Best medicine department: Repetitive Laughter Response Is Similar To The Effect Of Repetitive Exercise, according to researchers in Loma Linda, CA. Their studies have shown that repetitious “mirthful laughter,” which they call Laughercise, causes the body to respond in a way similar to moderate physical exercise. Laughercise enhances your mood, decreases stress hormones, enhances […]
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In a study, a group was divided into three levels of chocolate consumption, and… The people who consumed 8.4 servings of chocolate screened for possible depression. Those that consumed 11.8 servings exhibited signs of major depression. The smaller consumption group was just fine. Good news to very few.
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A study of a set of psych meds (SSRIs) shows a side effect you may actually be interested in–improved heart health. “There is clear evidence that depressed patients have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, and we want to eliminate that. Since depression can be treated with an SSRI, maybe the cardiovascular disease risk can
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Hard to read about without opening wide and breathing in deep, but here’s an article about recent thought on yawing: According to psychologists and researchers who study such things, yawning has nothing to do with boredom, rudeness, or even fatigue. Quite the contrary. Yawning helps cool down our brains so they function better…
A study looks at how dreaming improves memory. Given a maze test, subjects who napped for 90 minutes improved performance on a retest. “Our findings suggest that if something is difficult for you, it’s more meaningful to you and the sleeping brain therefore focuses on that subject – it ‘knows’ you need to work on
Nifty interactive brain at NPR.org links to series of stories about science and spirituality. [S]cientists…are using new technologies to analyze the brains of people who claim they have touched the spiritual — from Christians who speak in tongues to Buddhist monks to people who claim to have had near-death experiences. Hear what they have discovered…
A study looks at how a depression and stress combo can trigger asthma symptoms in children. If your child has asthma and is experiencing symptoms of depression, you may want to reconsider buying advanced tickets to the Twilight’s Eclipse. New research shows asthmatic children with depression are 50 percent more likely to have an
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College students are hooked on Facebook, et al. Didn’t really take a study, but… According to researchers, students describe their feelings when they have to abstain from using media in literally the same terms associated with drug and alcohol addictions: in withdrawal, frantically craving, very anxious, extremely antsy, miserable, jittery, and crazy.
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At PsyBlog, a study shows people overestimate their own trustworthiness and underestimate the trustworthiness of others: In one experiment people honoured the trust placed in them between 80% and 90% of the time, but only estimated that others would honour their trust about 50% of the time.
Though talking may go, reading is still possible for many Alzheimer’s patients, reports the NYT: Caregivers may be surprised to learn that reading ability is not always destroyed by Alzheimer’s. “All of my research demonstrates that people who were literate maintain their ability to read until the end stages of dementia”…
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