tingilinde

body odors and therapy

It wouildn't be terribly surprising, but interesting.

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Sniffing other people's body odour might be useful in therapy for social anxiety, say Swedish researchers who have started tests with volunteers.

The scientists have been using armpit sweat in their experiments.

Their hunch is the smell activates brain pathways linked to emotions, offering a calming effect - but it is far too soon to say if they are right.

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cheers for south korea

Mandating air cleaners in schools.

Even excluding Covid the kids, as a whole, will probably be healthier and more alert in class.

 

 

live sports and life satisfaction

Being physically part of an emotional event with other people can have a positive influence on your life.

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The study, published in Frontiers in Public Health, looked at data from a survey of 7,209 16- to 85-year-old people living in England. The survey asked participants questions about their lives and well-being, and included questions about whether they attended sporting events.

The analysis showed that attending a live sporting event made for higher self-reported scores on life satisfaction and lower scores on loneliness. Participants who had attended a live sporting event within the past year were more likely to report that their lives were worthwhile — adding a live game into the mix predicted higher self-reported life satisfaction than some demographic factors, such as age or employment, that can indicate how worthwhile someone finds their life.

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Again, caveats of social research apply, but this is something many have experienced.  Here's the paper. in Frontiers of Public Health 

 

Attending live sporting events predicts subjective wellbeing and reduces loneliness

 

Helen Keyes*, Sarah Gradidge, Nicola Gibson, Annelie Harvey, Shyanne Roeloffs, Magdalena Zawisza and Suzanna Forwood

Introduction: This study explored whether attending live sporting events (LSEs) improved subjective wellbeing and loneliness, above and beyond demographic predictors.

Methods: Secondary data from 7,249 adults from the Taking Part 2019–20 survey (UK household survey of participation in culture and sport) were analyzed. Multiple linear regressions captured the effect of attending LSEs (yes/no) on wellbeing variables (happiness, anxiety, a sense that life is worthwhile and life satisfaction) and loneliness, with gender, Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), age group, health and employment as covariates.

Results: For life satisfaction, a sense that life is worthwhile, and loneliness, inclusion of LSE attendance in the model improved model fit significantly, although ΔR2 values were small (ΔR2 = 0.001–0.003). For happiness and anxiety, the inclusion of LSE attendance did not alter model fit. LSE attendance was associated with increased life satisfaction (b = 0.171, p < 0.001), a greater sense of life being worthwhile (b = 0.230, p < 0.001), and reduced loneliness (b = −0.083, p < 0.01).

Conclusion: LSE attendance has positive associations with some aspects of subjective wellbeing (life satisfaction and a sense of life being worthwhile) and loneliness, above and beyond demographic predictors. Whilst the variance explained is small, it is comparable to demographic predictors (e.g., being in employment). As even small-sized differences in SWB can have meaningful outcomes (e.g., for mortality), we conclude that LSE attendance may still offer a scalable, accessible and effective means of improving the public's wellbeing and reducing loneliness.

 

 

 

 

 

the chinese version of the gop

Of of course their machine has firmly established control, but the lying is similar.

a tip of the hat to Roland

 

 

omicron and long covid

Chances of having Covid turn into Long Covid are lower with Omicron.  Semi good news as there's still a chance and so many people have given up on precautions. 

 

drinking the water

Where is tap water safe to drink?

 

medicare advantage

How people are cut from treatments.

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On the 17th day, her Medicare Advantage insurer, Security Health Plan, followed the algorithm and cut off payment for her care, concluding she was ready to return to the apartment where she lived alone. Meanwhile, medical notes in June 2019 showed Walter’s pain was maxing out the scales and that she could not dress herself, go to the bathroom, or even push a walker without help.

It would take more than a year for a federal judge to conclude the insurer’s decision was “at best, speculative” and that Walter was owed thousands of dollars for more than three weeks of treatment. While she fought the denial, she had to spend down her life savings and enroll in Medicaid just to progress to the point of putting on her shoes, her arm still in a sling.

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how the flu let's you know it's visiting

Neurons in your throat signal your brain.

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Scientists know feeling crummy during an illness is partly the result of chemicals produced by infected tissue. Several of these compounds, such as prostaglandins, are known to trigger sickness behaviors. (Drugs such as ibuprofen work by blocking prostaglandin production.)

But it’s often unclear exactly how these chemicals communicate with the brain, says Stephen Liberles, a molecular neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School. “Surprisingly little is understood about how the brain becomes aware that there’s an infection in the body.”

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a tip of the hat to Sukie

 

food self-sufficiency

Much can be done.

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Trade has helped the global food system drastically reduce world hunger. However, it has also left nations vulnerable to food-trade shocks that can lead to local food shortages. National food resilience may be increased by exploring the feasibility of adapting healthy diets to local production and sourcing. The EAT-Lancet diet has been proposed as a healthy and environmentally friendly diet, but the feasibility of sourcing it nationally remains unknown. Using FAOSTAT production data and EAT-Lancet Commission guidelines, we create a unique EAT-Lancet diet for each nation. We compare the agricultural land required for each country to supply this diet to their available agricultural land. For nations that did not have sufficient agricultural land, interventions to reduce land use were elaborated by adjusting production and consumption efficiencies of all modeled diets, revealing that 95% of the global population live in countries with a potential pathway toward food self-sufficiency.

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a tip of the hat to Greg

 

an update on dianna

Her Patreon is here if you're including.  The type of care she needs is very expensive.