Emotions correspond to different sensations in the body

By Irada Yunusova

     Most people believe that emotions are felt by the heart, or the mind, or by both. However, recent research indicates that emotions are felt by the whole body. Sensations felt in the head, limbs, and chest vary by emotion, so different levels of sensations correspond to an individual's emotional state.

     In a recent Finnish study, 5 experiments were run in which participants from Finland, Sweden, and Taiwan were given outlines of a body and asked to color in the regions where they felt warmer or cooler in certain body parts in response to 13 emotions. After comparing the responses, researchers found that all 13 emotions, including anger, fear, surprise, happiness, and depression, were all very different. However, the patterns of color were consistent across participants from different cultures.

     The diagram above depicts the results of the study, where blue indicates diminished sensation and yellow indicates elevated sensation. Most individuals found that anger increased sensation in the limbs, while sadness decreased it. Happiness was unique in its ability to increase sensation in all parts of the body. So the cliche happy feeling "all over" or the butterflies in your stomach from love are actually accurate descriptions of a person's emotional state.

     The results of this study, gathered from healthy individuals, allows researchers to better grasp the mind-body link. It also encourages further study to understand the mind-body link's role in mood disorders, possibly providing another means of diagnosing psychological conditions. The meaningful findings in this study demonstrate how both scientists and individuals themselves can better understand the human body and it's emotions.

Source: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2013/12/31/emotions-body-mapping-finnish-study/4260281/

Unhealthy School Lunch, Televeision, and Video Games Contribute to Childhood Obesity

By Kellie McClain

With obesity becoming a rising issue in the United States, especially with our youngest generation, many parents wonder what might put their child at risk for obesity. According to recent findings on the increase in childhood obesity, the two main factors contributing to weight gain in middle-school children are the consumption of unhealthy foods during their school lunch and spending two or more hours per day watching television. Differences in diet and physical activity also effected the probability of weight loss and varied slightly according to gender. While girls who drank milk everyday were shown to be less likely to become obese because they would drink milk as a replacement for sugary beverages. Boys were at a lower risk when they were a part of an active sports team. 

Many researches believe that physical activity is more often replaced with time spent watching television or playing video games. General findings on common foods served in school cafeterias have discovered that such foods are low in nutrition and high in calories. Further research is currently being conducted on the likelihood of childhood obesity in order to better identify risk factors early on that may lead to obesity later in life and increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.

There are existing programs that work towards decreasing childhood obesity through awareness. Project Healthy Schools aims to accomplish this by teaching sixth grade children to engage in at least 150 minutes of exercise per week, eat more fruits and vegetables, eat fewer sugary drinks, and replace time spend in front of the computer or television with physical activity.

SOURCE: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/08/130812103006.htm