Coffee: Is it Good for You or Bad for You?

cartoon: natalie dee

By Research Nancy

This post is by blog contributor "Research Nancy," with very minimal editorial interference from Crabby.

Research Nancy is too humble to say anything more about herself other than: "I love researching things. I am passionate about fitness and health and love learning about new ways to achieve both."

Since I (Crabby) am someone who downs quite a bit of coffee, I asked Research Nancy to round up some studies on whether this habit will kill me or make me superhuman. Not that I plan to do anything differently if it's the former. 

Anyway, here's her report. Welcome, Research Nancy!

--Crabby

Health Risks and Benefits of Coffee

What is there to know, you may ask, other than “I want it, I need it, it gets me going, causes peristalsis, and I like it!”

Well lots. The Oatmeal can tell you where it comes from and how it gets you going.  But is it good for you?

There have been many studies on coffee consumption. These studies have yielded mixed results from ‘you’re gonna’ die’ to it may prevent some diseases. And you might say, well I am going to die, but I don’t think coffee is going to do it. And you would likely be correct.

Treadmill Tips

[Posted by Crabby]

In yesterday's Ask Cranky Fitness post, Mary was discussing cold weather exercise and the topic of treadmills came up. Unfortunately, Mary doesn't have a treadmill and wishes she did. Crabby, on the other hand, does have a treadmill and sometimes wishes she didn't.

Since Crabby loves to give advice, and she actually owns the equipment in question, she thought she'd give some tips for those lucky enough to have some funds in the bank for a home treadmill purchase. (Not everyone does, nor do they have a place to put one, so Crabby apologizes in advance for her insensitivity about this). She also hopes those of you who actually know something about treadmills will pipe up in the Comments section if she says anything too dumb.


Home Treadmill Advice:

1. Consider your purchase carefully. Don't buy a treadmill, or any piece of exercise equipment for that matter, as a result of an infomercial. Especially not an infomercial viewed late at night in a guilty sugar-induced stupor following an unfortunate Ben and Jerry's incident.

A recent totally made up rigorous scientific study showed that 97% of home exercise equipment buyers felt like total morons. Why? Well, for not realizing that the reason they weren't exercising was because they hated to exercise, not for lack of proper home exercise equipment. It's much cheaper to not go running or not do exercise videos than to not use your treadmill.

2. Think about buying a Cheap-Ass treadmill. Not one of those totally junky infomercial brands, but a modest, possibly used or refurbished treadmill. Of course you should get on it and make sure it's not totally rickety, and think about doing some internet research on the brand. But one does not have to spend thousands of dollars to get a decent model. The Crab & Lobster's treadmill was purchased at a Sears Warehouse after someone took it back. Cost well under $400 and works just fine. Will it last forever? Probably not. (But who knows, they may invent cooler exercise machines in a few years anyway that fly around or something).

3. Treadmills Are Boring, Plan Accordingly! Though some may disagree, Crabby is of the opinion that home treadmills suck, relative to trails and paths and even sidewalks, as places to exercise. At least at the gym you can watch other people being miserable. So plop a tv in front of you, get out your best music, rent some audio-books, or whatever it takes to distract you. It's worth a little extra effort to make the experience more appealing, especially if you've just shelled out hundreds or even thousands of dollars for your machine and are growing to loathe it. Along those lines, you can...

4. Play Treadmill games! What are treadmill games? Well, these take advantage of the fact that treadmills allow you to control your terrain and tell you how fast you're going. So you can track your times and compete against yourself, make up little challenges, and generally just mix things up in a way that you may not bother to do outside where there are pretty things to look at.

So the inherent boredom of the treadmill can actually push you to improve your performance! Been wanting to try interval training? Treadmills are great for that. Or see how fast you can race-walk without having to look like an ass in front of people. You can alternate slow hills with fast flats; see how quickly you can run a mile, or how long you can walk backwards without falling over. (Crabby once read an article about how good running and walking backwards is for your legs--she gave it a try, on a treadmill at the gym when other people were around, which was not a very smart thing to do!)

5. Don't Wait for Weights! This is a favorite trick of Crabby's. One advantage of a home treadmill is that you can jump off for a minute without someone stealing it from you like they might at the gym. So Crabby will take advantage of the fact that a bit of strength training, done quickly in the middle of a cardio workout, will keep her heart rate up. It's two for one! (But not as intense as actual circuit training, which Crabby is too lazy to do).

