If you spend any amount of time online or watching TV, you are almost certainly exposed to the news. And if you are exposed to the news, you likely know that there is a lot of bad stuff that goes on in the world.

Political fights, wars, pandemics, natural disasters, threats of asteroids hitting Earth, low birth rates, etc. And these are just the smallest pieces of what the news would tell you is wrong in the world on a daily basis.

While many of these issues are true to one degree or another, there have always been horrible things going on in the world. For most of human history, however, people just didn’t know about most of it. Or, they only found out about it long after the issue was over.

A growing body of research is showing that people who are constantly exposed to, and especially those who are particularly obsessed with, the news actually have worse mental and even physical health.

This is likely due to the fact that watching or hearing about threatening events can trigger our natural ‘fight or flight’ areas of the brain. This can cause a spike in the hormone cortisol, which is associated with stress and can cause inflammation and other issues. The point is, our brains don’t know whether a threat is to us, or halfway around the world.

One piece of evidence about this comes from a 2016 study where researchers looked at the response people had to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. Those who consumed news that had negative wording or more sensationalist reporting experienced higher levels of distress. They also had more physical reactions to the images that they saw, even after the fact.

In 2022, Texas Tech University researchers did a study that looked at people who felt compelled to check the news frequently, likely suffer from elevated mental health issues, and even physical illnesses.

These studies do note that this does not necessarily mean that one should cut out all news entirely, as staying informed is generally important as well (though for some people, cutting out news consumption entirely may be warranted). There is a growing trend of people trying to go on news ‘diets’ or ‘fasting’ from the news to help ‘reset’ their mental health.

Additional research is undoubtedly needed in this area. Another thing that may help is turning to more fact-based and less sensational or confrontational news sources.

For many people, the almost comically simple advice of ‘go outside and touch grass’, which generally means to turn off your electronics and get outside, is likely going to be the best advice when feeling overwhelmed about the state of the world.

If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about a second giant hole has opened up on the sun’s surface. Here’s what it means.