The hottest Health & Wellness Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top Health & Wellness Topics

Samwise's Blood Test: A Wake-up Call

Tom Ryan, Author • 11891 implied HN points • 21 Jan 24
🏥 Health & Wellness Pets Emotions Aging Gratitude Reflection
  1. Age affects dogs faster than humans, leading to a realization of limited time for trips and adventures.
  2. A dog's aging process can serve as a reminder to cherish the present moments and appreciate the time spent together.
  3. The bond between pets and their owners deepens with time, creating concern for the future and the inevitable challenges it may bring.

Your Allergies Are Probably Fake

Cremieux Recueil • 573 implied HN points • 04 Feb 26
🏥 Health & Wellness Allergies Medications Public Health Diagnostics Patient Safety
  1. Many people are labeled allergic to drugs they aren’t actually allergic to — penicillin is a common example where most recorded allergies are likely wrong.
  2. False allergy labels cause worse care, higher costs, more drug-resistant infections, and longer hospital stays because clinicians avoid preferred medicines.
  3. Most suspected drug allergies can be safely checked and removed with supervised testing (direct oral challenges), so getting evaluated by an allergist can let you use better treatments and help public health.

Let it Go

We're Gonna Get Those Bastards • 10 implied HN points • 09 Mar 26
🏥 Health & Wellness Mental health Self-help Stress management Mindfulness Relationships Parenting
  1. Most anxiety comes from dealing with other people. Ask yourself: did I cause it, can I cure it, can I control it — if the answer is no, let it go.
  2. Codependence and grudges waste emotional energy and rarely change the other person. Focus on what you can control—your own behavior—and stop carrying other people's problems.
  3. Practice acceptance and keep resentments short so they don't sap your life. Gratitude and focusing on the small things you can change free up your mind and peace.

Mental Bric-a-Brac

Disaffected Newsletter • 839 implied HN points • 08 Aug 24
🏥 Health & Wellness Healthcare Customer Service Mental health Wellbeing Community
  1. Good customer service should be recognized and praised, just like bad service is often complained about. It's important to share positive experiences.
  2. A personal connection with service staff can make a big difference, like when a pharmacist helps save money on medications and explains the options available.
  3. Observing changes in other countries can evoke a sense of concern and hope for their future. There's often a personal connection felt even from afar.
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Reunion!

Tom Ryan, Author • 10672 implied HN points • 18 Jan 24
🏥 Health & Wellness Pet Care
  1. The author reflects on the impact of a veterinarian on their lives.
  2. Unexpected relationships can profoundly influence our experiences.
  3. Sometimes a change, like switching vets, can lead to positive outcomes.

⚡️ Top 10 news of the week

digitalhealthinsider • 19 implied HN points • 25 Oct 24
🏥 Health & Wellness Digital Health Healthcare Innovation Health Technology Health Policy
  1. Waltz is working on making prescription care cheaper and easier using AI technology. They aim to help consumers make better choices about their healthcare.
  2. There's a growing gap between what virtual health services offer and what people want. This disconnect could affect how healthcare evolves in the future.
  3. Health tech startups are facing challenges after a surge in funding during the pandemic. Many may need to merge or consolidate to survive in the changing market.

If it was just linoleic acid depletion..

Experimental Fat Loss • 198 implied HN points • 22 Feb 26
🏥 Health & Wellness Nutrition Diets Weight Loss Metabolism Obesity Lifestyle
  1. Linoleic acid from seed oils is hypothesized to drive obesity and is stored in body fat, so tissue levels can take several years to fall after dietary change, which makes short-term studies a poor test.
  2. People on low-PUFA diets often see big early weight loss then long plateaus, and experimenting with different foods or additives (rice, sugar, vinegar, lowering salt/glutamate) sometimes produces new lows.
  3. If the linoleic-depletion model is true, further weight loss should be slow and tied to how fast adipose LA drops, but if the dietary additives are effective you should see steadier month-to-month losses; watching results over the next few months can help tell these apart.

