Science Assures It’s Fine to Have Fewer Friends in Your 30s

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Social networks tend to follow predictable cycles throughout a person’s life, expanding in the 20s and shrinking in the 30s and beyond, a notion borne out by social-science research and popular trend pieces alike. Now, a new study takes this idea and fast-forwards several decades into the future, giving a hint about the long-term impact of this friendly ebb and flow.

According to the study, led by Cheryl L. Carmichael of Brooklyn College and published recently in the journal Psychology and Aging, your middle-age happiness can be predicted by two things: the quantity of friends in your 20s, and the quality of friendships in your 30s. In a way, your 50-year-old self stands to benefit both from the endless rounds of flip cup with college pals and the long talks with close friends a decade later.

The researchers used a data set involving more than 200 University of Rochester students, who in the 1970s and 1980s had been asked to keep daily diaries tracking their social interactions for two weeks, once when they were about 20 years old and again when they were about 30. Each time, they were to note both how many people they interacted with each day and to rate the intimacy and pleasantness of the interaction. Then in 2007 and 2008, when they were about 50, a little more than 100 of those former students took a series of tests to measure their psychological health, including their levels of loneliness, depression, and overall well-being. As it turned out, having a higher number of interactions in the 20s predicted greater well-being in the 50s; in the 30s, however, the quality of the social connections mattered more.

The study isn’t a perfect one. For one, Carmichael acknowledges that this is a limited slice — mostly white, relatively well-educated, and well-off — from which to draw these conclusions. And there’s also the fact that adulthood is pretty different in 2015 than it was in the 1980s, when these study participants were in their early 30s; it’s more common now for young adults to delay marriage and family, for instance. “Our reference to age 20 as early adulthood may, nowadays, be more aptly described as very early adulthood, whereas by age 30, people often feel they have fully entered adulthood,” Carmichael writes. “The developmental changes that we ascribe to 30-year-olds may have taken place by age 30 for many in this late baby-boom cohort, but may unfold at a later age (e.g. closer to age 40) for other generations.” Also, imagine if this study were to be replicated today, with the inclusion of social media. How many “social interactions” have you had in the last two hours, let alone the last two weeks?

Still, if this is the pattern your social life has taken, the researchers do explore some interesting potential reasons why. There’s the obvious, for one — the fact that for many people, the 30s are the years of marriage, kids or career (or all three at once!), leaving less time for keeping up with tons of friends.

But there’s also this: In early adulthood, you’re still figuring yourself out, trying on different selves and ways of being; it makes sense that you’d want a larger circle of friends, with personalities you can borrow from time to time. “However, as individuals approach their 30s, social information-seeking motives wane,” Carmichael and her co-authors write. “Identity exploration goals diminish with the transition into better-defined and more enduring social roles.” You start to have a better idea of who you are in your 30s, meaning that you aren’t so reliant on people in your social circle to give you ideas of who you could be. In other words: If you’re concerned because you have fewer friends than you did in college or in the years shortly after, relax. You’ll be fine.

More from Science of Us:

A New Study Explains Why You and Your 7th-Grade Best Friend Drifted Apart

Why Lonely People Stay Lonely

One Simple Way To Reduce Social Anxiety

Why You Should Go to the Movies (and Do Other Stuff) Alone

Inside the Brains of Happily Married Couples

Mindfulness Is Great, But Spacing Out Is Good for You, Too

Science of Us is a smart but playful window into the latest science on human behavior, with the goal of enlightening, entertaining, and providing useful information that can be applied to everyday life.

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How to Apply Melt-Proof Concealer

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Now that summer is winding down, everything seems to be getting more relaxed. We all want to relish in the warm days, even as the nights start to get cooler, and the tell-tale sound of crickets chirping let’s us know that summer is yet again waning. It’s time to keep it simple, down to our makeup. Especially for the days when you can’t be bothered with foundation, concealer, when used correctly, can be a great fuss free substitute. So, we created a no-fail concealer tutorial for you so that you can lightly perfect your face and be on your way to enjoy the dog days of summer.

 

Here’s how to do it:

1. Apply concealer in “dots” under the eyes and any other areas.

2. Blend blend blend,

3: Apply powder under eyes to set concealer

This article originally appeared on MIMIchatter.com.

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MIMI Chatter is an endless stream of beauty content. We bring together the must-knows and the how-tos from your favorite sites, beauty influencers, our editors, and YOU.

