The younger the age at diagnosis for Type 2 diabetes, the higher the risk for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia years later.Type 2 diabetes is a chronic, progressive illness that can have devastating complications, including hearing loss, blindness, heart disease, stroke, kidney failure and vascular damage so severe as to require limb amputation. Now a new study underscores the toll that diabetes may take on the brain. It found that Type 2 diabetes is linked to an increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia later in life, and the younger the age at which diabetes is diagnosed, the greater the risk.The findings are especially concerning given the prevalence of diabetes among American adults and rising rates of diabetes in younger people. Once referred to as “adult-onset diabetes” to distinguish it from the immune-related “juvenile-onset” Type 1 disease that begins in childhood, Type 2 diabetes is seen in younger and younger people, largely tied to rising rates of obesity. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 34 million American adults have Type 2 diabetes, including more than a quarter of those 65 and over. About 17.5 percent of those aged 45 to 64 have Type 2 disease, as do 4 percent of 18- to 44-year-olds.“This is an important study from a public health perspective,” said the director of the Yale Diabetes Center, Dr. Silvio Inzucchi, who was not involved in the research. “The complications of diabetes are numerous, but the brain effects are not well studied. Type 2 diabetes is now being diagnosed in children, and at the same time there’s an aging population.”For the new study, published in JAMA, British researchers tracked diabetes diagnoses among 10,095 men and women who were 35 to 55 at the start of the project, in 1985 to 1988, and free of the disease at the time.They followed them with clinical examinations every four or five years through 2019. At each examination, the researchers took blood samples to evaluate fasting glucose levels, a measure used to detect diabetes, and recorded self-reported and doctor-diagnosed cases of Type 2 disease.The researchers also determined dementia cases using British government databases. Over an average follow-up of 32 years, they recorded 1,710 cases of Type 2 diabetes and 639 of dementia.The researchers calculated that each five-year earlier onset of diabetes was associated with a 24 percent increased risk of dementia. Compared with a person without diabetes, a 70-year-old diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes less than five years earlier had an 11 percent increased risk for dementia. But a diagnosis at age 65 was associated with a 53 percent increased risk of later dementia, and a diagnosis at 60 with a 77 percent increased risk. A person diagnosed with Type 2 at ages 55 to 59 had more than twice the risk of dementia in old age compared with a person in the same age group without diabetes.The study was observational, so could not prove that diabetes causes dementia. But it was long-running, with a large study population. The researchers controlled for many factors that affect the risk for dementia, including race, education, heart conditions, stroke, smoking and physical activity, and the diabetes-dementia link persisted.“These are exceptional data,” said Daniel Belsky, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health who was not involved in the research. “These associations between the timing of onset of diabetes and development of dementia show the importance of a life-course approach to preventing degenerative disease.“We are an aging population, and the things we fear most are degenerative diseases like dementia, for which we have no cures, no therapies, and very few modifiable pathways to target for prevention,” Dr. Belsky said. “We can’t wait until people are in their 70s.”Why diabetes would be linked to dementia is unknown. “We can speculate on the mechanisms,” said the study’s senior author, Archana Singh-Manoux, a research professor at INSERM, the French national health institute. “Living a long time with diabetes and having hypoglycemic events is harmful, and there are neurotoxic effects of diabetes as well. The brain uses enormous amounts of glucose, so with insulin resistance, the way the brain uses glucose might be altered” in people with Type 2 diabetes.Type 2 can be managed and its complications reduced by monitoring blood sugar and conscientiously following a well-designed, personalized program of medication, exercise and diet. Is it possible that such a routine could minimize the risk for dementia later in life?“With better control, there was less cognitive decline than in those with poor control,” Dr. Singh-Manoux said. “So stick to your medication. Look after your glycemic markers. That’s the message for people who have diabetes.”