Level Up: Week 3

Running Probably • 59 implied HN points • 18 Oct 24
🏥 Health & Wellness Fitness Mental health Nutrition Personal Growth Lifestyle
  1. It's important to have easy runs in your training. Not every run should be tough; some should feel light and fun.
  2. Building a running routine means making your run a priority. Set aside time and prepare so that running becomes a natural part of your day.
  3. Managing your effort can help improve your running. Use the talk test to find a comfortable pace where you can chat easily while running.

The Drivers of Age-Related Diseases

Ground Truths • 11154 implied HN points • 08 Jun 25
🏥 Health & Wellness Aging Immunology Inflammation Nutrition Lifestyle
  1. Our immune system and inflammation change as we age. This affects our health and can lead to age-related diseases.
  2. New research shows that tracking certain proteins and genetic markers can help predict health issues related to aging. This could help us focus on ways to stay healthier longer.
  3. Lifestyle factors like diet, exercise, and sleep are important for maintaining a strong immune system and reducing inflammation, which can extend our healthy years.

Book Review: Sanity and Sainthood, by Dr. Tucker Peck

Sasha's 'Newsletter' • 1455 implied HN points • 16 Dec 25
🏥 Health & Wellness Mental health Meditation Psychotherapy Mindfulness Self-help Personal Growth
  1. Meditation and psychotherapy start from different ideas — meditation treats thoughts as transient waves to watch, while therapy treats them as meaningful stories — but both can help and often complement each other.
  2. Combining meditation with therapy creates a virtuous loop: meditation calms and clarifies the mind so therapeutic work is more effective, and therapy helps integrate difficult material so meditation becomes more stable.
  3. This path needs practical guidance and realistic expectations: deep practice can be hard, may lower short-term happiness, and real change usually takes many years of steady effort rather than quick fixes.

how to help someone change without going crazy

bookbear express • 688 implied HN points • 19 Jan 26
🏥 Health & Wellness Mental health Relationships Personal Growth Behavior Change Coaching Communication
  1. Change depends on a person’s nervous system capacity and sense of safety, not on how well you explain things. You can’t force someone to change if they’re frozen by fear or guilt.
  2. Don’t assume you can make someone change or build plans that rely on big shifts; ask if they want to change and if they want your help, and keep clear boundaries to avoid codependency.
  3. Pay attention to patterns, feelings, and implicit relationship contracts more than spoken reasons; look for consistency and self-awareness as signs of readiness, and gently name underlying emotions rather than arguing about mental content.

Mass shootings outnumber annual days in U.S., children are missing school due to measles, Covid-19 is peeping around the corner, and some hope

Your Local Epidemiologist • 1633 implied HN points • 15 Dec 25
🏥 Health & Wellness Public Health Epidemiology Infectious Disease Vaccination Injury prevention Child Health Health Policy
  1. Mass shootings in the U.S. are happening more than once per day and represent a widespread, preventable public‑health crisis that evidence shows can be reduced with stricter firearm policies.
  2. Respiratory illnesses are surging: flu is rising among children (with low vaccination rates and early pediatric deaths reported) and Covid‑19 is increasing in parts of the country, so masking in crowded indoor spaces, testing when appropriate, staying home while sick, and staying up to date on vaccines can help protect others.
  3. Measles outbreaks are growing, causing many cases and hundreds of children to miss school, and vaccination plus following local public‑health guidance is the key way to stop these outbreaks.

My Wife Accepted Her Death. Why Can’t I?

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 472 implied HN points • 30 Jan 26
🏥 Health & Wellness Aging Grief Mental health End-of-life Relationships
  1. Even with practical preparations, emotional acceptance can differ: one partner may calmly accept death while the surviving partner struggles to be ready.
  2. Long marriages often shift from sexual passion to a deep shared identity, so losing a spouse feels like losing an essential part of oneself.
  3. Wills and advance directives help with logistics but don’t erase the daily loneliness, sudden tears, or the shock when life unfolds differently than expected.

What Is The Current Evidence for mRNA Vaccine Shedding?

