One Thing You Can Do Right Now to Help Your Heart

Many diseases and medical conditions are caused by things out of our control. Yet experts say you can control and even prevent many of the risk factors that increase your chances of dying.

【小题1】But there is something else you can do. And it is free and easy. Smile!

Anand Chockalingam, a heart disease specialist in Columbia, Missouri, advises his patients to smile. He says smiling is a first step in fighting physical and emotional stress and its sometimes harmful effects on human health. 【小题2】 Several studies support Dr. Chockaligam’s prescription to smile more.

When we talk about disorders of the heart and blood vessels, we are talking about cardiovascular diseases, such as coronary heart disease. And they are the number one cause of death around the world. 【小题3】

When you feel stressed or under pressure, your body releases many natural hormones including adrenaline and cortisol. 【小题4】 However, when stressed for a long period, these stress hormones are ever-present in our bodies. And that, medical researchers warn, may lead to health problems.

Dr. Chockalingam says a smile may be one way to help. He tells his patients to smile 20 times an hour. To some, that might seem like a lot of smiling. Or some might even feel foolish ... smiling for seemingly no reason. But a smile does not involve drugs. 【小题5】

“Once people smile, they are relaxing. This relaxation directly lowers blood pressure, improves sugar levels in the blood. If we are smiling, we are breaking that link between stress and health.”

And it just may provide a little extra protection to everyone's heart health.

Gabriella’s family immigrated to the US from Peru when she was two years old. As a compound bilingual (双语使用者), Gabriella develops two linguistic codes at the same time, with a set of concepts, learning both English and Spanish. Her teenage brother, on the other hand, might be a coordinate bilingual, working with two sets of concepts, learning English in school, Spanish at home. Finally, Gabriella’s parents are likely to be subordinate bilinguals who learned a second language by translating it into their mother tongue.

Regardless of accent and pronunciation, all types of bilingual people can become fully proficient in a language. It seems that the difference may not be apparent. But recently brain imaging technology has given a glimpse into how specific aspects of language learning affect the bilingual brain. It’s well known that the brain's left hemisphere (半球) is in charge of logical processes, while the right hemisphere is more active in emotional and social ones. Language involves both types of functions.“Critical Period Theory” says children learn languages more easily because their developing brains let them use both hemispheres in language learning, while in most adults, language relies on one hemisphere, usually the left.

Before the 1960s, bilingualism was considered a handicap that slowed the children’s development by forcing them to spend too much energy distinguishing between languages. But a recent study did show that bilingualism may make you smarter. It does make your brain more complex, healthier, and more actively engaged, and even if you didn’t have the good fortune of learning a second language   like a child, it’s never too late to do yourself a favor and make the linguistic leap from“Hello” to “Hola” “Bonjour” or “nihao” because when it comes to our brains, a little exercise can go a long way.

House work might seem a drag, but researchers have suggested tasks like dusting, sweeping floors and washing the windows might help adults to stay healthy into old age. Writing in the journal BMJ Open, a Singapore-based team of researchers said regular physical activity “improves physical and mental health, and relieves the risks and effects of chronic diseases among older adults”.

The team randomly chose adults from the town of Yishun in Singapore, and asked them to complete cognitive function tests as well as activities to assess their physical capabilities, such as standing up from a chair as quickly as they could. Participants were also quizzed on their levels of physical activity, including the amount of light housework and heavy housework they did, and were assessed for their risk of having a fall based on measures such as knee extension strength. The study involved 249 participants aged 21-64 and 240 participants aged 65- 90. Most of those who reported doing high levels of heavy or light housework were women.

After taking into account factors including age and sex, the team found cognitive scores and attention scores were 8% and 14% higher respectively for older adults doing high amounts of heavy housework— on average 131 minutes a week— compared with low levels, which appeared to amount to none at all. Sit-to-stand times were lower for older adults reporting high amounts of heavy housework compared with low amounts，while they were also assessed as being at lower risk of having a fall.

Dr Shiou-Liang Wee, the co-author of the research, said health messaging on staying active should not just be about recreational physical activities. “Housework is a purposeful activity performed by many older adults. Independent of recreation, commuting and other work-related physical activity, heavy housework is linked to sharper memory and better falls protection in older adults,” he said.