Here's what you do: at some point in your cardio workout, you leave the treadmill running, giving yourself full credit for any mileage it records. This is important. Since you're still keeping your heart rate up, you're essentially doing cardio and get to count this time as though you were still running. Jump off the treadmill (not literally, unless you are very athletic), do a set of some yucky strength-training exercise in a quick but not too half-assed manner, then hustle back to the treadmill again. Slog some more. Wait until you get totally bored with the treadmill again, then jump off and do a different strength training exercise.

Strangely enough, through some weird workout math, you may find that miserable + miserable does not equal 2 times miserable! The cardio seems to go faster, and you have less to do when it's time to tackle those weights.

So, do any of have treadmills or other home exercise equipment? Wish you did? Glad you don't? Any tips? Comments are always welcome!

Are You "Eating Competent?"

"People who are confident, comfortable and flexible with their eating habits may be at a significantly lower risk of cardiovascular disease than people who are not."

Or so says a recent study out of Penn State, and Barbara Lohse, one of the researchers. She calls this "eating competence." There is even a questionnaire designed to assess whether you know what you're doing when you shove food in your mouth, but after a few minutes googling exhaustive research, Cranky Fitness was unable to obtain a copy. So Crabby may never know if she is a competent or an incompetent eater.

Of course it's hard not to poke a little fun at the notion of "eating competence." It sounds like just another instance of making a simple idea way more complicated than it needs to be. Right? Who doesn't know how to eat?

Well, actually, plenty of people. As silly as it sounds, those judged by the questionnaire to be lacking in this "competence" were five times more likely to have unhealthy levels of LDL and seven times more likely to have high triglycerides.

So maybe we'll stop making fun of it now.

"Eating Competence" seems to come from a nutritional model developed by Ellyn Satter. (Though the model seems quite sensible, it's apparently named "ecSatter," which, sorry Ellyn, sounds pretty darn ungainly). Anyway, Eating Competence "incorporates processes such as awareness of hunger, appetite and eating enjoyment with the body's biological tendency to maintain a preferred and stable weight."

Sounds good.

Of course, sometimes a healthy "awareness of eating enjoyment" can lead to problems, especially if the food causing that awareness is a double scoop of mocha almond fudge ice cream. Mmmm, does that cause some profound eating enjoyment.

But it really is a huge chunk of any healthy eating battle plan: how to figure out when you're really feeling hunger, not just cravings. And how to stop eating when you're not hungry anymore, even though there are plenty of tasty items left on your plate.

So Crabby is curious about the questionnaire, and she loves to take little quizzes. If anyone runs across a copy of it in their web travels, please do report in. Perhaps we can all find out if we're competent to eat our dinner tonight or we're just going to make a big ol' mess of it.

So, what do you guys think of the notion of "eating competence," and the fact it actually seems to correlate with heart disease risk? Or as usual, check in about anything on your minds!

Borrowing "Cool": For Smokers, the Debt Comes Due

So yet another new study has just come out reminding us of the damage cigarette smoking can do to the human body.

One has to wonder: is there any possible Horrible Consequence that might make a difference to a young person deciding whether or not to smoke?

Typical Teenager or College Student has already heard thousands of times that smoking is addictive, that it can cause heart disease and cancer and emphysema, and will eventually choke the life out anyone who chooses to take it up. Fortunately, that does stop a lot of kids. But plenty of others go right ahead.

This recent headline might be slightly more helpful: "Smokers' Skin Is More Wrinkled, Even In Areas Shielded From Sunlight." But it would probably need to say "Smoking will Cause Huge Green Volcanic Pimples To Appear on Your Face Permanently--Starting Tomorrow Morning," to even register.

However, the study did at least put the focus where it should be when addressing the important factors a young person weighs when deciding whether to smoke: how will it make me look?

Anti-smoking campaigns can't change the fact that smoking will make a young person cool. Only young people themselves can change that, and why would they?

It's the easiest possible way for teens to rebel. Smoking won't get you thrown in jail, pregnant, exposed to AIDS, or so wrecked you can't remember where you live. You don't even have to visit a "bad" neighborhood to score. Plus it's a much more convincing "f**ck-it-all" statement than a simple tattoo or nose piercing.

And it works! You can indeed "borrow" coolness you don't actually own yourself. If you are of tender years, your social status will be likely elevated if you take up this toxic but glamorous habit. You will look more suave, more adventurous, more "up for anything." At least through much of your twenties.

