New research shows how long, hard and often you need to stretch to improve your flexibility

Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels Lewis Ingram, University of South Australia; Grant R. Tomkinson, University of South Australia, and Hunter Bennett, University of South Australia

Can you reach down and touch your toes without bending your knees? Can you reach both arms overhead? If these sound like a struggle, you may be lacking flexibility.

Flexibility is the ability to move a joint to through its full range of motion. It helps you perform most sporting activities and may prevent muscle injuries. And because most daily activities require a certain amount of flexibility (like bending down or twisting), it will help you maintain functional independence as you age.

Although there are many types of stretching, static stretching is the most common. It involves positioning a joint to lengthen the muscles and holding still for a set period – usually between 15 and 60 seconds. An example would be to stand in front of a chair, placing one foot on the chair and straightening your knee to stretch your hamstrings.

Static stretching is widely used to improve flexibility. But there are no clear recommendations on the optimal amount required. Our new research examined how long, how hard and how often you need to stretch to improve your flexibility – it’s probably less than you expect.

Static stretching means positioning and lengthening muscles while holding still. Cliff Booth/Pexels

Assessing the data

Our research team spent the past year gathering data from hundreds of studies on thousands of adults from around the world. We looked at 189 studies of more than 6,500 adults.

The studies compared the effects of a single session or multiple sessions of static stretching on one or more flexibility outcomes, compared to those who didn’t stretch.

How long?

We found holding a stretch for around four minutes (cumulatively) in a single session is optimal for an immediate improvement in flexibility. Any longer and you don’t appear to get any more improvement.

For permanent improvements in flexibility, it looks like you need to stretch a muscle for longer – around ten minutes per week for the biggest improvement. But this doesn’t need to occur all at once.

How hard?

You can think of stretching as being hard, when you stretch into pain, or easy, when the stretch you feel isn’t uncomfortable.

The good news is how hard you stretch doesn’t seem to matter – both hard (stretching to the point of discomfort or pain) and easy stretching (stretching below the point of discomfort) equally improve flexibility.

Stretching doesn’t have to feel uncomfortable. Valeria Ushakova/Pexels

How often?

If you are looking to improve your flexibility, it doesn’t matter how often you stretch each week. What is important is that you aim for up to ten minutes per week for each muscle that you stretch.

So, for example, you could stretch each muscle for a little more than one minute a day, or five minutes twice a week.

The amount of time you should spend stretching will ultimately depend on how many muscles you need to stretch. If you are less flexible, you will likely need to dedicate more time, given you’ll have more “tight” muscles to stretch compared to someone more flexible.

Can everyone improve their flexibility?

Encouragingly, it doesn’t matter what muscle you stretch, how old you are, your sex, or whether you are a couch potato or an elite athlete – everyone can improve their flexibility.

Static stretching can be done anywhere and at any time. And you don’t need any equipment. You can stretch while watching your favourite TV show, when in the office, or after walking the dog to help you relax. It’s a great way to start and end your day.

You can stretch anywhere, at any time. Shutterstock

Although the exact stretches needed will depend on which muscles are “tight”, examples of some very common stretches include:

• placing one foot upon on bench and leaning forward at the waist while keeping your knee straight to stretch your hamstrings
• bending your knee and holding your ankle against your buttock to stretch your quadriceps muscles
• reaching one arm while bending your elbow to stretch your triceps muscles.

However, the best advice is to visit a qualified health professional, such as a physiotherapist or exercise physiologist, who can perform an assessment and prescribe you a list of stretches specific to your individual needs.

As you can see, it really isn’t too much of a stretch to become more flexible.

Lewis Ingram, Lecturer in Physiotherapy, University of South Australia; Grant R. Tomkinson, Professor of Exercise and Sport Science, University of South Australia, and Hunter Bennett, Lecturer in Exercise Science, University of South Australia

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Researchers Discover 200-year-old Message in a Bottle: A ‘Magic Moment’

credit – Guillaume Blondel, Archaeological Service of the City of Eu

A team of student archaeologists in France received an amazing surprise while working on a site dating to Gaulic times.

Carried out under the direction of Guillaume Blondel, director of the municipal archaeological service of the city of Eu, the excavations delivered, among other things, a moving and very special testimony from the past.

Located in a previously investigated section of the site, a message was discovered in a small glass bottle from the 19th century accompanied by two coins: a “time capsule” buried almost 200 years ago, a statement from the service read.

“P. J. Féret, a native of Dieppe, member of various intellectual societies, carried out excavations here in January 1825. He continues his investigations in this vast area known as the Cité de Limes or Caesar’s Camp.”

The message in a bottle had been carefully placed in a ceramic pot dating to a much earlier century so that future archaeologists would be sure to find it.

“It was an absolutely magic moment,” Mr. Blondel told the BBC. “We knew there had been excavations here in the past, but to find this message from 200 years ago… it was a total surprise.”

credit – Guillaume Blondel, Archaeological Service of the City of Eu

“Sometimes you see these time capsules left behind by carpenters when they build houses. But it’s very rare in archaeology. Most archaeologists prefer to think that there won’t be anyone coming after them because they’ve done all the work!”

Local archives indeed place P. J. Féret in the area as a historical excavator at the time the letter was dated.

credit – Guillaume Blondel, Archaeological Service of the City of Eu

The work was funded and carried out in partnership with the Regional Archaeology Service to preserve archaeological sites that are endangered with the decline of the coastline. Already a part of the ‘oppidum’ or fortified Gaulic camp, has fallen away with the crumbling of the coastal hillside on which it was perched.

The Gauls were a series of interconnected feudal (at best) and tribal (at worst) societies that shared societal, cultural, and warrior practices, and who inhabited most of central and western Europe during the time of the Roman Republic.

Gaius Julius Caesar waged a campaign to pacify Gaul, hence the name “Caesar’s Camp,” which brough Spain, France, and Belgium, under Roman control. Researchers Discover 200-year-old Message in a Bottle: A ‘Magic Moment’

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Do you have a mental illness? Why some people answer ‘yes’, even if they haven’t been diagnosed

Olly/Pexels, Jesse Tse, The University of Melbourne and Nick Haslam, The University of Melbourne

Mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety disorders have become more prevalent, especially among young people. Demand for treatment is surging and prescriptions of some psychiatric medications have climbed.

These upswinging prevalence trends are paralleled by rising public attention to mental illness. Mental health messages saturate traditional and social media. Organisations and governments are developing awareness, prevention and treatment initiatives with growing urgency.

