Exercise: Want more efficient muscles? Eat your spinach, says a new study. According to research published in Cell Metabolism, nitrate, a compound found in vegetables and especially in green leaves, helps healthy people consume less oxygen while exercising. This happens because the nitrate in vegetables mixes with friendly bacteria in the mouth and forms nitric oxide, which in turn helps the cardiovascular system by opening up our blood vessels to lower blood pressure. The study says that, in addition to this benefit, the nitrates make mitochondria – the powerhouses of the cell - more efficient. Interestingly, the researchers say that since the benefits of nitrates depend on friendly bacteria in the mouth, mouthwashes are not good if you want this system to work because they kill good and bad bacteria. Read More…
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. Read More…
