April 21, 2009 -From the New York Times
What Are Friends for? A Longer Life
By TARA PARKER-POPE
In the quest for better health, many people turn to doctors, self-help books or herbal supplements. But they overlook a powerful weapon that could help them fight illness and depression, speed recovery, slow aging and prolong life: their friends.
Researchers are only now starting to pay attention to the importance of friendship and social networks in overall health. A 10-year Australian study found that older people with a large circle of friends were 22 percent less likely to die during the study period than those with fewer friends. Last year, Harvard researchers reported that strong social ties could promote brain health as we age.
“In general, the role of friendship in our lives isn’t terribly well appreciated,” said Rebecca G. Adams, a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. “Friendship has a bigger impact on our psychological well-being than family relationships.”
In a new book, “The Girls From Ames: A Story of Women and a 40-Year Friendship” (Gotham), Jeffrey Zaslow tells the story of 11 childhood friends who scattered from Iowa to eight different states. Despite the distance, their friendships endured through college and marriage, divorce and other crises, including the death of one of the women in her 20s.
Using scrapbooks, photo albums and the women’s own memories, Mr. Zaslow chronicles how their close friendships have shaped their lives and continue to sustain them. The role of friendship in their health and well-being is evident in almost every chapter.
Two of the friends have recently learned they have breast cancer. Kelly Zwagerman, now a high school teacher who lives in Northfield, Minn., said that when she got her diagnosis in September 2007, her doctor told her to surround herself with loved ones. Instead, she reached out to her childhood friends, even though they lived far away.
“The first people I told were the women from Ames,” she said in an interview. “I e-mailed them. I immediately had e-mails and phone calls and messages of support. It was instant that the love poured in from all of them.”
Ms. Zwagerman said she was often more comfortable discussing her illness with her girlfriends than with her doctor. “We go so far back that these women will talk about anything,” she said.
.....Ms. Zwagerman says her friends from Ames have been an essential factor in her treatment and recovery, and research bears her out. In 2006, a study of nearly 3,000 nurses with breast cancer found that women without close friends were four times as likely to die from the disease as women with 10 or more friends. And notably, proximity and the amount of contact with a friend wasn’t associated with survival. Just having friends was protective.
Bella DePaulo, a visiting psychology professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, whose work focuses on single people and friendships, notes that in many studies, friendship has an even greater effect on health than a spouse or family member. In the study of nurses with breast cancer, having a spouse wasn’t associated with survival.
While many friendship studies focus on the intense relationships of women, some research shows that men can benefit, too. In a six-year study of 736 middle-age Swedish men, attachment to a single person didn’t appear to affect the risk of heart attack and fatal coronary heart disease, but having friendships did. Only smoking was as important a risk factor as lack of social support.
Exactly why friendship has such a big effect isn’t entirely clear. While friends can run errands and pick up medicine for a sick person, the benefits go well beyond physical assistance; indeed, proximity does not seem to be a factor.
It may be that people with strong social ties also have better access to health services and care. Beyond that, however, friendship clearly has a profound psychological effect. People with strong friendships are less likely than others to get colds, perhaps because they have lower stress levels.
Last year, researchers studied 34 students at the University of Virginia, taking them to the base of a steep hill and fitting them with a weighted backpack. They were then asked to estimate the steepness of the hill. Some participants stood next to friends during the exercise, while others were alone.
The students who stood with friends gave lower estimates of the steepness of the hill. And the longer the friends had known each other, the less steep the hill appeared.
“People with stronger friendship networks feel like there is someone they can turn to,” said Karen A. Roberto, director of the center for gerontology at Virginia Tech. “Friendship is an undervalued resource. The consistent message of these studies is that friends make your life better.”
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Thursday, April 16, 2009
ILOILO COST OF LIVING: FOOD
This is from the blog of an American and his Filipino wife who have retired in Tigbauan. The website is: http://goiloilo.com/.
NOTE: AS OF 2007. We live in Iloilo City and keep quite close track of our food expenditures. We had read about soaring food price inflation in the Philippines so we decided to see how much our own food expenditures had risen. Bear in mind that our figures include the non-food items we buy at the grocery store such as soap products and a few other incidentals. Since our income is in US dollars, we keep track of our expenses in dollars.
On Sept. 30, 07 the exchange rate was P45.20 pesos per USD. On Sept. 30, 08 the exchange rate was P47.25 per USD. I don’t have the math skills to make much more sense of this for peso purchasers.
