Untouched by civillisation: Untouched by disease.

November 6, 2006

An Alpine Shangri-La: The town that holds secret of good health A mountain community in Italy has provoked amazement among scientists, who have discovered that it is immune to society's usual ailments.Peter Popham reports from Stoccareddo Published: 03 November 2006 http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article1951288.ece High in the Italian Alps above the Venetian coast is a village where people do not fall ill. They eat red meat, they drink wine and grappa, many of them smoke, but the crippling, much-feared diseases of civilisation pass them by. They have high cholesterol because of their diet, but it doesn't lead to heart attacks.

Hypertension is almost unknown. Very few suffer from diabetes. Cancer is rare. Genetic disease is unheard of. The village is called Stoccareddo, and it is Italy's Shangri-La. Yet no one ever goes there because it is the end of the road. For about 800 years, since a couple of Danes, or so it is believed, pitched their tents on this high outcrop nearly 1,000 metres (3,000ft) above Venice (which on a clear day you can see), the people of Stoccareddo have kept themselves to themselves. And how: 97 per cent of the population bears the same surname, Bau. Endogamy - marrying within the community - is still nearly universal. "Only a Bau can understand a Bau," goes the local saying. "The entire village throughout its history," says one scientist who is studying them, "fits on a single family tree. It's one huge family." Article Length: 1854 words (approx.) High in the Italian Alps above the Venetian coast is a village where people do not fall ill. They eat red meat, they drink wine and grappa, many of them smoke, but the crippling, much-feared diseases of civilisation pass them by. They have high cholesterol because of their diet, but it doesn't lead to heart attacks. Hypertension is almost unknown. Very few suffer from diabetes. Cancer is rare. Genetic disease is unheard of. The village is called Stoccareddo, and it is Italy's Shangri-La. Yet no one ever goes there because it is the end of the road. For about 800 years, since a couple of Danes, or so it is believed, pitched their tents on this high outcrop nearly 1,000 metres (3,000ft) above Venice (which on a clear day you can see), the people of Stoccareddo have kept themselves to themselves. And how: 97 per cent of the population bears the same surname, Bau. Endogamy - marrying within the community - is still nearly universal. "Only a Bau can understand

a Bau," goes the local saying. "The entire village throughout its history," says one scientist who is studying them, "fits on a single family tree. It's one huge family." Article Length: 1854 words (approx.) After all, they (the pro-vaccine lobbyists) say to themselves, you can't make an omelette withoutbreaking eggs. But the eggs being broken are small, helpless, and innocent babies, while the omelette is being enjoyed by the pediatricians and vaccine manufacturers. - Harris L. Coulter, PhD

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