Widely circulating coronavirus variants and persistent hesitancy about vaccines will keep the goal out of reach. The virus is here to stay, but vaccinating the most vulnerable may be enough to restore normalcy.Early in the pandemic, when vaccines for the coronavirus were still just a glimmer on the horizon, the term “herd immunity” came to signify the endgame: the point when enough Americans would be protected from the virus so we could be rid of the pathogen and reclaim our lives.Now, more than half of adults in the United States have been inoculated with at least one dose of a vaccine. But daily vaccination rates are slipping, and there is widespread consensus among scientists and public health experts that the herd immunity threshold is not attainable — at least not in the foreseeable future, and perhaps not ever.Instead, they are coming to the conclusion that rather than making a long-promised exit, the virus will most likely become a manageable threat that will continue to circulate in the United States for years to come, still causing hospitalizations and deaths but in much smaller numbers.How much smaller is uncertain and depends in part on how much of the nation, and the world, becomes vaccinated and how the coronavirus evolves. It is already clear, however, that the virus is changing too quickly, new variants are spreading too easily and vaccination is proceeding too slowly for herd immunity to be within reach anytime soon.Continued immunizations, especially for people at highest risk because of age, exposure or health status, will be crucial to limiting the severity of outbreaks, if not their frequency, experts believe.“The virus is unlikely to go away,” said Rustom Antia, an evolutionary biologist at Emory University in Atlanta. “But we want to do all we can to check that it’s likely to become a mild infection.”The shift in outlook presents a new challenge for public health authorities. The drive for herd immunity — by the summer, some experts once thought possible — captured the imagination of large segments of the public. To say the goal will not be attained adds another “why bother” to the list of reasons that vaccine skeptics use to avoid being inoculated.Yet vaccinations remain the key to transforming the virus into a controllable threat, experts said.Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the Biden administration’s top adviser on Covid-19, acknowledged the shift in experts’ thinking.“People were getting confused and thinking you’re never going to get the infections down until you reach this mystical level of herd immunity, whatever that number is,” he said.“That’s why we stopped using herd immunity in the classic sense,” he added. “I’m saying: Forget that for a second. You vaccinate enough people, the infections are going to go down.”Why reaching the threshold is toughCrowds on the National Mall in April. Resistance to the vaccines is a main reason the United States is unlikely to reach herd immunity, but it is not the only one.Amr Alfiky/The New York TimesOnce the novel coronavirus began to spread across the globe in early 2020, it became increasingly clear that the only way out of the pandemic would be for so many people to gain immunity — whether through natural infection or vaccination — that the virus would run out of people to infect. The concept of reaching herd immunity became the implicit goal in many countries, including the United States.Early on, the target herd immunity threshold was estimated to be about 60 to 70 percent of the population. Most experts, including Dr. Fauci, expected that the United States would be able to reach it once vaccines were available.But as vaccines were developed and distribution ramped up through the winter and into the spring, estimates of the threshold began to rise. That is because the initial calculations were based on the contagiousness of the original version of the virus. The predominant variant now circulating in the United States, called B.1.1.7 and first identified in Britain, is about 60 percent more transmissible.As a result, experts now calculate the herd immunity threshold to be at least 80 percent. If even more contagious variants develop, or if scientists find that immunized people can still transmit the virus, the calculation will have to be revised upward again.Polls show that about 30 percent of the U.S. population is still reluctant to be vaccinated. That number is expected to improve but probably not enough. “It is theoretically possible that we could get to about 90 percent vaccination coverage, but not super likely, I would say,” said Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.Though resistance to the vaccines is a main reason the United States is unlikely to reach herd immunity, it is not the only one.Herd immunity is often described as a national target. But that is a hazy concept in a country this large.“Disease transmission is local,” Dr. Lipsitch noted.“If the coverage is 95 percent in the United States as a whole, but 70 percent in some small town, the virus doesn’t care,” he explained. “It will make its way around the small town.”Uneven Willingness to Get Vaccinated Could Affect Herd ImmunityIn some parts of the United States, inoculation rates may not reach the threshold needed to prevent the coronavirus from spreading easily.

