
Blue Zones and grey areas
In 2019, a preprint of an academic paper from said academic Dr Saul J Newman was published, criticising the data used to identify ‘Blue Zones’; areas of the world in which a disproportionate amount of people live long lives in good health. The researchers behind this data attributed this to things like nourishing diets, regular movement, strong community and methods of shedding stress, such as prayer, napping or a glass of wine with friends in the evening.
Blue Zones caught fire not only as a concept but also as business. Books and a Netflix series on the theme were created and devoured by a captive audience. But the data underpinning the idea, Dr Newman argued, is likely dominated by a mix of clerical errors (deaths going unreported, meaning that some who are no longer with us are on record as being over 100 years old; people not knowing how old they are, due to a lack of record-keeping at the time they were born) and pension fraud (relatives deliberately not reporting deaths in order to keep receiving cash in the name of the deceased.)
In March of this year, the preprint was updated, though not published in a peer-reviewed journal; and in September, Dr Newman collected an ‘Ig Nobel’ prize – a satirical award which is presented for scientific research that ‘makes people laugh, and then think’. This then sparked an autumnal media flurry that saw a long-held favourite health theory of many people – including myself – questioned in various features and news pieces.
That ‘Blue Zones’, identified in regions such as Sardinia in Italy and Okinawa in Japan, are a farce is not set in stone – academics who worked on the original project have published a rebuttal letter to Dr Newman’s findings. Interesting to me, though, is that you’ll still see mentions of the Blue Zones in various outlets, or referred to in press releases – with zero mention of the controversy.
This makes sense, of course. Neat health theories are nice. They get across an alluring idea (we can all avoid poor health in old age if we follow a set of precepts) in a story which is easy to grasp. What’s tricker to grapple with is that health is complex; deeply personal and often hinges on an interlocking series of realities. That’s more difficult to communicate, which, for people like you and I who make a living communicating, is no ideal.
It matters, though, to try and acknowledge these complications. Both because it’s what’s true, and also because it adds to your credibility, both as a journalist and as a PR. Acknowledging, not ignoring, the kinks in a theory, adds to your trustworthiness, which creates better long term relationships with your intended audience. Maybe a decent collective resolution for 2025 could be: let’s bring in these nuances, when we tell a health story?
For more from Claudia, subscribe to Afterglow, her newsletter about altered states.

What Claudia thinks… “Nice trending hook, which is clearly linked out to and evidenced, as well as a load of explainer copy. Lovely work.” |