have travelled t these regions and to this day they are difficult to get to. The fact that they strive for a living is my take-home lesson. Once you are comfortable then your body has done its job and is ready to call it quits.
1. A significant part is based on the preprint by Newman. This was lodged in 2019, hasn't been peer reviewed, and remains still unpublished 5 years later
2. The Director of the program where Newman sourced his data said "This paper, intentionally or not, is loaded with so many errors and misrepresentations. The author appears to selectively misused data to make a point, which is more reminiscent of a political than scientific approach". He also said that the data from Sardinia was very well validated, and that the preprint only looked at 3 of the 5 Blue Zones. https://www.smh.com.au/national/how-to-live-to-110-drink-smoke-and-lie-about-your-age-20190808-p52f7k.html
4. The BZ Project went looking for communities with exceptional health/lifespans, and diet wasn't an initial focus. If it was all fraud, then you might expect that the identified longevity communities would display a range of dietary patterns. The fact that all five were largely plant based suggests (to me) that there could be a real pattern there.
Dr Paddys article seems to raise some telling points.
Minor quibble.
He says far fewer super-centenarians in scotland and Northern Ireland compared to deprived Tower Hamlets [ now predominantly Bangledeshi] in Central London.
But
a) Have u tried a Scots fry - egg - sausage, soda bread - cholesterol filled heart-buster?
By far the worst diet in Earth, and Belfast food is the same. Though tastes good, no doubt.
b) Tower Hamlets folk may be "a bit" poorer" than the Celtic fringe / scotland / Northern Ireland, BUT BUT BUT they have IMMEDIATE access to the best central london hospitals on Earth. - try getting uick care if you have a heart attack in the Great Glen or rural tyrone.
Apart from that, i accept many of his points.
But there IS websites listing VERIFIED supercentenarians, and ( assuming the verification is correct - i take Dr Paddys point about forged birth certificates ) an awful lot of them ARE Japanese.
Further, multiple evidence shows that any oil fish diet, with loads of omega 6, IS brilliant for your health - and thats EXACTLY what island nation japan eats in spades.
The good news is, in this case, time WILL tell, as the "suspect" super-centenarians die in coming decades, relay truly absolutely verified supercentenarians will be filling the lists, and then we WILL see where they REALLY are.
I sense that you haven’t been in need of hospital care in East London.. The best hospitals in London aren’t there. Nowhere near there, as it happens. The corruption of Tower Hamlets politics is renowned within London, which as a city has a long history of gerrymandering and very dodgy characters in various city halls. While the ethnic Bangladeshi community has a great culinary tradition of mostly vegetarian dishes, there are comparable communities elsewhere in U.K. that do not have incredible lifespans. An example, the poorest wards of Kensington & Chelsea (north Kensington) have a life expectancy of around 18 years less than the wealthiest, southern neighbourhoods in the same borough. They *do* have great hospitals but still die nearly twenty years earlier than their rich counterparts, with the same - extremely well endowed - Town Hall & council.
This is why I think Dr Barrett is on the right track with this analysis anyway..
