C-Force: Are We Worrying About the Right Things When It Comes to Health?
According to National Geographic, "Aging ranks with sleep as one of the fundamental mysteries of human biology." Dr. Linda Partridge says "the winds haven't been particularly quick, but there will be breakthroughs." And until they come, she says "the best thing that people can do to age well is adopt healthy lifestyle habits, like exercise and good nutrition," according to the Times.
While we are at it, let us spend more time marveling at the human body and how it functions. In this pursuit, you might say the Times has given us a "hand."
The Times' Markham Heid reports, "The human hand is a marvel of nature. No other creature on Earth, not even our closest primate relatives, has hands structured quite like ours, capable of such precise grasping and manipulation. But we're doing less intricate hands-on work than we used to.
"A lot of modern life involves simple movements, such as tapping screens and pushing buttons, and some experts believe our shift away from more complex hand activities could have consequences for how we think and feel."
Dr. Kelly Lambert, a professor of behavioral neuroscience at the University of Richmond in Virginia, says some studies "have found that a whole range of hands-on activities -- such as knitting, gardening and coloring -- are associated with cognitive and emotional benefits, including improvements in memory and attention, as well as reductions in anxiety and depression symptoms," Heid reports.
"The rhythm and repetition of knitting a familiar or established pattern was calming, like meditation," notes Catherine Backman, a professor emeritus of occupational therapy at the University of British Columbia in Canada.
Dr. Deborah Benzil, vice chair of neurosurgery at Cleveland Clinic, notes in a 2022 report that gardening yields many health benefits for the brain. "While there have been several studies that focus on how gardening is a great therapeutic treatment for people with dementia, there's also been research that shows gardening is one of many activities that potentially prevents dementia," the report states.
"When you're gardening," Benzil says, "you do get that stimulation through weight-bearing exercise like walking and using your gardening tools. You're using those muscles in a certain way that stimulates both bone and muscle strength."
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