Reining In Emotions

I previously wrote an article about the role excessive emotions play in poor health, a relationship described in the theories of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). I have also noted how the body is merely energetic vibrations. By changing your vibration, you can change your health. Vibration is energy. When we do, feel or even think negative things our body energy shifts. To get the essence of this concept, just think about a time when you felt invigorated or content, and then compare that to how you feel when you’re anxious, panicked or depressed.

The statistics come from the Annual Report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers’ National Poison Data System (NPDS), and the findings go against the claims of most mainstream doctors

“Many people probably think that ‘chivalrous’ behavior is exclusive of humans or closely related mammals, linking it in some way to education, intelligence, or affection,” said Rolando Rodríguez-Muñoz of the University of Exeter. “We show that even males of small insects, which we would not define as intelligent or affective, can be ‘chivalrous’ or protective with their partners. Perhaps it shines a light

New research suggests that between 4 and 6 percent of the population have bipolar disorder.

Many people, children and adults alike, love to go to amusement parks and ride on roller-coasters and other fast rides. These rides can scare the living daylights out of some, as they go through their bolting ups and downs, and even sometimes turning the rider upside down as they whip along their way. Riders describe an exhilarating adrenalin rush that is combined with accompanying anxiety, panic, and all-out fear as they go through the experience. Once the ride is over and one’s adrenalin lift comes back to normal, equilibrium sets back in, the highs and lows of this experience subside

1. Plain language: If you don’t understand something your doctor says, ask him or her to explain it better. Don’t expect doctors to know when you don’t understand them.

2. Absolute risk: The most important statistic is what risk you have that something will happen to you if you take a certain treatment. You might hear: “This drug will cut your risk in half.”

Game Changers

Game-changing health information and wellness programs come and go like passengers on a busy train. Very few possess staying power. Even some that are viable and do stick around 

Since nutrition courses meet general education science requirements and professional education needs in dietetics, medical, nursing, and other allied health curricula, nutrition is among the many postsecondary subjects commonly taught online.    Investigators from the 

Are hormones to blame when you suffer from teen angst, get spots just before a big night out or even battle to get out of bed in the morning?

If you understand what’s going on in your body it may help you realize why you are the way you are. It could also help you cope with certain things – such as getting those dreaded spots.

You’re exposed to mankind’s unique hormonal magic potion for the first time between the ages of six and eight. That’s when the adrenal glands at the top of the kidneys start secreting androgens. Androgens are just the start of the flood of hormones you’ll be exposed to.

Together they form a complex, sensitive system in which one hormone’s level determines another’s or triggers the secretion of another. At the age of about 10 for girls and 12 for boys the androgens in your body reach a level high enough to produce underarm and pubic hair, make your skin oilier and cause acne.

They’re also responsible for that nasty teen-specific smelliness that happens when you perspire and don’t bathe regularly.

Hormone attack

Androgen is followed by gonadotropin, a hormone that stimulates the sexual glands. Over the next year or two the level of gonadotropin in the blood increases sharply. This leads to the secretion of further hormones by the pituitary gland in the brain, which switches on the ovaries (in girls) and testes (in boys).

At this point you’re not fully formed yet but you are knee-deep in puberty and as you get deeper even more hormones are released. Ovaries produce oestrogen and progesterone. Testes produce testosterone. A teenage boy’s testosterone levels increase quickly to adult levels – 50 times higher than before, which is an enormous hormonal explosion.

And then parents wonder why a boy of 13 or 14 sometimes behaves strangely. It’s oestrogen that causes girls’ breasts to grow. It also determines a young woman’s shape through the redistribution of body fat.

Fat is now stored on girls’ hips.

Testosterone takes charge of boys’ body shape: baby fat gives way to muscle and hair appears in unexpected places for the first time.

Eventually girls experience their first menstruation and boys their first full erection and ejaculation. This is the point at which you sometimes fall head over heels in love and the slightest touch, or even just a wink, from that special person has your heart skipping a beat.

The hormone mystery

Professor Steven Hough, a specialist in endocrinology (the study of hormones) at the University of Stellenbosch’s health sciences faculty, says scientists are still puzzled by what triggers hormone secretion. It’s thought that the nervous system, social and psychological factors, as well as your diet, all play a role.

