Inspiring: Healing Our Bodies News Stories
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In 2023, a stroke transformed Naresh Shanbhag, a 53-year-old smooth-talking sales professional in Bengaluru, into someone who was unable to speak words, let alone sentences. Initially, when a doctor friend suggested music therapy, Shanbhag thought it would be interesting, but was skeptical that listening to songs would help him recover. That skepticism disappeared right away. “From the very first session, I was hooked,” he says. In a soundproof room in India’s first music cognition lab at Bengaluru’s National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Shanbhag was given simple rhythms and beats to emulate. When his therapist noted that he could sing more fluently than he could talk, he asked Shanbhag to sing sentences. “One year later, I still do this,” he laughs. “Every morning when I go to fetch milk and groceries, my shopping list is a song that I belt out!” The lab is run by Shantala Hegde, a professor of neuropsychology as well as a trained classical vocalist. She and her team of researcher-collaborators and PhD scholars provide rehabilitation services to dozens of patients per month who have brain injuries like Shanbhag. “Music is a powerful tool for neuropsychological rehabilitation because you engage the entire brain to engage with it,” Hegde says. “We give them specific musical exercises that engage the entire brain, activate different brain areas and strengthen the connections between them,” Hegde clarifies.
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I signed up for “Groove Therapy” with a local dance teacher, Leah Lynn. The youngest in our group is 16, the oldest over 70. Every Saturday, we play out a verb each of us brings to class — release, gather, resist, invite — translating abstract intentions into motion. It sounds faintly ridiculous. It is also, disarmingly, effective. Within minutes, something shifts. Stress loosens. Then for the next hour, we learn hip hop shuffles and swing our hips to Kool & the Gang or Beyoncé. I always return home exhausted and exhilarated. The dance classes provoked such a profound shift in my mood as well as my body that I decided to find out if there was more to it. Modern research is now catching up to the fact that dance is medicine, a deeply effective intervention for physical, cognitive and emotional health. Behind the feel-good performance lies hard science. Dance improves cardiovascular fitness, strength and coordination. Dancing activates a wide network: auditory pathways, visual and motor cortex, the amygdala and, above all, the somatosensory cortex and networks that keep track of where your body is in space. A German study that followed older adults in a dance program for more than a year reported increases in gray matter volume and synaptic density in regions important for memory and executive function. [Another study showed] that people who danced more than once a week had a 76 percent lower risk of developing dementia than those who danced less often.
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What you’ve got there from the sun on your face is a massive boost of serotonin!” says Alison Greenwood, founder of Dose of Nature, the charity successfully prescribing time outside as a treatment for mental health. Dose of Nature has already delivered 1,500 one-to-one courses and is outperforming standard NHS talking therapies, boasting a recovery rate of 64% compared with the health service’s 50%, and a reliable improvement rate of 86% compared with 69%. Unlike most green social prescribing schemes, clients are referred directly by their GPs. “Our nature prescriptions are a genuine alternative to medication and more traditional psychological therapies,” Greenwood says. The key, she says, is the rediscovery of something very old: “The idea that nature is good for our mental health and wellbeing has been around for millennia. We evolved outside, under the sky, [and so] we are animals that are caged most of our time, in schools or cars or offices or homes. As soon as we get outside, we’re free.” There are two key parts to the Dose of Nature prescription: helping people get outside and, once there, to start noticing nature to calm their minds and bodies. As well as the serotonin-boosting sun and the phytoncides that can decrease stress hormones, studies have shown that natural sounds such as water, wind and birdsong improve mood. The fractal patterns of nature have been shown to aid recovery from stress and boost alpha waves in the brain.
Note: In New Zealand, green prescriptions have become a formal part of the healthcare system. Over 4,000 green prescriptions have been written by over 10,000 physicians in all 10 provinces of Canada. Read more about social and green prescriptions. Explore more positive stories like this on healing our bodies and mental health.
