BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

The adage that laughter is the best medicine has been backed by an unusual investigation which says that people who seethe with anger take longer to recover from injury. Previous studies have linked ill tempered behaviour, whether brow-beating or road rage, with higher incidence of coronary heart disease, hypertension and stroke, especially among men. But the new study, published on Wednesday in the British journal Brain, Behaviour, Immunity, is the first controlled experiment that directly measures the impact of ire on the healing process. Researchers at the University of Ohio inflicted minor burns on the forearms of 98 volunteers who were then monitored over eight days to see how quickly the skin repaired itself. The subjects had each taken a battery of psychological tests beforehand to assess how easily and often they felt and expressed wrath, and were then ranked on an "anger scale." Persons who took certain pharmaceutical drugs, smoked cigarettes or drank excessive quant...

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“MAKING AMENDS” (something for Elul) Phyllis B. Grodsky, Ph.D One day I was with my mother in front of her building when an older man came by. He was carrying a shopping bag full of groceries, and appeared to have difficulty walking. When he saw my mother he changed course, tipped his well-worn cap, and headed straight towards us. He was smiling broadly and about to greet her when she abruptly turned her back, and stiffened her face until it looked ashen. The gentleman waved his hand and went on his way, seemingly unperturbed. I guessed, correctly, that he was her neighbor, Mr. Dutke, a man about her age who was born in Germany. She seemed aggrieved that Mr. Dutke approached her in a friendly manner, and said she wasn’t fooled; she “knew” he was a Nazi. When I asked if she had ever discussed his past with him, she said she hadn’t, but it didn’t matter because she “knew” what he was. My mother clings to opinions like a life raft, as if all would be lost if she were to let go. She doesn’...