Hurrying, which so much of modern life encourages, may promote nervous system dysfunction and health problems. — One of the best things I’ve read recently is this “On Slowness” piece from Medium contributor Savala Nolan. Nolan writes about a sandwich shop she used to visit in Italy and the gentleman who worked there behind the counter, alone and at his own unhurried pace. Everything the man did…

The downside of some “greater awareness” campaigns and other pharmaceutical marketing tactics. — Nothing burns itself into memory quite like public humiliation. Even now, 20 years later, I can vividly recall the embarrassment I felt the day I tried — and epically failed — to play the guitar in front of my high-school classmates. It was my junior year. A couple of friends…

‘Taking Antibiotics Is a Gamble Every Single Time You Do It’ — The first piece I ever wrote for Medium was titled “8 New Diseases That Are Coming to Wipe Us Out.” I interviewed epidemiologists and other knowledgeable people to find out what sorts of novel illnesses are most likely to emerge in the coming years. Among the plagues and pestilences they…

Escaping from your routines can help you escape from repetitive, unhelpful thoughts — I don’t always find myself to be good company. Like a friend who only talks about his own hang-ups, my inner monologue can get pretty tiresome. Honestly, that again? Can’t we give it a rest? I think most of us feel this from time to time, this desire to get…

Despite misleading headlines, a new study finds that time-restricted eating is effective for weight loss. — Here’s a secret every journalist wants you to know: we almost never write our own headlines. That chore usually falls to our editors, and what they write doesn’t always sit well with us. …

New research identifies the most beneficial changes you can make for your own and the planet’s health. — For most of my life, eating meals meant eating some meat. A proper breakfast came with bacon or sausage. Lunch was meat between slices of bread. Dinner was meat with other stuff on the side. …

Experts still don’t know how they work, and new research finds little evidence of long-term benefit — You’ve probably heard that mental health disorders, including depression, are caused by chemical imbalances in a person’s brain. You’ve probably also heard that antidepressant drugs work by correcting these chemical imbalances. None of this appears to be true. The so-called “chemical imbalance theory” of mental illness, though once widely embraced…

Everyday life has become so loaded with moral considerations that your well-being may suffer for it. — A package of cheese stopped me cold in the grocery store last week. I was buying ingredients for dinner and I needed some cheddar. Cheddar isn’t popular in the part of Germany where I live, and the type I usually buy was sold out. The only other kind was pre-sliced…

Experts say some mental health problems are “socially transmitted conditions.” — The epidemic began at an all-girls boarding school in East Africa. In late January, 1962, three students at the school started laughing and couldn’t stop. Their laughter spread to other students. Six weeks later, two-thirds of the school’s pupils had experienced bouts of uncontrollable laughter and crying that could last…