Flowers can boost seniors' well-being.

• Position: Your Life - Brief Article

Every day, America's senior population--40,000,000 and rising--faces the challenges of growing older, including depression, memory loss, and social withdrawal. As a concerned nation, we are continually exploring new means to ease daily-lee anxieties. A behavioral study by researchers at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, on the health effects of flowers on senior citizens demonstrates that flowers ease depression, inspire social networking, and refresh memory as we age.

"The results are significant be cause, as our nation grows older and life becomes more stressful, we look for easy and natural ways to enhance our lives--and the lives of our aging parents," indicates Jeannette Haviland-Jones, lead researcher and director of the university's Human Development Lab. "Now, one simple answer is right under our noses." More than 100 seniors participated in the study, in which some received flowers and others did not. The results shed new light on how nature's support systems help seniors cope with the challenges of aging:

* Participants showed a significant increase in happiness...