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Vitamin D Supplements Little Help for Obese Teens, Study Finds

FRIDAY, Aug. 14, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Taking vitamin D supplements does not benefit obese teens and may actually harm their health, new research indicates.

Studies have suggested a link between vitamin D deficiency and problems such as insulin resistance and heart disease, and some doctors put obese teens on high-dose vitamin D supplementation to try to slow or reverse such obesity-related health problems.

But this latest research found the supplements do not improve obese teens’ heart health or reduce their diabetes risk, said Dr. Seema Kumar, a pediatric endocrinologist at the Mayo Clinic Children’s Center in Rochester, Minn. In addition, the supplements may be linked to increased levels of cholesterol and fat-storing triglycerides, according to a Mayo Clinic news release.

“After three months of having vitamin D boosted into the normal range with supplements, these teenagers showed no changes in body weight, body mass index, waistline, blood pressure or blood flow,” Kumar added.

She has studied the effects of vitamin D supplementation in children for 10 years, and her latest findings were published online Aug. 14 in the journal Pediatric Obesity.

“I have been surprised that we haven’t found more health benefit,” Kumar said. “We’re not saying it’s bad to take vitamin D supplements at reasonable doses, and we know most obese teens are vitamin D-deficient. We’re just saying the jury is still out on how useful it is for improving overall health in adolescents,” she explained.

“We’re not saying the links between vitamin D deficiency and chronic diseases don’t exist for children — we just haven’t found any yet,” Kumar said.

Consuming too much vitamin D can also result in vitamin D toxicity, which causes poor appetite, nausea, vomiting and kidney complications, Kumar said.

While the study found an association between vitamin D supplementation and higher levels of cholesterol and triglycerides, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship. Kumar suggested large, placebo-controlled studies are needed to determine the long-term effects of vitamin D supplementation on children and teens.

More information

The Harvard School of Public Health has more about vitamin D and health.

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How to Mend a Broken Heart? Your Gender May Matter

By Kathleen Doheny
HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, Aug. 14, 2015 (HealthDay News) — The pain of a romantic breakup may hit women harder at first, but they recover far more quickly from the loss than men do, new research suggests.

“At some point, clearly, women get over a breakup,” said study author Craig Morris, a research associate at Binghamton University in New York. “They will discuss in great detail the pain, the suffering, the misery, but they are talking about it in the past.”

Women often “return to the dating scene in many ways better than they were before,” he said, having learned from and processed their mistakes.

Conversely, men may not feel the same sharp jab of pain initially, yet they may never recover fully emotionally, Morris found.

“When you talk to a man about a breakup,” Morris said, “you can see he is still there. The anger. The disappointment. There was never any end to this for him. Most men never use the phrase, ‘I got over it.’ “

The study was published recently in the journal Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences.

The findings are based on input from more than 5,700 men and women from 96 countries who answered questions about breakups online. Of course, Morris said, the findings “are huge generalizations” and don’t describe everyone’s experience.

However, after a split, women averaged a score of 6.8 for emotional anguish on a scale of zero to 10, while men averaged less, 6.6. Women said their physical pain was about 4.2 of 10; for men, it was 3.75 of 10.

The differences are partly explained by biology, Morris said. Traditionally, a woman has more to lose by dating the wrong person. She risks pregnancy after even a brief encounter, he said, whereas the man has no biological investment should he choose not to stick around.

However, Morris said, “it is far more than biology.” Breakups don’t hurt just because a person has lost what Morris called “reproductive access to someone.” Beyond that, he said, “psychologically we experience this love and a craving for intimacy.”

Women may have more initial pain, he said, due to an anxiety and fear response to the breakup. Being physically alone may drive those feelings for women, he said.

The findings support some older research about sex differences in breakups, but they also add detail about post-breakup grief, said T. Joel Wade, a professor of psychology at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa.

The new research suggests that men should seek help, Wade said, such as social support from others or from a counselor. “Women get over it faster because they seek social support and use positive coping methods,” he said.

Viewing a breakup as adaptive may speed recovery for both men and women, Wade said. That means viewing the breakup as allowing you “to get out of a bad relationship and move on to a better one,” Wade explained.

Morris agreed men should seek help and support. “Men are conditioned to grin and bear it,” he said. They may go out for a drink with buddies, he said, but he would not expect to hear they tried to “process” their breakup by discussing it over a beer. Men often move on to another relationship without processing the previous one, he finds.

