Health & Fitness

Over the years, studies on the healing effects of human connection have grown tremendously.

We now know for a fact that people who have more social support tend to have better mental and physical health and live longer and happier lives.

In a study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, researchers found that people with strong social ties tend to live longer regardless of their socioeconomic status, smoking, drinking, exercise, or obesity. The researchers, who studied nearly 7,000 Bay Area residents, also concluded that the mortality rate of men and women with fewer social connections was 2.3 and 2.8 times that of men and women who had more social ties.

Read the entire article: Marin Voice: Focusing on power of human connection during pandemic – Marin Independent Journal

Public health authorities are cracking down on a holiday activity where the age group least at risk of COVID-19 walks around outside wearing masks.

Read the entire article: Los Angeles Bans Halloween Trick-or-Treating Over Coronavirus Fears – Reason.com

How do we kindly and proactively ensure healthy boundaries? It’s not an easy task, and oftentimes, rather intimidating; telling people what you need might seem selfish, aggressive, or even rude.

But it’s important: Boundaries allow us to feel safe and respected both physically and emotionally. Honoring our limits helps us to take better care of ourselves, builds trust, prevents burnout, and infuses more meaning and authenticity into our relationships.

Read the entire article: 9 Tips for Setting Healthy Boundaries  — Calm Blog

You can regularly count on Amazon to have some of the best deals around, but that sentiment rings true now more than ever: Amazon’s Big Summer Sale has officially arrived. The sale offers discounts across all categories, including home, pets, fashion, and electronics, but if you’re looking to stock your kitchen with new appliances, there’s no better time to save. Instant Pots, Ninja air fryers, Breville juicers, Blendtec blenders, and more are all majorly marked down.

If your pots and pans are in need of a complete overhaul, you can save up to 35 percent on cookware sets, like this 15-piece non-stick set for $165.

Read the entire article: The Best Kitchen Deals From Amazon’s Summer Sale 2020 | Food & Wine

Sometimes, great ideas come out of nowhere. Maybe you’ve been focusing on a tough problem for days with no end in sight, and then—poof—a creative solution falls in your lap.

These flashes of brilliance rarely happen when you’re parked at your desk all day, zeroed in on a single project. While it’s important to focus, too much focus on one thing can cause a kind of mental tunnel vision, closing you off to new ideas. As a result, your work can begin to feel mundane and uninspired.

Read the entire article: Break the Monotony to Spark Inspiration | Evernote Blog | Evernote Blog

Amid concerns about post-lockdown increases in COVID-19 infections, there is one striking piece of good news: Daily deaths from the disease in the United States have fallen dramatically since April, and that downward trend has continued into June. Even taking into account the average lag between laboratory confirmation and death—about two weeks, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—the loosening of restrictions on movement and economic activity that began at the end of April so far has not led to the surge in COVID-19 deaths that many lockdown supporters predicted.

Read the entire article: Daily COVID-19 Deaths in the U.S. Have Fallen Dramatically Since April – Reason.com

One man’s trash certainly can be another man’s treasure—but that expression probably doesn’t hold true when we’re talking about 33-year-old fish.

So maybe that explains why someone happily gave a British food bank a tin of anchovies to with a “best before” date of April 1987. Last week, the Norwich Foodbank in Norfolk, England, posted a couple of photos of a 1.76-ounce box of fillets of anchovies in oil

Read the entire article: Food Bank Receives 33-Year-Old Tin of Anchovies | Food & Wine