Health

Human performance, public health, biology, and the science of living well.

Fourteen adults sat chest-deep in 34-degree-Celsius water for 15 minutes and their skin’s stress response fell while Stroop-test performance stayed steady

Warm water presses gently against the body, moving blood toward the chest and changing signals that help regulate the heart, blood vessels and sweat glands. In a small experiment, 15 minutes of warm-water immersion reduced a skin response linked to mental strain while young adults completed a challenging color-word test. The PLOS ONE study, published…

Competitive swimmer wearing goggles after training

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Nineteen elite swimmers received 10 sessions of dual-site brain stimulation across 25 days and finished with faster reactions stronger mental toughness and better 100-meter performances

Young woman using a virtual reality headset in a field

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Two hundred thirty-six students with anxiety spent 30 minutes planting rowing and reflecting inside a virtual nature world and several benefits remained two weeks later

Concept of human intelligence with human brain on blue background

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Forty-eight divers worked underwater for 30 minutes, one hour or three hours and only the longest exposure raised anxiety while rat experiments linked cognitive decline to CCR3-driven brain inflammation

Teen girl pink hair wear vr headset goggles hold controllers play active shooter vr video game futuristic immersive simulator virtual reality 3D 360 cyber game stand at home in liv

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Fifty young patients used an underwater virtual world or guided imagery during two unsedated procedures and virtual reality helped most when fears about pain were already high

Tourists viewing snow covered landscape and high waterfall, Iceland, Europe. Iceland nature 2017 winter cold

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Thirty-two adults faced carbon dioxide panic challenges and 30 seconds of cold facial immersion slowed heart rates while reducing induced panic and anxiety

A male dentist consulting a female patient at a modern dental clinic reception

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In a 392-patient dental clinic trial, adults waiting near fish rated the room more favorably, but the aquarium did not measurably lower anxiety, mood scores, blood pressure, or heart rate before treatment

Two women in traditional attire enjoying virtual reality, showcasing modern technology

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Thirty healthy adults explored four virtual Seribu Islands scenes for 15 minutes, state anxiety scores fell by 8 points and the underwater view ranked first

Thirty healthy adults spent 15 minutes in a VR session built around the Seribu Islands and their median state-anxiety score dropped from 33.5 to 25.5 right after the headset came off. The paper reports a median difference of 8.0 points, with a 95% confidence interval from 4.39 to 8.61, after one guided exposure to four…

Explore the colorful coral reef underwater in Marsa Alam, Egypt's Red Sea

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A 3-minute Red Sea dive in virtual reality lifted positive mood after 107 university participants watched a real house fire, while their memory scores stayed close to the same across VR, reading and seated control groups

107 participants at a Texas university watched a real three-minute video of a severe house fire, then took different short follow-up experiences. One group sat quietly, one read a short paragraph about the Red Sea and one watched a 360-degree VR video of a Red Sea dive. When researchers checked what changed next, the clearest…

Two women using VR headsets, fully immersed in virtual reality technology indoors

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Twenty people with stage IV colorectal cancer spent 30 minutes inside a virtual coral reef and deep sea and the pilot study found immediate drops in pain, tension, stress and anxiety while leaving the bigger question of long-term benefit for randomized trials

Twenty people with stage IV colorectal cancer sat through a single 30-minute virtual reality session and the study recorded sharp pre to post drops in pain, stress, anxiety, tension and low mood. The numbers came from a small pilot, yet they were large enough to suggest that a short immersive break may offer some relief…

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