Men should be allowed and encouraged to reach out, to share feelings and to ask for help, Morris added.

More information

To learn more about surviving breakups, visit Texas Tech University.

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More Police Killed in States With High Gun Ownership: Study

THURSDAY, Aug. 13, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Police in states with large numbers of gun owners have a higher risk of being killed on duty, a new study finds.

Researchers looked at data on police murders and gun ownership nationwide between 1996 and 2010. They found that police in states with high levels of private gun ownership had a more than three times higher risk of being killed on duty than those in states with the lowest levels of gun ownership.

The study was published Aug. 13 in the American Journal of Public Health.

“If we’re interested in protecting police officers, we need to look at what’s killing them, and what’s killing them is guns,” lead author David Swedler, research assistant professor of environmental and occupational health sciences at University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, said in a university news release.

“We know that 92 percent of police officers killed in the line of duty are killed by guns, three-quarters of which are handguns,” he said.

Of the 782 police officers who were murdered during the study period, 716 were killed by guns, including 515 by handguns, the study revealed.

Thirty-eight percent of households nationwide have at least one gun, the researchers found. The lowest rate was just under 5 percent of households in the District of Columbia. The highest was 62 percent of households in Wyoming.

Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Mississippi and Montana were in the top one-fifth for both gun ownership and police murders. Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island were in the bottom fifth in both categories, the study revealed.

“We found that officers aren’t being killed in states with high violent-crime rates. While violent crime rates didn’t track closely to officer homicide rates, it was public gun ownership that had the strongest relationship,” Swedler said.

“Hypothetically, officers might be put at increased risk if they are more frequently encountering violent criminals, but our data doesn’t find that to be the case. We find that officers are at an increased risk for being killed the more frequently they encounter guns in public settings,” Swedler said.

Swedler added that many officers are shot when responding to domestic disturbance calls.

“Research shows that responding to domestic violence calls are one of the most common situations in which officers are killed. In states where firearms are more prevalent, officers responding to reports of domestic violence are more often entering potentially lethal situations compared to officers responding to such calls in states with lower firearm prevalence,” he said.

More information

The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence offers gun violence statistics.

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Type 2 Diabetes Linked to Language Problems in Women

By Serena Gordon
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Aug. 13, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Insulin resistance, a key component of type 2 diabetes, may contribute to language problems in women that can potentially signal early dementia, new research suggests.

The association was not seen in men, although the researchers could not determine exactly why that was so.

In the study, the Finnish researchers measured what is called low verbal fluency, which is the rate at which you produce words.

“Preclinical Alzheimer’s disease typically starts with episodic memory decline. However, verbal fluency is a measure of executive function, and also deficits in executive function can be found early in the disease,” said study author Dr. Laura Ekblad, a researcher at the University of Turku. Executive function includes higher-order processes such as working memory, planning and problem solving.

But Ekblad added that the findings aren’t cause for immediate concern for women. She said that due to the design of the study, they could only show an association between insulin resistance and low verbal fluency. “We cannot show cause-and-effect,” she explained.

“Not all individuals with insulin resistance will develop cognitive [thinking and memory] impairment or dementia later in life,” she added.

Still, another expert noted that increasing evidence is linking insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes to memory troubles.

And the relationship between gender and Alzheimer’s disease has been a very hot topic in research lately, said Keith Fargo, director of scientific programs and outreach at the Alzheimer’s Association.

“The majority of people with Alzheimer’s disease are women. Women are about twice as likely to get Alzheimer’s disease. What we don’t know for sure is why,” Fargo said.

The current study, published Aug. 12 in the journal Diabetologia, included almost 6,000 people in Finland. Their ages ranged from 30 to 97, with a mean age of 52.5 years. The researchers tested brain health using a variety of tests, including verbal fluency. To test verbal fluency, the study volunteers were asked to name as many animals as they could in 60 seconds.

The investigators also looked at whether or not people had insulin resistance, and if they had a gene that’s linked to a higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease called APOE-E4.

Insulin is a hormone that helps cells use sugar from foods as fuel. When someone develops insulin resistance, they still produce enough insulin, but it doesn’t work as effectively.

The researchers found that women with higher levels of insulin resistance were more likely to score poorly on the verbal fluency test.