It’s generally accepted children today start puberty at an earlier age. In 1850 girls got their first period at 17. Today it’s happening at 12.

A better diet, general prosperity and better medical care could be reasons for this. Being overweight can also cause you to start developing earlier. Many people believe hormones have just as dramatic an effect on the behavior of teenagers as they do on their body shape.

Parents talk about “hormones on legs” and complain about their teen kids’ fickle moods, impulsive behavior and over-emotionality. It appears young people crave excitement and enjoy wild behavior.

Statistics bear this out, Vivienne Parry writes in her book The Truth About Hormones (Atlantic Books, 2005). Accidents and thrill-seeking cause over three quarters of teen fatalities. The sturm und drang years (years of storm and longing), some call them.

But whether hormones are to blame when you sneak out of the house at night to go to a party is open to debate.

In the past it was believed the brain was fully developed by adolescence but new research shows biological adulthood is reached only by the late teens and early twenties. During the teen years the nerve endings in the forebrain are “pruned” to make them more effective.

This explains why thought processes such as goal setting, establishing priorities, organization and impulse control develop only later on.

“Hormones can’t get all the blame for teenage behavior. It’s not just testosterone that’s responsible for dangerous behavior but also the inability of an immature brain to perceive and evaluate risky behavior,’’ Parry writes.

When it comes to sexual behavior she compares the immature brain to a speeding car without a driver. Adolescent girls have the hormones and figures of adult women, while testosterone causes an adolescent boy to think of sex every six seconds – and this while the brain’s reasoning ability is still under construction.

Sleep is essential

Hormones are the culprits when it comes to your sudden desire to sleep all the time, though. A subtle shift in your sleep patterns occurs during puberty – the accelerated growth phase you go through during adolescence apparently requires more sleep.

This is partially explained by an increase in levels of melatonin (the sleep hormone) in teens’ blood. When that alarm goes off at 7 am your body thinks it’s still four in the morning.

Many teenagers get too little sleep in the long term, which leaves them with the same symptoms as jet lag.

Young people need nine hours of sleep a night but if you’re like most teens you won’t feel tired until the early hours of the morning.

Researchers say this is normal: teens’ circadian rhythms cause them to become sleepy only at around 2 am and to want to sleep till 11 am.

Dr Steve Delport, an endocrinologist and the father of two sons who’ve already been through puberty, says there’s nothing unusual about it. “Puberty is a normal period of growth and should be treated as such.

Talk about puberty

Much of the teen behavior that makes parents want to climb the walls can be prevented if they give their children the correct facts about puberty and talk to them about it regularly.

“Parents wrongly think their children are now grown up and therefore entrust them with responsibilities they’re not ready for,” Dr Delport says. (It’s good to know your parents aren’t always right!) “Teenagers need their parents’ support and advice now more than ever to be able to cope with peer pressure and body changes.”

Your self-image changes along with your body during your teens. That’s why you spend hours in front of the mirror and often feel self-conscious. Your parents need to know it’s normal for you to want to be alone a lot during this time.

Dr Delport also points out the genders differ markedly when it comes to maturation markers. Teen girls’ fast-growth phase starts when they’re around 12 but with some girls it starts at 10 or even earlier.

In boys the fast growth phase starts around 14 and sometimes even later. When puberty is delayed it can be a serious phenomenon that may require medical help.

“In most cases a large dose of patience is all that’s required but sometimes children need medical attention,” Dr Delport says.

On the one hand, as the most social and loving species on the planet, we have the wonderful ability and inclination to connect with others, be empathic, cooperate, care, and love. On the other hand, we also have the capacity and inclination to be fearfully aggressive toward any individual or group we regard as “them.” (In my book – Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love and Wisdom – I develop this idea further, including how to stimulate and strengthen the neural circuits of self-control, empathy, and compassion.)

To tame the wolf of hate, it’s important to get a handle on “ill will” – irritated, resentful, and angry feelings and intentions toward others. While it may seem justified in the moment, ill will harms you probably more than it harms others. In another metaphor, having ill will toward others is like throwing hot coals with bare hands: both people get burned.

