Why reading is good for your health | CNN

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Read a book and live longer

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Living to 100 17 videos

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Read a book and live longer

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Intermittent fasting may help you live longer

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Get outside to improve your health

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This string may help you live to be 100

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Turns out playing video games reduces the vividness and frequency of cravings compared with waiting it out, according to new research in the journal Appetite. (Study participants played Tetris.) Why? Because playing games distracts your laser focus on about that pint of ooey-gooey chocolate ice cream sitting in your freezer.

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Is sitting the new smoking?

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Put down that energy drink!

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Meditation has become increasingly popular in the West since the 1960s.

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How every person can benefit from meditation

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Drink this daily and you may live longer

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How listening to music helps your brain

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Saying 'hello' can extend your life

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MUNICH, GERMANY - JULY 09: FC Bayern Muenchen sporting manager Matthias Sammer laughs during a press conference at the Bayern Muenchen training ground on July 9, 2014 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Alexandra Beier/Bongarts/Getty Images)

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Does laughing make you healthier?

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A fruit plate is seen at the Buchinger-Wilhelmi Clinic in Ueberlingen, southern Germany, on March 24, 2014. High-end clinics specialising in deprivation rather than pampering are all the rage in Germany, one of the homes of the fasting movement, and in some cases it is even covered by health insurance plans. AFP PHOTO/CHRISTOF STACHE (Photo credit should read CHRISTOF STACHE/AFP/Getty Images)

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The best diets have this in common

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How to stop mindless eating

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Skip the meds and practice good sleep hygiene

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What every 50-year-old needs to know

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Trick your kids into eating healthy

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Story highlights

Reading fiction has been shown to increase empathy

Reading has improved brain function, allowing for more complex thought

CNN —

Clients who seek solace by pouring their hearts out in Alison Kerr Courtney’s office don’t get rewarded with a Xanax or Prozac prescription. Instead, they walk away with a reading list.

The founder of BiblioRemedy isn’t a licensed therapist, nor is she currently an English teacher, although she did work as one for 10 years in France, and has spent years shelving books at the library and in bookstores.