For Emily Hough, nature was too often simply something "out there", a world apart from her, a view from a hospital window. Years spent in and out of specialist mental health units ... meant she felt little connection with the countryside. That was until five years ago, when a hospital occupational therapist gave her an unusual prescription: Grow a sunflower. "I'd never planted anything in my life," Ms Hough said. "But I planted that sunflower and, just watching it grow, from me watering it and from me protecting it from the shade, helped me feel connected for the first time and really be able to appreciate what was around me - and how I can make a difference to nature and what nature can actually do for me." Ms Hough, now 35, embraced what is formally called by the NHS "green social prescribing", where GPs and health practitioners refer patients to organisations that offer nature-based activities, whether that be hiking, birdwatching, rockpooling or looking after a city-based allotment. It is supposed to complement other more mainstream treatments and therapies and has been a key part of the government's 10-year plan for the NHS in England. The national pilot scheme saw nearly 8,500 people prescribed nature activities in its first two years, with more than half those patients living in socio-economically deprived areas. Chris Dayson ... who was part of the team that evaluated the scheme, said it brought "a really statistically significant increase in wellbeing" for patients.
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At a portable cabin in Porto, addicts queue up to use heroin and crack cocaine in safety, with medical staff on hand. The government-funded service ... provides them with clean needles, strips of aluminium foil, and other materials to facilitate their drug-taking and prevent infections. The overarching ethos of the centre revolves around harm prevention. The centre ... serves as a highly visible flagship of Portugal’s long-standing policy of drug decriminalisation. Motivated by a widespread belief that the war on drugs was failing, the country’s lawmakers agreed to decriminalise the acquisition, possession and private use of small amounts of drugs [in 1999]. Since its inauguration, Porto’s centre has clocked up 63,000 visits from more than 2,000 drug users – the vast majority of whom use either crack cocaine or heroin. Only two overdoses have occurred, both of which were treated successfully on the spot. [Psychologist Diana] Castro also points to the 1,500 or so screenings undertaken, and the 89 individuals now receiving treatment for hepatitis C as a consequence. About 10 people have also entered detox programmes of their own volition. All those caught by the police with class A drugs are required to attend a government-run “integrated response” clinic, where their use levels are assessed and a treatment programme proposed. These clinics house psychotherapists, psychiatrists, social workers, pharmacologists and primary healthcare specialists.
Note: Read more about Portugal’s innovative healthcare system that heavily emphasizes social prescribing to meet the deeper social, emotional, and community-rooted causes of addiction. Explore more positive stories on repairing criminal justice.
Set up in 2019, the Transfarmation Project works with farms across the US that want to ditch industrial animal agriculture, which is typically done as contract work on behalf of big meat companies, and move toward a sustainable, fully independent business model. They provide guidance on how to repurpose existing infrastructure for different crops, but also business advice on how to find the market, set up a website, establish a brand and sell directly to consumers. They also provide research and innovation grants that can help with the finances. The idea is to move beyond a form of intensive farming that has a hugely detrimental impact on the environment, but also to protect the farmers themselves, many of whom find that the concentrated animal-feeding operation (Cafo) model takes a toll on their mental health. “We used to have all these independent farms,” [Iowa farmer Tanner] Faaborg says. “Our family used to have this homesteading lifestyle with some chickens and a big orchard.” That changed for the Faaborgs about 30 years ago when someone from one of the big meat companies knocked on their door. “It became more: we have ... to collect this check, to pay the bills and pay back the loan.” The Transfarmation Project [shows] that a different model is possible, closer to the autonomy of old. For the Faaborgs, the switch has made them feel excited about their work and its connection to nature. They want others to know that a different future is possible.
Note: After meeting an animal rights activist he once viewed as an enemy, a factory farmer took the extraordinary step of exposing the realities of industrial poultry production on his own farm in the New York Times—and now harvests mushrooms and herbs in the very buildings where hundreds of thousands of chickens once lived. Explore more positive stories like this on healing the Earth and reimagining the economy.
