healthbriefs
February is American Heart Month.
laughter Yoga
Benefits Belly muscles
A
n experiment to assess the effect of laughter of yoga on
back pain by sports science student Ulrich Rehm of
Münster University, in Germany, turned up an encour-
aging conclusion. In conducting research for his Ph.D.
thesis, he hooked up two healthy young men to an
electromyograph (EMG), which measures strength, en-
durance and increases in muscle activity. Rehm moni- The MysTery of
tored some of the abdominal and back muscles that are
ATTrAcTion
addressed by conventional strengthening exercises or
even in sports physiotherapy.
First, his fellow students performed a series of conventional physiotherapy
T
urns out it’s true that when
it comes to choosing a mate,
exercises on a mat for 30 minutes. Next, they performed another 30 minutes of
women are as complicated as
laughter yoga exercises. The working conclusion was that, “Simulated laughter
men claim they are, say psy-
exercises engage as many abdominal muscles as conventional physiotherapy ex-
chologists who have tested how
ercises, sometimes even more.” Initial findings are backed by overseeing professor
women evaluate a man’s facial
Dr. Heiko Wagner, who teaches kinesiology at the university.
attractiveness. They discovered
specifics of masculine appeal on
two levels—a sexual level based
a Crush on garlic
on individual features like jaw-
W
hen it comes to protecting heart health, freshly crushed garlic
bone, cheekbone and lips; and a
works better than garlic supplements or dried garlic. New re-
nonsexual level based on over-
search published by the American Chemical Society explains that the
all attractiveness or aesthetics.
heart-healthy effects of raw, crushed garlic result from hydrogen sulfide, a chemical
that forms when fresh garlic is cut or smashed; when eaten, the hydrogen sulfide

The Penn State psycholo-
gists showed 50 female
relaxes blood vessels, allowing for better flowing of blood to the heart. college students images of a
variety of male faces, some of
New Clue to love at First Sight
which were split horizontally
with upper and lower halves
L
eave it to genetics (and pairs of fruit flies) to
shifted in opposite directions,
answer a question that has perplexed humanity
and then asked them to rate
since the dawn of science. An American and Aus-
what they saw as both hypo-
tralian research team has found that, before mat-
thetical dates and hypotheti-
ing, female fruit flies experience a biochemical
cal lab partners. most women
state that amounts to “genetic priming,” making
chose the whole faces as lab
them more likely to mate with certain males over
partners and the male split
others—research that sheds a bit more light on the
faces as dates.
complexities of mating and reproduction.

It appears that seeing a
man’s whole face enabled
Source: Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, 2009
the women to evaluate him
more on a nonsexual basis.
chocolATe cAlMs eMoTions
when the face was split, their
Chocolate can indeed assuage emotional stress, accord-
way of processing a male face
ing to a new clinical trial. Researchers reporting to the
was based on a purely sexual
american Chemical Society found that “highly stressed” perspective. The study con-
volunteers, eating about an ounce-and-a-half (about 40 cluded that, for women, while
grams) of dark chocolate a day for two weeks, experi- attractiveness appears to be
enced reduced levels of stress hormones. The chocolate
perceived on the whole, they
even partially corrected other stress-related biochemi-
find sexiness can exist in parts
cal imbalances by modifying metabolism.
of a potential mate’s face.
 Collier/Lee Counties swfl.naturalawakeningsmag.com
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