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The foods we eat can go a long way in boosting our moods. Here are our favorite snacks for happiness, according to science. Achieving happiness is top of mind for many people, and we'll try just about anything to get it. Whether it's therapy, exercise or meditation, we all want to bring more peace and joy into our lives. When we think about what makes us happy, our diet isn't usually at the top of the list (unless your favorite fast-food joint brings joy to mind). The foods we eat actually play a major role in how we feel. Studies...

Scientists measured the impact of high doses of Vitamin B6 on young adults and found that they reported feeling less anxious and depressed after taking the supplements every day for a month. Dr. David Field, lead author, said: "The functioning of the brain relies on a delicate balance between the excitatory neurons that carry information around and inhibitory ones, which prevent runaway activity. "Vitamin B6 helps the body produce a specific chemical messenger that inhibits impulses in the brain, and our study links this calming effect with reduced anxiety among the participants." While previous studies have produced evidence that multivitamins...

On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks stated that Democrats are facing poor poll numbers because “the whole zeitgeist of the country has deteriorated over the last year. And I would say it’s been a threat of disorder,” internationally, domestically on crime, and economically on inflation.

As of 10:00 AM Central, Drudge is showing zero, nothing regarding emerging FBI abuse scandal. Nothing.

The rich array of microbiota in our intestines can tell us more than you might think.Eighteen vials were rocking back and forth on a squeaky mechanical device the shape of a butcher scale, and Mark Lyte was beside himself with excitement. ‘‘We actually got some fresh yesterday — freshly frozen,’’ Lyte said to a lab technician. Each vial contained a tiny nugget of monkey feces that were collected at the Harlow primate lab near Madison, Wis., the day before and shipped to Lyte’s lab on the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center campus in Abilene, Tex. Lyte’s interest was not...

Facebook users in a study led by the University of Michigan wound up feeling worse about themselves after two weeks, and their moment-to-moment mood darkened the more they browsed the social medium. ... The more you used Facebook, the more your mood dropped.

Americans are more pessimistic about the nation’s economic outlook and overall direction than they have been at any time since President Obama’s first two months in office, when the country was still officially ensnared in the Great Recession, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. At a time of rising gas prices, stubborn unemployment and a cacophonous debate in Washington over the federal government’s ability to meet its future obligations, the poll presents stark evidence that the slow, if unsteady, gains in public confidence earlier this year that a recovery was under way are now all but gone....

You've heard the claims: Chocolate evokes that loving feeling. Eating fish makes you smarter. Pure carbs calm you down. If you are what you eat, as they say, then it certainly stands to reason that food can influence mood and brain power. The theory behind these supposed connections seems plausible. Certain neurotransmitters do affect the brain and, consequently, our dispositions in measurable ways. For instance, high levels of serotonin are associated with being calm, happy and relaxed, while low levels are linked to depression and aggression. Dopamine and norepinephrene are reward chemicals released by the brain in response to pleasure....

This needs absolutely no commentary for me. It is a spot on accurate assessment of the mood of the nation, as deliciously put by former WSJ journalist, James Gannon, and as it it appears on American Spectator today.Apologies to the Spectator for the full reprint, but I don't want to "interrupt" the flow with a hyperlink junp. And a H/T to the folks who post a Lucianne for the heads up. Now... sit back and enjoy.... America's Quiet AngerBy James P. Gannon on 3.30.10 @ 6:07AM There is a quiet anger boiling in America. It is the anger of millions...

Never mind depressed real estate values—the old mantra "location, location, location" may be just as important to your mental health, a new U.S. government report suggests. This county-by-county map shows the percentages of residents who reported "frequent mental distress" (FMD)—defined as 14 or more days of emotional discomfort, including "stress, depression and problems with emotion," during the previous month. Three days of mental distress is considered average, the researchers say. Over the course of two random telephone surveys—one administered between 1993 and 2001, the other between 2003 and 2006—a team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) asked...

n Part I, I made the argument that any woman who is married to a good man and who wants a happy marriage ought to consent to at least some form of sexual relations as much as possible. (Men need to understand that intercourse should not necessarily be the goal of every sexual encounter.) In Part II, I advance the argument that a wife should do so even when she is not in the mood for sexual relations. I am talking about mood, not about times of emotional distress or illness. Why? Here are eight reasons for a woman not...

