An American family who moved to one of the world's five 'blue zones' where people are said to live longer have explained the impact it's had on their health.
Kema Ward-Hopper and Nicholas Hopper married in Costa Rica in 2016 and immediately garnered a love for the place.
Ward-Hopper received a devastating breast cancer just months before the big day, which certainly had an impact on the wedding.
She told CNN: "[I had] started treatment and everything. If you see pictures from my wedding, I didn’t have hair, and I didn’t really look like myself. But I was sick."
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The mother immediately fell in love with Costa Rica as she noticed an immediate upturn in her health after leaving her hometown of Houston for the wedding.
"I just felt the best that I had been feeling since I’d been diagnosed," she added to CNN. "When we got back, that feeling good… I thought that I was getting better. But it really seemed like it was environmental, because after about a week, I was feeling bad again.
“So that was the first indicator that there was something special about Costa Rica.”
The couple's family home was destroyed by a Category 4 hurricane in August 2017, and while that was extremely tragic, it allowed the Hopper to consider a move elsewhere.
Ghana, Sweden, Mexico, and Costa Rica were seen as possibilities, and it was the latter that of course came out on top.
Ward-Hopper added: "Ever since we left there from our honeymoon, we just felt like we wanted to get back there and just feel good. There’s something energetic about being in Costa Rica."
The Nicoya Peninsula is where the family ultimately decided to put down their roots, a 'blue zone' that is said to have a life expectancy of 85.
On top of that, CNN reports the region has a number of people aged 100+.
"The elderly are a part of caring for the youngest generation – their grandchildren, or their great grandchildren, because they’re in such good shape," Ward-Hopper added.
"And it’s that way because they’re hardworking people, and they walk a lot of the places and they eat really well.
“So I think all of those things contribute to their long life. They also live with the land and not in spite of the land."
While Ward-Hooper and her family are evidentially having a great time in Costa Rica, she notes the country is the 'most expensive country in Latin America' - meaning it's unaffordable for some Americans.
Topics: Health, Travel, World News, Breast cancer, US News
Callum Jones