ip

Alok Sharma refuses to apologise for lack of personal protection equipment for NHS frontline staff

Follow our live coronavirus updates HERE Coronavirus: the symptoms




ip

Home Secretary Priti Patel facing legal action from Sir Philip Rutnam after bullying allegations

Legal action has been formally launched against Priti Patel following allegations of bullying from a top civil servant.




ip

Former Chancellor Philip Hammond calls on Government to reopen economy soon or face disaster

But in one sign of a turning tide in Number 10, the UK Government is reportedly considering a proposal to allow Brits to meet up with small "bubbles" of up to 10 of their closest family or friends.




ip

Friendship Is a Lifesaver - Issue 84: Outbreak


My mother-in-law, Carol, lives alone. It was her 75th birthday the other day. Normally, I send flowers. Normally, she spends some part of the day with the family members who live nearby and not across the country as my husband, Mark, and I do. And normally, she makes plans to celebrate with a friend. But these are not normal times. I was worried about sending a flower delivery person. Social distancing means no visiting with friends or family, no matter how close they are. So, my sister-in-law dropped off a gift and Mark and I sang “Happy Birthday” down the phone line with our kids. But I could hear the loneliness in Carol’s voice.

This was hardly the worst thing anyone experienced in America on that particular April day. We are fortunate that Carol is healthy and safe. But it upset me anyway. People over 60 are more vulnerable to COVID-19 than anyone else. They are also vulnerable to loneliness, especially when they live alone. By forcing us all into social isolation, one public health crisis—the coronavirus—is shining a bright light on another, loneliness. It will be some time before we have a vaccine for the coronavirus. But the antidote to loneliness is accessible to all of us: friendship.

Those who valued friendship as much as family had higher levels of health and happiness.

All too often we fail to appreciate what we have until it’s gone. And this shared global moment has illuminated how significant friends are to day-to-day happiness. Science has been accumulating evidence that friendship isn’t just critical for our happiness but our health and longevity. Its presence or absence matters at every point in life, but the cumulative effects of either show up most starkly in the later stages of life. That is also the moment when demographics and health concerns can conspire to make friendships harder to find or sustain. As the world hits pause, it’s worth reminding ourselves why friendship is more important now than ever.

Friendship has long been understood to be valuable and pleasurable. Ancient Greek philosophers enjoyed debating its virtues, in the company of friends. But friendship has largely been considered a cultural phenomenon, a pleasant by-product of the human capacity for language and living in groups. In the 1970s and 1980s, a handful of epidemiologists and sociologists began to establish a link between social relationships and health. They showed those who were more socially isolated were more likely to die over the course of the studies. In 2015, a meta-analysis of more than 3 million people whose average age was 66 showed that social isolation and loneliness increased the risk of early mortality by up to 30 percent.1 Yet loneliness and social isolation are not the same thing. Social isolation is an objective measure of the number and extent of social contact a person has day to day. Loneliness is a subjective feeling of mismatch between how much social connection you want and how much you have.

Once the link between health and relationships was established in humans, it was noticed in other species as well. Primatologists studying baboons in Africa remarked that when female baboons lost their primary grooming partners to lions or drought, they worked to build bonds with other animals in place of the one they’d lost. When the researchers analyzed the social behavior of the animals and their outcomes over generations, they found in multiple studies that the animals with the strongest social networks live longer and have more and healthier babies than those that are more isolated.2 Natural selection has resulted in survival of the friendliest.

Since baboons don’t drive each other to the hospital, something deeper than social support must be at work. Friendship is getting “under the skin,” as biologists say. Some of the mechanisms by which it works have yet to be explained, but studies have demonstrated that social connection improves cardiovascular functioning, reduces susceptibility to inflammation and viral disease, sharpens cognition, reduces depression, lowers stress, and even slows biological aging.3

We also now have a clearer definition of what friendship is. Evolutionary biologists concluded that friendship in monkeys—as well as people—required at least three things: it had to be long-lasting, positive, and cooperative. When an anthropologist looked for consistent definitions of friendship across cultures, he found something similar. Friendships were described as positive, and they nearly always include a willingness to help, especially in times of crisis. What friendship is about at the end of the day is creating intensely bonded groups that act as protection against life’s stresses.4

Social connection reduces depression, lowers stress, and even slows biological aging.

