Sunday, June 2, 2019

What's Your Purpose? The Link Between Life Purpose And Health

Plus: How many steps do you really need walk each day?
Dean Mitchell/Getty ImagesPerson's Name/Source

Find Your Life Purpose And You May Live Longer

Having a sense of purpose may decrease your risk of dying early, according to an analysis of nearly 7,000 Americans who answered a questionnaire about their life purpose.

People who didn't have a strong life purpose were more than twice as likely to die than those who had one during the study period.

It appeared to be more important for decreasing risk of death than whether people drank, smoked or exercised regularly.

Purpose "is the deepest driver of well-being there is," says Alan Rozanski, a professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

This latest study adds to a body of research on the effect of purpose. Read more about the link between life purpose and health.
 
Peter Muller/Getty Images/Cultura RF

10,000 Steps A Day? How Many Do You Really Need

10,000 steps is often the default setting on fitness trackers, but why?

"The original basis of the number was not scientifically determined," says researcher I-Min Lee of Brigham and Women's Hospital.

That’s why Lee and her colleagues designed a study that included about 17,000 older women who agreed to track their steps for science.

Women who walked 4,400 steps per day were a lot less likely to die during a four-year period than women who walked less. The longevity benefits maxed out at about 7,500 steps.

In other words, keep walking, but don't sweat it if you don't hit 10,000.

Read more about other daily activities that can help you stay healthy.
 
Courtesy of Kara Jo Prestrud, Birth Made Beautiful

Laughing Gas Can Ease The Experience Of Labor, But Beware The Price

Using laughing gas during labor has come back in vogue in the U.S. as a less invasive alternative to an epidural.

With a tank in the hospital room, a woman in labor can take breaths of the mildly euphoric gas (nitrous oxide) as she needs it.

Nurse midwife Karli-Rae Kerrschneider opted for nitrous for the birth of her son last December, at Hudson Hospital in Hudson, Wis. She said it “took the edge off” and helped her get through an 11-hour labor.

Then the bill came. She was billed $4,836 for the gas which she’d seen billed at around $100 at another hospital. As she learned, there’s no standard price for the medicine and mothers can get hit with steep charges.

Read on for advice on how to get fair and transparent prices for birth and delivery services.
 

 
More of this week’s health stories from NPR

Is it worth spending 3x more for infant Tylenol than the kids' version?

Burned out or depressed? Know the difference

Why we shouldn’t tease kids about their weight


We hope you enjoyed these stories. Find more of NPR's health journalism on Shots and follow us on Twitter at @NPRHealth.

Your Shots editor,

Carmel Wroth
 

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