Wellness
In Elemental. More on Medium.
GOOD QUESTION
Probably. But first, consider the risks.
The internet makes quite a fuss about the ways we arrange our bodies in repose.
Googling “best sleep position” turns up a cool 765 million results, and some of the top hits maintain that how you sleep — back, stomach, left or right side, fetal — has profound implications for your spine, heart, breathing, appearance, and much else. There’s even some Freudian pseudoscience linking certain sleep positions to personality traits, which seems to have about as much solid scientific backing as palmistry.
All of these claims are somewhat confounded by the fact that we all tend to sleep in a…
For the people considered too far gone, was recovery ever possible? The latest research — and innovative strategies — are offering hope.
One night in the early 1960s, when he was about 17, a high school football star and all-state wrestler named Donald Galvin smashed 10 dishes to pieces — all at once, while standing in front of the kitchen sink.
His father wrote it off. So did his mother. Donald was a teenager, moody. It was the ’60s. Other kids were doing worse.
But Donald knew there was something wrong. He’d known for a while. He knew that being a star on the football field and having a friendship with another person were two very different things. Sometimes, he would say…
Experiment with props, try new classes, and maybe even ditch your screen
Yoga is an ever-evolving, ancient practice with South Asian origins. But for many people living in the West, yoga has meant something very specific for the past several decades: thin, lithe, usually white women bending in spandex in a minimalist hardwood floor studio.
The past year has thankfully changed some of that perception.
For the first time, people who want to practice yoga have had no choice but to do so from home. Luckily, there has been no shortage of Zoom classes, YouTube videos, and fitness apps for both experienced practitioners and eager pandemic beginners. And beautifully, many people have…
A closer look at copper, cryotherapy, compression, and float tanks
Every year, it seems, something new comes along promising to decrease our pain and stress while improving mood and sleep. Almost as quickly as these magical fixes arrive on the scene, many of them disappear — either because they lose their novelty and notoriety, or because they are displaced by the next great hope.
From copper bracelets to spinal braces, oxygen bars to cryo spas, soak tanks to you name it, there is no shortage of “wellness products” that enter with a splash and exit with a whimper, promising to make quick work of complicated problems. …
The future is bright, but also a little weird (see: wellness toilets)
Fitness wearables have been around for over a decade now, and the extraordinary circumstances of 2020 and 2021 have only made the idea of self-monitoring health more attractive to many.
The latest innovations were on display recently at an all-virtual rendition of CES, the popular tech conference hosted by the Consumer Technology Association. With a spectrum of health challenges for tech mavericks to address, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, screen addiction, and rising food allergies, this year’s showing gave a snapshot of what wellness devices you may see in the not-so-distant future.
Smart health devices: The biggest trends
When it came to wellness gadgetry at CES…
Why emulating your younger self could help you move better
After a certain age, balance no longer comes naturally and requires more cognition and awareness for its preservation. Moreover, the mind-body connection is central to one’s equilibrium, with lack of poise suggesting balance issues may be present. Brad Manor, PhD, associate director of the Mobility and Falls Translational Research Center with Harvard-affiliated Hebrew SeniorLife, calls balance “a complex system” involving many factors. “As people age, changes in flexibility, muscle strength and power, body sensation, reflexes, and even mental function all contribute to declining balance.”
Conversely, small children exemplify balance and poise effortlessly. They can run, play, get up, sit back…
We’ve been through a real ~journey~ with housekeeping and mental health this year
Back on (checks notes) March 9, Elemental ran an excellent piece by writer and wellness-world expert Rina Raphael about how cooking, cleaning, sewing, and other old-school chores were being elevated as new forms of wellness: opportunities to take care of oneself and one’s space and practice mindfulness. As the pandemic progressed and eventually exploded throughout the country, many quarantiners found themselves even more drawn to these comfortingly repetitive actions—remember the flour shortage?—which, per research cited in Raphael’s story, “increase a person’s belief that they can manage a situation that is otherwise out of their hands.”
Now, if you’re anything like…
Stressed? Exhausted? Depressed? Here’s a surefire way to clear your head and improve your health.
When anxiety sends my heart climbing into my throat, when motivation evaporates, when life makes no sense, I have a proven pick-me-up. I head to the nearest trail for a quick hike or, when time allows, drive to the mountains for a good, long trek. Without fail, the exercise, fresh air, and curative effects of nature itself combine to boost my mental mood and invigorate my body.
It’s not just me. There’s serious science to all this, and the positive effects build over time with repeated outings. …
A physician traces one boy’s story and unpacks the research
Six years ago on a spring day in Indiana, suddenly and without warning, Will had his first seizure. Shortly thereafter, the previously healthy 5-year-old was diagnosed with generalized epilepsy. Despite starting treatment, Will’s epilepsy continued to worsen.
His mother, Sarah Ackerman, recalls, “We tried medicine after medicine, upping the doses and combining it with others only to see his condition drastically decline. He went from having just a few generalized myoclonic seizures to over 100 a day within the first two months. His numbers continually increased as the months went on with no reprieve.”
Will’s epilepsy was preventing him from…
An inside look from scientists working to quantify feelings
Co-authored with Jocelyn Harmon
How are you doing these days?
Take a moment, and really think about it. Is your answer emotional, like “I’m feeling stressed,” or physical, like “I’m feeling worn down”? Or maybe your response falls somewhere on a scale from “abysmal,” let’s say, to “outstanding.”
For most people, there are many ways to assess well-being, and the way you introspect on it might even change from day-to-day. But from a scientific perspective, well-being can only be understood with a shared, theory- and evidence-based definition that implies reliable and valid ways of measuring it.
