Top 10 Rarest Diseases

While we’ve all heard of diseases, seen someone with a disease, and had a disease personally, it’s unlikely that we’ve encountered a rare disease. In the non-medical world, people use and interchange disease to mean infection, sickness, illness, or something similar. In the medical world, a disease is an abnormal condition that impairs bodily functions and is often associated with certain signs and symptoms.

Also called an orphan disease, rare diseases are those that are extremely uncommon and often have such low prevalence that a common doctor would not run into more than one case of that disease over a course of years, if ever. Here is a list of 10 diseases that rarely affect people.

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10. Morgellons

Today, Morgellons stands as a very poorly understood disease that some doctors seem to believe if a chronic infectious disease. Sadly, the disease is usually disfiguring as well as disabling. The disease is classified by biting, itching, or crawling sensations, filaments that grow from the skin, and skin lesions, as well as memory loss, joint paint, and fatigue. Morgellons is still not recognized by the entire medical community, but there have been about 2,000 people within the U.S. who believe they suffer from the disease. Some of the reports are children, who are said to be unable to do normal things such as going to school or playing sports. There is no known cure or effective treatment for Morgellons.

9. Paraneoplastic pemphigus (PNP)

Though there are many forms of pemphigus, paraneoplastic pemphigus is the least common and most serious. PNP is a rare autoimmune bullous disease that causes blistering. Keratinocytes, which are what make up the epidemus, separate from each other, leaving gaps. Many times the gaps become filled with fluid peel off, leaving the skin raw and open to infection. These blisters usually appear in the mouth, throat, lips, and random places on the skin. The disease is also extremely fatal, as 90% of those diagnosed with the disease die due to sepsis, multi-organ failure, or cancer that caused the disease.

8. Microcephaly

Microcephaly is a very rare condition that is noticeable immediately at birth, and sometimes even before. It affects 1 in every 666,666 in the U.S. With microcephaly, the brain is unable to develop properly, or in some cases ceases to grow at all, while the baby is still in the womb. This causes the head to be smaller than a normal infant’s head at birth. Many believe that the disease is caused by exposure to harmful substances while in the womb, exposure to radiation, or genetic problems. The disease is usually paired with Down’s syndrome. Those who have microcephaly are usually mentally retarded and will have issues with hyperactivity, dwarfism, seizures, balance issues, speech and motor problems, as well as others.

7. Von Hippel-Lindau (VHL)

Von Hippel-Lindau disease (VHL) is said to affect one in 35,000 people. It is an extremely rare genetic condition that is characterized by the growth of tumors in different parts of the body. Many of the tumors will grow within the central nervous system and are often benign, but are made of blood vessels. Medically known as hemangioblastomas, these tumors can start to grow in the retina, the brain, and the spinal cord. Different tumors are also known to grow on the pancreas, adrenal glands, and kidneys. If left untreated, the disease can cause strokes, heart attacks, and cardiovascular disease.

6. Kuru

As rare as it is, Kuru is one disease that is fatal. However, it is so rare that the disease is confined to an area in New Guinea, more specifically the Fore tribe that lives in the highlands. The disease came about as a result of cannibalism, which is a ritualistic practice in which the tissues of others, especially the brain, were cooked and consumed. Those affected with the disease usually become unable to eat or stand, and then about 6-12 months later die in a comatose state. It is said that about 1,100 people died from Kuru during the 1950s and 60s. Because of government intervention and a wide-spread effort to end cannibalism, Kuru has now mostly disappeared.

5. Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva1 (FOP)

Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) is a rare genetic disease that affects the connective tissue. The disease is said to only affect 1 in 2 million people. Around the world there have been 700 confirmed cases of the disease, 285 of those being in the U.S. FOP is classified when the body causes fibrous tissue, such as ligament, muscle, and tendons, to become ossified, or to change into bone when damaged. This means that a fall can cause bone to grow within the muscles and tendons throughout the body. FOP stands as the only disease known that causes one type of organ system to turn into an entirely different one. At birth, the classic symptom of the disease is a malformation of the big toe. There is no known treatment for FOP, as surgery to get rid of the bone, seems to cause the body to produce even more.

4. Fields’ disease

Fields’ disease is said to be the rarest disease in the world. It is named after two twins, Catherine and Kirstie Fields from Wales. The disease doesn’t have a medical name, but doctors have been able to call it a neuromuscular disease. The muscles within the body slowly deteriorate, which limits movements. The girls’ disease has been studied by doctors from all over. Because the disease is so rare and unknown, doctors aren’t sure what will happen next. The disease has since limited the lives of the girls, binding them to wheelchairs and making a simple task such as writing, hard.

3. Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria

Usually known as just Progeria, this condition is one that only affects one in about 8 million children born. Most born with the condition only live to be about 13, while others have been able to live into their early twenties. Progeria is a genetic condition that occurs due to a new mutation characterized by the dramatic, rapid appearance of aging beginning in childhood. In most cases, the disease is not inherited, though there has been a case of a similar condition where the parents carry the protein genetically and then pass it on to their children. There is no cure for Progeria, though doctors have tried growth hormone treatment as well as anticancer drugs. Usually doctors try to focus on reducing complications of the disease.

2. Polio

First known and recognized in 1840, polio is a disease that is spread from person to person, or through the means of contaminated food or water. Most cases of polio exhibit no symptoms, unless the disease is introduced through the blood stream. In most cases, polio causes paralysis and muscle weakness. Though a widely spread disease during the early 90’s, polio has since became eradicated in 36 countries. In 2002 Europe stated that it has no seen a case of polio since the poliovirus vaccine. Only four countries in the world as of 2006 still consider polio to be an endemic.

1. Smallpox

We’ve all heard about smallpox, probably more so about the vaccine itself, which today is rarely used unless there is a high-risk of the disease. It is said that smallpox may have been around in as early as 10,000BC. Smallpox is characterized by a high fever, fatigue, and a rash with flat red sores that can eventually cover the entire body. Many believe that smallpox was one of the deadliest diseases, killing around 300-500 million in the 20th century, in 400,000 each year throughout the 18th century. However, due to immunization worldwide, the last reported case of smallpox was in 1977. Because of this, the disease is said to be extremely rare. Today, the threat of smallpox still exists, but in the form of bioterrorism.

10 Life Threatening Diseases Caused by Over the Counter Products

You’ve probably never given a second thought to going to your local pharmacy and picking up some cough drops or cold medicine over the counter, assuming it’s all safe. You’d probably never even imagine some of these products could cause serious, debilitating diseases that could potentially kill you. Unfortunately, some unlucky people have had to find out this fact the hard way.

10. Methemoglobinemia

Many mothers have had to deal with their baby going through their teething period where the milk teeth sprout out from the baby’s gums. Some babies go through pain and discomfort during this period, and many over the counter gels are available to deal with this. A lot of these gels contain benzocaine, a topical pain reliever, effective in easing pain. This drug has, however, been connected to a life threatening disease called Methemoglobinemia.

Methemoglobinemia is a dangerous disorder causing higher levels of methemoglobin, a chemical variant of hemoglobin, which is the compound present in red blood cells that transports oxygen throughout the body. Methemoglobin has a lower capacity to bind to and transport oxygen throughout the body to the necessary organs. It’s present in the blood cells, but is kept at low concentrations by healthy bodily regulations. However, oxidizing compounds like benzocaine drastically increase methemoglobin concentrations in the blood. This condition can cause dizziness, headaches, fatigue, and loss of consciousness, but in many cases can lead to serious complications, like cyanosis (blue coloration of skin; mainly in newborns), heart disease, coma, and even death due to low oxygen levels in the blood. 

 The FDA has thus advised that it not be used for children under two years of age.

9. Angiosarcoma

Have you ever noticed that new plastic smell you get from a new backpack, or from that bottle of hand lotion or shampoo? That’s the smell of vinyl chloride, a fairly sweet residual smell from the polyvinylchloride (PVC) compound used to make a variety of plastics and textiles. It’s a widely used precursor in the manufacturing industry. However, in great enough concentrations, it is extremely dangerous. The human liver is particularly vulnerable to the toxin, as it can trigger a rare but malignant form of liver cancer called an angiosarcoma, which affects the lining of blood vessels. This cancer is usually detected at the advanced stages, where irreversible damage has been done to major organs, as most patients of the disease die within two years of detection.

This was the fate of several workers in Kentucky in the 1960s and 1970s who worked in a factory handling vinyl chloride and were directly exposed to dangerous concentrations. However, even as safety standards have improved, there are still concerns over the long term levels of exposure of the average person, given its abundance in plastic goods sold worldwide. However, the main concern is the leeching of vinyl chloride from waste plastic to the water supply, as it is highly soluble and can deliver potentially dangerous levels of contamination. The recommended highest levels of vinyl chloride sanctioned by the United States Environmental Protection Agency is two parts per billion.

