Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Buy A Newspaper and Chill Out

British Study Finds Reading Can Reduce Stress

Now you can help save print journalism and your nerves at the same time.
A study at the University of Sussex found that reading, even for only six minutes at a time, is more effective at reducing stress than listening to music, taking a walk, or having tea.
As local paper The Argus reports: "Psychologists say this is because the human mind has to concentrate on reading and the distraction eases the tensions in muscles and the heart."
OK, so presumably you can read a magazine or book and achieve the same salutary effect. And reading about how the economy, the latest natural disaster or terror attack doesn't exactly do wonders for the nerves.
But that's why there are comics, the sports section and food pages. Even in the most-middling of newspapers, there is usually something to distract you from the rest of the world if only for a little while.
Surely that's worth 50 cents a day.
What's that? Many of those Gannett and McClatchy papers that have decimated their news holes are boosting their newsstand price to 75 cents? Hmmm, maybe a book's not such a bad idea, after all.

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