The mounting cultural focus on mental health has obvious benefits. It increases awareness, reduces stigma and promotes help-seeking.

However, it may also have costs. Critics worry social media sites are incubating mental illness and that ordinary unhappiness is being pathologised by the overuse of diagnostic concepts and “therapy speak”.

British psychologist Lucy Foulkes argues the trends for rising attention and prevalence are linked. Her “prevalence inflation hypothesis” proposes that increasing awareness of mental illness may lead some people to diagnose themselves inaccurately when they are experiencing relatively mild or transient problems.

Foulkes’ hypothesis implies that some people develop overly broad concepts of mental illness. Our research supports this view. In a new study, we show that concepts of mental illness have broadened in recent years – a phenomenon we call “concept creep” – and that people differ in the breadth of their concepts of mental illness.

Why do people self-diagnose mental illnesses?

In our new study, we examined whether people with broad concepts of mental illness are, in fact, more likely to self-diagnose.

We defined self-diagnosis as a person’s belief they have an illness, whether or not they have received the diagnosis from a professional. We assessed people as having a “broad concept of mental illness” if they judged a wide variety of experiences and behaviours to be disorders, including relatively mild conditions.

We asked a nationally representative sample of 474 American adults if they believed they had a mental disorder and if they had received a diagnosis from a health professional. We also asked about other possible contributing factors and demographics.

Mental illness was common in our sample: 42% reported they had a current self-diagnosed condition, a majority of whom had received it from a health professional.

People with greater mental health literacy and less stigmatising attitudes were more likely to report a diagnosis. Mental Health America/Pexels

Unsurprisingly, the strongest predictor of reporting a diagnosis was experiencing relatively severe distress.

The second most important factor after distress was having a broad concept of mental illness. When their levels of distress were the same, people with broad concepts were substantially more likely to report a current diagnosis.

The graph below illustrates this effect. It divides the sample by levels of distress and shows the proportion of people at each level who report a current diagnosis. People with broad concepts of mental illness (the highest quarter of the sample) are represented by the dark blue line. People with narrow concepts of mental illness (the lowest quarter of the sample) are represented by the light blue line. People with broad concepts were much more likely to report having a mental illness, especially when their distress was relatively high.

People with greater mental health literacy and less stigmatising attitudes were also more likely to report a diagnosis.

Two interesting further findings emerged from our study. People who self-diagnosed but had not received a professional diagnosis tended to have broader illness concepts than those who had.

In addition, younger and politically progressive people were more likely to report a diagnosis, consistent with some previous research, and held broader concepts of mental illness. Their tendency to hold these more expansive concepts partially explained their higher rates of diagnosis.

Why does it matter?

Our findings support the idea that expansive concepts of mental illness promote self-diagnosis and may thereby increase the apparent prevalence of mental ill health. People who have a lower threshold for defining distress as a disorder are more likely to identify themselves as having a mental illness.

Our findings do not directly show that people with broad concepts over-diagnose or those with narrow concepts under-diagnose. Nor do they prove that having broad concepts causes self-diagnosis or results in actual increases in mental illness. Nevertheless, the findings raise important concerns.

First, they suggest that rising mental health awareness may come at a cost. In addition to boosting mental health literacy it may increase the likelihood of people incorrectly identifying their problems as pathologies.

Inappropriate self-diagnosis can have adverse effects. Diagnostic labels may become identity-defining and self-limiting, as people come to believe their problems are enduring, hard-to-control aspects of who they are.

Some people may incorrectly identify their problems as a mental illness. Karolina Grabowska/Pexels

Second, unwarranted self-diagnosis may lead people experiencing relatively mild levels of distress to seek help that is unnecessary, inappropriate and ineffective. Recent Australian research found people with relatively mild distress who received psychotherapy worsened more often than they improved.

Third, these effects may be particularly problematic for young people. They are most liable to hold broad concepts of mental illness, in part due to social media consumption, and they experience mental ill health at relatively high and rising rates. Whether expansive concepts of illness play a role in the youth mental health crisis remains to be seen.

Ongoing cultural shifts are fostering increasingly expansive definitions of mental illness. These shifts are likely to have mixed blessings. By normalising mental illness they may help to remove its stigma. However, by pathologising some forms of everyday distress, they may have an unintended downside.

As we wrestle with the mental health crisis, it is crucial we find ways to increase awareness of mental ill health without inadvertently inflating it.

Jesse Tse, PhD Candidate at Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne and Nick Haslam, Professor of Psychology, The University of Melbourne

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Researchers link hot weather with increased headaches for people with migraines

New Delhi, (IANS) Scientists have found a link between increased headaches and hot temperatures for individuals with migraines, saying that as temperatures rise, so do chances for migraine attacks.

Weather change is one of the most common trigger factors for migraine, said Vincent Martin, director of the Headache and Facial Pain Center at the US-based University of Cincinnati.

The study looked at the use of Fremanezumab drug and whether it could prevent headaches caused by high temperatures.

Fremanezumab is administered by injection under the skin and is part of a set of monoclonal antibodies that have hit the market in the past six years to treat migraine in patients.

Researchers cross-referenced 71,030 daily diary records of 660 migraine patients with regional weather data and found that for every temperature increase of 0.12 degrees Celsius, there was a 6 per cent increase in the occurrence of any headache.

However, during the periods of Fremanezumab treatment, the association completely disappeared.

"This study is the first to suggest that migraine-specific therapies that block Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide (CGRP) may treat weather-associated headaches," said Fred Cohen, a study co-author and assistant professor of medicine at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.

If the results are confirmed in future studies, the drug therapy has the potential to help many people with weather-triggered migraine.

Hippocrates, the father of medicine, believed that weather and medicine were intimately linked.

"A couple thousand of years later, we are proving that weather matters in human health," said Al Peterlin, who retired as chief meteorologist at the US Department of Agriculture and co-author of the study.The findings from the study were set to be presented at the American Headache Society's 66th annual scientific meeting in San Diego, California, over the weekend. Researchers link hot weather with increased headaches for people with migraines | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com

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Excessive screen time can affect reasoning skills in young children

London, (IANS) Young children who spend more time using computer and other such devices are likely to have poor reasoning skills, that is crucial for learning, academic performance, and everyday problem-solving, according to a study.

The study from University of Eastern Finland found improved overall diet quality and reduced consumption of red meat, as well as increased time spent in reading and organised sports enhanced reasoning skills among children over the first two school years.

On the other hand, excessive time spent on a computer and unsupervised leisure-time physical activity were associated with poorer reasoning skills.