8. Ovarian Cancer

In 2013, Deane Berg filed a lawsuit against the pharmaceutical conglomerate Johnson & Johnson. She had been previously diagnosed with stage III ovarian cancer in 2006 at age 49. The cause of her condition: she claimed to have gotten cancer from long term use of talcum powder in the Johnson & Johnson brand Shower to Shower, which she would routinely apply to her vaginal area to keep it fresh. Her claims are not unique. In fact, she referred to medical journals, including the first study done in the 1980s, up to a journal by theInternational Journal of Cancer in 1999, which linked long term usage of talcum powder by women on the vaginal area to the development of ovarian cancer.

Added to that, according to the Cancer Prevention Coalition, these claims were brought to both the FDA and Johnson & Johnson to request a requirement for warning labels on talc bottles, which was refused due to lack of evidence. Berg claimed that despite this abundance of evidence on the risks associated with talcum powder, Johnson & Johnson failed to provide warnings. In a slightly confusing judgement, no damages were awarded to her. However, the judge did find that Johnson & Johnson were negligent in providing sufficient warnings to the public on the link between talcum powder and ovarian cancer. Basically, Johnson & Johnson were wrong, but they don’t have to pay for it.

7. Heart Disease

A study done by the U.S. National Library of Medicine in 2003 noted a significant link between prolonged usage of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and heart disease, noting an increased incidence of heart attacks among persons taking this medication. This was still at a time when the rate of heart disease cases were steadily increasing. The FDA has recently attested to this in their regular consumer report. Up to 2009, heart disease was the main causes of death among American men and women. Even after knowing this, you might wonder, “What does all that have to do with me?”

Well, what a lot of people don’t realize is that NSAIDs are more common than you’d think. NSAIDs are used to reduce the symptoms of fevers, pain, and inflammation from illnesses from the common cold to advanced cancers. It’s present in a host of over the counter medication, such as Advil, Ibuprofen, Diclofenac, Naproxen, and Aspirin, to name a few. So before you guzzle down all those tablets when you start to get the sniffles, don’t innocently assume you only get heart attacks from eating too much fatty foods and at least heed the evidence out there.

6. Meningitis

You ever get that itchy feeling in your ears, or maybe some earwax buildup, so you go pick up some cotton swabs from the pharmacy to deal with it? You’d probably never consider that this could set you up for a severe case of meningitis, right? Well that’s exactly the fatal lesson Daniel St. Pierre of Montreal had to find out. While using cotton swabs to deal with a painful earache, he accidentally punctured his eardrum. This lead to a severe infection in the eardrum, culminating in his eventual death in March 2007 from meningitis-induced cranial complications, according to the coroner who examined his corpse.

Meningitis is a deadly disease caused by bacterial or viral infections (in minor cases, drug allergies), usually through the ear canal. It involves the acute inflammation of the meninges, a protective layer of tissue surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Initial symptoms range anywhere from headaches, fever, or dizziness, to more serious conditions such as blood clotting, gangrene, seizures, brain swelling, and finally death. Due to the dangers of bacterial infection and meningitis contraction from using cotton swabs incorrectly, it is recommended to not use these cotton swabs to clean the inner region of your ears. We mean, excess earwax or bacterial meningitis, take your pick. Fun times, either way.

5. Aflatoxicosis

Sometimes you feel a little “snacky” and happen to pass by a little convenience store or pharmacy, and pick up a pack of peanuts or pistachios to munch on without a second thought. But did you know that you may be consuming dangerous levels of aflatoxins, which can cause serious complications with both short and long term levels of exposure? Aflatoxins are a group of mycotoxins produced by Aspergillus species, which is a type of fungus which usually lives in damp soils but is known to colonize in large storages of nuts, corn, and other cereal foods.

The aflatoxins they produce can cause aflatoxicosis in sufficient concentrations. This can lead to serious conditions, such as liver cirrhosis and cancer, internal bleeding, coma, and even death. The most concerning fact about these aflatoxins is how common they are in consumer goods. Nut products from Malaysia and China have been demonstrated as recently as 2011 to contain dangerous levels of aflatoxins, far exceeding the FDA recommended limit of 20 parts per billion. When you consider that a lot of manufactured goods from China and other Asian countries are sold in the U.S., it’s important to know exactly what you’re eating, especially if it can kill you.

