Month: April 2018

Categories
Nosh Nutrition x Advice

Collagen Powder As A Dietary Supplement: Your Research-Based Guide

Sean McCaffrey, doctor of chiropractic, is an internal health specialist with post-doctoral licenses in internal and digestive health. It’s the second specialty that guides his approach to a supplement like collagen powder. After all, if you can’t digest a substance, what’s the point?
“With collagen, when you bring it in, can the body absorb it? That’s the question. And once it gets absorbed, can it be utilized and transported to where it needs to be used by the body?”
The research he’s reviewed doesn’t contain anything that’s convinced McCaffrey to recommend collagen supplements over, say, bone broth and a healthy diet.
“Everything that I’ve seen to this point, and that I’ve seen in clinic, says … hit and miss,” McCaffrey says. “More miss than hit.”     
But there is a growing body of research that points, however vaguely, toward very particular health benefits associated with collagen products. According to the PubMed timeline, interest in the health benefits of pharmaceutical collagen began in the early 1990s, when researchers began to study the effects of collagen-laced bandages for wounds (they do help).
Collagen powder, on the other hand, is a form of the protein designed to be ingested, and it doesn’t appear to have entered the medical literature until the mid-1990s. One early study found that 10 grams of collagen hydrolysate per day improved the effect of the bone-strengthening drug calcitonin in women with postmenopausal osteoporosis.
That’s terrific if large-scale follow-up studies confirm the findings—and you have postmenopausal osteoporosis and a prescription for calcitonin—but it’s a far cry from the age-defying skin improvements featured in many manufacturers’ claims. Before you buy a $50 jar of a supplement, it’s important to figure out if collagen powder is worth the expense.
But before we go any further, we need to define some terms. Let’s dig into the language that producers use for their collagen-based supplements.

What exactly is collagen? What about collagen peptides, hydrolyzed collagen, and collagen powder?

Collagen is the most common protein in the human body. It’s present in skin, bones, teeth, muscles—you name it. Collagen is made of three chains of polypeptides, or strings of conjoined amino acids, which form triple-helix patterns. Animal cells produce these triple-helices, then secrete them into the extracellular regions of the body, where they bind together into collagen fibers. These fibers are tough and flexible. In other words, they give the structures of our bodies their strength and elasticity.
You can see why it makes a kind of instinctual sense that consuming collagen could improve the skin and joints, which are partially made of the substance, after all.
But what exactly goes into our collagen supplements? These products are typically marketed under three different names: collagen peptides, hydrolyzed collagen, and collagen powder.

  • Collagen peptides are short chains of amino acids that have been “unstrung” from their triple-helix structure. Their low molecular weight makes them easy for the body to absorb according to manufacturers of collagen peptide products. 
  • Hydrolyzed collagen is just another name for collagen peptides. It refers to hydrolysis, the chemical process by which collagen helices are broken down into their constituent peptides.
  • Collagen powder is the dry, fine particulate of collagen peptides, often mixed with other ingredients such as vitamin C, flavorings, or fillers. Scientists have identified at least 16 different types of collagen, although the first three are the ones typically associated with the skin, joints, and bones. That’s why most collagen powder formulas contain some blend of collagen types I, II, and/or III.

While those in the industry might use the above terms to differentiate their products from others, they essentially describe the same thing.
“You’ll see this a lot, in the supplement industry especially,” says McCaffrey. “They’ll use a catchy phrase, catchy terms, to try and make what they’re selling you look a little bit better.” The bottom line? “It’s really the exact same thing.”
Look closely at the small print on a package of collagen powder before you buy. It’s especially important considering the different sources of collagen—which brings us to our next point. Vegans and vegetarians, pay close attention.  

What are collagen powder supplements made of?

