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.
Finding your voice
It’s early afternoon in Arkansas, and a high school gym full of kids in assembly listens raptly to a bespectacled man with a microphone. “We have two minds,” he tells them. “We have our logical, analytical mind, and we have this other part of us where our emotions and feelings live. And Read More...
Green is good
Every Sunday morning I go to the gym to do 30 minutes of strength training. I don’t really enjoy it but I see it as a kind of necessary physical therapy. After all, it slows muscle loss. And since I decided I don’t have to like it but that I do need to do it, I’ve managed to keep up with my Read More...
Ancient healing in the modern world
Brant Secunda beats on his drum and mumbles incomprehensibly. Now and then I catch the name Wali, which is the name of my son, who is sitting beside me. We both stare at the smoke rising from the little dish of glowing coals on the table before us. Secunda stands and brushes Wali’s body with a Read More...
The yogurt mamas
Every morning, 56-year-old Elizabeth Gabeal from Tanzania goes to work in a small community kitchen in her village in the Mwanza region. The kitchen is known as Jiko la Maziwa Imara, Swahili for “the kitchen for healthy milk.” Here, she makes yogurt that she sells to friends and family. In Read More...
Help for the heart
Having trouble walking up stairs and experiencing tightness in your chest? If the arteries around your heart are clogged, your doctor will try to remove the blockage by performing an angioplasty. If that doesn’t help, the only remaining option is open-heart surgery. But does open-heart Read More...
Ideal Medical Practices
A small but growing group of physicians is starting ‘’ideal medical practices” that put the individual patient at the heart of health care. John, a slight 60-year-old with severe arthritis and high blood pressure, sits in the hallway outside his doctor’s office in Eugene, Oregon, reading a Read More...
Standing in the light
How Johan Boswinkel is using biophotons, the faint light waves emitted by cells, to help the body heal. Jurriaan Kamp | July/August 2011 issue Warning: this story is about a man who has developed a groundbreaking new therapy: healing with light. The man is not a doctor. Nor is he an accredited Read More...
Try a little bubbly
Elbrich Fennema | August 2009 issue Photograph: Pieter de Swart "Laughter kills fear," writes Umberto Eco in his novel The Name of the Rose, which probably explains why laughing is considered healthy. When fear arises in the kitchen, it tends to be about the fear of failure. A simple Read More...
Why investing in fast-food may be a good thing
Social entrepreneurs see the economic upheaval as a chance to go mainstream. Amy Domini | March 2009 issue My friends and colleagues know I've been an advocate of the Slow Food movement for many years. Founded in Italy 20 years ago, Slow Food celebrates harvests from small-scale family farms, Read More...
100-horsepower porridge
How to make breakfast healthy again. Elbrich Fennema | April 2009 issue Start your day off with oatmeal. A breakfast of chocolate flakes and milk contributes to a healthy lifestyle. Or so retailers would like us to believe. And yes, starting the day with breakfast is better than starting it Read More...