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Here's an interesting thought.  Happiness spreads, but depression doesn't. According to a new study, having friends who suffer from depression doesn’t affect the mental health of others. Research led by the University of Warwick found that just the fact of having friends can help teenagers recover from depression or even avoid becoming depressed in the first instance, newswise.com reports. The findings are the result of a study of the way teenagers in a group of US high schools influenced each others’ moods. The academics used a mathematical model to establish if depression spreads from friend to friend. “Depression is a major public health concern worldwide," says professor Frances Griffiths, head of social science and systems in health at Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick. "But the good news is we’ve found that a healthy mood among friends is linked with a significantly reduced risk of developing and increased chance of recovering from ...

Measles are contagious.  Sneezes are contagious.  But did you know rudeness is, too? New research has shown that encountering rude behavior at work makes people more likely to perceive rudeness in later interactions, a University of Florida study shows. It simply makes us more likely to be impolite in return, spreading rudeness like a virus. Who hasn't had a boss who called them out in a meeting for failing to do something?  Or praised someone else for something you worked on, too?  Years ago I had a boss who was so hateful I broke out in a rash on vacation when I was away from him, probably the only time my body felt safe enough to express it.  He'd make me do things like pick up donuts for my peers or make copies of their work to be handed out at meetings.  He did everything he could to make me feel small and worthless.  And it worked. It also made me want to do churlish things back.  Though I was a little too afraid to be rude right ...

We've all been saddened by the tragic stories of young people who commit suicide because of online bullying.  But did you know you can also spread depression and disappointment along with euphoria on Facebook? A new study has found that emotions are contagious online, according to newswise.com.  According to a new study by social scientists at Cornell University, the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and Facebook, emotions can spread among users of online social networks. “People who had positive content experimentally reduced it on their Facebook news feed, for one week, and used more negative words in their status updates,” reports Jeff Hancock, professor of communication at Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and co-director of its Social Media Lab. “When news feed negativity was reduced, the opposite pattern occurred: Significantly more positive words were used in peoples’ status updates.” The experiment is the first to suggest ...

You might have some trouble getting on a plane after you read this.  But did you know that microbes on a plane can survive a whole week? According to smartplanet.com, "Researchers have found that disease-causing bacteria can linger for several days within an aircraft cabin" That means you're on-board with the flu and the measles and for an unlucky few, even MERS. But there is some good news. "For us to catch bacteria from another traveler through things that we touch, the pathogens must survive environmental conditions in a plane," smartplanet.com reports. Scientists suspended some E.coli and MRSA, the contagious illness hospitals dread because of its easy transference from patient to patient, in a saline solution, then simulated sweat and saliva. Then, to see where these pathogens lived longest, the team placed the suspensions of the two pathogens onto a sample of commonly touched surfaces: rubber armrests, metal toilet handles, plastic tray table...

Here's some good news (if you can call it that).  If your partner has oral cancer  linked to the  human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. there's a good chance you will not be affected. A new study has found that p artners of patients diagnosed with HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer were no more likely to test positive for oral HPV infection than people in the general population, according to newswise.com. " The findings should lessen anxiety that (this) cancer is contagious, at least among long-term partners, and confirms that couples who have been together for several years do not need to change their intimacy or sexual behavior because of the cancer diagnosis," the Web site reports. HPV infection is common among men and women in the U.S., but the overwhelming majority of individuals with the infection will not get cancer. The incidence of HPV-positive head and neck cancers, however, has increased significantly over the past 20 years, particularly among n...

Quick.  What happens when you see someone yawn ?  Chances are, you'll yawn, too. Studies in the past suggested it was because we felt empathy for the person doing the yawning.  But a new one that's just out says that's really not the case. Contagious yawning occurs not only in humans, but also in chimpanzees and other animals, in response to hearing about, seeing or thinking about yawning. In 2013,  Medical News Today (MNT)  reported on a study in dogs, which suggested that the  contagious yawns dogs get from their owners  are a result of empathy rather than  stress , according to the publication. Researchers say this phenomenon "differs from spontaneous yawning, in that it does not occur merely when someone is tired or bored. While spontaneous yawning is observed in the womb, contagious yawning begins in early childhood," MNT reports. And though yawning seems like a trivial human action, by better understanding the biological mechanis...

Great. Just what we needed to know.   Fever-reducing meds for the flu may actually spread it.  "New research from McMaster University has discovered that the widespread use of medications that contain fever-reducing drugs may lead to tens of thousands more influenza cases, and more than a thousand deaths attributable to influenza, each year across North America," according to newswise.com.  And guess what?  The drugs they're talking about include ibuprofen, acetaminophen and acetylsalicylic acid. “When they have flu, people often take medication that reduces their fever. No one likes to feel miserable, but it turns out that our comfort might be at the cost of infecting others,” the Web site quotes lead author David Earn, an investigator. He explains that,b ecause fever can actually help lower the amount of virus in a sick person's body and reduce the chance of transmitting disease to others, "taking drugs that reduce fever can increase transmission. We’ve ...