I once dined in a Bangladeshi restaurant in Belfasts University area, and can assure you they do meat, in fact fish, dishes. But in Bangladesh itself meat consumption, mainly fish, is widespread but in very low quantities, a so called pescatarian diet ( Pesca - Latin for fish (Pisces)] In my view after years of stdy on that matter, pescatarian diet appears to give the longest life span, in fact it is my own diet daily for several years now and will remain so, with chicken once a week and red meat once every 3 months. I have studied IN DEPTH the death rates for EACH of Indias provinces. As you may know, India has the highest PERCENTAGE of vegetarians of any country on Earth ( Vegetarianism is, i understand, prized in the Hindu religion), though its Muslim and Christian populations do eat meat. You are probably aware that India overall has a relatively low, though rising, life expectancy. I was shocked to find that the key determinant on an early death was not so much lack of income as BEING A VEGETARIAN. [ The lack of meat eventually makes the heart "pack in" early" such that some poorer former rich Muslim provinces such as Punjab, Kashmir, had higher life expectancy than some of the richer, hindu, vegetarian states. I am sure East End london bangladeshis do have some great vegetarian dishes BUT THEY STILL EAT MEAT. I suspect those poorer communities you mention in Kensington have "McDonalds cheese" type diets [ through no fault of their own, simply through poverty ] and that diet, no matter how good local hospitals are, will send you to an early grave - if thrown in with poor housing conditions too.: Those poorer Kensington wards would have a VERY diverse group of nationalities, but certainly not healthy bangladeshi pescatarians : With my then Chinese girlfriend i spent an hour one night trying to get lodgings round the corner from where Tony Blair lives off edgeware rd in 2008- and was shocked by the abysmal standard of local b&bs. In fairness to edgeware rd, We ended up stumbling upon a brand new hotel off Edgeware rd, with an entirely arab clientele - fantastic room, great hotel, would highly recommend it
I think you deliberately chose to ignore the fact I said “mostly vegetarian”, and definitely didn’t say Bangladeshi’s *are* vegetarian.. Your biases aren’t subtle are they?
Nice article! we need more reliable and valid demographic statistics...
Great article and great to read a different perspective on research so important when trying to collect facts rather than theories esp when it comes to health. Personally I think quality it better than quantity where I live people live to their eighties and nineties a lot on tablets and some quite lonely. I live in Argyll Scotland and I’d say most people here dread old age but don’t see health as something they can do something about esp the medical profession. I’m in my sixties the beginning of last year changed my diet by cutting out ultra processed foods etc and feel so good I find it easy to stick too.
Very interesting Paddy!
blue zones are the result of bad record keeping and birth certificate fraud:
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2023/09/28/places-claiming-to-be-centenarian-hotspots-may-just-have-bad-data
Despite age data inaccuracies, which I don’t doubt, the key takeaways of the Blue Zone studies outline lifestyles and dietary habits worth emulating for a well and good life — no matter its longevity. Eat real food, everything in moderation and keep moving preferably outside.
Great article. Poverty is a factor and something that the demographer Michele Poulain on the Blue Zones project has noted in published papers. Likely there are some record keeping anomalies. Poulain has verified the Sardinia cohort so likely there is something there other than record-keeping anomalies. The other factor that's very important is that these are difficult to access regions. I have travelled t these regions and to this day they are difficult to get to. The fact that they strive for a living is my take-home lesson. Once you are comfortable then your body has done its job and is ready to call it quits.
Thanks for the post. A few comments:
1. A significant part is based on the preprint by Newman. This was lodged in 2019, hasn't been peer reviewed, and remains still unpublished 5 years later
2. The Director of the program where Newman sourced his data said "This paper, intentionally or not, is loaded with so many errors and misrepresentations. The author appears to selectively misused data to make a point, which is more reminiscent of a political than scientific approach". He also said that the data from Sardinia was very well validated, and that the preprint only looked at 3 of the 5 Blue Zones. https://www.smh.com.au/national/how-to-live-to-110-drink-smoke-and-lie-about-your-age-20190808-p52f7k.html
3. Blue Zones provided a detailed response to the preprint claims. https://www.bluezones.com/news/are-supercentenarian-claims-based-on-age-exaggeration/
4. The BZ Project went looking for communities with exceptional health/lifespans, and diet wasn't an initial focus. If it was all fraud, then you might expect that the identified longevity communities would display a range of dietary patterns. The fact that all five were largely plant based suggests (to me) that there could be a real pattern there.
5. Finally, a video (from Dr John Day) about the longevity village Bama which is quite interesting, and looks like a bit like a Chinese Blue Zone (no idea about their record keeping though) https://hcaconnect.webex.com/webappng/sites/hcaconnect/recording/2882f6594540103cbdffe6c6bd72d252/playback
My Preliminary comment.
Dr Paddys article seems to raise some telling points.
Minor quibble.
He says far fewer super-centenarians in scotland and Northern Ireland compared to deprived Tower Hamlets [ now predominantly Bangledeshi] in Central London.
But
a) Have u tried a Scots fry - egg - sausage, soda bread - cholesterol filled heart-buster?