The Forgotten Side of Medicine • 9512 implied HN points • 08 Jan 24
🏥 Health & Wellness Vaccination Symptoms Research Prevention Effects
  1. Shedding from mRNA vaccines is a real concern, with varying levels of sensitivity among individuals.
  2. Symptoms of shedding exposure often overlap with long COVID and vaccine side effects, particularly affecting women.
  3. Shedding can occur through proximity, skin-to-skin contact, and other secretions, with a range of symptoms such as menstrual abnormalities, bruising, dizziness, and more.

Level up: Week 2

Running Probably • 99 implied HN points • 11 Oct 24
🏥 Health & Wellness Fitness Wellbeing Training Nutrition Mindfulness
  1. Running by feel is important. Instead of always checking your watch, pay attention to how your body feels during the run.
  2. Finding the right time to run makes it easier to stick to your routine. Try different times to see when you feel best running.
  3. Adding variety to your running routes keeps things interesting. Explore new paths and take note of your surroundings to make each run fun.

The changing (and perhaps surprising) geography of diabetes

Sustainability by numbers • 427 implied HN points • 02 Feb 26
🏥 Health & Wellness Epidemiology Global Health Obesity Nutrition Chronic Disease Public Health Demography
  1. Diabetes is rising much faster in South Asia, parts of Africa, the Middle East and some Pacific islands than in Europe or North America, with countries like Pakistan showing some of the highest age‑standardised rates.
  2. Rising overweight and obesity — even where undernutrition still exists — is the main modifiable driver of type II diabetes, and these increases have been rapid in many low‑ and middle‑income countries.
  3. Certain ethnic groups, especially South Asians, develop diabetes at lower BMIs because they tend to carry more visceral fat. That means modest weight gain leads to much higher risk, and many cases stay undiagnosed or untreated as health systems struggle to keep up.

Welcome!

Ben’s Blog 🏉 🧠🧑‍💻 • 21 implied HN points • 04 Mar 26
🏥 Health & Wellness Mental health Burnout Leadership Performance Resilience Career transition
  1. Sustainable performance needs both effort and careful energy management. Effort builds growth, but energy is what keeps that growth going.
  2. Life after professional sport can become a meaningful second career through coaching, speaking, and leading teams, turning past experience into purposeful work.
  3. Community action and storytelling — like free events and sharing personal stories — help fight suicide stigma and build resilience.

Dissecting A Modern Vaccine Propaganda Piece

The Forgotten Side of Medicine • 8824 implied HN points • 12 Jan 24
🏥 Health & Wellness Vaccines Science Politics Propaganda Disinformation
  1. The author dissects a modern vaccine propaganda piece and reveals tactics used to defend unchallenged arguments.
  2. Peter Hotez is highlighted as drawing the ire of the vaccine safety community by defending the vaccine narrative and attacking critics.
  3. Hotez's suggestions to silence opposition and his rhetoric are critiqued for their implications on free speech and public debate.

Women of All Ages: Stop Drinking Now

Ladyparts • 4852 implied HN points • 28 Mar 24
🏥 Health & Wellness Health Risks Alcohol Awareness
  1. Moderate drinking for women of all ages significantly increases the risk of cardiovascular disease.
  2. Contrary to past beliefs, even one glass of wine a day may not have health benefits and can actually increase the risk of death for women.
  3. Consider exploring sources that share updated and evidence-based information about alcohol consumption and its effects on health.

Let's make 2024 the year of saying no to productivity culture

Changing The Channel • 8730 implied HN points • 04 Jan 24
🏥 Health & Wellness Rest Productivity Culture Mental health Self-care
  1. Taking time to rest and relax is essential for our well-being, even if it goes against the pervasive productivity culture.
  2. Rest should not be tied to productivity but should be seen as a natural cycle to be honored.
  3. During challenging times, like January, it's okay to embrace the idea of taking a break and not succumb to the pressure of always being productive.

Building Narratives Around Challenging Experiences

Human Programming • 51 implied HN points • 12 Mar 26
🏥 Health & Wellness Mental health Resilience Self-care Personal Growth
  1. Sometimes the best choice is to not publish a painful story because putting it out gives it more life than it needs.
  2. Small, simple narrative bridges—brief acknowledgements or redirects—are often enough to recognize difficulty and then move attention to the present.
  3. Reframing hardships as opportunities for growth can improve mental health and lower stress-related inflammation, so focusing on what you’ll do next supports recovery.

