From food to flowers

Let’s move along from the last entry on food to this next on flowers. I love blossoms. One of the better gifts my husband has ever given me was on our 25th wedding anniversary: he brought home a monthly bouquet of blooms for a half year or so. Turns out that flowers do good things, at least for women. These three statements are made in the April 2008 issue of Health magazine.

“You’ll feel more up…
In a study by Haviland-Jones, women who unexpectedly received flowers displayed instant happiness – and were still in good moods three days later.

You’ll stress less…
In a Harvard Medical School study, people who kept fresh-cut flowers around the house felt less anxiety.

You’ll get creative…
Texas A&M University researchers found that women had more innovative ideas and solutions to problems when flowers were nearby.”

I want to believe all that: but as the claims are rather broad, and I am presently taking a statistics class that calls for careful scrutiny of 'results', I feel I need to question. I’ll try to track down the particulars to determine if there’s any cause and effect, or just how the researchers, or journalists, are coming up with the associations, and report back.

In the meantime, flowers close by certainly won’t hurt, and will likely help in some way. I say - bring on the blossoms.