We’re taught to believe that the key to a long and healthy life is a consistently healthy lifestyle, right? By that logic, anyone who follows a moderate diet, exercises regularly and refrains from smoking, should live to be at least a hundred.
But a trip to the this small village on the southern end of the Italian Amalfi coast may change all you think you know about long lives.
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Acciaroli is a tiny port town on the Italian coastline that will wow you with its stunning vistas and relaxed lifestyle.
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Acciaroli has recently begun to be studied by researchers because of its unusually high number of centenarians – people over the age of 100.
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The mayor of the town boasts of how they have more 100-year-old residents than any other place in the world. About 300.
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Several of the town’s elderly folk have managed this despite being constant smokers and visibly overweight.
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And guess what, over 20 percent of them have reached the age of 110.
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What’s more, the area has bafflingly low rates of Alzheimer’s and heart disease.
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Rosemary, a herb that has long been linked to preventing diseases such as Alzheimer’s and improving brain function and memory is a staple here.
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They grow it everywhere you go, and use it as a garnish or in oils and that may have something to do with this town’s miraculous life-expectancy.
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A minimally industrialised town, the residents of Acciaroli breathe the freshest air on earth.
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The beaches and the hilly areas make for breath-taking sights all over. I imagine living a stress-free life amongst these would surely bump one’s life up by more than a few years.
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We can go on guessing what their secret is. But at the end of the day, a resident of Acciaroli have found something we may forever struggle to find – a long and more importantly, peaceful life.
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