By Vaishnavi Shukla
This is a story about a small town, which became a sensation among scientists in 1960s. Yes, it goes way back in time. Roseto, a small town in Eastern Pennsylvania, was full of people who had immigrated from a village in Southern Italy.
This town came in the limelight when a Rosetan physician shared his findings at the American Medical Association conference. In his 17 years of experience in Roseto, he had never seen a single case of heart attack in Roseto, under the age of 65 years. Heart attack, at that time, was one of the major causes of death.
This finding was startling, because the residents of this town were not prominently healthy. The residents of the town followed a traditional Italian diet, which included few American local ingredients. Many of them were overweight. The men of this village worked in nearby slate quarries. They consumed wine and also smoked tobacco, back in 1960, in their free time. However, this town was pretty peaceful, with no suicides, no drug addicts or people suffering from ulcers or any major disease. There had to be something that made this town so peaceful. Researchers did their bit of research and found the secret element of the Roseto town.
The secret was strong family ties. In Roseto, upto 3 generations lived under the same roof. The residents were part of social clubs and there was a good community life in this town. Having dinner with the family was a tradition. The community celebrated unity in events organized by the church. The effect of these strong community connections prevented the Rosetans from heart diseases. It was not that the residents did not have stress and lived a fairy-tale life. They did experience social problems and conflicts with other residents. But at the end of the day, they had a powerful support system backing them up.
However, this effect did not last long. The residents started to work long hours to earn more money and to provide their children good education. With more money, there were changes in lifestyle too. These changes led to disruption of the traditional community living. They moved towards Americanized living.
Moral of the story? Family comes first. Community-building and socializing helps.
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