Screen time, active school transportation, recess physical activity, and physical activity intensity were also not associated with reasoning skills.

"Children with healthier eating habits showed greater cognitive development than other children. Specifically, better overall diet quality, lower red meat consumption, and higher low-fat dairy product intake were linked to better reasoning skills," said doctoral researcher Sehrish Naveed from the varsity.

Published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, the study examined the effects of a two-year diet and physical activity intervention on cognition among 397 Finnish elementary school children.

The associations of dietary factors, physical activity, and sedentary behaviour with cognition over two years were also studied.

The analyses considered parental education and income as well as children's body fat percentage and maturity level. "In the lives of growing children, diet and physical activity intervention is just one factor influencing lifestyle and reasoning skills. Based on our study, investing in a healthy diet and encouraging children to read are beneficial for the development of reasoning skills among children. Additionally, engaging in organised sports appears to support reasoning skills," said Eero Haapala from the varsity. Excessive screen time can affect reasoning skills in young children | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com

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Romantic breakups can spark severe trauma in young people – new study

Alberta SJ van der Watt, Stellenbosch University

What should I study? What do I want to be? How will I pay for my education? Who do I want to spend the rest of my life with? These are the life-changing decisions many young people face.

Emerging adulthood (between the ages of 18 and 25 years) is a critical stage in the life course, especially for identity development. Emerging adults are neither dependent adolescents nor independent adults. It is a time of exploration and frequent change.

And all this is happening while their brains are still developing, especially in areas associated with higher cognitive and emotional functioning. This functioning helps an individual plan, monitor and successfully execute their goals.

Amid all these important life choices, romantic relationship breakups can be devastating. After a breakup people may experience poorer academic performance, intrusive thoughts of the ex-partner and intense grief, and can even attempt suicide.

Yet, breakups among emerging adults are often dismissed or trivialised as a rite of passage. A trauma response is shrugged off as exaggerated or overblown.

Added to this, the psychiatric literature does not see breakups as potentially traumatic events.

As a mental health researcher with experience in romantic attachment and trauma research, I co-authored a paper exploring romantic relationship breakups as potentially traumatic events among university students. The research aimed to investigate whether their experiences fitted the official psychiatric diagnosis of post-traumatic stress.

Identifying potential trauma following a breakup could help young adults get appropriate treatment and support.

When the romantic attachment figure is no longer there

In several studies we tested the idea that breakups can be deemed a potentially traumatic event based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual 5th Edition (DSM-5) definition. Mental healthcare providers use the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual as a guide to diagnose patients with, for example, post-traumatic stress disorder.

A diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder is based on various criteria, including Criterion A: exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence. Criterion A acts as the “gatekeeper” to this diagnosis.

Asking the questions

Based on their self-reported responses on the Post-traumatic Stress Checklist for DSM-5, our participants fell into three groups:

Group one (breakup group): 886 participants who endorsed post-traumatic stress symptoms based on their most traumatic breakup.

Group two (trauma group): 592 participants who endorsed post-traumatic stress symptoms based on a DSM-5-defined traumatic event (for example physical and sexual assault).

Group three (control group): 544 participants who endorsed post-traumatic stress symptoms based on their most stressful experience (for example relocating homes or a parental divorce).

We found breakup participants, those in Group One, reported significantly more post-traumatic stress symptoms, such as flashbacks, recurring memories, and nightmares about their former partner, than both the other two groups.

Looking at the brain

After the questionnaire, a subset of students from each of the three groups completed brain scans so we could see which brain areas were activated in response to specific stimuli.

During the scans, they rated images as positive, negative, or neutral.

• 36 participants from Group One (breakup group), rated photos of their ex-partners

• 15 participants from Group Two (trauma group), who specifically indicated physical or sexual assault as their most traumatic event, rated photos of physical or sexual assault

• 28 participants from Group Three (control group) rated general negative images (such as children playing in polluted water). These photographs were part of the International Affective Picture system, widely used in studies of human emotion.

We analysed the brain activation (increased blood flow) of the amygdala and hippocampus within the temporal lobe. These regions of the brain are associated with post-traumatic stress disorder and form part of the fear-based limbic system that is part of our “fight or flight” system. They have also been linked to real and imagined romantic attachment rejection.

We found similar activation levels in the amygdala and hippocampus when breakup group participants rated images of their ex-partners to when trauma group participants rated images of physical and sexual assault.

Sex, religion, and other factors

Thirdly, we focused on the breakup participants only. We found that their emotional response to the breakup was influenced by:

• demographic characteristics such as sex, sexual orientation and religion. Specifically, participants with a minority sexual orientation and who reported not being religious reported higher levels of breakup distress.

• characteristics of the breakup such as the perceived closeness of the relationship and reasons for the breakup.

Moving forward

The combined results support our hypothesis that romantic breakups can be potentially traumatic events for emerging adults and may be experienced as life-threatening.

Validating experiences of breakups as potentially traumatic may cushion their negative impacts, encourage emerging adults to seek help, and promote mental health.

Mental healthcare providers and student counselling services should recognise the possible intensity of breakups and consider screening for post-traumatic stress symptoms following a breakup.

Trauma-focused treatment, such as prolonged exposure therapy, may help students, especially those who cannot avoid breakup-related cues such as seeing their former partners in class or on social media.

Since romantic breakups are not considered traumatic events within the psychiatric literature, our findings are controversial, and we do not claim that all breakups are necessarily traumatic.

More research must be done, especially with a more diverse set of students and a larger sample size for the brain scans.

• I acknowledge the contributions of Prof S Seedat, Prof E Lesch, Dr A Roos, Prof Kidd, and Prof S du Plessis to my research.

Alberta SJ van der Watt, Researcher, Stellenbosch University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Playing Team Sports At School Helps You Get Ahead In The Workplace

New research from cricket apparel range, Maiden (www.maiden-cricket.com) has found that playing competitive sports when young has helped British workers later in life as they face the challenges of the modern-day workplace. When asked if it has made them a better team player, 69% of people thought so – that was 69% of men and 56% of women. Two-thirds (63%) of people believe that sports have helped them in the workplace, teaching them key skills of teamwork (64%), competitiveness (49%), respect (37%) and resilience (37%). 39% of British people also believe that playing sports when young instil good health and fitness habits later on in life.

