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Happy? You may live 35% longer, tracking study suggests
USA Today: No, it's not that simple, but new research says happy lives are longer — by 35%. The study, published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that those who reported feeling happiest had a 35% reduced risk of dying compared with those who reported feeling least happy. Rather than rely on recollections about their feelings of happiness as in earlier studies, this British study of 3,853 participants ages 52-79 rated their feelings at different times on one particular day. Five years later, researchers recorded the number who died and controlled for a variety of factors, including age, gender, health, wealth, education and marital status.
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Are you lonesome tonight? If the answer’s yes, you might sleep badly
The Daily Mail: If you find yourself unable to sleep through the night, there could be a simple explanation: you’re lonely. A study has found that people who feel cut off from their family and friends have more trouble sleeping – and the lonelier they feel, the more they toss and turn. Researchers at the University of Chicago in the U.S. asked about 100 people to wear devices that kept track of how well they slept. The participants answered questions about their general health, as well as how often they felt left out or isolated. Being lonely did not seem to affect the amount of time spent asleep – but those who felt the most cut off had the most ‘fragmented’ sleep.
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Should you quit taking vitamins?
Yahoo News UAE: I'm a big fan of vitamins. And judging by the size of the vitamin and supplement industry - $20 billion in annual sales, a quarter of that in multivitamins - so are you. Pop one pill and you get a day’s worth of nutrients. What’s not to love? Well, there is this: A recent study in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that taking multivitamins and other supplements may actually shorten your life. Uh-oh. Researchers in the study collected information from nearly 40,000 women (but say the findings apply to men too) several times over 22 years. They asked about all sorts of health issues, including vitamin and supplement use.
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Mindfulness is the best antidote to stress
Zee News: Washington: The best antidote to stress is mindfulness, existing in the here and now, not in the past or future, suggest meditation gurus. Researchers have now drawn a framework of four key components to help explain these positive effects. Mindfulness, an essential part of Indian yoga traditions, has entered the mainstream as people try to find ways to combat stress and improve their quality of life. It is suggested the meditation can have benefits for health and performance, including improved immune function, reduced blood pressure, and enhanced cognitive function. But how is it that a single practice can have such wide-ranging effects on well-being?
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Decoding the Brain’s Cacophony
The New York Times: ST. HELENA, Calif. — The scientists exchanged one last look and held their breath. Everything was ready. The electrode was in place, threaded between the two hemispheres of a living cat’s brain; the instruments were tuned to pick up the chatter passing from one half to the other. The only thing left was to listen for that electronic whisper, the brain’s own internal code. The amplifier hissed — the three scientists expectantly leaning closer — and out it came, loud and clear. “We all live in a yellow submarine, yellow submarine, yellow submarine ....” “The Beatles’ song! We somehow picked up the frequency of a radio station,” recalled Michael S.
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Mind Your Errors (APSSC Award Winner)
In case you missed it, the cameras were rolling at the APS 23rd Annual Convention in Washington, DC. Watch Hans S. Schroder from Michigan State University present his research “Mind Your Errors: Neural Evidence Linking Growth Mindset to Remedial Action (APSSC Award Winner).” Jason S. Moser Michigan State University Carrie Heeter Michigan State University Yu-Hao Lee Michigan State University Error-related event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and post-error behavioral adjustments were measured in 25 undergraduates performing a flanker task. Participants endorsing a growth mindset evidenced enhanced error positivity amplitude and increased post-error accuracy.
