Welcome to your weekly digest of all the health news you may have missed. Bird flu continues to make headlines after one in five samples of pasteurized milk contains traces of the virus. Health officials, however, continue to maintain that pasteurized milk is still safe to drink. According to our latest Yahoo News/YouGov poll, 52% of American adults still drink some type of milk at least occasionally, and the majority overwhelmingly prefer cow’s milk to plant-based alternatives.
This week, the USDA announced plans to limit added sugars in school meals. Meanwhile, a new study found that many nursing home residents are not up to date on their COVID vaccines, while researchers found that having a female doctor is associated with a lower risk of death and hospital readmission rates.
Want to start your weekend in a healthier way? Here are four takeaways we learned this week.
Take the stairs
New research presented at ESC Preventive Cardiology 2024 says that climbing stairs is linked to a longer life. The research, which combined nine studies involving a total of 480,479 participants, found that climbing stairs was associated with a 24% reduction in the risk of dying from any cause, and a 39% lower risk of probability of dying from cardiovascular disease.
Get outside
New research from Cornell University reveals that spending time in nature can be good for your overall well-being. The study, which analyzed data from more than 1,200 participants in the Midlife in the US survey, found that those who reported more frequent positive experiences in nature reduced their alcohol consumption. inflammation markers, even after accounting for other factors such as demographics and health behaviors.
Think about these thanks
New research from the University of Florida suggests that workplace leaders who internalize the gratitude they receive from family members feel more motivated to engage in empowering behavior toward their employees at work. The study suggests that expressing gratitude within families can not only strengthen bonds at home, but also have a positive impact on their loved ones’ professional experiences.
Understand why you are slowing down
Why do we move slower as we age? The answer is simple: A new study from the University of Colorado Boulder found that older people need more energy to complete tasks than younger people. Researchers used a simple video game-like task to see how different age groups reached targets on a screen and found that older adults changed the way they moved to save energy, even when they were looking for small rewards. This is important because it could help doctors diagnose and treat diseases such as Parkinson’s disease more effectively in the future.