Health roundup: Simple sitting test predicts longevity

Your Friday morning health roundup:

Sitting test: Here's a health test you can try right now: Sit down on the floor and get back up. If you are over age 50 and can do both smoothly, with little or no help from your hands, knees or other body parts, congratulations. A new study suggests you are significantly less likely to die in the next few years than people who struggle or can't do it at all. (NBC News)

Stroke and stress: Older adults in perpetual distress -- those who carry a heavy load of stress, depression, negativity and dissatisfaction -- have an increased risk of one kind of stroke, new research suggests. Distress may have direct effects on the body and may fuel unhealthy behaviors such as smoking and overeating, experts say. (WebMD)

Hookah warnings: Smoking tobacco from a hookah -- a water pipe -- is not safer than smoking it from a cigarette, California health officials are warning. They are concerned about increases in hookah use among young adults. (Reuters)

Today's talker: Kids get the darnedest things stuck in the darnedest places. The latest stories making the rounds are about a baby girl who had to have a feather removed from her neck (it grew out from her throat some time after she apparently swallowed it) and an eight-year-old boy who ended up with a tooth in his ear after leaving it on his pillow for the tooth fairy. In both cases, it took parents and doctors a while to figure out what was going on. In the tooth case, parents did not believe the boy's wild story about a tooth in his ear. Lesson: If your kid tells you there's a tooth (or a bean or a bug) in his ear, check it out.