Despite these positive stats and 70% of girls saying they enjoy playing sport, a third (36%)[1] are put off at school because of the limited ill-fitting sportswear available to them. A quarter (25%) of girls today say this sportswear makes them feel self-conscious, while nearly half of women (44%) say they wouldn’t wear kit if it was uncomfortable, not fit for purpose for their time of the month (35%) or if sweat marks show easily (27%).

The fact that so little attention has historically been given to girls’ sports clothing could be affecting the talent pipeline of women in the workplace. With girls dropping out of sports at an early age, they lose all the benefits that sports teach that can then be transferred to the workplace, encouraging more women at senior positions.

Suzy Levy, Author of Mind the Inclusion Gap and Managing Director at The Red Plate says: “The benefits of keeping young girls in sport last well beyond the team or the trophy. Sport develops skills which last a lifetime. Having brands like Maiden, who recognise the positive impact that sports kit purposefully designed for and by women and girls, is important for inclusion.”

In the girls’ cricket world, Honor (16) and Cat (15) Black are tackling the issue. They are fed up with having to wear uncomfortable and ill-fitting cricket clothes made solely for boys when playing their game for the last eight years so came up with Maiden Cricket Clothing which launched in March 2024. Their range aims to empower, inspire and redefine the game for young female cricketers aged eight to 18. The designs are meticulously crafted to girls’ unique needs – both in terms of function and fashion, encouraging them to feel, look and play their best.

Maiden Founder, Honor Black (16) says: “Playing Cricket was all I wanted to do at school, it’s a brilliant strategic game and team sport. It’s so motivating to hear that playing competitive sports puts you in good stead for the future. However, why do girls have to wear ill-fitting kit, feel self-conscious and distracted when really the focus should be on the game and team performance? We created Maiden to show girls that it doesn’t need to be this way; you can look good and play your best in kit that is tailored for girls. We want to encourage more young people into the sport to experience the huge benefits that it brings – creating camaraderie, teaching you resilience, and improving your mental health which is so important for young people today.

“We want to also champion girls’ cricket from when someone discovers the game at school or through their community. If we can build a bigger and stronger community, this will empower current players and others for the future. We have had an overwhelming response since we launched six weeks ago, with over 150 applications for The Maiden Rising Stars Programme, telling us their stories and why they want to be part of the Maiden Mission. Our mission is to make sure girls are seen equal to boys in schools when it comes to PE and Sports – which will then filter through to the workplace. We need to all work together to encourage the next generation of sporting heroes.”Maiden launched in March 2024 and has so far received rave reviews with many saying that a change in girls’ cricket ware hasn’t come soon enough. They have created a Rising Stars partnerships programme, celebrating up and coming cricketing talent in the UK and have received hundreds of applications – showing a real love of the sport. Playing Team Sports At School Helps You Get Ahead In The Workplace - HR News

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The unique toll of stress and depression on women’s hearts

