The hottest Health & Wellness Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top Health & Wellness Topics
bookbear express • 220 implied HN points • 23 Mar 26
  1. Avoidance usually comes from a fear of conflict, and facing friction directly is how you unblock creativity and actually get things done.
  2. Avoidance often follows three stages—delusion, knowing you should act but feeling stuck, then finally doing it—and recognizing these stages helps you break the cycle.
  3. Choosing honesty and being willing to endure some awkwardness to ‘check under the rocks’ leads to better decisions, faster processing, and fewer long-term limits from avoided problems.
Rory’s Always On Newsletter • 515 implied HN points • 02 Nov 24
  1. Bas Bloem wants to eliminate Parkinson's disease so he can make himself unemployed. He believes that it's possible to make significant advances in treating and understanding the condition.
  2. Environmental factors, especially pesticides, may play a major role in causing Parkinson's. Bas argues that banning harmful substances could help reduce the disease's prevalence.
  3. The healthcare system in the Netherlands is more efficient for Parkinson's treatment, with less waiting time for patients. They focus on teamwork among specialists to provide comprehensive care.
Cremieux Recueil • 332 implied HN points • 25 Mar 26
  1. Higher seed oil intake (measured by linoleic acid) is not linked to worse health and is associated with lower long‑term mortality and better markers like lower inflammation and healthier lipids.
  2. Most anti‑seed‑oil arguments rely on mechanistic, animal, or cherry‑picked evidence and are inconsistent; high‑quality human studies and trials don’t support the claim that seed oils are harmful.
  3. Using stronger methods and measurements (plasma biomarkers, propensity matching, doubly‑robust estimation) removes signals of harm and fails to confirm mechanistic worries like raised arachidonic acid, oxidative damage, vitamin E depletion, or clotting—while saturated fat shows worse associations.
Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 1196 implied HN points • 19 Mar 26
  1. Many young, high-achieving people feel deeply unhappy even when everything seems to be going right, showing that success doesn't guarantee fulfillment.
  2. Rates of depression and anxiety among adolescents and college students have risen sharply, with more students seeking mental-health treatment and campuses feeling darker and more anxious.
  3. A culture of relentless striving that treats life's mysteries as problems to be solved can trivialize what it means to be human and leave people feeling empty, so we need to rethink how we find purpose and meaning.
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Your Local Epidemiologist • 1147 implied HN points • 24 Mar 26
  1. Flu season is winding down, but spring brings other bugs like common colds, RSV, and norovirus, so expect more sniffles and stomach bugs; wash hands with soap and water (hand sanitizer may not stop norovirus) and isolate if you’re sick.
  2. Polio headlines were overstated — the CDC’s global polio notice is informational, not a travel ban, and most travelers don’t need a booster; consider one only if you’ll have prolonged close contact in a place with recent detections and check with your doctor.
  3. MMR vaccines are highly effective at preventing severe measles, but breakthrough infections can occur with high exposure and are usually milder; also watch for safety alerts and recalls, including specific lots of children’s ibuprofen and Raw Farm raw cheddar linked to E. coli.
Cremieux Recueil • 253 implied HN points • 24 Mar 26
  1. Some people are labeled "metabolically healthy obese," but that category is defined inconsistently and applies to only a small share of people with obesity, mostly those with milder excess weight.
  2. Metabolically healthy obesity is often temporary — many people transition to metabolically unhealthy obesity over years, and even while 'healthy' they still face higher risks of diabetes, heart disease, and death than metabolically healthy lean people.
  3. Excess fat causes many harms beyond the metabolic markers (worse blood sugar control, visceral fat effects, cancer risk, sleep apnea, liver and joint damage, reproductive and inflammatory problems, and social harms), so the idea that people can be healthy at every size is not supported by the evidence.
The Society of Problem Solvers • 359 implied HN points • 30 Oct 24
  1. Many popular candies contain harmful ingredients like seed oils and food dyes, which can affect health negatively. It's important to pay attention to what's really in our food.
  2. Instead of just worrying about safety from external dangers, we should recognize that the candies we buy might already be unhealthy. Eating the right foods can lead to better health outcomes.