Your approach to collagen supplements is probably going to be similar to your stance on Jell-O, gelatin, and other seemingly meat-free foods that are actually made of animal by-products. In fact, gelatin itself is largely comprised of collagen that isn’t fully processed into its component peptides.
In 2016, the International Food Research Journal published a comprehensive piece on the process of extracting collagen from animal sources. According to that research, most collagen supplements start out as the otherwise-unused bits of pigs and cows, although products derived from fish and poultry are also available.
But which unused bits are we talking about? Well, researchers point to a handful of specifics from cattle, including the membrane that surrounds the heart, inner skin layers, and bones. Manufacturers may start with pig skin and lungs. Fish-sourced collagen might come from skin, scales, cartilage, fins, and/or swim bladders. Many—but not all—producers of collagen powder list the source animal on the product label.

How do producers manufacture collagen powder supplements?

Once producers obtain their raw materials, they extract the collagen peptides through hydrolysis, or the breaking down of chemical bonds using water. This process typically starts with pretreatment in an acid or base chemical bath, along with plenty of washing in distilled water.
Depending on the source material, manufacturers then use an enzyme or chemical solution to further break down chemical bonds and separate out the collagen peptides. At that point, all that’s left is to throw the filtered liquid collagen solution into a centrifuge to remove the moisture. In the end, you’re left with pure collagen powder.
So, to reiterate: Vegetarians and vegans might want to steer clear of collagen supplements, just as they would products that contain gelatin. Plant cells don’t make collagen. (Okay, there is one exception, but it relies on some next-level genetic engineering and isn’t available as a powdered supplement as of this writing.)

Does research back any claims of health benefits from collagen powder supplements?

Let’s break down the two major proposed benefits of collagen powder, one at a time:
[sul title=”The Skin Claim” subheader=”Collagen powder can improve elasticity, hydration, and reduction of wrinkles.”]
It makes sense, right? Collagen is the stuff your cells produce to support your skin in the first place. Aging naturally reduces your body’s production of collagen—we lose about 1 percent of our collagen production per year after age 20—which is what leads to the thin, dry, wrinkled skin that we associate with aging.
Indeed, there are some preliminary studies that seem to back up the oceans of online anecdotal support for collagen powder’s efficacy as an anti-aging supplement. One double-blind, placebo-controlled study did find improved skin elasticity in women who took a daily dose of collagen peptides. But there were only 69 subjects, and the study only lasted 12 weeks. This is a great start, but it’s a long way from establishing medical consensus.
A later study in the journal Nutrients found that collagen peptides sourced from cow bone tightened up lax, aged skin—in mice. That study was from November 2017, and as any medical researcher will tell you, it takes time to move from mice to humans when studying potential drugs. This, again, places us squarely in preliminary-study land.
In short, it is certainly possible that collagen powder can improve skin health. There just hasn’t been enough research on hydrolyzed collagen peptides to convince the healthcare industry at large.
“I have not seen enough research to validate it,” says McCaffrey. “I’ve just not seen enough behind it to validate what it does.”    
[sul title=”The Joint Claim” subheader=”Collagen powder can improve joint health and ease osteoarthritis.”]
Again, the logic of this claim comes from the idea that the articular cartilage found in joints is largely composed of collagen. Why wouldn’t eating collagen give your body more collagen to use in your joints?
The answer lies in your digestive tract, says McCaffrey. When we digest proteins—including collagen, whether in a slab of fish or something in supplement form—a healthy digestive system breaks them down into amino acids, which become basic building blocks for other proteins. There doesn’t appear to be a way to encourage these fundamental amino acids to form precisely the tissue that we want in precisely the preferred part of the body.
“The body will reassemble [amino acids],” McCaffrey explains. “Think of them like Legos. If I give you a bag full of Legos, and I say, ‘Hey, build me a car,’ you and 90 other little kids are all going to build different cars. It depends on where you put the red [Legos] and the blue ones, and so on. So the body can kind of selectively choose how it wants to reassemble these things into different forms of collagen.”
Even if you can digest a collagen supplement, there doesn’t appear to be a mechanism that controls the body’s use of amino acids to rebuild tissues in specific parts of the body.
That said, preliminary studies—emphasis on the preliminary—suggest that collagen supplements may help ease activity-related joint pain in athletes, and general joint pain for people 50 and older.    
To quote the conclusion of that latter study, though, “More studies are needed to confirm the clinical interest of this food supplement.”

Are there any risks associated with consuming collagen powder?