Heart_dreamstime_m_34545146

• Dianne Travis-Teague remembers clutching her chest as she navigated the chaos of a crowded hospital parking lot, searching for a space amid the throng of vehicles. For weeks a clinic in her hometown of Santa Barbara had been telling her the chest pain was merely the result of anxiety or indigestion.
• At the emergency room, doctors quickly discovered that the two-time breast cancer survivor was having a heart attack. Surgery to unblock her arteries saved her life, but for the next four months, her pain continued. “I was feeling worse off after the stent than before,” she said. “I suffered, sometimes silently. My family suffered as well.”
• It wasn’t until she visited a women’s heart specialist that she found answers. Her doctor asked questions about her life, family and stress related to her work as the director of alumni relations at a graduate school. Her physician, C. Noel Bairey Merz, director of ​​ the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center in the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai, also explained the link between mental and cardiac health, especially in women.
• Bairey Merz prescribed a new blood pressure medication and a lifestyle regimen focused on stress reduction. Travis-Teague was feeling better within a few weeks.
• “It was like all of a sudden, somebody could hear me,” Travis-Teague said. “Now I know the importance of work-life balance.”
• A growing body of evidence suggests the effects of mental health has a disproportionate impact on women’s bodies. Recent findings presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session in April indicate that depression and anxiety accelerate the development of new cardiovascular disease risk factors, particularly among young and middle-aged women.
• The researchers followed 71,214 people participating in the Mass General Brigham Biobank for 10 years. Those with a history of anxiety or depression before the study were about 55 percent more likely to develop high blood pressure, high cholesterol or diabetes compared to those without. The finding was most pronounced among women with anxiety or depression who were under 50, who were nearly twice as likely to develop cardiovascular risk factors compared with any other group.
• “The aim of our project is to suggest that if a physician has a patient with anxiety or depression, he or she should also think about screening for cardiovascular risk factors,” said lead author Giovanni Civieri, a cardiologist and research fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
• Previous studies have also shown that stress and emotional health can have an outsize impact on women’s hearts.
• One study of more than 3,600 men and women from Framingham, Mass., looked at married partners who typically bottled up their feelings during a fight with their spouse. Women who “self-silenced” during marital conflict were four times as likely to die during the 10-year study period as women who always spoke their mind. (The effect wasn’t seen in men.) Whether the woman reported being in a happy marriage or an unhappy marriage didn’t change her risk.
• An 18-year study of 860 Australian women concluded that having a depressive disorder is a risk factor for coronary heart disease in women. The strength of association between depression and heart disease was of a greater magnitude than any other risk factor.
• “The literature supports an even stronger association between depression and heart disease and bad outcomes in women than men,” said Roy Ziegelstein, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins.
• Ziegelstein pointed to a condition called Takotsubo cardiomyopathy – also known as “stress cardiomyopathy” or broken heart syndrome – that is more common in women. As many as 90 percent of cases occur in women between the ages of 58 and 75. While many people recover, the condition can be life-threatening and is often triggered by intense physical or emotional stress.
• Across the spectrum of age, ethnicity and socioeconomic status, there are numerous tales of women whose symptoms are ignored, only to later discover that they have experienced a heart attack or developed cardiovascular disease.
• For Marianna Knopov, several New York physicians she saw over three years were unable to pinpoint the cause of her intense heart palpitations and chest tension. In 2013, the then 51-year-old Russian immigrant was a busy mother of two teenage sons steering her own thriving dental clinic. “My life was basically like a roller coaster,” she said.
• After years of the same cycle – pain, hospitals and home without relief – Knopov said she was ready to give up on her search for answers. “You go to one after another and they don’t listen to you. They don’t hear you. They just want to dismiss you, and that’s how I felt.”
• By the time she met Evelina Grayver in 2016, a cardiologist specializing in women’s heart health who is now at Katz Institute for Women’s Health at Northwell Health in Queens, the vessels in her heart had become constricted and calcified, and there was “absolutely nowhere” to attach a new bypass.
• Doctors placed seven stents in all three of her major arteries – and Grayver prescribed a lifestyle regimen to better regulate the anxiety and chronic stress that helped get her there. Knopov said the diagnosis had a “profound” effect on her. “I had to change something,” she said.
• She eventually sold her practice, traded in New York’s bustling streets for Florida’s serene beaches, and recently became a grandmother.
• “I’m living a totally different life,” she said. Now 62, Knopov has incorporated meditation, yoga and abdominal breathing exercises into her daily routine, and she walks 10,000 steps per day.
• Knopov said her doctors’ advice helped her “experience a different state of mind and being.” There is a lot of joy each day,” she said.
• In the intricate web of mental health and cardiovascular well-being, there isn’t a clear explanation why the connection is so strong in women.
• Studies from Emory University have found that women experiencing acute mental stress are more susceptible than men to constriction of their small peripheral arteries, leading to diminished blood flow. Researchers found that the microvascular response to stress was also associated with adverse outcomes in women but not in men.
• One reason for this could be that women’s blood vessels are smaller in caliber and consistency than those found in men. While men are prone to centralized plaque buildup in the largest arteries that supply blood to the heart, women typically have diffused, small blockages throughout their blood vessels, “which is very dangerous” because they can be more difficult to detect and treat, according to Grayver.
• Additionally, experts say stress in women appears to disrupt lipid balance, increase platelet aggregation and impair glucose regulation. Chronic stress may further exacerbate coronary heart disease progression by fueling inflammation, a risk factor more pronounced in women. This heightened inflammatory response elevates their chances of major adverse cardiovascular events.
• “We know that anxiety and stress and depression are bad. Now, let’s figure out how to best identify and treat people who are at risk,” said Puja Mehta, director of women’s translational cardiovascular research at the Emory Women’s Heart Center. “How do we help them manage stress so that it improves blood flow to the heart?”
• One key area of interest for researchers is whether addressing mental health concerns, using existing medications such as antidepressants or traditional talk therapy could mitigate cardiovascular risk. Others are studying a potential genetic link between depression and heart disease, with the hope of discovering novel drugs capable of treating both conditions simultaneously.
• While understanding why women’s hearts are particularly vulnerable to stress is valuable, it’s more important for doctors to acknowledge the connection from the outset.
• “What tends to happen is that younger women who have risk factors, for example, may only see their OB/GYN for birth control, and by the time they come to the cardiologist they’ve already developed heart disease or heart failure,” Mehta said. “We have to do a better job of identifying and early prevention.”
• Following a heart attack, women face a higher risk of mortality within the five years. While not fully understood, one theory suggests that the increased risk could be attributed to the adverse psychological reactions to the stress of experiencing a heart attack, according to JoAnn E. Manson, chief of preventive medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
• Research also shows that fewer women than men are referred to cardiac rehabilitation programs, which can help limit the psychological stresses associated with cardiac disease, reduce the risk of associated mortality and improve cardiovascular function to help patients optimize their quality of life. In addition, women are less likely to be put on protective medications, such as cholesterol-lowering statins or beta blockers, to protect against future cardiovascular events.
• Experts emphasize that lifestyle interventions are among the most effective and accessible tools for women managing both mental health and cardiovascular conditions. That includes regular exercise, improved diet and sleep patterns, as well as tools to manage stress, such as meditation and deep breathing.
• Social support also seems to have a stronger heart benefit for women compared with men. The presence of family members or friends with whom women can maintain regular contact strongly predicts their cardiovascular health, according to Manson.Travis-Teague has continued to work with her doctors to manage her stress. Her advice to women facing similar challenges: “Understand that you need to listen to your body and be your own advocate. Do not be afraid to ask questions and to find the place where people will care for you.” The unique toll of stress and depression on women’s hearts

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Got Kidney Stones? Ride a Roller Coaster, Says Study

Are you struggling with a kidney stone? This study says that you can dislodge them by riding a rollercoaster – and the research just won the Ig Nobel Prize for Medicine.

The Ig Nobel Prize is a spoof award for amusing – but still real – scientific research. All the studies that are given awards are published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, but they all live within the realm of strange and improbable research.

This year, a Michigan State University professor received the prize for discovering that riding a roller coaster helps patients pass kidney stones with nearly a 70% success rate.

David Wartinger, a professor emeritus in the Department of Osteopathic Surgical Specialties, led both a pilot study and an expanded study to assess whether the stories he was hearing from patients were true.

His pilot study is published in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association.

“Basically, I had patients telling me that after riding a particular roller coaster at Walt Disney World, they were able to pass their kidney stone,” Wartinger said. “I even had one patient say he passed three different stones after riding multiple times.”

This resulted in Wartinger going out and testing the theory. Using a validated, synthetic 3D model of a hollow kidney complete with three kidney stones no larger than 4 millimeters inserted into the replica, he took the model in a backpack on Big Thunder Mountain at the theme park 20 times. His initial results verified patient reports.

“In the pilot study, sitting in the last car of the roller coaster showed about a 64 percent passage rate, while sitting in the first few cars only had a 16 percent success rate,” Wartinger said.

The expanded study, conducted with Mark Mitchell, an MSU resident

 

at the time, included riding the same roller coaster with multiple kidney models attached to the researchers. They discovered even better results while sitting in the back of the coaster, with a passage rate of nearly 70%. They also found that both studies showed a 100 percent passage rate if the stones were located in the upper chamber of the kidney.

“In all, we used 174 kidney stones of varying shapes, sizes and weights to see if each model worked on the same ride and on two other roller coasters,” Wartinger said. “Big Thunder Mountain was the only one that worked. We tried Space Mountain and Aerosmith’s Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and both failed.”

Wartinger went on to explain that these other rides are too fast and too violent with a G-force that pins the stone into the kidney and doesn’t allow it to pass.

“The ideal coaster is rough and quick with some twists and turns, but no upside down or inverted movements,” he said.

It’s estimated that around 300,000 people per year go to an emergency room suffering from kidney stones and the cost for treatment could range anywhere between $5,000 to $10,000.

Lithotripsy, which breaks apart kidney stones that are too large to pass, is a common treatment for the problem. Wartinger said the procedure is usually used in cases where the kidney stone is larger than 5 millimeters.

