I have always been impressed with the Italian way of life, it impacts everything — their lifespan and resistance to chronic diseases. We have good friends in Italy and have been going there two or three times a year for the past 25 years.
Eating together and being together is far more effective than the Mediterranean diet that people talk about.
Sadly being together may in part be responsible for the high number of deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jay Mehta, M.D., Ph.D., is a Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Physiology and Biophysics, and the Stebbins Chair in Cardiology at UAMS.