A French ban on the production and sale of cosmetics and most clothing containing polluting and health-threatening "forever chemicals" goes into force on Thursday. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are human-made chemicals used since the late 1940s to mass produce the non-stick, waterproof and stain-resistant treatments that coat everything from frying pans to umbrellas, carpets and dental floss. Because PFAS take an extremely long time to break down – earning them their "forever" nickname – they have seeped into the soil and groundwater, and from there into the food chain and drinking water. The French law, approved by lawmakers in February, bans the production, import or sale from January 2026 of any product for which an alternative to PFAS already exists. These include cosmetics and ski wax, as well as clothing containing the chemicals, except certain "essential" industrial textiles. It will also make French authorities regularly test drinking water for all kinds of PFAS. A handful of US states, including California, implemented a ban on the intentional use of PFAS in cosmetics beginning in 2025, and several other states are slated to follow in 2026. Denmark has banned the use of PFAS in food packaging since 2020. The European Union has been studying a possible ban on the use of PFAS in consumer products, but has not yet presented or implemented such a regulation.
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At Boyle County High School, locally-raised beef marinated in cumin is heaped onto corn tortillas with queso, guacamole, sharp red tomatoes, and vibrant lettuce. It’s just one of many meals the teens at Boyle get to enjoy, and a far cry from the days of fruit cups, pan pizza, and skim milk, days which everyone involved are happy to see gone. According to Lex 18 News, some 150 Kentucky farms sell their produce to around 90 state school districts thanks to a pandemic-era grant that supplied the state with $3.2 million for the purpose. It’s clear from the attitude of Boyle County School District Food Service Director Cheyenne Barsotti that the move-to-local has affected far more than just the hungry teens’ excitement for lunch hour: it’s changed the whole way the school approaches food. Barsotti’s cafeteria staff may just cook from scratch at times depending on what produce is available. The cooks feel safe trying out new recipes. Several students told the NBC-affiliate that the fajitas were a 9.5 out of 10. Under the new direction of American health policy, the USDA Dietary Guidelines have featured, for the first time in their history, a focus on protein over carbs—and real food, that is to say, food which spoils and doesn’t come out of a box, over all others. Even though [the initial] grant money has been halted, the program has enlivened so many that school districts are trying to maintain the new direction, the new attitudes, and the new menus.
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For more than 30 years, Frank Frost worked as a long-distance truck driver. He gained weight and was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in his 50s. His doctors put him on insulin injections and told him to lose weight and move more. "When l, like most people, failed, they made me feel weak and worthless," says Frost. Then, Frost met a doctor with a completely different approach — one that changed his life. The doctor ... asked Frost about things he enjoyed doing as a kid and discovered he used to love riding a bike. He gave him a prescription for a 10-week cycling course called Pedal Ready for adults getting back into cycling. "I hadn't been on a bike for almost 50 years until I started cycling again," says Frost. What Frost's doctor had done was give him a social prescription, says journalist Julia Hotz. It's the idea of health professionals "literally prescribing you a community activity or resource the same way they'd prescribe you pills or therapies," she explains. The prescriptions include exercise, art, music, exposure to nature and volunteering, which are known to have enormous benefits to physical and mental health. And it all starts with "flipping the script from what's the matter with you to focusing on what matters to you," Hotz says. "What are your activities that you love? What gets you out of bed?" Frost's prescription helped him make friends after years in a solitary profession. And it helped him lose 100 pounds, get his diabetes under control and go off insulin.
Note: Explore more positive stories like this in our comprehensive healing our bodies and healing social division.
Susan Abookire, an internist and professor at Harvard Medical School, had a cure for all that ailed me. “Find a being. The being might be a tree or rock,” she told me. “Greet it as you would a friend. You might want to introduce yourself. You may want to share something with that being.” I was participating, somewhat skeptically, in a forest bathing session Abookire was leading at Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum for seven young doctors. It’s part of resident training ... which is looking for ways to reduce stress and burnout within the profession. She explained that just by standing among the trees, we were inhaling essential tree oils called phytoncides and aromatic plant compounds called terpenes. “There’s several studies now showing that inhaling phytoncides boosts our immune system, and specifically our natural killer-cell numbers and activities go up,” she said. Breathing in tree scents fights infection, prevents cancer and protects against dementia. Qing Li, a professor at Japan’s Nippon Medical School ... told me, “the larger the trees, the higher the tree density, and the larger the forest area, the greater the effects of forest bathing.” More phytoncides and more terpenes, more benefit. He also believes we profit from inhaling negative ions (found in abundance near waterfalls) as well as a microorganism found in the soil, Mycobacterium vaccae. He recommends spending two to four hours in the forest walking at a slow pace ... and paying attention to your senses.