“The problem though is lithotripsy can leave remnants in the kidney which can result in another stone,” Wartinger said. “The best way to potentially eliminate this from happening is to try going on a roller coaster after a treatment when the remnants are still small.”

He added that patients could even try going on a coaster once a year as maintenance, lessening the chances of future issues and minimizing health care costs.“You need to heed the warnings before going on a roller coaster,” he advised. “If you have a kidney stone, but are otherwise healthy and meet the requirements of the ride, patients should try it. It’s definitely a lower-cost alternative to health care.”, Got Kidney Stones? Ride a Roller Coaster, Says Study

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How cleaning product chemicals called ‘quats’ may affect the brain

The pandemic ushered in a cleaning frenzy at home, schools and work as many of us sprayed, wiped and disinfected our way through the crisis.

But widespread use of disinfectants and heavy-duty cleaners has also ushered in new research on “quats” – which stands for quaternary ammonium compounds (sometimes called QACs). Quats are a class of chemicals used in some household cleaners that kill viruses, bacteria and other germs by breaking down cell membranes.

In a 2023 review, more than two dozen researchers called quats “a chemical class of emerging concern.” Exposure to quats has been associated with asthma and an increased risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in humans, as well as decreased fertility in mice.

Now, scientists at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland have raised a new concern: They’ve found quaternary ammonium compounds to be potentially toxic to a type of brain cell. These cells, called oligodendrocytes, provide the fatty insulation (called myelin) around nerves, which allows neural signals to travel through the brain faster. The study also found that organophosphate flame retardants used in some household furniture appear to stunt the growth of oligodendrocytes.

“We’re not looking to say that there’s a direct correlation between exposure and human neurodevelopmental issues. We don’t have that data yet,” said Paul Tesar, the director of the Institute for Glial Sciences at Case Western Reserve and the principal investigator of the study. “But we have fundamentally shown, very rigorously, that oligodendrocytes have a specific vulnerability to these chemicals.”

There are hundreds of quaternary ammonium compounds, which can make it hard to identify the chemicals on an ingredient list. Quats often end with “ammonium chloride” or “onium chloride” in the name. One common quaternary ammonium compound in hand soaps, for instance, is benzalkonium chloride. Google can also help you figure out whether a particular ingredient in a cleaning product is a quaternary ammonium compound.

The American Cleaning Institute, a trade association for cleaning product makers, downplayed the findings. Brian Sansoni, senior vice president of communications, wrote in an email that the study “does not establish a causal link to any known or observed human health effect and should not be interpreted by readers to be predictive of possible health effects.”

“Surface disinfecting products, including those with quaternary ammonium compounds, are highly regulated and extensively evaluated for safety according to their approved uses,” Sansoni wrote. “Quats are a critical public health solution across homes, schools, health care settings and communities every single day. ”

The research on quaternary ammonium compounds doesn’t mean we should stop disinfecting our homes, experts say. But it’s good to be aware of the chemicals in your household cleaners, and to make informed decisions about which products you choose.

Erin Cohn, a graduate student in Tesar’s lab and the lead author of the study, said oligodendrocyte dysfunction is linked to various neurological conditions. In cases of multiple sclerosis, for instance, the body’s immune system attacks the insulation created by oligodendrocytes.

To study quats, the researchers used stem cells to grow human brain organoids – petri dishes of tiny, “millimeter-sized brain tissue” – intended to mimic early stages of brain development, Tesar said. And they found the quaternary ammonium compounds specifically killed oligodendrocytes but not the other cell types.

The researchers also fed the chemicals to young mice for 10 days. In autopsies, they found exposure to quats had “caused a selective loss of oligodendrocytes” in the brain, Tesar said.

“The science is clear that these chemicals have harmful effects on oligodendrocytes,” Tesar said. What’s not clear is whether “everyday exposure” to these chemicals affects the human brain.

Francisco Javier Quintana, a professor of neurology at Harvard University, said the brain is influenced “all the time” by the chemicals a person takes in. Although more study is needed, the results of the latest research suggest that exposure to quats could trigger disease in certain populations that are already genetically susceptible, he said.

“The quats could be acting as one little push, or the final push across the finish line,” Quintana said. “In most people, quat exposure probably does nothing. But if you carry the wrong genetic background, that might trigger disease development.”

Quaternary ammonium compounds have been detected in the breast milk of mothers, and they were higher in women who used disinfecting cleaning products. And a study of 43 people found that 80 percent had quats in their blood.

Libin Xu, an associate professor of medicinal chemistry at the University of Washington, said exposure to quats is “ubiquitous.” Almost every sample measured so far “has certain amounts of this compound, from very low to, occasionally, pretty high amounts,” he said.

In New York, researchers looked at quat exposure in shelter dogs, who live in caged areas that are frequently cleaned and disinfected. The study found that the feces of shelter dogs contained from two- to 18-fold higher concentrations of certain quats, compared with those of dogs who lived with their owners.

Terry Hrubec, a professor of anatomy and embryology at the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine in Blacksburg, Va., said that, although we know quats can get into the body, “we know almost nothing” about their effects. “We’re just scratching the tip of the iceberg for what we know about quats,” Hrubec said.

Not all household disinfectants use quaternary ammonium compounds, and there are alternatives “that are equally effective,” with ingredients such as citric acid, ethanol and hydrogen peroxide, said Sarah Evans, an assistant professor of environmental medicine and climate science at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.

If you’re concerned about the active ingredients in a disinfectant you’re using, open a window, and don’t spray or wipe with the product around children or pregnant people, Evans said. “Regular soap and water will kill most bacteria,” Evans said. “You don’t need a soap that has an added antibacterial chemical.”

Martin Wolf, director of sustainability for Seventh Generation, a maker of detergents and other cleaning products, said in an email that the company doesn’t use quats in its disinfecting products. The chemicals “have long been associated with respiratory irritation,” Wolf said.Wolf said that, because the study was conducted on cultured cells in a lab, it’s not clear how it applies to the real-world use of cleaning products that contain quats. “It would be improper to dismiss the study out-of-hand,” Wolf said. “Rather, this should be seen as a caution to avoid use of the substances studied and to seek alternatives.”How cleaning product chemicals called ‘quats’ may affect the brain

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More than one alcoholic drink a day raises heart disease risk for women

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Young to middle-aged women who drink more than one alcoholic beverage a day, on average, were more likely to develop coronary heart disease than people who drink less, according to new research by Kaiser Permanente Northern California.

