Last time on I Heart Pickleball we asked the question, "Is Naples, Florida the
pickleball capital of the world?" This time we travel to Loma Linda,
California to learn how pickleball can lead to a longer, healthier life.
I Heart Pickleball is powered by Hyland's Leg Cramps, proud supporter of
pickleball players everywhere.
My name is Ernie Medina Jr. and I'm a faculty here
at the School of Public Health at Loma Linda University.
So Loma Linda University is designated as a blue zone. The blue zone is a
concept that was started by Dan Buettner a researcher for National Geographic and
it's five areas around the world but that live longer than the population
around them. Pickleball is a great sport for the blue zone because it can
actually help you live longer. Growing up I played tennis and ping pong and racket
sports, racquetball, all my life. In 2016 I was visiting my parents and my
mom, who was 79 at the time, she introduced me to pickleball. So she said,
"Hey come on out and try pickleball." I said, "What?" and so they were playing at
their church gym and I tried it and instantly fell in love with it. So then I
came back here to Loma Linda, couldn't find pickleball anywhere in this area so
I bought a net and we set it up at a local tennis park here in Loma Linda. I
just invited a handful of friends about six or eight of us and we started playing.
EUNI: So I ran into Ernie Medina here in town and he said, "Hey, why don't you
come out and try pickleball; you used to be so active in college." We were
immediately addicted and I guess the rest is history.
SUE: There was just like eight of us and then it grew to 20 and then 30 so basically
from eight of us that started introducing the game to everybody we've
grown to like three to four hundred people.
ERNIE: Fall of 2016 we had gotten too
big I was hauling all the equipment in my car and we finally approached the
Drayson Center here, which is the Wellness Center here at the University
and asked if we could start playing here.
DON: My name is Don Sease and I am the
director here at the Drayson Center for Loma Linda University. Dr. Ernie Medina
comes up; he starts talking about pickleball. With Ernie encouraging us we
set up some temporary courts. I have never seen that kind of interest in any
of our activity from such a wide range of people from the seniors to kids so I
said okay I'm willing to take a calculated risk and we put in four
dedicated pickleball courts and we've added
lines for 26 courts and right now, there have been times we have used every last one of
those courts so it's way beyond anything we could have imagined.
HELEN: My name is Helen Hopp Marshak and I'm the Dean of the School of Public Health here at Loma
Linda University. Loma Linda University has been around since 1905. What's best
known about the university is its mission and its motto to make man whole
so we believe in wholeness and living whole lives, whole healthy lives. We're
also known as a blue zone.
HILDEMAR: My name is Dr. Hildemar Dos Santos
I am an associate professor in the School of Public Health.
In the year 2005 Dan Buettner
went around the world and found those places that have a higher
percentage of the population with 90 and 100 years old around the world so when
they identified the blue zones they identified several different places
the first one was in Okinawa in Japan then in Sardinia in Italy and then Nicoya
in Costa Rica and then Ikaria in Greece and the 51 was Loma Linda here where you
are now. The main characteristics of the blue zones that they share in common are
exercise then the second one would be a diet rich in plants. The other
characteristic is the love for life and the meaning that they have for life so
this is commonly all blue zones.
ERNIE: So Loma Linda University is a blue zone
because it is strong in those three components you know physical activity
community and healthy nutrition. Pickleball is a great sport for the blue
zone because it checks off two of the boxes that makes a blue zone: community
and physical activity.
HELEN: We know from research that you're going to engage in
healthier behaviors for a longer period of time when you have that sense of
community so it's a huge factor in encouraging healthy lifestyles.
Pickleball does that amazingly in part because it's...it's fun to do and you have
to do it with other people and you get to know people and that sense of
community is amazing and and really very special.
DON: The pickleball community...they're friendly, they're naturally social people
competitive... they laugh, "How are you doing," give you the slap on the back
until they get on the court and then it's on.
HILDEMAR: Pickleball is very popular to
form a strong community bond between the players and and and then they
socialize a lot so there is a big influence of your social surroundings on
your own health. If your friends smoke, it's very difficult for you to quit smoking.