4. Stevens-Johnson syndrome

This rare but horrible skin disease, affecting only 1-in-10,000 people, causes black blotches to form on the skin due to massive cell necrosis. In fact, this actually leads to the epidermis of the skin separating from the dermis. Imagine the top part of your skin being ripped off from your body; this is exactly what patients of Stevens-Johnson syndrome have had to endure. It is thought to be caused by hypersensitive reactions in the body affecting the skin and mucous membranes. The most common triggers of this disease include prescription drugs, but over the counter drugs such as Ibuprofen and sulfonamides (found in medicated soaps) have been named as causes.

A landmark lawsuit in Massachusetts demonstrated the potential risks associated with these over the counter drugs, as the parents of Samantha Reckis filed a lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson in 2003. They claimed that their child contracted Stevens-Johnson syndrome from taking Children’s Motrin (Ibuprofen), and subsequently lost 95% of her skin and even became blind. The judge in that case awarded in favor of Reckis for the enormous sum of $63 million, one of the largest awards of its kind. The decision was recently upheld on appeal this year.

3. Reye’s Syndrome

When that terrible headache comes on, you usually reach for some Aspirin to make it all go away. But did you know that Aspirin has been associated with a disease that causes brain and liver swelling? Not exactly a good trade off, if you ask us. Reye’s syndrome is a rare but serious disease causing encephalopathy (swelling of brain) and hepatopathy (swelling of liver), causing life threatening damage to these major organs. This illness is most prevalent in children or teenagers shortly after recovering from a flu or any other viral illnesses, such as chickenpox.

Although the exact cause is still unknown, epidemiological studies have strongly linked consumption of Aspirin to onset of the disease, so much so that the FDA had ordered warning labels to be printed on Aspirin bottles to display the risk of Reye’s disease to children in the 1980s. Currently, the CDC and FDA advise parents not to give Aspirin to children under 19 with any fevers caused by illnesses. The incidence for Reye’s syndrome is quite rare with adults, so most likely popping that pill to curb that splitting headache isn’t going to give you permanent brain damage, but it’s always good to be aware.

2. Liver Disease

Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical company (yep, them again) has been the subject of numerous lawsuits over its popular pain relieving medication Tylenol. Alleged victims have claimed that they’ve sustained serious liver damage from usage of the product and the company has failed to perform due diligence in informing the customers of the risks. The active ingredient in Tylenol is acetaminophen (paracetamol), a mild analgesic (pain reliever) and antipyretic (fever reducer) sold over the counter to relieve symptoms of headaches, fevers, and various forms of back and joint pain.

However, as noted by the Food and Drug Administration, any small overdose in acetaminophen consumption can cause serious liver damage, leading to symptoms ranging from jaundice to complete liver failure, requiring a liver transplant. Overdoses can easily occur, as the average person may be taking multiple medications and be unaware that each contains acetaminophen. The FDA recommends a dosage of no more than 325mg of acetaminophen be administered to the patient.

1. Toxic Shock Syndrome

One morning, 24 year old Lauren Wasser woke up feeling a bit off, with what she thought was the flu. She was also on her period, so she got up and went to the local pharmacy to pick up some tampons. After she went to a birthday party, she went back home and went to sleep. The next morning, she woke up to the sound of a police officer, who her mom sent to check on her. He asked if she wanted an ambulance, to which she responded that she just wanted some sleep and she would call her mom in the morning. The next morning, the mom sent a friend with the police to find Lauren unconscious on the bedroom floor, a few moments from death. She was rushed to the hospital with a 107 degree fever. The doctors, confused about the symptoms, asked if she had a tampon in. It so happened that she did; later tests on the tampon showed that it was positive for toxic shock syndrome.

Toxic shock syndrome is a rare disease caused by Staphylococci colonies releasing toxins inside the body. The gel matrix of the over the counter tampons make it an ideal environment for bacterial growth. The worst part is that this information has been known for decades, with tampon companies such as Kotex issuing warning labels for the products with the risks of TSS associated with tampon use. So ladies, be mindful of the risks with these feminine hygiene products and keep yourselves safe.

10 Unusual Things You Should Do Regularly to Improve Your Life

We all know the drill about self-improvement: drink water, eat better, exercise more, think positive, blah blah blah. Well, in between such Hallmark insider tips, there are a lot more practical, actionable ways you can bring yourself closer to your ideal life, and they aren’t the same, tired old advice you’ve seen on a thousand cat posters and infomercials.

