Do you think people seem to get more health problems when they live in France?

I was thinking the other day about how many of the people I know who have had bad health or died since being in France. I was trying to evaluate whether this was to do with my age, although I am not 60 and my husband is only early 50s.


I am curious to know if anyone else has found it the same?


For example, 2 friends died of heart attacks within a few months of each other, I had cancer return 6 months after living here, I have several friends who have also had cancer, others that currently have it too and of course the common one, back problems. The list for those is a mile long, including myself. Several have had to have operations on their backs.


For the back problems, its probably because we come from less manual jobs and then start working on huge gardens etc, so they can be explained. In my husband's case his is from drilling through the stone walls here, you didn't get many of those in the UK LOL.


The cancer one I find quite concerning because of the quantity.


However all my friends in the UK are all pretty fit for their ages and don't seem to have any of these problems.


Perhaps it is just coincidence in my case. What do you think?

I too think it may be co-incidence, but another thought occurs - stress. We all know that moving house is one of the most stressful events in life, and moving house to another country can indeed be very stressful. Add to that for newbies like myself, the unexpected stress of speaking daily in another language - that takes a while to get used to. Stress can affect the immunity system and leave one open to infections and diseases, and can exacerbate heart conditions, and so forth.

change of lifestyle can be a big one too.....if you now enjoy plenty of cheese, butter...animal fats...regular input of wine and spirits and a drop in exercise levels......then that can be the final straw on the back of an unhealthy heart....

normally you would think its different strains of a virus that may cause short term health problems, this isnt surprising...our bodies wont have anti bodies for things they havent come across before. It is said moving house/christmas/divorce are all conditions that can affect health in a major way.....so hardly surprising a move abroad can trigger a problem...also most of us moving to France are older....50s upwards...a time in life when health can begin to fail. Sometimes those of us who have had problems in the UK....which may include health problems....move away when things seem to settle...to make a new start....so not surprising when health problems may recur......I think this is more likely than anything else...

Guess the question is if all these people would not have developed these health problems if they'd stayed in the UK. For the back problems I'm convinced :-). But for the other ones.... Even illnesses like cancer don't show up just like that, if it's not genetics it's either to do with the environmental factors or your personal lifestyle. And even then it takes time to lead to severe consequences like cancer, heart i.e. circulatory problems etc.

A sudden change of lifestyle can also wreck havoc; the death rate amongst people who are in the first years of their retirement is significant higher through all the categories concerning the initial state of health.

What I do notice is that people tend to catch more often temporary illnesses like the flu, gastro-enteritis etc. Apparently the strains that hang around here are a bit different from those in other countries.

I'd put it down to coincidence too unless you've got a nuclear plant just round the corner ={:-O

I think it's just coincidence, unless it's the same cancer and you live in the same place not far from a chemical works...