Avoiding ill will does not mean passivity, allowing yourself or others to be exploited, staying silent in the face of injustice, etc. There is plenty of room for speaking truth to power and effective action without succumbing to ill will. Think of Gandhi, Martin Luther King, or the Dalai Lama as examples. In fact, with a clear mind and a peaceful heart, your actions are likely to be more effective.

Ill will creates negative, vicious cycles. But that means that good will can create positive cycles. Plus good will cultivates wholesome qualities in you.

So let’s get started!

How to prevent or transform ill will

1. Be mindful of the priming, the preconditions for ill will. Try to defuse them early: get rest, have a meal, get support, talk things out, distract yourself, etc.

2. Practice non-contention to undermine the heat that creates ill will. Don’t argue unless you have to.

3. Inspect the underlying trigger, such as a sense of threat. Look at it realistically. Was something actually an “injury” to you? Be skeptical of your justifications.

4. Be careful about attributing intent to others. We are often just a bit player in their drama; they are not targeting us personally. Look for the good intentions beneath the action that made you feel mistreated. Look for the good in others.

5. Put what happened in perspective. The effects of most wrongs fade with time. They’re also part of a larger whole, most of which is usually fine.

6. Cultivate positive qualities like kindness, compassion, empathy, and calm. Nourish your own good will.

7. Practice generosity. Much ill will comes when we feel taken from, or not given to, or on the receiving end of another person’s bad moment. Instead, consider letting the person have what they took: their victory, their bit of money or time, etc. Let them have their bad moment. Make a gift of forbearance, patience, and no cause to fear you.

8. Investigate ill will. Take a day, a week, a month – and really examine the least bit of ill will during that time. See what causes it . . . and what its effects are.

9. Regard ill will as an affliction upon yourself. It hurts you more than anyone.

10. Settle into awareness, observing the ill will but not identified with it, watching it arise and disappear like any other experience.

11. Accept the wound. Experience the feelings of it. Do not presume that life is not supposed to be wounding. Accept the unpleasant fact that people will mistreat you.

12. Do not cling to what you want instead of what you’ve got.

13. Let go of the view that things are supposed to be a certain way. Challenge the belief that things should work out, that the world is perfectible.

14. Relax the sense of self, that it was “I” or “me” who was affronted, wounded.

15. Do religious or philosophical practices that cultivate love and goodness.

16. Resolve to meet mistreatment with loving kindness. No matter what. Consider the saying: In this world, hate has never dispelled hate. Only love dispels hate.

17. Cultivate positive emotion, like happiness, contentment, or peacefulness. Positive feelings calm the body, quiet the mind, buffer against the impact of stressful events, and foster supportive relationships — which reduce ill will.

18. Communicate. Speak (skillfully) for yourself, regardless of what the outcome may be. If appropriate, name your experience to release it; feel it as you speak it.Try to address the situation with openness and empathy for the other person. Then you’ll be freer and calmer to be more skillful.

19. Have faith that they will pay their own price one day for what they’ve done, and you don’t have to be the justice system.

20. Realize that some people will not get the lesson no matter how much you try. So why burden yourself with trying to teach them? Further, many people will never actually experience your ill will – such as politicians. So why carry it toward them?

21. Forgiveness. This doesn’t mean changing your view that wrongs were done. But it does mean letting go of the emotional charge around feeling wronged. The greatest beneficiary of forgiveness is usually yourself.

by Rick Hanson, Ph.D.

Trust is what keeps our society functioning. Evolutionarily speaking, we must trust to survive. But it can be a slippery thing. What makes us trust people? And more curiously, what makes us trust some people but not others?

Expectation and Reciprocation

According to the “experts”—sociologists, psychologists, economists, political scientists—trust is based on expectation. To the degree you believe you can expect a certain response from someone, you trust him. To the degree you believe he will reciprocate at some point in the future in some (often undefined) way, you trust him.

Of course, past experience—with the person in question or with others—will affect that confidence, but in the here and now, certain behaviors and visual cues can also influence if and how much you trust someone:

Familiarity. The more contact you have with someone, the more information you collect about him or her. The more information you have, the more confident you can be in your expectations.

