Infant's smile gives a natural high

An infant's smile may gladden the heart, but it also apparently boosts the brain, too-at least in mothers. Twenty-eight first-time mothers with 5-to 10-month-old infants were shown photos of babies (theirs and others) while lying in a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine, which measures brain activity based on blood flow. The photos showed babies with expressions that were happy, sad or neutral.

When the mothers saw their infants' faces, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine said key areas of the brain associated with reward lit up.

"These are areas that have been activated in other experiments associated with drug addiction"; said Dr. Lane Strathearn, an assistant professor of pediatrics who headed the study. "It may be that seeing your own baby's smiling face is like a natural high."

The strength of the mothers' reaction depended on the photographed baby's expression. Smiling faces elicited the strongest response, especially if it was their baby. There was less effect if the baby had a sad or neutral expression. Researchers say the study may help them understand the neurological underpinnings of the mother-infant bond, and why it sometimes goes wrong.

"For whatever reason, in some cases, that relationship doesn't develop normally" said Strathearn. "Neglect and abuse can result, with devastating effects on a child's development."

BODY OF KNOWLEDGE
The average blink of an eye lasts one twentieth of a second.

GET ME THAT. STAT!
Routine brain scans in a group of middle-aged people showed 10 percent of them had suffered a ministroke without knowing it, report Boston University researchers.

NEVER SAY DIET
The world's speed-eating record for eating peas is 9.5 one-pound bowls in 12 minutes, held by Eric Booker.

NUMBER CRUNCHER
A medium-sized Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Blizzard at Dairy Queen (446 grams) contains 1,030 calories, 360 from fat. That's 62 percent of the recommended total fat intake for a 2,000-calorie daily diet. It also contains 70 milligrams of cholesterol (23 percent); 520 mg of sodium (22 percent); 150 grams of total carbohydrates (50 percent); 112 grams of sugar and 17 grams of protein.

MEDTRONICA
beautybrains.com
A group of cosmetics scientists (you'll have to take their word for it) answer submitted questions about beauty products, from whether some lipsticks actually plump up lips to the psychological makeup of makeup wearers.

STORIES FOR THE WAITING ROOM
There's no cure for the common cold, but there are plenty of would-be remedies, including this one from George Washington, writing to a friend in 1781: "My own remedy, my dear madam, is always to eat, just before I step into bed, a hot roasted onion."

PHOBIA OF THE WEEK
Phengophobia-fear of daylight

BEST MEDICINE
Did you know that if all of the smokers were laid end-to-end around the world, three-quarters of them would drown?

OBSERVATION
"There are two things in life that a sage must preserve at every sacrifice, the coats of his stomach and the enamel of his teeth. Some evils admit of consolations, but there are no comforters for dyspepsia and the toothache."
-English diplomat and writer Henry Lytton Bulwer (1801-1872)

LAST WORDS
"I'm going into the bathroom to read."
-Elvis Presley (1935-1977).
Presley was found dead in a bathroom of his Graceland home. Although addicted to various drugs, the official cause of death was a heart attack.

HEALTHY QUOTE "If we could give every individual the right nourishment and exercise-not too little and not too much-we would have found the safest way to health."
-Hippocrates

CALL THE DOC-ONLINE
It's critical that doctors and patients communicate, but good luck getting your physician to return your calls. You may be better off contacting your doctor online, according to a University of Pittsburgh study. Doctors answered e-mail queries 57 percent faster than phone questions, probably because it took support staff out of the loop. Online communication is often more detailed, and the doctor can easily link patients to other sources of information.

STAY ACTIVE, STAY SLIM(MER) As the birthdays roll by, just keep moving. People who exercise consistently may see slower age-related weight gain, reports a study from the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions. Subjects who did 30 minutes per day of vigorous activity were more than twice as likely as semi-sedentary subjects to have maintained their body mass index (BMI) after 20 years. Active folks who did bulk up gained 14 fewer pounds than slackers.

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