The father of my best friend suddenly died a few days ago. I have known him since his daughter and I were 12 years old, starters in high school. For New Year’s Eve, my best friend and I arranged that we would all have lunch in her house with her parents. That was the last time I saw her Papa. When my best friend called to give me the sad news, we both agreed that it was good I was able to give him my last hug then.
My friend told me that her Papa had been quite depressed and feeling very old and weary. I don’t know the complete picture of how my friend’s Pa lost his zest for life but I met with my doctor recently and he told me that the beginning of the year is usually when people come to see him depressed.
After all the revelry, perhaps, the return to the old world, could be a little too much for some of us. For younger people who still feel invincible and immortal, a new year could bring in more zest and more passion to pursue a million-splendored dreams, but for older people, who have lived through many rites and rituals, what could keep them healthy?
Apparently, as far as heart and vascular diseases are concerned, a study has found that older people would live longer if they felt younger than their actual age. The research asked 6,500 people with an average age of 65 how old they felt they were. They monitored them for 8 years and reviewed how many of them were still alive. It turned out that a significant number of those who felt younger (even just 3 years younger than their actual age), lived longer. With feeling younger, came an attitude to be more active and exercise, remain open to learning new things and as Thoreau said ‘suck all the marrow out of life.” So yes, now it is a science that feeling young can make you survive old age.
The bad news though from the study is that feeling young was not a weapon enough for those stricken with cancer. In fact, as far as cancer is concerned, two-thirds of all cancers are just the result of random workings of our cells. A very recent study which made news even on TV, revealed this shocking finding. This means that effectively, cancer is a natural process. It just happens because our cells divide and the DNA that gets copied each time would just inevitably cause errors in copying and some of those errors could lead to cancers. Cancer, it turns out, is natural. Nature’s signature in our lives is “luck”. Darn.
Now, that is a clear rebuttal for those who always argue that we should just leave nature as is because going natural is the perfect way to be. Nature does not care about orphaned children, losing the love of your life, your family or your dearest friends – it just does what it does. The experts said however that the weapon against “bad luck cancer” is early detection so that it would still have a better chance to be treated.
But part of the third of cancers, you can give to yourself because of your own doing, especially smoking because its relation to cancer is clear and strong. If there is a positive campaign that could come out of this “most cancers are just due to bad luck” finding, I think it should be against smoking. That one, at least, we have a reign on.
For minor afflictions such as inflammations and infections, there is also a bit of good news. It turns out that there is a habit that could help you heal and it is getting a hug from someone you care about!
This what a study found when they monitored over 400 healthy individuals for 14 consecutive evenings, asking them about their interpersonal conflicts and the hugs they received. Then, they actually exposed all of them to a common cold virus. And yes, those who got more hugs, healed better or did not get more severe forms of the cold. Hugging was perceived as a form of social support, which was effective in protecting ourselves from actual infections.
So as we face a new health calendar, those are some facts that could ground how we are going to view our own health: Cancer is mostly due to bad luck; you can survive old age by feeling young; and hug the one you love and foil the common cold. – Rappler.com
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