That buffering effect is particularly powerful as we age. Those first epidemiology studies focused on people in the middle of life. In 1987, epidemiologist Teresa Seeman of the University of California, Los Angeles, wondered if age and type of relationship mattered for health.5 She found that for those under 60, whether or not they were married mattered most. Being unmarried in midlife put people at greater risk of dying earlier than normal. But that did not turn out to be true for the oldest groups. For those over 60, close ties with friends and relatives mattered more than having a spouse. “That was a real lightbulb that went on,” Seeman says.

In a 2016 study, researchers at the University of North Carolina found that in both adolescence and old age, having friends was associated with a lower risk of physiological problems.6 The more friends you had, the lower the risk. By contrast, adults in middle age were less affected by variation in how socially connected they were. But the quality of their social relationships—whether friendships provided support or added strain—mattered more. Valuing friendship also proved increasingly important with age in a 2017 study by William Chopik of Michigan State University. He surveyed more than 270,000 adults from 15 to 99 years of age and found that those who valued friendship as much as family had higher levels of health, happiness, and subjective well-being across the lifespan. The effects were especially strong in those over 65. As you get older, friendships become more important, not less; whether you’re married is relatively less significant.7

There’s a widespread sense, especially among younger people, that people are lonely post-retirement. The truth is more complicated. Social networks do get smaller later in life for a variety of reasons. In retirement, people lose regular interaction with colleagues. Most diseases, and the probability of getting them, worsen with age. It’s more likely you will lose a spouse. Friends start to die as well. Mental and physical capacities may diminish, and social lives may be limited by hearing loss or reduced mobility.

Yet some of this social-narrowing is intentional. If time is of the essence, the motivation to derive emotional meaning from life increases, says Laura Carstensen, director of the Stanford Center for Longevity. She found that people choose to spend time with those they really care about. They emphasize quality of relationships over quantity. While family members fill much of a person’s inner social circle, friends are there, too, and regularly fill in in the absence of family. A related, more optimistic perspective on retirement is that with fewer professional and family obligations, there are more hours for the things we want to do and the people with whom we want to do them.

At all stages of life, how we do friendship—whether we focus on one or two close friends or socialize more widely—has to do with our natural levels of sociability and motivation. Those vary, of course. I recently spoke with a man who had retired to Las Vegas. When he and his wife moved to their new house, his wife began baking cookies and distributing them to neighbors. She started throwing block parties for silly holidays and those neighbors showed up. No one had bothered to organize such a thing before. Even in retirement, this woman is what psychologists call a “social broker”—someone who brings people together. She has most likely always been friendly.

What best predicted health wasn’t cholesterol levels, but satisfaction in relationships.

How you live your life before you reach 60 makes a difference, experts on aging say. Friendship is a lifelong endeavor, but not everyone treats it that way. Think of relationships the way we do smoking, says epidemiologist Lisa Berkman of Harvard University. “If you start smoking when you’re 14, and stop smoking when you’re 65, in many ways, the damage is done,” she says “It’s not undoable. Stopping makes some things better. It’s worth doing but it’s very late in the game.” Similarly, if you only focus on friendships when your family and professional obligations slow, you will be at a disadvantage. Damage will have been done. The payoff in making friendship a priority was born out in the long-running Harvard Study of Adult Development, which followed more than 700 men for the entire course of their lives. What best predicted how healthy those men were at 80 wasn’t middle-aged cholesterol levels, it was how satisfied they were in their relationships at 50.8

Fortunately, it is possible to make new friends at every stage of life. In Los Angeles, I met a group of 70-something women who bonded as volunteers for Generation Xchange, an educational and community health nonprofit. The program places older adults in early elementary classrooms as teachers’ aids for a school year. As a result of the extra adult attention in class, the children’s reading scores have gone up and behavioral problems have gone down. The volunteers’ health has improved—they’ve lost weight, and lowered blood pressure and cholesterol. But they have also become friends, which is just what UCLA’s Seeman had in mind when she started the program. “One of the reasons our program may be successful is that we are motivating them to get engaged through their joint interest in helping the kids,” Seeman says. “It takes the pressure off of making friends. You can start getting to know each other in the context of the school and our team. Hopefully, the friendships can grow out of that.”

