ArcaMax

A new study of 64,000 adults across Europe, North America and the Middle East reaffirmed that loneliness generally increases with age, but unlike in other parts of the world, middle-aged people in the U.S. and the Netherlands felt lonelier than older generations.

"Advocacy and interventions to address the loneliness epidemic have historically focused on older adults and adolescents. Middle-aged adults represent a critical population that is being overlooked," said study author Robin Richardson, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Emory University.

Being unmarried, unemployed, depressed and in poor health were primary reasons why loneliness varied with age. The importance of these factors and their combinations differed by country. In the U.S., being unemployed was the top reason for a higher amount of loneliness among middle-aged adults.

Adults in Denmark reported the overall lowest levels of loneliness, while those in Greece and Cyprus reported the overall highest levels.

Body of Knowledge

The triangular hollow between the carpal bones of the wrist and hand has been called the "anatomical snuff box" because of the decades-past practice of placing powdered tobacco there to be inhaled.

Doc Talk

Diaphragmatic spasm: Getting the wind knocked out of you

Phobia of the Week

Felinophobia: Fear of cats. Also known as ailurophobia, elurophobia and gatophobia because, well, cats are sneaky.

Best Medicine

A man and his pregnant wife are speaking with her doctor.

The doctor asks him if he's ever been present at a childbirth before.

"Yes, just once," replies the man.

"And what was it like?" asks the doctor.

"Well, it was dark and then suddenly very bright."

Hypochondriac's Guide

If eating ice cream or drinking a cold drink too quickly causes a painful "brain freeze" or headache, pressing your tongue or thumb against the roof of your mouth can ease the pain. When eating cold things too fast, the body tries to offset the lower temperature by quickly expanding blood vessels in the head. By pressing your tongue or thumb against the roof of your mouth, you help return your mouth's temperature to normal.

Observation

"Laughter is important, not only because it makes us happy, (but) it also has actual health benefits. And that's because laughter completely engages the body and releases the mind. It connects us to others, and that in itself has a healing effect." -- American actress Marlo Thomas of "That Girl" TV fame (b. 1937)

Medical History

This week in 2004, a study led by Richard Doll quantified for the first time the damage caused over the lifetime from smoking. Doll oversaw a 50-year study of almost 35,000 British doctors. The study reported that almost half of physicians who were persistent cigarette smokers were killed by their habit, and a quarter died before age 70. However, those who quit by age 30 had the same life expectancy as a nonsmoker. And even quitting at age 50 saved six more years of life over those who continued smoking. By age 80, 65% of nonsmoking doctors in the study were still alive, but only 32% of smokers were.

Ig Nobel Apprised

The Ig Nobel Prizes celebrate achievements that make people laugh, then think. A look at real science that's hard to take seriously and even harder to ignore.

In 2004, the Ig Nobel Prize in medicine went to Steven Stack of Wayne State University in Michigan and James Gundlach of Auburn University in Alabama for their published report "The Effect of Country Music on Suicide."

Country music is hypothesized to nurture a suicidal mood through its concerns with problems common in the suicidal population, such as marital discord, alcohol abuse and alienation from work, the authors said. After surveying 49 metropolitan areas, Stack and Gundlach reported that the greater the airtime devoted to country music, the greater the white suicide rate, independent of divorce, Southernness, poverty and gun availability.

Or as Townes Van Zandt crooned in his 1968 country hit "Waitin' Around to Die":

"His name's codeine, he's the nicest thing I've seen.

Together we're gonna wait around and die."

Van Zandt would die himself at 52 from cardiac arrhythmia.

Self-Exam

Q: Which of the statements below is true about the outer part of the eye called the cornea?

A) It changes color based on your mood

B) It is completely replaced about once a year

C) It gets oxygen straight from the air rather than from blood

D) It says the same size from birth

A: C) The cornea does not contain blood vessels since the opaque fluid would obscure vision. It needs to absorb oxygen from other places, such as tears and directly from the atmosphere.

Curtain Calls

The Ford Pinto, produced from 1970 to 1980, suffered from a notorious safety reputation, mostly involving the car's fuel tank's propensity for bursting into flames. So it was an interesting choice for Henry Smolinski and Harold Blake, a pair of aeronautical engineers with a dream of building the world's first commercially available flying car.

In 1973, they strapped the rear end of a twin-engine Cessna Skymaster to a Pinto. During its first test flight, part of the mounting failed on takeoff, and the test pilot safely brought the car/plane back to earth.

On its second test flight, however, the pilot was not available, and Smolinski and Blake decided to take the wheel/yoke. They got airborne. Two minutes later, the wings suddenly failed, and the car/plane plummeted 800 feet. In true Pinto fashion, it burst into flames, killing both men.

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