A Potpourri of Useful, Fun -- even Helpful -- Information

Flower Power:  Do you feel a lift when you're around flowers?  Well, you might not just be imagining things.  According to several experiments conducted at Kansas State University, just looking at flowers may reduce stress.  According to the research, people's response to flowers differs from their response to foliage-or to the absence of any plants at all.  In one experiment, among several, 90 female students were each randomly assigned to a simulated hospital room with flowers, green plants only, or no plants.  They were then asked to stick their hands into 32°F water, a standard way of testing pain tolerance and sensitivity.  The women in the flowered room not only were able to keep their hands in the cold water longer, but also reported feeling less pain.

The researchers think flowers may work their magic by eliciting positive emotions that hold our attention, distracting us from sources of stress.  So, it looks as though it really is worth it to take the time to stop and look at-and smell-the flowers.

Let Me Sleep on It takes on real meaning.  If you're struggling with a difficult problem, the familiar advice to "sleep on it" has some bone fide scientific support.  Researchers recruited 66 people to study whether sleep helps promote creative problem solving.  They taught the participants two simple rules to help them convert a string of eight numbers into a new pattern. A third rule that required additional insight and would improve performance was kept secret.  Some participants slept eight hours while the others were forced to stay awake-some during the day and others at night.  Those who slumbered were twice as likely as those who stayed awake to figure out the third rule and solve the problem.  So, sleep, my friends, perchance to dream.

Candles Are Causing More Fires,  accounting for 4% of all U.S. home fires in recent years (up from 1% in the early 1980s) and about 100 deaths a year, according to the National Fire Protection Association.  The main reason:  sales of candles skyrocketed in the 1990s. Forty percent of candle fires occur when burning candles are left unattended; half start in bedrooms. So, have your romantic bedside atmosphere, my friends,  but don't slip off to sleep until you blow out those candles.

Laughter is Universal and we don't need to be taught how to do it.  Babies gurgle with laughter by about four months of age, sometimes earlier-evoking laughter in all who hear them.  Laughter reduces tension, clears the mind, and lifts the spirits.

The study of humor and its effects on the human body is called, gelotology.  A decade ago, researchers found that besides increasing heart rates and hormone production, laughter also improves muscle tone and circulation. Now neurologists at Stanford University have discovered another reason why laughter makes us feel good.  They monitored the brain activity of people reading funny cartoons and found that humor and laughter triggered the brain's "reward centers."  These are the same areas activated by cocaine and amphetamines.  Perhaps that's why laughter is habit forming.   And it's legal.

Are you Laboring Over Which Color New Car to Buy?  Consider Silver!  Not only is it a very popular color these days, it's also the safest, according to researchers from New Zealand, reporting in the British Medical Journal.  Their study found that occupants of silver cars had about half the risk of serious injury from crashes compared to white, blue, red or yellow cars, after considering factors such as age of driver, sex, alcohol consumption, time of day, and weather.  Brown and black cars were about four times as risky as silver.  Presumably, silver cars are the most visible; black and brown ones, the least.

What is the Simplest, Most Popular Hand Tool Ever Invented, and used by about 1.5 billion people daily? Chopsticks.  China alone produces 50 billion pairs of wooden chopsticks a year.  There's no health benefit to eating with them instead of a knife and fork, unless perhaps that they enable you to avoid some of the fat in a sauce, or make you eat more slowly, but they are wonderfully adapted to Asian cuisines, where foods are usually chopped in small pieces. Chopsticks are a brilliant adaptation of the lever principle: you hold one immobile in the "crotch" of your hand, where the thumb joins the palm, bracing it against the ring finger, while working the moveable chopstick with the middle finger, index finger, and thumb.  Studies of chopsticks have found that 9-inch chopsticks are optimal for adults, 7- inch sticks for children.  And squared sticks are easier to use than round ones.

Don't Microwave an Egg in its Shell, not even to reheat a hard-boiled egg.  Pressure can build up inside, causing the egg to explode in the oven-or even worse, after you take it out, in which case it can cause burns and serious eye injury.  Piercing the shell before heating may not prevent an egg from exploding.  Break the egg into a small bowl or cup before microwaving; it's also a good idea to pierce the yolk, so it won't burst.

It is Safe to Eat the Dark "Vein" Running Down the Back of Shrimp.  It is actually a tiny intestinal tube.  In large shrimp, it can be a little gritty, and most cooks prefer to remove it.  But if the shrimp have been cooked, eating the vein won't harm you.  In fact, some Southern shrimp eaters believe it actually enhances flavor.

Know How to do the Self-administered Heimlich maneuver, in case you start choking on food when no one is around to help.  Make a fist and place the thumb side against your abdomen, slightly above the navel.  With the other hand, grasp the fist and press it in and upward with quick, sharp thrusts.  Another method:  press your abdomen (just below the ribs) forcefully against the back of a chair, table, sink, or railing.  Repeat until air is forced through the airway and the food is expelled.

Pill Splitting Can Save Money, but Some Drugs should not be Split.  A pill that contains double the dose you take may cost only a little more than your prescribed dose.  Buying double doses and then splitting the pill can thus cut the cost nearly in half.  However, drugs that require precise doses should not be split.  Pills often split in very unequal halves, even if you use a special pill splitter.  The smaller piece may be ineffective; the larger one may cause more side effects.  Capsules, enteric-coated pills, and time-release drugs should not be split.

Generic Drugs in the U.S. are often Cheaper than both Canadian Brand-name and Canadian Generic Drugs, according to a FDA study.  Generics account for nearly half of all U.S. prescriptions, and the researchers looked at the seven biggest sellers.  For six of the seven drugs, the U.S. generics were cheaper than the Canadian brand names and their generics.  By law, generics must have the same quality and safety as brand-name drugs.

Ear Wax Buildup.  One major problem with hearing is the buildup of wax in the ear canal.  The ear is normally a self-cleaning mechanism.  The skin grows outward from the eardrum to the outer canal.  The fine hairs gently and constantly move dry particles of wax, and sloughed skin out of the canal.  Many individuals have a buildup of the wax and skin inside the canal.  If not cleaned out, the eardrum can become completely blocked, greatly reducing hearing and eventually causing permanent damage.

One cause of excessive wax buildup is the use of cotton swabs to clean the canal.  The cotton swab is larger than the canal and many times you will be pushing wax deep into the canal, until it is completely blocked.

The best way to maintain a healthy and clean ear canal is to use a few drops of pure apple cider vinegar.  Just use an eye dropper to place two or three drops in your ears, a couple times a week.  You can also flush out the canal using warm water in a rubber syringe.