Mindfully Healing

Three-quarters of people can tell your mating preferences just from looking at your face. People read a surprising amount into our faces, just from one glance. Men who have large noses, square jaws and small eyes, are apparently telling the world they prefer short-term relationships, research finds. Women with larger lips and wide eyes are sending the same short-term relationship signal — whether they like it or not. The conclusions come from a study in which people were shown faces and asked to guess their attitudes to: Short-term relationships, one-night

Massive study of 100,000 people finds evidence for long-suspected danger of anxiety and sleeping drugs. Like many drugs, those prescribed for anxiety disorders, like diazepam and temazepam, have a number of known side-effects like daytime sleepiness, falls, an increased risk of dementia — and they are also addictive. Now, though, a new study has found evidence for a long-suspected danger of these drugs as well as common sleeping pills: an increased risk of death. The large study, published in the British Medical Journal, looked at data from over 100,000 patients

Surprising signs of intelligence include a tendency towards mental illness, being prone to worry, sleeping late and more… 1. Mental illness Disorders of mood could be the price some people pay for high intelligence, recent research finds. Psychologists have found that higher childhood IQ is linked to features of bipolar disorder in young adulthood. The research adds fuel to the debate over the connection between intelligence, creativity and mental health issues. Other studies now suggest a link between intelligence and mental illness that may go back into our evolutionary past.

The most genuine and pleasant type of smile might surprise you. When it comes to a successful smile, less is more, new research finds. The most effective, successful and pleasant smile doesn’t show too much of the teeth. It is a medium or low wattage smile. Certainly, it is not true that the bigger the smile, the better it is, as the study’s authors explain: “…the optimal window (or sweet spot) of smile extent contradicts the principle that “more is always better” with respect to smile extent.” The image below

Prescription drugs taken by millions of people around the world can affect memory. Memory loss is not always a result of ageing. Here are five types of drugs that can affect memory. 1. Antidepressants (tricyclic) The older type of antidepressants — known as tricyclics — have been linked to memory loss. Some of the drug names include: desipramine (Norpramin), imipramine (Tofranil), clomipramine (Anafranil), and doxepin (Sinequan). Around half of people taking them report problems concentrating and one-third say they have memory loss. 2. Anxiety drugs Benzodiazepines include drugs marketed under

People frequently give those with insomnia the worst advice with the best of intentions. Many people give incorrect advice about insomnia to their partners with the best of intentions, new research reveals. Psychologists studied 31 bed partners of people with insomnia. They wanted to see how they tried to support their insomniac partners. What they found was worrying… 74% of people encouraged an earlier bedtime or a later bedtime – Wrong! In fact, treatments for insomnia advise people to keep the same sleep and wake times. It is critical to

Some good can come of this emotion — not so much its close cousin, shame. People who are more prone to feeling guilt are better at reading other people’s emotions, a new study finds. The guilt-prone were able to read all types of facial emotions better, tests revealed. They were particularly good on relatively low-intensity emotions. Subtle facial expressions are (obviously) the most difficult to detect. This is not the first time guilt has been linked to empathy, as the study’s authors explain: “[there is] a large body of prior

The criminal psychopath is not just born: he is also made. ‘Extreme’ styles of parenting are linked to criminal psychopathy in later life, research finds. Interviews with criminals have found that many have a history of either total parental neglect or of rigidly controlling, authoritarian parents. All criminal psychopaths have a history of grotesque physical and/or psychological abuse during childhood. Of course, parents cannot be blamed for everything — after all, some children have awful upbringings and don’t become criminal psychopaths. However, explained Dr Aina Gullhaugen, the study’s first author,

Escape from worries about past and future and find it easier to focus on the present moment. Just ten minutes of mindfulness each day is effective against repetitive anxious thoughts, new research reveals. The practice can also help stop your mind from wandering. People in the study who meditated for only a short period found it easier to focus on their present-moment external experience rather than their internal thoughts. Mr Mengran Xu, the study’s first author, said: “Our results indicate that mindfulness training may have protective effects on mind wandering

Researchers tested how the mere presence of a smartphone affected cognitive capacity. The mere presence of your smartphone makes you more dumb, even when it is on silent, new research finds. It doesn’t even matter if it is turned off! So, leaving your smartphone in another room actually makes you smarter. The study found that when people had their smartphones with them, their cognitive capacity was reduced. Cognitive capacity is the ability to hold and process information in the mind. Dr Adrian Ward, the study’s first author, said: “We see