Browse evidence-based analysis of health-related claims and assertions
Older men are more likely to use sarcastic or self-critical humour, while older women are more likely to use friendly and uplifting humour to cope with stress.
Correlational
When older adults exercise together, it can help them feel less lonely — and part of why this works is because they use upbeat, friendly humor to connect with each other.
Mechanistic
Older adults who exercise or play sports with friends tend to feel less lonely — and this is true both for those doing it now and those who did it in the past.
Sitting too much every day might make it harder for older Japanese adults to use humor in social situations, no matter what kind of humor they usually use.
Older adults who exercise or play sports with friends tend to use more positive, relationship-building humour and feel better mentally, according to a study of over 5,000 Japanese people aged 65 to 84.
Older people in China who feel their health is really poor are much more likely to show signs of depression. How you feel about your health might be a big clue about your mental well-being.
Older adults in both rural and urban China who have trouble with everyday tasks like dressing or managing bills are more likely to have depression, and this link is stronger in cities.
Older people living in rural parts of China are more likely to feel depressed than those in cities, even when you account for things like health problems or where they live in the country.
Older adults in China who have trouble with everyday tasks like handling money or taking their medicine are more likely to feel depressed, even when you account for other factors like where they live or their personal health.
Older adults in China who have trouble with basic self-care tasks like bathing or dressing are nearly twice as likely to feel depressed compared to those who can do these tasks on their own.
In older Chinese adults, feeling depressed is linked to having more trouble with daily tasks — like cooking or dressing — and this link stays strong even when you account for things like age, health conditions, or lifestyle habits.
Older people in China are struggling more with depression, health problems, and daily tasks like cooking or dressing — and things have gotten worse over the past five years.
Descriptive
Feeling more down or depressed over time might make it harder for older adults in China to do everyday tasks like dressing or bathing — and having more trouble with those tasks might also make depression worse. It's a two-way link that sticks even when you account for age, health problems, and income.
Feeling more down or depressed over time might make it harder for older adults in China to handle daily tasks like shopping or managing money — and struggling with those tasks might also make their mood worse, in a cycle that builds over the years.
For older adults, being more physically active might help reduce feelings of depression — and part of why it works could be because it leads to more socializing.
When older adults are better at managing everyday tasks like cooking or shopping, they tend to feel less depressed.
Working out regularly can help older people feel less depressed.
Causal
Fish hearts have a lot of a substance called taurine, and it might help their heart cells stay the right size when the fish are dealing with changes in salt or water levels.
In flounder fish hearts, taurine and potassium might help heart cells stay the right size when the salt levels in their blood change, which could keep the heart working properly in tough conditions.
If you're a healthy young adult getting back into strength training after resting your leg for two weeks, taking creatine might give you more energy in your muscles and boost creatine levels after three weeks — but by ten weeks, that advantage goes away.
Quantitative
Taking creatine while rebuilding leg strength after being inactive might help your muscles improve faster by boosting a key protein that helps with energy use.
Taking creatine every day while your leg is immobilized might help keep your muscles' ability to handle sugar working better, so they don’t weaken as much.
Mice that can't grow enough tiny blood vessels in their muscles become insulin resistant, even though their muscle cells work normally when tested in a dish.
When mice have a broken insulin signal in their blood vessel lining, their muscles don’t get enough sugar—even if the muscle cells themselves work fine—because the blood flow to the muscles drops.