Hearth is still the heart of the home

A Different View with Dave O’Connell

It never ceases to amaze and infuriate when the first thing would-be landlords do when they buy one of those Homes Under the Hammer is to take out the fireplace and chimney breast to make more room in the living room.

For what?

What is a living room without a fire, or a wood burning stove or at the very least an artificial one that pretends to burn fake coals without having a mess to clean up afterwards?

Is there a more perfect sight of a cold winter’s day than a blazing fire to greet you on your return from metaphorically hunting and shooting for your kin?

Never in a million years will the sight of a radiator – even one glowing with heat to something like the Saharan desert – fill you with the same joyful heart.

And yet there are so many modern homes without a hearth or a heart – just a series of square boxes, painted magnolia, with radiators and laminate floors so that you can feel equally at home – or not – in rooms the world over.

The good news for those who retain a roaring fire at the heart of the home is that scientists have now discovered that it’s not just the heart they gladden … they can also help keep blood pressure low.

Christopher Lynn is a biological anthropologist at the University of Alabama, and his study found that it didn’t even have to be a real fire to have this positive effect – even a video of a fire is better than nothing at all.

He asked 226 adults to watch a video of an open fire with sound, and without, and also compared to a blank screen.

They were then tested for blood pressure, their susceptibility to hypnotism and how social they were as a result.

The study in the journal of Evolutionary Psychology found that ‘fire with sound consistently produces reductions in … blood pressure, and reductions grow stronger with … exposure’.

In other words, the flickering flames, the crackle and roar of burning logs – and perhaps if the study was carried out here, the smell of the turf – all possess a hypnotic calming effect.

But you didn’t need Dr Lynn to work that one out.

We’re generally happier in front of an open fire, more sociable, conversational and more interested in those around us.

Even if we’re on our own, what is better than a big fire, a good book and a reading light, a little music – perhaps even a little tincture – to bring your blood pressure right down to a point where all appears well with the world again?

Even without the book, those flickering flames, the shadows and lights, the pictures that appear in the red hot intensity of the fireplace … it’s enough to move you to a higher and happier plane.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.