NHS workers at Wales’ largest hospital are creating a woodland to offset the carbon emissions and waste that came from the machines needed to treat patients with Covid-19.Staff on the critical care unit at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff say they hope their woodland in Crickhowell inspires other hospital trusts and industries to do the same.The woodland will be given a Welsh name and should be open to the public later this year.Video Journalist: Laura Foster

SharecloseShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingimage copyrightGetty ImagesHospitals in Delhi started facing shortages of oxygen nearly two weeks ago. The crisis shows few signs of abating. At least 12 patients, including a doctor, died when a prominent hospital ran out of oxygen on Saturday. Outside hospitals, families of patients who can’t find a bed are struggling to get hold of portable cylinders – sometimes standing in queues for up to 12 hours.Several big hospitals in Delhi are relying on daily oxygen supplies but they are not getting enough to keep some as backup in case of emergency. One doctor described the situation as frightening, explaining: “Once you’ve used up your main tank, there is nothing to fall back on.”The situation is worse still in small hospitals that don’t have storage tanks and have to rely on big cylinders. And the oxygen crisis comes as coronavirus cases continue to surge. Delhi alone reported more than 25,000 new infections and 412 deaths on Sunday.Indians’ desperate wait for Covid jab to get longerDelhi running out of space to cremate Covid deadDeadly Covid wave rips through small-town IndiaIndia, meanwhile, over the weekend recorded its highest daily coronavirus death toll since the pandemic began, and became the first country to register more than 400,000 new cases in a single day.’It’s a battle every day’Dr Gautam Singh, who runs the Shri Ram Singh hospital, says he has 50 Covid beds and space for 16 ICU patients, but has had to refuse admissions as there is no guarantee of oxygen supply.He has put out a number of SOS calls in the past few days, getting oxygen just in time to avoid disaster. “It’s a battle we are fighting every day,” he says. “Half of my hospital staff are on the road with cylinders to get them filled every day, going from one place to another.”Below is a recent heart-breaking appeal from him that I tweeted. Hear from the head of the hospital. This was two days ago and he got help. But more can be done. pic.twitter.com/geGzPeppxZ— Vikas Pandey (@BBCVikas) April 28, 2021
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.View original tweet on TwitterDr Singh says the possibility of patients dying without oxygen in the hospital stops him from sleeping.”I should be concentrating on treating my patients, and not running around to get oxygen,” he says.Other hospital owners are also facing the same ordeal. One woman whose family runs a hospital in Delhi says there was no coordination among the authorities when the crisis started. “For those few days, we had no idea who was the relevant person to contact and who had the authority to resolve the issue,” she recalls. She says the situation is “slightly better now” but there is still uncertainty over the supply which is affecting their ability to admit more patients. “Each time someone reaches out asking if I have a lead for an oxygen bed, I feel terrible saying no because I don’t.”image copyrightGetty ImagesSOS calls from hospitals, particularly small ones that rely on cylinders and don’t have a storage tank, come almost every day. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has repeatedly said that the city was not getting enough oxygen from the federal government, which allocates oxygen quotas to states.Federal officials say there is no shortage of oxygen, but that the challenge has come from transportation. image copyrightGetty ImagesDelhi’s high court on Saturday said “enough is enough”.”You [the government] have to arrange everything now. You have made the allocations. You have to fulfil it,” it said.’People are paying the price’ But the situation on the ground is still dire.”People are paying a price for the political wrangling between the state and federal government. Sometimes the price is their life,” one analyst said.Families