{"id":15990,"date":"2025-07-22T07:50:49","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T07:50:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=15990"},"modified":"2025-07-22T07:50:49","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T07:50:49","slug":"animals-are-the-original-wellness-influencers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=15990","title":{"rendered":"Animals Are the Original Wellness Influencers"},"content":{"rendered":"


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In the early<\/span> 2010s, researchers in Mexico City noticed that sparrows and finches at the national university were lacing their nests with cigarette butts. The birds would collect the butts\u2014mostly smoked\u2014carefully remove the outer paper layer, and weave fibers from the filters into their homes, among the twigs and grass.<\/p>\n

This sort of dubious yet intriguing lifestyle choice will be familiar to anyone who follows health trends. It seems weird\u2014but does it make some kind of backward sense? In this case, the birds were vindicated: The more cigarette filter fibers the nests had, the fewer parasites they harbored, probably because nicotine repels bugs. There are drawbacks, though: Chicks raised in butt nests are more likely to develop blood cell abnormalities. Again, familiar.<\/p>\n

While we may not want to follow this particular lead, animals are the original wellness influencers. \u201cHealers and shamans have looked at animals for thousands of years,\u201d says biologist Jaap de Roode, author of the recent book Doctors by Nature<\/em>. Some of these discoveries have trickled up: Osh\u00e1 root\u2014which, as indigenous Americans have long observed, bears like to chew up and rub on their fur\u2014is available in many natural medicine stores for various uses, including pain relief. Other animal wellness trends might not be quite as imitable, sadly, for our species.<\/p>\n

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