Women in the study who reported drinking eight or more alcoholic beverages per week were 33 to 51 percent more likely to develop coronary heart disease. And women who binge drink – three alcoholic beverages per day – were 68 percent more likely to develop coronary heart disease than those who drink in moderation, the research showed.

“There has been an increasing prevalence of alcohol use among young and middle-aged women as women may feel they’re protected against heart disease until they’re older, but this study shows that even in that age group, women who drink more than the recommended amount of one drink per day or tend to binge drink, are at risk for coronary heart disease,” Jamal Rana, a cardiologist with the Permanente Medical Group and the study’s lead author, wrote in an email.

The study will be presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session in early April. It was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Institute on Alcohol 

Abuse and Alcoholism.

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Risk is highest for binge drinking

The study used data from 432,265 adults, ages 18 to 65, who received care in the Kaiser Permanente Northern California integrated health organization. The group was composed of about 243,000 men and 189,000 women who filled out routine assessments between 2014 and 2015 in which they reported their alcohol intake. Researchers then looked at the coronary heart disease diagnoses among participants over the four years that followed.

Participants were divided into three groups, according to their alcohol intake: low (one to two drinks per week), moderate (three to 14 drinks per week for men and three to seven drinks per week for women), or high (15 or more drinks per week for men and eight or more drinks per week for women).

Participants were also categorized as either engaging in binge drinking or not, with binge drinking being defined for men as having more than four drinks in a single day and for women as having more than three drinks a day, in the prior three months. Those who reported no alcohol use were not included.

During the four-year follow-up period, 3,108 participants were diagnosed with coronary heart disease. Higher levels of alcohol consumption were associated with a higher incidence of coronary heart disease. Both men and women who reported heavy episodic drinking, or binge drinking, had the highest risk.

The link between alcohol and coronary heart disease proved to be especially strong among women, the data showed.

Coronary heart disease, also known as coronary artery disease, is the most common type of heart disease in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The disease develops when the arteries of the heart are unable to deliver enough oxygen-rich blood to the heart because of plaque buildup.

Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of American women, according to the CDC. Symptoms differ, and often there are none until people suffer from a heart attack or other problem, a NIH report said.

“There has long been this idea that alcohol is good for the heart, but more and more evidence is challenging that notion,” Rana wrote.

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Alcohol is a risk factor for many health issues

Alcohol is actually a toxin to the heart, said Nieca Goldberg, a clinical associate professor of medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and medical director of Atria New York City. Alcohol raises blood pressure, increases the risk for heart rhythm problems, especially during times of binge drinking, is associated with an enlarged heart and is a toxin to the heart muscle, she said.

“I think this is an important study to do because for a while, people thought that alcohol was protective against the heart because of earlier studies that were done in the past. But in fact, we don’t prescribe alcohol to fight heart disease,” she said.

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Alcohol use is rising among women

The link between alcohol and heart disease for women is cause for concern, given that alcohol use among women is on the rise. While men used to drink more, studies over the past several years show that gap is closing.

Approximately 13 percent of adult women report binge drinking, with 25 percent of those women saying they do so at least weekly, on average, and 25 percent saying they consume at least six drinks during a binge drinking occasion, according to the CDC. A study in July in JAMA Network Open showed the number of alcohol-related deaths among women was rising at a faster rate than those among men, particularly for people 65 and older.

“I think this raises an important issue, because oftentimes, we think of heavy drinkers as men only. But we have to have heightened awareness that women may be heavy alcohol drinkers,” Goldberg said.

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Occasional binge drinking can affect heart health

But it wasn’t just heavy drinkers who were affected, said Mary Ann McLaughlin, cardiologist at the Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital. The study is interesting because it showed that even occasional drinking, if it reaches the level of binge drinking, can affect heart health, she said.

There are those who thought just drinking on the weekends was not a big deal, because they weren’t drinking every day, she said. “But the fact is, if they have more than four drinks as a woman or more than five drinks as a man on one day, in the past three months, they were at increased risk,” McLaughlin said.

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Women are more adversely affected by alcohol

It is not a surprise that alcohol poses a higher risk for women than men when it comes to heart health, said C. Noel Bairey Merz, director of the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center in the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai.

Women are more adversely affected than men by a lot of things such as cigarettes and pharmaceuticals and a bottle of beer or a glass of wine, where the dosage for men and women is the same and yet women are smaller, she said, referring to women being physically smaller, on average. Women also metabolize differently, their blood pressure is different, their liver function is different, they even deposit fat differently, Merz said.

“Women and men are built differently,” she said, noting she wasn’t even referring to the obvious reproductive differences. “It could be that in addition to body surface area … there are just pure biological differences in how the alcohol is metabolized.”

It’s possible to mitigate some of the ill effects of alcohol, the experts said. For instance, when people reduce or stop drinking, their blood pressure can improve and some lose weight as alcohol is a sugar that is no longer being consumed.

But issues such as enlargement of the heart happen with long-term heavy drinking, and even if the person stops, that may not improve, they said.“If one stops drinking, some of the risk could reverse,” McLaughlin said. “The degree of improvement would depend on the age of the person and number of years of drinking.”More than one alcoholic drink a day raises heart disease risk for women

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Can animals give birth to twins?

Some animals, including goats, regularly give birth to two babies at once. Image Source via Getty Images

Michael Jaffe, Mississippi State University and Tracy Jaffe, Mississippi State University 

Ask any parent – welcoming a new baby to the family is exciting, but it comes with a lot of work. And when the new addition is a pair of babies – twins – parents really have their work cut out for them.

For many animal species it’s the norm to have multiple babies at once. A litter of piglets can be as many as 11 or more!

Pigs are one species that gives birth to large litters. Arthur Dries/DigitalVision via Getty Images

We are faculty members at Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine. We’ve been present for the births of many puppies and kittens over the years – and the animal moms almost always deliver multiples.

But are all those animal siblings who share the same birthday twins?

Twins are two peas in a pod

Twins are defined as two offspring from the same pregnancy.

They can be identical, which means a single sperm fertilized a single egg that divided into two separate cells that went on to develop into two identical babies. They share the same DNA, and that’s why the two twins are essentially indistinguishable from each other.

Twins can also be fraternal. That’s the outcome when two separate eggs are fertilized individually at the same time. Each twin has its own set of genes from the mother and the father. One can be male and one can be female. Fraternal twins are basically as similar as any set of siblings.

Fraternal twins originate in two eggs fertilized separately, while identical twins originate in a single fertilized egg that divides to create two embryos. Veronika Zakharova/Science Photo Library via Getty Images

Approximately 3% of human pregnancies in the United States produce twins. Most of those are fraternal – approximately one out of every three pairs of twins is identical.

