Laughter is the best medicine. It turns out there's science to back up that old adage. Research has shown that a good belly laugh on a regular basis is as effective at lowering blood pressure as medication. Dr. Michael Miller directs the Center for Preventive Cardiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He's also the author of "Heal Your Heart: The Positive Emotions Prescription to Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease." And his prescription doesn't require a trip to the pharmacy. "We're looking at about 5 to 15 minutes of laughter that either brings tears to your eyes or after the laughter episode is finished, you feel relaxed," he says.
For a long time we've heard about the problems our love of cheap clothing causes around the world: problems like lax environmental and safety regulations, and child labor. Today we're going to zero in on an industry you may not have heard as much about: leather. A riveting four-part visual tour of textile and tannery industries around the globe recently appeared in the online magazine Undark. We plan to focus on the tannery portion. Freelance journalists Debbie and Larry Price produced the series, with the support of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Both are former Baltimore Sun staffers and both join us from a studio near their home in Dayton, Ohio.
The older you are, the more likely you take multiple prescription drugs. More medications mean more risks - potential drug interactions and a greater chance of making a mistake. Dr. Nicole Brandt, executive director of the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy's 'Peter Lamy Center on Drug Therapy and Aging', discusses how patients can talk to their doctors about paring down the number of med they're taking.
Then, millions of seniors live with chronic pain. Dr. Beth Hogans, head of the National Institutes of Health 'Center of Excellence for Pain Education' at Johns Hopkins and medical director of the 'Chronic Pain Program' at Medstar Good Samaritan Hospital, offers strategies to reduce pain and increase quality of life.