(CBS) Human beings spend on average one third of their lives asleep. We know we need to sleep but most of us have never really given a whole lot of thought to why. Why do we spend seven or eight hours a night immobile and unconscious? What really happens inside our brains and bodies while we're sleeping? We've known the purpose of our other biological drives for hundreds of years: we eat to give our bodies energy, we drink to keep hydrated, we procreate to perpetuate the species - among other things. But what is the biological purpose of sleep?...

Source: Loyola University Health System Date: September 30, 2007 Does Your Mood Take A Nosedive Each November? Science Daily — If you notice that your mood, energy level and motivation take a nosedive each November only to return to normal in April, you may have Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), according to Loyola University Health System doctors. “This condition, characterized by depression, exhaustion and lack of interest in people and regular activities, interferes with a person’s outlook on life and ability to function properly,” said Dr. Angelos Halaris, chair of Loyola’s department of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences. But people should not...

Sniffle-Busting Personalities: Positive mood guards against getting colds Bruce Bower People with generally positive outlooks show greater resistance to developing colds than do individuals who rarely revel in upbeat feelings, a new investigation finds. Frequently basking in positive emotions defends against colds regardless of how often one experiences negative emotions, say psychologist Sheldon Cohen of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and his colleagues. They suspect that positive emotions stimulate symptom-fighting substances. "We need to take more seriously the possibility that a positive emotional style is a major player in disease risk," Cohen says. In a study published in 2003, his...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Lonely? Feeling low? Try taking a walk -- down the aisle. Getting married enhances mental health, especially if you're depressed, according to a new U.S. study. The benefits of marriage for the depressed are particularly dramatic, a finding that surprised the professor-student team behind the study. "We actually found the opposite of what we expected," said Adrianne Frech, a PhD sociology student at Ohio State University who conducted the study with Kristi Williams, an assistant professor of sociology. They expected to find that one spouse's depression weighed too much on the marriage, but "just mattering to...

Once again, convicted Palestinian terrorist Marwan Barghouti is trying to "lead" his people from inside an Israeli prison. If his win in primaries in the West Bank on Friday provides any insight into the Palestinian popular mood, it is that they are still addicted to terrorist "leaders" like Barghouti. According to the BBC: He [Barghouti] is serving five life terms in an Israeli jail for the killing of four Israelis and a Greek monk. Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said there was no chance of Barghouti getting an early release. Barghouti, 46, won 34,000 out of 40,000 votes - affirming...

Fewer Americans fear a terrorist attack on the USA in the next several weeks than at any time since 9/11, a new USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll shows. Overall, 35% say another attack is likely soon, down from 39% in January and a high of 85% in October 2001, a month after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The public has lost confidence in the Bush administration's ability to protect the nation from terrorist attacks, the poll shows, but 61% are still confident it can. Satisfaction with the way things are going in the war on terrorism is at a new low: 52%,...

'Bad' odors cause bad driving? Fri Jun 3, 7:36 AM ET LONDON (Reuters) - Driving badly? then ditch the fast food and reach for the mints. Different odors affect the way motorists drive, with fast food scents likely to increase road rage potential and other smells -- like peppermint -- deemed to improve concentration, the RAC Foundation motoring organization said Friday. "More than any other sense, the sense of smell circumnavigates the logical part of the brain," the RAC Foundation's consultant psychologist, Conrad King, said. "This is why the smell of perfume can turn men into gibbering idiots, the smell...

A team of psychologists and economists is reporting today what many Americans know but do not always admit, especially to social scientists: that watching television by oneself is a very enjoyable way to pass the time, and that taking care of children - bless their little hearts - is often about as much fun as housework. Those findings, published in the journal Science, run contrary to previous research about what makes people happy and why. The study also suggests that the fundamental realities of marriage and job security have far less to do with daily moods than factors like deadlines...

That’s the main question at the center of the Dean-Kerry showdown It's the independence day parade in Amherst, N.H., and John Forbes Kerry, the elegant Senator from Massachusetts, is wearing a button-down, long-sleeve tattersall shirt, khaki pants and topsiders. He is surrounded by about 100 supporters, many of them young people toting signs. There is a Kerry truck blaring music. "It doesn't get much better than this," he says, a statement meant to convey enthusiasm but which comes off as Kerry's awkward guess at what a politician ought to be saying in such circumstances. Other candidates—Joe Lieberman, Bob Graham—are in...