What if you knew you could add healthy and happy years to your life? Would you be interested?
On behalf of Shelby County, Harlan is applying to become a Blue Zones Community to help our citizens lead longer, happier, more productive lives with less chronic disease, higher quality of life and lower health care costs.
A Blue Zone is where people live longer and better–well into their nineties or even 100s. Dubbed “Blue Zones” by National Geographic researcher Dan Buettner and best selling author “the Blue Zones–Lessons for Living Longer, from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest.” These longevity hotspots share nine lifestyle habits–Power 9 Principles–responsible for their remarkable results. Power 9 are easy small steps that everyone can take.
The Blue Zones Project is one part of Healthy Iowa Initiative–a privately led–Governor endorsed grassroots effort to make Iowa the “Healthiest State in the Nation” in 5 years. The Governor made an announcement about Blue Zones on August 10, 2011.
This project is a collaboration of Healthways and Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield Insurance Company.
This Blue Zones project will give 10 communities in Iowa the opportunity to become a Blue Zones Community. If chosen as one of the 10 communities we would receive direct support from Blue Zones National experts for 18-36 months.
One extremely important criteria will be community support. EVERYONE is urged to pledge their support for such an effort by going to www.bluezonesproject.com and clicking on “I am a Citizen.” Type in Harlan as the community you are supporting and enter the Harlan zip code 51537. You can also text BZP to 772937. You will simply be pledging the following–I want my hometown to be chosen to become a Blue Zones Community and pledge to participate if it is selected. You will be asked to choose some personal behaviors that you would do, and it is easy to choose at least one.