Presidential Elections May Be Bad for Your Health–New York Times, October 20 The stress of presidential elections may increase the incidence of heart attacks and strokes, say researchers from Kaiser Permanente looking at the 2016 US election. The study, in PNAS, found that hospitalizations for cardiovascular disease in the two days following that election were 61% higher than in the same two days of the preceding…
Pranayama is a set of techniques for controlling the breath, and a new randomized controlled trial from Brazilian doctors showed that this yoga breathwork led to significantly decreased anxiety and negative affect. It’s the first study to show how it impacts the brain: Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), they found that Pranayama exercises led to changes in areas of the brain implicated in emotional…
The largest-ever study on touch, developed by Goldsmiths University London researchers and conducted by the BBC, happened—ironically—right before the pandemic hit. It surveyed 40,000 people across 112 countries on their attitudes about interpersonal touch—and the findings suggest the huge cost to wellbeing in our long social-distancing era, where so much human touch has been lost. Studies have long shown that touch is essential for physical…
More analysts have agreed of late that COVID-19 is spurring a new reality: Every brand now needs to behave like a wellness brand, and wellness will increasingly no longer be the sole preserve of wellness brands. A new global survey (7,000 consumers in 14 countries) by advertising giant Ogilvy helps explain why. It asked consumers how important wellness is for them now and what actions…
We have explored numerous economic, cultural and wellness trends that will rise from COVID-19 in past issues, including less meat, less oil, more activism, a fiercer US/China rivalry, and more EU integration. Here are three wellness trends that will reshape the future: (1) dramatically less business travel, (2) permanent working-from-home (WFH), and (3) a surge in “behavioral” wellness technology. There will be fewer flights forever:…
A dose of optimism, as the pandemic rages on–New York Times, October 12, 2020 Since he began covering the pandemic, the NYT science reporter has been consistently gloomy, but events are now moving faster than he thought possible, and he’s become “cautiously optimistic.” He now believes, like many experts, that the pandemic will be over far sooner than expected—possibly by the middle of next year…
