Dan Buettner

So downshift is this idea of

that in all these blue zones, they have rituals that help de-stress them.

An important thing to realize when it comes to longevity is inflammation is the root of every age-related disease.

We get inflammation from our food.

You know, if you're eating lots of sugar or processed food, it inflames our body.

People don't realize this.

If you open up our digestive tract, it's the size of a tennis court.

And if you're constantly bathing that digestive tract into sugar or red meat or eggs and cheese or processed food, you get this low-grade inflammation constantly.

being stressed or worried or constantly in a hurry, this also generates inflammation.

And what happens is one of the byproducts of stress or shitty food, it leaches into our bloodstream, this biochemical that hardens our artery, shrinks our brains, wrinkles our skin, makes it more likely we're suffering from dementia, heart disease, type two diabetes.

And the important thing to do on a day-to-day basis to avoid that is to de-stress or downshift.

In blue zones, they do that by number one, ancestor veneration in Okinawa.

They remember where they came from, their ancestors.

Number two, they take naps like we see in Nicoya or Ikaria.

Taking a daily nap lowers inflammation and also lowers your chance of cardiovascular disease by about 30%.

Very important number there.

The Adventists, they pray.

When you think about it, real prayer, whether it's when you wake up in the morning or before a meal, it's like a meditation, lowers those cortisol levels.

And in Sardinia, their main downshift ritual, they're big churchgoers, but also they have a daily happy hour where they'll get together with friends no matter how busy their day was, talk out their problems, have a glass or two of wine, lower that cortisol.

I think it's a good practice for the rest of us as well.