Pain Killer Turns Evil

FROM HEADACHE TO ASTHMA? » A new survey by the CDC reveals that popping paracetamol more than six times a month increases the risk of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). One explanation: paracetamol lowers levels of glutathione, an antioxidant found in lung tissue.

Make Friends For Life

KEYTO LONGEVITY » If you want to live longer in old age, hang out with your friends instead of your family. That’s what not to say that spending time with your family is bad, but contact only or mostly with your family, even close contact, won’t lengthen your life the way time with friends will. That’s what the Australian Longitudinal Study of Aging (ALSA) has found.

The study began in 1992, and monitored 1500 people for 10 years. Taking into account factors like money, social status, overall health, and lifestyle, researchers found that close contact with family members has little effect on survival rates, but the more contact people had with a network of friends and confidants, the longer they lived. The difference was significant, and the researchers speculate that friends may be more important than family in the maintenance of mood and optimism, sel-esteem, and coping mechanisms. That feeling of connection to a friends and peers may not only have mental benefits – it may bolster the body physiologically too.