Concerns about loneliness among the elderly are well-founded. Demographics are not working in favor of the fight against loneliness. By 2035, older adults are projected to outnumber children for the first time in American history. Because of drops in marriage and childbearing, more of those older adults will be unmarried and childless than ever before. The percentage of older adults living alone rose steadily through the 20th century, and now hovers at 27 percent. And a digital divide still exists between older adults and their children and grandchildren, according to recent studies. That means older adults are less able to use virtual technology like Zoom to stay connected during the COVID-19 pandemic—though some are learning. Laura Fisher, a personal trainer in New York City, found that putting her business online meant training older clients one-on-one in videoconferencing. She now works out with one of her young clients in New York City and her client’s grandmother in Israel. Generally, older adults who use social media report more support from both their grown children and their friends. “For older people, social media is a real avenue of connection, of relational well-being,” says psychologist Jeff Hancock who runs the social media lab at Stanford University.

That is good news in this moment of enforced social isolation. So is the fact that being apart has reminded so many of us of how much we enjoy being together. For my part, I sent those flowers to my mother-in-law after all when I discovered contactless delivery. When the flowers arrived, we spoke again. And then I called her again two days later. “It’s great to talk to you,” she said.

Lydia Denworth is a contributing editor for Scientific American and the author of Friendship: The Evolution, Biology, and Extraordinary Power of Life’s Fundamental Bond.

Lead image: SanaStock / Shutterstock

References

1 Holt-Lunstad, J., et al. Loneliness and social isolation as risk factors for mortality: a meta-analytic review. Perspectives on Psychological Science 10, 227-237 (2015).

2 Silk, J.B., Alberts, S.C., & Altmann, J. Social bonds of female baboons enhance infant survival. Science 302, 1231-1234 (2003).

3 Holt-Lunstad, J., Uchino, B.N., Smith, T.W., & Hicks, A. On the importance of relationship quality: The impact of ambivalence in friendships on cardiovascular functioning. Annals of Behavioral Medicine 33, 278-290 (2007).

4 Uchino, B.N., Kent de Grey, R.G., & Cronan, S. The quality of social networks predicts age-related changes in cardiovascular reactivity to stress. Psychology and Aging 31, 321–326 (2016).

5 Seeman, T.E., et al. Social network ties and mortality among tile elderly in the Alameda County Study. American Journal of Epidemiology 126, 714-723 (1987).

6 Yang, Y.C., et al. Social relationships and physiological determinants of longevity across the human life span. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113, 578-583 (2016).

7 Chopik, W.J. Associations among relational values, support, health, and well‐being across the adult lifespan. Personal Relationships 24, 408-422 (2017).

8 Vaillant, G.E. & Mukamal, K. Successful aging. American Journal of Psychiatry 158, 839-847 (2001).


Read More…




ip

Capitals forward Brendan Leipsic apologizes after 'inappropriate and offensive' comments go public

Washington Capitals forward Brendan Leipsic suddenly finds himself in hot water. A private group chat featuring Leipsic was leaked on Wednesday, including misogynistic comments made by the NHLer.



  • Sports/Hockey/NHL

ip

CFL's 2020 season likely to be wiped out, commissioner Randy Ambrosie says

CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie says the most likely scenario for the league is a cancelled 2020 season during the COVID-19 pandemic.



  • Sports/Football/CFL

ip

Winnipeg woman focusing on body positivity after being targeted by hockey players' misogynistic slurs

A Winnipeg woman who was a subject of misogynistic comments in a private group chat involving NHL players said she will continue her campaign of encouraging body acceptance.



  • News/Canada/Manitoba

ip

Capitals waive Brendan Leipsic after misogynistic comments made public

The Washington Capitals placed Brendan Leipsic on unconditional waivers on Friday, two days after it was revealed the forward made misogynistic comments in a private group chat. The team said the move was made with the intention of terminating Leipsic's contract.