But sorry, it's all downhill after that. No one looks at 36-year-old Brian from Accounting and thinks, wow, he's so sophisticated--he smokes! Just keep watch at any downtown office building where actual grown-ups work. Wait for break time. See those people huddled there in the doorways in the the snow, the hundred degree heat? Are those the "cool" people?

Oddly enough, there seems to be almost an inverse relationship between hipness and these folks. There's an air of depression and defeat about these gatherings. No one would mistake this for the "in crowd."

What's truly amazing is the number of young adults who still make this clueless bargain--who don't even need to! (Some of us geeky types who took a few experimental puffs back in the day, but decided the price was too high--we could have really used the help). Evening strolls through the trendy neighborhoods of Washington D.C. recently revealed hordes of twenty-somethings who looked rich, attractive, well-dressed, pampered, and ready to step into privileged lives--with cigarettes dangling from their lips.

Perhaps it was the air of smugness about some of them that brought on an emotion that wasn't, well, pity. You could almost hear them: "Can't you see how awesome we look? Don't you wish you were us?"

Yep, dude, sure enough--you do look awesome. But no. Absolutely no wish to be you.

Knee-Deep in Rationalizations

Crabby has written before about her attempts to get her aerobic exercise by means of Race-Walking. And for those who don't mind Clicking on Things, she has just written more about this topic over at Diet Blog. (The article was posted yesterday, but don't worry, it is still Piping Hot and Almost Fresh!).

However, shortly after she e-mailed off that very article to Diet Blog (encouraging everyone to look like an ass like Crabby does and give Race-Walking a try), Crabby went out on her own morning Race-walk and did a very silly thing. She broke into a run! And she kept running the whole way. Bad, bad Crab. She just said the hell with her screwed up knees and hoped that somehow they were magically different knees now.

It was warm but raining lightly--way better weather for running than walking, and the songs on her iPod were really running songs, not walking songs, and she had that little burst of energy that comes from perfectly-timed caffeine ingestion, and there was a soft dirt trail to entice her off the hard asphalt one and everyone else was running too and... she just couldn't help herself.

Oddly enough, her knees hurt afterwards. Is this perhaps the reason she has given up running over and over and over again? She knows from experience that if she keeps running, her knees will continue to hurt more and more until regular walking is painful too.

But maybe this time it will be different?

Crabby first began to have knee problems when she started running at 17. She is now 47. Yeah, sure, maybe this time it will be different.

But, damn it, she likes to run so much better than she likes to walk!

Over at Diet Blog, she limited herself to one complaint about Race-Walking, which is that it looks absurd. But she has others; mainly that it doesn't feel nearly as good as running does. When Crabby is power-walking she always wishes she were running.

Yet there have been times in her life when running has been only minimally injurious. She could actually do it for months or even years at a time before having to give it up again. Crabby keeps hoping to hit that magical sweet spot again.

Here are some things she has tried over the years, some of which worked for awhile:

1. Running in only really expensive running shoes.
2. Running only on soft surfaces.
3. Running only uphill.
4. Running with orthotics.
5. Running with a different pair of orthotics.
6. Running while wearing huge hideous neoprene sleeves with funny looking kneecap holes cut out of them.
7. Running only once or twice a week and alternating with:
   

• a gym stair-climber;
• an old-fashioned regular aerobics class;
• bicycle riding;
• a step-aerobics class;
• a squeaky home stair-stepper;
• a low-impact aerobics class;
• a rowing machine;
• a gym elliptical machine;
• uphill walking; and
• race-walking.
  

To be fair, Crabby has not fully explored medical options, other than orthotics. She has never had an MRI, for example. (She had trouble enough getting health insurance without actually having the audacity to use it for something.) And her knees actually function pretty well--as long as she doesn't try to run on them.

Which would be really dumb, since there are other perfectly good aerobic alternatives. Like, for example, Race-Walking.

Crabby should not be so foolish; she promises herself that she won't go running ever again. Probably. Possibly. At least not unless it rains again and the music is really, really good.

How about you all? Any aches or injuries keep you from exercising the way you'd like?

Workout Music: Gotta Have It?

Fortunately, there is actual research out there to support the notion that music combined with exercise is a Good Thing. Not only can the right music enhance exercise performance, but music combined with exercise can actually make you really freakin' smart for at least a little while afterwards.

Okay, the researchers didn't say "really freakin' smart." They said the combination could "stimulate and increase cognitive arousal while helping to organize cognitive output." (And warning: they were talking about Vivaldi. Check your playlist and adjust expectations accordingly).

