You need some anti-bacterial mouthwash. And don’t just use it once a day. That’s half-assing it; you should be gargling thrice daily. It’s not that you have a problem with your breath; we just want you to be healthy! According to the Center for Disease Control, frequent daily use of mouthwash containing chlorhexidine (check the back label) and similar compounds could stave off swine flu. The bacteria, after all, frequently enters through and grows inside the mouth. So shut that s**t down where it lives and get unprecedentedly fresh breath as an added bonus.

When it comes to body imperfections, Cindy Crawford could care less about cellulite. It’s her mole she’s worried about. Not that the supermodel has ever been self-conscious about her signature beauty mark, but she’s concerned that it could become cancerous. She tells the Daily Mail, “It’s not something I really like to talk about. But I do now get this and all my moles checked out every year.” The mole has grown in size over the years, which is a possible sign of melanoma.

We commend Crawford for checking up on her health and being a good example to women who sometimes let their doctor’s visits lapse for longer than they should (guilty as charged). After the jump, some tips on how to keep tabs on your own spots and beauty marks. [Daily Mail]

“Style-conscious women are worse than smokers,” declares the Sydney Morning Herald. Why? We sacrifice our comfort and health for high heels and continue to buy them like addicts. (Way to stereotype.) The Herald claims that what’s worse is that we don’t even know the half of it: Not only are sexy pumps wreaking havoc on your feet, but they’re also potential culprits for infertility and schizophrenia. That’s right people—your Jimmy Choos (well, in our case, Nine West!) are silent baby killers and mind effers! Explains one expert, the wearing of high heels distorts your pelvic alignment and supposedly messes with your menstrual cycle, in turn having a negative effect on fertility. As for mental side effects, some researchers in Sweden have explained that the alignment of the feet in high heels could possibly manipulate the transmission of dopamine (the chemical that makes you happy): “After heeled shoes are introduced into a population, the first cases of schizophrenia appear and then the increase in prevalence of schizophrenia follows the increase in use of heeled shoes.”

Make you want to run away? Just don’t do it in your five-inch stilettos. [Sydney Morning Herald]

Kerry Bailey, 24, is getting married in a few months and she and her husband-to-be, Joe, are sure they don’t want kids. So Kerry is going to get sterilized before the wedding. Kerry is very career-oriented and the thought of having kids has always made her feel sick. She loves to travel and doesn’t want to worry about getting pregnant in some remote part of the world. But, wait, can we talk about this for a second?

• Doctors are working on a new drug for women who suffer painful menstrual cramps, also called dysmenorrhea. The drug is named VA111913, manufactured by a British company, and it’s being tested on 128 women who say awful cramps interfere with their daily lives. [NY Daily News]
• A woman who was raped 24 years ago, before the advent of DNA testing, is fighting a backlog on “rape kits,” in which DNA information is collected to identify the attacker. Lavinia Masters’ rape kit was finally opened in 2005, two full decades after her assault occurred, and the DNA in it matched up with a man who was already serving time in prison for other rapes. [CNN]
• An Arizona mother of three will give birth to her fourth child 300 miles away at a hospital in Phoenix. Why? The closest hospital to her home refuses to assist with a vaginal birth after a woman has had a C-section (called a VBAC). [CNN]

Let’s get one thing straight: I am not an “exercise person.” In fact, if I was dating some smart, hilarious, darling and hot dude who was otherwise perfect but had a penchant for enthusing about his early morning gym regimen, I probably wouldn’t call him again. Overtly healthy people annoy me, maybe because they have an irksome way of making me feel guilty that my favorite leisure activities involve a glass of wine and a Parliament Light. OK, OK, I wasn’t always exactly a lazy slouch: I was a serious ballet dancer until the age of 18, and I ran and practiced some yoga in college. But since moving to New York almost a decade ago, let’s just say my workout history can best be summed up as “slightly cloudy with a chance of pizza.”

