The Health Benefits of Being a Gheorghie: Why You Should Post More Often

Alternate headline: Gheorghe: the Ikigai

As one year ends and another begins, it's customary or at least fashionable to reflect upon the year past and think about the ways one might seek to improve their health, wealth, or happiness in the coming year. Unless you're Dave, who channels Neil DeGrasse Tyson and points out the fact (and it is a fact) that the distinction between December 31 and January 1 is entirely fabricated by humanity and really doesn't have any particular cosmological relevance.

I digress.

As it happens, I watched a documentary series the week between Christmas and New Year's entitled Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones. The concept of blue zones was initially popularized by Belgian demographer Michael Poulain, and references places in the world where people are supposed to have a greater-than-average life expectancy. Entrepreneur, distance cyclist, explorer, former Cheryl Tiegs-dater, and personality Dan Buettner ran with the concept. He produced and stars in the documentary series.

Buettner and his team studied the lifestyles of people in Ikaria (a remote Greek island); Loma Linda, CA; Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; and Nicoya, Costa Rica (all of which claim to have larger numbers of centenarians and lower incidences of mental decline and other disease than average), and identified four broad thematic similarities: move naturally, outlook, connect, and eat wisely. Each of the categories can be broken into three subcomponents, as seen below:

It's important to note that Buettner has a stake in our believing in the concept of blue zones and some of the prescriptions that follow from the way people live in them. For example, he's published a series of books touting blue zone dietary habits as a way to eat more healthily. Do I actually know what the people of Ikaria actually eat? I do not, and as such have no means by which to evaluate Buettner's claims.

But the point of this post (which the author finally gets around to in the fifth or sixth paragraph, just like they taught him in writing school) has little to do with diet. I think we're all aware that we should eat more vegetables, lean meat, legumes, and healthy oils and fewer ultra-processed foods, complex carbohydrates, fats, and alcoholic drinks. No, the thing I found most interesting about Live to 100 is its exploration of connection and purpose as vital ingredients in the recipe for longevity. 

As it happens, Okinawa serves as the exemplar for both concepts in the documentary. In Japanese, the word 'moai' means "meeting for a common purpose". As practiced in Okinawa, moai are intentionally-formed social groups that provide emotional and financial support while providing members with a shared sense of purpose and connectedness. 

Ikigai is a Japanese concept that seeks to define the things that give a person a sense of purpose and reason for living. In Live to 100, the filmmakers profile an exceptionally fit and vigorous octogenarian (whose name I cannot recall, sadly) who spends much of his time fashioning musical instruments from wood and then playing those instruments with friends and family. He wakes up each morning to make music and the means to allow others to do so.

It isn't a real stretch to get from the Blue Zones philosophy to the ways in which G:TB benefits those of us embracing the Gheorghian way of life. Yes, some of us don't eat terribly well. Sure, others probably drink too much or exercise too little. But another way the filmmakers frame the importance of connection is via the notion of belonging to the right tribe - our little moai is at least a foundation. And if you aren't waking up and thinking about how you can bring a little more Gheorghieness into the world (as in postcount), I think you know what you need to do.

The life you save may be your own.