Loma Linda Health's "Live It" Web Series Offers Keys to Health, Long Life

Spectrum Website
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You know that Loma Linda, California is a Blue Zone, famous for its high concentration of centenarians. But what factors contribute to longevity, and how? A new video series produced by Loma Linda University Health’s Advancement Films digs into the research that links specific dietary and lifestyle patterns to long life.

The “Live It” web series explores habits that many Loma Linda Seventh-day Adventists share—a vegetarian diet high in legumes and nuts, regular exercise, drinking plenty of water, and participation in a faith community (among other things), and explores related science.

The first video features Dr. Joan Sabaté, a professor at Loma Linda University’s School of Public Health and a researcher who has studied the effects of tree nut consumption on cholesterol levels and heart disease risk factors.

The series launch on New Year’s Day coincides with a time of year when many have made resolutions to live more healthfully. The “Live It” videos highlight data drawn from Sabaté’s research and from the Adventist Health Study and Adventist Health Study 2, which tracked 60 thousand and 96 thousand Seventh-day Adventists, respectively. Loma Linda University Health has led the discussion of links between vegetarianism and longevity.

See also Alita Byrd's interview with Sabaté: "Loma Linda Professor to Advise on USDA Nutrition Guidelines".

In a media release announcing the series, Cosmin Cosma, director of Loma Linda University Health’s Advancement Films said, “No other online health show focuses on longevity. Simply put, Loma Linda University Health is a leading organization on wellness and prevention.”

Upcoming installments in the “Live It” series:

January 8: Reusable shopping bags - great for the environment, but they carry bacteria in addition to groceries. Find out what to do to reduce bacteria with host Dr. Ryan Sinclair.

January 15: Can consuming pomegranate juice reduce alzheimer’s risk factors? Dr. Rich Hartman discusses the ways pomegranates reduce proteins linked with the disease.

January 22: Dr. Ernie Medina explores the necessity of standing and moving, including the mitigating risk factors for chronic diseases.

January 29: Laughter has proven to be a great medicine. Dr. Gurinder Bains discusses the health-promoting benefits in laughing, including for memory.

February 5: Avocados and Almonds can help with weight loss, as Dr. Ella Haddad reveals.

February 12: Dr. Synnove Knutsen offers the evidence linking water drinking with reduced risk of heart disease.

February 19: A Mediterranean diet, including plenty of healthy fats like olive oil, reduces bad cholesterol, and combats risk factors for heart disease. Dr. Ella Haddad leads this discussion.

February 26: Dr. Jerry Lee looks at the ways that participation in a faith community contributes to physical and mental wellbeing.

March 4: This video featuring Dr. Michael Orlich focuses on the links between a vegetarian diet and the reduction of chronic diseases.

March 11: How do green vegetables, brown rice, legumes, and dried fruit lead to reduced risk of colon cancer? Dr. Yessenia Tantamango explains.

March 18: Aerobic exercise lessens risk for type 2 diabetes and chronic diseases. Dr. David Hessinger explores the how and why.

March 25: Eating beans can make hip fractures less likely? Dr. Synnove Knutsen says yes!

April 1: Dr. L. Longo provides data on maternal nutrition with an eye on having healthier children.

Watch the first installment in the “Live It” series, focusing on nuts, with Joan Sabaté.

Jared Wright is Managing Editor of SpectrumMagazine.org.

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This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at http://spectrummagazine.org/node/7265
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these look like interesting, informative friday presentations…but i wonder if loma linda’s weather contributes to anything…i’ve just returned from a week in phoenix, and i do think people are less stressed when the temperature is warmer, and there’s plenty of sunshine out…people were incredibly friendly at the hotel i stayed at, the shopping malls, the restaurants, the symphony, the bars and clubs, and the various places i went…i don’t think people in the midwest and parts of the south have had the luxury to contemplate any links between diet and longevity this year…they’ve likely been too stressed out cleaning up after all the flooding that has come their way…

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I think it would be interesting to know if there’s a difference between the longevity in the area now, compared to what it was 40 years ago. When I last visited Loma Linda in 1974, it was impossible to take a deep breath without coughing. And on a clear night I counted fewer than 10 stars in the sky. Driving through the area was often like entering a yellow smoke-hazed organic chemistry lab. I’ve heard (just today from someone who grew up there and returns occasionally) that they’ve made great strides in cleaning up the air. That should have an effect on health.

