How many health tips do we need to thrive in 2025?

My tip? Look for evidence.

Is it 5?

7?

8?

10?

25?

44?

Among the tips I read were:

• give yourself a foot massage

• don’t eat like Bruce Springsteen (tip #9 in this article)

• only use your bed for sleep and sex

• stop “phubbing” - snubbing people you’re with by checking your phone

• eat soft-boiled eggs (with advice to boil for about 7 minutes for a gooey center)

• change one thing (which I think should be connected to the following:)

• don’t believe every health hack you see online. Vox published that one:

“If a wild health claim is too good to be true, it probably is. … Is the person sharing the information trying to sell you something by making a health claim? If so, that’s a concerning sign, and you should be especially careful to further check the accuracy of what they’re saying.”

That’s what I suggest you change (unless you’re already doing it). It’s not health advice because I don’t do that. It’s advice on reading with critical thinking.

When you read all this wellness advice, scrutinize whether the authors provided any evidence - any data - to back up their recommendations. Here’s one example of what I’m talking about - an article in The Washington Post that at least provided links to studies for nearly all the tips:

If you believe all the health news/advice that you read, try changing that. Scrutinize. Move on if you don’t see evidence. You may avoid becoming one of the “worried well” and, as a result, you might live healthier and happier.

Cut the jive in ‘25.