SOURCE: American Psychological Association, news release, July 20, 2010

People who feel anxious and needy at higher risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, chronic pain and stroke, researchers find.People who feel insecure in their relationships may be at increased risk for cardiovascular disease and other health problems, according to a new Canadian study. 

 In fact, those who felt insecure in relationships or avoided getting close to others appeared to have a greater risk of developing several chronic diseases, according to an analysis of data from the U.S. National Comorbidity Survey Replication. 

 Researchers studied survey data from 5,645 adults, ages 18 to 60, and found an association between "avoidant attachment" -- people who feel unable to get close to others or have others depend on them -- and chronic pain, such as frequent or severe headaches.

Story by Cammile Webb 

I am the worst employee.

No man will ever love me.

I’m so stupid.

I deserved to get fired.

We’ve all echoed downer declarations like this at some point in our lives. They are the very real reactions from anyone who has faced rejection. Amidst stratospheric unemployment rates, even the most glass-half-full optimists may find their confidence drying up like dust.

Being fired from a job, turned down by a company (or 10 of them), going through a bad break-up, or being rejected by your first-choice college is simply part of life. It stings, makes us question ourselves, sometimes teaches us and toughens us.  But, eventually, after the new job, the stronger marriage, the hard-earned graduate degree, that rejection is just a passing scene in the rear-view mirror.

 Source - CNN.com

Having satisfying social relationships may be about as important as not smoking when it comes to your lifespan, a new study suggests.

It turns out that people with adequate social relationships have a 50 percent greater likelihood of survival than people who have poor or insufficient relationships. That means that having good relationships is comparable to quitting smoking in terms of survival benefit, and is a stronger factor than obesity and physical activity.

Researchers from Brigham Young University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill looked at 148 different studies that examined the connection between survival and relationships. Regardless of age, sex, initial health status, cause of death, and follow-up period in the individual studies, the new analysis finds that those with stronger relationships have an increased likelihood of survival.

 Health.com -- Babies whose mothers are attentive and caring tend to grow into happy, well-adjusted children. But the psychological benefits of having a doting mother may extend well beyond childhood, a new study suggests. Amanda Gardner

According to the study, which followed nearly 500 infants into their 30s, babies who receive above-average levels of affection and attention from their mothers are less likely than other babies to grow up to be emotionally distressed, anxious, or hostile adults.

What's more, the link between the emotional health of adults and their mothers' affection was evident even though the mothers and babies were observed for a single day, when the babies were just 8 months old.

"Even a simple assessment of the quality of the mother-infant interaction at such an early age captures something very important in terms of the future psychological health of that infant," says Joanna Maselko, Ph.D., the lead author of the study and an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University Medical School, in Durham, North Carolina.