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.
NASA has a new mission: Improving food security in Africa
NASA is offering its earth-observing satellites to help nations in Africa manage crop production as well as natural disasters. The program is initially focused on the Sahel region in West Africa. The Sahel is one of the most vulnerable regions in the world to climate change, where rising Read More...
Basic food rules for a long, healthy life
If you knew exactly what makes a basic ideal diet—and my intention is that you will in about five minutes' time—you would have great power to take control of your own health. Most people don't know, unfortunately, because what makes an ideal diet isn't common knowledge. Nutrition isn't Read More...
U.S. farmers struggle to meet the consumer demand for organic food
America needs more organic farmers to meet the rising demand of consumers. Last year consumer appetite for organic foods in the U.S reached $13.4 billion. However, only one percent of the country’s cropland is dedicated to organic farming. That needs to change, and big corporations are leading Read More...
Government success: British teenage pregnancy rate halved in 20 years
In a sign that government can work, rates of teenage pregnancy in the UK have halved in the past two decades and are now at their lowest levels since record-keeping began in the late 1960s. The dramatic turnaround is the result of an unusually long-term and ambitious strategy launched by the Labour Read More...
Middle-age-plus memory decline may just be a matter of changing focus
Are you middle-aged or older and having problems remembering details, like where you left the keys or parked your car? Cheer up, it may simply be result of a change in what information your brain focuses on during memory formation and retrieval, rather than a decline in brain function, according to Read More...
Farming and forestry can deliver food security, says UN
Improving co-operation between nations' farming and forestry sectors will help reduce deforestation and improve food security, a UN report has suggested. Between 2000 and 2010, tropical nations saw net forest loss of seven million hectares per year and a net gain in farmland of six million Read More...
Scientists: Your immune system affects, and even controls, your social behavior
The functioning of the immune system is increasingly seen as the key factor in the development of disease—from cancer to heart disease and from Parkinson’s to Alzheimer’s. Now scientists have found that the immune system also directly affects—and even controls—our social behavior, such as Read More...
‘I’ve been a homeopathic vet for 40 years, so how can I be seen as a fraud?’
Cedric can’t explain how he is feeling. Nor can he say whether his new arthritis treatment is working. In fact, Cedric can’t talk at all. That’s because he is a horse. If this horse could talk, he might be able to save everyone a lot of trouble. Five-year-old Cedric is on the Read More...
A sizable shift in people's diets could help prevent the brewing influenza pandemic
We’ve heard it before: Eating less meat is better for the planet. In May, China’s health authorities went so far as considering this in their new dietary guidelines, which advised a 50 percent reduction in meat consumption. (It isn’t actually doing anything to enforce this advice, Read More...
Progress in world’s first Alzheimer’s vaccine
Researchers have made a breakthrough discovery in the international quest to discover a new and potentially effective vaccine targeting the pathological proteins associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Source: Flinders University. With more than 7.5 million new cases of Alzheimer’s disease Read More...