As I was exercising at the local gymnasium last week, I heard a woman recounting a story she had read that piqued my own interest. The tale involved an intruder not counting on an eighty-two-year-old woman who lived alone being an award-winning body builder with nerves of steel.
Daniel Nettle, a scientist and researcher at the University of Newcastle in the UK, has been involved in numerous studies in which people are asked to what degree they are happy. Overall, it seems almost everyone describes themselves as "very happy." Even when asked over a period of time, their responses are consistent. This is good news, as self-reported happiness is strongly related to health.
Research published last year in The Lancet concluded that no amount of alcohol consumption is healthy. One concern, often overlooked, is the high caloric and sugar intake that comes with many alcoholic beverages. For example, craft beers often have more alcohol than traditional macro-beers. And more alcohol means more calories. Tequila, vodka, rum, and gin have zero grams of carbohydrates, so they don’t raise blood sugar, as long as you drink them straight up. If you have diabetes, you should count one drink as two fat exchanges.
This blog is the beginning of several pieces about the brain—an organ that is receiving much attention these days. Statistics indicate that one in three people will die of dementia in the United States—two-thirds of these are women, as reported in the book The Unbreakable Brain, by Will Mitchell. Clearly, dementia will affect many of us, directly or indirectly.
Friendships are extremely important for our well-being, on all levels. No matter one’s age or circumstances, it’s never too late to make new friends or reconnect with old ones. According to a HelpGuide article by Lawrence Robinson, Greg Boose, Melinda Smith, M.A., and Jeanne Segal, Ph.D., having strong friendships:
