Americans spend much of their time indoors, eyes and minds focused on screens, often in demanding or stressful jobs. The simple act of stepping into nature can sometimes feel like a form of medicine by giving us the opportunity to engage all of our senses and disconnect temporarily — hopefully with positive effects that come back to the office with us.

Public Radio International (PRI) did a piece recently on a group of doctors that started the nonprofit Park Rx America who feel so strongly about the benefits of spending time outdoors that they write prescriptions ordering their patients to get outside. For a long time these doctors would tell their patients to spend time outside in an effort to improve their mental and physical health, but the patients would always return to the office on their next visit having not taken the advice often reporting the same — or sometimes worse — complaints. Once the doctors started writing their patients an actual prescription to get outside they started to see some real action. According to the article, their patients were more likely to follow through with spending time outdoors once it was prescribed and would often return for their next appointment with improved mental and physical health.

The article reminds us that getting outside provides an accessible and low cost intervention that can greatly benefit people of all ages suffering from chronic illnesses.

We’ve discussed the causes and the repercussions of America’s opioid crisis here on MCNTalk. This topic can feel daunting when all news is bad news. It’s for this reason that a recent piece in The Week caught our attention with their positive reporting on new research about the pain relieving power of human touch. Researchers have been using new techniques that allow them to measure physiological activity of several people at the same time, resulting in an increased understanding of how we are impacted by our interactions with others.

According to the article, research has found that subjects receiving pain stimuli reported lower levels of discomfort when holding a stranger’s hand than those who were alone. A greater reduction of pain was reported by participants if the person holding their hand was a loved one, and even more pain reduction was reported if that loved one was also felt to be highly empathetic.

Chronic pain impacts a significant percentage of the population, and this research is an indication of how isolation may be a contributor to the problem. These findings might not be the answer to the opioid crisis, but it is a reminder that great benefits can result from simple human interactions.

Popular Science published a piece recently discussing advancements being made in cancer screening that could potentially allow for early detection of more forms of cancer and the debate within the medical community over how these tools will best serve patients. As cancer screening tools continue to improve, and much broader cancer screening may be available in the near future, medical professionals are finding themselves at odds about whether early detection is always best for the patient.

The article explains that while early detection of many forms of cancer will improve a patient’s odds of survival, medical professionals are grappling with the potential harm that could come from detection of pre-cancer and early cancer that wouldn’t ever do any harm to a patient during their lifetime as well as cancers that do not respond well to treatment, such as pancreatic cancer.

The piece goes on provide insight from physicians both for and against the advancement of these early detection tools. In the end, once these tests are available to the public it will be up to each individual to decide whether they would want to know they have a type of cancer that can’t or doesn’t need to be treated, but many of us will be looking to our physicians for their professional medical opinion to help us decide.

We’ve done several blog posts about the negative health impact of junk food’s growing popularity and availability around the world. Junk food consumption has been at the root of increased obesity and diabetes rates all over the globe and India is finding itself  greatly impacted. The New York Times recently published an article examining why India is facing a potential diabetes epidemic — in part due to their genetics.

Scientific research has found that Indians are more prone to becoming diabetic as a result of weight gain than people from other regions. The article goes on to explain several factors that scientists believe could be to blame for Indians’ predisposition to diabetes including body type, women being malnourished during pregnancy, hormones, and the adjustment from food scarcity to the food availability that comes with rising affluence.

According to The Times, there is a proactive movement afoot to reduce new diabetes cases by improving access to healthy food for younger generations. As awareness of diabetes increases in India, so does the number of people working to ban junk foods from schools and from advertisements that target children — despite push back from companies such as Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Nestlé.

A recent piece in The New York Times explains why the US spends nearly double what other similar nations spend on healthcare, and it isn’t because we are going to the doctor more. Studies have found that even though Americans seek medical attention and use prescriptions at about the same rate as those in peer countries, the price of healthcare is much higher in the US. It is these high prices that put our healthcare spending so far above other similar countries.

According to The Times, the rate at which US healthcare spending has increased over the last couple of decades has been staggering, with a growth of around $574 billion from 1996 to 2013. The article goes on to explain the findings of several other studies that help break down how we ended up with these exceptionally high prices and the potential complications that could arise should we try to reverse this trend.

There are endless resources claiming to have the answer or to offer the tools needed to achieve a happy existence. According to a recent piece published in The New York Times we should be looking to the elderly to see how to live a happier life.

Writer John Leland starting following the lives of six New Yorkers over the age of 85 to hear their stories and understand their perspectives on life. During this time he was surprised to observe that, despite the pain and limitations brought on by their aging bodies, their outlook on life grew more and more positive, a phenomenon that gerontologists refer to as the paradox of aging.

Leland explains that, for the elderly people he spent time with, seeking out and focusing on the positive in life is the secret to happiness. Perhaps by taking a note from the older generation we can be reminded to focus on the more meaningful and positive aspects of our lives now rather than just in our later years.

The next time a friend or coworkers asks, “Are you feeling okay?” you may want to thank them rather than being offended. A recent study has found evidence that we may be able to detect illness in others through very subtle facial cues before before more obvious symptoms such a coughing, sneezing, or a stuffy nose occur. A fascinating article by The Washington Post takes a look at the findings of this research study to help explain how changes in skin color and the state of our eyes and mouth can all provide signs to the people around us that we are ill.

According to the article, researchers hope that by taking advantage of these instinctual skills — and potentially improving on them — it may be possible for us to improve public health by avoiding the spread of infection. Researchers also plan to study whether the ability to identify illness this way is even more accurate among medical professionals. Findings potentially could apply to telemedicine exams as well.

For many, the beginning of the New Year is an opportunity to hit the restart button and kick-start some healthy habits. Every January we are inundated with advertisements for weight loss programs, gym specials, and headlines on the cover magazines at the grocery store checkout stand touting the best ways to accomplish our health goals.  It can be daunting to make sense of all these suggestions and identify fact versus fluff.

The Washington Post recently focused their first Five Myths feature of the year on debunking common exercise myths in order to help readers wade through some of the bad information floating around these days. It can be easy to fall into the trap of fad diets or exercise programs, but as the article points out, good health comes from a combination of dietary and lifestyle changes. Maintaining an optimal weight can simply be a side effect of this healthy lifestyle.

Mexico’s once largely isolated economy shifted in the 90’s when the North America Free Trade Agreement was enacted, allowing American goods to be brought into Mexico without high tariffs. The expectation was an improved economy for both countries but the long term effects of the agreement haven’t all been good. A recent article in The New York Times takes a close look at the negative health effects that have resulted from free trade with the US as our processed food and fast food consumption has become a way of life in Mexico over the last three decades.

The Times reports that foreign agricultural investment displacing family farm workers into cities in combination with a flood of American fast food and convenience store businesses opening south of the border has led to Mexico’s current reliance on Western, processed food. This American style diet has resulted in some equally American style health problems like obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. The article goes on to explain that some Mexicans even see their weight gain as a point of pride because they are well fed- a sign of prosperity.

This story parallels others we highlighted on this blog last year regarding cultures that once thrived on whole natural foods such as Brazil and South Africa becoming reliant on an unhealthy American diet. Access to processed food often results in a reliance on it and as American fast food chains and processed foods become increasingly affordable in other countries it is inevitable that the consumption, and resulting obesity rates, will continue to rise.