Resemblance. If someone looks, dresses, or acts like you, you’re more likely to believe his or her actions and reactions will be similar to your own. A 2002 study at a Canadian university showed that people are more likely to trust someone whose facial features resemble theirs.

Consistency. The more someone behaves with consistency, the better you’re able to establish patterns and form expectations.

Punctuality. If someone is regularly on time, it not only signals consistency, but also general conscientiousness toward other people.

Flexibility. Social-exchange theorists have found that people are more likely to trust someone who does not try to explicitly negotiate or force a binding agreement. (Think of the last car salesman you encountered.)

Discretion. The ability to keep a secret and exercise tact will always inspire trust.

Transparency. The flip side of discretion is transparency. We want someone to keep our secrets, but not her own. Self-disclosure builds trust.

Competence. In the workplace, nothing inspires trust more than getting the job done right.

Engagement. Trust is based on an understood reciprocity. If someone does not even appear to invest in you, he likely doesn’t have much to lose in betraying you.

Face Time. Part of engaging is an effort to make “face time.” A recent study showed that people in the workplace are more likely to trust team members with whom they interact in person more than those they work with via email or videoconference.

Facial hair. Another recent study in the Journal of Marketing Communications found that consumers trust pitchmen with beards more than those without. There are limits, however, to the beard-trustworthiness theory. Graphic designer Matt McInerney was only halfway kidding when he made a graphic spectrum of “The Trustworthiness of Beards.”

Eye contact (but not too much). This is perhaps the biggest behavioral indicator of trustworthiness. But the quality of the eye contact, observes psychologist Elaine Ducharme, also matters. Is it steely or warm? Too much eye contact can be unnerving.

Handshake (not too firm, not too soft). Any businessperson can tell you the importance of a firm handshake in building confidence. However, like eye contact, there is a middle ground. Too firm suggests aggression; too soft suggests passivity.

Posture. No one trusts a slouch. A straight back projects an image of strength and confidence.

Many studies have documented the dangers of the traditional negative physical risk factors on health-excessive smoking, drinking and being overweight.

However, very few have focused on less-tangible, positive influences-the protective role of psychological and social supports.

Margie E. Lachman and Stefan Agrigoroaei of the Brandeis Psychology Department explored the psychological roots of health.

Lachman and Agrigoroaei’s study The Midlife in the U.S. (MIDUS), involved 3,626 adults aged 32 to 84 who were assessed over two periods about 10 years apart.

It found that that with proper protective elements in place, declines in health could be delayed by up to a decade.

The research identified physical exercise, social support and control beliefs, individually and in combination, as significant predictors of change in functional health, above and beyond the negative effects of the traditional risk factors.

“Control beliefs” refer to a person’s sense of how much they can influence important life outcomes.

Those who have a greater sense of control are more likely to engage in health-promoting behaviors, such as getting exercise and eating right. Supportive social relationships can promote health by reducing stress and encouraging healthy behaviors.

The research was published in the journal PlosOne.

The study in mice has shown that persistent exposure to light at night may lead to weight gain, even without changing physical activity or eating more food.

Researchers found that mice exposed to a relatively dim light at night over eight weeks had a body mass gain that was about 50 percent more than other mice that lived in a standard light-dark cycle.

“Although there were no differences in activity levels or daily consumption of food, the mice that lived with light at night were getting fatter than the others,” said Laura Fonken, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in neuroscience at Ohio State University.

The study appears this week in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study, published in the US journal Pediatrics, found that kids who spend hours each day in front of the TV or games console have more psychological difficulties like problems relating to peers, emotional issues, hyperactivity or conduct challenges, than kids who don’t.

And contrary to what earlier studies have indicated, the negative impact of screen time was not remedied by increasing a child’s physical activity levels, says the study conducted by researchers from the University of Bristol in Britain.

The researchers got 1,013 children between the ages of 10 and 11 to self-report average daily hours spent watching television or playing — not doing homework — on a computer. Responses ranged from zero to around five hours per day.

The children also completed a 25-point questionnaire to assess their psychological state, and the time they spent in moderate to vigorous activity was measured using a device called an accelerometer, which was worn around the waist for seven days.

