The National Institute of Health announced this week that Americans spend $34 billion annually on alternative medicine. That’s a whole lot of duckets we’re slamming down on echinacea, zinc drops, acupuncture, etc—all treatments that the American Medical Association doesn’t really endorse, though people swear by them. It sounds like a ton, but we wondered: how does this stack up to what we spend annually on other health, wellness, and beauty items? [ABC News] Keep reading »
The stress of going through a divorce looks like it takes a huge toll on your health. Divorced people are 20 percent more likely to have chronic health conditions like cancer and heart disease than people who’ve tied the knot and kept it tied. But if you think getting remarried is the best medicine, you’re wrong. Even those who get hitched again still have a 12 percent higher chance of getting a serious disease. Remarried folks also have mobility problems 19 percent more often when compared to those who’ve stayed married all along.
So what about the single folks? Keep reading »
Gym addicts may not be the shallow narcissists we think they are. Most people — more than 54 percent of 2,882 polled by EveryDay Health and the American Council on Fitness — said their health was the reason they exercised, not a quest for the perfect beach bod, and they’re doing it for their loved ones. More than 90 percent of the participants were women with an average age of 44. Seventy-nine percent of the total respondents said they would still work out even if there were a magic pill to maintain a trim and fit physique. Only 15 percent said they’d become inactive couch potatoes. One researcher said she felt reassured that health was more important to exercise fanatics than appearance and weight control. She also suggested that people might be unwilling to give up exercising because it’s a great stress reliever. [Reuters] Keep reading »
Potentially the greatest accident to ever happen in the food making industry: low-calorie, melt-resistant chocolate. Yes, you read that correctly: low calories AND melt free CHOCOLATE!!!! Some top-secret laboratory in Switzerland run by Barry Callebaut mistakenly produced the airy, rich, heat-stable and 90%-less-calorie-ridden chocolate and decided to run with it. The scientists’ claim it doesn’t taste like a fake—it still melts in your mouth and it has that delicious chocolate aroma. They decided to name the cocoa concoction Vulcano since it can be eaten when it’s hot and the texture is full of bubbles like molten rock. As of now, the chocolate is still in the works, but Callebaut hopes to have it on store shelves in the next two years. I wish it wasn’t such a long wait! [Daily Mail] Keep reading »
Thirty years ago, McDonald’s made one of the best marketing moves ever when it launched the Happy Meal. The kids staple with a toy inside has remained a consumer staple for three full decades. Over the years, the Happy Meal hasn’t just lured in children, but adults looking to collect toys. I for sure remember rolling up to Mickey D’s to pick up one of 100 million teenie beanie babies that were given out in 1997––the most popular toy to date. Keep reading »
Whether you’ve been out on the town, studying late, or just watching too much telly, now is a good time to start getting the recommended eight hours of sleep. Cause if you don’t, you may be hurting your heart. A new study published in the journal Sleep found that women who reported sleeping less than eight hours had high levels of Interleukin-6, which triggers inflammation and ultimately heart disease. Even those women who sleep seven hours a night are at risk. And as if women didn’t already have it harder than men in a million other ways, add this one to the list because the study didn’t find consistent results with guys. So women, instead of watching another re-run of “Scrubs” or ordering additional drinks at the bar, maybe consider getting some extra shut-eye. [BBC News] Keep reading »
A doctor in England is bursting the bubble for women who are thinking of freezing their eggs. Robert Winston calls egg freezing a “confidence trick” on women, since there is only a 6% chance of conceiving through a frozen egg. The process, originally developed for cancer patients wanting to conceive after chemotherapy treatments, has more than doubled in popularity with women hoping to wait for a few years before jumping on the baby train, so that they can get super comfortable in their career or clock a little time with Mr. Right solo before having a baby. Lord Winston warns that “social freezing” is a risky procedure and more research about freezing eggs and the long-term genetic effects of children born via frozen eggs is needed before clinics make freezing services more widely available. The European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology will discuss the eggy process in an upcoming meeting. As women pile more and more things on their plate, do you think it’s safe to save your eggs in one frozen basket? [Daily Mail] Keep reading »
Our bodies tell us a lot of things. A grumbling tummy when we’re hungry, a yawn when we need sleep, those all too familiar menstrual cramp when it’s that time of the month. But a helpful list from SELF magazine mentions some signs you may not be so familiar with that could mean trouble. Read on to find out what the shape of your pubic hair could tell you about your ovaries, and what the texture of your eyelids could say about your cholesterol. [MSNBC] Keep reading »
With all the recent swine flu hoopla, even the most hygienically-lax of us have begun giving second thoughts to our cleanliness—soaping up for at least fifteen seconds, coughing into our elbows, and using antibacterial gel every time we enter a new room. There are endless opportunities to sterilize and re-sterilize, and it seems that we intend to use all of them as often as humanly possible. We’re nothing if not clean at this point, right? Well, true for our hands, but what about one of those other appendages women use just as much—our purse? Keep reading »
In high school I read John Irving’s excellent book, The Cider House Rules, in which the protagonist, a young man named Homer, is raised in an orphanage under the care of a kindly physician, Dr. Larch, who he is shadowing and learning medicine from. Dr. Larch eventually reveals to him that he’s been performed illegal abortions all along and he’d like to teach Homer how to do the procedure, too. Homer balked at the suggestion, imagining that he could have been aborted instead of growing up happily in the orphanage. The response Dr. Larch gave him has always stuck in my mind: “You may disapprove, but you may not be ignorant or look away.”
That quote popped in my mind when I read Kate Harding’s piece on Salon.com, “Is There A Next Generation Of Abortion Providers?”, a frightening piece about how the ranks of abortion providers are thinning and pro-choicers worry they won’t be replaced. Keep reading »
entertainment
Face-Off: “Mad Men”‘s Pete Campbell & “Game Of Thrones”‘ Theon Greyjoy Are Kind Of The Same Person |
guys
Girl Talk: I Would Like To Have Guy Friends |
relationships
4 Things To Remember If You Never Hear From Them Again |
|
style
10 Beauty Hacks That Save Every Woman Time (And Money) |
|
sex
Sex Tips That Are Kinky, Not Freaky |