  3. Solving health problems is possible with the right changes in diet and lifestyle. A focused approach like the Carnivore diet could help improve chronic health issues.
QTR’s Fringe Finance • 42 implied HN points • 24 Mar 26
  1. Some GLP-1 weight-loss drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Rybelsus have been linked to a rare but serious eye condition (NAION) that can cause sudden vision loss.
  2. The risk for any one person is small (roughly 1 in 10,000), but with millions using these drugs the total number of affected people could be substantial, and higher doses or faster weight loss may raise the risk.
  3. New drugs often arrive with a lot of hype but can reveal serious side effects over time, so patients and doctors should weigh benefits against rare harms and make informed choices.
Ground Truths • 14084 implied HN points • 23 Feb 26
  1. Cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and VO2max are not the same: CRF is estimated in METs from real-world or treadmill tests, while true VO2max requires a lab gas-exchange test and smartwatch VO2 estimates are indirect and often inaccurate.
  2. Nearly all the evidence linking fitness to lower all-cause and cardiovascular mortality is based on CRF/METs, with about a 14–15% reduction in mortality risk per 1-MET improvement, not on wearable or routinely measured VO2max.
  3. For most people, don’t obsess over smartwatch VO2 numbers; prioritize increasing real-world activity, improving METs and muscle strength, and reserve lab VO2max testing for elite athletes or specific clinical cases, since AI and apps can amplify misleading wearable data.
Experimental History • 63353 implied HN points • 06 Jan 26
  1. Awkwardness has three layers; the outer one is social clumsiness—when you misread cues or say the wrong thing—and the best way to handle it is to own your mistakes instead of panicking or covering them up.
  2. The middle layer is excessive self-awareness that makes you choke; shift your focus outward by genuinely attending to other people and listening, which quiets the inner critic.
  3. The core is people-phobia, a fear of rejection; reduce it with gradual exposure to social situations, notice and reflect on the many pleasant interactions you actually have, and trust that social hurts usually heal.
After Babel • 4023 implied HN points • 10 Mar 26
  1. Phones constantly split attention and create thousands of tiny withdrawals that leave partners feeling unseen, eroding trust and shrinking emotional and sexual intimacy.
  2. Attention is a shared, scarce resource — feeling reliably reachable and responded to builds closeness, but ‘phone-based adulthood’ normalizes partial presence and makes repair harder.
  3. The solution is practical not punitive: make clear attention agreements like predictable phone-free windows, announce when you need to check out and return on time, and address the needs behind the scrolling rather than only blaming the device.
Rory’s Always On Newsletter • 892 implied HN points • 27 Oct 24
  1. Parkinson's disease can progress in ways that become very hard for patients and caregivers. It's important to prepare for these changes to ensure proper care and support.
  2. There are resources and help available for those caring for someone with Parkinson's, like occupational therapy and local support groups. Connecting with others can provide useful information and comfort.
  3. If you live outside of areas with great services, reach out to your local Parkinson's group and keep the Parkinson’s UK helpline number handy for expert advice.
Running Probably • 159 implied HN points • 30 Oct 24
  1. Staying active as you age is really important. Nancy believes that if people moved more when they were younger, they would have better mobility as they get older.
  2. You can adapt your exercise routine to fit your abilities. Nancy shows that even if you give up certain activities, you can find new ways to stay active, like walking or doing water aerobics.
  3. It's okay to make adjustments and acknowledge your limits. Nancy emphasizes that you should keep moving and adapt to your current abilities to stay healthy.
Human Programming • 984 implied HN points • 19 Mar 26
  1. A deliberately chosen, intense bout of exercise (a six-mile run) coincided with a rapid and sustained improvement in energy and function for a week, suggesting some post-viral fatigue can be overturned by action. This hints that perception and mindset may play a big role in how fatigue is experienced and responded to.
  2. Slow, deliberate reintroduction of activity—running, climbing, and light lifting—combined with social support and small, repeated successes helped rebuild confidence and physical capacity. Accepting mild soreness and testing limits in controlled ways provided useful disconfirming evidence against the fear of permanent relapse.
