A10 Health wallowa.com March 30, 2016 Wallowa County Chieftain Making the right choices the easy choices By Kenneth Rose and Emily Sheahan For The Chieftain Wallowa Memorial Hospital has Eeen focusing on the health and wellness of our community over the past few years in part Ey providing the Complete Health Improvement Program CHIP), and now Ey focus- ing on helping our community Ee- come a “Blue Zone.” Dan Buettner is a world renowned explorer and author who has written several Eooks on the “Blue Zones,” the fo- cus in a 1ational *eographic article that descriEed the ¿ve Blue Zones around the world where there are more people who are living active lives well into their 100s. Buettner suEsequently has done a lot of research into what were some commonalities Eetween the lifestyle haEits of these ¿ve Blue Zones. He found nine common haE- Courtesy photo Dr. Kenneth D. Rose its or practices called the “Power 1ine,” which include moving nat- urally, having a purpose, eating a plant-slant diet and having strong social ties. In his most recent Eook, “Blue Zone Solutions,” he shares how they have incorporated the nine practices into communities across the United States in order to help people live longer and healthier lives. “It’s not just how long we live, it’s also how well we live,” Buettner writes. “People in the Blue Zones cultures not only live longer lives, they often live Eetter lives, with health, meaning and love — dying young as old as possiEle.” Buettner emphasizes that the ma- jority of those living over 100 years in these Blue Zones are not trying to do so, they just do it Eecause their cultures are such that “the healthy choice is the easy choice. ... The path to a long, healthy life comes from creating an environment around yourself, your family and your community that nudges you into following the right Eehaviors suEtly and relentlessly ...” If $mericans could follow the examples of the people in the Blue Zones they could lose an average of 20 pounds, cut their rates of heart disease in half and suffer aEout a ¿fth the rate of diaEetes and certain cancers. With those kinds of health Eene¿ts, who wouldn’t want to live in that kind of environment? 2n FeE. 9 a team from the 2r- egon Blue Zones Project shared a presentation at Cloverleaf Hall in Enterprise. To Eecome a Blue Zone, a com- munity must involve individuals, city departments, Eusinesses, gro- cery stores and restaurants in pledg- ing to make changes to what we eat, how we exercise and relate to one another. $ Blue Zone community requires a pledge and action from 20 percent of citizens, 50 percent of top 20 employers, 25 percent of independent restaurants, 25 percent of puElic schools and 25 percent of grocery stores. The pledge includes a checklist of lifestyle changes, community and Eusiness projects, as well as menu and product chang- es to promote healthier lifestyles. $s health care practitioners, we are excited to take part in continu- ing to help our community make healthy choices for a longer and healthier life. This is an exciting opportunity for our community and we are hoping that individuals, Eusinesses and schools will join the movement. We encourage you to go to the Blue Zone weEsite www. Eluezonesproject.com) and learn more aEout how each of us can get involved. Kenneth D. Rose, MD, is a general surgeon at Mountain View Medical Group in Enterprise. Dr. Emily Sheahan, MD is Family Medicine/Obstetrics specialist at Mountain View Medical Group. Spring community Health Look for signs of canine Worker training available Salmon Poisoning Disease Course will ready trainees to help residents with health care services Wallowa County Chieftain Do you have a passion for your community? Would you like to increase your skills and Eecome part of a new workforce? 1ortheast 2re- gon 1etwork 1E21) can help you do just that with up- coming Community Health Worker training sessions in La *rande. Community Health Work- ers are a community-Eased resource that works with in- dividual community memEers and the community as a whole to help navigate the health care and social service sys- tems to improve lives in their area.