Before Dr. Dándote Salud existed, there was a question: how to grow older with the freedom to keep walking, making our own decisions, and sharing life with other people. Preventive medicine was the starting point. We wanted to understand what we can care for before disease develops and how today’s decisions relate to the lives we will have tomorrow. An interest in healthy longevity led us to the Blue Zones and then to a broader body of research on lifestyle.
That exploration became a website. On October 11, 2025, Dan published its first article, “Zonas Azules: Lecciones para una Vida Larga y Saludable”, about lessons from the Blue Zones. As we celebrate our first year, we return to those beginnings and share five habits that have been part of our own changes. We could have chosen more. These are the ones we offer today to help you find a place to start.
The essentials in 5 lines
- The platform grew from an interest in prevention and healthy longevity.
- Blue Zones raised questions we continue to explore through research.
- Habits matter alongside the conditions in which we live.
- We chose five starting points, with differences in the evidence behind them.
- A change needs time, resources, and a specific place in your day.
The curiosity that set us on this path
For Dan, prevention helped guide the choice of family medicine. His training encouraged him to look beyond an immediate health problem. Lifestyle medicine later broadened his interest in what we eat, how we move, how much we rest, and the circumstances surrounding those decisions. In 2024, he read about the Blue Zones and watched Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones. He was interested in the centenarians, and in what their stories suggested about independence, relationships, and purpose in later life. That October, at an American College of Lifestyle Medicine conference in Orlando, he heard Dan Buettner discuss the communities that had inspired his exploration.
For Mike, the curiosity had a family connection. A MyHeritage DNA test estimated that some of his ancestry came from Sardinia. The documentary and that connection to a region associated with the Blue Zones encouraged him to pay closer attention to his habits. An ancestry estimate cannot predict how long someone will live. For Mike, it opened a door to his family history and more deliberate everyday decisions.
Sardinia, Okinawa, Nicoya, Ikaria, and Loma Linda invited us to consider daily life: meals people share, movement that happens throughout the day, and relationships they maintain. Health came into view on a broader scale, including the places people live and the communities they belong to. Questions remained. Studying people who live a long time cannot establish how much of their longevity comes from a food, routine, or attitude. Genetics, social conditions, medical care, and data quality are also part of the explanation. Those stories fed our curiosity and led us to examine what the research could support.
What the research adds
Global life expectancy at birth was estimated at 73.8 years in 2023, according to the Global Burden of Disease 2023 study. That figure describes a population under particular mortality conditions. It is not a personal limit or a prediction of how many years someone has left. It gives context to the question of a long life and, for us, the possibility of living those years in good health.
Health-adjusted life expectancy estimates healthspan—time lived in good health—by weighting years for health and disability. An analysis of 183 countries in JAMA Network Open found that the global gap with life expectancy widened from 8.5 to 9.6 years between 2000 and 2019. These are population estimates, not individual forecasts. That difference reinforces our interest in prevention and in care that helps people keep participating in everyday life.
That possibility also appears in research on lifestyle. An analysis published in JAMA Internal Medicine, involving more than 116,000 European adults, associated the most favorable profiles with roughly nine to ten additional years free of the chronic diseases studied between ages 40 and 75, compared with the least favorable profiles. It was an observational comparison: it did not establish that changing habits would produce those exact gains, and it did not study the combination of the five habits presented here.
The broader research gave substance to something we wanted to share: habits deserve a place in health care. Prevention also includes vaccinations, recommended screening tests, and care informed by a person’s medical history. Lifestyle is part of that work. Putting it into practice presents another challenge. Advice about eating has to fit the grocery budget. Movement needs room among other commitments. Rest may depend on someone helping with responsibilities. A useful explanation has to acknowledge those circumstances.
That was where we found the purpose of Dr. Dándote Salud. We wanted a place where health news came with context, where you could understand what a number meant and identify a question for your next appointment or an action to try this week. Helping people understand, evaluate, and apply health information became the direction of the project.
Eight habits to help you find where to begin
Over the past year, we have explored many dimensions of health and well-being. Today, we chose eight habits that have found a place in our own lives and offer different ways to get started.
