Can a community be designed to live longer?

“Blue zones” are places around the world where people have been reported to live longer, healthier lives. The idea began with researchers studying communities in places like Ikaria, Greece; Loma Linda, California; Nicoya, Costa Rica; Okinawa, Japan; and Sardinia, Italy, where daily life seems to support longevity through movement, connection, purpose, and healthier eating.But over time, blue zones have become more than a way to study longevity. They became a certification program exported to communities across the United States.In this video, we visit California’s Beach Cities to see what happens when a community tries to recreate the conditions of a blue zone, and ask whether the lessons of longevity can really be engineered, or whether basic public health ideas have been repackaged into something much bigger.Read more about blue zones:This video is presented by Colgate. Colgate doesn’t have a say in our editorial decisions, but they make videos like this one possible.