What can ‘blue zones’ really teach us about aging?

In 2023, Netflix released a documentary titled “Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones,” which looked at some small, geographically isolated places around the world in which, reportedly, residents regularly lived to 100 or beyond.

It was just the most recent installment to a longevity franchise that began roughly 25 years ago. But how real are “blue zones”? And has the concept’s commercialization drowned out its scientific value?

Medical journalist Shelley Wood, author of the novel “The Leap Year Gene of Kit McKinley,” and cardiologist Eric Topol, author of “Super Agers,” recently teamed up recently to write a First Opinion essay examining blue zones at 25 years. They join host Tori Bosch on this episode of the “First Opinion Podcast” to discuss their findings and how the idea of blue zones fits into the current longevity craze. They argue that the concept, which originated with mountain villages in Sardinia, Italy, may have been flawed from the start, given how many records were destroyed by World War II — but that it still promotes some valuable ideas, especially in an age of longevity pseudoscience.