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.
“Living drug factories” produce insulin from inside the body
For type 1 diabetics, regular injections of insulin are an unfortunate reality of life, necessary to keep their blood sugar levels in check in lieu of a healthy pancreas. Scientists at MIT have developed a new type of implantable cell that could handle the heavy lifting by overcoming rejection by Read More...
Here are some easy recipes for making your own hand sanitizer
By now you must surely be aware that washing your hands clean is necessary to keep you and others protected during the pandemic. You’ve also probably gone through a bottle or two of Purell, and feel a bit tired of buying more expensive hand sanitizers. The good news is you can make your own hand Read More...
7 strategies for getting the most nutrition out of your pantry
By now, you've probably started to adapt to cooking from your pantry, but limiting your shopping trips may mean you've been eating less fresh produce than you'd like. This, however, doesn’t mean the nutrition of your meals goes by the wayside. If you want to get the most nutrition out of your Read More...
Drones to deliver medical supplies and equipment during the COVID-19
A week ago, we wrote about how drones are becoming an essential tool for combating malaria. Now, it appears that the technology holds the promising potential to help in the fight against the COVID-19 too. Zipline, a medical drone delivery company, which is currently helping hospitals in Rwanda Read More...
MIT to publish free plans online for a cheap emergency ventilator
Imagine a class project from over a decade ago ended up holding the solution to a global issue? Well that's the case for a class of students from MIT, who are drawing from an old project to solve one of the most pressing shortages facing hospitals today: the lack of ventilators. These machines can Read More...
Breakthrough decontamination system to help medical workers fight COVID-19
As shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) reach critical levels across the country, finding a way to reuse this protective gear holds an opportunity to take a huge burden off of the medical community fighting the coronavirus. Happily, a care and sanitation company has managed to figure Read More...
How 3D printing food into certain shapes tricks people into eating less
Armed with a 3D printer filled with some sort of nondescript food paste, a team of MIT engineers is revealing how the shape and arrangement of foods can trick our brains into feeling more or less satisfied after a meal. For instance, your brain may perceive two different arrangements of the same Read More...
These shoe companies are stepping up to support healthcare workers
Last week we talked about Project N95 which is connecting healthcare workers with critical personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Shoe companies Crocs, Allbirds, and Clove are meeting the needs of medical workers by taking care of their footwear needs. They are donating free Read More...
Novel testing device can diagnose coronavirus in as little as 5 minutes
Finding quick ways to diagnose coronavirus is incredibly useful for frontline health workers who have to meet an overwhelming demand to test thousands of people for the virus each day. Now, health care company Abbot Laboratories is unveiling a test for the virus that can tell if someone is Read More...
This closed restaurant is turning its supplies into meals for those in need
When chef Andrew Wong closed the doors of his restaurant to slow the spread of COVID-19, he decided not to let his ingredients go to waste and started producing cook-at-home boxes to donate to at risk-populations and other vulnerable individuals in need of food during the pandemic. His Read More...