Emotional Health

Study: Beating Depression Could Be a Walk in the Park

Reconnecting with nature could help you fight depression, a new study suggests. Nearly a fifth of Americans suffer from depression, anxiety, or other mental illness, studies show. But taking a nature walk helps restore cognitive performance and mood among people with depressive symptoms — an effect not observed during walks in urban environments, according to [...]

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Meditation is Good for Your Brain

People who meditate for many years seem to enjoy a variety of cognitive benefits, including greater neuroplasticity (the ability of the brain to make physiological changes) and more white and dark brain matter, the New York Times reported May 8. Research also has shown that meditation may help lower the risk of death from coronary [...]

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Babies Can Benefit from Musical Training, Studies Say

Exposing your one-year-old to the joys of music may aid social and cognitive development, a pair of new studies from researchers at McMaster University in Canada say. Infants that participate in interactive music classes with their parents smile sooner, communicate better, and show earlier, more complex brain responses to music than infants that receive no [...]

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Learning to Love Loss May Hold the Secret to Success

Want to succeed in business? Lose your fear of loss, experts say. Small financial incentives make people perform better, but larger incentives actually make people less productive and perform worse, new research from the California Institute of Technology indicates. The reason has to do with the way people tend to “choke” when the stakes are high, [...]

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Millennials are More Stressed, Less Prepared to Cope than Older Generations

The youngest generation of adults is also the most stressed, and are less prepared  to deal with stress than older generations, the Atlantic reported May 8. Millennials — the generation of current 18- to 32-year-olds — average 5.4 on a 10-point scale for stress, compared to 4.9 points for Baby Boomers (47- to 65-year-olds) and [...]

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Study: Letting Your Kids Sleep in Your Bed May Protect Against Weight Gain

Poor quality sleep has been linked to weight gain, even in children. But parents may help their sleepless kids stay slim by letting them come to bed with them when they wake up in the middle of the night, a new Danish study suggests. Strange as that may sound, being in their parents’ beds may [...]

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Employee Perks Aid Employers’ Bottom Line

Companies that offer a generous array of perks and benefits to workers can save money in the long run due to lower turnover and improved workplace performance, according to executives at companies that provide such benefits. MSNBC reported May 9 that officials at firms that increased their employee benefits in recent years cited an array of [...]

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Study: Depression in Later Years Increases Dementia Risk

Depression in midlife or late life may increase your risk of developing dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, CBS News reported May 8. People who develop depression in midlife (between ages 40 and 55) have a 20-percent increased risk of developing dementia compared to those with no depressive symptoms, while people who develop depression later in life [...]

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Adolescent Girls with More Friends are More Active, Study Shows

The more friends your daughter has, the more likely she is to be physically active, MedicalXPress reported May 7. Each additional friend a 10- or 11-year-old girl has is associated with four extra minutes of moderate-to-vigorous after-school physical activity per day, as well as increased physical activity on the weekends, researchers from the University of [...]

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Take a Vacation from Your Email

Taking a break from your email may make you less stressed and more productive at work, researchers from the University of California at Irvine (UCI) and the U.S. Army say. Frequently checking your email puts you in a “high alert” state and changes your heart rate, the study shows. But a brief break from email [...]

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