So how the hell did I become the kind of person who is highly optimistic about doing one of those disturbing-sounding hot yoga for 30 days challenges?

Pipeline has an excellent round-up of the craziest shoes seen on the catwalks this season. We’ve profiled several here previously, including Alexander McQueen’s 10-inch armadillos and Prada’s plastic Cinderella slippers. Also featured are the Marc Jacobs furry flats (ugh), the Givenchy zebra-striped platforms (wild), and the Galliano stacked-balls heels (love, on right). The other day, NYTimes.com asked several fashion and foot “experts” a simple question: Why do women love shoes that hurt them? Because they’re so friggin’ awesome. [Pipeline]

Ah, Double X. Welcome to the world of “alternative motherhood.” This week, Marie Myung-Ok Lee delivers an update on why she gives her nine-year-old son pot. Yes, nine. Yes, pot. Why? Well, he’s autistic and allergic. According to her, the marijuana helps him function. The pot is delivered daily by way of cannabis tea and pot cookies. (Oh, a tea party! How fun!) Four months since the start of this “experiment” in getting her kid stoned, Lee’s son, whom she refers to as “Cannabis J.,” has stopped eating his clothes and is significantly less prone to acting out aggressively in school; although, she says, his autism has “become more distinct.” Her conclusion?

“I don’t consider marijuana a miracle cure for autism. But as an amateur herbalist, I do consider it a wonderful, safe botanical that allows J. to participate more fully in life without the dangers and sometimes permanent side effects of pharmaceutical drugs; now that we have a good dose and a good strain.”

Great, I think, reading those words. Congrats on finding a good “dose” for your son. On the other hand, pot is ... natural. What do you think? Mothers Gone Wild or Mother Nature’s Treatment? [Double X]

Julia Grovenburg of Arkansas is giving the woman with two vaginas a run for her money in the race for Medical Anomaly of the Year. She was already pregnant when she went for a sonogram and—surprise!—the doc discovered that a second, younger, baby was in there as well. In other words, she’s carrying two babies that aren’t twins—they were conceived three weeks apart. This phenomenon is called “superfetation” and it’s very rare. Pretty freaky, no? [Lemondrop]

Holla, Barack Obama! If you’ve got lefty pride, wave your south paw in the air! Seriously, I am one proud lefty. Since I was little, I always thought of being left-handed as something that made me unique and special. I love that look of unwarranted admiration I receive when someone first discovers I’m a lefty. “Oh! I didn’t know you were left-handed,” they’ll say. “Yup! Born that way,” I reply smugly. Sure … sitting at dinner tables is a complex process and don’t even get me started about the blatant disrespect in regards to the lack of scissors, notebooks, and school desks for our kind. Thankfully, the days of lefties being freaks are over. In fact, it seems like scientists are obsessed with finding out more about us proud few—they’re constantly doing studies to find out what makes us so freaking cool. After the jump, some things studies have shown about south paws.

Our friends at Rethink Breast Cancer are always trying to think of new, creative ways to get young women involved in breast cancer prevention, treatment, and activism. Hence this new “Save the Boobs” public service announcement that’s making its way across the web. How glad are you that they picked a woman with real boobs for this? I swear, people (ahem, men) are starting to forget what they look like. Oh, and that BoobyBall thing they mention at the end? That’s Rethink’s annual fundraiser, which has raised half a million dollars since it started in 2002. This year, it’ll be held on a cruiseship on October 2nd. If you’re in Toronto, get tickets here. If you’re not, maybe you have a great idea that could qualify you for a Booby Innovation Grant. They give out up to $60K for innovative breast cancer-related projects. [Rethink]

Plastic surgeons have reached a truly DIY medical breakthrough in Britain: cutting fat from a woman’s thighs and tummy and pasting it on her titties. Ladies who allow surgeons to play Mrs. Potato Head with their breasts can potentially shoot up three cup sizes. The “two-in-one op,” as it’s being called, will be widely available in Britain next year for around $13,000 and is currently being tested in the U.S.