  • Sports/Hockey/NHL

ip

Winnipeg-born Brendan Leipsic’s comments ‘unacceptable and offensive’: NHL

Winnipeg-born NHL player Brendan Leipsic is facing massive criticism after private messages degrading women were exposed online.




ip

Winnipeg-born NHL player Brendan Leipsic’s contract terminated by Washington Capitals

The Washington Capitals announced in a statement Friday morning that Brendan Leipsic has been placed on unconditional waivers for the purposes of terminating his contract.




ip

Feel free to snap pictures of the tulips, says NCC

The National Capital Commission has backed down from a decision to install signs to discourage people from taking pictures or – even stopping to admire – the Canadian Tulip Festival blooms. “Dear all: our bad!” the NCC tweeted Friday night after the move attracted controversy — and the ire of Mayor Jim Watson. The signs […]





ip

COVID-19: Ontario reports 59 more deaths; Tulip Festival is now camera friendly

The province is reporting 346 new cases of COVID-19 Saturday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 19,944. There were 59 more deaths reported, for a total of 1,599. Of those, 775 involved residents in the troubled long-term care system. There are now 237 outbreaks in the province’s care facilities, increase of three. After […]




ip

WeChat's surveillance of international users boosts censorship in China, researchers say

WeChat is one of the world’s most popular apps, but researchers at the University of Toronto caution it is surveilling international users and using their information to broaden censorship on the app in China.



  • News/Technology & Science

ip

Sue Perkins 'devastated' by end of friendship with Paul Hollywood after leaving Bake Off

Sue Perkins presented 'The Great British Bake Off' with Mel Giedroyc from 2010 to 2016




ip

Normal People: First-look clip released from BBC adaptation of Sally Rooney's best-selling novel

New clip gives viewers a sense of what the much-anticipated series will be like




ip

One World: Jimmy Fallon takes swipe at Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos during charity concert

Late-night host revealed that more than $50m has been raised ahead of the One World event




ip

Mandy Patinkin: Viral clip of Homeland star resurfaces and warms hearts during coronavirus lockdown

'That is the most exciting thing I've ever had happen!'




ip

Netflix dating show Too Hot to Handle tipped to be more popular than Love Island by bookies

According to Paddy Power, the dating show has a 2/1 chance of beating Love Island's ratings




ip

Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker returning to BBC for coronavirus Screenwipe special

Brooker's wry look at the world's events last aired in December 2016




ip

Friends actor who played one of Phoebe's triplets shares update on TikTok

Alexandria Cimoch starred on the show with her siblings




ip

Parks and Recreation to return for scripted reunion in aid of coronavirus charity

Half-hour revival will see Leslie Knope and friends contend with the struggles of social distancing




ip

YouTuber Jake Paul appears to flout lockdown rules during 'roadtrip' with girlfriend

Residents in Los Angeles have been told to only leave their homes for 'essential' journeys




ip

Rowena Chiu: 'The Harvey Weinstein survivors we know about are the tip of the iceberg'

The former assistant to the jailed producer talks to Olivia Petter about her attempted rape allegation against Harvey Weinstein, why his lawyers must be held to account, and the damaging myths we attach to rape survivors and perpetrators




ip

Late Night hosts rip into Mike Pence for ignoring order to wear face mask at hospital

US vice president was condemned for ignoring strict rules about protective gear put in place to slow the spread of coronavirus




ip

The Last Dance: Obama on-screen description updated after it was dubbed 'disrespectful'

Former US president described as merely 'Former Chicago Resident' in previous episodes of series




ip

Nicolas Cage to play Tiger King star Joe Exotic in new scripted TV series

Cat trader previously said he wanted Brad Pitt to portray him




ip

Lenny Henry's daughter posed as comedian and sent 'manipulative' false messages in attempt to win back boyfriend

Billie Henry was given a five-year restraining order




ip

Phillip Schofield shares family photo during lockdown, appears to contradict reports he's moved out

TV presenter, wife Stephanie and their daughters played a game of Murder Mystery




ip

DRUDGE APP IPHONE, IPAD...


DRUDGE APP IPHONE, IPAD...


