| | 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.
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Peter Muller/Getty Images/Cultura RF |
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.
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Courtesy of Kara Jo Prestrud, Birth Made Beautiful |
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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| | | | The Camp Fire raced into the Northern California town of Paradise on Nov. 8, destroying nearly 19,000 structures — 90% of the town — and claiming 85 lives in the area. Once the town is rebuilt, it will be at high risk to burn again. Should the government still help pay for reconstruction? And if so, what's the wisest way to rebuild?
Millions of people in the United States watch pornography; many have grown up in a world where it has always been instantly, freely accessible. But even with so many watching, few talk about porn — or the misconceptions it can create. NPR spoke with younger adults, scholars and those in the industry about their experiences and concerns.
Many pedometers and fitness tracking apps set a baseline goal of taking 10,000 steps a day. It's a nice, big round number — with zero basis in science. A recent study of older women found significant health benefits even below 5,000 steps — and no added benefit above 7,500.
Just before Memorial Day, the U.S. Army asked veterans on Twitter to share how serving in the military had affected them. Many of the responses had no home in a recruitment ad, with numerous references to post-traumatic stress, sexual assault and suicide.
Special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, and the actions of Donald Trump's campaign and administration in reaction to it and the probe itself, officially ended on Wednesday. In stepping down, Mueller reiterated the points made in his team's report and left plenty of room for ongoing partisan debate.
Foreign investors own 30 million acres of U.S. farmland — twice as much as 20 years ago. More states are looking to restrict such purchases.
Grab a small can of beans off the shelf at the grocery store, and you'll be holding something heavier than Baby Saybie was at birth. Born in an emergency C-section at 23 weeks, the San Diego girl is the smallest ever to have survived, having weighed just 8.6 ounces. After five months in the hospital, she's been discharged at a weight of 5 pounds. |
In many ways, the system worked: Someone saw something, then said something, and police stopped a school shooting before it happened. But what crime had the mentally ill 18-year-old actually committed, and what should be the punishment? Should someone be allowed to think, "I want to shoot up my old school"? Or write it down in a journal? Or do that and then buy a gun? Vermont Public Radio investigates the case in its JOLTED podcast.
NPR's Code Switch sits down with Samin Nosrat of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat fame to talk about being a woman of color in the food industry, holding the door open for others like her, and the best Persian dishes for summer.
Mitch McConnell is one of the least popular — and most polarizing — politicians in the country. The Senate majority leader has been described as "opaque" "drab" and even "dull." So how has he won eight consecutive elections and become the leader of the Senate? Embedded looks into what makes the Kentuckian tick.
Episode 3 of NPR's White Lies podcast looks at the defense's theory that civil rights activists were themselves responsible for the death of the Rev. James Reeb — and may even have killed him intentionally to create a white martyr to the cause. |
| A century ago, crude oil mostly was used to make kerosene, a process that left a lot of useless gunk behind. Then chemist Leo Baekeland found a way to turn that gunk into something useful. This is the story of how plastic was first made and how maybe we went too far with it. |
Your editor made his Facebook Live debut this week, helping NPR newscaster Korva Coleman chat directly with the network's social audience. (Slight correction from that show — Alex Trebek says he's in near remission.) You can join Korva most weekday mornings on NPR's Facebook page at 10 a.m. ET.
— Christopher Dean Hopkins, NPR engagement editor |
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