Thanks to the twin wonders of academic research and modern science, we can confidently endorse the following ten counter-intuitive habits that you can start today to make yourself a better you–and not one of them involves dieting or physical exertion…unless you want them to.

10. Smell More Smells

Eyes may be the windows to the soul, but noses are a shortcut to the brain.

Aromatherapy isn’t just some New Age-y gimmick involving candles and patchouli incense. For one thing, even though humans typically rely on sight more for day-to-day activities, smell is the sense most closely tied to memory–the parts of the brain associated with both complex emotion as well as long-term storage are activated when you sniff things. That means following your nose is not only a solid way to help ensure recollection when you are trying to form new memories, it can also be used to recall old memories, even ones you’ve suppressed or neglected for years.

This last bit has become an increasingly popular technique among the shrink community; Freud can keep his talk therapy, because the union psychological treatment and aromatherapy has helped patients cope with everything from PTSD and anxiety to depression, insomnia, and run of the mill stress. The power of these alternative interventions are such that some doctors consider them a viable alternative to pharmaceutical-grade treatments.

You can practice developing your sense of smell through concentrated sniffing exercises–focus on mindful eating with an emphasis on smell; condition your ability to perceive and distinguish smells by managing expectation and associating words or other sensory descriptors with odor. This is what sommeliers do, by the way: if you’ve ever watched or read about some wino savant identifying obscure “notes” in a wine by sniffing it, it isn’t BS (well, sometimes it is). It’s just the result of exercise and memory association.So whether you are looking to wean yourself off Ritalin or other study drugs, or trying to postpone the onset of dementia, taking a daily whiff could be for your mind what spinach is for Popeye’s stamina.

9. Cold Showers

Although First World conditioning may have you rebelling at the notion of deliberately doing anything uncomfortable, this one is a simple trick with a cascade of benefits. A cold shower is more bracing than a cup of coffee; as an addition to your morning routine, the shock of cold water can jump-start your body with a quick surge of oxygen (you’ll likely be gasping–but in a good way), dilating your arteries and giving all your internal organs a nice howdy-do, inside-out.

Even if you’re not a morning (shower) person, you still stand to gain all sorts of immune system benefits by cranking the dial to cold when you bathe. Athletes report better endurance and post-workout recovery; your system will filter out uric acid, staving off problems like kidney disease, hypertension, obesity, liver disease–pretty much all the top preventable killers of Americans. It can even promote antioxidant activity, without the need for caloric intake (so much for justifying your daily glass of wine and chocolate bar).

Jumping the turnstile from physical to mental, you’ll find that the body’s hormonal avalanche in cold water can also counteract stress as well as depression. The Russians figured this one out centuries ago, by the way: the ancient tradition known as mztitoz (“ice bath”) was originally viewed as a purification ritual for body and mind. Science has caught up with religion, it seems, and vindicated those crazy Ruskies.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that in addition to all these internal effects, washing with cold water (or even lukewarm) is better for your skin, especially the sensitive skin on your face. Hot water is practically abrasive in the way it removes natural oils, drying it out and leaving it prone before the elements. Cold water is more gentle, and can actually help tighten your skin naturally, keeping it looking younger, longer. You can bet if we ever find the Fountain of Youth, it will be churning out liquid ice.

8. Deny Yourself Pleasures

“But wait,” you might be thinking, “I was promised no dieting. This sounds suspiciously like dieting!”

The difference here is that it isn’t merely a question of whether you indulge yourself, but of how quickly you go from wanting something to letting yourself have it.

It doesn’t particularly matter whether you are craving food, drink, or some other nonconsumable; the important thing is that before you cut loose, you take some time to pause, consider your options, and maybe even find something else to do before you go ahead and satisfy that impulse.

This is the essence of delayed gratification, and it works wonders for helping people to reset their minds and bodies for better overall health and happiness. From addictions like smoking and overeating, to problematic habits like procrastination, there seems to be an underlying symptom: when you immediately act on the impulse to do something you want to do (but shouldn’t), you build and reinforce neural pathways that associate that behavior with reward and pleasure. You literally train your brain, just like a pet dog, to associate happiness with instant gratification. This is why drug addicts can logically know they are poisoning themselves and ruining their lives, yet still give in to the drive to use. The behavior goes deeper than conscious thought. It isn’t a choice any more, because the brain has rebuilt itself around an obsession with instant gratification.

