By Rebecca Jones
It’s Friday again and we’ve decided to make the roundup a regular weekly feature. Don’t have time to read the paper? Check in here on Fridays for the weeks top health related stories.
1.Study of the Day: Twitter Reveals How Universally Upsetting Work Is – The Atlantic 
Twitter has confirmed what the rest of us already knew: people are the least happy when they are at work. By using language monitoring software to observe the twitter habits of some 2.4 million people in 84 countries researches found that positive tweets peek twice a day; early in the morning and again close to midnight (from the bar perhaps?) and of course the overall tone is happier on the weekends where the morning peek comes 2 hours later. Conclusion: People all over the world wake up happy only to have the joy sucked out of them throughout the day. At least the happiness returns in time to go to bed!
2. The Biological Basis for Behaving Badly: Why DNA Should Not be Destiny – The Huffington Post
Many of our modern day dilemmas stem from our primitive instincts being at war with modern living. Obesity stems from our love of high fat, calorie loaded foods. Why do we love these foods? Because our ancestors had to work hard to find their next meal and you better believe that those nutritionally dense meals provided their best chance of survival. Why do older men cheat on their wives with younger women? Because in an attempt to keep our silly species going we are attracted to those that give us the best chance of passing our genes on into immortality whether we are aware of it or not. Like football? Well all that physical aggression that used to keep us alive needs to find an outlet somewhere. Ultimately though just because biology gives us urges we are not slave to those urges. They are not adequate excuses for the poor choices we make. With knowledge comes responsibility; the more are we aware of our baser instincts the more we owe it to ourselves to make better choices.
National Coffee Day Highlights Health Effects of Popular Brew – CBS News
In honor of National Coffee Day, Harvard University posted to their website their evidence that coffee is not bad for you. In fact their is zero correlation between mortality and caffeine, even for those of us that drink more than 6 cups of coffee a day. Not only will our caffeine consumption not kill us it has been linked to a lower risk of depression and research suggests that “coffee drinkers are less likely to develop type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, dementia, heart rhythm problems, stroke, and certain forms of cancer, according to WebMD.” So as long as you don’t mind shaky hands and a little anxiety, drink up coffee lovers.
Does Your Immune System Cause Drunken Behavior? – CBS news
Slurred speech, stumbling foot steps; it’s not the alcohol it’s your immune system. So suggests a new study published in the British Journal of Pharmacology. Much research has been done on the affects of alcohol on the nervous system but it is now believed that its the affects on the immune system that could trigger certain alcohol related behaviors. When researchers blocked certain immune system receptors in the brains of mice they found that they were able to stay perched on rotating platforms longer, had better reflexes and were less sedated than mice that were given the same amount of alcohol but did not have their receptors blocked. Could there be a hangover cure on the horizon?
Two-Faced Cat Defies Science, Sets Guinness World Record – Time 
So maybe this isn’t quite a health headline, but we love the story of Frank and Louie, one cat with two cute faces, and congratulate him on making it into the Guinness book of World Records for making it to the ripe old age of 12. This Janus cat, named after the Roman god with two faces, has three eyes, two noses, two mouths, one body and 12lbs or raw awesomeness. One more shining example of how being normal is way over rated.
Tune in next Friday for our next weekly roundup.