Mindfully Healing

There is something about the voice which is effective in communicating status. Lowering the pitch of your voice in the first few seconds of an interaction can help you influence others, new research finds. Those who lowered their voice were also seen as more prestigious and admirable by their peers in the study. Dr Joey Cheng, the study’s first author, said: “What excites me about this research is that we now know a little bit more about how humans use their voices to signal status. In the past, we focused

Every week almost one-quarter of Americans use this drug. Acetaminophen — commonly known as Tylenol in the US and paracetamol elsewhere — reduces people’s empathy for the pain of others, new research finds. Acetaminophen is an ingredient in over 600 different medications, including being the main constituent of Tylenol. The ubiquitous painkiller does not just kill pain, it also kills our fellow-feeling. Dr Dominik Mischkowski, the study’s first author, said: “These findings suggest other people’s pain doesn’t seem as big of a deal to you when you’ve taken acetaminophen. Acetaminophen

Missing out these simple parenting behaviours increases suicide risk in adolescents. Children who are not shown by their parents that they care are significantly more likely to contemplate suicide, research shows. The study’s authors identified three behaviours which, when lacking, were linked to suicidal thoughts in adolescence: Telling the child they are proud of them. Telling the child they have done a good job. Helping them with their homework. Adolescents who were rarely or never told by their parents they were proud of them were five times more likely to