The Tyranny of Choice

"Logic suggests that having options allows people to select precisely what makes them happiest. But, as studies show, abundant choice often makes for misery."
Barry Schwartz, "The Tyranny of Choice," Scientific American, April 2004

Noise Disturbs in Many Ways

“The high noise of modern life may affect speech and language development in the very young, according to a study that found the auditory parts of the brains of young mice are slower to organize properly in the presence of continuous sounds.

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, reared a group of rats in an environment of continuous background noise and found that their brain circuits that receive and interpret sound did not develop at the same rate as animals that were raised in a quieter environment.

Edward F. Chang and Michael Merzenich, co-authors of the study appearing in the journal Science, said that the continuous noise delayed the organization of auditory neurons during a critical two- to three-week period after the rat pups were born.

Although the rat is not a perfect model for what happens in humans, the authors note, the study does suggest that high levels of noise might possibly affect some language learning in infants.

"These findings suggest that environmental noise, which is commonly present in contemporary child-rearing environments, can potentially contribute to auditory and language-related development delays," the authors write in Science. The authors noted that although the brain development was delayed in rats exposed to the noise, their brains did eventually mature normally.”

True Happiness?

"Ten Keys to True Happiness" based on a study published in New Scientist include:

1.	Wealth	6.	Friendship
2.	Desire	7.	Marriage
3.	Intelligence	8.	Faith
4.	Genetics	9.	Charity
5.	Beauty	10.	Age

Social Isolation Growing in U.S.

"The number of people who say they have no one to confide in has risen." Washington Post staff journalist Shankar Vedantam recently wrote that "Americans are far more socially isolated today than they were two decades ago, and a sharply growing number of people say they have no one in whom they can confide, according to a comprehensive new evaluation of the decline of social ties in the United States."

"A quarter of Americans say they have no one with whom they can discuss personal troubles, more than double the number who were similarly isolated in 1985. Overall, the number of people Americans have in their closest circle of confidants has dropped from around three to about two."

"The comprehensive new study paints a sobering picture of an increasingly fragmented America, where intimate social ties -- once seen as an integral part of daily life and associated with a host of psychological and civic benefits -- are shrinking or nonexistent. In bad times, far more people appear to suffer alone."

Having Breathing Space is wonderful, but history has shown that social isolation is seldom beneficial

Breathing Space from Junk Foods?

Julia Watson, writing for ScienceDaily.com reports that in cities where transfat has been banned "interesterified fats" are being introduced. "Food manufacturers loved trans fats. They were essential to baked goods and fried food. They prolonged a processed food's shelf life. They stabilized its flavor. What was not to like?"

"Well, what happened when vegetable oil was solidified by means of adding hydrogen to it -- the process behind the making of trans fats -- was that they raised our so-called bad cholesterol while diminishing the cholesterol that was good for our hearts. But if trans fats are withdrawn, something has to take their place if we're going to go on eating processed and fried foods."

"Enter interesterified fats. These are fats modified by procedures that include hydrogenation followed by the rearrangement of fat molecules through a process called interesterification. Already they are being introduced into a number of processed foods as the most popular substitute for hydrogenated oils. Watch out, though, and wait. Interesterified fats may be better for our cholesterol, but they could be bad for our blood glucose."

"Trans fats weren't too good for it either. But in a study just published in Nutrition and Metabolism, Dr. K.C. Hayes of Brandeis University in Massachusetts and T. Karupaiah and Kalyana Sundram from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board discovered that while trans fat 'has a weak negative influence on blood glucose,' interesterified fat appears even worse in that regard, raising glucose 20 percent in a month."

Oh brother!

Sleeping Less, Enjoying it Less?

According to Travelodge's 2007 sleep study, only 3 percent of professionals get eight hours of sleep every night of the working week. Company directors are the most sleep-deprived of all, with 8 percent getting under four hours of rest per night. The survey included more than 5,200 individuals from 30 different careers to discover more about how work affects rest.

