Emotions: Laughter is a universal language, according to new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study, conducted with people from Britain and Namibia, suggests that basic emotions like fear, anger, sadness and amusement are shared by all human beings. Conventional wisdom dictates that, while we all communicate, people from different cultures may not understand the same words, phrases or body language. In spite of this, the researchers discovered that emotions like laughter and anger are easily recognizable despite cultural differences, suggesting that these emotions and their vocalizations are similar across all cultures.  Laughter was probably the best recognized among the positive emotions, which should not come as a surprise, as researchers have seen this with other primates such as chimpanzees, and other mammals, too.  While previous studies have indicated that smiling is also universal, laughter is special because it symbolizes playfulness, probably one of the first steps in communication between children and their mothers.

Immunity: There is a very strong but mysterious link between infections, genetics, the environment and autoimmune diseases.  For example, research shows that people who live near airports are more susceptible to diseases like arthritis and lupus, but we don’t know how or why.  Now, a report published in Autoimmune Reviews describes pollution as a trigger in many autoimmune disorders. Second-hand smoke, food chemicals or chemicals in the air, fumes from jet fuel as well as UV exposure and other forms of environmental pollution are considered activators that provoke the onset of autoimmune diseases. Professon Ehrenfeld, who conducted the report, also cites hairspray and lipstick as environmental triggers. “Reactive arthritis is caused by a severe gastro-intestinal, urinary or sexual infection in some people,” he said of the chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease in which the body’s own immune system attacks its joints, leading to pain and substantial loss of movement. “Most people think arthritis has to do with old age. This is false.” He says old age brings about osteoarthritis, not rheumatoid arthritis, the reactive inflammatory type of arthritis most commonly seen in women between the ages of 20 and 40.

Brain: New research finds that an increase in brain magnesium improves learning and memory in young and old rats. The study, published in the journal Neuron,  suggests taht increasing magnesium intake may be a good strategy for enhancing mental abilities and supports speculation that inadequate levels of magnesium impair cognitive function, leading to faster deterioration of memory in aging humans. Diet can have a significant impact on cognitive capacity. “Magnesium is essential for the proper functioning of many tissues in the body, including the brain and, in an earlier study, we demostrated that magnesium promoted synaptic plasticity in cultured brain cells,” explained Dr. Guosong Liu, lead author of the study. “Our findings suggest that elevating brain magnesium content via increasing magnesium intake might be a useful strategy to enhance cognitive abilities,” explained Dr. Liu. “Moreover, half of the population of industrialized countries has a magnesium deficit, which increases with aging. This may very well contribute to age-dependent memory decline; increasing magnesium intake might prevent or reduce such decline.”  Foods rich in magnesium include whole grains, nuts, and green vegetables, with green leafs as a particularly good source.

Mind: The space between might be the trick to remembering what you learn. According to a study published in the journal Neuron, it is during periods of rest while we are awake that our memories are strengthened. It has been previously established that this is the case during sleep, but this research indicates that memory strengthening,  – keeping information that we have just taken in – also can happen while we are awake and at rest. “Taking a break after class can actually help you retain that information you just learned”, explained Lila Davachi, assistant professon in NYU’s Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science. “Your brain wants you to tune out to other tasks so you can tune in to what you just learned,” she said, adding: “your brain is working for you when you’re resting, so rest is important for memory and cognitive function.”

Parenting: According to a study, most parents don’t realize their children are overweight. Half of the mothers who took part in a the research with more than 800 parents thought that their obese four or five year-old was normal weight,as did 39% of the fathers, according to the report in the February issue of Acta Paediatrica. “Overweight children are very likely to become overweight teenagers and adults, so intervening when they are aged between three and five could prevent weight problems later in life. It is vital that parents are aware of their children’s weight if we area to prevent them becoming obese in later life.” An interesting note: Mothers and fathers of overweight and obese children were significantly heavier than the parents of normal weight children.