Remember that as dietary supplements, collagen powders aren’t subject to FDA oversight. It’s up to manufacturers to ensure that their products are safe before they bring them to market.
But MedlinePlus, the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s public-facing information site, lists the risks of consuming gelatin and related compounds, such as collagen powders, as “likely safe” in smaller doses and “possibly safe” in the doses recommended by many supplement manufacturers.
Barring the possibility of allergies, which are always a concern, McCaffrey doesn’t worry too much about the safety of collagen products.
“The supplement industry as a whole is pretty cautious,” McCaffrey says. “I think they tend to put things out—especially over-the-counter-type supplements…that [are] not going to hurt you. They don’t want to get sued. So when you’re putting a product out there, you make sure it’s not strong enough to hurt anything.”
The potential problem with animal-based supplements is that, well, they come from animals. Not every fish whose fins are destined for a beauty product swims the same clean waters.
“The real issue becomes where they’re getting their sources from,” McCaffrey says.
“When you’re getting your collagen, you get a lot of it from animals, and it’s gelatinous things. It’s leftover parts for the most part. [Manufacturers] aren’t sitting there with a $2,500 organic cow going after this stuff. They’re buying whatever they can get their hands on.”
There’s no way to know what an animal has been exposed to in its life, and it could be possible for contaminants to remain even in heavily processed byproducts like collagen powder.
“How was that animal fed in its life?” says McCaffrey. “Did it have hormones? Did it have this, did it have that? You can get into cross-contamination and things like that.”

Potential Side Effects of Collagen Powder Supplements

The main thing to avoid when taking collagen supplements is an allergic reaction. How do you know if you have such an allergy? Look to the source animal. If you’re allergic to chickens or eggs, avoid collagen supplements derived from poultry. If you have fish or seafood allergies, avoid collagen powders sourced from the sea.
MedlinePlus and WebMD list other potential side effects, ranging from the mild (leaving a bad taste in your mouth) to annoying (heartburn, belching), to frankly terrifying (potential contamination with animal-borne diseases—though this one is particularly unlikely, for the record).   

So should you take collagen powder as a dietary supplement?

That’s up to you and your doctor. In general, though, McCaffrey says he suggests getting your proteins, including collagen, from whole-food sources.
“You see a lot of your collagen in the skins of things,” he says. “You’ll see it in chicken skins…You can find it in the gelatinous portions, but people don’t tend to eat the joints and knuckles and things like that. That’s where making the broth can be really helpful.”
Broth? That’s right. McCaffrey is a big fan of bone broth, which he says makes it easy to get plenty of collagen into any meat-eater’s diet. He also recommends preserving the collagen that’s already in your body and working against the natural loss of collagen that inevitably accompanies aging.
“Are there things that we can do that slow the rapid decrease [in collagen production?] McCaffrey asks. “There are. I call it the three Ss. It’s sugar, sunshine, and smoking.”
Avoid these three things—the first two in excess and the third entirely—and you’ll get about as close to the fountain of youth as you can in this world.
“More than anything,” McCaffrey says, “don’t always look for the quick fix.”

Categories
Happy x Mindful Wellbeing

Practicing Mindfulness Can Actually Make You A Better Person: Here’s How

Mindfulness. It’s one of those words you just can’t stop hearing. Along with self-care and “wellness,” the practice has surged in popularity in recent years.
There’s little question that taking the time to really focus on things—whether it’s your breath and thoughts, the activities you’re doing, or the world around you—can make you feel good. But can mindfulness make you a better person, too? Well, yes!
Mindfulness, according to Ellen Langer, the Harvard researcher best known for studying the practice, is “the process of actively noticing new things, relinquishing preconceived mindsets, and then acting on the new observations.” It can include meditation, but it doesn’t have to.
What mindfulness does require is being in the moment, forcing ourselves to focus. It’s not easy, especially in a society where job recruiters advertise for the consummate multitasker and we are constantly juggling work–life balance. We’re a nation of distracted drivers, distracted workers, and distracted parents.
Mindfulness is a way to cut through the clutter and reconnect. So what does that have to do with being a better person?

Up your empathy quotient.

