According to a newly published report, money can buy happiness but not in the way that you might think. Researchers at the University of British Columbia and Harvard Business School found that spending money on others makes people happier than if they spend it on themselves. »more»

There is no doubt that the market for natural remedies, herbal medicines, so-called "alternative" medicine and so forth has arrived. Just walk into your workplace complaining of a cold, flu or even a sore knee and you will likely to met with a barrage of such remedies from your co-workers. »more»

Retirement certainly isn't what it used to be which is why the blog Contemporary Retirement is such a good read. Another reason to go there is that they are hosting this week's Blogging Boomers--a collection of blogs dealing with all facets of middle age. Check it out.

New research published Thursday in the British journal The Lancet shows that more than a quarter of Americans suffer daily pain. The study, which was coauthored by Princeton economist Alan Krueger, observed:

College graduates report feeling half the pain as those who hadn't finished high school. »more»

According to a report just released by the Alzheimer's Association:

• As many as 5.2 million people in the United States are living with Alzheimer’s.

• 10 million baby boomers will develop Alzheimer's in their lifetime.

• Every 71 seconds, someone develops Alzheimer’s.

• Alzheimer's is the seventh-leading cause of death. »more»

This week's BloggingBoomers returns to its cofounder The Boomer Chronicles and it contains summaries and links to ten great stories about midlife from ten great blogs. Check it out and tell Rhea we sent you.

Yesterday I had a long conversation with an individual conducting research on the job prospects for "mature" workers, which is code for people over 50. We covered a lot of territory and I thought that a few of the key points were worthy of a post on LifeTwo. »more»

According to the researchers at Gallup, almost half of Americans describe themselves as "thriving" (that is few health or money worries), another 47% say they are "struggling" (mostly reporting money issues), and about 4% report themselves as "suffering" through life. The results were based on a 70 question well-being survey of more than 100,000 people. »more»

This week's BloggingBoomers is up at Don't Gel Too Soon. This week's collection is pretty diverse and worth checking out.

According to a study of 8,556 middle aged university graduates by scientists of the University of Navarra and the Harvard School of Public Health (USA), the odds of suffering depression increases 41% in smokers in comparison with non-smokers, which according to the researchers "demonstrates in a pioneering way the direct relationship between tobacco use and this disease". »more»

UCLA researchers using brain imaging techniques have found that the parts of the brain associated with happiness are the same ones that get stimulated when subjects feel that they are being treated in a fair manner. In other words, we are hard-wired to feel happy when we perceive that we are being treated equitably. »more»

"Skin in the Game" is about fixing the broken health care system in the United States and the first thing I noticed about the book was the praised it was receiving from people like Mark Hurd of Hewlett-Packard, one of America's top CEOs and biggest employers. »more»

This week's BloggingBoomers is hosted by our friends at Fabulous After 40. Venture over there "to get some great midlife advice, or just take a walk down memory lane."

According to WSJ's Sue Shellenbarger, the answer is "yes and no". Yes, many of the states with higher reported divorce did in fact vote Republican in the last Presidential election, but no there is no known causal relationship between political affiliation and odds of divorce. Once again we have the confusion of "correlation versus causation": »more»

"LifeTwo columnist Laurie Israel recently posted "25 Secrets To A Great Marriage", which offered specific advice for getting over the rough spots in a marriage. »more»

According to a study soon to be published in the science journal Free Radical Biology and Medicine, a research team from the University of Reading has found that blueberries and other phytochemical-rich foods are effective at reversing age-related deficits in memory."The research team was able to show that the ability of flavonoids to induce memory improvements are mediated by the »more»

BloggingBoomers enters a new era with our 65th weekly collection of the best blog posts relating to midlife living. Here are the blogs and posts you absolutely want to check out this week: »more»

New research from Washington University in St. Louis indicates knowing the truth about having dementia as soon as possible improves the emotional well-being of both patients and their caregivers. The study is published in the current Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. »more»

Paraphrasing Mad Magazine, this study comes from the Department of Tell Me Something I Don't Already Know ... it turns out that broccoli is good for you! To be honest, I didn't need a well-funded UCLA study (and certainly not one published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology) to tell me that »more»

LifeTwo contributor David Houle has just released his debut book, "The Shift Age"--his term for the period we are just entering as we leave the "information age." In the book, Houle explains the forces and dynamics that are reshaping our world. Houle believes that the fast pace of change that we have experienced with the onset of digital technologies will continue unabated. In fact we may one day soon look back at today and think of this as a relative simple time when mobile media players and GPS technologies were still considered somewhat new and novel. »more»

This week's edition of BloggingBoomers is at So Baby Boomer and contains links to a variety of relevant and interesting stories relating to middle age. Sometimes our readers leave links to other stories missed by the BloggingBoomers so check comments below for more.

Over the past few years, happiness research has attracted the interest of experts from many fields, the most interesting of which might be the statisticians/economists. Arthur Brooks, a top scholar of economics and public policy, tackles the question of "what makes us happy" in his new book "Gross National Happiness" by using reams of data and in the process comes up with some surprising and interesting conclusions. Among them: »more»

According to a soon-to-be-published study by Washington & Lee University School of Law and reported in the Wall St. Journal, women with M.B.A.s are twice as likely to get divorced or separated as their male counterparts. In short, a professional degree is often hazardous to marital health. According to the study: »more»

In his new book "Spark," author John J. Ratey, M.D., explains emerging research indicating the positive effect that exercise has on brain health from depression to ADD to addiction to aggression to menopause to Alzheimer's. »more»

This week's BloggingBoomers (#63) is at I Remember JFK. Go there to learn about a variety of boomer-related topics from a variety of interesting blogs.