“Poorer scores could be noticeable in difficulties or slowness in trying to name several objects of the same kind,” Ekblad explained. But, generally, the effect of poorer verbal fluency scores wouldn’t be very noticeable unless they were quite low, she added.

Ekblad said while this study didn’t delve specifically into how these changes might occur, the researchers suspect that changes in the blood vessels linked to insulin resistance, or a change in the number of lesions in the brain’s white matter, might explain the association with poorer verbal fluency. And those factors are more common in women than in men, she explained.

Another surprising finding was that people who had higher levels of insulin resistance and the APOE-E4 gene did not score worse on verbal fluency. People who only had high insulin resistance had worse scores on verbal fluency, she said.

According to Fargo, “This study raises more questions than it answers, and we definitely don’t have as many answers as we need. The only way to get those answers is through more research.”

Dr. Mark Stecker, chairman of the department of neurosciences at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, N.Y., agreed that more research is needed.

“It would be nice to have this information confirmed in multiple groups. Seeing what happens in other patients would be very helpful. Are these findings due to vascular problems? Other problems? It’s hard to know from one study. We’re early in the science,” he said.

Ekblad said that women should be aware that lifestyle factors — such as diet and exercise — may have an effect on brain health, even in early adulthood.

And Fargo said that while the study can’t provide specific advice to prevent thinking and memory problems, “it’s been fairly well established that the better your overall health is, the better your cognition.”

More information

Learn more about keeping your brain healthy from the Alzheimer’s Association.

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A Simple Guided Breathing Meditation

Meditating on the breath is one of the simplest contemplative techniques and it’s also one of the most profound. Because the breath is always with us, it serves as an anchor into the present moment, which we can tap into at any given time. The breath is always fresh. Paying attention to the breath physiologically grounds us and has a soothing effect on the body and mind. When meditating on the breath, the idea is to relinquish all thoughts as you focus on your inhales and exhales. Emptying the mind can be difficult in practice, but the guided meditation above can help you get started. Watch the video to ease into the present moment and better understand this wonderful technique.

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Sonima.com is a new wellness website dedicated to helping people improve their lives through yoga, workouts, guided meditations, healthy recipes, pain prevention techniques, and life advice. Our balanced approach to wellness integrates traditional wisdom and modern insights to support vibrant and meaningful living.

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5 Things to Know About Exercising During Your Period

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If you tend to ditch the gym during that time of the month, here’s something to think about: A woman named Kiran Gandhi recently made news for running the London Marathon during her period—without a tampon. She did it to raise awareness for women who lack access to feminine care products, and crossed the finish line with blood-soaked tights. So if she could run 26.2 miles bleeding freely, then the rest of us can probably handle a 45-minute Spin class, right? Yes, absolutely—in fact, multiple studies show menstruating women feel better when they get moving.

Here, everything you need to know about exercising on your period (your call whether you want to raise awareness about it).

RELATED: 10 Things That Mess With Your Period

It helps with annoying period-related symptoms

It may seem like the last thing you want to do when you have your period, but working out can help relieve the symptoms that make getting your period so annoying in the first place.”The more active you are [overall] and more regular you are with your activity, the better your periods end up being—less cramping, less heavy flow,” explains Stacy Sims, PhD, an exercise physiologist for USA Cycling Women’s Track Endurance Program and co-founder of Osmo Nutrition.

Case in point: when you sweat, water leaves the body, which can relieve uncomfortable belly bloat. Exercise also releases mood-boosting endorphins, which anecdotal evidence suggests might at least take your mind off discomfort or pain. And, a recent study revealed a correlation between higher levels of physical fitness and fewer PMS symptoms.

It may be the best time to do HIIT

The best workout to do during your period? High-intensity interval training, Sims says. “When your period starts, your estrogen and progesterone levels drop. And because of this, women can access carbohydrate/glycogen easily, as compared to high-estrogen time periods [when we] rely more on the slow breakdown of fat.” In other words, this hormone shift makes fuel more accessible to your body, allowing you to push harder and get more out of short, fast-paced workouts than you would during other times of the month.

RELATED: 6 Things You Should Know About Having Sex During Your Period

It keeps you cool

Really. Turns out your body temperature is actually lower during your period, which is a low-hormone phase. “This increases time to fatigue, and allows the body to store more heat without hitting the tipping point of central nervous system fatigue,” Sims says. Not to mention, during this time we can tolerate hotter and more humid climates (hello, hot yoga!),  Sims adds.