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Very true, Birder. State anti-pollution regulations have done a remarkable job of cleaning up the air. Of course, that’s big government creating regulations for our own benefit, but we need to keep this a secret because the conservatives are convinced that environmentalists and environmental laws are the most toxic and deadly forms of pollution.

ADDED LATER:

Sure, but let’s not forget how meaningless a sample of 1 can be. Fortunately, a number of studies conducted by Harvard, Loma Linda, and others have included tens of thousands of participants and many over several decades of tracking, providing sufficient statistical power to control for many, many demographic and health factors. The prescription for longevity being pieced together by LLU scientists is nothing to sneeze at. And checking out Joan Sabate’s publications at Google Scholar, I see he is doing some very impressive work.

EDIT - Sorry, Quane, was in a hurry and wasn’t sure whether you were serious or jesting.

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I wonder why they don’t include the diet of some of the world’s longest-living people?

"The quantity of pork consumption per person a year in Okinawa is larger than that of the Japanese national average. For example, the quantity of pork consumption per person a year in Okinawa in 1979 was 7.9 kg (17 lb) which exceeded by about 50% that of the Japanese national average."

It seems their heavy pork diet might even increase longevity more than the Loma Linda diet!

“In addition to their high life expectancy, islanders are noted for their low mortality from cardiovascular disease and certain types of cancers. Wilcox (2007) compared age-adjusted mortality of Okinawans versus Americans and found that, during 1995, an average Okinawan was 8 times less likely to die from coronary heart disease, 7 times less likely to die from prostate cancer, 6.5 times less likely to die from breast cancer, and 2.5 times less likely to die from colon cancer than an average American of the same age.”

These Okinawans with their heavy pork diet live on average 20 years longer than Ellen White.

The world’s longest-living women, attributed her long life to smoking cigarettes daily, gunning down some generous belts of port wine everyday, and abundant chocolate consumption:

She outlived Ellen White by some 36 years.

And hey, my diet recommendations are a LOT more fun than thinking that cinnamon is a “depraved perversion!”

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What matter is how one lived. The length can be an advantage and it could also be a disadvantage. looking at 91, Length is no longer an objective. Tom Z

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This event is taking the best of EGW’s inspiration that have become foundational to Adventism. Our church would not possess a collective health consciousness were it not for EGW. Yet we have left behind the Lord’s instruction, as a historical footnote, that does not fit modern medical advice.

“I saw that the reason why God did not hear the prayers of His servants for the sick among us more fully was that He could not be glorified in so doing while they were violating the laws of health.”

“In this fast age, the less exciting the food, the better. Condiments are injurious in their nature. Mustard, pepper, spices, pickles, and other things of a like character, irritate the stomach and make the blood feverish and impure. The inflamed condition of the drunkard’s stomach is often pictured as illustrating the effect of alcoholic liquors. A similarly inflamed condition is produced by the use of irritating condiments. Soon ordinary food does not satisfy the appetite. The system feels a want, a craving, for something more stimulating.”

“Of these our benevolent heavenly Father says we may freely eat. Fruits, grains, and vegetables, prepared in a simple way, free from spice and grease of all kinds, make, with milk or cream, the most healthful diet.”

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There are a LOT of different programs offered out “there” regarding staying healthy.
The Best I have seen promote these 3 things:–
EAT – 9 1/2 [one-half] cup servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Make meat [preferably fish, low fat chicken, watch beef and pork for the fat] a side-dish, not a main dish.
DRINK – 10 to 12 8-ounce glasses of water per day.
MOVE – 30 minutes a day to increase one’s heart rate level. [Or, walk a 20-minute mile]. The ADA says 3 10-minute walks, one after each meal is good as 30-minutes at one time.
One’s calorie intake is based on BMI figures.
Another Diet – The Every Other Day Diet – recommends ingesting only 500 to 800 calories every other day, and then eat what you want [within reason. Not more than 150% of BMI needs] on the Non-Diet day.
It claims relief of Inflammatory Diseases – Lung problems, Pancreas, Joints, Blood Vessels [from blood fats]. It’s protocols are the same for Eat, Drink, Move as listed first above.

