The 2019 World Happiness Report was just unveiled and, once again, Northern European nations prove that they are out in front in cracking the happiness code, with eight of the top 10 happiest nations hailing from the region: 1) Finland, 2) Denmark, 3) Norway, 4) Iceland, 5) Netherlands, 6) Switzerland, 7) Sweden, and 10) Austria. New Zealand and Canada took the #8 and #9 spots.…
MONTHLY BAROMETER – WELLNESS EDITION A new US survey sheds some light on how our work generally impacts our wellbeing. In the country that is the keenest about wellness (the US) and in the socioeconomic group that is the most invested in it (the affluent, upper-middle class), new data reveals that a surprisingly high percentage of individuals are miserable at work. According to a survey…
A large, new study from Harvard’s School of Public Health found that drinking sugar-heavy beverages (whether sodas or fruit drinks) was associated with early mortality. One extra 12-ounce serving of a sugary drink daily was linked to a 7 percent increased risk of death overall and a 10 percent increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease. One researcher noted: “The optimal intake of these drinks…
Switzerland’s Gottlieb Duttweiler Insitute, a leading future-forecasting think-tank and a Global Wellness Institute™ (GWI) research partner, will hold a conference May 10 in Zurich called, “Eternity Now: Wellbeing and Beauty Retail Reimagined.” A provocative lineup of speakers will tackle this topic from Marcia Kilgore (founder, Bliss-Labs, FitFlop, Beauty Pie, etc.) to GWI research partner, Anjan Chatterjee (Professor of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, author…
A large, new meta-review of 108 randomized controlled trials (23,000 participants) from the very stringent Cochrane Database found that exercise requiring standing up and not sitting is a very good way to reduce falls in the elderly. Tai chi, for example, reduced the rate of falls by 19 percent. The researchers summarized as follows: “We’re very sure that starting an exercise program will reduce the…
The World Happiness Report has been gauging the happiness of nations since 2012, and two new studies, 1) the Global Wellness Index (from investment firm LetterOne) and 2) the Bloomberg Healthiest Country Index now offer a window into how 150+ nations fare when it comes to overall health and wellness. Each index uses slightly different measures, so rankings vary somewhat, but both are important new…
