In the town of Roseto, Pennsylvania, researchers couldn't figure out for the life of them why the inhabitants had virtually zero incidence of heart disease. The people were predominantly Italian and ate a lot of Italian food. The common diet advice at the time was that fat of any kind was terrible for the heart.

So how was it that these people not only ate fat/calorie-rich food every day but also drank and smoked heavily, yet had signs of heart disease as expected?

Researchers discovered that the community was incredibly tight-knit. Relationships were protecting people's health.

Given the current world that we live in, I think that it bears mentioning that this is something worth thinking about. Does your family offer you a source of refuge from the chaos of the world around you?

Roseto didn't have much to worry about during 1960s America, but if we look at the survivors of the hard totalitarianism of the Soviet Union and its satellite states, this is what we find them saying over and over again.