Are Blue Zones Actually Legit? A New Study Says Yes

If you’ve ever wondered whether the longevity claims attached to Blue Zones were too good to be true, a new peer-reviewed study offers clarity. 

The research, published in the journal The Gerontologist, offers the most detailed scientific response yet to recent criticism of the Blue Zones, the five geographic regions associated with unusually high numbers of centenarians.

The research reasserts the science behind Blue Zones

Study authors Steven N. Austad, PhD, Scientific Director of the American Federation for Aging Research and Distinguished Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Giovanni M. Pes, MD, Professor of Medicine at the University of Sassari, lay out more than two decades of validated demographic evidence showing that age claims in the original Blue Zones meet rigorous scientific standards.

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“Extraordinary claims about longevity demand extraordinary evidence,” Austad said in a statement. “What we show in this paper is that the original Blue Zones meet—and often exceed—the strict validation criteria used worldwide to confirm exceptional human longevity.”

That matters because for years, commentators outside the field of demographic gerontology have suggested reported ages in the Blue Zones might be inflated by poor record-keeping, error, or fraud. Austad and Pes argue that this skepticism often overlooks a century and a half of methodological advances designed specifically to detect and eliminate false age claims.

How longevity is actually verified

Rather than relying on personal testimony, Blue Zones research is built on documentary evidence. The authors detail how researchers use multiple independent sources—civil birth and death records, church archives, military and electoral registries, genealogical reconstruction, and in-person interviews—to confirm ages. Any case that cannot be conclusively validated is excluded from analysis.

Blue Zones

“These methods were developed precisely because age exaggeration has been common throughout history,” Pes said. “Blue Zones are not based on self-report. They are based on painstaking cross-checking of records, often going back more than a century.”

The paper emphasizes that Blue Zones are identified through population-level survival patterns rather than isolated anecdotes. Across the four original regions—Sardinia in Italy, Okinawa in Japan, Ikaria in Greece, and Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula—researchers consistently find unusually high proportions of people living to advanced ages when compared with peer populations.

From research to the exam room

That body of evidence now has a formal pathway into clinical practice. Blue Zones and the American College of Lifestyle Medicine have launched the Blue Zones Certification Course for Physicians and Health Professionals, an online program designed to translate longevity research into patient care and community-level health interventions.

The certification integrates Blue Zones’ environment-first approach to health with lifestyle medicine, a medical specialty that focuses on nutrition, physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, social connection, and avoidance of risky substances to prevent, treat, and reverse chronic disease.

Sam Williams | Unsplash

“Blue Zones has proven that you can improve population health outside clinic walls by redesigning the places and systems in which people spend the most time,” said Ben Leedle, CEO of Blue Zones. “When you converge ‘care of the patient’ with ‘health of the public,’ you don’t just treat or reverse disease, you can prevent it at scale.”

To earn Blue Zones Certification, clinicians must first complete lifestyle medicine board certification through the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine or the International Board of Lifestyle Medicine. Since the lifestyle medicine exam debuted in 2017, the number of certified clinicians worldwide has grown to more than 8,000, with nearly 900 new certifications added each year. Growth accelerated nearly threefold between 2023 and 2025, with a record 1,728 individuals registering for the 2025 exam.

“Clinicians who achieve Blue Zones Certification will stand out in their communities as leaders in the movement to transform healthcare from a system of ‘sick care’ to one of true health restoration,” said Padmaja Patel, MD, President of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. “This certification affirms their commitment to evidence-based, lifestyle-first approaches, while also providing them with the visibility, credibility, and brand recognition that helps strengthen the trust of patients, colleagues, and health systems alike.”