Puvema

"Actual bars have decreased in number, but drinking is acceptable in all sorts of other places it didn't used to be: Salons and boutiques dole out cheap cava in plastic cups. Movie theaters serve alcohol, Starbucks serves alcohol, zoos serve alcohol. Moms carry coffee mugs that say things like, 'This might be wine,' though for discreet day-drinking, the better move may be one of the new hard seltzers, a watered-down malt liquor dressed up--for precisely this purpose--as a natural soda.

Even before COVID-19 arrived on our shores, the consequences of all this were catching up with us. From 1999 to 2017, the number of alcohol-related deaths in the U.S. doubled, to more than 70,000 a year--making alcohol one of the leading drivers of the decline in American life expectancy. These numbers are likely to get worse: During the pandemic, frequency of drinking rose, as did sales of hard liquor. By this February, nearly a quarter of Americans said they’d drunk more over the past year as a means of coping with stress."

"Although both men and women commonly use alcohol to cope with stressful situations and negative feelings, research finds that women are substantially more likely to do so. And they're much more apt to be sad and stressed out to begin with: Women are about twice as likely as men to suffer from depression or anxiety disorders--and their overall happiness has fallen substantially in recent decades.

In the 2013 book Her Best-Kept Secret, an exploration of the surge in female drinking, the journalist Gabrielle Glaser recalls noticing, early this century, that women around her were drinking more. Alcohol hadn't been a big part of mom culture in the ’90s, when her first daughter was young--but by the time her younger children entered school, it was everywhere: 'Mothers joked about bringing their flasks to Pasta Night. Flasks? I wondered, at the time. Wasn't that like Gunsmoke?’ (Her quip seems quaint today. A growing class of merchandise now helps women carry concealed alcohol: There are purses with secret pockets, and chunky bracelets that double as flasks, and--perhaps least likely of all to invite close investigation--flasks designed to look like tampons.)"

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/07/america-drinking-alone-problem/619017/

America Has a Drinking Problem A little alcohol can boost creativity and strengthen social ties. But there’s nothing moderate, or convivial, about the way many Americans drink today.

"The authors of the new study sorted participants into low, moderate and high levels of cardiorespiratory fitness--a measure of how well one’s cardiovascular and respiratory systems supply oxygen to the muscles--based on their bike test results. They found that the people with high fitness levels had a 19% lower risk of head and neck cancer and a 20% lower risk of kidney cancer compared to the low-fitness group."

"Onerup said he was particularly surprised by the findings about gastrointestinal cancers: The study showed that the risk for high-fitness participants was nearly 40% lower for cancers in the esophagus, the liver, the bile ducts and the gallbladder and about 20% lower for the stomach and the colon."

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/cancer/good-fitness-may-reduce-cancer-risk-rcna99853

Being in good physical shape could reduce the risk of nine types of cancer, study finds People at high fitness levels had an especially sizable reduction in their risk of gastrointestinal cancers, the research showed.

"When we think of investment, it's possible that our minds immediately travel to money. However, investing in yourself goes beyond acquiring stakes and bonds. It is defined as the act of putting in time, energy, and money to improve yourself and your future life. When you prioritize self-improvement, various aspects of your life will experience a positive domino effect. Through actions that shape you into a happy, peaceful, wise, and successful person, you are able to take an active role in shaping your future and building the life you desire."

"Investing in yourself entails taking care of your physical, mental, and emotional well-being, as they are all interconnected. Self-care is an incredible way to achieve this. Defined as anything you do to take care of yourself to ensure well-being across all spheres, self-care can take on various forms."

https://longevitylive.com/wellness/how-investing-in-yourself-can-boost-your-longevity/

How Investing In Yourself Can Boost Your Longevity From prioritizing financial well-being, to making self care a regular part of your life, investing in yourself can take on various forms.