who have managed to find a bed are also under extreme stress because of the uncertainty over oxygen supplies. The last 48 hours have been excruciating for Altaf Shamsi. He and his entire family tested positive for Covid-19 last week.His pregnant wife became seriously ill and had to be moved to a hospital where she gave birth to a girl on Friday. A few hours after a complicated birth, she had to be put on a ventilator, where she remains in a critical condition. Altaf was then told that his father had died in another hospital, while at the same time the hospital where his wife and baby are in an ICU said it was running out of oxygen.The hospital eventually got a day’s worth of emergency supply, but Altaf is worried about issues arising again.”Who knows what will happen tomorrow?” he says.We request consistent supply of Liquid Oxygen at Madhukar Rainbow Children’s Hospital, Malviya Nagar, New Delhi#Oxygen #SOS #COVIDEmergency @raghav_chadha @rashtrapatibhvn @CMODelhi @LtGovDelhi @attorneybharti @PMOIndia @aajtak @ndtv @CNN @tehseenp @TOIIndiaNews @DOJPH— Rainbow Children’s Hospitals (@RCH_India) May 2, 2021
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.View original tweet on TwitterAnd in addition to concerns over oxygen, the hospital has been asking him to move his wife to another facility, saying they do not have sufficient staffing.It means he has been left to monitor his wife’s oxygen levels and fever. “You can’t even imagine the pain I am going through,” he says.’My father was running out of oxygen’Portable oxygen cylinders are the only way for patients in a serious condition to keep breathing at home when they can’t find a hospital bed – a major issue in Delhi. Abhishek Sharma’s father’s oxygen levels started dropping on Saturday. He rushed to the market to get him a cylinder. After going to more than a dozen shops, he found a small cylinder which was good enough to last just six hours. He later went out and paid $944 (£683) to buy a big cylinder but it was empty. He took it to several filling stations but only one was willing to help and the queue was very long.image copyrightGetty Images”With each passing minute in the queue, my father was running out of oxygen. I couldn’t ask anybody to let me jump the queue as everybody was in the same situation. I got the cylinder refilled after six hours in the line, but tomorrow I will have to do the same again,” he says.”I shudder to think what will happen if I am not able to get the cylinder refilled.”Public policy and health systems expert Dr Chandrakant Lahariya says the government had been warning about “the potential crisis” but did not take any action. A parliamentary standing committee on health warned about inadequate supply of oxygen and “grossly inadequate” government hospital beds in November. Dr Lahariya says the medical oxygen crisis in India was caused by a lack of planning in fixing the distribution and transportation networks. But many are shocked that two weeks after the crisis began, patients in India’s capital are still gasping for breath, and there seems to be no end in sight.’We have set up a war room’In the face of the crisis, concerned citizens have been stepping in to help out those in distress.Among the famous faces lending support are social activist and politician Tehseen Poonawalla, politician Dilip Pandey, activist and politician Srinivas B V and actor Sonu Sood.Mr Poonawalla has been helping small hospitals when they are about to run out of oxygen. He says he is “connecting those in need with those who are in a position to help”. “We have set up a war room where a small team is working with me. I am just calling up people who I know – some of the whom are in other states but are eager to help,” he says.image copyrightGetty ImagesBut he says “the situation is becoming more dire with each passing day”. “The government needs to step in and take charge because people like me don’t have infinite resources to help every person or hospital in need.”The woman whose family runs a hospital in Delhi echoed these concerns. “I can’t sleep at nights thinking that those people who died because of a lack of oxygen could have been saved. Many of them have families, some have small children. How will we ever explain to them what happened when they grow up and ask questions?”

SharecloseShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingA further 1,000 ventilators will be sent to help coronavirus-hit India, the UK government has announced.As India continues to report soaring infections and record deaths, the UK’s chief medical and scientific officers have also spoken with their counterparts there to offer advice.The latest assistance is on top of a package of support announced last week.Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “The UK will always be there for India in its time of need.”He added: “I am deeply moved by the surge of support the British people have provided to the people of India and am pleased the UK government has been able to play our part in providing life-saving assistance.”No 10 said Mr Johnson will hold a virtual meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday to discuss deepening cooperation between the UK and IndiaIndia recorded its highest daily coronavirus death toll since the pandemic began – 3,689 – and has become the first country to register more than 400,000 new cases in a single day.Mr Modi met his health minister on Sunday morning to review the crisis.Covid-19 in India: Visual guide to the crisisThe messages deciding between life and deathDelhi running out of space to cremate Covid deadForeign Secretary Dominic Raab earlier said the UK would “look very carefully” at any request for vaccines from India.Some five million Oxford-AstraZeneca doses, manufactured in India and destined for the UK, have been held there while safety checks are carried out.One scientific adviser to the government, Prof Peter Openshaw, suggested it would be appropriate to allow India to use these doses.Mr Raab told BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show: “The Indian relationship is very important to us and we’d obviously want to co-operate very closely together.”Shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy said the UK “can and should do more” to help India.She told Sky News: “There are long and deep ties between us and India, which mean that we should step up and provide more equipment, more support.”Britain’s Indian communities, businesses and charities have led appeals for emergency oxygen and donations, as many hospitals in India see supplies run low.GLOBAL SPREAD: How many worldwide cases are there?OXFORD JAB: What is the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine?EPIDEMIC v PANDEMIC: What’s the difference?VACCINE: When will I get the jab?The government announced last week it would send 200 ventilators, 495 oxygen concentrators and three oxygen generation units – with the first shipment arriving on Tuesday.The UK’s chief medical adviser Chris Whitty and the chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance spoke to colleagues in India to provide “advice, insight and expertise”, the government said.Downing Street confirmed NHS England will also establish a clinical advisory group led by its chief people officer Prerana Issar to support India’s Covid response.FIND A FILM ON IPLAYER: We’ve got your Bank Holiday viewing sortedSAVED BY A STRANGER: Finding acts of humanity amidst danger and chaos

SharecloseShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingimage copyrightSina WeiboA social media post from an account linked to the Chinese Communist Party has sparked controversy for appearing to mock India over its coronavirus crisis.The post on Chinese site Weibo showed an image of a rocket launch in China alongside a photo of the bodies of Covid victims being cremated in India.Text with it read: “Lighting a fire in China VS lighting a fire in India.”The post, which appeared on Saturday afternoon, has since been deleted.It was reportedly published by an account belonging to an official Chinese law enforcement agency – the Communist Party’s Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission – which has millions of followers on Weibo, a popular microblogging site in the country.Users responding to the post, which was later shared using screenshots of the original, wrote that it was “inappropriate” and that China “should express sympathy for India”. Hu Xijin, the editor-in-chief of China’s Global Times media outlet, wrote: “Hold high the banner of humanitarianism at this time, show sympathy for India, and firmly place Chinese society on a moral high ground.”The Weibo post appeared a day after Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a message of condolence to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the country’s deepening Covid-19 crisis. Mr Xi said China was willing to enhance co-operation with India and provide any additional help where needed.India is struggling to cope with a devastating second wave of coronavirus, with hospitals battling to treat patients amid a chronic shortage of beds and medical oxygen.On Sunday, India recorded a daily coronavirus death toll of 3,689 – the highest since the pandemic began.It came a day after the country became the first to record more than 400,000 new cases within a 24-hour period.More on India’s Covid crisis:A visual guide to the coronavirus crisis in IndiaYour top questions about India’s Covid crisis answeredWhy India’s Covid crisis matters to the whole world

SharecloseShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingimage copyrightGetty ImagesPeople may not need to self-isolate if they have been in close contact with someone with Covid, if a new trial is successful.The government-backed research will trial giving people daily lateral flow tests for seven days – instead of quarantining for 10 days.So long as they test negative all week, they can carry on with their lives.From 9 May, about 40,000 close contacts of people with Covid in England will be invited to take part in the study.Self-isolating means staying at home and not leaving it – not even to buy food or medicines, or for exercise. As part of this major new study, people will have to test themselves every morning for seven days and will be exempt from the legal requirement to quarantine at home every day they test negative, as long as they do not show any symptoms of Covid.Lateral flow tests give results in about 30 minutes but are considered less sensitive than PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests, which are processed in a laboratory with results returned in 24 hours or so.What are the current self-isolation rules?You usually have to self-isolate for 10 days if you’ve tested positive or been in close contact with someone who hasClose contact includes being within two metres of someone for more than 15 minutes, or within one metre for a minuteYou might need to self-isolate for longer if you get symptomsPeople told to self-isolate are not allowed visitors, and are not allowed to leave their homeBetween May 2020 and April 2021 in England, more than 6.7 million close contacts were reached and told to self-isolate, NHS Test and Trace data shows.A large study of the test-and-trace system, published last month, found low numbers of people had followed the self-isolation rules in full.Men, younger people and parents with young children were less likely to self-isolate – as were those from more working-class backgrounds, people in financial hardship and key workers.Common reasons for not fully self-isolating included going to the shops or work, for a medical need, to care for a vulnerable person, to exercise or meet others – or because symptoms were only mild or getting better.A step too far or a price worth paying?The UK regulator has always cautioned against the use of lateral flow tests in this way. The concern is that they are not accurate enough, certainly not when used at home to correctly identify enough positive cases. So while they were given the green light for mass testing, which they are currently being used for on the basis they would pick up some cases that would not have been identified previously, deploying them to allow close contacts to avoid isolation was deemed a step too far. But the vaccination programme has changed the equation by reducing the risk from Covid. It means what is proportionate needs to be reassessed. Asking people who come into close contact to isolate has a significant cost to that individual. Is that right when the risk of Covid is lower than it once was? And will people continue to isolate given the changing landscape? Accepting some cases will slip through the net could be a price worth paying. This trial will help understand what that price is. Professor Isabel Oliver, Public Health England’s national infection service director, said the study would be key to informing how “the approach to testing might evolve”.”Self-isolation is very challenging for some people, particularly those who aren’t able to work form home or don’t have access to readily available support or help from others,” she told BBC Breakfast.”If this allows us to return to greater normality, it would be a great step forward.”She said the study needs to recruit such a large number of people, who will be invited as part of the contact tracing process, because infection rates are relatively low at the moment.As well as the daily lateral flow test, study participants will take a more accurate PCR test at the beginning and end of the trial period. They will also take a PCR test if any of the daily tests gives a positive result. And anyone testing positive will be required to self-isolate as normal during the trial.LOCKDOWN RULES: What are they and when will they end?VACCINE: When will I get the jab?LOOK-UP TOOL: How many cases in your area?NEW VARIANTS: How worried should we be?Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: “This new pilot could help shift the dial in our favour by offering a viable alternative to self-isolation for people who are contacts of positive Covid-19 cases, and one that would allow people to carry on going to work and living their lives.”GP Dr Ellie Cannon told BBC Breakfast it was “a really positive step because we haven’t been good at self-isolation”, often because people could not afford to take time off work.She said many people also had to self-isolate unnecessarily, “which has really stopped life in the UK over the past year”.While lateral flow tests are not as accurate as the PCR swabs used at testing centres, their use by schools to safely reopen has shown they can be effective, Dr Cannon said.On Saturday, a further seven deaths within 28 days of positive Covid tests were reported – and 1,907 more cases.FIND A FILM ON IPLAYER: We’ve got your Bank Holiday viewing sortedSAVED BY A STRANGER: Finding acts of humanity amidst danger and chaos

