We’re all frequently (and often painfully) reminded about all the things that can shorten our life expectancy: too many processed foods; not enough exercise, to name but two. But now, a new Netflix documentary, created by bestselling author Dan Buettner, explores not what destroys us, but what can help us live to a ripe old age. Buettner has spent the past 20 years locating and then researching five communities across the world which he identified as having the highest rates of longevity and good health. These areas – located in Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Nicoya, Costa Rica; Ikaria, Greece, and Loma Linda, California – are now known as “Blue Zones”, and are the subject of his fascinating four-part series. Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zonesof the Blue Zones, which premieres on 30 August, follows the award-winning journalist as he gets to know the people who hold the secrets to living well into their 100s. Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones | Official Trailer | Netflix www.youtube.com After years of studying these Blue Zone inhabitants, Buettner and his team of demographers, anthropoligists, medics and epidemiologists managed to pinpoint nine lifestyle habits that are consistent across all five populations. They have dubbed these the “Power 9”, and they form the heart of the new docu-series. So what are these nine habits? And can anyone adopt them, regardless of their postcode? 1. Move Naturally We all know the importance of keeping fit but, according to Buettner, the world’s longest-lived people “don’t pump iron, run marathons or join gyms”. “Instead, they live in environments that constantly nudge them into moving without thinking about it,” he and his colleagues state on the website for their Blue Zones organisation. These groups don’t rely on machines to do their housework, they grow gardens and tend to all their chores by hand. 2. Have a sense of purpose Having a sense of purpose is worth up to seven years of extra life expectancy, the Blue Zones team has concluded. Knowing why you wake up in the morning is crucial to making the most of your life. 3. Eliminate stress Everyone suffers from stress, even the people who live in Blue Zones, and stress leads to chronic inflammation which is associated with every major age-related disease. However, the difference between how many of us cope with stress and how these communities do is that they take active steps to “shed” it. “Okinawans take a few moments each day to remember their ancestors, Adventists (who live in Loma Linda, California) pray, Ikarians take a nap and Sardinians do happy hour,” Buettner says. 4. Eat till you're 80 per cent full Okinawans understand the importance of not overeating. Indeed, they constantly remind themselves to stop eating when they’re 80 per cent full. The 20 per cent gap between not being hungry and feeling full could be the difference between losing weight or gaining it, according to the Blue Zones team. They note that people in the five communities eat their smallest meal in the late afternoon or early evening and then don’t eat anymore for the rest of the day. 5. Go plant-based Sorry, meat lovers, but if you want to live longer, you need to cut back. Beans, including fava, black, soy and lentils, are the cornerstone of most centenarian diets and meat (mostly pork) is eaten on average only five times per month. Serving sizes are 85g-115g, which is definitely a lot less than most of us get through in one sitting. 6. Enjoy your evening wine Good news for those of us who enjoy an evening tipple: People in all Blue Zones (except the Californian Adventists) drink alcohol moderately and regularly. Moderate drinkers outlive non-drinkers, Buettner claims, however, he states: “The trick is to drink 1-2 glasses per day (preferably Sardinian Cannonau wine), with friends and/or with food. “And no, you can’t save up all week and have 14 drinks on Saturday.” 7. Belong to a community Buettner and his team have interviewed 263 centenarians over the years and all but five of them belonged to some faith-based community. The denomination doesn’t seem to matter, however, attending faith-based services four times per month will add between four and 14 years to your life, research suggests. 8. Put your loved ones first “You do you” may be the mantra for many Western communities in particular, but Blue Zoners put their families first. “This means keeping ageing parents and grandparents nearby or in the home ([which] lowers disease and mortality rates of children in the home too.)” Buettner states, as well as committing to a life partner. It also means investing time and love in your kids, who are then more likely to care for you later on. 9. Surround yourself with good friends Social networks are key. And no, we don’t mean Facebook. The world’s longest-living people are part of friendship groups that commit to each other and encourage each other to follow healthy behaviours. Studies suggest that smoking, obesity, happiness, and even loneliness are contagious, so if you surround yourself with happy and healthy people, you’re more likely to enjoy the same benefits. Conclusion So if we follow these “Power 9” habits, we’ll all live to 100? Not necessarily. Buettner has conceded that “to make it to age 100, you have to have won the genetic lottery”. However, he also stresses that “most of us have the capacity to make it well into our early 90s and largely without chronic disease” if we adopt a Blue Zones lifestyle. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. 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Scientists have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that can classify four subtypes of Parkinson’s disease with up to 95% accuracy. Researchers from the Francis Crick Institute and the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology in London “trained” a computer program to recognise the subtypes of the condition using images of stem cells from patients. The team said their work, published in the journal Nature Machine Intelligence, could pave the way for personalised medicine and targeted drug discovery. Sonia Gandhi, assistant research director and group leader of the Neurodegeneration Biology Laboratory at the Crick, said: “We understand many of the processes that are causing Parkinson’s in people’s brains. The hope is that one day this could lead to fundamental changes in how we deliver personalised medicine Sonia Gandhi, Francis Crick Institute “But, while they are alive, we have no way of knowing which mechanism is happening, and therefore can’t give precise treatments. “We don’t currently have treatments which make a huge difference in the progression of Parkinson’s disease. “Using a model of the patient’s own neurons, and combining this with large numbers of images, we generated an algorithm to classify certain subtypes – a powerful approach that could open the door to identifying disease subtypes in life. “Taking this one step further, our platform would allow us to first test drugs in stem cell models, and predict whether a patient’s brain cells would be likely to respond to a drug, before enrolling into clinical trials. “The hope is that one day this could lead to fundamental changes in how we deliver personalised medicine.” Parkinson’s is a condition in which parts of the brain become progressively damaged over many years. Symptoms include involuntary shaking of particular parts of the body, slow movement, and stiff and inflexible muscles. But there is also a wide range of other physical and psychological symptoms such as depression and anxiety, problems sleeping, and memory problems. These vary from person to person due to differences in the underlying mechanisms causing the disease. The researchers said that until now, there was no way to accurately differentiate Parkinson’s subtypes. It means people are given nonspecific diagnoses and do not always have access to targeted treatments, support or care, the team added. For the study, the researchers generated stem cells, which have the ability to develop into specialised cell types in the body, from patients’ own cells. The team then used those cells to chemically create four different subtypes of Parkinson’s: two involving pathways leading to toxic build-up of a protein called alpha-synuclein and two involving pathways associated with dysfunctional mitochondria, the cell’s battery packs. Working with the British technology company Faculty AI, the team developed machine-learning algorithms which were able to accurately predict the Parkinson’s subtype when presented with images it had not seen before. James Evans, a PhD student at the Crick and UCL, and first co-author of the study, said: “Now that we use more advanced image techniques, we generate vast quantities of data, much of which is discarded when we manually select a few features of interest. “Using AI in this study enabled us to evaluate a larger number of cell features, and assess the importance of these features in discerning (the) disease subtype. “Using deep learning, we were able to extract much more information from our images than with conventional image analysis. “We now hope to expand this approach to understand how these cellular mechanisms contribute to other subtypes of Parkinson’s.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Oxford scientists find no evidence to suggest Facebook not good for wellbeing Many adults would struggle to understand video-sharing platforms’ rules – Ofcom Ozzy Osbourne PlayStation tweet which failed to reveal link to Sony banned

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