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.
Talking to your children will make them smarter
Many studies have found that the more you talk to your baby, the faster they will develop vocabulary and even have a noticeably higher IQ. Studies have also found that lower income parents talk to their children less than rich parents. Now government backed initiatives are teaching new parents to Read More...
Young east-coasters are making farming cool again
For the past three decades the average age of a US farmer has been rising and now is about 60. For generations farming was looked at as “uncool” but now 20-and-30-somethings are rethinking this old stigmatism, and trading laptops for corn crops. In Maine, young east coasters are taking up land Read More...
Mosquito nets halve malaria deaths
Malaria is a terrible killer disease that can be easily prevented: Steer clear from mosquitoes. But that’s, of course, much easier said than done. Yet that’s exactly what has brought the deaths caused by malaria down with 50% since 2001. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) 4.3 Read More...
Copper bedrails would reduce hospital infections
When it comes to the risk of nasty infections—paradoxically—hospitals are the worst places to go. It’s estimated that one in 25 patients will receive an infection from the hospital they are going to for treatment. Now a new startup, Copper Biohealth, has found that copper bedrails reduce the Read More...
Restoring Alzheimer’s memory loss could be possible
It’s been a long held notion that memories are stored in the synapses of the brain—the parts that connect one area to another. Alzheimer’s degrades the synapses, and thus destroys memories; even if you could regrow the synapses you cannot regrow the memories. A new study from University of Read More...
Nigeria, and the world, one step closer to eradicating polio
Nigeria is one of the last remaining strong holds of polio. Whenever the African continent is close to becoming polio free, more cases pop up in Nigeria. Now it’s been reported that there hasn’t been a new polio diagnosis in Nigeria since July, and only six total in 2014—a 90 percent decrease Read More...
Cure for Ebola could lie in survivor’s blood
A few months ago we reported on a drug company called ZMapp that was testing, and having some luck, treating Ebola patients with a drug sourced from a tobacco plant. Now ZMapp, working alongside Vanderbilt University, have received a donation of blood from an Ebola survivor, hoping to extract and Read More...
Copper bedrails would reduce hospital infections
When it comes to the risk of nasty infections—paradoxically—hospitals are the worst places to go. It’s estimated that one in 25 patients will receive an infection from the hospital they are going to for treatment. Now a new startup, Copper Biohealth, has found that copper bedrails reduce the Read More...
Research shows that we’re not victims of our genes
According to the dominant view in medicine whatever happens to our health is a consequence of the genes we received at birth. This so-called “genetic determinism” means we don’t create our own lives. We are victims of our genes. That’s a rather depressing perspective that aligns with the Read More...
Yoga prevents heart disease
Yesterday we reported that yoga along with meditation might play a role in keeping you healthy during cancer treatment. Now a study has been released that says yoga might help protect against heart disease—especially if you can’t do more rigorous exercises. Dutch researchers reviewed some 37 Read More...