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Global Stress Busters
Can watching
jellyfish counteract a bad day at work? Would
beating up a bartender (for a fee) make you relax
about your credit-card bills? When stress hits women
all over the globe, you'd be surprised by what they
do about it.
By Sarah Reistad-Long
WebMD Feature from "Marie Claire" Magazine
JELLYFISH WATCHING IN ENOSHIMA, JAPAN
A
sleepover at an aquarium may seem more middle-school
field trip than a means to greater well-being, but
among Japanese women, demand for Enoshima Aquarium's
$120 overnight package is so high, its 30 weekly
spots are distributed by lottery. The draw? Ongoing
studies at the aquarium, in partnership with Jikei
and Nihon Universities, show that watching jellyfish
is literally drool-inducing: It stimulates the
production of a compound in the saliva associated
with relaxation. Lucky winners with sleeping bags
get prime slumber space before a wall of undulating
jellyfish—an experience some liken to actually
floating inside the tank. Also included: a Lomi Lomi
massage class, bento-box meals, and a chance to
reach in and touch a live specimen. The Japanese
rank third in the world in terms of the longest work
week, topped only by first-ranked South Korea and,
in a close second, the U.S. Pet jellyfish, anyone?
STEAMING AWAY STRESS IN STYRIA,
AUSTRIA
At
the Rogner Bad Blumau spa's coed, clothing-optional,
scented sauna, overtaxed Austrians recline while
they're immersed in up to eight different
sweet-smelling, health-boosting "atmospheres." Each
aroma is mixed with water, then poured over the
sauna's hot rocks, turning devotees into a sort of
human infusion. The Good Morning infusion (with
lemongrass or birch oil) invigorates, the Honey
nourishes your skin, the Ice—a burst of cold
mist—cures bronchial ailments, while the signature
mineral-water infusion—in which you're enveloped by
steam from the resort's indigenous hot
springs—treats, well, everything else: the liver,
gallbladder, kidneys, and bladder. Plus, in a 2006
study from the University of Maribar in Slovenia,
mineral-water treatments killed 21 percent of
cervical cancer cells.
BEATING UP BARTENDERS IN NANING,
CHINA
Women in Eastern China have found a whole new reason
to call it happy hour. The Rising Sun Anger Release
Bar lets patrons yell, scream, break glasses, and
even beat up one of 20 muscle-bound staffers, all
for the low, low price of $6.25 to $37.50 per
session (depending on what you want/need to do).
Area psych students are also on hand to help sort
out pressing problems. As it happens, most clients
are female—a preponderance work at karaoke bars or
massage parlors, says 29-year-old Wu Gong, a migrant
worker from the province of Anhui who opened the bar
last April. He may be on to something: A 2003
University of Michigan study found a direct
correlation between suppressed anger and early
mortality, particularly for women. We say, rage on!
LAUGHING AT YOGA IN MUMBAI, INDIA
We've all let out the occasional guffaw during
attempts to become a human pretzel. But that's
nothing compared to Mumbai's funniest yogis: On any
given day, hundreds of "laughter yoga" enthusiasts
chuckle in the name of good health. The movement was
founded in 1995 by an Indian physician who
discovered both spontaneous and self-induced
laughter have health benefits, boosting immune
function, endorphin levels, blood flow, and oxygen
levels, while lowering stress hormones. His wife, a
yoga teacher, helped develop the practice. Now
laughter yogis indulge in giggles like the basic
"ice cube down the back" laugh, hee-heeing as they
simulate removing the cube from their shirts. With
around 5000 laughter yoga branches worldwide,
nirvana may be closer than you think. Better yet,
scientists at Stanford found that one minute of
laughter yoga burns as many calories as 10 minutes
spent on a rowing machine. (www.laughteryoga.org)
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