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.
Tiny teeth-cleaning robots could soon calm your fears of the dentist
A visit to the dentist typically involves time-consuming and sometimes unsettling scraping with mechanical tools to remove plaque from teeth. Plaque deposits are usually the product of biofilms – little communities of micro-organisms, bacterial and otherwise, that gather together and coat on your Read More...
Try using reflexology to treat common discomforts and body pains
You hate the taste of medicine but you are having a bad headache and rushing to finish your work. What do you do? Well, rather than reaching for those over-the-counter painkillers, try considering reflexology, an alternative medicine practice of applying pressure to specific “reflex points” Read More...
Scientists use AI algorithm to help close in on more effective cancer treatments
While network algorithms are usually associated with finding friends on social media, researchers in the UK have shown how they can be used to improve the effectiveness of cancer treatment by predicting the interactions between genes. Cancer is the second leading cause of death around the world and Read More...
Researchers have found a way to restore voices lost to neurological conditions
People with neurological conditions who lose the ability to speak can still send the brain signals used for speech, but sadly, they cannot produce any words with their voices. UCSF researchers, however, might have found a way to bring their voices back. What they’ve created is a brain-machine Read More...
A newly identified gene in wild tomatoes could lead to pest-resistant tomatoes
As crops become more and more resistant to pesticides, researchers are on the lookout for better alternatives that don’t require chemicals. At Michigan State University, researchers have identified an evolutionary function in wild tomato plants that modern plant breeders could use to create Read More...
Data systems have helped Google save over 6 millions pounds of food in its cafes
Google recognizes food waste is a problem, both environmentally and economically-speaking. That’s why for the past 5 years, the chefs that work in the kitchen at Google’s headquarters have been measuring the exact amount of food being wasted each day by placing all leftover ingredients in trays Read More...
Why eating healthy is just a question of scheduling
When we’re not eating a balanced, healthy diet, we often blame it on our lack of time. But maybe we’re looking at it all wrong? Perhaps the struggle to cook meals from scratch and eat them with others is not because we lack time but because we're scheduling it poorly. Not long ago, set Read More...
Pioneering malaria vaccine to roll out in Malawi
Malaria is one of the world’s leading killers, claiming the lives of over 250,000 children in Africa every year. Researchers have been trying for decades to come up with a viable solution to this global health problem, but haven’t made much progress. That is, until recently. This week, the Read More...
Meal kit subscriptions have more benefits for the environment than you think
Subscription meal kits like Blue Apron and HelloFresh, which deliver portioned ingredients and recipes for making meals, were once touted as the future of food. But so far, they haven’t lived up to that hype: In recent years, many top brands have had financial problems and disappointing Read More...
EPA to finally ban dangerous pesticide linked to development problems in kids
For decades, staple food crops in the United States, such as corn, wheat, apples, and citrus have been sprayed with chlorpyrifos – a dangerous pesticide linked to development problems in children and generally known to harm human health, water, and wildlife. Public health advocates have been Read More...