HEALTHY living Let’s go down to the woods today!
BETTER NATURE
The world’s largest, longest-running study, the Nurses’ Health Study, has provided many an insight into women’s health. In a new piece of research, published last year, Harvard scientists looked at the effect of proximity to greenery on their health. And as any gardener or nature-lover would guess, those who lived closest to green spaces were significantly better off: their mortality rates in general were 12% lower, and deaths related to cancer and respiratory disease were 13% and 35% lower respectively.
The Japanese have been onto this since the early eighties, when they began a national public health programme that included forest bathing, which means being in the presence of trees.
They’ve also done several studies on its effects. One on natural killer (NK) cells (associated with cancer prevention and immune system health) before and after exposure to forests showed that there were huge increases in the activity of these cells after spending time in the woods. Another study found that pulse rates, as well as cortisol and blood pressure levels, are lower in forests than in urban areas.
So if you’re mostly indoors, it’s time to turn over a new leaf.
PAYING TO GO TO GYM?
Guess which country brings in the highest fitness club revenue in the world? WE DO! The sector is worth $931 million (well over R12 billion) a year, The Economist tweeted a few months ago. If your gym fees go off every month but you don’t hit the treadmill very often, resolve to make that membership pay off health-wise. From today!
WAY TO GO, BRA!
Breast cancer is personal for 18-yearold Mexican Julian Rios Cantu, as his mother fought it twice. Determined to do something that would make a difference for other women, he and a couple of friends developed the Eva bra for those with breast cancer genes BRCA1 and 2. One of his tweets says it all: ‘Stop thinking. Stop pondering. Stop strategizing. Stop debating. GO DO.’
Dense with 200 sensors, the bra picks up changes in breast temperature, weight and shape. When a tumour is present, typically, blood flow increases, and that results in an increase in temperature.
Unfortunately, it’ll take a couple of years before Julian’s bra is readily available.
THE PODCAST WE’VE BEEN LISTENING TO LATELY
US researcher Dr Rhonda Patrick’s Found My Fitness (www. foundmyfitness.com) podcasts: try ‘The “Vitamin D Sweet Spot” and Its Relationship To Aging’ and ‘Tim Ferriss on Ketosis, Microbiome, Lyme Disease, and Biomarkers’. Interesting stuff.