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

Boosting marital quality with some of the oldest (and cheesiest) techniques known to psychology. It can be hard to keep positive feelings towards your partner in a long-term relationship. But help is at hand in the shape of new research funded by, of all people, the US Department of Defense. Dr Jim McNulty, the study’s first author, explained: “The research was actually prompted by a grant from the Department of Defense — I was asked to conceptualize and test a brief way to help married couples cope with the stress

It is also a generally protective factor against health problems. More intelligent people are at a lower risk of suicide, research finds. In fact, intelligence emerges as a generally protective factor against health problems. People with higher intelligence are also less likely to suffer heart attacks and have accidents. Dr David Batty, the study’s first author, said: “People with higher IQ test scores tend to be less likely to smoke or drink alcohol heavily, they eat better diets, and they are more physically active. So they have a range of

What you should eat for the ‘most important meal of the day’. New research shows that eating a good breakfast — particularly one rich in protein — boosts a critical neurotransmitter, which may lower food cravings later in the day. The research comes as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that many teens skip breakfast and adolescent obesity has quadrupled in the last 30 years. Dr. Heather Leidy, an assistant professor of nutrition and exercise physiology who led the study, said: “Our research showed that people experience