The evidence behind them is not equally strong. We know a great deal about nutrition, movement, sleep, and preventive care. In areas such as purpose, relationships, mindfulness, and certain environmental exposures, research also offers important clues, although some questions remain unanswered. Recognizing those differences helps us understand what we know, what we are still learning, and where it may be worth beginning.
1. Your sense of purpose: an often-overlooked part of health
If I asked you right now, “What gets you out of bed in the morning? What gives your life direction?” what would you say?
The question may sound philosophical, but it has also become a subject of health research. In a study of nearly 7,000 U.S. adults over age 50, those who reported the lowest sense of purpose had more than twice the risk of dying during follow-up compared with those who reported the highest levels.
That does not prove that finding a purpose will make you live longer. Health, social circumstances, and other factors may also influence that relationship. But the finding adds to a broader body of research linking a sense of direction in life with different aspects of health and well-being.
Your purpose does not have to be extraordinary. It may be rooted in your family, your community, your faith, personal growth, a project that matters to you, or simply something that makes you want to stay engaged with life.
You do not have to discover one perfect purpose. You can begin with a more immediate question:
What do I want to keep doing, caring for, or sharing as the years go by?
2. The best-kept secret to a long and happy life: your relationships
When we think about living longer and healthier, we often talk about food, exercise, and sleep. But health is also built through our connections with other people.
A meta-analysis of 148 studies involving more than 300,000 participants found that people with stronger social relationships had about a 50% greater likelihood of survival than those with weaker social ties. That is a relative measure, and it does not mean that a friendship adds a specific number of years to your life. It does show how consistently social connection has been associated with health.
Relationships do not have to be numerous or perfect. What matters is having people with whom we can share, ask for help, listen, and feel that we belong.
You can start with something simple today:
- call someone you miss;
- send a sincere message of appreciation;
- invite someone for a walk, coffee, or a video call;
- give someone close to you your full attention.
Relationships, too, are strengthened by small choices repeated over time.
3. Build a way of eating you can repeat
Eating better becomes more practical when we focus on a meal we already eat regularly. Adding vegetables, including beans or lentils, or choosing a whole-grain option are simple ways to make more room for nutritious foods.
Cardiovascular dietary guidance favors eating patterns rich in vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, nuts, and seeds, along with healthy sources of protein and predominantly unsaturated fats. Mediterranean, DASH, and predominantly plant-based eating patterns help us look at the overall diet rather than focusing on a single ingredient.
Choose one change that fits your tastes, your budget, and the time you have to cook. Then work out the practical details: what you need to buy, how you will prepare it, and which meal it will become part of.
A way of eating that you enjoy and can realistically organize is more likely to stay with you throughout the week.
4. Pause and pay attention
We can begin one task while our minds are still caught up in the one before it. Our bodies are here; our attention is somewhere else.
Mindfulness is, in part, the practice of noticing that distraction and returning to what is happening now. You might focus on your breathing, pay attention to what you see during a walk, or follow a guided exercise. When your mind wanders — because it will — bringing your attention back is part of the practice.
Research on mindfulness and meditation suggests benefits for perceived stress and some emotional symptoms, although results vary depending on the practice, the population, and the study.
A pause does not have to become another wellness obligation. Try attaching it to a recognizable moment in your day: before starting a task, during a walk, or when you finish work. Notice where your attention is and, for a few minutes, bring it back to the present.
5. Give sleep a place on your schedule
A to-do list can easily stretch into the night. When sleep has to wait until everything else is finished, rest becomes dependent on whatever remains undone.
In the Whitehall II cohort, sleeping five hours or less at age 50 was associated with a higher risk of developing a first chronic disease and, later, multiple chronic conditions compared with sleeping seven hours. Participants were followed for about 25 years. Because the study was observational, it cannot prove that simply adding more hours of sleep would prevent those outcomes.
It does, however, invite us to see sleep as something more than whatever time is left at the end of the day.
