“Health regardless of diet, lifestyle, and genes” – not the usual headline! But Keith Wommack’s June 21 article in Chron.com offers a fascinating look at an extensive study that baffled scientists. The conclusions suggests that strong relationships can play a key role in good health.
What if loving relationships are actually more important to good health than diet, lifestyle and genes? Since summer can bring additional time with family and friends, this article is a timely and worthwhile read.
The first part of the article is below but you will need to click the link to read the entire article.
One hundred and fifty years ago, after a couple of decades of research, trials, and victories, a woman in New England – Mary Baker Eddy – discovered it was possible to experience health regardless of lifestyle, diet, and genes.
In 1866 she had a significant healing that pointed away from these presumed materialistic aids to health in a way that the citizens of Roseto, Pennsylvania, just under a century later, might have felt some kinship with.
Why?
Because, during a ten-year span from 1955 to 1965, the residents, mostly immigrants from Roseto Valfortore, Italy, were found to be surprisingly healthier than the rest of the United States. Yet it was proved that their consistent wellbeing couldn’t be linked to those commonly accepted influences of lifestyle, diet, or genes.
How?
By scientists, curious about their profound healthy conditions. In 1961, an extensive study was launched into their lives. Findings from the research showed that residents of a nearby town, Bangor, didn’t exhibit such consistent pictures of health. Just one mile separated the Bangor residents from the predictable and robust health caused by what researchers refer to as “the Roseto Effect”.
Once their research had concluded that the health of Roseto residents wasn’t due to lifestyle or diet, the researchers turned their attention to the family gene pools for evidences of extraordinary health tendencies. They examined the lives of immigrants from Roseto Valfortore, Italy, who resided in other parts of the United States and found that they were no healthier than the average American. So “genes” were scratched off the list of potential causes.
Next, researchers looked at the Roseto water supply and quality of medical care, but came up empty. Roseto’s water source was the same as the neighboring towns of Nazareth and Bangor. All three communities also shared the same hospital.
In the end, researchers concluded that the Roseto Effect had no medical or physical explanation. They and others chalked it up to the effect of people nourishing people.