(Third column, 21st story, link)

Related stories:
ANDROID...




ip

Empty Vegas Strip counts losses as locals venture out...


Empty Vegas Strip counts losses as locals venture out...


(Second column, 2nd story, link)





ip

Can't decipher Trump-speak? Meet Margaret, the computer bot...


Can't decipher Trump-speak? Meet Margaret, the computer bot...


(First column, 19th story, link)





ip

NSW police watchdog says strip searches illegal but critics say findings ‘did not go far enough’

A 16-year-old Aboriginal boy was forced to remove his shorts and squat during a search, but disciplinary action has not been recommended

A New South Wales police watchdog investigation into seven strip searches including one in which a 16-year-old Aboriginal boy was physically forced to remove his shorts and squat has found that all of them were unlawful.

But the watchdog has been criticised for “not going far enough” in its findings, with Sarah Crellin, a principal solicitor at the Aboriginal Legal Service, saying she was “deeply disappointed that there have been no recommendations for disciplinary action” against individual officers.

Continue reading...




ip

Already in this crisis we are slipping into over-optimism about the economy and over-pessimism about debt | Wayne Swan

Deep recessions have long shadows and already there is a gaping hole opening up in our pandemic response

The great recession was followed by Brexit, the election of Donald Trump and the rise of authoritarianism particularly in Europe.

Big economic events have big political consequences.

Continue reading...




ip

Covid-19 competence has given Australian governments some political capital. But there's a flipside | Katharine Murphy

Politicians have set a high bar for themselves – success on coronavirus has created community expectations that will be challenging to shift

“Let’s not give everything back, let’s not throw away all the progress we’ve made by letting our frustration get the better of us.” This was Daniel Andrews on Friday afternoon, shortly after national cabinet resolved to gradually restart economic and social activity by July.

The Victorian premier wanted people to understand he’d be hastening slowly – the message being here in the Massachusetts of Australia, we decide how quickly we’ll remove coronavirus restrictions. We don’t apply an arbitrary national average.

Continue reading...




ip

Dua Lipa reveals orange hair in cute quarantine snap with boyfriend Anwar Hadid

The Hotter than Hell singer has revealed her new 'do in a sweet Instagram post




ip

Jesy Nelson proves Sainsbury's can be stylish as she glams up for a trip to the shops

The Little Mix star raided her closet ahead of... a trip to the shops




ip

Gemma Collins and James Argent's relationship timeline in full

The course of true love never did run smooth, after all




ip

Gigi Hadid and Zayn Malik relationship timeline: From how they met to their brief split and baby rumours

The couple have been on and off since 2015




ip

Charlie Brooker says he 'always expected' something like Covid-19 pandemic ahead of Wipe special

Brooker says he's coping with the crisis "far better than I would have anticipated"




ip

Dua Lipa: Critics 'nitpick' female artists but praise men for doing nothing on stage

The singer also suggested women aren't encouraged to get into music production from an early age




ip

Millie Small dead: My Boy Lollipop singer dies, aged 73

The singer was most famous for her hit single My Boy Lollipop




ip

Florence Pugh hits back at critics of Zach Braff relationship

The actress is in lockdown with Zach Braff in Los Angeles




ip

Adele's friend Lauren Paul shares previously unseen Las Vegas trip photo to mark star's birthday

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas - but the pictures will make it to Instagram




ip

Ariana Grande confirms new relationship with Dalton Gomez in lockdown-themed music video

Ariana Grande has confirmed her relationship with real estate agent Dalton Gomez in a new music video.




ip

Tech tips

What you need to know to keep connected.

      




ip

Soak up spring with a virtual tour of the Netherlands' famous tulip fields

The Keukenhof Flower Exhibit showcases over 800 varieties of tulip




ip

10 of the most spectacular road trip routes in the UK

From the best of the Welsh coast to the perennial beauty of the Scottish Highlands




ip

iPhone SE2: Apple finally launches follow-up for the much loved SE with a smaller, cheaper phone

A new iPhone for under £500? You'd better believe it




ip

From DIY tinting to putting down the wax strips: how to master beautiful brows at home

The over-arching advice is that less is always more