News

There is an old saying, "money can't buy happiness." But a new study suggests that bit of folk wisdom isn't necessarily true.

British researchers found that people who win a lottery -- even a modest-sized jackpot -- experienced a long-term lift in their overall level of happiness.

"Our results seem to show . . . that a windfall of cash buys more contentment," Andrew Oswald, an economics professor at the University of Warwick, said in an e-mail interview.

The study is based on 14 years of data from the British Household Panel Survey, which tracked 5,000 households. As part of the survey, the participants completed a series of questionnaires to gauge their level of happiness over a period of time.

During the 14 years of data collection, a total of 137 participants had a medium-sized lottery win of £1,000 to £120,000 ($2,000 to $240,000). At first, the effect of the win wasn't apparent. But two years after hitting the jackpot, the winners were about 10 per cent happier than the average person without a win or only a tiny lottery windfall (less than £1,000).

Why the delayed reaction? "The honest answer is we are not sure," Prof. Oswald said.

He speculated that most people initially saved their winnings and didn't get a mood lift until they actually spent the cash.

In some respects, this latest study fits into a growing body of medical research showing wealthy people tend be healthier than those with less money.

Even so, a modest lottery prize is unlikely to put people on easy street for the rest their lives.

"It may be that people get a burst of optimism from even a smallish win," Prof. Oswald said. Whatever the reason, he is firmly convinced that "money and mental health really are linked together."

His study is published in the Journal of Health Economics.

Chemotherapy's birthday

Last week marked the 60th anniversary of the first published report of chemotherapy being used in the fight against cancer. The groundbreaking study was printed in the Sept. 21, 1946, edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The pioneering researchers described how they used knowledge gained from studying the effects of poisonous mustard gas -- a weapon of mass destruction -- to help combat lymphoma, a type of cancer that begins in cells of the immune system.

As it turns out, a controlled injection of nitric mustard can halt the runaway growth of the cancerous cells.

Work on the innovative treatment began in 1942, but was kept secret until the end of the Second World War.

At that time, doctors had only two means of fighting cancer: surgery and radiation therapy. Chemotherapy -- chemicals that kill cancer cells -- represented a major breakthrough.

Today, there are many different chemo drugs for treating a wide variety of tumours.

In a commentary in the current edition of JAMA, Jules Hirsch of Rockefeller University in New York expresses appreciation that life-saving chemotherapy came from such a horrific weapon.

"Clinical investigators were able to derive some good for mankind from the agony and pain resulting from chemical agents created primarily to destroy humans," he writes.