YW_Issue_94_July-18_68 pages

scientific
66 wellness
Holding Hands Can
Sync Brainwaves To
Ease Pain
When you reach for the hand of a loved one in pain, not only will
your breathing and heart rate synchronise with theirs, but also
your brain wave patterns will couple up, according to a study
published in the ‘Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences’
(PNAS). The study, by researchers with the University of Colorado
Boulder and University of Haifa, also found that the more empathy
a comforting partner feels for a partner in pain, the more their
brainwaves fall into sync.
And the more those brain
waves sync, the more the
pain goes away. “We have
developed a lot of ways to
communicate in the modern
world and we have fewer
physical interactions,” says
lead author Pavel Goldstein.
“This paper illustrates the
power and importance of
human touch.”
New
Method To
Disinfect
Water
In spite of good progress
in water hygiene during
the recent decades,
contaminated water still
causes millions of diseases
every year. Most of these
diseases are caused by
enteric viruses. Better water
disinfection methods can
help prevent disease and
even save lives. A new
study from the University
of Eastern Finland, and
published in the ‘Journal
- Thomas Berger
The art and science of asking questions
is the source of all knowledge.
What Does Your Smile
Say?
A new study of nonverbal feedback, published in ‘Scientific
Reports’ by researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison
and Bar-Ilan University, finds that smiles may reduce or increase
physical stress depending upon how they are perceived. The
researchers found that ‘dominance’ smiles, that
challenge social standing and signal
disapproval, evoke stress in the one
they are aimed at. By contrast,
‘reward’ and ‘affiliation’ smiles,
which reinforce behaviour,
signal lack of threat, and
facilitate or maintain social
bonds respectively, exert
influences similar to the effects
of displays of friendliness
and positive social
evaluation
and buffer
physiological
activity.
of Water and Health’,
and ‘Water’ shows that
a combined disinfection
treatment with chlorine
and UV radiation can be
highly effective in water
disinfection. The study
has found that it is more
effective to first use a low
dosage of chlorine followed
by a low dosage of UV
radiation than to use either
of it alone. The order of
treatment is also important:
Using chlorine first and UV
later can be recommended
as a disinfection method for
viruses.
yourwellness.com • Volume VII • Issue II • July 2018