In this era of social distancing, lawn games like croquet, badminton and horseshoes offer a great way to spend some time outside.A year ago, when shelves dedicated to toilet paper and baking yeast yawned empty and respirator masks and hand sanitizer were sold out seemingly everywhere, shoppers in England encountered another shortage: croquet sets.But supplies have rebounded, and as leisure seekers everywhere should recognize, croquet and related lawn games — played outdoors and at a convenient distance — are reasonably safe alternatives to team sports or going to the gym.So this spring, with many adults still awaiting second vaccine doses and children still entirely unvaccinated, why not pick up a mallet (or a racket, a horseshoe, a bocce ball) for some intergenerational fun? Beci Carver, a lecturer at the University of Exeter, described playing a lawn game as “a socially distanced intimate encounter, which is kind of a lovely thing, really.”Lawn games do have rules, but not too many, and they don’t demand a great amount of skill. “They aren’t athletic endeavors,” said Brooks Butler Hays, the author of “Balls on the Lawn: Games to Live By.” . “The stakes are low enough that even if people aren’t into the competition, they can still have fun.”A noncontact leisure activity, lawn games don’t require much efforteither, and you can wear whatever you like. “Most of these games were promoted as you wouldn’t get sweaty while doing it, you could look quite nice,” said Kasia Boddy, a lecturer at Cambridge University.People have played some version of a lawn game for thousands of years, with equipment as varied as cow intestines, pig bladders, sharp sticks and loose stones. There are exciting regional variations like Sweden’s Kubb, Germany’s hammerschlagen and Italy’s ruzzola, a game played with a wheel of aged pecorino. But the games suggested here are less esoteric (no cheese wheels required) and none require a dedicated court, just a reasonably flat stretch of grass or dirt or gravel. In most games players take turns, which makes distancing a snap. Shuttlecocks aside, there is little reason for many hands to handle the same items required for play. Lawn games are a low-key, low-cost, public-health-friendly way to give structure to an afternoon, and whether you flout open-container laws while you play is strictly up to you. CroquetThe origins are croquet are disputed. Some historians trace it back to a French game called paille maille, while others trace it to an Irish game played with broomstick mallets called crookey. Croquet as we now know it surged throughout Britain in the 1860s and was soon exported to its various colonies.Some of croquet’s popularity owed to its status as the rare sport that men and women could play together, which made it a favored avenue for flirtation. (Some clerics denounced it as immoral, a good indication that it was probably a lot of fun.) “Women would be wearing special croquet dresses that were slightly shorter than normal dresses, so they would glimpse ankles, and so on,” said Ms. Boddy. These days, sets are available for under $30, though equipment from Jacques of London, which has crafted sets since the 1800s, will run you a bit more.BadmintonJane Austen knew how to have a good time — quilting, gardening, whist — and in 1808 she wrote to her sister that she and her nephew had taken up a lawn game, battledore and shuttlecock, a precursor of badminton. “He and I have practiced together two mornings, and improve a little; we have frequently kept it up three times, and once or twice six.”Shuttlecock games go back thousands of years. Badminton, the modern iteration, is typically played by either two or four players, who bat a shuttlecock or birdie, usually made of plastic, across a net. (These nets are lightweight and can be assembled most anywhere.) Plenty of sets are available for less than $50 and you can even pick up glow-in-the-dark shuttlecocks for nighttime play.Bocce, Pétanque, Lawn BowlingDepending on how loosely you define these games, in which larger balls are tossed toward a smaller one, the concept emerged perhaps 7,000 years ago. In medieval England, bocce was briefly condemned by both the church and state as it distracted the working classes from both. (Nobles were addicted, too; legend has it that Sir Francis Drake delayed defeating the Spanish Armada so that he could finish a round.) The games are played worldwide. Dutch colonists brought it to America in the early 17th century, and here in New York, many city parks still include bocce courts and bowling greens, though you can manufacture your own on any reasonably flat rectangle of ground. Wooden, metal and resin sets can be had for under $40, with light-up sets available too.Horseshoes, Quoits, Ring TossThese dexterity games can trace a lineage leading back to recreation for idling Roman soldiers, or even further back to Greek discus events. In the 14th century, quoits, a game in which a metal disc is aimed at a wooden peg was considered so diverting that King Richard II banned the general public from playing it. Exported to America, both horseshoes and quoits flourished in the colonial era, though horseshoes eventually became more popular, so much so that the 19th-century Duke of Wellington credited “pitchers of horse hardware” with winning the Revolutionary War. Wooden and rope ring-toss sets — the successors to quoits — are widely available, as are metal and plastic horseshoe sets.