Those in the travel industry, such as cabin crew and pilots, found it hardest to get to sleep: 86% struggled with sleepless nights. Teachers were the most likely to stay awake because they were worrying about their work (39%). Some 86% of those employed in public relations or marketing said they got enough sleep, but according to the study that might be because 95% of them said they fell asleep on the sofa once they got home in from work!

The top 10 most sleep-deprived professions are:

* Company directors (averaging 5.9 hours of sleep a night)
* Ambulance crew/paramedics (6 hours)
* Tradesmen (6 hours)
* Leisure and hospitality workers (6 hours)
* Police officers (6.1 hours)

* Factory workers (6.2 hours)
* Nurses (6.3 hours)
* Engineers (6.3 hours)
* Doctors (6.4 hours)
* Civil servants (6.4 hours)

The Antithesis of Breathing Space

New in bookstores:

The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product That Defined America
by Allan M. Brandt

“Nearly 60 years after a link between smoking and cancer was first established, more people worldwide smoke cigarettes than ever before. Though smoking in America has decreased in recent decades, says Harvard Medical School professor Alan Brandt, a century of cigarette sales had already exacted a terrible toll. In the late 1990s, more Americans died of tobacco-related illnesses than the combined total of those who died from alcohol, AIDS, road accidents, fire, murder, suicide, and illegal drugs. And the future looks bright only for tobacco sellers. The World Health Organization estimates that 10 times as many people will die from using tobacco products this century as died during the last.”

Eat Poorly, Live Poorly

Nanci Hellmich writing in USA Today cites a study conducted for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicating that Americans are not eating enough fruits and vegetables:

“Despite mom's good advice, most of us aren't eating our fruits and vegetables, at least not enough of them, according to a large government study released Thursday. Only about 27% of adults in the USA ate vegetables three or more times a day in 2005, and 33% ate fruit two or more times a day that year. A higher percentage of women than men ate this much, according to interviews with more than 305,000 people conducted for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).”

Deluded by too much TV!

Study Finds Japanese Watch Most TV

The average level of television consumption increased on nearly every continent last year, but a new study has found that Japanese viewers watch more TV than anybody.

The report from Eurodata TV Worldwide, the focus of a panel discussion at the MIPTV convention in Cannes, also found Americans' daily dose of TV climbed by three minutes last year to an average of four hours and 28 minutes -- nearly 90 minutes above the world average.

The Japanese watched the most television last year, clocking in a daily average of five hours. Americans were second, followed by Argentinians and the Greeks, who consumed four hours and 25 minutes and four hours and four minutes, respectively. At 2 1/2 hours daily each, China and Sweden watched the least amount of television last year.

Even though dramas accounted for 46 percent of viewers' time overall, and made a comeback stateside, American fiction failed to dominate outside of the domestic marketplace as it has in years past.

The MIP conference heard that the Eurodata document reveals that 46 percent of viewing time was dedicated to drama, 36 percent to other entertainment categories (talk, comedy, and variety shows) and 18 percent to news. Additionally, in terms of new formats, NBC's "The Apprentice" appeared to have found the most purchase globally.

More Affluence, Less Happiness

Researcher Barry Schwartz observes that "Assessments of well-being by various social scientists, among them David Myers of Hope College and Robert Lane of Yale University, reveal that increased choice and increased affluence have, in fact, been accompanied by
decreased well-being in the U.S. and most other affluent societies. It seems that as a society, at least in recent years, grows wealthier and people become freer to do whatever they want, they get less happy."

Now It's Official: Time Flies

According to findings published in Scientific American, the human brain generates images faster when it experiences positive emotions. Time seems to "fly" when you're having fun! Conversely, the brain reduces the rate of image making during negative emotions. This may explain why misery seems to linger. So, Norman Vincent Peale was right all along: positive thinking is essential!