New science shows how loneliness makes older people frail

Every Monday during the summer, some of the residents of Lyme, New Hampshire, gather up fruits and vegetables from their gardens to donate to Veggie Cares, a program that distributes local food to people living alone. Volunteers collect, sort, and package the produce, then head out in separate directions to deliver the food to some Lyme's most vulnerable, isolated residents.

While the stated goal of the program is to provide people with healthy food, Veggie Cares volunteers also deliver companionship. Visits are often more than a quick drop-off—they may involve a shared cup of tea, an offer to replace burned-out light bulbs, or a chance to check in on sick or elderly neighbors.

Nine million elderly people currently suffer from food insecurity in the United States, and the produce provided by Veggie Cares is one way to safeguard the health of Lyme residents who may be at risk. But recent research supports the idea that the companionship the volunteers provide may be physically nourishing in its own way.

Read more in my new article (with the lovely and talented Jessica Lahey) over at The Atlantic. 

This just in: how HIV kills

New findings by researchers at the Gladstone Institute of Virology at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) have upended how we understand the pathogenesis of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). 

Enter Warner Greene, a dapper white-haired professor of medicine at UCSF and its Gladstone Institute of Virology. In a feat of scientific hutzpah sure to trigger fits of envy among other scientific heavy-hitters, Greene shattered the existing model of AIDS pathogenesis in two simultaneous groundbreaking articles in the prestigious journals Science and Nature in late December 2013.

Greene’s team made multiple seminal observations. Their key findings were ...

Read my new post at Scientific American guest blogs to learn more