The first study, which is a survey study and is pretty old now, is actually kind of cute. Crabby completely agrees with the author's contention that beat is more important than melody in choosing the "right" music, and that synchronizing the music with the rhythm of your footsteps or swimming strokes or whatever is an excellent idea. She questions, however, the author's contention that the song should conjure up exercise associations if at all possible--the author seems to assume these associations would naturally be pleasant and motivational! Again, you may want to check your own workout and P.E. class history and adjust accordingly.

So now that we've gotten that cursory nod to "research" out of the way, lets talk tunes!

Crabby cannot do aerobic exercise without the proper music. (More on this in a future post. She has a Theory she's going to share). So Crabby has spent hundreds of hours searching out the best downloadable tunes out there--they must be great songs that have the right beat for exercise. Would you like her to share these with you?

Well, she won't.

Why not? Is it because she's selfish and mean and wants you to do all that hard work yourself?

No. She would love for you to enjoy them too.

Is it because some of her iPod selections are so cheesy that she's embarrassed about them?

No, that's not it either. Many of them are indeed cheesy but she's not embarrassed about it.

In fact Crabby has all the best cheesy but irresistible songs, as well as the best classy songs too. Her workout music is awesome and eclectic and motivating. Great beats, great melodies, great songs! You should be so lucky as to have her playlists.

It's just that despite the excellence of her choices, you would probably hate most of them.

Isn't it weird? But one of the most powerful lessons in the complete subjectivity of personal taste (short of bringing a beloved first draft to a writing group) is listening to someone else's workout music playlist. Especially if that someone has posted it on iTunes and swears they've got the best songs in the world for working out in the world on there.

Have you ever done this? You go to iTunes and make your way to iMix and carefully searched for "cardio" or "workout" or "elliptical" to get hints from others about what to listen to. And you think because you're specifying aerobic music that the tunes will have good quick beats and motivational melodies and that they'll be, well, good songs? And then you listen to them.

Aaarghhh!

Just marvel at the Complete Crap people are raving about! Way too slow, too boring, too stupid, too harsh, too soft, too insipid--it's awful, hideous, horrendous! One out of a hundred tunes you find are actually decent, and many of these are the completely wrong beat for working out to.

It seems like an odd coincidence that everything that Crabby likes is Wonderful, and others are so hopeless at choosing good music. Quite a puzzle!

So Crabby will not reveal her choices in particular, because there is a good chance you won't like them and will reveal yourself as having Bad Taste. On the other hand, she loves to hear what you folks do about music--whether it is mandatory, and what sort of things get you going. And should you happen to mention something that reveals your Excellent Taste (i.e., Crabby likes it too), who knows, she might chime in in agreement.

More Friday Randomness

So as Crabby heads off for a long weekend with the intrepid Lobster, she thought she'd leave behind the usual assortment of weird research that didn't fit in anywhere else during the week.

She also wants to remind you to email her your Great Hikes and pictures if you've got them. And, it's looking like the "Reader Recommendations" for Cool Books and Other Health Products could probably use some updating too. So if you've recently stumbled upon something you Highly Recommend, or if you suddenly recall an old favorite you think others might enjoy, please leave your suggestions in the comments or email the Crab about them.

Lets do the Bad Cancer News first and get it out of the way:

Adding extra fruits and veggies to your diet, though good for you in many other ways, doesn't appear to help prevent breast cancer recurrence. Crabby would have bet otherwise, and she doesn't like this result, so she'll just wait for some other study to come out soon and say the opposite.

Also weight cycling, or "yo-yo" dieting, appears to increase the risk of kidney cancer. This also seems like frustrating news for the many who are trying their damndest but keep putting the weight back on--now another thing to worry about.

And children and young adults living near nuclear plants show a higher incidence of leukemia. This one looked a little complicated, though, so anyone who actually lives near one may want to give it a more careful combing over before panicking about what it might mean for your kids.

Okay, yuck. That's enough of that!

There's good news however, if you have a lot of moles. You may have a slightly greater risk of melanoma, but you may live longer nonetheless. For some reason, having more moles seems related to having longer telomeres, which scientists assure us is a very good thing. It has something to do with shoelaces. Crabby, being lazy, would rather have you read about the mole study yourself than try to figure out and explain exactly what a telomere is and what shoelaces have to do with it.

And as for exercise, there's another study saying that walking is good for you, and high intensity walking is even better. You knew that already, but it's always nice to see Science on Our Side.

