Читать книгу How to Live to a Hundred - Ian Durham - Страница 7

Merthyr

I started my search in Merthyr, in the valleys of South Wales. It’s the town where I was born and raised and where much of my family still live today—although, as my family name, Chiappa, suggests, Merthyr is not where we came from. My family moved here from Italy more than 50 years ago to set up in business, and a thing they always talk about is how similar the Welsh and the Italian people are. We both love food, family, and community. But one thing has definitely changed in 50 years, and that is how long we can expect to live.

During my lifetime, life expectancy in Italy has risen by an average of 15 years. And while the same is true of the more prosperous parts of Wales, many towns and valleys throughout South Wales have life expectancies which rank among the lowest in Western Europe.

(Image -Google Maps)

People from Merthyr will live on average ten years less than people living in the country’s capital, Cardiff. What’s causing this? Outliers like Doris Griffiths aside, the statistics are not encouraging: Wales is the most overweight nation in Europe with the highest rates of diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. I began my quest to discover the secrets of a longer life by looking at the human face of the problems that prevent us from living longer.