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If you are hoping to make the world a better place, you might want to stock up on citrus-scented Windex. Apparantly, the fresh smell brings out the best in people. In fact, researchers have found a dramatic improvement in ethical behavior when people spend time in a room freshly spritzed with the citrus-scented cleaner. The study, titled, "The Smell of Virtue," was unusually Read more...

We live in a youth-obsessed society, where knowing that Miley Cyrus has achieved international stardom and success -- and she was born in 1992 -- can make us feel like our most precious years are slipping away. But growing old is not something to fear. Recently, The New York Times published a piece called "6 Reasons To Grow Old," based on advice from Joshua O. Haberman, a Read more...

Almost inevitably, you’ve all but deserted your New Year’s resolutions -- more sex, less bickering, more patience. But your marriage is still on the rocks. According to married co-authors of Eight Lessons for a Happier Marriage, one of these seven deadly habits may be to blame. 1. Criticizing You're wearing that to dinner? You lost another client? Do your love handles really need Read more...

Here's a good news bad news story. In the past two decades heart attacks have become more common in middle-aged women (bad news), but since 1994, the risk of women dying from heart attacks has decreased (good news). These findings, from two studies, were just published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. To track heart attack rates, researchers, led by Amytis Towfighi, M.D, of the Read more...

In the past 20 years, since screening for breast and prostate cancer has become routine, detection and treatment has skyrocketed. That's a good thing, right? Not necessarily, say the authors of an opinion piece published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). After two decades of screening, the overall rates for both cancers has almost doubled, many more Read more...

If you want to stay healthy after retirement, keep working. Researchers have found that people who transition from full-time employment to full-time retirement with part-time work, experience fewer major diseases and are able to function better day-to-day then those who quit the workforce cold turkey.  The findings, published in the October issue of the Journal of Occupational Health Read more...

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away - Antoine de Saint Exupery Most productivity blogs and books will teach you how to do more, to get more done, to be more productive. I want to teach you to do less, to get less done, to be less productive. Doing less is not about being lazy (though being lazy is a good start) -- it's Read more...

What does breast tenderness have to do with breast cancer? That's a question researchers are asking themselves after a study found that women who experienced breast tenderness after starting HRT had a 48 percent higher risk of invasive breast cancer then women who didn't experience hormone therapy-related tenderness. The study, published in the October 12th issue of the Archives of Internal Read more...

While politicians and pundits raise the heat and prolong the debate on health care reform, perhaps they should consider this: Nearly 45,000 deaths a year are associated with lack of health insurance, according to a new study published online by The American Journal of Public Health. That's one American dying every twelve minutes. The study, conducted at Harvard Medical School and Cambridge Read more...

A stress-free life? Impossible. Stress is a response to challenges in life, and a life without challenge is too boring to contemplate. However, most of the stress in our lives is unnecessary, and it can be eliminated by taking some simple (and some not-so-simple) steps. It can't be accomplished overnight -but each step you take toward stress-relief is a step toward better health. 1. Read more...