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A “social prescription” [is] a referral to nonpharmaceutical, community-based resources and activities, like art classes and cycling clubs. Instead of a recommendation to exercise or socialize, a social prescription is tailored to that patient’s specific interests—what brings them joy, purpose, awe, flow and childlike curiosity. It’s a medicine based on what matters to a patient, instead of just what’s the matter with them. More than 80 percent of our health outcomes are driven by social factors in our environments, while only 16 percent are related to clinical care. In other words, to be healthy, we need access to basic resources—clean air, nutritious food, stable housing, freedom from violence and discrimination, and psychological resources—outlets that help us cope with stress, activities that give us a sense of purpose, people we can call at 3 A.M. in a crisis. Social prescriptions addressing both kinds of these social needs should be a no-brainer addition to the menu of options that American docs, therapists and social workers can prescribe. I’ve seen firsthand how social prescriptions can not only alleviate symptoms of sickness but also create lasting wellness—from the woman whose prescription for a sea-swimming prescription severely reduced her antidepressant dosage and helped “her life become bright again,” to the man whose prescription for a cultural excursion group helped him overcome his social anxiety and “feel like himself again.”
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“Dance is a language of the body,” says Julia F. Christensen, a neuroscientist at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics and author of Dancing is the Best Medicine. “Our brain understands gestures that we may do as we dance like an expressive language.” For centuries, communities have turned to dance not only for celebration but for ritual and healing. Long before scientists tracked brain waves or measured neurotransmitters, dancers had an intuitive understanding of the power of moving together. Now, the research is starting to catch up. A 2024 meta-analysis published in The BMJ reviewed 218 clinical trials and found that dance reduced symptoms of depression more than walking, yoga, strength training, and even standard antidepressants. While only 15 of the studies focused specifically on dance, the results were enough to grab the attention of researchers. Our brains are wired for rhythm—and dancing engages our entire nervous system. Some neuroscientists describe this full-body stimulation as a neurochemical symphony. Anticipating a melody can trigger the release of dopamine. Physical movement boosts endorphins. Dancing with others increases oxytocin. Studies have shown that this trifecta can enhance mood, increase social bonding, and reduce stress. Dance offers a unique way to reconnect with oneself. It can activate emotional, cognitive, and sensory pathways, reawakening a sense of connection within and beyond the self.
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Oregon has for years struggled with a drug crisis, reporting one of the highest rates of substance use disorders in the US and ranking last in the nation for access to treatment. The problem is systemic, rooted in decades of failure to invest in the level of behavioral health services needed for people with mental illnesses and addiction. The Pacific north-west state’s significant affordable housing shortage has compounded the challenges, as people languish on the streets without care. On 12 November 2024, Cameron Washam, 45, was lying on the street by Portland’s Union Station, on the brink of death. He and his wife, Christina Bell, 47, had long struggled with homelessness and addiction. Workers from a Portland street outreach initiative coordinated by the Mental Health and Addiction Association of Oregon (MHAAO), a non-profit dedicated to peer recovery services, approached and offered help, saying they could immediately take them to a detox program. They entered detox, Washam got emergency surgery for his infection, and after eight days, they were placed in an outpatient program, then a sober recovery home. The outreach effort [is] called the Provider-Police Joint Connection Program. Since its launch, the program has connected 1,005 people to services, including 651 who received access to programs on the same day outreach teams met them and 159 who got into detox and treatment.