By far the worst diet in Earth, and Belfast food is the same. Though tastes good, no doubt.
b) Tower Hamlets folk may be "a bit" poorer" than the Celtic fringe / scotland / Northern Ireland, BUT BUT BUT they have IMMEDIATE access to the best central london hospitals on Earth. - try getting uick care if you have a heart attack in the Great Glen or rural tyrone.
Apart from that, i accept many of his points.
But there IS websites listing VERIFIED supercentenarians, and ( assuming the verification is correct - i take Dr Paddys point about forged birth certificates ) an awful lot of them ARE Japanese.
Further, multiple evidence shows that any oil fish diet, with loads of omega 6, IS brilliant for your health - and thats EXACTLY what island nation japan eats in spades.
The good news is, in this case, time WILL tell, as the "suspect" super-centenarians die in coming decades, relay truly absolutely verified supercentenarians will be filling the lists, and then we WILL see where they REALLY are.
Pat Green MSc
I sense that you haven’t been in need of hospital care in East London.. The best hospitals in London aren’t there. Nowhere near there, as it happens. The corruption of Tower Hamlets politics is renowned within London, which as a city has a long history of gerrymandering and very dodgy characters in various city halls. While the ethnic Bangladeshi community has a great culinary tradition of mostly vegetarian dishes, there are comparable communities elsewhere in U.K. that do not have incredible lifespans. An example, the poorest wards of Kensington & Chelsea (north Kensington) have a life expectancy of around 18 years less than the wealthiest, southern neighbourhoods in the same borough. They *do* have great hospitals but still die nearly twenty years earlier than their rich counterparts, with the same - extremely well endowed - Town Hall & council.
This is why I think Dr Barrett is on the right track with this analysis anyway..
Though i would add that i think Dr Bartletts articles are in general a valuable contribution to scientific discourse, including the current article
I once dined in a Bangladeshi restaurant in Belfasts University area, and can assure you they do meat, in fact fish, dishes. But in Bangladesh itself meat consumption, mainly fish, is widespread but in very low quantities, a so called pescatarian diet ( Pesca - Latin for fish (Pisces)] In my view after years of stdy on that matter, pescatarian diet appears to give the longest life span, in fact it is my own diet daily for several years now and will remain so, with chicken once a week and red meat once every 3 months. I have studied IN DEPTH the death rates for EACH of Indias provinces. As you may know, India has the highest PERCENTAGE of vegetarians of any country on Earth ( Vegetarianism is, i understand, prized in the Hindu religion), though its Muslim and Christian populations do eat meat. You are probably aware that India overall has a relatively low, though rising, life expectancy. I was shocked to find that the key determinant on an early death was not so much lack of income as BEING A VEGETARIAN. [ The lack of meat eventually makes the heart "pack in" early" such that some poorer former rich Muslim provinces such as Punjab, Kashmir, had higher life expectancy than some of the richer, hindu, vegetarian states. I am sure East End london bangladeshis do have some great vegetarian dishes BUT THEY STILL EAT MEAT. I suspect those poorer communities you mention in Kensington have "McDonalds cheese" type diets [ through no fault of their own, simply through poverty ] and that diet, no matter how good local hospitals are, will send you to an early grave - if thrown in with poor housing conditions too.: Those poorer Kensington wards would have a VERY diverse group of nationalities, but certainly not healthy bangladeshi pescatarians : With my then Chinese girlfriend i spent an hour one night trying to get lodgings round the corner from where Tony Blair lives off edgeware rd in 2008- and was shocked by the abysmal standard of local b&bs. In fairness to edgeware rd, We ended up stumbling upon a brand new hotel off Edgeware rd, with an entirely arab clientele - fantastic room, great hotel, would highly recommend it
I think you deliberately chose to ignore the fact I said “mostly vegetarian”, and definitely didn’t say Bangladeshi’s *are* vegetarian.. Your biases aren’t subtle are they?
Great write-up Dr. Barrett and very interesting data/correlations. Genetics probably play the strongest role in longevity(?).
Nope. Account for only about 20-25%.