I once traveled to a small village in Okinawa with scientists who were studying centenarians for keys to long life. Some elders cited good genes, or a good diet, or a cooperative spirit or daily walks – and no doubt all those things helped them.
But what sticks with me now is the wise woman who shared this secret: “It is very important to grow something.”
At a time when so much is beyond our control, reporter Aarti Shahani reminds us this week that it’s never too late to learn to garden – flowers, herbs and delicious food.
Planting a garden is "a way to connect to something immediate, here and now, and watch it grow," University of California, San Francisco associate professor and avid gardener Dr. Rupa Marya tells Shahani.
"It's got a lot of great health benefits," Marya says. "People are outside. They're getting sun on their skin, generating vitamin D." Plus, you’ll save money and can eat your experiments.
The race is on among scientifically minded DIYers to come up with a cloth face covering that does a better job of protecting the wearer from catching or transmitting virus particles.
Engineers at Northeastern University have come up with an easy method using queen-size pantyhose that seemed to make a difference in their preliminary tests.
Adding a stretchy outer layer -- cut from one leg of the stockings -- to cover a cotton, pleated mask made the mask significantly better at filtering out fine droplets, say the scientists who tested it.
Here's one more reason to take all the steps you can to avoid COVID-19, whatever your age: Even if you survive a serious case, your recovery may be much longer and more difficult that you expected.
That’s the message from 54-year-old Marine Corps veteran David Williams, an Arkansas man who survived eight touch-and-go days on a ventilator in early April and still needs oxygen at home, along with a walker, to take more than a few steps.
"I need it, like when I have to wake up in the middle of the night or something and need to go to the bathroom," he says. "Because trying to get the feet going again is a little rough."
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