Read Online | January 3, 2025

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A minute is always a minute, except when it isn’t.

This idea was put to the test in a 2023 Harvard study. Researchers induced minor bruising on participants’ forearms and then had them sit in rooms where the clocks ran at normal speed, half-speed, or double-speed. 

Crucially, the actual elapsed time was identical across all conditions—28 minutes—but the clocks ticked at different rates.  

The results surprised the researchers. 

Wounds healed faster when people thought more time had passed, and slower when they thought less time had passed. 

“Personally, I didn’t think it would work,” lead author Peter Aungle told The Epoch Times. “And then it did work!”  

A century ago, Albert Einstein demonstrated that time is relative—not fixed. He explained the idea with a simple, humorous example: “Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That’s relativity.”  

Now, psychologists and neuroscientists are finding that our sense of time is not only inherently subjective but also highly malleable. (Read more)

• Scientists have identified a chemical in dark chocolate that could slow cellular aging. 
• Undercover investigators with the U.S. Department of Agriculture are going to check whether stores are complying with new restrictions on food stamps.
• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to regulate how phthalates, plasticizers used in many industrial and consumer products, are used in work settings.

• Measles cases climbed above 2,000 in the United States in 2025, the highest rate since 1992.

• Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has stopped mandating health care providers report the immunization status of patients.

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🏥 Health News

Metformin is the go-to drug for managing diabetes, with nearly 86 million Americans filling prescriptions for the drug in 2023. However, a new study suggests that Metformin may prevent you from getting the benefits of exercise. 

Dr. Betul Hatipoglu, a professor of medicine at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, and not involved in the study, told The Epoch Times that this study is the first to show that metformin might reduce the improvements in blood vessel insulin sensitivity that usually come from exercise. (More)

More Health News:

• Some states are pushing back against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s call to delay hepatitis B vaccination for most infants.
• Recent research found sleep is a key factor in how long you’ll live—even more so than diet and exercise.
• Lower-frequency fire alarms work better for people with hearing difficulties.
• Diabetic patients’ saliva can become especially sugary, making them more prone to cavities.

😌 Mindset

Illustration by The Epoch Times/Shutterstock

At just 29, Shen Lan-ting received a devastating diagnosis: advanced colorectal cancer, with only three months to live. 

Instead of succumbing to despair, she embraced a radically positive mindset. “No matter how little time I have left, I will greet each day with joy and gratitude,” she said.

Three months later, her inoperable 10-centimeter tumor had shrunk to 2 centimeters. Fifteen years on, she lives a vibrant, healthy life—the cancer is gone.

 (More)

☀️ A Few Good Things

• ✍️ Health Viewpoint: Chaos Proof: Using Ancient Wisdom to Hack Modern Anxiety by Jonathan Miltimore

• 🍿 Watch: One of the most powerful medicines we have doesn’t come from a pharmacy but from another person’s arms. A good hug has profound physiological effects. (Watch the Upgrade on EpochTV)

• 🎵 Music: Johannes Brahms - Piano Concerto No. 1 (Listen)

🍵 Food & Nutrition

Viktor Kochetkov/Shutterstock

It sounds simple enough: Eat within a narrow window, fast for the rest, lose weight.

Except there are always those for whom it doesn’t work.

While some people may simply not be well suited to intermittent fasting, many who fail to lose—or even gain weight—may be sabotaged by biological processes at work in their bodies.

Intermittent fasting isn’t failing because the science is wrong. It’s failing because most people don’t understand the biological rules that make it work.

Breaking the Fast Too Early

It takes 16 to 24 hours for the body to deplete its stored glucose and switch to burning ketone for fuel. Most people end up interrupting this switch by eating small amounts of carbohydrates. A high-carbohydrate meal, meanwhile, can delay the switch to ketones from happening for days.

Overeating and Eating Too Late

Many intermittent fasters go into this dietary approach without guidance from dietitians. As a result, they end up overeating in their meal window or eating too late in the day, which can undermine their fast.

High Stress and Hormones

Your body’s stress load can blunt the benefits of fasting, even if you’re following the schedule perfectly.

Chronic stress and poor sleep keep cortisol elevated, which increases hunger and cravings for high-fat, high-sugar foods and promotes fat storage—even if you’re eating less as a result of your fasting.

(More)

Thank you for reading 🙏

Have a wonderful day!

- Matthew Little and Wanlun Lu.

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