Flowers are magic. They are beautiful, uplifting and, when added to a drink, incredibly refreshing.Flower bouquets have been go-to gifts on Mother’s Day for decades, as blooms celebrate love and admiration. But this year, honor the mothers in your life by making a floral libation.Whether for food or drink, there is a thrill when using edible flowers in the kitchen. You can add dried blooms to salts, sugars or syrups, and use fresh blooms as cocktail garnishes, pressed into homemade biscuits and tossed in salads. Organic edible flowers can be found at your local farmer’s market or natural foods store, as well as online.But chamomile is a very accessible edible flower, since many people have a bag of chamomile tea in their pantries. The flower has a sweet, earthy flavor, and makes a lovely and versatile simple syrup that may soon become a staple in your refrigerator. Go to NYT Cooking for a recipe to make your own syrup, as well as two warm-weather drink recipes that incorporate it.Chamomile Simple SyrupNot only does this syrup taste delicious in a cocktail or mocktail, it is also wonderful drizzled on French toast or vanilla ice cream with fresh berries. You can even use it to sweeten iced coffee.Chamomile Lime Rickey MocktailA floral, nonalcoholic twist on a classic drink, this flavorful fizzy limeade is the perfect front-porch sipper on a warm afternoon. The chamomile adds some sunshine, and little ones will love it as well.Chamomile Strawberry Gin Daisy CocktailThis pretty-in-pink libation is fresh, tangy and sweet. It celebrates everything you love about spring in one glass, and tastes great all summer, too.Cassie Winslow is the founder of the blog Deco Tartelette and the author of “Floral Libations.” Her second book, “Floral Provisions,” will be released in March 2022.

SharecloseShare pageCopy linkAbout sharing”It comes with risks, but then this operation will mean I’ve done the best for her. In my mind there was no choice – I just had to do it.”After six failed rounds of IVF, Helena had almost given up hope of having a second baby. But on her seventh attempt she became pregnant and things seemed to progress well until her 20-week scan.There, Helena was told her daughter had spina bifida.Spina bifida: Keyhole surgery repairs baby spine in womb”It was a very large legion on her back and half of her spine was exposed. They said that it was likely she will be paralysed, incontinent and will need a shunt to drain the fluid from her brain later on,” Helena recalls. “I was beside myself when they told me all the possible outcomes for having this condition and I couldn’t stop crying. “They told me the probability of her walking or moving her legs was very, very low – and that was absolutely devastating.”Quality of lifeWithin days, Helena was referred for tests and told she was eligible for surgery. At 23 weeks pregnant, she travelled to a specialist hospital in Belgium, which works in partnership with the NHS.A team of around 25 clinicians carried out the complex operation to repair her baby’s exposed spinal cord and close the hole in her back.”I knew if I didn’t get the operation the quality of her life would be very different,” Helena says.Prof Anna David, foetal medicine consultant at University College Hospital in London, said: “Previously the baby would have the repair to the defect after birth – but now that we can do the surgery in the womb, the defect is closed a lot earlier so it means there’s less damage to the spine.”That increases the chances of the child being able to walk and have more control over their bladder and bowel.”Helena gave birth to her daughter Mila – short for milagro, or miracle, in Spanish – at University College London Hospital three months after the surgery. Mila still has some fluid on her brain, but so far she is showing signs of good development.’So grateful'”She can move her legs,” says Helena, “and she’s got feeling to her toes so it’s absolutely amazing”.”I’m just so grateful to the surgeons who’ve done this operation because her life would look very different without it.”Spina bifida, which affects about 1,500 pregnancies a year in the UK, prevents the spine and spinal cord developing properly.It can lead to paralysis, bowel, bladder and kidney problems.But if surgeons can operate at between 22 and 26 weeks of pregnancy, instead of after birth, it means a much better outcome for the baby.The procedure involves specialists from University College London Hospitals, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and University Hospitals Leuven in Belgium. Thirty-two babies have undergone the procedure since January 2020.’Trail-blazing’Prof Stephen Powis, medical director for NHS England, said it was just one example of the innovative treatments offered by the NHS.”As well as fighting a global pandemic, the NHS continues to develop and offer these trail-blazing services and continue to be there for patients.”Kate Steele, chief executive of Shine, which offers advice and support to families affected by spina bifida and hydrocephalus, said: “We hope that every family who might benefit from foetal surgery is given the opportunity to find out whether surgery is right for them, and that they are supported by their local service, as Helena was.”Related Internet LinksSpina bifida – NHSShine – Spina Bifida & HydrocephalusGreat Ormond Street HospitalUniversity College London HospitalsUZ LeuvenThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.