  3. Significant caution and uncertainty remain: this approach is not medical advice and may not work for everyone, with real risk of post-exertional malaise or setbacks. The safest path is to monitor symptoms closely, proceed gradually, and reduce activity if things worsen.
What Do We Do Now That We're Here? • 4220 implied HN points • 11 Oct 24
  1. Aging should be seen as a natural part of life, not something to fear or fight against. Embracing the changes can lead to more joy and freedom.
  2. Taking short breaks for self-care can really improve your mood and relationships. It's important to carve out time for yourself, even if it's just a little.
  3. You don’t always have to keep your options wide open. Sometimes, making firm choices can lead to more happiness rather than feeling stuck in endless possibilities.
Experimental History • 49247 implied HN points • 09 Dec 25
  1. Everyone has to figure out their own balance of suffering and gain in life. It's important to think about how much pain you're willing to accept for what you hope to achieve.
  2. When facing tough decisions, look at how happy others are after going through similar struggles. If they seem unhappy, it might be a sign to rethink your choices.
  3. Suffering can lose its sting when it has a clear purpose. If you're going through something difficult, make sure there's a good reason behind it.
Ground Truths • 8135 implied HN points • 08 Feb 26
  1. AI makes mammogram reading more accurate and finds more cancers earlier, including smaller and aggressive tumors. It also significantly reduces radiologists' screening workload.
  2. AI can predict five-year breast cancer risk from a standard mammogram, letting clinicians target high-risk women for closer surveillance or preventive testing like MRI or genetic workups.
  3. AI can identify breast arterial calcification on mammograms, which signals higher heart disease risk and lets mammography serve as a two-for-one screen for cancer and cardiovascular risk.
Force of Infection • 139 implied HN points • 23 Mar 26
  1. Many different respiratory viruses besides flu and COVID cause what people call “a cold,” but they are rarely tested for and so much illness goes unnoticed even though these viruses shape seasonal outbreaks.
  2. Common under-recognized viruses—like adenoviruses, human metapneumovirus, parainfluenza, seasonal coronaviruses, and rhinoviruses/enteroviruses—usually cause mild cold-like symptoms but can cause serious illness in young children, older adults, and immunocompromised people, and some have distinctive complications (e.g., adenovirus conjunctivitis or parainfluenza croup).
  3. Prevention is similar across these pathogens: good ventilation, staying home when sick, hand hygiene, and high-quality masks (like KN95) reduce spread, while vaccines or specific treatments are limited and broader therapies are still under development.
Freddie deBoer • 9684 implied HN points • 02 Feb 26
  1. Modern identity and online culture have turned mental illness and developmental disabilities into identity markers or fashion, which distorts reality and harms people.
  2. Historical shifts like the antipsychiatry movement and deinstitutionalization created major failures in care. Making involuntary treatment easier and pursuing concrete policy reforms are proposed fixes.
  3. Disability should be understood as a harmful condition that disables and hurts. Accommodations should focus on mitigating harm rather than validating or celebrating disability.
L'Atelier Galita • 159 implied HN points • 28 Oct 24
  1. Many people experience depression, and it's a real illness like a cold. It's surprising how many people have gone through it but don't talk about it openly.
  2. When explaining depression, people often bring up misunderstandings about mental illness. Saying 'I'm sick' instead can make it easier for others to understand without complicating things.
  3. We shouldn't treat depression any less seriously than physical illnesses. Just like we don't hesitate to take medicine for a cold, the same understanding should apply to mental health issues.
Caitlin’s Newsletter • 3073 implied HN points • 21 Feb 26
  1. It's possible to be well-informed about the world's harms and still experience real happiness and gratitude.
  2. Don't find happiness in pretending everything is fine. Root it in real things like close relationships, the natural world, your senses, and the calm inside you.
  3. Practice feeling emotions all the way through and deliberately noticing beauty; these skills let feelings pass quickly and let you live joyfully while staying honest about reality.
Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 932 implied HN points • 06 Mar 26
  1. Ill-fitting shoes and poor foot health can be a hidden cause of back pain and make standing or moving harder as you age.
  2. Medical care often focuses on acute emergencies and can miss slow, cumulative physical problems that shape daily comfort and function.
  3. Simple checks and preventive steps—like checking shoe fit and choosing supportive footwear—can reveal problems early and help you stay mobile and independent longer.
Ground Truths • 13866 implied HN points • 02 Jan 26
  1. Low-dose aspirin for primary prevention in older adults generally causes more harm than benefit. It increases major bleeding and, in some trials, was linked to higher overall or cancer-related mortality without reducing cardiovascular events.
  2. Major guidelines now advise against routine aspirin for primary prevention in older adults, with age cutoffs varying by group. Aspirin still provides clear benefit for secondary prevention after events like heart attack, stroke, or stenting.
  3. There are hints aspirin might lower cancer incidence in specific subgroups (for example people with CHIP), but overall trial data in the elderly showed higher cancer deaths and CHIP testing isn’t part of routine care, so this is not an actionable reason to use aspirin now.
Experimental Fat Loss • 169 implied HN points • 16 Mar 26
  1. The nosauce + apple cider vinegar protocol produced steady, mostly linear fat loss and reached a new all-time low, with an initial rapid drop in water weight followed by consistent fat loss.
  2. Because the regimen reduces heavy cream, daily protein can fall below about 40 g and trigger protein‑leverage hunger; a single day of increased meat intake resolved the hunger without derailing progress.
  3. A planned tweak is to run two 14‑day bouts separated by a one‑day refeed to capture faster early losses and better manage occasional protein hunger.
L'Atelier Galita • 259 implied HN points • 23 Oct 24
  1. Cleaning can feel overwhelming, but focusing on just five categories of clutter can make it easier. These are trash, dishes, laundry, items out of place, and items that have no place.
  2. It's okay to be messy sometimes, as long as everything has a designated spot. Being organized doesn’t mean everything looks perfect, but it does mean you can find what you need.
  3. A simple cleaning protocol can help you tackle messiness without stress. Breaking chores into small, manageable steps makes maintaining a clean space much easier.
Force of Infection • 76 implied HN points • 22 Mar 26
  1. Flu activity is falling quickly and should drop below the seasonal baseline next week, with all age groups reporting fewer outpatient visits and Flu B making up most late-season cases.
  2. Covid-19 is quiet and mostly declining nationwide, with low ED visits and hospitalizations, though Washington, Pennsylvania, and DC show stable activity.
  3. RSV has peaked in most regions but remains high with infant hospitalizations still elevated despite recent improvements; norovirus is very active and rising, and several foodborne outbreaks/recalls (including an E. coli–linked raw cheese), plus ongoing measles spread and a UK meningitis cluster, are current concerns.
Human Programming • 12 implied HN points • 26 Mar 26
  1. Hypnotherapy can externalize and reframe symptoms, turning a persistent fear-driven ‘‘red field’’ into something removable and replacing it with a reassuring image that makes movement feel safer.
  2. The sessions taught simple, usable tools like vagus-breathing and quick visualizations that provided comfort in moments of anxiety or fatigue, even if daily routines didn’t always stick.
  3. Reducing fear and building small amounts of self-trust helped restart a positive recovery cycle where more activity led to more confidence and further recovery; the therapy acted as useful momentum rather than a sole cure.
Wood From Eden • 528 implied HN points • 07 Mar 26
  1. Someone who once knew nothing about accompanying dying people has learned practical and emotional ways to be present with them.
  2. A caregiver working as an orderly offers honest, personal confessions about what it’s like to support people at the end of life.
  3. The reflections are published as paid subscriber content, aimed at readers who pay for deeper, personal accounts.
bookbear express • 632 implied HN points • 04 Mar 26
  1. Some people are great at reading and steering other people’s emotions while being less aware of their own feelings; enjoying being right can turn emotional perception into a way of avoiding yourself.
  2. Getting honest with yourself often means deliberately sitting with a problem until clarity emerges — a process of “going all the way to the bottom” that takes time and focused attention.
