Wellnews by Scott LaFee

Your facial expressions may help people read you like a book, revealing your inner thoughts and feelings, but it turns out your face's expressivity also affects your ability to understand written language as it relates to emotions.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison conducted a study with 40 volunteers before and after they had undergone injections of Botox, a powerful nerve poison used to deactivate muscles in the forehead that cause frowning. They found that the inability to frown caused participants to be less able to understand negative emotions.

Specifically, the participants were asked to read a series of statements that were angry, sad or happy, and push a button when they finished reading each statement — an indication they comprehended the sentence's meaning. The results showed no change in the time needed to understand the happy sentences, but after Botox treatment, subjects took more time to read the angry and sad sentences. Although the time difference was small, it was significant, study author David Havas said. And it could not be attributed to changes in the participants' moods.

"There is a long-standing idea in psychology called the facial feedback hypothesis," Havas said. "Essentially, it says when you're smiling, the whole world smiles with you. It's an old song, but it's right. This study suggests the opposite: When you're not frowning, the world seems less angry and less sad."

BEST MEDICINE

Question: Did you hear about the dyslexic, agnostic, insomniac?

Answer: He lay awake at night wondering if there really was a dog.

OBSERVATION

A man's illness is his private territory, and no matter how much he loves you and how close you are, you stay an outsider.

You are healthy.

— Actress Lauren Bacall

LIFE IN BIG MACS

One hour of making beds burns 136 calories (based on a 150-pound person), or the equivalent of one-fifth of a Big Mac with cheese.

SLEEP ON IT

A paper in the journal Sleep reports the average, healthy older adult (ages 66 to 83) sleeps 20 minutes less a night than middle-aged adults (40-55) who, in turn, sleep 23 minutes less than young adults (20-30). The mean total sleep time for a young adult was 7 hours, 13 minutes.

GET ME THAT. STAT!

Between 13 percent and 16 percent of women giving birth to their first child experience postpartum depression, according to a study by researchers at the University of Stavanger in Norway. The percentage rises to 30 percent to 40 percent for women giving birth to a second child.

MEDTRONICA

Visible Body

visiblebody.com

The site isn't free, but if you're willing to pay the subscription price ($35.95 for a year), the interactive, animated exploration of every aspect of the human body (bones, nerves, muscle, flesh and more) may be well worth it.

LAST WORDS

I believe we should adjourn this meeting to another place.

— Scottish political economist Adam Smith (1723-90)

To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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