Forget about sharks, drownings and being run down by a powerboat. The most likely affliction caused by swimming in the ocean is an ear ache, followed by a stomach bug. This anticlimactic and largely first world news comes from researchers at the University of Exeter, who analyzed the medical complaints […]
Attitude
The Olympic Edge Comes Down to Brain Power
The difference between Olympic glory and almost Olympic glory depends, in many cases, on the operating speed of an athlete’s brain. This news from Johns Hopkins University, where researchers at the university’s Mind/Brain Institute have studied decision making by first rate athletes. A Johns Hopkins news release quotes Christopher Fetsch, an […]
Sense of Purpose Is Good for Health
Perhaps the most impressive revelation of a new study by researchers at Washington University is the range of healthful activities that are associated with a sense of purpose. A Wash U news release reports that a strong sense of purpose was positively associated with vigorous and moderate activity, vegetable intake, […]
To Calm Down: 15 Minutes of Solitude
Just 15 minutes of being alone is enough to calm most people down, and to reduce the strong emotions that can make us crazy. We know this because a University of Rochester news release reports that researchers at the school conducted four experiments. The first compared solitude (simply being alone without […]
Researchers Are Convinced That Beer Makes Us Happy
It’s true: beer makes us happy. We know that now because German researchers, of course, searched a database of 13,000 molecules, looking for those that stimulate the dopamine D2 recepter, and found the most promising candidate to be hordenine, a chemical compound found in malted barley and beer. Wait, it gets […]
Life Gets Better Post Menopause
For women of a certain age–the age that follows menopause–life gets better. That’s the verdict of researchers at the University of Melbourne, who tracked the happiness of 252 women over a 20 year period. A University of Melbourne news release reports that researchers found that rather than becoming moodier as […]
More Intense Exercise=More Endorphins
OK, this may not be the most surprising news… In fact, for those who do high intensity interval training, it may not be news at all, but researchers at the University of Turku in Finland have determined that high-intensity interval training (HIIT) leads to an endorphin release in the brain, which […]
The Good Part Of Feeling Bad
Yes, it’s better to feel good than it is to feel bad, but if you do feel bad, say researchers at UC Berkeley, it can help to embrace the dark mood. A UC Berkeley news release reports that researchers at the school are convinced that people who habitually accept their […]
Income and Exercise Habits
Money may not change everything, but it does appear to influence exercise habits, as revealed by research conducted at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and Georgia State University. Science Daily reports that when researchers there used accelerometer data to analyze physical activity and sedentary behavior in […]
You Are What You Think, Fitness-Wise
Thinking that you’re less fit than others, even if you are actually just as fit as they are, can shorten you life. That’s the verdict from researchers at Stanford University, who analyzed surveys from more than 60,000 U.S. adults, documenting participants’ levels of physical activity, health and personal background, among […]