Health

NPR - Across the world, hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people live in areas where there's not enough blood in at least 75% of medical cases. Last month, a coalition of 27 doctors, researchers, and patient advocates coined the term "blood desert" in a Lancet Global Health paper last month, hoping to build awareness and share solutions.In a blood desert, what are normally highly treatable conditions — trauma, sickle cell anemia or postpartum bleeding — often become deadly. "Blood is a life-saving drug; it's considered essential medicine," says Dr. Nobhojit Roy, a retired rural surgeon from India. But nearly every country in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia is struggling with deficits, according to a 2019 Lancet Haematology study.

Vox - Recently, psychologist Maytal Eyal has observed what she calls an “epidemic of self-hatred.” Both within her work as a therapist and in her wider community, Eyal noticed how the weight of self-criticism and self-loathing wears on people’s souls. “It’s become sort of normalized,” she says. “And when people feel that way, they want to buy products to self-improve.”A consequence of the cultural obsession with self-improvement is the hyperfixation on the self. From elaborate skin care regimens to the culling of “toxic” friends from your social circle, some will go through extreme lengths in the name of self-preservation and betterment. However, we’ve collectively overcorrected when it comes to the impulse to self-correct. When there’s always a new ideal to strive toward, a new workout to try, a new home renovation project, a new way to hack bodily functions, it can be hard to feel adequate, sufficient, enough. Very real socioeconomic, racial, and health factors impact a person’s ability to feel fulfilled, too. When a society marginalizes people based on their income, background, or abilities, it’s extremely easy to feel like we don’t measure up.