It fascinates me how often we refuse to believe the fruits of our own experience until some study confirms it. I will spare you a long list of links, but it's happened so often I have a standing personal hashtag attached to that topic in my archives.
I still remember a study years ago about the value of chicken soup for colds. It seemed so silly at the time. Heck, if soup makes you feel better, drink it. What's wrong with a little placebo effect among family and friends? I don't need statistics to feel OK about correlating that soup with a less stuffy head.
That said, with today's perspective on mind and brain I do have to grant that Aunt Ida may have been more right than she knew when she cooked up that soup, and I'm not talking about killing microbes with noodles.
All those years ago, it is unlikely Aunt Ida or those study designers considered the curative value of the well-turned meme.