By simply putting off that cigarette for a little longer, or distracting yourself with another activity before buckling in for a Netflix binge, you help interrupt the stimulus-reward connection in your brain that makes you do these things that you maybe shouldn’t be doing. Even if you aren’t a full-blown addict, conditioning yourself to expect pleasure to be withheld, rather than instantaneous, can help you align expectations in a way that makes it more probable they will be met–which may be the key to happiness itself.

At least, it may be the key to manage disappointment and adhere to goals. One of the chief reasons places like Sweden or Denmark consistently rank as the world’s “happiest” nations: people there aren’t profoundly happier, they just mitigate their expectations to avoid disappointment. When you stop expecting great things to occur instantaneously, you can teach yourself to be more patient, resilient, and focused. Treats really do become treats when they aren’t guaranteed.

7. Think Out Loud

This is more than a Stuart Smalley-esque daily affirmation or an early warning sign of insanity.

Talking to yourself, done correctly, has a similar effect to reading something out loud: it makes you write, and think, more clearly.

Reading internally (that is, silently) enables your brain to skip over errors, make leaps of logic, and generally do the editing mentally that should have been done practically. The same goes for thinking even when there is no script: silence permits sloppiness.

Externalizing your thoughts or even narrating activities forces you to organize them differently than if you perform a task silently or without thinking. It makes thoughts overt actions, engaging more of the brain and making you neurologically more engaged with what your body is doing. Thinking out loud can help you focus on a methodical task, and avoid skipping steps. As a concentration aid, it can also support better memory function. Even if what you are doing is studying or trying to memorize something, that verbalization brain booster can help trigger memory formation more effectively and create a stronger neural net around whatever you want to remember.

Before you discount this as too strange-looking a behavior to adopt, consider how you talk around other people. As social animals, communication is one of the lead ways humans interact, cooperate, and learn. It turns out, though, that upwards of 60 percent of that communication is just people talking about themselves, and evidence suggests that it doesn’t particularly matter to any given speaker whether anyone is listening. In effect, even in groups, people are generally still just talking to, and about, themselves. And that is a good thing. It activates the pleasure centers in the brain, helps generate creative thought, supports learning, and builds new memories.

Duplicating this behavior alone essentially allows you to enjoy the benefits of socialization even when other people aren’t around. The result is greater productivity, improved mental acuity, and even self-actualization–the more positive your self-talk, the more positive your internal dialogue becomes, and the more likely you are to fulfill this self-image. Stuart Smalley isn’t actually that far off after all.

6. Have Fewer (or no) Children

Now you might be thinking: this list is supposed to be things I can do regularly. Isn’t not procreating sort of a life decision?

Yes, but actively procreating is also a life decision that gets made in a rather compact timeframe, so opting not to do that becomes a recurring decision. It’s like a daily affirmation that keeps your loins from repeatedly fruiting.

The benefits of opting for a smaller family aren’t just economic, although it is hard to argue with the basic math: parents will spend nearly $300,000 to raise each child. Surprisingly, this number climbs to nearly $400,000 for higher income households. Mo’ money, mo’ childcare expenses, it would seem. And despite efforts to be thrifty and reuse cribs or hand-me-down wardrobes, generally those numbers are pretty static regardless of how many children a family has.

But parents pay for children with more than cash: research indicates that parents overstate their happiness as a coping mechanism to make the costs of their children seem worthwhile. Since society is more urban and technological and less rural and agricultural, the economic value of having more children has been overwhelmed by the costs of raising them, so parents make up the difference with mental gymnastics. Think Kevin Bacon in Animal House: the words just don’t quite match the sentiment.

Going childfree is also a way to fight prejudice. No, really. Culturally, there is a prolific prejudice against people–especially women–who aren’t interested in parenthood. Namely, that it is selfish to not have children. Women, in particular, are labeled this way when they opt to focus on personal development, their careers, or anything else that has historically been disrupted by maternity.

But for both children and parents, the evidence shows that less is more, and that emotional balance as well as work-life balance is better overall for smaller families than those that have many children. The weight of nuclear relationships on identity-formation, overcoming poverty cycles, personal, professional, psychological, and social development is all aided by smaller family size.Considering the ongoing spike in suicide rates across all ages (but also especially women) around the world, and the pervasive stigma and neglect surrounding mental health issues in virtually all cultures, foregoing parenthood in favor of emotional development is at least as important to the greater population as a keeping the fertility rate on pace to sustain humanity.

