Good morning. It's Wednesday, July 22, and welcome to this week's Health & Medicine newsletter. First time reading? Sign up here or forward to share with friends.
This week, we're going to tackle the history and controversies around blue zones, areas around the world where researchers have reported high concentrations of healthy agers and low rates of chronic disease. We're also covering news about the dangers of heading the ball in soccer, US military testosterone testing, new clinical trials for Huntington's disease, and more.
Thanks for your messages! Whether it's feedback on today's email, sorrow over the end of the World Cup, or you want to share your top read of the month, simply reply to this email, or email me directly at [email protected]. I'll be sure to write you back.
FYI, my favorite read this month was "Beyond Belief: How Evidence Shows What Really Works" by Helen Pearson.
—Dina Fine Maron, 1440 Health & Medicine Section Editor |
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Location, Location, Location |
Blue zones are regions around the world that appear to have high concentrations of healthy older people—including centenarians—and low rates of chronic disease, potentially due to factors such as genetics, diet, social connections, and more.
> "Blue zone cooking" emphasizes cooking with simple, fresh ingredients and echoes themes of the well-known Mediterranean diet. (More)
The term "blue zones" was first used in an academic paper in 2004 that sought to verify if there were truly pockets of very healthy agers in Sardinia, Italy. The elevated centenarian concentration there was first described in a 1999 research paper. Blue zones were literal—they referred to the blue dots demographers marked on a map to indicate that ages had been verified in those locations through painstaking methods, including cross-checking against civil records and conducting interviews about historical events.
> Researchers initially hypothesized that inbreeding in these isolated communities may have helped promote their longevity. (More)
> Monaco has the world's oldest population overall, with more than 36% of its residents aged 65 or older. (More)
A 2005 National Geographic article by journalist Dan Buettner popularized the term blue zones, and Buettner went on to produce a related Netflix documentary series, pen numerous books on blue zones, and launch cooking courses on blue-zone eating, among other related commercial efforts. There are blue zone-inspired retreats, meals, and more. In recent years, blue zones have sparked controversy as some critics have questioned the original record-keeping in those areas and noted that the number of healthy seniors in the original blue zone regions is now declining.
> Buettner has trademarked the term blue zones. (More)
> One Oxford researcher is leading the blue zone criticisms, questioning record-keeping for these purported longevity-prone locations and pointing to recent research showing declining numbers of healthy seniors in several official blue zone regions. (More)
> Read why some of the original blue zone demographers say blue zone regions are real and worth studying. (More)
Discover more:
> Explore the arguments questioning the validity of blue zones in this paper posted on a preprint server; it hasn't yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal. (More)
> Buettner fires back at criticisms of blue zones in this 2026 letter to the editor published by STAT News. (More)
> Fort Worth, Texas, is the largest US blue zone area—a designation not from demographers but from Buettner's organization. (More)
>... explore everything we've learned about Blue Zones. |
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1440 brings you the knowledge and context behind recent intriguing stories:
A famous British soccer champion, Nobby Stiles, died from brain complications related to heading the ball about 140,000 times, according to the coroner. (More)
> Retired professional soccer players are showing neurological issues and reduced gray matter in midlife.
> The National Hockey League has rejected ties between CTE and playing hockey.
Scientists have detected a type of sugar in outer space that's also found in raspberries. (More)
> Teddy Roosevelt was once prescribed a daily dose of an artificial sweetener to limit his weight gain.
> Sugar alcohols, a type of carbohydrate used as a sweetener, may elevate the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
Controversy is brewing about whether nicotine pouches were approved without enough consideration of microplastic exposure. (More)
> Microplastics are entering the food chain through carrots, wheat, and other foodstuffs.
> See where microplastics accumulate in the body, with varying levels across our hair, tissue, fluids, and other body parts.
The FDA has approved a daily cholesterol-lowering pill, Lipfendra, that can be used alongside statins. (More)
> Your body produces most of its cholesterol overnight.
> Targeting cholesterol metabolism may help address macular degeneration.
The US military's new plan to begin routinely testing service members for testosterone deficiency elicits medical concerns. (More)
> The term "low T" was coined in 2002, recasting testosterone therapy and elevating demand.
> Men are flocking to hundreds of new online testosterone clinics for low T prescriptions.
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Medical Developments Spotlight |
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We love spending time learning about the latest medical breakthroughs and spotlighting research that piques our interest, may influence future research directions, or inform healthcare conversations. Here's what we found this week.
Nearly half of all New York state pedestrians killed by a vehicle collision may have had potential impairments due to substance use.
Injury Prevention | Jancarlos Guzman, Matthew F Garnett, et al. The new finding, a review of the 771 pedestrian deaths in the state between 2018 and 2020, concluded that 44% of the pedestrians who died as a result of a collision with a vehicle had potentially been under the influence of alcohol, drugs, or both, with many of the deaths occurring on Saturday evenings. The researchers write that the substances may have impaired their safe crossing decisions, heightening their risk. (More)
> Despite originating in America, happy hour is banned in some states.
A tau-targeting Alzheimer’s treatment shows promise with midstage clinical trials.
BioPharma Dive | Jacob Bell. Results from a phase 2 study of a novel medication that targets tau—one of two proteins that have been found deformed and clumped inside the brains of Alzheimer's patients—were presented at an Alzheimer's conference in London last week, showing the drug slowed cognitive decline and reduced tau production, buoying hopes for future combined therapies that would address both tau and amyloid plaques to combat cognitive decline. (More)
> Scientists are reevaluating the causes of Alzheimer's beyond the amyloid hypothesis after numerous experimental drugs designed to target that theory have failed.
Common knee surgery to combat cartilage tear pain may be doing more harm than good.
KFF Health News | Elisabeth Rosenthal. An analysis that followed patients for 10 years after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery to trim degenerative cartilage tears or a "sham surgery" with just a skin incision found that the surgery provided little or no benefit, and it was linked with more rapid osteoarthritis, and higher rates of reoperation and knee replacements. (More)
>See the anatomy of a healthy knee joint, which has smooth cartilage that cushions the joints and protects the bones from rubbing together. |
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