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Show Love, Happiness And Your Health ri f your love life is enough to make you cry, count yourself lucky. In a report from the Psychiatric Nursing Center at Marquette University School of Nursing in Milwaukee, Dr. Margaret Crepeau found thai people who cry freely suffer less from stress-related diseases such as gastric ulcer and colitis, an inflammation of the large intestine. In her study of 128 men and women, she found that "crying determines our susceptibility to stress-related diseases... The more crying a person does, the less likely he is lo suffer from such diseases." Adding that women cry a significant five times as often as men, on the average. "If we don't cry, our health suffers." Better low-calorie tears than high-calorie high-calorie milk shakes if you're unlucky in love. Eating habit studies conducted at Harvard University and the University of California have shown repeatedly thai an abnormal desire for milk often occurs when a person is disappointed in love, or when his sense of security is threatened. Investigators also point out that the use of milk which tends to symbolize security increases during times of stress. Milk is associated with ihe care and affection received in infancy. LOVE COSTS Love is an island of emotion surrounded entirely by expenses... ! It's, what makes you buy orchids when you can't afford carnations, a pundit once observed. A kiss can cost you, in other words. In fact, says New York security analyst Ramond DeV'oe, compared lo 25 years ago: A one-carat engagement ring of the highest quality that cost $2,000 in the '50s will set you back $50,000 now, dinner for two in Manhattan has gone from $9 to S40, and while the Consumer Price Index has risen 258 pereeni in the last 25 years, the Cost of Loving Index (candlelight dinners, long-stemmed roses and all the rest) has risen 420 percent. , Bui it's worth it. According to Dr. DeWitt Fox, neurosurgeon and director of ihe Neurologic Center in Los Angeles, in 100 pereeni of cases of most diseases including arthritis, diabetes, heart disease and mental illness love can help improve the patient's condition... And in more than 75 percent of cases of all these diseases, love can mean the difference between deterioration and a cure. see HAPPINESS backpg. Happiness For A Longer Life . . . continued from front page THE FRIENDSHIP FACTOR Don't overlook your good buddies if you're out for good health. According to James J. Lynch Ph.D., author of the book, "The Broken Heart: The Medical Consequences of Loneliness," "Social contact has a demonstrable effect on brain size. For example, exam-ple, young rats deprived of their pals can lose lip to 10 percent of their brain size and if you ; put old rats - the equivalent of a 65-year-old ; person - in with young rats, the old rats' ; brains grow... The brain has this ability to keep reshaping itself." .. And if you're short of friends, get a dog. - "Talking to pets can reduce your blood pressure," says Dr. Aaron Katcher, associate professor of psychiartry at the University of Pennsylvania. "When you"re talking to and touching animals it becomes stress reducing," reduc-ing," he said. In one study, Dr. Katcher found that patients pa-tients hospitalized for heart attacks had a better bet-ter chance of surviving the first year if they had a pet to talk to and touch. BEATING THE BIOLOGICAL BEAUTY CLOCK Like to look younger longer? Eat less and sleep more. "Beauty sleep is an accurate concept," says New York dermatologist Dr. Irwin Lubowe. "Insufficient sleep reduces circulation and contracts the capillaries causing dehydration and sagging and causes dark circles under the eyes by reducing collagen in the tissues," says Dr. Samuel Dlunkell in his book, "Sleep Positions." When you're not snoozing, lowering the boom on calories can make you look 10 years younger, says Dr. Charles Barrows of the National Na-tional Institute on Aging, who did it with animals on a diet slashed to 60 percent of its usual caloric intake. It works with humans, too, and as a bonus they lived 33 percent longer. Don't want to cut back? Fasting one day in three may produce pro-duce the same beauty effects, says Charles Panati ("Breakthroughs,"). |