Featured Articles
Our Hearts
by Tammy Kennon
Liv Fun: Vol 7 – Issue 3
We’ve entered a new frontier — we are the first generation to have a life expectancy of 65–79+ years. Technological and medical advances are largely responsible for this “Third Age,” and fortunately scientists have come along with us, continually finding actionable ways to extend our good health — and our good humor — in these newfound decades.
Heart Matters:
Harvard scientists have officially found the fountain of youth. In a quest to find the secret to living a longer and happier life, they spent a whopping eight decades studying the life trajectory of 268 Harvard sophomores.
Over those decades, the Harvard Study of Adult Development expanded to include the wives and now children of their initial subjects, eventually adding a control group of 456 inner-city Boston men. The researchers have conducted hours of interviews, hunted through piles of medical records, and documented the triumphs and tragedies of careers and marriages. It is science’s longest (and probably most quoted) study of adult development.
With 80 years of data, they have found a single factor that contributes more than any other to health, happiness and longer lives. It isn’t diet, career success or fame, not exercise or access to healthcare.
“Good relationships keep us happier and healthier. Period,” says Robert Waldinger, director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development. “At 50, the men satisfied in their relationships were healthiest at 80.”
Liv Fun
by Leisure Care
Autumn 2018
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Our Hearts
by Tammy KennonWe’ve entered a new frontier — we are the first generation to have a life expectancy of 65–79+ years. Technological and medical advances are largely responsible for this “Third Age,” and fortunately scientists have come along with us, continually finding actionable ways to extend our good health — and our good humor — in these newfound decades.
Heart-Shaped Map
by Pam Mandel
We joke that we met on a reality TV show, but the truth is just as unlikely. He showed up at sunset at Ayers Rock, and I recognized him right away as the person who’d come for my heart. Neither of us is from Australia, but there we were in the golden hour light at that place and time, open to whatever was going to happen.
The Light Shines Through
by Jeff Thaxton
I had the pleasure of meeting Ted Siekerman in August 2015 when he first moved to Fairwinds – Spokane. He seems to carry his positive outlook with him wherever he goes. Perhaps part of the reason is how grateful he is for life. While serving our country during the Korean War, he passed out after sustaining mortar shrapnel throughout his body.