But here's one you may not have known: for your cardio workouts, breaking up an hour long session into two chunks with a 20 minute rest in between may actually help you burn more fat. (Crabby wonders, however, what the heck you're supposed to do for that twenty minutes, especially if you're at the gym and it already feels like you spend half the freakin' day there? But maybe you could go do some stretchy stuff, or meditate, or go flirt with the bored-looking person handing out towels.)

So this was supposed to just be a short post today, to make up these long-ass rambly things that somehow keep appearing in the blog. Crabby swears they're only a couple of paragraphs when she hits "Publish," but gremlins of some sort seem to be cramming them full of nonsense.

Have a great weekend, everyone! Crabby will probably be back Monday; Tuesday at the latest.

Second Hand Smoke Hurts Kids

So yet another study is out detailing the dangers of second hand smoke; this time the research focuses on the damage it does to kids who are exposed to it.

Said one of the researchers: "Even a little exposure to smoke at home or in the public environment can be harmful to the cardiovascular system of healthy schoolchildren."

Second hand smoke is a known killer; every day non-smokers who have to breathe it die of lung cancer and heart disease.

The whole issue makes Crabby very angry. People who don't choose to smoke themselves should not have to endure the associated health risks. Especially not children.

The fact that smoking is harmful is not news--people younger than about 50 years old knew damn well when they started that they were risking their health. Crabby knows nicotine addiction is incredibly powerful; had she become a smoker herself she's not sure she would have been able to quit, though she certainly hopes so.

But if she hears one more smoker whining about how his "right" to smoke in public places is somehow more fundamental than the rights of others not to die of cancer, she's going to slap someone--and it's not going to be a non-smoker.

Crabby figured out by the time she was about ten years old that if smoking was bad for people, breathing second hand smoke was probably not too good for you either. She has been waiting since that time for the rest of society to catch up so that she and all the other nonsmokers out there don't have to choke on any more obnoxious and dangerous smoke. Times are finally changing, a bit. But people are still taking up the foolish habit and other people around them are still having to deal with the consequences.

Crabby lives in a metropolitan area that actually bans smoking in most indoor public places--but even this isn't quite enough to keep it at bay. At some of the trendy bars, for example, smoking seems to be making a comeback. (Crabby is not the least bit trendy, but she has friends who are, so she's found herself at these places on rare occasions).

She was appalled the first time she saw people at one of these places starting to light up. Surely they knew it wasn't allowed? However no one said a word. It was clear everyone was just supposed to just shut up and be "cool" about it. How could this be happening again?

"Would you mind putting that out?"

Crabby has braved the wrath of those around her to ask that question, but it makes her feel like a freak. She longs for the day when no one has to say it anymore because it will seem so obvious: smoking indoors, in public, is unacceptable. Unfortuately, we're not there yet.

Interval Training Update, Plus a Blog that Rocks

Apologies to those who don't give a crap about intervals.

A second post in two days?

Readers who feel aggrieved may want to just skim through this one (but don't miss the Important Website Recommendation), and then hurry off to a better blog. Or just plop down comfortably into the comments section without absorbing any of this. Interval Training is not a required subject of conversation down there; we'll come up with something better by the end of the post.

So late yesterday morning, Crabby took her own advice and climbed onto the treadmill to actually test out this interval thing. As she mentioned, she already does "interval training," but in a random, haphazard manner. She usually goes extra hard for a couple of minutes during some of her weekly workouts, but she probably only does it two or three times during a session. She isn't really doing it the way the experts advise.

(For more on Crabby's most common form of exercise and why you might not want to be caught dead doing it in public, go here.)

To correct this haphazardness problem, Crabby resolved to be more formal about her interval training. She decided to start with the easiest amount that the experts said would be helpful: thirty second bursts of intense activity, followed by four minutes of moderate activity, repeated four to six times. For her intense phase, she cranked up the treadmill incline to the max and ran as fast as she could uphill. (And she hoped not to fly off the treadmill smack into the wall behind her). For the moderate phase, she walked more slowly uphill.

Here are some things she found:

Thirty seconds felt too short, even for running uphill, so Crabby made it 45 seconds instead.

Four minutes in between was too long and boring, so Crabby just started up again when she felt like it.

Forty five seconds was still short enough that Crabby felt encouraged to do eight repetitions instead of 4-6. She does not necessarily think this will happen next time, and she reserves the right to go back to 4-6.

Crabby's knees were a bit sore when she was done. (This was not a surprise; she has trashed her knees through years of running and it's why she doesn't run very often anymore).

The intervals were fun and the whole workout was over really quickly. (This was a surprise).

