Placebos can be good for your health – even if you know they’re fake pills. In a study published in the journal PLoS ONE, 80 Irritable Bowel Syndrome patients were told it didn’t matter if they believed in the placebos; if they took them twice a day, there was a good chance of feeling better. Fifty-nine percent of the placebo patients did feel better, compared to 35% of the no-treatment patients. Scientists think it was the ritual of taking the fake pills that made them work – which will be “a hard pill to swallow” for drug manufacturers.
Being too chilled out or laid-back could be bad for your health. According to a study published in the journal Biological Psychology, under-reacting to stress is associated with obesity, depression, poor immune functioning and poor overall health. Researchers analyzed data from 1,300 people over a 14-year period and found those who didn’t have large heart rate or blood pressure changes after a short stress test were likely to become depressed and obese over the next 5 years. Those people were also likelier to describe their health as poor. It seems experiencing a little stress shouldn’t be “distressing”.
Drinking water is not only good for your health, it can help with weight loss. A paper presented at a 2009 obesity conference showed that people who drank 2 glasses of water 20-30 minutes before every meal initially lost weight more quickly and they lost significantly more weight overall. A study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that people who drank water before meals ate an average of 75 fewer calories. Eating 75 fewer calories at lunch and dinner for a year would result in a weight loss of about 14.5 pounds. Obviously, this weight loss technique “holds water”.
Being distracted can be bad for your health because it can increase how much you eat. Research at the UK’s University of Birmingham compared people who paid attention to each bite of food with people who ate while they watched television or worked on their computer. When later give an opportunity to eat cookies, the distracted eaters ate more cookies. A study from the UK’s University of Manchester found as background noise got louder, people were less able to taste saltiness or sweetness. However, when people liked the background noise, they liked the food more. Obviously, the noise must have been perceived as “tasteful”.
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