I do note that the rice we buy is a premium quality rice variety called Malido. Last year it was P32 per kilo. Today it is P48, a 50% increase. This is from the same rice vendor in the Villa, Iloilo City public market. We used to buy imported Thai Jasmine rice but now we like the Philippine Malido.
Here are our figures:
Jan 1 to Sept 30 2007 $205.76 per month.
Jan 1 to Sept 30 2008 $251.87 per month
Increase: 22% or $46.11 per month
We are buying more fruits and vegetables at public markets where they are cheaper — and better. We are also buying some meat products from stalls rather than the supermarket. We used to think that it was safer to buy meat at the supermarket (refrigeration, fewer flies) but we have been increasingly suspicious that supermarkets use red dye to make meat look fresh when it’s not and maybe other adulterants as well. When we go to a meat vendor in the early morning we can find freshly killed and butchered (apologies to vegetarians!) meat that looks just that way — fresh and unadulterated.
We are a household of two persons. We do buy luxuries such as imported olive oil, imported spaghetti sauce, Parmesan cheese and some other imported cheese, New Zealand milk and butter and so forth. Nothing here claimed to be the product of statistical competence, but hope it may be of interest to others expats or aspiring expats.
ILOILO BIG MAC INDEX: The price of a Big Mac meal has become something of a transnational guide to the cost of living, popularized by the Economist Magazine. The news from Iloilo City is not promising. When we moved here in early 2007 a Big Mac meal was P98. As of January 2009 it’s P126, a 28% increase in two years.
NOTE: AS OF 2007. We live in Iloilo City and keep quite close track of our food expenditures. We had read about soaring food price inflation in the Philippines so we decided to see how much our own food expenditures had risen. Bear in mind that our figures include the non-food items we buy at the grocery store such as soap products and a few other incidentals. Since our income is in US dollars, we keep track of our expenses in dollars.
On Sept. 30, 07 the exchange rate was P45.20 pesos per USD. On Sept. 30, 08 the exchange rate was P47.25 per USD. I don’t have the math skills to make much more sense of this for peso purchasers.
I do note that the rice we buy is a premium quality rice variety called Malido. Last year it was P32 per kilo. Today it is P48, a 50% increase. This is from the same rice vendor in the Villa, Iloilo City public market. We used to buy imported Thai Jasmine rice but now we like the Philippine Malido.
Here are our figures:
Jan 1 to Sept 30 2007 $205.76 per month.
Jan 1 to Sept 30 2008 $251.87 per month
Increase: 22% or $46.11 per month
We are buying more fruits and vegetables at public markets where they are cheaper — and better. We are also buying some meat products from stalls rather than the supermarket. We used to think that it was safer to buy meat at the supermarket (refrigeration, fewer flies) but we have been increasingly suspicious that supermarkets use red dye to make meat look fresh when it’s not and maybe other adulterants as well. When we go to a meat vendor in the early morning we can find freshly killed and butchered (apologies to vegetarians!) meat that looks just that way — fresh and unadulterated.
We are a household of two persons. We do buy luxuries such as imported olive oil, imported spaghetti sauce, Parmesan cheese and some other imported cheese, New Zealand milk and butter and so forth. Nothing here claimed to be the product of statistical competence, but hope it may be of interest to others expats or aspiring expats.
ILOILO BIG MAC INDEX: The price of a Big Mac meal has become something of a transnational guide to the cost of living, popularized by the Economist Magazine. The news from Iloilo City is not promising. When we moved here in early 2007 a Big Mac meal was P98. As of January 2009 it’s P126, a 28% increase in two years.
NEWS FROM UPV
UPV inks MOA with Korean School on Language Teaching
Fresh on the trail of a recently signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Chosun University of Korea on February 12, 2009, UP Visayas signed a Memorandum of Agreement with EDUFORE International School and OTEEN English Education of Korea on February 27, 2009 at the UPV Iloilo City campus.
“UP Visayas has always welcomed linkages with various academic institutions, both local and foreign, [having recently] signed an MOU with Chosun University to facilitate academic exchange programs,” said UPV Chancellor Minda J. Formacion in her welcome remarks. She added that UPV has had numerous linkages in the past with institutions such as Kangnung National University, Korea Nazarene University, Silla University of Korea, and Kagoshima University and Tokyo University of Japan, to name a few.