Look at what is taking up the final hours of your evening. Maybe a screen can be turned off earlier, caffeine can be moved earlier in the day, or a task can be handled sooner. For someone who works shifts or cares for a baby, getting more sleep may also depend on available support and how responsibilities are shared.
6. Find more opportunities to move
Walking after a meal, dancing, gardening, or strength training are all different ways to bring more movement into the day. Some require dedicated time; others can fit into routines that are already there.
Look for an opportunity you can recognize. If you spend much of the day sitting, identify times when you could stand up or move around. If you want to walk more, decide where and when. Your surroundings, safety, available time, and physical abilities are all part of the plan.
Studies that measure activity with wearable devices have linked more movement with lower mortality. They have also found an association between spending many hours sedentary and worse health outcomes, particularly among people who are less active overall.
The question is not only how much exercise you do. It is also worth noticing how much of your day passes with almost no movement at all.
7. Pay attention to the parts of your environment you can change
Health is shaped by more than what happens inside our bodies. We breathe a certain air, drink a certain water supply, work in particular environments, and live with exposures we did not always choose.
The harms of air pollution are well established. For exposures such as microplastics and PFAS — persistent chemicals found in the environment — important questions remain about the magnitude of risk and how much specific changes at home can meaningfully reduce it.
That is why it makes sense to begin with identifiable risks: avoid tobacco smoke, pay attention to local air-quality alerts, and follow public-health recommendations when there is a documented problem with drinking water or a workplace exposure.
Not everything can be solved inside the home. Some conditions depend on workplace policies, community decisions, or public action. Recognizing that helps direct our effort toward changes that can make a meaningful difference.
8. Why prevention can seem boring — until it matters
Prevention has a particular challenge: when it works, we often never see the result.
We never meet the heart attack that did not happen. We do not celebrate the complication that was avoided or the disease that was found before it caused symptoms.
Yet some of medicine’s most consequential decisions happen during that apparent quiet. One modeling study estimated that improving the use of nine preventive services could prevent between 50,000 and 100,000 deaths each year in the United States among people younger than 80. Some of the interventions with the greatest potential impact involved tobacco use, blood pressure, and cholesterol.
That estimate comes from a population model. It does not mean that every screening test or preventive visit saves a life. The message is more practical: when effective preventive interventions reach the people who can benefit from them, their cumulative impact can be substantial.
Know your numbers when appropriate: blood pressure, cholesterol, blood glucose, and other measures based on your age and individual risk. And do not stop at hearing that a result is simply “good” or “bad.”
Ask:
“What does this result mean for me, and what should we do next?”
Prevention rarely comes with a dramatic story. Its value lies partly in trying to keep some of those stories from ever happening.
Start with a conversation. Choose one priority and take a step you can sustain.
Give the change a place in your life
After reading, an intention may remain: sleep better, walk more, change a meal. To try it, you need to choose an occasion and work out what you will need when it arrives. Imagine choosing to walk after dinner. The plan needs an accessible route, available time, and an alternative for days when you get home late. Preparing a shorter version can help you adapt the action to those circumstances.
Then pay attention. If something interrupts the change, that information can help you reconsider the timing, difficulty, or support you need. Fatigue, finances, work, and caregiving can limit the options. Some barriers allow adjustments; others require resources or practical help.
When to seek advice
Seek an evaluation if you have persistent insomnia, loud snoring, pauses in breathing during sleep, or excessive daytime sleepiness. When a medical condition or treatment affects what you can do, a health professional who knows your history can help you adapt the changes.
The next 365 days
A year ago, our curiosity about preventive medicine and healthy longevity led us to create this website. Our aim is to share science you can understand and habits you can sustain, with clear explanations and practical starting points you can return to as your questions change. We also want to build a community where people support one another. That can begin with a conversation at home, an invitation to walk together, or a question someone feels ready to ask at a medical appointment.
If you find something useful here, share it with family or friends. You can also subscribe to our newsletter or follow us on social media. Tell us what you would like to understand better. Your questions help guide what we cover, and your support helps this work reach more people and stay connected to everyday life.
