A Town Eats What It Likes Without Disease

(CBS)  There is a village named Stocarreddo perched in the hills half a mile above Venice. It would seem like an unlikely place to make medical history, but as CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey reports, the village hides a secret that mocks diabetes, hypertension and high blood pressure.

Ninety-five percent of the people there have the same surname: Bau.

They also tend to have excessive levels of cholesterol, triglycerides and blood sugar. But none of the usual related problems in spite of a diet that health-conscious Americans would never contemplate.

"We eat lots of things," Eugenio Bau said. "Steak, polenta, beans, cheese and, of course, wine."

Everyone in Stacarreddo takes it as a given that they can eat anything and everything they like and never have a problem – even though many have cholesterol counts and blood sugar levels well above the Italian average.

"There are cases here of cholesterol of 400," Liberato Bau said, "but there are no problems."

People do die, of course, but of causes unrelated to their diet.

Legend has it that about 800 years ago a wandering Dane pitched a tent here, and the gene pool has stayed isolated since then. It's a kind of DNA island.

Even those who leave to find work tend to come back here to get married.

"We just thought that the women here were better for us," Eugenio Bau explains. "Not because of health – we didn't even think of that. They were just better than others."

The Baus were discovered by a foundation studying rare diseases, and research indicates the key to their health may be genetic.

"It's not true that they didn't have disease," said Dr. Ures Hladnik of the Baschirotto Institute for Rare Diseases. "They have less of it."

The researchers think the contradictions could mean our obsession with cholesterol is off the mark.

"Maybe the enemy could someplace else, and maybe the Baus could show us one of those enemies," Dr. Hladnik said.

The Baus say they are pleased to be part of a study that could benefit others. They are also intensely proud of being a population that, in spite of what amounts to in-breeding, is both physically and socially strong.

There are tales of jealousy and rivalries, but in a town where there were once twenty Maria Baus living at the same time, gossip and mix-ups are to be expected. The wonder is that there isn't more discord. Perhaps that's another riddle for the geneticists to solve.

Or maybe it all comes down to the fact that when it comes to health, the Baus seem to have been dealt a winning hand.

[bluestardad]

good for them keep American politics out of this place and the doctors too!

[bau2-2009]

My grandparents, "The Bau's" are perfect examples of this story. However, my grandmother was not a Bau previously. They came from Italy to the USA in 1910. They lived well into their 90's without disease. Their children (9 of them) all lived long lives without disease. My father is 80 and is disease free. His sister just passed on. She was 100 years old. And..yes I do eat anything I want and have no issues with cholesterol. And..yes I do encounter alot of hatred because of this.

[gaye5]

I love my bread on butter, salt sprinkled heavily over my food, I eat eggs, meat and all the things we have been told to avoid, I don't smoke and only occasionally have a drink of alcohol, my blood pressure is low, so is my cholesterol and I am very healthy, but I now wear glasses... No one wakes up to the fact that there has not really been a heavy emphasis on the dangers of refined food, is this because if the pharmaceutical companies can get us to be scared of all the good things that we will be permanent customer till we die??? just a thought. We are FORCED to have our children immunized, we are told that it is for our good, we are also forced to wear seat belts, helmets etc for our good and rightfully so, but the same governments wont force the food industry to stop producing things which are addictive, full of chemicals and are killers...WHY????

[gaye5]

Well folks, when they were telling us we must NOT eat eggs, meat, etc etc etc, I used my little brain and thought to myself, self, they have eaten those things for centuries, and it is only since refined food have come along with their large numbers of chemicals plus the poisons in immunisation have we had the problems we have today. Even though we were told 25 years ago that cancer was going to be a thing of the past within 20 years, not only is it still there but cancer is out of control even amongst children, they might not die of whooping cough now but many millions more die of Leukaemia and other new diseases and we now have A.D.D, Autism etc which my husband in his 40 years of teaching, had not see until only a few years ago. Children are also now getting adults diseased,,, .
They say that they have wiped out many diseases, however we see in history where epidemics come wipe out millions then go again, I believe that we are so immunised now that there will be an epidemic of horrific proportions soon, and of course instead of looking at the real issue, to cause fear to force people to immunise, they will blame the unimmunised children...

[asor1-2009]

Despite all that inbred blood, Donnie Brasco would say, "fugesi" to those claims. Good laugh for an otherwise dull Sunday though.

[registrduser]

Mindofapea, CBS did report what was accurate. The folks just put "ooh" over it to signal that we are to take the town's residents to be martians and not apply the findings to the rest of us.
The rest of you, 2+2=4, period. Not...if you have a peculiar genetic code. Not...if you are inbred. All the time. If you have a hard time understanding that, you should work for CBS.

[gbalpha33]

I am near 72, have always had high cholesterol. I eat a lot of things I should no but not to excess. Rarely do I eat a MacDonald product or any fast food. Have wine all over the place but don't like the taste of anything alcholic. Had a heart attack in 1987, no stents or by passes and suppose I am doing well. Have had a carotid artery cleaned out on the right in 1996. The Dr. said I need the left one cleared but haven't and won't have it done. Hard to tell what is good and what is bad.

[cosmicfluke]

Lots of emphasis here on genetics, which probably has something to do with their health, but I wonder if not eating junk food and consuming lots of red wine has just as much to do with it?
I'm betting there are no MacDonalds, no Pizza Huts, no Taco Johns there. I'll bet they don't eat Doritos and they don't drink high fructose corn syrup and sugar water all day long.
Quit looking for a magic pill, America. Stop eating the *** served to you in the name of profits.

[mindfulpea]

Come on CBS, report what's accurate. Let's not be forced to read such a ridiculous story - this just has "ooh" all over it.

[iuliani-2009]

The information given in the story on this town is not only very poor, but misleading. It is actually Stoccareddo di Gallio, and not Stocarreddo. It is a frazione, that is, a dependent hamlet of Gallio, located about 3 miles east of Asiago. It is about 1,000 metres above Venice in altitude, not in distance.