washington dan buettner writer and adventurer has bicycled around the world started ventures to teach people about different cultures he is globetrotting with a team of doctors and demographers pinpointing places where people live longest i just became obsessed with finding what it is that helps these people he said buettners newest expedition is to the nicoyan peninsula on the pacific coast of costa rica for reasons doctors are striving to understand men in nicoya live to age 100 four times as often as men in the us even though their medical care costs only about 7 as muchbuettner calls nicoya a blue zone a place where many factors combine to allow people to live longer and better theres no one silver bullet he says but there are about eight things people can do and each can give them six to 18 additional good months of lifebuettner has profiled two other blue zones the mountainous italian island of sardinia where farmers work hard in the fields drink red wine eat fruits and vegetables they grew themselves and are taught to respect their elders the japanese island of okinawa here there is no word for retirement but there is another word ikigai which translates roughly to purpose or that which makes ones life worth living men there have a fifth as much cancer as americans and a quarter as much heart diseasemany of the things people do in these widely dispersed places probably sound familiar people there are active throughout their lives they eat a lot of fruits and vegetables but little meat they dont get fat they put a premium on family friends and religion for emotional supportand as researchers have reported people who drink a glass of red wine a day tend to live longer than teetotalers buettner also found surprises it appears high altitude is good for you thinner air actually lowers ones blood pressure and more exposure to the sun means more vitamin d alos people who eat nuts seem to live two or three years more than averagealthough as buettner said is that because the nuts are good for you or because youre not eating potato chipsthere are probably many factors people cannot control genetics clearly play a significant role in peoples longevity but buettner is trying to communicate his findings to schoolchildren in the belief that if they adopt healthy lifestyles early they will benefit for a long timewith help from the university of minnesota the national geographic society and the allianz life insurance company hes put together a computer program that estimates for people based on their lifestyle and behaviour how long theyre likely to live and suggests how they can improve their odds people who just concentrate on diet and exercise are missing threequarters of the picture he said theres a whole a la carte menu that will help you live longer and better