Shopping Keeps Your Brain Young

Women live longer than men because they shop more. That’s what husband-and-wife team Guy McKhann and Marilyn Albert, both professors at Johns Hopkins University and authors of Keep Your Brain Young, have theorized after a ten-year study of 3000 elderly people that assessed how physical and mental activities help people live longer and have more productive lives. Shopping keeps older women physically active (bags to lug), challenges the brain (a trip to the shops involves hundreds of choices) and boosts self-esteem (a sense of accomplishment results). Meanwhile, Grandpa is on the sofa watching cricket—an activity that fails to challenge in any of these areas. But puzzles and card games might be cheaper ways to keep the brain active, and a walk in the park is as effective as a lap round a shopping mall.

- Margie Borschke



“Just what I wanted!”

Discover the gift of knowing what gift to give

What man doesn’t get stumped sometimes when it comes to buying a special gift? Here are some winning ideas from Man Skills: A Training Manual for Men, by Nick Harper.

1. An album of special photos. An old-fashioned mix CD of favourite songs, or some hard-to-find, cherished book from childhood will also score highly.

2. A home-made “voucher” of some kind—whether it’s for a no-expenses-spared dinner for two followed by a night in a trendy boutique hotel, or a simple “I promise to babysit, shop, clean, cook, wash up and wait on you for a whole weekend so you can put your feet up.”

3. Any luxury item they would never normally justify blowing a large wad of cash on—a silk scarf, a hand-stitched, leather-bound notebook, or even a selection of really good-quality chocolates from a proper chocolatier.

4. An unusual, unexpected day out—a night at the theatre, a picnic by the sea, a trip up the river in a smart boat, an afternoon at a spiffy spa, that kind of thing.

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