The researchers found that children who spent two hours or more a day watching television or playing on a computer were more likely to get high scores on the questionnaire, indicating they had more psychological difficulties than kids who did not spend a lot of time in front of a screen.

Even children who were physically active but spent more than two hours a day in front of a screen were at increased risk of psychological difficulties, indicating that screen time might be the chief culprit.

Earlier studies have found that while more time spent in front of a screen led to lower well-being, physical activity improved one’s state of mind. That led researchers to believe that upping physical activity levels could counteract the negative impact of watching TV or playing on the computer.

And many parents and children think that spending a lot of time on the computer or in front of the television is OK if it’s part of a “balanced lifestyle”, the study in Pediatrics says.

“Excessive use of electronic media is not a concern if children are physically active,” the study says.

But its findings indicate that might not be the case, and the researchers advise parents to limit their children’s computer use and TV viewing time to ensure their “optimal well-being.”

The results show personality traits observed in children as young as first graders are a strong predictor of adult behavior.

“We remain recognizably the same person,” said study author Christopher Nave, a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Riverside. “This speaks to the importance of understanding personality because it does follow us wherever we go across time and contexts.”

The study will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.

Using data from a 1960s study of approximately 2,400 ethnically diverse schoolchildren (grades 1 – 6) in Hawaii, researchers compared teacher personality ratings of the students with videotaped interviews of 144 of those individuals 40 years later.

They examined four personality attributes – talkativeness (called verbal fluency), adaptability (cope well with new situations), impulsiveness and self-minimizing behavior (essentially being humble to the point of minimizing one’s importance).

Among the findings:

Talkative youngsters tended to show interest in intellectual matters, speak fluently, try to control situations, and exhibit a high degree of intelligence as adults. Children who rated low in verbal fluency were observed as adults to seek advice, give up when faced with obstacles, and exhibit an awkward interpersonal style.

Children rated as highly adaptable tended, as middle-age adults, to behave cheerfully, speak fluently and show interest in intellectual matters. Those who rated low in adaptability as children were observed as adults to say negative things about themselves, seek advice and exhibit an awkward interpersonal style.

Students rated as impulsive were inclined to speak loudly, display a wide range of interests and be talkative as adults. Less impulsive kids tended to be fearful or timid, kept others at a distance and expressed insecurity as adults.

Children characterized as self-minimizing were likely to express guilt, seek reassurance, say negative things about themselves and express insecurity as adults. Those who were ranked low on a self-minimizing scale tended to speak loudly, show interest in intellectual matters and exhibit condescending behavior as adults.

Changing personality

Previous research has suggested that while our personalities can change, it’s not an easy undertaking.

Personality is “a part of us, a part of our biology,” Nave said. “Life events still influence our behaviors, yet we must acknowledge the power of personality in understanding future behavior as well.”

Future research will “help us understand how personality is related to behavior as well as examine the extent to which we may be able to change our personality,” Nave said.

The findings of the study by Professor Avi Sadeh of the Department of Psychology were reported in a recent issue of the journal Sleep. The study was supported by a grant from the Israel Science Foundation.

Over a two-year period, sleep onset was significantly delayed by an average of 50 minutes in 72 children age 10 and 11 at the start of the study. Sleep time was significantly reduced by an average of 37 minutes. Girls had higher sleep efficiency and reported fewer night awakenings than boys, but for both, initial levels of sleep predicted an increase in pubertal development over time.

The children who participated in the study (94 at the start and 72 by the time the study ended) kept sleep diaries and wore an actigraph on the wrist to measure biological functions. An initial assessment was taken at the beginning of the study, with a second and final assessment taken at one-year intervals.

According to Sadeh, the findings suggest that the neurobehavioral changes associated with puberty may be seen earlier in sleep organization than in bodily changes. However, he adds, “psychosocial issues such as school demands, social activities and technological distractions can also lead to the development of bad sleep habits.”

“It is very important for parents to be aware of the importance of sleep for their developing children and to maintain supervision throughout the adolescent years,” he says. “School health education should also provide children with compelling information on how insufficient sleep compromises their well-being, psychological functioning and school achievements.”

Sadeh also notes that as children become adolescents, they tend to go to bed later and get up later as well. They also sleep less, which is associated with daytime sleepiness, sleep less during the week and more during the weekend to compensate.