It’s true that these so-called “natural breast enlargements” don’t involve the dodgy silicone used in most boob jobs, which has been known to harden over time and feel fake. But it’s still plastic surgery, which isn’t “natural” at all! Besides, how much would it suck if the layers of fat that the doctor redistributed from your thighs turned out to be the dreaded cellulite and it made your tits all wrinkly and pucker-y? Is that really worth a C-cup, ladies? [Times Of London]

If Tyra Banks can share with everyone on “The Tyra Show” when she got her first period—during 11th grade, at her dad’s house—so can The Frisky editors. I’ll start!

Mine came the summer after 7th grade on the second morning of sailing lessons at the local country club. (Shut up, I’m a WASP.) One the first day of obnoxiously preppy sailing class, the students had to tread water in the pool for a few minutes to prove that we wouldn’t drown if the boats capsized. But my Blair Waldorf-ian self woke up the morning of the second class with blood in my underwear! Because I’m my mom’s baby, she majorly teared-up over me getting my period—so embarrassing! So I just snatched the pads from her and hissed that I didn’t want to talk about it. Mom had no chance to teach me about tampons and I didn’t ask!

But I spent the next several days of sailing class terrified we’d have to go in the pool again, or my boat would capsize and I’d get wet, and everybody would know I was wearing a big, soggy pad. To this day, that’s pretty much all I remember about sailing lessons! I didn’t use a tampon for the first time until I was 16 (during a performance of “The Vagina Monologues” of all places). Alas, by then, my sailing days were over.

I’m not the only Frisk-ette with a slightly tragic first period story. Our tales of tampons and trauma, after the jump.

What’s this I see? Gwyneth Paltrow is taking GOOP in 3-D to a YouTube channel. Check out the video above of her making bibimbop. It’s kind of the most boring cooking show ever, no? So far, there are only two vids on the channel, but I’m sure Gwyns will post many more soon. Maybe she’ll videotape how to do a proper colonic?

Speaking of Gwyneth, we are way amused by Daily Beast writer Rebecca Dana, who studiously followed the way of the GOOP for three weeks and lived to tell the tale.

I can think of lots of momentous events I wouldn’t want human pit bull/Baby Phat designer Kimora Lee Simmons around for—and inserting a tampon in my coochie for the very first time is one of them. But on “The Tyra Show”‘s first-ever program all about periods, Tyra Banks shared how, at the ripe-old age of 26, Miss Fabulosity coached (bullied?) her on how to insert a tampon. An applicator-less tampon. There’s some mental imagery for you!

But Tyra’s period show wasn’t all about famous women pushing Tampax up their lady flowers: Tyra invited three doctors on the show to explain why Aunt Flo comes to visit.  It’s a ghastly state of affairs for sex ed if grown women are learning why they get their periods on “The Tyra Show.” Still, I learned lotsa stuff about my monthlies thanks to Ty-Ty ... like, you can still get laid if you go to bed wearing an adult diaper on your heavy flow nights. Proof of THAT above!

As a former high school teacher, I know intimately how unpredictable the behavior of a human teenager can be. I’d often bang my head against my classroom door half laughing, half crying, at the end of a long day. No age group could make me so amused, excited, and utterly frustrated all at the same time. One minute my students and I would joke and converse like adults and I would marvel at their creativity, depth, and humor. Five minutes later I’d have to confiscate 20 bags of Fire Hot Cheetos and scold them for smearing dirty fingers all over my classroom walls like three-year-olds.  In short, those dang teenagers are a mystery. But did you know that in addition to being a behavioral anomaly, teenagers are also a scientific one?

Oxytocin is sometimes called a natural love whereas oxycontin is a drug similar to morphine associated with the death of DJ AM.

Oxytocin is a hormone that plays a role in bonding, orgasms, trust, and maternal instincts. One way to activate the hormone is through love-making. Continue reading...