  3. Avoiding hard truths usually makes things worse later, so it’s better to accept what you really want and be willing to face the consequences so you can choose what’s right for you now.
Cremieux Recueil • 404 implied HN points • 11 Mar 26
  1. Wearables usually only cause small, short-lived increases in activity, and those effects shrink further when you correct for statistical and publication biases.
  2. Those modest behavior changes rarely lead to meaningful improvements in hard health outcomes like weight, cardiovascular risk, or blood sugar for the general population — benefits mostly appear in high‑risk or closely coached groups.
  3. Many device measurements are noisy or unreliable and user engagement fades over time, so wearables often add cognitive load and flashy dashboards but little real health benefit for most people.
Force of Infection • 154 implied HN points • 17 Mar 26
  1. The newsletter is moving off Substack to a standalone website, and subscriptions (including paid and regional choices) will transfer automatically; only readers who use the Substack app need to switch to email notifications.
  2. The move is intended to create a more permanent, independent, and stable home so the publication stays reliable despite changes to platform algorithms.
  3. The new site will let the newsletter expand beyond weekly reports into evergreen reference pages, seasonal summaries, and practical tools, with paid subscribers enabling that growth.
L'Atelier Galita • 119 implied HN points • 24 Oct 24
  1. Self-compassion is important when it comes to managing your home. Instead of feeling ashamed about the mess, try to view it as a sign of being alive and engaged in life.
  2. How you talk to yourself about cleaning matters. Focus on the benefits of having a tidy space rather than judging yourself morally for not keeping up.
  3. Everyone has different skills when it comes to cleaning. Recognizing that it's a learned ability can help you feel less pressured and more at peace with your own cleaning journey.
Life Since the Baby Boom • 1844 implied HN points • 05 Feb 26
  1. Meditation is simple and practical — you don’t need special clothes, classes, or religion; just sit comfortably in a way that feels right for you.
  2. Focus on your breath and observe its sensations; when your mind wanders, gently bring it back without berating yourself.
  3. Practice mindfulness in daily life by doing what you are doing, and use simple breathing techniques like box breathing or 4-7-8 to calm and center yourself.
Odds and Ends of History • 5360 implied HN points • 31 Dec 25
  1. People need community: even a comfortable, independent life can feel isolating without regular in-person connections.
  2. Community can be built: organizing recurring, low-pressure meetups around a shared connection and an easy way for new people to join creates a ready-made social network.
  3. Simple, consistent effort works: routinely inviting people to casual events solves coordination and relationship decay and quickly renews social energy.
Maybe Baby • 425 implied HN points • 25 Feb 26
  1. A reader is asking for advice because they want sex more often than their boyfriend and are unsure how to handle the mismatch.
  2. This column continues an ongoing advice series that revisits relationship and intimacy questions similar to ones discussed before.
  3. The post solicits crowd-sourced responses from readers and is published behind a paid subscription paywall.
Why is this interesting? • 1689 implied HN points • 27 Jan 26
  1. Sri Lanka treats rabies as a national priority with widespread post‑exposure vaccination, and that access has driven annual deaths down from around 400 in the 1970s to about 10 today.
  2. In many Western places people have grown complacent about vaccines because deadly diseases became rare and vaccines were politicized, and that complacency has been linked to falling vaccination rates and resurgences of illnesses like whooping cough, measles, and local polio cases.
  3. Cultural attitudes toward nature shape risk tolerance: societies that live closely with animals accept coexistence and take practical steps like readily available rabies shots, seeing medicine as a necessary protection rather than an optional lifestyle choice.
Freddie deBoer • 1392 implied HN points • 08 Feb 26
  1. A live Substack event is happening Tuesday, Feb 10 at 7PM EST with Jaime Lowe and Michael Angelakos.
  2. They'll have a chill, unstructured conversation about living publicly with bipolar disorder and building creative careers, lasting about an hour to an hour and a half and possibly answering polite questions.
  3. You can set a reminder via the provided link and help boost visibility by liking the related Substack note.