Author: Lance Garrison
To me, this account of a sclerotic, backward-looking present leaves out a lot of discombobulating change, both within politics and without: a green industrial revolution unfolding and animating the Democratic Party agenda; the rapid transformation of the Republican Party into a shape-shifting cult of personality; the rapid development of a miracle vaccine and an incipient golden age for medicine, heralding great hopes for obesity and cancer and cystic fibrosis, among many other advances; the arrival of A.I., with all its attendant anxiety and hype; a new horizon for civil rights and some radical social experimentation around the meaning of gender…
March 13, 2024 – There’s a good chance you’ve come across this popular 10-second social media narrative:Hard-bodied individual looks into the camera. Zooms out to show they’re wearing only a beanie and a bathing suit. Hey, I’m about to dunk myself in freezing water. Voluntarily! Because I love-hate-love-hate it! Really! You should too. Should you?Everywhere we look, someone is dunking something somewhere. Hot water. Ice water. Faces. Feet. Full bodies. And for good reason: Water – in many forms and in many ways – heals.More and more research is finding that water immersion can help ease muscle pain, boost relaxation, and improve…
To the Editor:Re “Special Counsel Defends Claims on Biden Lapses” (front page, March 13):After watching hours of testimony by Robert Hur, the special counsel in the investigation of President Biden’s handling of classified documents, I am impressed by his professionalism and impartiality. Why the Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee thought a televised hearing would undermine Mr. Biden and help Donald Trump eludes me.Mr. Hur’s decision not to prosecute Mr. Biden involved an analysis of the totality of the circumstances and was the correct outcome. Prosecutors have the duty to bring charges only in situations in which they truly…
She could deal with constantly forgetting her shopping list, and she’d made a habit of writing down where she’d parked her car, each and every time. But in her mid-50s, Janis Mara’s memory problems started costing her money. Late fees began piling up because she forgot to pay her bills.”Over time, it really intensified,” she says. “I wanted to think I was just getting older, but my fear was that it was Alzheimer’s.”After bugging her HMO for an MRI, Mara discovered that her lapses weren’t anything to worry about. She was simply going through a bit of age-related memory loss.These…
A few weeks ago, I got a panicked message from Jason Cohen, a dad in upstate New York. He told me that the day care where his twin toddlers had been happily ensconced for over a year, J.A.C.E. Daycare and Early Learning Center in Wappingers Falls, N.Y., was closing unexpectedly and had given parents less than two weeks’ notice and no clear explanation. But Mid Hudson News reported that the center was “suffering extreme financial stress and defaulted on a major loan.”“It’s just a huge mess,” Cohen told me. He said that the worst part is that his family has…
Everyone has memory blips from time to time — the word that’s on the very tip of your tongue or the house keys that aren’t where you swear you left them. As you get older, these kinds of slip-ups may happen more often.You don’t have to resign yourself to memory loss. These simple steps can help keep your brain sharp.A 30-minute daily walk is one of the best things you can do for your body, including your brain.”Physical exercise has the best evidence for preserving memory and mental function with aging,” says R. Scott Turner, MD, PhD, director of the…
Shortly after Nikki Haley exited the presidential race, Joe Biden issued a statement welcoming her supporters to the Democratic Party. In this audio essay, Times Opinion columnist David French implores Haley fans — specifically Reagan Republicans — to join the Democratic coalition. “If you want to preserve Reagan conservatism and its ideals, its temperament, its character, its ideology,” French says, “the best way to preserve it is by ending Donald Trump’s stranglehold on the G.O.P.”(A full transcript of this audio essay will be available within 24 hours of publication in the audio player above.)This episode of “The Opinions” was produced…
Hearing loss and dementia are more common as you get older. The latest research shows that’s no coincidence. The two are linked.Scientists are finding more and more evidence that trouble with hearing makes you more likely to go on to have dementia, a condition marked by memory loss and trouble with thinking, problem-solving, and other mental tasks.That doesn’t mean that people with hearing loss (about two-thirds of adults over 70) are guaranteed to have dementia — simply that the odds are higher. There may be things you can do to lower your chances for mental decline, even if you start…
When the writer Gabriel García Márquez, the author of “One Hundred Years of Solitude” and other classic novels, died 10 years ago, he left behind an unfinished novel, “Until August.” The novel was published this week, unleashing a backlash from scholars, writers and fans who’ve taken exception not with the novel itself, but rather with what they see as an act of betrayal that endangers García Márquez’s legacy.Before his death, García Márquez asked his sons, Rodrigo García and Gonzalo García Barcha, to destroy the novel. They did not. They could not. I understand.The life of a work of art does…
Stem cell transplants have become important weapons in the fight against certain blood cancers, such as multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma, and leukemia. A stem cell transplant may help you live longer. In some cases, it can even cure blood cancers.About 50,000 transplantations are performed yearly, with the number increasing 10% to 20% each year. More than 20,000 people have now lived five years or longer after having a stem cell transplant.Here’s how it works: The stem cells in healthy bone marrow produce blood cells, including the white blood cells that are crucial to your immune system. Blood cancers…