Over 90,000 Satisfied Responses In Trans Survey; Largest Detrans Survey Only Had 100

Erin In The Morning • 6584 implied HN points • 07 Feb 24
🏥 Health & Wellness Transgender Survey Regret Media narratives Legislation
  1. A recent survey of over 90,000 transgender individuals shows high levels of satisfaction post-transition.
  2. The survey results challenge prevailing narratives of transgender regret prevalent in anti-trans media.
  3. The largest detrans survey had only 100 responses, highlighting the rarity of detransition and regret among transgender individuals.

Our Sleep, Brain Aging, and Waste Clearance

Ground Truths • 17890 implied HN points • 12 Jan 25
🏥 Health & Wellness Health Effects
  1. Sleep is crucial for keeping our brains clean and healthy by helping to remove waste. During deep sleep, our brains operate like a dishwasher, flushing out harmful proteins and toxins.
  2. The brain has a system called the glymphatic pathway that works best when we sleep. This system helps drain waste and keeps our brain functioning well as we age.
  3. Poor sleep is linked to brain aging and diseases like Alzheimer's. As we get older, our ability to clear waste from the brain declines, making quality sleep even more important.

How To Heal When The World Is On Fire

Caitlin’s Newsletter • 1364 implied HN points • 09 Dec 25
🏥 Health & Wellness Mental health Self-care Mindfulness Emotional Health Resilience Personal Growth
  1. Healing is not the same as feeling safe; it starts by moving into uncomfortable feelings and fully experiencing them instead of trying to escape them.
  2. Healing means tracking reactive habits back to their first moments, listening to and compassionately soothing the small parts of yourself that developed those defenses, which dissolves their power over you.
  3. You can and should start healing now, even amid chaos, because it clears reactivity, restores intuition and agency, and makes you more effective against oppressive systems.

Who are you?

Your Local Epidemiologist • 810 implied HN points • 09 Jan 26
🏥 Health & Wellness Public Health Epidemiology Infectious Disease Health Communication Misinformation Mental health
  1. A long-running public health newsletter has a big, engaged audience and is asking readers to take an annual survey to help shape future coverage.
  2. Survey respondents are mostly from North America and Australia, skew 45–64 years old, are highly educated, and many act as trusted messengers who share information with family, colleagues, and communities.
  3. Readers still want infectious disease coverage but are increasingly interested in public health communication and misinformation, news analysis, climate-related health, and issues like mental health, opioids, and reproductive health, and the newsletter aims to broaden topics and reach younger and more politically diverse readers.

If You Want to Survive, You're Going to Want Some Good Roots

OK Doomer • 114 implied HN points • 27 Feb 26
🏥 Health & Wellness Herbal Medicine Foraging First Aid Emergency Prep Preventive Care Community health
  1. Public health systems are unraveling, making medical care less reliable and increasing the risk of infections and disease, especially during disasters.
  2. Wild plants and traditional herbal medicine can treat infections and chronic conditions, are often backed by science, and can be foraged, grown, or prepared cheaply as practical medical options.
  3. Learning to grow, identify, and prepare herbs now — and having someone in your community who studies them — builds real resilience, so gather clear, practical knowledge and start planting.

You can save your teeth with this one ordinary trick

Disaffected Newsletter • 2118 implied HN points • 29 May 24
🏥 Health & Wellness Personal Care Preventive Care Lifestyle
  1. Flossing is super important for keeping your teeth healthy. It's even more crucial than brushing because it gets rid of the stuff stuck between your teeth and below the gumline.
  2. Ignoring gum disease can lead to serious health issues and changes in your appearance. Losing teeth not only affects your smile but also your facial structure over time.
  3. Regular dental cleanings and procedures like deep root scaling can really improve your gum health. If you take care of your gums now, you can avoid bigger problems and keep your smile for life.