Over the next 365 days, we want to keep building that community and learning with you. Thank you to everyone who reads and shares our work, and to our small team and collaborators whose care and dedication support each publication. Your contributions are part of what we celebrate today.
Let’s keep learning to choose health, one habit at a time.
Choose Health. Choose Life.
Scientific sources
The sources below support the information presented and are available for readers who would like to explore further.
Key readings
- Garmany A, Terzic A. Global Healthspan-Lifespan Gaps Among 183 World Health Organization Member States. JAMA Netw Open. 2024;7(12):e2450241. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.50241.
- Nyberg ST, Singh-Manoux A, Pentti J, et al. Association of Healthy Lifestyle With Years Lived Without Major Chronic Diseases. JAMA Intern Med. 2020;180(5):760-768. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.0618.
- Pes GM, Dore MP, Tsofliou F, et al. Diet and longevity in the Blue Zones: A set-and-forget issue? Maturitas.2022;164:31-37. doi:10.1016/j.maturitas.2022.06.004.
Additional scientific sources
- Ekelund U, Tarp J, Steene-Johannessen J, et al. Dose-Response Associations Between Accelerometry Measured Physical Activity and Sedentary Time and All Cause Mortality: Systematic Review and Harmonised Meta-Analysis. BMJ. 2019.
- Zhang XF, Li RN, Deng JL, et al. Effects of Mindfulness-Based Interventions on Cardiovascular Risk Factors: An Umbrella Review of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses. J Psychosom Res. 2024.
- Sabia S, Dugravot A, Léger D, et al. Association of Sleep Duration at Age 50, 60, and 70 Years With Risk of Multimorbidity in the UK: 25-Year Follow-Up of the Whitehall II Cohort Study. PLoS Med.2022;19(10):e1004109. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1004109.
- Lichtenstein AH, Khera A, Anderson CAM, et al. 2026 Dietary Guidance to Improve Cardiovascular Health: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association. Circulation. 2026.
- Aliberti SM, Capunzo M. The power of environment: A comprehensive review of the exposome’s role in healthy aging, longevity, and preventive medicine—Lessons from Blue Zones and Cilento. Nutrients. 2025;17(4):722. doi:10.3390/nu17040722.
- Rahman A, Sarkar A, Yadav OP, et al. Potential Human Health Risks Due to Environmental Exposure to Nano- And Microplastics and Knowledge Gaps: A Scoping Review. Sci Total Environ. 2021.
- Li D, Wang T, Zhang W, et al. From Environment to Organs: Individual and Combined Effects of MPs and PFAS on Urinary System Health. Front Physiol. 2026.
- GBD 2023 Demographics Collaborators. Global Age-Sex-Specific All-Cause Mortality and Life Expectancy Estimates for 204 Countries and Territories and 660 Subnational Locations, 1950-2023: A Demographic Analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2023. Lancet. 2025. PubMed.
- Alimujiang A, Wiensch A, Boss J, et al. Association Between Life Purpose and Mortality Among US Adults Older Than 50 Years. JAMA Network Open. 2019. Es la fuente que respalda directamente el dato de los casi 7,000 adultos mayores de 50 años. drdandotesalud.com
- Holt-Lunstad J, Smith TB, Layton JB. Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-Analytic Review. PLoS Medicine. 2010;7(7):e1000316. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316. Es la fuente que ya utilizas para el metaanálisis de 148 estudios y más de 300,000 participantes. drdandotesalud.com
- Sparacio A, IJzerman H, Ropovik I, et al. Self-Administered Mindfulness Interventions Reduce Stress in a Large, Randomized Controlled Multi-Site Study. Nature Human Behaviour. 2024. Ya forma parte de la bibliografía de tu artículo sobre manejo del estrés y permite respaldar la versión más prudente que dejé sobre mindfulness. drdandotesalud.com
- Farley TA, Dalal MA, Mostashari F, et al. Deaths Preventable in the U.S. by Improvements in Use of Clinical Preventive Services. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 2010. Es la fuente de la estimación de 50,000 a 100,000 muertes prevenibles que ya utilizaste en el artículo sobre prevención.
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