Health
Finding good health news amidst a pandemic can be quite daunting. That’s not the case with The Optimist Daily, where positive news is in high supply. Our Health section covers the latest good news from the health sector, featuring solutions ranging from mental and physical health to immunity, nutrition, and cutting edge medical research.
One million UK smokers have kicked the habit during the pandemic
Earlier in May, we wrote about how COVID-19 has pushed 300,000 people in the UK to quit smoking over health concerns. Now, that number has more than tripled, with figures suggesting that 1 million people in Britain have given up the habit since the pandemic hit in March. The data comes from a Read More...
COVID-19: How Orthodox Jews became America’s biggest donors of blood plasma
One Saturday in mid-April, a group of Orthodox Jewish leaders held a conference call with a Minnesota doctor as they grappled with spiking coronavirus cases in their New York area communities. Dr. Michael Joyner of the Mayo Clinic is leading a nationwide study on the use of blood plasma to treat Read More...
Eating capers activates key proteins in the brain and heart
If you enjoy capers, we have good news for you. According to a recent study, a commonly found compound in pickled capers, quercetin, activates proteins required for normal human brain and heart activity. The study, which was published in Communications Biology, found that quercetin can directly Read More...
Could AI help prompt doctors to have difficult discussions about death?
At the Optimist Daily, we’re always on the lookout for solutions—whether they may be for lighter issues like gardening, or for much heavier topics, like how we can best discuss how to prepare for death. Today, we’ll be touching upon the latter. The question of how and when to prepare for Read More...
BLM protests didn’t spike COVID cases. Here’s why and what we can learn from them
Preemptive reopening, poor tracing capabilities, a refusal to wear masks...the list of factors contributing to the new COVID-19 spike in the US is very long, but one thing that didn’t seem to contribute to rising case numbers were the Black Lives Matter protests. Why not? Let’s take a Read More...
5 ways to boost your microbiome this summer
There's no debating the importance of a healthy gut for overall well-being—and now, more than ever, staying in optimal health is top of mind for most people. Luckily, summer is a great time to get your microbiome in prime shape. As we enter these mid-summer days, here are some fantastic ways you Read More...
Three foods that may lower the risk of type 2 diabetes
Most cases of diabetes are type 2, and their prevalence is rising. Seeking to address the spread of the disease, researchers from Harvard and the University of Cambridge identified three key food groups that could lower the risk of type 2 diabetes. Studying 9,754 people with type 2 diabetes, Read More...
Doctors in Rome successfully separate conjoined twins in rare surgery
This week, surgeons in Rome successfully separated two-year-old twins with a rare congenital defect. Twins Ervina and Previna's skulls were fused back-to-back and shared vital blood vessels — a condition that occurs around once in every 2 million births. The 18-hour operation took place at the Read More...
Oregon will officially vote on legalizing psychedelic psilocybin therapy
Back in August 2019, we published a small story about activists in Oregon working to decriminalize the use of magic mushrooms (psilocybin). Today, we’re here to tell you that these activists have taken a big step towards achieving their legalization goal. After more than a year of work and Read More...
Link between physics and neurodegenerative diseases offers hope for new treatments
Phase transition allows water vapor to condense into dew drops. This process is also what allows brain cells to constantly reorganize their inner machinery. In people with ALS and Alzheimer’s, this process is interrupted. This connection between physics and disease could provide vital clues for Read More...