Blue Zone: Seulo, Sardinia
I'm on expedition in the mountains of Sardinia visiting communities renown for the exceptional number of people who reach (and surpass) the age of 100.
Where to begin when the journey is still in progress? I’ll start somewhere in the middle.
Giovanni marched ahead, easily traversing the rocky terrain under the mid-morning sun, crossing small boulders and weaving through the scattered rocks the size of soccer balls. He did this unencumbered by a hiking stick, which I found essential for remaining upright. He paused ahead of me, pointing to a fragrant cluster of wild thyme, full of purple blooms being danced upon by butterflies and bees. "Look at the bees," he said with delight. "They're so happy to have this abundance of nectar."
He continued his walk among the thyme, leading me to an old juniper bush that emerged from tiny crevices in the rock. It’s trunk was gnarled and twisted, its branches full of bright green leaves. He gazed at in wonder, explaining “This tree must be at least one hundred years old. Just look at how it grew from this difficult, tiny space in the rocks! Incredible. It is just one example of nature’s art.”
In that moment, I could imagine many parallels between this wizened tree and the man who stood before me, gazing at it in wonder. At the age of 89, Giovanni Locci is still in amazing physical and mental form. Indeed, his mind is as sharp as a 30-year old. He holds in his memory banks countless local plant names and details on how things were done in his youth, and indeed, how agriculture is practiced today in his community. His father lived to the age of 101, and I foresee a beautiful future ahead for Giovanni as well.
He spent many years walking these mountains, following his flock of goats. He still rises early each morning, walking 15 minutes to his vineyard at 6:30 AM, where he spends a few hours tending his grapevines and fruit trees before returning to the village of his birth, Seulo.
Seulo is a community of 775 people located in Barbagia in the mountains on the southern side of the Italian island of Sardinia. Seulo has been the focus of numerous TV and radio programs in Italy, the US, other parts of Europe, and beyond. It’s fame is due to the unusual concentration of centenarians per capita. Countless people—journalists, scientists, and the curious public—have traveled here in hopes of discovering the secret of their longevity. I suppose I am now one of them.
You may be wondering, how did I come to be hiking in the mountains surrounding an isolated community on an island in the Mediterranean? And also why am I here? Permit me to go back in time to explain.
Sassari
Back in 2017, I met a Sardinian professor of agriculture (Professor Severino Zara of the Universita degli Studi di Sassari) while attending a scientific conference. As I have done research for more than 20 years in Italy, married an Italian, and speak the language, we hit it off in conversations about plants of the region. We stayed in touch.
Two years ago, an opportunity arose for a doctoral student exchange, and he sent one of his students (now a Ph.D., Dr. Amira Salim) to my lab in Atlanta to run experiments assessing the antimicrobial properties of different varieties of pomegranate in cultivation at their university’s experimental field stations. Then last year, he encouraged me to apply to a visiting professor short stay (1 week of teaching and networking) at his university, where I could visit their lab facilities, meet the faculty, and learn more about their research mission.
Leading up to this visit, I explained to Prof. Zara the focus for my next book topic, “Healthspan,” for which I was also recently awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. He very kindly introduced me to Dr. Gianni Pes, the medical doctor who first discovered this “Zona Blu” phenomenon of longevity in certain mountain communities, with a notable number of long lived men (in addition to women, which is more common in some other regions). Gianni and I quickly hit it off and he introduced me to the Blue Zone network coordinators, who in turn introduced me to the incredibly hospitable mayor of Seulo, Enrico Murgia (who accompanied Giovanni and I on our plant-hunting adventures) and Giovanni. The lesson here: be nice, make friends, and you’ll never know how those connections may help both you and your new friends in the future!
Ethnobotany of Blue Zones
Blue Zones are defined as locations in the world where people have exceptionally long lives beyond the age of 80, hypothesized to be due to a combination of inherited and environmental factors. While there have been numerous studies on the genetics of centenarians, their diets, their physical activities, social activities, and more—I feel that there is still much left to explore when it comes to understanding the ethnobotany—human interactions with nature—in these communities.
As an ethnobotanist with more than two decades of experience studying the uses of wild plants as food and medicine on the Italian mainland and circum-Sicilian islands, I am able to quickly note which plant uses are “unusual” or uncommon in other regions, and which are quite well known. So, in some ways, this pilot expedition is an opportunity to see what pops out to me. The biggest breakthroughs in science have always come from those scholars who knew enough to recognize the unusual in patterns and then dive deeper, and that is my intent here.
Since arriving in Seulo yesterday, we’ve already collected specimens of 35 species of wild plants used in food, medicine, and agriculture! The next week will be nonstop practice in rapid data collection not only in Barbagia, but also in multiple communities of the Ogliastra region. I’ll do my best to share what nuggets I learn along the way and afterwards with you all.
For now, I offer this simple advice I’ve learned from watching and engaging with Giovanni: get up early and spend some time in a garden (or nature in general). Eat enough, but not too much, and include lots of beans! Limit your red wine to a glass a day. See your family and hug your children and grandchildren every day. Spend your evening outdoors walking and chatting with friends. This is a kind of medicine I think we can all embrace if the barriers of time, lifestyle, and location don’t get in the way.
Yours in health, Dr. Quave
Cassandra L. Quave, Ph.D. is a Guggenheim Fellow, CNN Champion for Change, Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, and award-winning author of The Plant Hunter. Her day job is as professor and herbarium curator at Emory University School of Medicine, where she leads a group of research scientists studying medicinal plants to find new life-saving drugs from nature. She hosts the Foodie Pharmacology podcast and writes the Nature’s Pharmacy newsletter to share the science behind natural medicines. To support her effort, consider a paid or founding subscription or donation to her lab research.
So interesting! Thank you!
Please read Saul Newman's article “Superannuated and Oldest-Oldest Are Concentrated in Regions with No Birth Certificates and Short Life Expectancy”