Secrets of Living Beyond 100 – A Blue Zone in New Richmond, Wisconsin

Dan Buettner should have gone to New Richmond, Wis.Buettner has created a company called Blue Zones, which is selling the ‘product’ of longevity. He’s traveled to a bunch of countries to learn ‘secrets of longevity’ and keys to living longer. The Blue Zones web site says they’ve developed a program to help you feel better, look younger, and avoid 70% of the diseases that will kill you before your timeWe didn’t travel to Sardinia or Taiwan. Instead we went across the river to Wisconsin and talked with one of Ecumen’s customers 106-year-old Marion Davidson. What she told us echos some of what Buettner and other longevity researchers have said, but it also doesn’t:- Forget the Red Wine: We’ve all heard about how red wine is beneficial. Marion never drank it. She said she had alcohol once and got sick and said ‘never again.’- Exercise, Never Did it: Marion isn’t big on exercise like Ecumen customer Hardy Rickbeil. Never has been.Diet? Marion has always eaten what she’s always wanted to eat. No special diets. She even admitted as a kid she sometimes at the fertile dirt of Forest Lake, Minn.A Very Religious Person: This is where Marion does connect with some of the research done by various longevity researchers. Marion is an extremely religious person. She loves a great sermon.Likes Optimism: Her two favorite presidents during her lifetime? New Deal inventor FDR and Ronald Regan.Marion will soon be 107.