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Having a sense of purpose in life may help people live longer. Now, new research from the University of California in Davis shows that having a sense of purpose in life may have another benefit as people age: reducing the risk of dementia. The new study ... found that people who reported a higher sense of purpose in life were about 28% less likely to develop cognitive impairment—including mild cognitive impairment and dementia. The protective effect of having a purpose was seen across racial and ethnic groups. It also remained significant even after accounting for education, depression, and the APOE4 gene, which is a known risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease. “Our findings show that having a sense of purpose helps the brain stay resilient with age,” said Aliza Wingo, senior author. “Even for people with a genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease, sense of purpose was linked to a later onset and lower likelihood of developing dementia.” The findings support the idea that psychological well-being plays a key role in healthy aging, said Thomas Wingo, a co-author of the study. Wingo hopes future studies will explore whether purpose-building interventions can help prevent dementia. “What’s exciting about this study is that people may be able to ‘think’ themselves into better health. Purpose in life is something we can nurture,” he said. “It’s never too early — or too late — to start thinking about what gives your life meaning.”
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Farmers Alberto Gómez, José Castillo and Javier Castillo arrive with their selected seeds, stored in shigras – hand-woven shoulder bags – as has been done for generations. In San Lorenzo, they call themselves “seed guardians” for their role in protecting this living heritage and passing it down the generations. [They] are among the farmers supporting draft legislation, under review by the lower house of the Colombian parliament, that would ban genetically modified (GM) seeds, which they claim threaten their traditions, livelihoods and food sovereignty. The initiative has the backing of Indigenous, peasant and environmental organisations, but faces opposition from agribusiness and sectors that support GM. In San Lorenzo, the rejection of GM seeds evolved into organised political opposition after people detected the use of such seeds in nearby crops in 2012. They then feared that GM seeds might cross-pollinate with their native varieties, altering their traits and threatening their ability to preserve them. The alarm prompted them to act. They travelled from village to village, hosted workshops, collected 1,300 signatures and drafted a citizen-led proposal. The initiative was backed by the Seed Guardians of Life Network, a national platform comprising farming and environmental groups, as well as local collectives and the municipal government. It was formally submitted to the town council. In 2018, San Lorenzo declared itself a GMO-free territory.
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California has long led the way on school meals. In 2022, it became the first state in the country to make school meals free for all students, regardless of income. Many districts have implemented farm-to-school programs to bring local foods into the cafeteria. And last year, months before the “Make America healthy again” movement would make its way to the White House, it became the first state in the nation to ban six synthetic food dyes from school meals. This week, it passed legislation that will put it in the lead on school meals in yet another way – banning ultra-processed foods. On Friday, California lawmakers passed a bill that will define, and then ban, ultra-processed foods from school meals. Ultra-processed foods, or UPFs, are industrially formulated products that are often high in fats, starches, sugars and additives, and make up 73% of the US food supply today. The text of California’s new law defines a UPF as any food or beverage that contains stabilizers, thickeners, propellants, colors, emulsifiers, flavoring agents, flavor enhancers, nonnutritive sweeteners or surface-active agents – and has high amounts of saturated fat, sodium or added sugar, or nonnutritive sweeteners. “We actually had food service directors come in and testify,” [state assembly member Jesse Gabriel] said. “Not only had it not cost them more, but in many districts they had actually saved money by switching to healthier alternatives.”
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The latest figures and the statistical yearbook "The World of Organic Agriculture" was presented on 11 February 2025 at BIOFACH, the world's leading trade fair for organic food in Nuremberg. The global organic farming area increased by 2.5 million hectares in 2023, reaching almost 99 million hectares. The sales of organic food reached nearly 136 billion euros in 2023. The 26th edition of the yearbook "The World of Organic Agriculture", jointly published by FiBL and IFOAM – Organics International, shows that the growth in area and number of farms in 2023 exceeded that of previous years, particularly due to increases in Latin America. Data were provided by 188 countries. By the end of 2023, 98.9 million hectares were managed organically, marking a 2.6 percent increase (+2.5 million hectares) from 2022. Latin America experienced the largest increase, adding 1 million hectares (10.8 percent growth), while Africa recorded the highest relative growth, expanding by 24 percent to reach 3.4 million hectares. Oceania remains the leading region for organic farming, with 53.2 million hectares, accounting for more than half of the global organic area. It is followed by Europe, which has 19.5 million hectares, and Latin America, with 10.3 million hectares. By country, Australia leads with 53 million hectares, followed by India (4.5 million hectares) and Argentina (4 million hectares). There are notable increases observed in Vietnam, Sri Lanka, and Burkina Faso.