Significant differences were seen between sleep on Friday nights and school nights given that Israel has a six-day school week, with Friday the only day not followed by school.

On Fridays, sleep onset was delayed, sleep time extended and sleep quality poorer than on other nights. There was no difference between puberty status or gender, suggesting that the tendency to “catch up” on sleep over the weekend is steady throughout early adolescence.

Sadeh says the findings may have other implications as well. “A deeper understanding of the interrelationships between sleep and pubertal maturation may provide new insights into the emergence of vulnerabilities for behavioral and emotional health problems in early adolescence. This could improve prevention and early intervention efforts.”

It’s more likely to happen in the current economic environment as hiring freezes force companies to promote from within, says Stephen Viscusi, a New York-based author and career consultant.
Meanwhile, employees are more willing to accept a new title even if it means doing two jobs for the price of one.

Becoming your friend’s subordinate may not be easy, but chances are he or she will be counting on your loyalty, Viscusi said. Still, the dynamic of your friendship at work will inevitably change.
“You may not want peers in the same department to even know you have a personal relationship,” Viscusi said. “It can get very sticky.”
Viscusi gives these rules for dealing with a friend you are now reporting to:

— Remember this is now your boss, and he has his own job on the line. Don’t flaunt your friendship or ask for special favors.

— Congratulate him or her first, then ask what you can do to make the job easier and transition faster.

— Let your friend, now your superior, take the lead on what his priorities are: your friendship, or the role of being boss.

— Hand over a copy of your resume. This would, of course, apply if the person is not your friend. But, often we are at a company for a long time, and even friends may not remember our experience. Having an up-to-date resume at all times helps people understand how you have grown. In this case, your friend may know your children’s birthdays and that your mother-in-law is a pain, but he or she may not know you have two master’s degrees and experience managing a team.

— If you notice a change in your friendship and still need and like your job, accept the change. New friends are far easier to come by today than new jobs.

Should You Spank Your Kids?

When you consider whether or not you should spank your kids, ask yourself whether or not you would like to be spanked when you do something wrong. How embarrassed would you be? How humiliated would you be? Would you learn anything from it?

Spanking is not the answer – and it never was. Kids are human. They have thoughts, feelings, and opinions – just like you. They should be treated with the same dignity and respect that you expect from others for yourself.

Do Time-Outs Work for Kids?

Time outs work for younger children. The idea is to separate the child from the group or the activity, where they will sit quietly alone. This gives them the opportunity to think about what they have done wrong.

Some people say that time outs are ineffective because the child will not spend time thinking about what he or she has done wrong. This isn’t exactly true. The child wants to get back to what they were doing or having fun. While there will be more timeouts, your child has learned that there is a consequence for what they’ve just done wrong.

How Much Punishment is the Right Amount?

There does come a point in time when timeouts no longer work effectively for kids. The age of the child varies when this stops being effective, based on the child. When timeouts stop working, other forms of punishment should be used. Children can be sent to their rooms or denied certain privileges. Grounding works well for teenagers. Taking away beloved objects or amusement also works. These objects may include the television, video games, computers, telephones, or favorite pastimes.

The point of any type of punishment should be to teach the child that he or she has done something that is unacceptable, and that this action should not be repeated. Kids will be kids – and they may repeat the action two or three more times before they get the picture, but if they are treated with respect and dignity, they do indeed eventually learn right from wrong.

TORONTO – Angry words and gestures are not the only way to get a sense of how temperamental a person is. A quick glance at someone’s facial structure may be enough for us to predict their tendency towards aggression, according to the latest research.

Facial width-to-height ratio (WHR) is determined by measuring the distance between the right and left cheeks and the distance from the upper lip to the mid-brow. During childhood, boys and girls have similar facial structures, but during puberty, males develop a greater WHR than females, the website Science Daily reported.

Previous research has suggested that males with a larger WHR act more aggressively than those with a smaller WHR. For example, studies have shown that hockey players with greater WHR earn more penalty minutes per game than players with lower WHR.

