Miami will be the home of the flagship 220,000-square-foot Blue Zones Center, a healthcare and hospitality hub where medical care, predictive diagnostics, and preventive medicine come together to optimize disease management outcomes and inspire advanced patient well-being and longevity.
It will include a 45,000-square-foot fitness center and therapeutic gym that will be medically integrated with each client’s chart, DNA profile and everything necessary to customize a workout plan. The fitness center will include therapeutic treatments such as herbal medicine, IV nutrition therapy and cryotherapy to help improve a person’s health and life span, according to Stephen Watson, co-founder and managing partner of the Blue Zones Center.
Watson is spearheading the project at The Legacy Hotel and Residences, a mixed-use tower that combines lifestyle, hospitality and longevity in Miami Worldcenter
The Blue Zones Center will be built on the research principles and standards of Blue Zones, an organization dedicated to unlocking the secrets of the world's healthiest and longest-living people, as noted by National Geographic fellow Dan Buettner who in 2005 wrote about the five Blue Zones Hotspots where people live the longest, healthiest lives.
Buettner then founded Blue Zones to employ evidence-based ways to help people live longer and better. The company’s Blue Zones Project works with cities to make healthy choices easier through permanent and semi-permanent changes to a city’s man-made surroundings. Participating communities have experienced double digit drops in obesity and tobacco use and have saved millions of dollars in healthcare costs, according to Blue Zones. Currently, 51 communities across North America have joined Blue Zones Project, impacting more than 3.4 million Americans nationwide.
Adventist Health bought Blue Zones in 2020 for $78 million. Adventist Health is a nonprofit integrated health system that serves more than 80 communities on the West Coast and Hawaii through hospitals, medical clinics, payer partnerships and other care, health and well-being services.
"Imagine having one location that combines world leaders in longevity and lifestyle medicine, combining 360-degree well-being transformation with the latest innovations in predictive, preventive, longevity medicine where personalized care, preventive medicine, and rejuvenation treatments all co-exist in one," Watson said in the announcement.
More Blue Zone Centers are planned around the world.
“We're expected to build many. We're looking at different locations currently, and we are going to hopefully provide communities around the country and even around the world with an alternative to what their health access is today,” he said.
Blue Zones Center is inspired by Blue Zones' Power 9 research that has identified the lifestyle habits of the world's healthiest, longest-lived people.
The center will consist of nine well-being centers in one:
- The Movement Center for Orthopedic Sports Medicine
- The Nof1 Center of Lifestyle Medicine and Health Benchmarking
- The Center for Early Diagnosis, Precision and Longevity Medicine
- The Center for Visible Health and Vitality
- The Center for Performance and Functional Fitness
- The Downshift Center for Behavioral health and Mindfulness
- The Center for Specialized Medicine
- The Center for Eyes, Ears, Nose and Throat
- The Center for Longevity Research
The Blue Zones lifestyle is part of a larger global trend that is seeing more people prioritizing health and wellness when choosing where to live, according to Susie Ellis, chairman and CEO of the Global Wellness Summit and the Global Wellness Institute.
“I'm excited about what’s happening in Miami with The Blue Zones Center and think it will be an international flagship for how medical and wellness can be brought together in one place,” Ellis said. “Since Covid, we have witnessed a huge trend in terms of the medical and wellness communities working together to solve health issues, focusing on prevention over disease treatment. This is the beauty of the Blue Zones’ philosophy and lifestyle – it’s all about prevention, longevity and quality of life. I think the Blue Zones Center in Miami will be a beacon for more Blue Zones Centers around the world, encouraging more people to live in places that prioritize health and wellness.”