February 2019 - 6

FROM THE EDITOR
EXTENDING THE LIFE OF
YOUR CUSTOMERS
One of the keys to the success of a business relies on developing long-term, repeat
customers. By creating and nurturing lifelong customers, you are creating an insurance
policy for your future.
According to one researcher, the products you produce and the activities they generate
are helping extend your customers' lives.
Dan Buettner (www.bluezones.com) is an author and National Geographic Fellow who
has researched five different areas around the world where people live longer and has
discovered that gardening is one of common denominators that these individuals have.
People living in the " blue zones " that Buettner studied have several traits in common -
robust social support networks, exercise daily, eat a plant-based diet - and they garden
for a long time - well into their 80s, 90s and older.
Buettner says gardening provides routine, low-intensity physical activity that has a
positive impact on their health.
HEALTHY BODIES AND MINDS
Over the years, there have been many studies that have shown that gardening is good
for the body and the brain. Here's a little more food for thought.
People who garden tend to eat healthier because they grow their own food. Bradley
Wilcox at the University of Hawaii has studied the diets of people who live to be 100. He
found that by eating a diet predominantly made up of fruits, vegetables and whole grains
it can slow down the aging process.
Gardeners like to plant the types of food they want to eat. Wilcox told the BBC that
when people eat the food they've grown it " really makes a difference in the health
qualities (vitamins, minerals, phytoactive compounds etc.) of the food itself. "
Research from Steven Blair at the University of South Carolina and one of the authors
of " Active Living Every Day, " shows that people who gardened for a half an hour five days
a week showed a lower risk for Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some types of cancer.
Blair's research also revealed that these gardeners also maintain more physical function
as their bodies aged.
According to another research report out of Australia, gardening helps with an elderly
person's cognitive abilities. The researchers there discovered that people in their 60s
who gardened daily had a 36 percent lower chance of experiencing dementia compared
to non-gardeners.
Gardening is also a great stress reliever. A recent study done in the
Netherlands showed that people who were assigned to do a stressful
task and then followed that task with 30 minutes of gardening had
lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol than individuals who did
other routine tasks.
Your products are helping keep your customers healthy and
keeping them alive longer! Hopefully that will keep your business
healthy for a long time too.
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February 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of February 2019