If you have a traditional group of people that have common feelings about
health they will help each other and they will build up health in the community.
ERNIE: So in a blue zone, community and family
especially family is an important factor and pickleball fits that perfectly. What
I love about pickleball is that you know my mom is is 79 almost 80 this May and she
can play with our grandkids and and kids and so it's a very intergenerational sport
and so it's fun to see families playing together versus being a spectator
watching the kids play or vice versa.
HELEN: What really drew me to to this sport...to
pickleball was being able to do something active with my son who is 16
years old, he's active, he's about six feet tall, he's powerful and I thought I can't
keep up with him on a bike or a run or a pretty much anything else but this is
something we could do together.
HILDEMAR: One of the main secrets for live longer
is not sit down; if you sit down you are counting your years in the other part of
life. Now you have to move and pickleball has this advantage you can play while
you are older and older and older and without any problems.
HELEN: Our oldest pickleball player here
at Loma Linda is a woman named Ilse and my son had the
privilege of playing her several months ago. He said, "Mom, Ilse's better than I am."
I said, "Well, honey, she's been playing for several months," and he says, "Yeah, but she's 83."
ILSE: I'm the oldest member yes; I'm 83. Pickleball keeps me young because I
have to run. Conversation. You know, the camaraderie.
EUNI: One of the best things
about having a pickleball club in a University community is that we have
such a wide range of ages of players so one of our youngest players is 14 years
old and then one of our oldest players is 83 years old and you will often see a
great mix of ages playing together and against each other.
ILSE: We can really play
with just about anybody.
ERNIE: You're playing together having fun and you're also
getting exercise.
HELEN: The benefits of physical activity I
think almost anything you can name from lowering depression from improving
well-being of course all the cardiovascular risk factors there's very
little that you can name that isn't positively affected by physical activity.
DAVID: My name is David Wren. I'm actually one of vice presidents with Loma Linda University
Medical Center. Now the health benefits that I've found from pickleball is
clearly being overweight as I am and pre-diabetic; actually my A1C now since
I've been playing has come back into line. I think that also the fact
that I can tell that when I exercise and when I play a couple of nights a week my
sleep in the evening is so much better. I get a better night's sleep. It helps me
with my work during the day to be able to be much more awake and alert so sleep
is really important.
ERNIE: We have this saying in sports medicine that exercise is
medicine because there are so many benefits to our health that exercise
brings and pickleball is a perfect example of that.
I view pickleball as a gateway to healthy living and the reason I say that
is because you know a lot of times people are afraid to start exercising
and they think oh that's not for me I'm not an athlete. When they try pickleball
it's so easy to start and they can do it anywhere and it's simple and they can do
it as easily as they want to but then once they start noticing hey you know
this is fun and they get used to the to moving and being physically
active then they can get better and better shape and then maybe that'll now
introduce them to hiking or I can go biking or I can do other things but
pickleball can be that entry to a physically active lifestyle.
ERNIE: Pickleball as an exercise can
impact your longevity. Pickleball is great for helping you live
longer which is why it's a great blue zone activity.
HILDEMAR: If you want to live longer
you should do more pickleball you should take care of your health and eat more
fresh foods more fruits more vegetables and more beans.
DON: It's not just living
longer it's the quality of life that they have.
HILDEMAR: It doesn't matter where you
live what matters is how you live your lifestyle how you promote your health in
terms of exercise diet things like that.
ERNIE: Not everyone can live
in a blue zone but you can take the lessons learned from Blue Zones and
apply them to your own life no matter where you live in this world. So these
are just some of the things that pickleball can do to help you live not
only longer but also have a better quality of life.
ANNOUNCER: No matter where you are
pickleball can bring us together to celebrate community, learn new things and
have fun. If you know someone we should feature on a future episode we would
love to hear from you. All you have to do is send us an email and tell us your
idea. This episode of I Heart Pickleball has been brought to you by Hyland's Leg
Cramps, America's number one over-the-counter leg cramp medicine. For
more information go to hylands.com.