Researchers in the US have found that the difference between the male and female reaction to stress is due to the levels of the mood hormone oxytocin. While both genders produce oxytocin, women produce more - particularly during pregnancy and lactation. This, according to a new report due to be published in the American Psychological Review, explains why women usually react to stress with a "tend and befriend" response, while men are more likely to exhibit a "fight or flight" response. (Reuters Health)
The National Headache foundation in the US has just released an online guide to help children cope with headaches. It is estimated that some 10 million American children get chronic headaches - 15 per cent of which are tension headaches and five per cent are migraine. The site which is written in a child-friendly way is www.headaches.org.
The debate on whether violent video games encourage children to be more violent continues. The most recent finding on the subject comes from the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association last week. Following a study of 35 eight to 12-year-olds, researchers from Ohio found that children who prefer violent video games are more likely to express verbal aggression in social situations. But short-term exposure to violence does not seem to have an adverse effect.(Reuters Health)
Morning sickness during pregnancy is good for you, according to two evolutionary biologists at Cornell University in New York. They looked at pregnancies in 56 studies from 16 countries and found that there was a lower rate of miscarriage (four per cent) in women who suffered vomiting than in those who didn't (10 per cent).
Writing in the Quarterly Review of Biology, the researchers say: "Our study is the first to gather compelling evidence that morning sickness is nature's way of protecting mothers and foetuses from food-borne illnesses." The report stresses that women who do not experience morning sickness should not panic.