You can make it more comfortable

Know your period is coming up? Don’t let the pain sneak up on you. It’s totally fine to take an over-the-counter NSAID pain reliever, like naproxen or ibuprofen, 24 to 48 hours before your period is due. This way, you can sidestep your symptoms before they keep you home from the gym. If you forget, be sure to take them at the first twinge of pain.

If you’re like Gandhi and find tampons uncomfortable during exercise, there’s no shortage of products to try: pads, liners, and now menstrual cups and even specialized period-proof underwear.

It’s okay to give yourself a break

All this said, if you’re really just not feeling it, don’t beat yourself up for not going all out. Even just a gentle stroll counts as exercise, and it may help you feel better. “Your best bet is to do some light and easy movement that helps reduce inflammation via blood flow,” Sims says. “If you really feel terrible, it’s all right to take a day or two off.”

A final note, if you’re regularly sidelined by your periods, consider talking to your doctor; prescription remedies like the birth control pill might be helpful. Plus, it’s a good idea to have major aches and super heavy periods investigated because those could signal a health problem like endometriosis.

RELATED: Does Period Sex Raise Your Risk of Endometriosis?

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Move of the Week: Alternating Jump Lunge

Don’t have a gym membership? No worries, you don’t need equipment to get a great workout. In fact, this single plyometric exercise will burn fat, tone your glutes and thighs, and get your heart rate up. Check out how it’s done, demonstrated by Health‘s contributing editor, Kristin McGee.

RELATED: How to Do a Perfect Lunge

Here’s how to do it: Start with your feet hip distance apart, extend your right foot forward about 2 feet and lower into a lunge. Drive your body off of the ground and switch the position of your legs in the air. You should land in a lunge with your left foot forward. Keep alternating sides as you repeat this exercise for 30 to 60 seconds.

Trainer tip: To prevent injury, don’t let your knee go past your ankle.

Now try the full workout: 4 Fat-Blasting Jumping Exercises

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New Hope for Vaccine Against Germ That Causes ‘Mono’

THURSDAY, Aug. 13, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Mononucleosis: It’s a fatiguing disease that lays low thousands of Americans — usually young people — each year. But new, early research offers hope for a vaccine against the virus that’s thought to trigger most cases of the illness.

The Epstein-Barr virus is also believed to help drive a number of types of cancer.

In mice and monkeys, the nanoparticle-based vaccine triggered the animals’ immune system to release powerful antibodies against Epstein-Barr, according to a study published Aug. 13 in the journal Cell.

Nanoparticles are microscopic particles being investigated as potential delivery vehicles for vaccines. The new findings suggest that this could be a promising approach for developing an Epstein-Barr virus vaccine for people, according to researchers led by virologist Dr. Jeffrey Cohen at the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

While the work is promising, “there is still a long way to go before a vaccine that shows promise in mice and non-human primates will be ready for safe and effective protection of people,” said infectious disease expert Dr. Paul Lee, who was not involved in the new research.

According to NIAID, the Epstein-Barr virus was first identified in 1964 and is one of the most common human viruses, infecting 90 percent of people worldwide at some point in their lives. It is most commonly spread through saliva.

Most people infected with the virus do not get ill or have only mild symptoms, and Epstein-Barr is a major cause of infectious mononucleosis. It’s also linked with nearly 200,000 cases of cancer worldwide each year, including stomach and nasopharyngeal cancers, Burkitt and Hodgkin lymphoma, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, the agency said.

Currently, there is no approved vaccine to protect people against Epstein-Barr virus.

Lee said while most cases of mononucleosis linked to Epstein-Barr are “mild,” about one in 10 cases are “very significant, and sometimes have prolonged symptoms.”

“Typically, this infection occurs in adolescents and young adults — usually the most healthy segment of the population,” said Lee, who works in the Infectious Diseases Program at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, N.Y.

“There is also the fatigue which Epstein-Barr virus is notorious for — that can be severe and prolonged, and can take a month or more to resolve,” he said.

“In some studies, more than 10 percent of patients are still experiencing significant fatigue six months later,” Lee noted. “This can have a huge impact on adolescents and young adults who may be trying to graduate, apply to college or graduate school, or even work at a job, where poor performance can negatively affect their future lives, hopes and potential.”

According to the NIAID team, the nanoparticle vaccine design might also be used to create or redesign vaccines against other types of infections.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about Epstein-Barr virus.

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