The Ramblings of my Disorganised Mind

All You Need Is Love

da dada dada....

From news.com.au today, another study that fits with my "lone wolf = bad" theory (so, fo course I'm going to like it hehehe).

Original link: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12607184-13762,00.html but given it won't be a lasting one, here's the text:

True love keeps the heart beating
By Katrina Strickland
March 21, 2005

ALL you need is love - or so sang The Beatles. Hard headed 21st-centurists know this to be rubbish; you need a telly, a car, a mobile phone, a palm pilot and an iPod, for starters.

But a Melbourne academic told a conference on health and ageing at the weekend that, while we need more than love to keep us alive, love may keep us alive for longer.
Marc Cohen told the International Conference on Health Ageing and Longevity in Brisbane that there was multiple evidence to suggest that love, and lots of it, was a prime cause of a long, high-quality life (unexpected accidents notwithstanding).

Before singles reach for the razor blades, however, they should note that Professor Cohen is not talking about romantic love - he defines love as something that makes you feel as if time has stopped still.

Therefore, if you love gardening, or painting, or computer games, and get so immersed in it that you forget to make yourself lunch, then you're probably doing fine. If you hate your job and spend five days a week watching the clock tick around to 5pm, then you might be in trouble.

"All activities where you're totally focused on an act and lose track of time are loving activities," Professor Cohen said. "There is increasing clinical evidence that enjoying loving activities will help prolong life."

Founding professor of complementary medicine at Melbourne's RMIT University, Cohen pointed to a 1970s US study which found that rabbits cuddled by their laboratory assistants lived 60 per cent longer than those that weren't, even when both were fed the same high-fat diets. [Cuddles are GOOD!! :-D]

A study of 1000 Israeli men who suffered heart disease found those who felt loved by their wives had 50 per cent-less angina and cardiac attacks to those with problematic relationships.

The fact that women live longer than men can also be traced back to love - the love they dole out to children and partners, in the face of sometimes brutal indifference. [My note: Although it should be noted here that studies have shown that, although women in general live longer than men, single women live longer than their married counterparts and married men live longer than single men. It would seem that being on the receiving end of love makes a difference].

So if love's what we need, where can we get more of it? Doing something you really enjoy is a good start, Professor Cohen said. But just as pain declines when it is shared, so joy increases when it involves other people.

He pointed to a 2002 National Heart Foundation study that showed social isolation and lack of group support were as significant as high cholesterol, high blood pressure and smoking among people with heart disease.

"Positive social connections are more powerful than being alone," he said.

If you must be alone, however, meditate; Professor Cohen thinks it's a good way of stimulating that feeling of time stopping still.

This isn't actually what I was going to say today, but I browse the news site when I'm online.

But I had to post this because I absolutely know it will send Nicky into stitches and that's always a Good Thing:

Aries: As Venus gets set to move into your sign, think of the Love Lessons you have learned (or perceptions you have been keeping secret) over the past three weeks. Today: Leo Moon = Beautiful new hair reality.

Yes, Leos = all about the hair!! heheheeee. Sorry, folks, running gag.

Bad news, though, looks like Harvey will not be playing for the opener against Brisbane Lions Thursday night. Sigh. The good news is that Hamill's fit, so I'm now doubly bummed I can't get go watch it live. Last year, the Lions were the Saints' deathbringers:

Last year, the Lions defeated St Kilda twice at the Gabba, the second an 80-point shellacking in the qualifying final.

At the time, Thomas said some of his players were in awe of Brisbane.

"If we're not prepared and the attitude's not right, you get beaten," Thomas said yesterday of the Gabba journey. "It's a fairly hostile environment to go to unprepared and we just need to be right and I'm sure we will be."

St Kilda's barnstorming half-forward Aaron Hamill admitted aspects of the qualifying final had been addressed this week.

"We've brought up a little bit. There's no doubt when you play against Brisbane either home or away they expose any weakness and we were very fragile last time," Hamill said.

"We haven't gone over the top with it but we've addressed certain issues and one area we've got to be right on our game is the contested footy."

A first-up win, Hamill said, would be the ideal psychological start to the season.

"It's just another piece in the puzzle we've really got to put together," he said. "To be a good team, a great team, we've got to win any time anywhere and this is just another challenge."

Indeed. Aaron Hamill is, of course, a Leo, so I'm sure his hair will be terrific on Thursday (snigger). Let's hope his form is as good: he's not the best player on the field (he's usually the one with the highest work rate on the field though, although it doesn't always translate into goals -- he tends to set up other players', team player and all) but he is their psychological edge: when he doesn't play (as he didn't against the Lions on the semis) they tend to fall apart... not a Good Thing, one player does not a team make. But the man has more energy than anyone else on the ground and to shut the Saints down, the Lions shut Hamill down first. The first game he did play in last year against the Lions (at home) they won (by a disputed point). But the Lions at the Gabba? The only way to beat them is with a stick, while they sleep.

Actually, I wasn't going to talk about the footy, either, but you know, browsing the news. I'm up to the sports section. :-D

What I was going to say, however, was actually a song quote I like. But I'm not going to now, that'd just be silly. :-P

posted by Heather @ 12:00 pm