With each passing minute, the chances of someone surviving cardiac arrest drastically dwindle. In situations where every second counts, the challenge comes in finding a way to get help as quickly as possible. An ambulance equipped with a life-saving defibrillator may take too long. So, send a drone. In a report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers found that a drone could beat an ambulance by an average of about 16 minutes during test runs in rural Sweden. Of course, drones don’t come equipped with medical professionals, but the researchers say as long as the equipment is there, a dispatcher can walk a person through the steps before an ambulance arrives. It might be enough to save a life.
Start rating your hunger
The next time you feel like eating, ask yourself a question: Where does this rate on my Hunger Continuum? Dietitian Ellie Krieger devised a ranking system for hunger—10 being stuffed and 1 being famished. She says it’s an effective way to curb your eating habits. The goal is to stay within a range, say, between a 3 and a 7. Once you get toward the lower end, start thinking about your next meal or grab a quick snack. “Once that is established, you’ll be better- armed to listen to your body and more inclined to pass on the oversize muffins that show up in the breakroom at work, because you realize you are comfortably at a 5 on the continuum from breakfast earlier,” she wrote in The Washington Post recently.
Don’t hug chickens
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that close to 400 people were infected with salmonella after handling live poultry in the first half of the year. It recommended avoiding hugging or petting chickens if possible.
Get to the root of grayness
Scientists have pinpointed the reason you’re going gray—and may have stumbled across a cure. The researchers were studying how a particular type of cancer affects nerve cells in mice. While studying the skin cells associated with nerve development, they found a protein that, once removed, caused the mice to go gray, according to Genes & Development. The inadvertent discovery led to the thought that, as long as this translates to human skin, replenishment of the protein would essentially be a cure to graying hair. “We hope in the future to create a topical compound (…) to correct these cosmetic problems,” Dr. Lu Le of UT Southwestern Medical Center said in a news release.
Broaden your emo-diversity
Don’t be content with just being happy. Be proud, amused, excited, determined … be “emo-diverse.” Researchers coined the term in Psychology Today to describe how experiencing a broad array of positive emotions can make you healthier. Their study looked at middle-aged men and women and the emotions they reported feeling over 30 days. The more positive emotions, the less likely someone would have high inflammation that can lead to chronic disease. We’ve known that negative emotions can have negative health consequences. This is the first that’s really looked at a broad spectrum of positive feelings.