Psychologists Justin M. Carr, Cheryl M. McCormick and Catherine J. Mondloch of Brock University in Canada conducted an experiment to see if it is possible to predict another person’s propensity for aggressive behaviour simply by looking at their photograph. Volunteers viewed photographs of faces of men for whom aggressive behaviour was previously assessed in the lab. The volunteers rated how aggressive they thought each person was on a scale of one to seven after viewing each face for either 2000 milliseconds or 39 milliseconds.

The photographs were very revealing: Volunteers’ estimates of aggression correlated highly with the actual aggressive behaviour of the faces viewed, even if they saw the picture for only 39 milliseconds. Even more interestingly, the volunteers’ estimates were also highly correlated with WHR of the faces — the greater the WHR, the higher the aggressive rating, suggesting that we may use this aspect of facial structure to judge potential aggression in others.

These findings indicate that subtle differences in face shape may affect personality judgments, which may, in turn, guide how we respond to certain individuals.

The study was published in the journal Psychological Science.

HELSINKI – A new study claims that a woman’s consumption of excessive quantities of liquorices during pregnancy could hamper her child’s intelligence and behavior.

The study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology saw a comparison between eight-year-old children and found that kids of mothers who ate large amounts of liquorices when pregnant did not perform as well as other youngsters in cognitive tests on vocabulary, memory and spatial awareness.

Sixty-four of the children who took part in the study were exposed to high levels of glycyrrhizin in liquorices, 46 to moderate levels and 211 to low levels.

Behavior was assessed using an in-depth questionnaire completed by the mother and also used by clinicians to evaluate children’s behavior.

The research concluded that women who ate more than 500mg of glycyrrhizin per week – found in the equivalent of 100g of pure liquorices – were more likely to have children with lower intelligence levels and more behavioral problems.

Some of the inadequacies in the kids, selected from Finland where consumption of the drink among women is common, were poor attention spans and ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder).

The study, carried out by the University of Helsinki and the University of Edinburgh, suggested that a component in liquorices called glycyrrhizin may impair the placenta, allowing stress hormones to cross from the mother to the baby.

Apparently, high levels of such hormones, known as glucocorticoids, affect fetal brain development, which leads behavioral disorders in children.

Professor Jonathan Seckl, from the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Cardiovascular Science, said: “This shows that eating liquorices during pregnancy may affect a child’s behaviour or IQ and suggests the importance of the placenta in preventing stress hormones that may affect cognitive development getting through to the baby.”

Professor Katri Räikkönen, from the University of Helsinki’s Department of Psychology told: “Expectant mothers should avoid eating excessive amounts of liquorice.”

SEE OUR POST “INTRODUCING-LICORICE”

TEL-AVIV –  A study conducted by Israeli researchers suggests that exposure to light, and possibly photosynthesis, may help disease-causing bacteria to invade fresh produce, making them impervious to washing.

According to background information in a report published in journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology, past studies have already shown that salmonella enterica attaches to the surface of fresh produce, and finds its way below the surface of the skin through pores called stomata, where it can hide from and resist washing and food sanitizers.

In the new study, researchers from the Agricultural Research Organization at the Volcani Center in Israel and Tel-Aviv University examined the role that light and photosynthesis might play on the ability of salmonella bacteria to infiltrate lettuce leaves via stomata.

They exposed sterile iceberg lettuce leaves to bacteria either in the light, in the dark, or in the dark after 30 minutes of exposure to light.

Incubation in the light or pre-exposure to light resulted in aggregation of bacteria around open stomata and invasion into the inner leaf tissue.

Incubation in the dark, on the other hand, resulted in a scattered attachment pattern and very little internalization.

According to the researchers, the increased propensity for internalization in the light may be due to several factors.

First, they say, in the absence of light plants enter a period of dormancy, where stomata are closed and no photosynthesis takes place. In the light, the stomata are open.

Additional findings also suggest that the bacteria are attracted to the open stomata by the nutrients produced during photosynthesis, which are not present in the dark.

“The elucidation of the mechanism by which Salmonella invades intact leaves has important implications for both pre- and postharvest handling of lettuce and probably other leafy vegetables. The capacity to inhibit internalization should limit bacterial colonization to the phylloplane and consequently might enhance the effectiveness of surface sanitizers,” say the researchers.