Mindfully Healing

Anxiety has an unexpected effect on memory. People with manageable levels of anxiety did better in a memory test, recalling more details, new research finds. Anxious people’s memories are particularly good when they are in a negative mindset, even if the things they are trying to remember are neutral. This is ironic since anxious people often feel their memory is worse than others and spend longer self-questioning. Anxiety also serves to taint memories, however, the researchers found. Events that might seem neutral to most people can seem negative to those

Now we know why some men undo more shirt buttons than they should. A hairy chest signals higher intelligence in a man, research finds. Dr Aikarakudy Alias, a psychiatrist, has found that hairy chests are more frequent among men who are highly educated, such as doctors. Dr Alias surveyed male trainee doctors in the US and found that 45% of them were ‘very hairy’. This is in comparison to the 10% of men in the general population who are very hairy. The same was also true when Dr Alias looked

People look more attractive when gazing in this way. Looking directly at someone makes you more attractive to them, research finds. People were particularly attracted to opposite-sex faces that were looking at them and smiling. Dr Claire Conway, the study’s first author, said: “When asked to think of examples of attractive facial characteristics, most people think of physical traits such as healthy looking skin, symmetrical features or a strong jaw. Here we show that gaze direction can also be important for attraction.” People in the study looked at a series

Positive emotions are given the biggest boost by different foods as we age. The diets linked to mental health change over the lifetime, new research finds. The mood of young people — aged between 18 and 30 — benefits from neurotransmitter precursors provided by foods like meat. Meat — whether red or white — increases the build-up of neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin, which both help to boost mood. However, for those over 30 a different pattern emerged. Mature adults were in a better mood if they ate foods