Alcohol abuse can actually rewire your brain and affect the way you respond to trauma, says a new study. (Jenny Downing/Flickr Creative Commons)
It's the exception and certainly not the rule, say experts – but some people can be both obese and have healthy hearts. U.S. News & World Report says a new study suggests that certain obese people's risk of heart disease or cancer is no greater than their normal-weight counterparts. And another study found that being obese actually reduces some folks' risk of death – something researchers call the "obesity paradox."
Another study found that heavy drinking can actually rewire your brain. The New York Daily News says researchers found evidence that alcohol abuse makes it more difficult for a person to recover from trauma, in part because alcohol negatively affects how the person's cognitive and emotional brain centers interact with each other.
Reuters reports that tuberculosis killed 1.4 million people in 2010 – and that new research has found that vitamin D can speed up the recovery of patients with the disease. It's too early to tell TB patients to take the supplement, but it's looking promising, which is particularly good news as the rates of drug-resistant TB have been rising in recent years.
Addicted to your email? We know what that's like. But always checking your inbox ups your stress level, and the Los Angeles Times has a Q&A with a researcher who found that people who cut email out of their life were more productive, more physically active in the work place, more focused and less stressed. Still – it's easier said than done.
Finally, a study appearing in Psychology of Women Quarterly found that women who read sex-related magazine articles are exposed to endorsements of risky sexual behavior, but also material that empowers women and prioritizes their sexual pleasure.
Photo by Jenny Downing via Flickr Creative Commons.
