A new UN report (from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has some scary findings. It focuses exclusively on the world’s land use and how modern agriculture and deforestation is radically boosting climate change. One finding: Human land use is responsible for 23 percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions—half from carbon dioxide emitted through deforestation and half from agriculture. Their warning: We simply can’t…
MONTHLY BAROMETER – WELLNESS EDITION Nobody quite knows why the 21st-century workplace seems to be so conducive to overwork, burnout and depression, but the global issue of mental health at work is reaching such proportions that it’s now dubbed the “trillion-dollar taboo.” Is it the high-pressure culture of today’s marketplace? The prevailing social norms that make it shameful to show vulnerability? The “always-on” digital culture?…
A July 17 story in Quartz explored the recent, tragic deaths of at least nine American tourists (as of June 30) in the Dominican Republic. It has created a media frenzy, the FBI and Dominican authorities are investigating, and one strong theory is that fake or adulterated alcohol was the cause. Beware! READ STORY
MONTHLY BAROMETER – WELLNESS EDITION In this lower growth, uncertain and ever-more unequal world, an issue is gaining prominence: that of a wealth tax. For instance, a group of American billionaires has just been calling publicly for a “wealth tax,” and our own little survey at the Wellness Barometer (very limited and hence with no real scientific validity) shows that ultra-high-net-worth families are surprisingly receptive…
The GWI today launched a new white paper series: “Understanding Wellness.” The research papers are designed to become the go-to primer for policymakers, businesspeople and researchers to understand—in clear and simple terms and backed by expert insight and rich data—the major force that wellness has become around the world and how it will evolve in the future. This first paper, The Global Forces Driving the Growth of the…
A new meta-analysis (49 studies) published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings indicates that yoga practice that emphasizes mental relaxation and breathing techniques can have as much of a positive impact on high blood pressure as aerobic exercise: It results in blood pressure reductions as large as 11/6 mmHg, equal to or exceeding those reported for aerobic exercise training. When yoga didn’t emphasize breathing techniques and…
