Bridging the gap between research and real life
You know the feeling (hopefully!): Something silly sets you off – a movie, a joke, or maybe someone near you slips and falls – and you burst into laughter.
It feels good to laugh. And since the 1970s, medical experts have learned that laughter can boost pain tolerance and improve overall well-being. [Read more…]
For decades, education researchers have warned about “summer slide,” where students forget some of what they learned over the previous school year during summer vacation. [Read more…]
Across the globe, more than 10 million people suffer from Parkinson’s disease, a neurological disorder that leads to unintended and uncontrollable movements such as shaking, stiffness, and difficulty with balance and coordination.
Scientists are working to better understand the mechanisms involved in Parkinson’s disease. At a basic level, they know that the disease occurs when nerve cells in the basal ganglia, an area of the brain that controls movement, become impaired or die. Most researchers believe a mix of genetic and environmental factors trigger the disease. [Read more…]
Researchers estimate that there are upwards of 1 million Americans who were conceived using donor egg or sperm. Anonymous donation, in which the donor’s identity is not available to the donor-conceived person, is common in the U.S. and Canada, while many European countries require the donor’s identity be disclosed when the donor-conceived person turns 18.
As heat waves roll across the U.S. in the summer, heat-related illnesses are a serious threat to Americans. Although we often hear about the dangers of overheating and dehydration, heat waves lead to even broader consequences for the people coping with them. A “heat dome” covered the East Coast and southern U.S. last month, and has now shifted to California. [Read more…]
According to a worldwide Gallup poll of more than 147,000 people living in 142countries, nearly one-quarter of people feel angry on a regular basis, and that number has remained flat for the past three years.
Anger is one of the basic human emotions. Like other emotions, it is accompanied by physiological and biological changes in the body including increased heart rate and blood pressure, and higher levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline.
The data are clear: Americans are experiencing unprecedented levels of loneliness. In a new poll last month by the American Psychiatric Association, 30 percent of adults reported feelings of loneliness at least once a week over the past year; 10 percent said they felt lonely every day. [Read more…]
Over the past several decades, marijuana legalization has accelerated across the United States. Cannabis is now legal for recreational use in 24 states and Washington, D.C., as well as for medical use in 38 states and Washington, D.C. Now that it’s more widely available, researchers are asking how legalization is affecting cannabis use. [Read more…]
The evidence clearly shows that having a sense of purpose—no matter what that is—is good for us. Research shows that having a sense of purpose leads to better health outcomes for older adults, improves our daily mood and physical well-being, and is even associated with increased financial earnings.
Now researchers are delving more into how having a sense of purpose plays out in the lives of individual people. [Read more…]
Chances are that someone you love has experienced depression. Approximately 8 percent of U.S. adults – some 21 million people – have a major depressive disorder each year. For people under age 18, depression is the most common cause of hospitalization. [Read more…]
Touch is ubiquitous throughout our lives. As newborns, it’s the first sense to develop and it provides much of our initial knowledge of the world. As we grow, we experience touch in a myriad of forms: cuddling, hugging, kissing, massage, and even petting a stuffed animal. [Read more…]
Mild cognitive impairment—lapses such as missing appointments, losing things, and having trouble finding the words to describe something—affects millions of older adults across the United States. Yet because it’s so common in later life, many people ignore or brush aside the condition. [Read more…]
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