According to Dr. Aurora Fe Bautista, President of EDUFORE International School in branch based in Jaro, Iloilo City, EDUFORE is short for “Education in the Forest where forest is symbolic of the authentic world, short of saying that education should happen in the real world and not in the confines of the four walls of the classroom.”
The MOA stipulates that UPV, through the CAS Language Program, shall design a training course in English Language Skills Enhancement for Korean clients of OTEEN Incorporated doing business under the name of EDUFORE International School and OTEEN English Education.
The primary objective of the course will be to provide opportunities for Korean trainees to develop their skills in functional English for social purposes. To achieve this end, UPV is to provide qualified lecturers and prepare instructional and other supplementary materials for all the training participants.
At the end of the course, UPV is to award award a certificate of training in the name of each participant who succesfully completes the required minimum attendance and succesfully delivers the final requirement.
Chancellor Formacion signed in behalf of UPV while President Chung Ryul Lee signed for EDUFORE. Visiting with him were EDUFORE Korean representatives and officials namely, Ihnhwan Khong, Marketing Manager; Shin Seung Chan, CEO; Kang Heon Seung, Maketing Director; Eric Lee, COO; and Pak Ji Young, Marketing Assistant Manager.
Also present during the signing were UPV officials, faculty and staff as well as EDUFORE Chief Executive Officer in the Philippines, Clarita Tubungbanwa and its Secretary Josephine Plana.
by Lyncen M. Fernandez
Fresh on the trail of a recently signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Chosun University of Korea on February 12, 2009, UP Visayas signed a Memorandum of Agreement with EDUFORE International School and OTEEN English Education of Korea on February 27, 2009 at the UPV Iloilo City campus.
“UP Visayas has always welcomed linkages with various academic institutions, both local and foreign, [having recently] signed an MOU with Chosun University to facilitate academic exchange programs,” said UPV Chancellor Minda J. Formacion in her welcome remarks. She added that UPV has had numerous linkages in the past with institutions such as Kangnung National University, Korea Nazarene University, Silla University of Korea, and Kagoshima University and Tokyo University of Japan, to name a few.
According to Dr. Aurora Fe Bautista, President of EDUFORE International School in branch based in Jaro, Iloilo City, EDUFORE is short for “Education in the Forest where forest is symbolic of the authentic world, short of saying that education should happen in the real world and not in the confines of the four walls of the classroom.”
The MOA stipulates that UPV, through the CAS Language Program, shall design a training course in English Language Skills Enhancement for Korean clients of OTEEN Incorporated doing business under the name of EDUFORE International School and OTEEN English Education.
The primary objective of the course will be to provide opportunities for Korean trainees to develop their skills in functional English for social purposes. To achieve this end, UPV is to provide qualified lecturers and prepare instructional and other supplementary materials for all the training participants.
At the end of the course, UPV is to award award a certificate of training in the name of each participant who succesfully completes the required minimum attendance and succesfully delivers the final requirement.
Chancellor Formacion signed in behalf of UPV while President Chung Ryul Lee signed for EDUFORE. Visiting with him were EDUFORE Korean representatives and officials namely, Ihnhwan Khong, Marketing Manager; Shin Seung Chan, CEO; Kang Heon Seung, Maketing Director; Eric Lee, COO; and Pak Ji Young, Marketing Assistant Manager.
Also present during the signing were UPV officials, faculty and staff as well as EDUFORE Chief Executive Officer in the Philippines, Clarita Tubungbanwa and its Secretary Josephine Plana.
by Lyncen M. Fernandez
RORO
oNE OF THE IDEAS that has floated around for our next reunion is the RORO. Here are some exceprts from an article on RORO by J. Tiga:
Highway on the sea: Travelling by RORO in the Philippines
Driving is fast becoming a popular option when going to various island destinations in the country like Iloilo, Cebu or Aklan. And, no, I’m not talking about a San Juanico-like bridge from Manila to Boracay.
More appropriately known as the Strong Republic Nautical Highway, the RORO (Roll-on, Roll-off) Highway is a 919-kilometer (land) and a 137 nautical mile (sea) transportation infrastructure that spans various highways on the land and virtual highways in the water through the use of RORO-capable sea vessels. Through this, travelers can drive their cars to RORO ports and board their cars on the ship. Upon docking on the next port, the cars will simply drive off the ship and continue the journey on the land.