The Fiber diet of 9 servings of fruits and vegetables says that 20 grams of Fiber a day is the minimum one should get. Recommend attempting 30 to 40 grams.
Another WebSite I saw relating Fiber just to Men, said Men should get 50 to 60 grams of Fiber a day.
Meat and Dairy [milk, eggs, cheese, etc] have no fiber and are just calories.

These say the Average American is chronically dehydrated. Dehydration causes a lot of physiological problems. The Brain is sensitive to decreased blood volume, and interferes with Na+ and K+ levels in the Brain causing headaches, anxiety, stress, tired, mental fatigue.
Dehydration has an action on the Kidneys causing decreased urine, more fluid in the blood vessels for the heart to pump and increased Na+ retention.
The Renin-Angiotension activity is turned on and increases the Blood Pressure to Hypertension. The hypertension affects the Kidney circulation, and begins Kidney destruction over time.
Beer and other Alcoholic drinks along with salty snacks which many ingest with them causes Dehydration. Recommends drinking water between drinks and between wine servings.

Length of Life. It depends on how one ends up spending it. An 86 year old man I met the other day enjoys traveling. Couple years ago he spent a number of weeks in Australia. Has been to the British Isles. Planning a trip to Central America this Spring.
When I was Administrator of a Nursing Home, I had this 65 year old lady begin as my Housekeeping supervisor. She retired at age 85 [had 3 knee replacements in that time. Wore one out with her daily walking after work]. Then she became a Volunteer until she died at 92.
A lady in our SDA church is 92. Had been a Greeter at BassPro for about 8 years. One year recently won an award from the company for being the best greeter. Couple of months ago had to quit related to a shoulder problem, surgery, etc.

Is anyone aware that there will soon be a huge problem with ADULT ONSET DIABETES AMONG TEENAGERS, and these persons will have to begin going on “pills” and possibly Insulin injections because of their dietary habits?

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Quite funny : Here inVienna the inhabitants of downtown - now growing old with their classic Viennese diet - just have the lifespan of all life long healthy living Adventisits, while the hard working inhbitants of sector 15 -with their life in austerity hav an average life expectancy of - the rest of US. /Figures recently published)

In the Seventies I ws coauthor of a study for planing the requrement of hospital beds for inpatients. for each Viennese sector. Just woner a little : There ws a correlation betweenn trees in the avenues and the need for such beds : Eas to explain - it is not the green of the leaves, wealthy people just live there, where the avenues are !

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I see someone didn’t “get” my sarcasm. Sigh…

OTOH, the Pork-heavy diet of Okinawans DOES seem to make them into some of the longest-living people on earth, as demonstrated by the following studies:

http://www.okicent.org/docs/anyas_cr_diet_2007_1114_434s.pdf

http://www.okicent.org/docs/500s_willcox_okinawa_diet.pdf

http://ajgg.org/AJGG/V7N1/v7n1_SA8_PC%20Willcox.pdf

You got to give me some credit for Chutzpah for trying to market a Pork-heavy; light cigarette smoking; chocolate-addiction; a few stiff belts of hard liquor per day-diet to Adventists, though.

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long or short, life is given and taken. the difference is not its length but it’s purpose and its focus. Does one live with the assurance of Grace? does one share it? Does one live abundantly as a son and daughter of a risen Savior? In the shadow of the Cross, death is no longer an enemy, but a period of rest in hope that is well founded on the life, death, resurrection, Ascension, installationas as our Advocate, and coming King of Kings. To assume we play a part in His victory, is condemning pride. let it be far from us. We are the recipients of His doing and dying, not ours. long or short let us praise His Name among all people, witnessing in sharing our hope and assurance, in His victory,not ours. tom Z

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