Health

Q. Last weekend, I was at a party in an apartment packed with people, and two days later, symptoms of the flu came on hard and fast. Now on the fourth day, my fever, which hovered around 100.6 the whole time, has come down to 99.6. My body aches, and the coughing has made my rib cage sore.

Aging taps us on the shoulder in many ways: wrinkles, thinning hair, loss of flexibility, slowing of the brain. But the process also unfolds at a more fundamental, microscopic level, as the energy source inside most cells deteriorates.

Q. I really loved pickled beets. Do they have the same or similar results on blood pressure as raw or cooked beets?