The Healthiest Emotion May be AWE

Photo credit: Satterwhite.B / Foter / CC BY

There is lots of research about the adverse health effects of negative feelings such as depression, anxiety and shame: more heart disease, cancer and premature death. But less is known about how certain cheerier emotions affect overall health, feelings like contentment, joy or pride.

To delve deeper into happier feelings, researchers at the University of California at Berkeley and other schools looked first at a variety of positive and negative emotions in 94 Berkeley freshmen. They filled out questionnaires about how frequently during the previous month they had experienced everything from enthusiasm and inspiration to hostility.

Next they analyzed saliva samples from the students, looking for the amount of interleukin-6 (IL-6) present. This is a molecule associated with inflammation and poor health. As expected, the IL-6 levels correlated with the emotions: students with positive emotions had the lowest levels and the converse was true for those with more negative feelings.

In the next step the investigators had 119 students fill out questionnaires about seven positive emotions: amusement, awe, compassion, contentment, joy, love and pride. Again they examined saliva levels. It turned out that the more often a student recorded feeling a sense of awe, the lower the IL-6. The students reported experiencing awe three or more times a week.

“There seems to be something about awe,” said Dacher Keltner PhD, senior author of the study and director of the Greater Good Science Center at Berkeley. “It seems to have a pronounced impact on markers related to inflammation.”

Keltner said that an awe-inspiring event “will pass the goose-bumps test.” Awe is different for each person. “Some people feel awe listening to music,” Dr. Keltner says, “others watching a sunset or attending a political rally or seeing kids play.”

The study was published in the January 2015 edition of the journal Emotion.

Avocado Salsa, Low on Sodium but High in Flavor!

Pathways is starting a recipe of the month post on our blog to promote a healthy living lifestyle. Each month will feature an original healthy recipe from our employees. To start us off, I am presenting a recipe titled "Señora's Avocado Salsa".

You will need the following ingredients:

1 package (16 oz) frozen corn, thawed
1 can (15 oz) black beans (look for low sodium)
1 medium sweet red pepper, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 bunch cilantro, finely chopped
3 fresh tomatoes, chopped
3 garlic cloves, diced
1/4 cup lime juice
3 tablespoons cider or white vinegar
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon or less salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
4 medium ripe avocados

In a large bowl, combine corn, black beans, red pepper, onion, cilantro and tomatoes. In a small bowl, whisk together the garlic, lime juice, vinegar, oregano, salt and pepper.

Mix well. Pour over corn mixture and toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Just before serving, chop avocados and stir into salsa. Serve with low sodium tortilla chips or as a side dish. Yield about 7 cups. Tip - if you place the avocado pit into the salsa, the avocados won't turn brown.

This is delicious. I was hesitant about a salsa with no spicy peppers in it, but this is really tasty. I tried it in tacos and it's great because you also get all the healthy benefits of the tasty veggies in the salsa. Next time I would add a bit less garlic because it was really strong, but that depends on your preference. I also added green onions because I prefer them in my salsa instead of a regular onion.

By Mandi Cacioppo, Sr. Marketing & Communications Coordinator at Pathways Home Health and Hospice. Recipe credit goes to my cousin Lynn Fors.

Benefits of Dogs

Healthier Living

Most people know that people who own dogs live longer, have lower blood pressure, less anxiety and better immune systems.  They also have more social interactions, Alzheimer’s patients with dogs in the home have fewer outbursts and men with dogs have lower triglycerides and cholesterol.  These are the scientific conclusions of research about family pets that can be easily found. 

But there are even more benefits and some of them are pretty astounding.  Dogs are being trained to assist in the medical field.  For instance, dogs can be trained to sniff out low blood sugar in diabetics, picking up odors beyond human capacity.  Dogs can also be taught to prod the diabetic with a cold nose, fetch a blood glucose testing equipment or press a phone button that calls 911.

It could be scent or it could be a subtle change in behavior, but some dogs are able to sense a seizure coming on as much as 30 minutes before it occurs.  This means the dog may be able to alert the person, go for help, move objects out of the way and lay down next the person during the seizure.

More and more people with post traumatic stress disorders, such as soldiers returning from war zones, are benefiting from dogs as companions because they can they can ease anxiety in a number of ways.

Dogs also have the remarkable ability to detect certain kinds of cancers.  One example is being able to reveal the presence of bladder or prostate cancer cells in urine.  Some researchers have shown that dogs can recognize lung and breast cancers by smelling the patient’s breath, and they can spot melanoma by licking a person’s skin.

A dog’s brain may be only one tenth the size of a human’s, but his nose more than makes up for it: dogs have 40 times as many scent receptors as humans.  It is truer than ever that dogs really are man’s best friend. 

References: My Health News Daily; Web MD.

This article was originally published in Pathways Residential Care Journal - Issue 4.  To download this issue in PDF format, or past issues, visit our newsletter archives online at www.pathwayshealth.org/publications.