Everybody lives with stress. And everybody deals with it differently.

That appears to be broadly true for age groups, too. A University of Southern California study says stressed older adults alter their behavior more than younger adults under stress, particularly in situations involving risk.

Mara Mather of USC's Davis School of Gerontology and colleagues exposed two groups of volunteers (ages 18 to 33 and ages 65 to 89) to a stressful event: holding a hand in ice-cold water for three minutes.

Participants were then asked to play a driving game in which they were confronted with the choice of running a yellow traffic light. Points were awarded for every second spent driving during a yellow, but points were lost if the light turned red while driving. The length of the yellow light was randomly determined.

Mather said that in control groups (people not exposed to the ice-water portion of the experiment), the older participants performed the driving test better than the younger adults.

But among the stressed groups, older adults were not just more cautious drivers, showing greater reluctance to take a risk with the yellow light, but they were also more erratic, braking and restarting almost three times as much as their younger, calmer peers.

MEDTRONICA

Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America

ccfa.org

Crohn's and colitis are two of a host of inflammatory autoimmune bowel diseases that afflict millions of Americans, mildly to severely. They are not well understood, and treatments are limited, with mixed success. CCFA is a 41-year-old organization dedicated to finding better treatments and, ultimately, a cure.

BODY OF KNOWLEDGE

On average, people can hold their breath for two minutes. The world record is 8 minutes, 58 seconds.

GET ME THAT. STAT!

Roughly 700,000 Americans are diagnosed with a stroke each year.

NUMBER CRUNCHER

A single serving of McDonald's Fruit 'n Walnut salad (apples, grapes, candied walnuts in low-fat yogurt — 240 grams) contains 310 calories, 117 from fat. That's 20 percent of the recommended total fat intake for a 2,000-calorie daily diet.

It also contains 5 milligrams of cholesterol (2 percent); 75 mg of sodium (3 percent); 43 grams of total carbohydrates (14 percent); 6g of dietary fiber (24 percent); 33g of sugar and 5g of protein.

PHOBIA OF THE WEEK

Epistaxiophobia — fear of nosebleeds

CURTAIN CALLS

Aeschylus, the father of Greek tragedy, reportedly died in 456 B.C. when an eagle dropped a tortoise on his head.

OBSERVATION

Given a choice, people will happily forgo extra sleep in favor of other leisure activities.

— English sleep researcher Jim Horne, who runs the Sleep Research Centre at the University of Loughborough. Horne says claims of widespread sleep deprivation in Western societies are not true.

BEST MEDICINE

An old man placed an order for one hamburger, french fries and a drink. Food in hand, he went to a table where his wife sat. He unwrapped the plain hamburger and carefully cut it in half, placing one half in front of his wife.

Then he carefully did the same with the french fries, placing one pile in front of his wife.

Then he took a sip of the drink. His wife took a sip, and then set the cup on the table in between them.

The man began to eat. Another diner, having noticed the elaborate preparations, drew the obvious conclusion: The elderly couple was so poor that they could afford only one meal between them.

Wanting to help, the diner walked over and politely offered to buy another meal for the couple. The old man declined, saying they were fine and used to sharing everything.

The diner returned to his own table, but continued to watch. He noticed that except for an occasional sip from their drink, the old woman didn't eat. She simply watched her husband.

The diner returned. "Please let me buy you another meal," he said.

The old woman answered: "No thank you, we are used to sharing everything."

By now, the old man had finished eating and turned his attentions to his napkin. The old woman just sat there.

"Why are you not eating," asked the diner. "What are you waiting for?"

She answered: "The teeth."

To find out more about Scott Lafee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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