Every two or three months, Thyago Ohana goes out on the busy streets of Vienna with a sign saying "Free Hugs". The handsome 32-year-old Brazilian, who works in international trade at India's Vienna embassy, chooses a popular site, like the historic shopping street, Kaerntner Strasse. There he opens his arms to anyone who wants a hearty embrace(拥抱).

He does it because back in 2012, when he was feeling very stressed and anxious during a visit to Paris, a stranger gave him a free hug. He's never forgotten how it filled him with unexpected calm and joy.

For those who take up his offer, the hug makes them laugh and smile. But sometimes it does more, as when an elderly woman in a tour group stopped and watched him. The group moved on, but she remained and asked, "Can I have a hug?" "Of course you can!" said Thyago who wrapped his arms round her. When they broke their embrace, she kept holding onto his shoulders and looked into his eyes. "Thank you," she said. "I can't remember the last time I was hugged this way."

It's a memory that still makes Thyago emotional. "It was a really powerful moment of human connection. It's why 1 keep doing it."

Of our five senses, our sense of touch is the one that is most easily taken for granted. "A child can be born blind or deaf and they will grow up just fine," says David J Linden, author of Touch: The Science of Hand, Heart, and Mind. "Yet if a baby is lacking in loving social touch for the first two years of life, then all sorts of disasters unfold." That's one reason why when babies are born, they are now usually placed on their mother's skin.

Linden says however you do it, "maximizing touch in your life is a good thing"- whether holding hands, petting a dog, going to the hairdresser, hugging our kids, our partners or even a

Some women say the voice in their head gets kinder as they enter midlife, while other women become more critical of themselves. The difference in views appears to be related to the ability to accept age-related changes to their body, researchers have found.

In 2013, Professor Paxton, of the Universityof La Trobe’s Department of Psychology, was interviewed on ABC Melbourne about body image and well-being in women entering midlife. The ABC posted on their Facebook page the topic of the program and the question: Does the voice in your head get kinder as you get older?

The study found 56 percent of comments suggested the voice in women’s heads did get somewhat kinder with age. This view was associated with women accepting the age-related changes in their body as normal. “If they gained weight or they got wrinkles, it was a normal part of aging and they felt fine about it and it didn’t disturb their sense of self,” Professor Paxton said, “They were more likely to value health and well-being as opposed to appearance.”

On the other hand, 40 percent of comments suggested the voice did not get any kinder with age. This view was associated with women finding it difficult to accept being so different from the youthful ideal of women that is upheld in advertising and in the media. Women who expressed this view were concerned about how “invisible” they had become as a consequence. “They reacted negatively to the changes in their bodies as they aged and were very much aware that in our culture, youthful bodies are idealized,” Professor Paxton said.

Understanding why some women are preoccupied with body image in midlife more than others is important given that having a bad body image can lead to physical and mental health problems, Professor Paxton said. This can include self-consciousness and anxiety, eating disorders, and an unwillingness to show oneself in public, which can reduce the amount women exercise or socialize. “They become unsociable and don’t fulfill their full potential. Those sorts of things can make a person very unhappy.”

She said the insights from studies like this support the use of cognitive (认知的) behavioral therapy (治疗) designed to help women in midlife who have a preoccupation with body image to change negative thought patterns. This would involve discouraging them from comparing themselves to younger women, and encouraging acceptance of bodily changes related to age, and “self care” behaviors that improve health and well-being.

People whose brains are high in vitamin D are less forgetful in old age, a new study suggests.Scientists in America examined samples of brain tissue from 209 older adults who had died, finding for the first time that vitamin D is present in four key areas of the brain. Levels were higher in people who did not suffer dementia (痴呆) and showed less cognitive (认知) decline in the years before their death, said the research team from Tufts University in Massachusetts.

The body creates vitamin D from direct sunlight on the skin, and it is also found in foods including oily fish and red meat. Besides, milk and orange juice contain vitamin D, which helps to boost the body’s immune response and to maintain healthy bones.

The study looked at vitamin D in four regions of the brain — two associated with changes linked to Alzheimer’s disease, one associated with dementia caused by poor blood flow, and the other region which is not linked to memory loss. High vitamin D levels in all four regions of the brain are connected with better cognitive function including language skills, memory and attention duration.

However, the scientists said it was unclear exactly how vitamin D might affect brain function or whether it helps to prevent dementia. Dr Kyla Shea, the lead author of the study, published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, said, “We now know that vitamin D is present in reasonable amounts in human brains, and it seems to be connected with lessdec line in cognitive function. But we need to do more research to identify the neurophysiology (神经病理学) about why vitamin D is linked to brain function before we start designing future interventions such as telling people to eat more foods with vitamin D.”