Multiple babies from one animal mom

Each kind of animal has its own standard number of offspring per birth. People tend to know the most about domesticated species that are kept as pets or farm animals.

One study that surveyed the size of over 10,000 litters among purebred dogs found that the average number of puppies varied by the size of the dog breed. Miniature breed dogs – like chihuahuas and toy poodles, generally weighing less than 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms) – averaged 3.5 puppies per litter. Giant breed dogs – like mastiffs and Great Danes, typically over 100 pounds (45 kilograms) – averaged more than seven puppies per litter.

When a litter of dogs, for instance, consists of only two offspring, people tend to refer to the two puppies as twins. Twins are the most common pregnancy outcome in goats, though mom goats can give birth to a single-born kid or larger litters, too. Sheep frequently have twins, but single-born lambs are more common.

Horses, which are pregnant for 11 to 12 months, and cows, which are pregnant for nine to 10 months, tend to have just one foal or calf at a time – but twins may occur. Veterinarians and ranchers have long believed that it would be financially beneficial to encourage the conception of twins in dairy and beef cattle. Basically the farmer would get two calves for the price of one pregnancy.

But twins in cattle may result in birth complications for the cow and undersized calves with reduced survival rates. Similar risks come with twin pregnancies in horses, which tend to lead to both pregnancy complications that may harm the mare and the birth of weak foals.

DNA holds the answer to what kind of twins

So plenty of animals can give birth to twins. A more complicated question is whether two animal babies born together are identical or fraternal twins.

Female dogs and cats ovulate multiple eggs at one time. Fertilization of individual eggs by distinct spermatazoa from a male produces multiple embryos. This process results in puppies or kittens that are fraternal, not identical, even though they may look very much the same.

Though born from the same litter, these kittens all have different sets of genes. bozhdb/iStock via Getty Images

Biologists believe that identical twins in most animals are very rare. The tricky part is that lots of animal siblings look very, very similar and researchers need to do a DNA test to confirm whether two animals do in fact share all their genes. Only one documented report of identical twin dogs was confirmed by DNA testing. But no one knows for sure how frequently fertilized animal eggs split and grow into identical twin animal babies.

And reproduction is different in various animals. For instance, nine-banded armadillos normally give birth to identical quadruplets. After a mother armadillo releases an egg and it becomes fertilized, it splits into four separate identical cells that develop into identical pups. Its relative, the seven-banded armadillo, can give birth to anywhere from seven to nine identical pups at one time.

There’s still a lot that scientists aren’t sure about when it comes to twins in other species. Since DNA testing is not commonly performed in animals, no one really knows how often identical twins are born. It’s possible – maybe even likely – that identical twins may have been born in some species without anyone’s ever knowing.

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Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.

And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.

Michael Jaffe, Associate Professor of Small Animal Surgery, Mississippi State University and Tracy Jaffe, Assistant Clinical Professor of Veterinary Medicine, Mississippi State University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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What is this thing called love?

Researchers are divided about the nature of love, and whether it is universal or changeable. Shutterstock Sarah Pinto, Deakin University

Love it or loathe it, Valentine’s Day is a celebration of romantic love. But what exactly is romantic love? Researchers are increasingly interested in this question, and the answer is not at all clear.

What is an emotion?

Everyone from Plato to Taylor Swift has pondered the meaning of love. But, in the last two decades, researchers in the humanities and across the social, behavioural and cognitive sciences have also investigated romantic love.

Most – though not all – researchers are happy to call romantic love a human emotion. But what researchers mean by “emotion” varies.

Some explain emotions as hard-wired biological processes that are innate to humans. Others talk about them as behaviours or experiences that involve cognitive judgements. And still others think emotions are socially constructed, meaning they are social rather than natural phenomena.

Romantic love: universal or changeable?

Almost everyone separates out romantic love from other kinds of love or intimacy. This separation is usually about sex: when most people talk about romantic love, they mean love that involves sexual desire.

Many researchers think this kind of love is experienced by all people across time and place, and there is research to support this. Anthropological studies of romantic love across cultures show that love is likely to be a universal human emotion. Neuroscientific investigations of romantic love find similarities in the brain activity or chemistry of people who report being in love.

But the historian William Reddy cautions us not to “make too much of” similarities in romantic love across cultures, and with good reason. There is ample evidence that romantic love varies over time and place.

Cross-cultural studies of romantic love show significant differences in the emotion. And historical investigations almost always demonstrate changes in how people experience or imagine romantic love over time. Is romantic love universal or changeable? There is research to support both viewpoints.

Radical or conservative?

Some of the most interesting research into romantic love looks at its personal and political effects. As the sociologist Mary Evans explains, falling in love is meant to take lovers to a new and different place. Studies of people who are in love report that we understand romantic love as transformative.

And researchers sometimes talk about romantic love as a radical or subversive emotion with the potential to transform society. We can see this particularly in investigations of courtly love. Courtly love was a model of “aristocratic courtship” found in the literature of medieval France. Historians of courtly love often talk about it as a kind of radical resistance to the power of the church.

Others talk about romantic love as a deeply problematic emotion in desperate need of critique. These researchers would say that we may think romantic love is the site of personal freedom, but in fact we are living under “government by love”.

This critique was more common in the 1970s, when radical second-wave feminists attacked heterosexual romantic love as oppressive. But some researchers continue to explain romantic love as one of the ways our lives are regulated and controlled, limiting our intimate possibilities.

I want to know what love is

Some might say all this proves is that we should stop thinking we can research and understand emotions, and just experience them. But I don’t think so. Emotional experiences are a very significant part of our everyday lives, but they also have public and political effects.

Research into emotions gives us insight into the shape of these effects. It shows us the way that war widows were mobilised by their grief in 20th-century Australia, or how acknowledgements of national guilt for past injustices might lead to restitution for the disenfranchised.

Research into romantic love is built on people’s experiences and understandings of their intimate lives. What if love seems muddy in this research because people’s understandings and experiences of intimacy are muddy? What if the diverse ways that people live their intimate lives cannot be explained by a specific singular category, “romantic love”?

If that’s the case, then we don’t really need to worry about fitting into any particular romantic ideal this Valentine’s Day. And romantic love can be whatever we want it to be. Embrace it, avoid it, remake it in your own way. Love your partner, your cat, your friends, everyone, nobody. And don’t apologise for it.

Sarah Pinto, Lecturer in Australian Studies, Deakin University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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