Nutrition: A new study has found that Vitamin D can counter the effects of Crohn’s disease, an inflammatory bowel disease. “Our data suggests, for the first time, that Vitamin D deficiency can contribute to Crohn’s disease,” said Dr. White, co-author of the study, noting that people from northern countries, which receive less sunlight that is necessary for the fabrication of Vitamin D by the human body, are particularly vulnerable to the disease that can affect the many parts of the digestive tract. Dr. White says that this is great news for people who live in climates with less sunlight and who have Crohn’s disease or for whom this runs in the family, as they now may benefit from a Vitamin D supplement or from eating/drinking cod liver oil. The report was published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Memory: Scientists are reporting the first evidence from human research that blueberries – one of the richest sources of healthful antioxidants and other phytochemicals – improve memory. previous studies in laboratory animals suggest that eating blueberries may help boost memory in the aged, but until now there had been little scientific work aimed at testing the effect of blueberries on memory in people. The research, published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, found that participants who drank blueberry juice showed significant improvement on learning and memory tests. “These findings are encouraging and suggest that consistent supplementation with blueberries may offer an approach to forestall or mitigate neurodegeneration,” said the authors of the report.

Probiotics: Bacteria that produce compounds to reduce inflammation could be used to treat inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The research published in the February issue of the Journal of Medical Microbiology explains that probiotic microbes could be the most successful treatment to date for IBD, a disease in which there is inflammation of the gastro-intestinal tract followed by severe diarrhea and abdominal pain, and is also related to Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. IBD is known to be the result of an overactive immune response linked to an imbalance of the normal types of bacteria found in the gut. The study has identified two strains of bacteria, Faecalibacterium prausnitzil and Butricicoccus pullicaecorum, that have been shown to help treat the symptoms of IBD.

Perception: We think we see thinks as they are. But according to a study published in the journal Psychological Science, it is desire that may influence how we see our surroundings. The research carried out by scientists from New York University and Cornell University involved participants estimating how far a water bottle was from where they were sitting. Half of the volunteers drank water before the experiment while the other half ate salty pretzels that made them thirsty. The results showed that the thirsty volunteers estimated the water bottles being closer to them than the volunteers who had drank water before. These findings indicate that when we want something, we actually view it as being physically close to us. The authors explained that “these biases arise in order to encourage perceivers to engage in behaviors leading to the acquisition of the object.” In other words, if you want it bad, your mind will help pump you up about getting it. “So close, I can taste it!”

Parenting: Caring for children may include daily difficulties but now it looks like there is one particular health benefit of parenting – for mom. A study to be published in the journal Annals of Behavioral Medicine found that parenthood is associated with lower blood pressure, particularly among women. “Deriving a sense of meaning and purpose from life’s stress has been shown to be associated with better health outcomes,” says study author Julianne Holt-Lunstad. This doesn’t mean the more kids you have the better your blood-pressure – the findings are simply tied to parenthood regardless of how many kids you have. For those who don’t have children: Exercise and a low-sodium diet will also help lower blood-pressure.

Bones: The role of Vitamin D in bone health has finally been determined. A large study that involved patients from the United States and Europe found that taking both Vitamin D and calcium supplements on a daily basis reduces the risk of bone fractures, regardless of whether a person is young or old, male or female, or has had fractures in the past. “This study supports a growing consensus that combined calcium and Vitamin D is more effective than Vitamin D alone in reducing a variety of fractures”, said John Robbins, co-author of the article which appears in the British Medical Journal. While dosage is yet to be determined, there are natural ways to get Vitamin D (15 minutes out in the sun on a daily basis will do the trick) and calcium (eating a good amount of green leafy vegetables like Kale and algaes like hijiki) without a prescription.

Alternative: In the largest national survey of its kind, researchers from UCLA and UC San Diego measured medical students’ attitudes and beliefs about complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and found that three-quarters of them felt conventional Western medicine would benefit by integrating more CAM therapies and ideas. CAM, which includes therapies such as massage, yoga, herbal medicine and acupuncture,is characterized by a holistic and highly individualized approach to patient care, with an emphasis on maximizing the body’s inherent healing ability, getting patients involved in their own care, and focusing on physical, mental and spiritual attributes of a disease as well as preventative care. “Integrating CAM into mainstream health care is now a global phenomenon, with policy makers at the highest levels endorsing the importance of a historically marginalized form of health care”, said study author Ryan Abbot. The findings were published in the online issue of Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine (eCAM).