Think your community would be a good fit for the Blue Zones Project?
Support your hometown’s effort to become a Blue Zones Community.
One of the centerpieces of the Healthiest State Initiative is the Blue Zones Project™, a collaboration of Wellmark® Blue Cross® and Blue Shield® and Healthways. Blue Zones are geographically defined areas around the world such as Sardinia, Italy; Okinawa, Japan; and Loma Linda, California, where people reach age 100 at rates 10 times greater than in the United States. We’d like to transform some Iowa cities and towns into Blue Zones Communities, where people “Live Longer, Better.”
The Blue Zones Project will ignite a community-by-community movement to improve the well-being of Iowa communities through the application of learnings from the Blue Zones and from Healthways research from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index®. To help with this transformation, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield will bring national experts to ten Iowa communities over the next five years. These experts will work alongside local leaders to implement a road map to change their communities so that their residents may live longer, healthier and more productive lives.
Learn more about the opportunity to become a Blue Zones Community.
One of the important tenants of one of the original Blue Zones Communities is a “moai” which refers to a small social group that meets regularly. Based on this tradition, form your own moai with a committed group of friends who make health a priority. This involves meeting some new friends and spending time with them. Surrounding yourself with health conscious people creates a positive effect on your own health.