Wellness | Penn Today

Students lounging on the grass in College Green

Prescribing nature for well-being

Awarded one of three Big Idea honors from the campus wellness challenge, Nature Rx emphasizes time in nature as a means to ease stress.

Two people, one older, one younger sitting and looking at their phones.

What influences how parents and their gay adolescent sons talk about sexual health at home?

Research from Penn found that even when parent-child conversations avoid heteronormative stereotypes, outside factors like mass media and religion—those beyond the parents’ control—can reinforce them.

person pushing another person in a wheelchair on a grassy area in a park during the daytime

Quantifying the health risks of being a family caregiver

Health care and economics researchers find that more research is needed in the area of ‘next friend risk,’ or the full dimension of health risks faced by family and friends who become caregivers to the homebound.

Five people seated at a table smiling, a tray of cookies in front of person wearing chef clothing.

For Transplant House families, dinner just got a whole lot better

At the Clyde Barker Penn Transplant House, a partnership with Walnut Hill College and a Penn Medicine CAREs grant brings homemade baked goods to pre- and post-transplant patients and families.

New intervention increases healthy behavior among South African adolescents

A new study from the Annenberg School for Communication led by John B. Jemmott found that a specially designed health intervention given to South African youth improved healthy eating and amount of exercise, with effects lasting at least 4.5 years.

Two men sitting cross-legged on a wooden bench.

For Kennett Square’s mushroom farmworkers, healthy interventions come directly to the workplace

With the President’s Engagement Prize, seniors José Maciel and Antonio Renteria plan to bring subjects like nutrition and sleep to the workers, reinforcing preventive screenings already provided by a local, federally qualified health center.

skillet on a table surface with one fried egg and two strips of bacon

A cardiologist’s take on the keto diet

Does the keto diet improve blood sugar and lessen cardiovascular risk factors, or does it lead to spikes in bad cholesterol, heart problems, and hypoglycemia? One doctor looks to science for answers.

Astronaut in a space suit on a spacewalk outside the International Space Station.

How a year in space affects the brain

Penn Medicine’s Mathias Basner discusses the NASA Twins Study, which analyzed astronaut Scott Kelly’s physical and mental health after he spent 340 days in space, and found that Kelly’s performance on a cognitive test battery dropped when he returned to Earth for six months.

Woman in a black suit standing, gesturing with her hands, with an African American man in the background, in front of a red wall.

Weekly paid professional staff learn resilience through free, online opportunity

Offered through the Online Learning Initiative and the College of Liberal and Professional Studies, the course teaches participants resilience, gratitude, authenticity, and more.

University of Pennsylvania receives $6 million Stavros Niarchos Foundation gift to launch Paideia Program

Penn announced a $6 million gift to launch the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Paideia Program, which will reimagine the ancient Greek ideal Paideia—or “education of the whole person”—with courses focusing on wellness, service, and citizenship.

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