Beautiful People Convey Personality Traits Better During First Impressions.

A new University of British Columbia study has found that people identify the personality traits of people who are physically attractive more accurately than others during short encounters. 

The study, published in the December edition ofPsychological Science, suggests people pay closer attention to people they find attractive, and is the latest scientific evidence of the advantages of perceived beauty. Previous research has shown that individuals tend to find attractive people more intelligent, friendly and competent than others. 

The goal of the study was to determine whether a person's attractiveness impacts others' ability to discern their personality traits, says Prof. Jeremy Biesanz, UBC Dept. of Psychology, who co-authored the study with PhD student Lauren Human and undergraduate student Genevieve Lorenzo. 

For the study, researchers placed more than 75 male and female participants into groups of five to 11 people for three-minute, one-on-one conversations. After each interaction, study participants rated partners on physical attractiveness and five major personality traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. Each person also rated their own personality. 

Researchers were able to determine the accuracy of people's perceptions by comparing participants' ratings of others' personality traits with how individuals rated their own traits, says Biesanz, adding that steps were taken to control for the positive bias that can occur in self-reporting. 

Despite an overall positive bias towards people they found attractive (as expected from previous research), study participants identified the "relative ordering" of personality traits of attractive participants more accurately than others, researchers found. 

"If people think Jane is beautiful, and she is very organized and somewhat generous, people will see her as more organized and generous than she actually is," says Biesanz. "Despite this bias, our study shows that people will also correctly discern the relative ordering of Jane's personality traits - that she is more organized than generous - better than others they find less attractive." 

The researchers say this is because people are motivated to pay closer attention to beautiful people for many reasons, including curiosity, romantic interest or a desire for friendship or social status. "Not only do we judge books by their covers, we read the ones with beautiful covers much closer than others," says Biesanz, noting the study focused on first impressions of personality in social situations, like cocktail parties. 

Although participants largely agreed on group members' attractiveness, the study reaffirms that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Participants were best at identifying the personalities of people they found attractive, regardless of whether others found them attractive. 

According to Biesanz, scientists spent considerable efforts a half-century ago seeking to determine what types of people perceive personality best, to largely mixed results. With this study, the team chose to investigate this longstanding question from another direction, he says, focusing not on who judges personality best, but rather whether some people's personalities are better perceived. 

Natural Asthma Treatments

While quick relief medicines (referred to as relievers), long-term control medicines (referred to as preventers), and hormones (adrenaline and hydrocortisone) continue to be the most traditional approaches to managing asthma, many doctors are complementing these approaches with natural asthma treatments. In addition, there’s a growing population of sufferers who prefer taking a more natural approach to controlling their condition.

Natural asthma treatments are as much about thinking and acting smart as they are about adding non-Western approaches to your management program. For instance, the best natural treatment is to avoid known triggers. If you’re sensitive to cigarette smoke, avoid it. If cat dander triggers your asthma attacks, don’t put yourself in an environment with cats. If pollen is your culprit, find ways to remain indoors as much as possible during those high pollen seasons such as spring and autumn.

See? Simple common sense.

But let’s move on to proactive natural asthma treatments.

Vitamin and mineral supplements can be an excellent complement to conventional asthma treatments. A nutritional deficiency can weaken your immune system making it more difficult to withstand environmental triggers. By adding a regular routine of supplements, you can keep your immune system strong.

For instance, asthmatics tend to have very low magnesium levels (a mineral that helps relax the bronchial tubes) so adding a daily magnesium supplement to your diet may prove to be very beneficial. Vitamin B6 can help reduce wheezing. And studies have shown that taking Vitamin C before exercise can prevent an asthma attack.

One word of caution with supplements … make certain that they’re hypo-allergenic. You don’t want to be taking something that will aggravate your condition instead of improving it.

Next are herbal supplements. Herbs can be toxic and dangerous if taken in large doses, so make sure you read the label and follow the prescribed doses.

Tylophora indica (also referred to as Tylophora asthmatica) is a rare Ayurvedic botanical known for its anti-asthma/anti-allergy benefits. A 1969 twelve-week study involving one hundred ninety-five patients suffering from bronchial asthma resulted in approximately 15 percent of those who took Tylophora indica experienced complete to moderate relief of their asthma symptoms.

Boswella is derived from resin extracts from the Boswellia serrata tree. While this herb is most often mentioned for its anti-inflammatory properties, some studies suggest it can also be helpful for asthma. In one trial, 300 mg of boswellia serrata taken three times daily showed an improvement in the symptoms of asthma, including a reduction in asthma attacks.

Butterbur is a perennial shrub that contains petasins, which inhibit leukotrienes and histamines. In one study of butterbur, 40 percent of the participants showed improvement and were actually able to reduce their regular asthma medications.

Mullein is a weed and grows everywhere. While some people have experienced immediate relief from asthma attacks when using mullein, others have experienced no relief at all. So this herb is a bit of a hit or a miss, depending on the individual.

Elecampane is a large herbaceous plant found primarily in England. It’s recommended by some herbalists as a long-term treatment for asthma, particularly when mucus is an ever-present problem. There haven’t been any studies of elecampane. So at this time, there’s no real evidence of its effectiveness.

Always be cautious when using natural asthma treatments, and always involve your doctor in the process to make sure there won’t be any adverse reactions with your prescribed medications. And of course, never stop taking asthma medicine prescribed by your doctor without consulting with him or her first.

Discover additional natural asthma treatments and learn more about asthma and allergies in your quest to control your asthma. The better educated you are, the healthier you’ll be.

Ayurvedic product launched for treatment of H1N1

PUNE: As pandemic Influenza H1N1 spreads at an alarming rate in Pune, city-based Institute of Integrative Healthcare (IIHc) under the aegis of India International Multiversity has launched ‘Immurich’, an Ayurvedic product made out of ‘Gau-Piyush’ or cow colostrum that can act as an effective treatment against communicable and pandemic diseases.

Addressing the media here on Wednesday, India International Multiversity founder Dr Vijay Bhatkar said that with increasing H1N1 cases being reported from the city and the country in general, it is difficult to find a vaccine immediately because of extreme costs, time consumption and other challenges. 

It is in this backdrop that IIHc constituted a task force of experts together to find a solution.

The task force decided to focus on nutritional immunology inspired by Ayurveda. The group found a number of references for communicable diseases in Ayurveda and recommended the use of cow colostrum as a powerful and effective treatment against many diseases, including Influenza-Like Infections (ILI).

Bhatkar said that IIHc had approached the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to test on H1N1 patients and is awaiting permission for the same.