It probably wouldn't be fun done more than once a week. (Probably not after the novelty wears off either).

Thirty to forty-five second intervals aren't nearly as exhausting as two minute ones, and so if the experts say you can do them this way, Crabby is all for it. Plus, by the end you still feel good and exercised, with all the kick-ass endorphins that accompany this state.

Bottom line: Crabby likes interval training!

(This week.)

Now for the second part: the blog that rocks.

Crabby is embarrassed to say that she found it once before, thought it was great, may have even commented on it, then forgot to bookmark it. Result: gone entirely from her little crab brain.

But fortunately, Kelly over at Fitness Fixation is smarter, probably because she works out harder and eats fewer cupcakes, so she found Crabby instead. She very generously linked here and reminded Crabby what a great blog Fitness Fixation is.

It's sort of like Cranky Fitness, only better. (But Crabby hopes that you will find room in your heart and on your Favorites for both of us).

These girls (Kelly seems to be the ringleader, but here's also, for example, a great post by Tsan) are funny. Plus they're hardcore (in a good way). They could probably explain this interval thing a lot better than Crabby can.

(Plus, lurking behind the blog is something called the "Ice Chamber." Doesn't it sound sort of medieval and scary, yet at the same time irresistible?)

As promised, Comments will likely veer away from Interval Training as there is only so much one can say about it. So feel free to take a break today, or weigh in on Trying New Things, or Blogs That You've Just Discovered, or Why Exercise Sucks, or Any Old Thing You Can Think Of.

Omega 3's and Fish Oil: More Exciting Research!

Okay, maybe not so not exciting. In fact: Zzzzzz. But every now and then Crabby likes to make reference to a study or two just so people think she Keeps Up On Things.

And we were recently discussing some of the benefits of omega 3's (like reducing risks of alzheimers, and other bad things like cardiac problems and arthritis. However we noted that if you don't like to eat oily fish or drink disgusting adulterated orange juice, omega 3's can be hard to come by. There are some vegetable sources like flax and walnuts, and some processed foods that are starting to add it, but it's still kind of a challenge.

Crabby's confession: she also resorts to popping fish oil pills (the enteric kind that minimize fish burps) in addition to occasionally eating some salmon. But since supplements are almost never as good as the real thing, she hasn't been entirely sure this was a legitimate approach.

And there's still no Definitive Answer on that, but there's some hope for fish-avoiders. At least one recent study seemed to show good results with fish oil supplements, making Crabby feel somewhat vindicated. Some Australian scientists found that taking fish oil supplements in combination with aerobic exercise improved cardiovascular and metabolic health. Hooray!

Now just in case readers missed part of that last bit: in combination with aerobic exercise. Still got ta shake that booty.

And since no one can really pretend to give much of a crap about fish oil, lets talk about something else below. Anyone got fun plans for the weekend? Anything piss you off in the news today? How's everyone doing?

"Unfair Treatment Causes Heart Attacks"--Stupid Study of the Week

The headline was depressing and it was easy to picture what the study would show: People who get screwed over feel terrible; they get stressed; they have heart attacks. Life sucks; the innocent are punished; bullies win.

But take a look at how ridiculously lame the study actually was.

Eight thousand or so British civil servants were asked how much they agreed with the statement: "I often have the feeling that I am being treated unfairly."

And shockingly, the results showed that people who thought they were chronically mistreated had a higher risk of heart attack. The authors then concluded that "fairness is key to promoting a healthier society."

Aarghh! There was no independent, objective measure of unfair treatment. All this study says is that people who feel like they're always being screwed over are more likely to have cardiac problems. That says nothing about fairness; it says a lot more about personality.

How did these people get funded?

You've met that neighbor or co-worker, haven't you, who radiates optimism and grace; who's kind to everyone and is always exclaiming how lucky he or she is in life. Then you find out she was abused and beaten as a child; or he was tortured and exiled from his home country; or that there was a child who died in infancy or or a period of homelessness or some terrible disease or any number of other misfortunes. But this person feels lucky and blessed.

And you contrast their situation with that of another co-worker or neighbor: one who grew up with every advantage; one who has powerful and influential protectors, yet whose hostility and sense of entitlement poisons every relationship and interaction he or she engages in. This person complains constantly of injustice.

If you live in the real world, you know very well who has "really" been treated unfairly. But the people who designed this study sure don't.

This is not to say that unfairness is a good thing. Unfairness is very, very bad. And it may well cause heart attacks. But jeez, scientists, you can do way better than this.