Telomere Length in Costa Rica’s High Longevity Blue Zone

David Rehkopf, University of California, San Francisco
Luis Rosero-Bixby, Universidad de Costa Rica

The Nicoyan Peninsula region in Costa Rica has been characterized as a “Blue Zone” with exceptionally high longevity. Traditional risk factors, however, do not appear to explain the Nicoyan advantage. In this study we examine a biomarker that has been proposed as a cellular-level marker of aging: leukocyte telomere length. We confirm that telomere length is significantly negatively related to age in Costa Rica. After controlling for age, telomere length in Nicoya is significantly greater than in other areas, equivalent to more than a 20-year advantage in cellular aging in Nicoya, providing further support to the argument that Nicoya is indeed an exceptional longevity area, and offering hints of a biological pathway to which this longevity may be related. Paradoxically, however, telomere length is not significantly related to mortality in this elderly sample, except for a positive relationship with mortality in the year prior to death.