If you like a mystery, you’re going to love this.

In 2005, Dr. Luis Rosero, a Costa Rican demographer trained in the U.S, presented a paper at an international conference claiming to have discovered that 60 year-old Costa Ricans have the longest life expectancy of anyone in the world. In other words, if you are middle aged and live in Costa Rica, you are more likely to reach, say, a healthy age 90 than your counterparts worldwide. The academics at the conference did not believe Dr. Rosero. After all, Central America is still considered “Third World,” a place of poverty, tropical disease, and, during the 1990’s, terrible wars. How could the people here live longer than “First World” countries like those in Europe and the U.S?

In August, thanks to a grant from National Geographic, world-renowned longevity expert Dr. Michel Poulain and I traveled to Costa Rica to meet Dr. Rosero and examine his data. We interviewed 90 to 100-year-olds to verify their ages, and then doubled-checked in the archives (Costa Rica has an excellent record-keeping system that has recorded everyone born since 1888.) to make sure our subjects weren’t lying or misguided about their dates of birth. We found that not only was Dr. Rosero’s data accurate, but in looking at it closer we noticed something extraordinary—a Blue Zone: In northwestern Costa Rica residents live even longer than people in the rest of the country.


This area--the Nicoya peninsula—is about 70 miles long and 30 miles wide. Surfer beaches and upscale resorts hem the peninsula’s western edge. But inland, forest-covered hills and cow pastures blanket most of the terrain. For the 75,000 or so people who live here, life proceeds much the way as it has for hundreds of years. Nikoyans make their living as small farmers, laborers or sabaneros — cowboys who work the area’s huge cattle ranches. Judging by the dusty villages where neighbors hang out on porches, or the rural homes where women still cook on ancient wood burning stoves, you’d never guess that the Nicoya is the longest-live place in the Americas.

We’ve recruited a world-class team to unravel the mystery as to why people here are living so long. Scientists generally agree that less than 25 percent of how long we live is dictated by genetics—how long our parents and grandparents lived. The other 75 percent or so is determined by our lifestyle—our habits day in and day out. Over the next three weeks, our team will be carefully examining the culture of Nicoya, searching for clues in their habits and behaviors that may explain how long they live.

And you’re part of the team.

So here’s your briefing. We’ve already uncovered several leads. For example, we know that Nicoya is the driest part of Costa Rica, that it used to be part of Nicaragua, and that more Indians intermarried with the Spanish who began settling here in 1510. We know that the diet here is different than that of the rest of the country, and that the character of the people here is unique in the world. Finally, we know that there is literally something in the water. All in all, we have about 20 clues that we’re going to pursue. Each day, we’d like you to Direct the Team to decide where we’ll search for evidence and how we spend our time. The following day, we’ll report back to you. In each Daily Dispatch and Video, we’ll not only tell you a good story, but we’ll include at least one piece of Nicoya’s longevity puzzle.

Before signing off, I’m going to make a pledge: First, I promise that everything we do for the next three weeks is rooted in science and second, I promise at the end of this, we will give you the formula—our best educated guess—for how these people are living so long and well.

The formula should help you get more years out of your life and more life out of your years.

Live Large,

Dan

P.S. Come to Direct the Team to vote where Eliza searches tomorrow