5. Limit Your Choices

The best choice you can make is to make fewer choices. No, that isn’t a paradox. Particularly in the developed world, people are suffering from the tyranny of choice, also known as decision fatigue, because the stress involved in distinguishing among all options can actually make people feel ill. Nowhere is this more visible than in the supermarket. From chocolate bars to cereal, canned soup to sliced cheese; even the most mundane activities are permeated with countless choices.

It doesn’t particularly matter how high the stakes are for any given choice. It is natural to want to make good decisions, so every time alternatives arise, people tend to divert mental and emotional energy into holding the scales of justice and trying to exercise good judgment. In this case, practice does not make perfect. People’s capacity to navigate the labyrinth of options actually diminishes in the face of repetition.

The larger the number of options passed over in any given decision, the greater the dissatisfaction that decision will likely create. It is a destructive cycle: more choices, more stress, less decision-making skill, more struggling to make choices, more stress, and so on. Did we mention more stress? And with the Internet making people painfully aware of their full array of options, and enabling detailed research into every one, it can seem like it takes an expert to make a decision about absolutely anything.

Combatting decision fatigue begins by paying less attention to opportunity cost. That means, basically, that you practice ignoring the options you don’t elect, and focus on making the most of what you do choose. Yes, you could have gotten BBQ potato chips, but why not just try and enjoy your Sour Cream and Onion? Another popular trick is to simply limit the options you are allowed to consider. Rather than looking at every brand, you limit yourself to three. Instead of trying to find every flavor, you just decide between three. Rather than watching every Star Wars movie, you choose your favorite from between the original three.

Not only does artificially limiting the options you consider improve decision making, it can actually help you develop better willpower to resist the temptation of choices you logically know you shouldn’t make, but tend to indulge anyway. Making choices deliberately, and without worrying about the alternatives, cannot only make you generally happier, it can help you make better decisions, faster.

4. Train a Pet (or Child, or Old Person)

Children are instinctively curious little sponges of neuroplasticity. They come into the world knowing next to nothing, and immediately set to change that, with or without your help. With your help, though, that learning becomes mutual, rather than one-way. But this entry isn’t about teaching children–partly because that is an actual profession, and partly because children grow up and stop being children.

Pets, on the other hand–even the smartest birds–tend to stay on the intellectual level of a human child (or even exceed that benchmark). That means on top of being social, eager to please, and providing exceptional companionship, pets can help you stay on top of your own mental acuity.

From Jean-Pol Martin to Montessori, the research into education shows that teaching is the best way to learn. So even without committing to a career in kindergarten, you can take advantage of the science of cognitive development by training your pets. Along with dogs and cats, social animals like rats and birds (especially parrots) are eminently trainable, and can learn to do everything from coming when called to using a paintbrush.

If that sounds a bit farcical, remember: teaching these sorts of behaviors isn’t so much about the practicality of the tricks themselves, as the mutual benefits of going through the learning process together. Continual learning–especially in old age–can help stave off depression, improve self-image, make learners more social (and better at making/keeping friends), and even mitigate the effects of dementia. Having pets can be just as beneficial for children as well: owning and being responsible for an animal can help teach kids empathy, patience, and personal responsibility.

For those who simply cannot abide fur and feathers or sticky fingers, learning by teaching can still be attained through regular visits to the local old folks’ home.

While the elderly don’t truly revert to childhood, they can take on a similar fascination with the world, albeit without the same neuroplasticity that enables them to actually “learn” as children do. More than that, aging can take a toll on an individual’s sense of worth and ability to contribute economically. That can manifest as depression, or as a thirst for new knowledge, skills, and opportunities to perform useful work.

Since the overwhelming proportion of education spending goes to the under-25 crowd, that leaves the elderly as a ripe community for volunteer teachers. They aren’t pets, but they can still facilitate the learning-by-teaching process, as well as training their elderly peers on the skills they learn from younger folks.

3. Remember Your Mistakes

People like to use phrases like, “Hey, nobody is perfect,” or “I’m only human,” to excuse themselves in the aftermath of a screw-up. But keeping these truisms in mind can actually have a much more powerful influence than facile self-defense.

It is a popular pastime for humans to judge each other’s choices and behavior as a way to divert attention from their own misdeeds and shortcomings. If they would do the reverse, however, they wouldn’t just make themselves feel better, but would actually behave more ethically.

