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.
Medical students provide free service to uninsured in New York City
Nearly 1 million New York City residents are still uninsured. Most of them get health care in emergency rooms, city hospitals or community health centers, if they get care at all. They can also go to two student-run free clinics that take in a few dozen patients per week. Dr. Neil Calman, head of Read More...
Teaching older brains new tricks to improve vision
Contrast sensitivity is a major area of eyesight deterioration in old age. It’s a leading cause of accidents among seniors, be it stumbling on the stairs or swerving at the wheel. With just five 90-minute sessions of behavioral training designed to affect brain structure, scientists were able to Read More...
New federal dietary guidelines take aim at meat for environmental reasons
Livestock contributes 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. It also causes land degradation, and is a remarkably ineffective way of producing calories in a world plagued by increasingly severe droughts: it takes about 2,5000 gallons of Read More...
Ancient, forgotten bean to save world bean crop from global warming
Once again, Nature's formidable science lab has yielded the solution to a problem that had been haunting scientists: how to preserve bean crops, which provide food security for more than 400 million people in the developing world, from an expected 50% reduction by 2050 given the sensitivity of the Read More...
Seeds of Time soon to bring Svalbard Global Seed Vault to a screen near you
Hardly a feature-length documentary film has been as necessary and timely as Seeds of Time. The film tracks the history and mission of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault — sometimes called the Doomsday Vault — and its founder Cary Fowler. His endeavor to collect the seeds of some 2 million Read More...
WHO humbled by its mismanagement of the Ebola epidemic
Future health crises may benefit from the unwinding Ebola epidemic, after its mismanagement by the international community was widely acknowledged by all parties. The World Health Organization (WHO) has proposals in the work to build-up a rapid response team to react more swiftly to future Read More...
Pure water available instantly, anywhere
Imagine pulling out your water bottle and filling it up at whatever stream, pond or faucet you happen to find, then drinking it straight up without worrying one bit about your health. The miracle of instant safe water is now brought to you by Naked Filter, a technology that combines carbon elements Read More...
Flowers save the bee that saves our food
The decline of bumblebees is reversible, provided these cuddly-looking pollinators are provided with the correct environment to thrive, according to a groundbreaking two-year research study at the University of Sussex. For the first time, researchers demonstrated that reintroducing flowers in the Read More...
Sustainability on steroids: The future of organic—and the world—is here
Big news hidden in a small blog: This organic farmer is solving the drought problem in California and the food problem of the world while serving the health of the people and probably making more money than any other farmer in the US. He is not tilting the soil, capturing more CO2, and uses only Read More...
Reading problems? Go outdoors. The sun is the answer to short-sightedness
Short-sightedness—myopia—is reaching epidemic proportions. Decades ago education seemed the culprit—too much reading. Then scientists blamed the computer. Reading more or spending more time at the computer should then lead to more myopia. However, studies showed it didn’t. New research Read More...