“Vain” isn’t a word normally associated with football players, but many wide receivers believe they look slim and fleet-footed with a lower number on their jersey rather than a higher one. New research shows these players are onto something. In two experiments, subjects shown images of players consistently said that those wearing jerseys numbered 10 to 19 looked thinner than those in jerseys 80 to 89 — even when their body sizes were the same, according to a new report in the journal PLOS ONE. Researchers say this is because the way we perceive numbers appears to influence our perceptions of body sizes. “How we perceive the world is highly influenced by our prior knowledge,” said senior researcher Ladan Shams, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of California, Los Angeles. “In our daily lives, numbers written on objects — on a bag of sugar in the supermarket or weights in the gym — usually represent the magnitude of the objects,” she said in a university news release. “The higher the number, the bigger or more massive the object generally is.” The study followed up on a 2019 ESPN report exploring why many football wide receivers prefer to wear jersey numbers between 10 and 19. A longtime NFL rule required wide receivers to wear uniform numbers between 80 and 89, but the league…  read on >  read on >

Just like adults, kids face daily stressors. Luckily, a new study suggests that teaching them creative thinking can help them manage it all. Researchers found that when school-age children learned some “narrative creativity” techniques — such as shifting your perspective and imagining “what if” scenarios — they quickly became better problem-solvers. After a week-long creativity camp, or even just a single lesson, kids showed more confidence in their ability to face life’s daily problems and come up with a “plan B” when necessary. The study was small, based on 60 kids attending the same summer camp. But experts said the findings just make sense. When kids can think flexibly, they are less likely to “panic” in the face of challenge, said study author Angus Fletcher, a professor at Ohio State University. Instead of simply giving up, he said, they are more apt to hunt for alternative solutions — a capacity called resilience. “Kids have some of the same daily challenges that adults do,” Fletcher said. “Their biggest problems aren’t in math, they’re in interacting with other kids.” Yet, Fletcher noted, schools typically focus on test scores rather than life skills. Meanwhile, parents, however well-intentioned, can also get in the way — if they rush to fix their child’s dilemma or tell them the “correct” solution. “It’s very challenging for some parents to resist that,” Fletcher…  read on >  read on >

Lee-Anne Mosselman-Clarke knows firsthand what it’s like to battle with postpartum mental health crises. She experienced difficulties after the births of her two children. “I have an 11 and 9 year old and I didn’t actually know that I had postpartum anxiety with my oldest. He had very significant health problems and I just thought I am having an awful first journey as a new mum,” she said. “It wasn’t until I got pregnant with my second that the midwife said, ‘I’d like you to talk to somebody because I think you are at risk for having postpartum depression again.’” Mosselman-Clarke, of Brant County, Ontario, Canada, has a background in social work and now works as a postpartum doula, supporting women through pregnancy and childbirth. When she heard about a new Canadian study involving group peer-delivered therapy for people battling postpartum depression, she applied immediately and was accepted as a peer facilitator. The sessions have been her passion since then. “The peer program is an incredible way to be able to talk to other people who have struggled the way you struggle without judgment or guilt or shame. And it gives an opportunity to not feel alone and to feel a lot less isolated,” Mosselman-Clarke said. The study, published Aug. 31 in Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, had some considerable findings. Postpartum depression patients who received treatment…  read on >  read on >

Obesity taxes many parts of the body, but new research suggests the heart might take the hardest hit of all. Between 1999 and 2020, deaths from heart disease linked to obesity tripled in the United States, and some groups were more vulnerable than others. Specifically, Black adults had some of the highest rates of obesity-related heart disease deaths, with the highest percentage of deaths seen in Black women. The new study was published Sept. 6 in the Journal of the American Heart Association. “Our study is the first to demonstrate that this increasing burden of obesity is translating into rising heart disease deaths,” study author Dr. Zahra Raisi-Estabragh, a cardiologist and clinical lecturer at the William Harvey Research Institute in London, said in a journal news release. About 42% of Americans are now obese, an increase of almost 10% from the last decade, according to the American Heart Association. For the study, researchers analyzed data on more than 281,000 deaths from 1999 to 2020 in which obesity was listed in a contributing cause of death in a database. They also looked at race, gender and whether people lived in urban or rural areas. Overall, obesity-related heart disease deaths jumped from 2.2 per 100,000 people in 1999 to 6.6 per 100,000 people in 2020, the study showed. The rate of heart disease deaths not related to…  read on >  read on >