Nashville Leaders Want to Promote Healthy Living in Low-ranking TN

November 03, 2009

By Christina E. Sanchez
Original Publication: The Tennessean

Nashville has to find its trigger point if it wants to become a "Blue Zone," a place where people live longer, healthier lives, longevity expert Dan Buettner told a gathering of health-care leaders and politicians on Monday.

In Okinawa, Japan, before people eat, they say, "hara hachi bu," which means they eat what's on their plate until they are 80 percent full and stop.

In Sardinia, Italy, elderly people and grandparents are revered as vital to the well-being of the community.

In Loma Linda, Calif., where a high concentration of Seventh-day Adventists live, they make Saturday an entire day devoted to sanctuary and well-being.

These communities have little or no dementia and low rates of cancer and heart disease, and most people live to be nearly 100 years old, said Buettner, author of The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest.

Nashville area health-care leaders and politicians, including Mayor Karl Dean and Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, tried to figure out how Nashville can change. At Monday's daylong conference, "Health and Well-being: Keys to Transformation," they explored how other places stay healthy. They stopped short of offering a solution.

"I am certainly in favor of a healthier Nashville," Dean said. "What we need to do now is figure out how we take what we learned today and combine those with what we are already doing." Dean pointed to green-street initiatives and programs like Walk-Bike-Nashville that are moving Nashville residents toward better choices.

On a well-being scale, Tennessee ranks 42nd of 50 states, with poor emotional and physical health, according to a Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index.

Nashville fares a bit better at 84th of 184 major metropolitan areas, with mediocre emotional health but good physical health. Keynote speaker Newt Gingrich, who founded the nonprofit Center for Health Transformation, said real change would come only from the community, not from politicians or the health industry.

"We reduce our problems to something Washington can fix," Gingrich said. "It doesn't work that way. People live their lives locally."

Policies that have worked in other communities include banning all food and drinks in hallways or classroom at schools. Students who live within a mile of the school walk to school.

People find ways to walk just as part of daily activity, not as exercise. Community gardens encourage residents to get out and be active while doing something they enjoy.

Buettner, the best-selling author, said the answer to healthier lives begins with overall well-being, which includes everything from eating wisely to connecting with social networks, shedding stress, finding purpose in life and staying active.

"Americans look at the wrong things," he said. "We focus on diet and exercise. The secret doesn't lie there."

Gingrich said Nashville could serve as a model for the rest of the country for healthy living, if it chooses to take on that role. "In many ways, Nashville is to health innovation what Silicon Valley is to IT innovation," Gingrich said. "We need to find a way for the community to come together."