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We know in the abstract that sugary drinks are bad for us, but exactly how bad? When researchers crunch the numbers, they find that 184,000 people a year are dying from diseases directly related to consuming soda and other heavily sugared beverages.
Having Friends Could Save Your Life
So grab that drink with your friend after work.
Here’s a new health risk to worry about as you get older: A lack of human contact. According to researchers from Brigham Young University, low social interaction has the equivalent lifespan impact as smoking 15 cigarettes daily, or being a raging alcoholic. Cutting yourself off from others is worse, even, than inactivity. And twice as bad as obesity. So, you better start making friends.
An experimental gene therapy program in Pennsylvania has helped numerous patients fight leukemia by using a disabled form of HIV to reprogram their bodies.
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Where do the healthiest people in America live?
Red meat is a large portion of the American diet (the proliferation of awesome burger joints in New York City isn’t helping much). A new study suggests some terrifying risks that come with eating even just a little read meat.
“people are much more productive and healthy when they can connect their values with their work.”
It’s got many of the same qualities as heavily controlled substances, but we freely add it to everything (it’s even on the FDA’s list of things that you can safely add to any food, at any amount). Is it time to put the sugary snacks behind the counter at the corner store?
A new medical sensor can be powered by remote vibrations—especially those found in hip-hop. Grab your insurance card and head immediately to the nearest car stereo installation center. Dr. Dre will see you now.
Booming System Monitors Your Health With Sick Beats
This GPS Shoe restores at least a little bit of dignity to Alzheimers patients.
It’s a simple way to always know where someone is, and it has applications beyond the elderly, too: small children and runners should get some.
Most people recognize the USDA’s new dietary chart, but as you can see in this video, very few people actually know what it means. Read more about the brain dead design behind “My Plate”…
The Five Biggest Ideas On The Future Of Health-Care Design
Opportunities in Mobile Health
The United States and other industrialized countries can learn from experiments in the developing world that use the humble cell phone as a platform for innovation.
Full Story: Stanford Social Innovation Review
This is a great read. Also, don’t miss our coverage of innovation in mobile health here.
There’s a perverse system of incentives behind the spiraling cost of drug prices.
Amid all the debate about our rising healthcare costs, one thing you almost never hear about is rising drug costs. Think about it: You hear plenty about emergency rooms and chronic care, but nothing about drug prices, which are the main interaction most of us have with the medical industry.
And that’s totally ridiculous.
Infographic Of The Day: The Dirty Ties Between Docs and Drug Makers
We have no idea what happens when you start messing with mosquito genes. What happens to the ecosystems they live in? What happens to the mutated mosquitoes? We’ve seen Jurassic Park enough times to know that nature finds a way—especially the bad parts of nature. But believe it or not, the latest mosquito research is far from the only wacky malaria-fighting scheme to cross our inbox.
Researchers from Imperial College London and the University of Washington have discovered that they can disrupt the malaria parasite’s development by inserting a special gene into mosquitoes, which pass the malaria-fighting capability onto their offspring. This is just the beginning—in the future, scientists could splice in genes that allow mosquitoes to target animals instead of humans or even produce all-male offspring (only females spread malaria), according to the BBC. Continued…