Note: Don't miss this global organic agriculture graphic. Explore more positive stories like this on healing our bodies and healing the Earth.
The Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food figured that veterans were perfectly cut out for farming, as the average vet is 45% more likely to start their own business, and aside from being physically fit, are used to enduring discomfort, waking up early, and being both self-reliant and a team player. Looking to connect their need to perform a service for their communities with the needs of thousands of retiring military who reenter society every year, Arcadia created the Veteran Farmers Training Program. Just a few miles from the Pentagon in Arlington, Arcadia trains veterans in the fundamentals of agriculture both in the field and in the class room. Ephesia Sutton was in the US Army for 20 years, and now trains veterans like herself how to grow nutritious produce for their families and communities. “I left the military with PTSD, depression, and anxiety, and I would rather be anywhere else when dealing with those symptoms. This is the place that relaxes me,” said Sutton told Stars and Stripes from the fields of collard greens, cucumbers, bitter melon, peppers, spinach, kale, and tomatoes. “Knowing the work that I’m doing every time I put my hands in the soil is going to provide for a family, for somebody in this community, that just gives me the push to be out here,” Sutton said. Military spouses ... often have to put their own lives on hold whilst their partners deploy. These too are finding new purpose and fulfillment among the rows of fruits and vegetables.
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Small was what the couple wanted. Ms. Boyle is from Vermont, and while studying at Emerson College in Boston, she worked an office job connected to the local food movement. But she quickly realized she wanted to be outside with her hands in the earth. Mr. Wolcik graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he studied sustainable agriculture and community food systems. He, too, realized he wanted a life close to the soil. They met while working at a nonprofit farm outside Boston and soon discovered they shared a dream about buying their own acreage to grow food and flowers. They weren’t interested in a massive operation. Instead, their vision included no-till growing methods, hand tools, and a desire to build a “human scale” production system. They also wanted to make their living entirely from their farm – something increasingly difficult to do in New England. Over the past 60 years, the region has lost 80% of its farmland. They joined a community actively building a new storyline around farming, food, and resilience in New England. Here, in this part of little Vermont, statewide population 648,000, a coalition of farmers, nonprofits, and residents is eschewing mainstream beliefs about what makes agriculture successful and what it means to create a prosperous economy. Instead, they are building a system in which farmers are able to make a living and residents can eat healthy food grown nearby.
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Everywhere around the world, regenerative farmers prove that we can generate ecological, social and economic profit whilst producing food. These farms are no longer part of the climate, soil, biodiversity, water and health crises, but actively contribute to solutions. Because whilst they sow, grow and harvest, they ensure that their landscapes, communities and local economies become increasingly healthy and resilient. However new or revolutionary this seems, it is not. In fact, regenerative farming goes back to the basics and places indigenous principles – such as the idea that all life is interconnected – at the heart of food production. And just like indigenous communities, regenerative farmers look beyond the short-term and desire to pass on their land in a better state than they found it. In nature, different plants, flowers, herbs, nuts and fruits grow side by side in the same ecosystem. Whilst they grow, they add and remove different nutrients from the soil, thus keeping it balanced. At the same time, a wide variety of insects and other animals are attracted by the biodiversity, keeping each other in check and making sure that no species can ever become a pest. This ensures that all life can flourish. Many regenerative farms sell their produce directly to consumers, therefore cutting out the middleman, or even opt for a membership model where people can become members of the farm for the duration of a harvest season, called Community Supported Agriculture.
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