The RORO Highway boasts interconnecting 17 provinces and cities throughout the country, which includes: Oriental Mindoro, Tagaytay (Cavite), Marinduque, Romblon, and Batangas in Luzon; Aklan, Antique, Iloilo, Capiz, Negros Oriental, Negros Occidental, Bohol, Cebu, Guimaras, and Siquijor in the Visayas; and Misamis Occidental, Misamis Oriental, Lanao del Norte, and Dapitan City in Mindanao.
The goal of the RORO Highway is to reduce the cost of travel by 37-43 percent for passengers and 24-34 percent for cargo (when compared with both sea and air travel), while reducing travel time by 12 hours (when compared to ordinary sea travel). As an example, if one were to visit Antique by air, one would have to go through Iloilo and pay a Php 4,000 fare for a one-way ticket. From Iloilo, one would still need to take a three-hour bus ride.
In contrast, fare in an air-conditioned bus from the Alabang to Antique RORO Highway is only about Php 1,200. However, the RORO Highway takes 20 hours to complete its journey from Alabang to Antique, while it only takes 5 hours by air, including the three-hour bus ride.
The approximate charges are as follows for those driving their own cars: the Manila-Caticlan, Manila-Iloilo, Batangas-Caticlan, Batangas- Iloilo route would cost Php 1,500; Batangas-Calapan would be Php 600; Php 1000 for Roxas-Caticlan; Php 1700 for Iloilo-Bacolod; and Php 1,900 for Dumaguete to Dapitan.
Since travelling the RORO Highway means a lot of driving (and idle time while waiting to drive again), tourists are advised to bring various items which can help pass the time while waiting to arrive at your preferred destination. This includes books, music/movie players, and gaming devices. Packing food, such as sandwiches and snacks, and water are also advised in order to help alleviate hunger and thirst during long moments of driving without convenience stores. Bringing toiletries, of course, goes without saying.
Highway on the sea: Travelling by RORO in the Philippines
Driving is fast becoming a popular option when going to various island destinations in the country like Iloilo, Cebu or Aklan. And, no, I’m not talking about a San Juanico-like bridge from Manila to Boracay.
More appropriately known as the Strong Republic Nautical Highway, the RORO (Roll-on, Roll-off) Highway is a 919-kilometer (land) and a 137 nautical mile (sea) transportation infrastructure that spans various highways on the land and virtual highways in the water through the use of RORO-capable sea vessels. Through this, travelers can drive their cars to RORO ports and board their cars on the ship. Upon docking on the next port, the cars will simply drive off the ship and continue the journey on the land.
The RORO Highway boasts interconnecting 17 provinces and cities throughout the country, which includes: Oriental Mindoro, Tagaytay (Cavite), Marinduque, Romblon, and Batangas in Luzon; Aklan, Antique, Iloilo, Capiz, Negros Oriental, Negros Occidental, Bohol, Cebu, Guimaras, and Siquijor in the Visayas; and Misamis Occidental, Misamis Oriental, Lanao del Norte, and Dapitan City in Mindanao.
The goal of the RORO Highway is to reduce the cost of travel by 37-43 percent for passengers and 24-34 percent for cargo (when compared with both sea and air travel), while reducing travel time by 12 hours (when compared to ordinary sea travel). As an example, if one were to visit Antique by air, one would have to go through Iloilo and pay a Php 4,000 fare for a one-way ticket. From Iloilo, one would still need to take a three-hour bus ride.
In contrast, fare in an air-conditioned bus from the Alabang to Antique RORO Highway is only about Php 1,200. However, the RORO Highway takes 20 hours to complete its journey from Alabang to Antique, while it only takes 5 hours by air, including the three-hour bus ride.
The approximate charges are as follows for those driving their own cars: the Manila-Caticlan, Manila-Iloilo, Batangas-Caticlan, Batangas- Iloilo route would cost Php 1,500; Batangas-Calapan would be Php 600; Php 1000 for Roxas-Caticlan; Php 1700 for Iloilo-Bacolod; and Php 1,900 for Dumaguete to Dapitan.
Since travelling the RORO Highway means a lot of driving (and idle time while waiting to drive again), tourists are advised to bring various items which can help pass the time while waiting to arrive at your preferred destination. This includes books, music/movie players, and gaming devices. Packing food, such as sandwiches and snacks, and water are also advised in order to help alleviate hunger and thirst during long moments of driving without convenience stores. Bringing toiletries, of course, goes without saying.
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