Thinking about your own previous misdeeds, moral lapses, and other comprises of integrity can help make you less likely to excuse your own future bad behavior. That’s according to research into what enables people to rationalize everything from selfish choices to petty crimes. The selfish tendencies of the human mind–along with a focus on gratification, rather than longer-term consequences–can lead to all sorts of hijinks that don’t reflect so well on one’s character.

Ideally, everyone’s behavior would be kept in check by thinking about the outcomes, but it turns out that it is much more effective to think back, rather than predict forward. Some combination of personal guilt and a reduced focus on the rewards for selfishness helps people resist temptation in situations where they’ve spent some time reflecting ahead of time. It doesn’t matter how closely the circumstances resemble one another. The important thing is to literally dwell on what you’ve done wrong.

Besides giving slight boost to your ethical impulses, this is also a handy way to bolster willpower. Much crime tends to be a response to opportunity, rather than premeditated. Same goes for people breaking their New Year Resolutions or having one too many drinks. Taking a pause from your day to remember that you are only human after all will help you a lot more than stating as much after you’ve already erred.

2. Talk About Death

There are few subjects more universally taboo than death. That goes double for when someone is at risk of dying, or already on his or her way out. Trouble is, that is exactly when a little chitchat about mortality is most important.

Even the entire field of medicine is basically designed to postpone death, people rarely broach the subject with their doctors–which means very few people ever put together advanced directives to guide the care they receive should they become unable to give (or withhold) consent later on. It isn’t a one-way failure, either. Doctors often don’t like to name their primary antagonist out of some combination of discretion and superstition. This can make things very difficult for their patients, and their patients’ families, when there are no more treatments left to try. The trauma is great for everyone in this situation, yet they may all be unwilling or unable to start the one conversation that could help them all cope.

Rather than having meaningful conversations about mortality, most people tend to relegate death to pop-culture status, right alongside evil twins and wizardly father figures in the litany of plot devices that exist simply to advance the story.

Yet discussing death can be beneficial for more than those facing end-of-life care or the loss of someone close–although those reasons alone should be incentive enough, since literally everyone will be in that situation eventually.

Speaking frankly about death can help ingrain healthier, more realistic perspectives on life that support better decision-making, a more positive outlook, stronger relationships, and an overall acceptance of the things in life that aren’t in your control. And just having the odd, one-off death discussion won’t cut it: in limited contexts, confronting something terrifying like death makes people much more reactionary, tribal, and less compassionate toward anyone or anything they don’t easily and instinctively relate to.

Basically, you can live in denial, become a jerk, or start looking at death as natural, inevitable, and manageable. When death is a consideration in decisions like healthcare or financial planning, people tend to find these subjects to be less stressful and easier to manage than those hiding from the grim reaper. Coping with the leading stressors of life more effectively correlates pretty well with overall happiness, which makes a daily dose of mortal musings a healthy habit for body and mind.

1. Plant a Tree

There is a good chance that any tree you plant will last longer than you do. Depending on the type of tree you plant, you may not even live to see it grow taller than you, or hold up that tire swing you’ve always wanted.

More than almost any other seed, vegetable, or flower, planting a tree is an act of faith–one that doesn’t require you to align yourself with any particular religion, or even live a particularly spiritual life. You put your faith in the tree to grow up strong, in the environment to nurture that tree and protect it over its life, in your community to value it and let it grow, and in society at large not to chop it down or otherwise destroy it. You put your faith in something tiny to grow into something larger, in the invisible processes of photosynthesis and respiration to clean the air and turn sunlight into organic matter.

Trees take longer to mature than most animal life on earth, and can certainly outlast the average mammal by a long shot. All the many benefits of trees–shade, absorbing carbon, making oxygen, housing animal life, as well as adding value to property and beautifying communities–aggregate over the many years they stand, and can be enjoyed by many generations beyond your own.

That’s a pretty powerful cascade of effects, especially considering that people–humans–are pretty selfish. You don’t have to be a misanthrope or a climate scientist to see it: self-interest is in our genes, and human cognition is constantly preoccupied with balancing the merits of altruism and selfish behavior to survive. But prosocial activities–from sharing to community building–have proven to have extraordinary benefits to the people who engage in them.

Planting a tree can be the ultimate act of generosity, precisely because you are unlikely to live long enough to be the main beneficiary. That kind of puts your own life and mortality into perspective, which means thinking about the tree (or trees) you plant can be a way of facing and coping with death. Trees can be a legacy that outlasts your own wealth, art, or family. If you care about the planet, planting a tree may well be the single most important thing you can do to keep it healthy.