Living Alone Can Kill You

Loneliness is a huge problem in our society. It doesn’t have to be this way.

A study “followed nearly 45,000 people ages 45 and up who had heart disease or a high risk of developing the condition. Those who lived alone, the study found, were more likely to die from heart attacks, strokes, or other heart complications over a four-year period than people living with family or friends, or in some other communal arrangement.”http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/18/health/mental-health/loneliness-isolation-health/index.html

In his best-selling book, “Outliers,” Malcolm Gladwell opens with a study done in a small Pennsylvania town called Roseto, where people never die of heart attacks – due to the closeness and connections within their community. Continue reading Living Alone Can Kill You

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The Vital Importance of Community

Discover why people in a particular kind of community die of old age, rather than from heart disease and cancer.

I’ve been reading in many different sources about the research involving community and well being. In his best-selling book, “Outliers,” Malcolm Gladwell opens with a study done in a small Pennsylvania town called Roseto.

In 1882, Italians who lived in a town of the same name, Roseto, started to come to the U.S. These people worked in the nearby marble quarries or farmed the terraced land. Upon coming to the U.S., they found jobs in a slate quarry in Pennsylvania. Eventually, about 2000 Rosetans came to the U.S. They started to buy land on a rocky hillside and built closely clustered two-story stone houses. Eventually, they cleared the land and planted fruit trees and vegetables. They raised pigs and grew grapes for wine. Schools, shops and factories sprang up and the town thrived. Continue reading The Vital Importance of Community

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