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Health

When did self-care turn into a second job?

The backlash is coming from inside the yoga studio.

There was a time when "being healthy" meant drinking some water and going for a walk. Then social media got involved, and wellness mutated into something with daily performance reviews, optimization protocols, and an unspoken expectation that you should be tracking your sleep, your gut, and your mitochondria obsessively.

Mark Wales writes about the women who are starting to tap out. The new buzzword making the rounds is "wellnessmaxxing," and it describes the increasingly common TikTok ritual of treating self-care like a competitive sport. Researchers say that, ironically, it's making people more anxious, not less.

What's replacing it is almost suspiciously simple. Not "10 things to do before 7am" simple. More like the kind of wellness that used to just be called... being a person.

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Hydration Isn’t As Simple As It Used To Be

The “Salty” Drink Adults Over 50 Are Suddenly Talking About

As we get older, a lot of people start accepting certain changes as “just part of aging.”

The extra bathroom trips. The occasional muscle cramps at night. Feeling more drained after everyday activities. Even that frustrating sense that your body isn’t bouncing back the way it used to.

But there’s growing attention around the role electrolytes may play in healthy aging — especially for adults over 50.

Here’s something many people don’t realize: As we age, our bodies often become less efficient at retaining key minerals that help support hydration, muscle function, bladder control, energy production, and cognitive performance.

And that can start showing up in subtle ways.

Brain fog. Low stamina. Feeling sluggish during walks or exercise. Waking up tired even after a full night’s sleep.

A lot of people assume those changes are simply part of getting older. But in some cases, inadequate hydration and low mineral intake may also be playing a role.

That’s one reason electrolyte drinks have exploded in popularity in recent years — especially formulas designed specifically for older adults.

And unlike the sugary sports drinks many people grew up with, newer electrolyte blends are focused on delivering essential minerals without artificial ingredients or excess sugar.

Some people who add electrolytes to their routine report improvements in energy, stamina, muscle comfort, hydration, and overall wellness support.

Research has also explored the important role minerals like sodium, potassium, and magnesium play in supporting nerve signaling, muscle contractions, hydration balance, and cognitive health.

NativePath Hydrate — a simple daily electrolyte drink mix designed to support hydration and healthy aging using essential minerals the body depends on every day.

It’s easy to mix, tastes great, and contains no artificial junk or complicated ingredients — just targeted hydration support designed for everyday wellness.

If you’ve been noticing lower energy, muscle discomfort, or other changes that often come with aging, electrolytes may be worth a closer look.

Learn why so many adults are adding this “salty” drink to their daily routine — and discover the “7 reasons” it has become one of the most talked-about wellness habits for adults over 50 today.

Science

Bats are quietly running parts of the US economy

Nope, that isn’t some dark-web conspiracy theory.

Most people only think about bats in October. They flap through a few Halloween decorations, get associated with vampires, and disappear from public consciousness until the next fall. The U.S. economy, on the other hand, thinks about them every single night.

A single reproductive female brown bat eats her body weight in insects every summer night. One colony can wipe out 600,000 cucumber beetles a year before they can mature into the rootworms that chew through American cornfields. Bats are essentially free pesticide with wings, and we are losing them fast.

In this piece, researchers Dale Manning, Anya Nakhmurina, and Eli Fenichel follow the money trail from caves to cornfields to county budgets to (here's where it gets weird) the municipal bond market. When bats vanish, farms lose yield, county tax bases shrink, and bond traders start quietly charging rural governments more to borrow. The number they land on is small enough to fit in a footnote and large enough to reroute millions of dollars.

Previous Results

Yesterday, we shared research about parents paying too little attention to test scores when the grades are looking good.

How do GOOD readers weigh grades and test scores? Like the adorable girl from the Cheerios ad, over 60% of you said ‘Why not both?’

• Grades all day. Tests don't matter. (13.4%)

• Both. That's the full picture. (61.9%)

• Grades are busy work. The test is, well, the true test. (10.3%)

• Couldn't care less. I judge the child. (14.4%)

On May 19, 1743, French physicist Jean-Pierre Christin stood before the Lyon Academy of Sciences and presented a mercury thermometer that would eventually settle the temperature of every weather app on Earth.

Here's the kicker. A year earlier, Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius had introduced his own 0-to-100 scale, but he'd built it upside down: water boiled at 0 degrees and froze at 100. Yes, really. Christin, working independently in Lyon, quietly flipped the script. On his "Thermometer of Lyon," 0 was freezing and 100 was boiling, exactly the way you read it on your dashboard this morning. Unless you’re American, but even then, the cold is still at the bottom!

Christin got a thermometer named after his hometown and a quiet line in physics textbooks, which feels a little lukewarm for a guy whose contribution was making the rest of us less confused.

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Scottish poet Len Pennie shares a lyrical bit of her work about her plans not to have children. No, she plans to have something else.

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