Life is hard, and sometimes it’s even harder to be empathetic, especially when you’re going through a rough patch. But practicing mindfulness can change that. In a study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, researchers at California State University San Marcos say that people who received mindfulness instruction were better at regulating their emotions than those who hadn’t received the training. In turn, they were more also empathetic to a stranger who had been ostracized in a simulation.
Not convinced that one study is proof enough you should be more mindful? There’s more! When people spent six weeks pursuing a lovingkindness mindfulness meditation, researchers from Yale and Michigan State University found a reduction in stigmatizing and discriminatory attitudes toward homeless people.

Giving Your All

Multitasking sounds like a great quality. You can do everything! You are woman! Hear you roar! But when you’re talking on the phone with your cousin, typing an email to your boss, and practicing lunges at your standing desk, studies indicate something (or someone) is getting shortchanged. Switching between tasks, researchers have found, comes at a cost to the brain, and our response time becomes sluggish. If someone is trying to carry on a conversation with you while you’re doing other things, that means you’re not responding to them as fast as you think you are…or giving them the attention they deserve.
Mindfulness requires you to give your all to what you’re doing, which means you’re forced to choose between the email, the cousin, or the lunges. By cutting out those other tasks and paying attention, you’ll be a better conversationalist but also a kinder, more engaged person.

More Mindfulness = Less Stress

Stress stinks. It makes us anxious and tired, and it can physically hurt. But the stress we carry around doesn’t just affect us. Scientists have found that stress tends to make us irritable and angry, as we lash out at those around us. In other words? Stress can make you a jerk.
Mindfulness could be the key to breaking through to the other side. After all, there are a host of studies out there that have found mindfulness is linked to stress reduction. Cut the stress; cut that mean streak!
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Categories
Mindful Parenting Motherhood

Creating A Little Yogi: How To Introduce Your Kids To Yoga

Is there anything cuter than a kid practicing yoga? When my nephew was 3, he took yoga at preschool and my sister sent me the video of him doing a sun salutation. He narrated the entire sequence (“and namaste”), but my favorite moment was when he jumped from downward dog to standing forward bend and said, “and give it a hop!” I died.
Yoga is, of course, not just for adults. While kids may not need it the way we do—they are already super flexible and hopefully not at all stressed—it can still be beneficial, especially as they progress in school and life becomes more challenging. And even if it doesn’t turn them into little meditators, it can be a wonderful source of fun: Who doesn’t want to be a frog or a lion?
Even more remarkable than my nephew’s little sun salutations is how yoga was used in the preschool classroom. The program was full of easy-to-do exercises for large groups in a classroom setting—reaching arms up and down, bending over and stretching legs—but mostly it was yogic breathing. The exercises were meant to calm the kids down and create a sense of quiet and ease in the classroom. One day I observed them and it really worked. The whole classroom went silent. It was a revelation.  
This is perhaps the biggest boon to a yoga practice, even for kids: the ability to calm down without the aid of a device or a parent or engaging in a full-on meltdown. But it’s not the only one.
Here are some other benefits of practicing yoga with your kids or enrolling them in a class.

Concentration

There’s something to focusing on a single task—breathe in, breathe out; balance on one leg—that helps kids develop the ability to concentrate on one activity at a time. That’s a boon in this moment of device overload.

Balance

Practicing standing on one leg, or your hands or head, can not only help with body and spatial awareness, but it’s practice for balancing in less…literal ways.

Positive Body Image/Confidence

This is especially good for preteens and teens. Yoga allows you to be with/in your body on your mat without judgement or pressure. You see all the incredible things your amazing body can do! Backbend, twist, forward bend, balance! It can help a lot with the self-love.

Group Activity That’s Not Competitive

No one is being left out! No one is winning or losing. No one is being picked last. Win–win!

Body Awareness

Yoga works on gross motor skills and also on much finer motor skills: When you’re balancing on one foot, even a microscopic shift can make you fall over! The practice is a wonderful way to become aware of all the ways tiny shifts in how we hold ourselves and behave generally make a difference in our days.

Strength and Flexibility

Some kids need more musculature, some more flexibility—yoga develops both, and not just on a physical level. A kid who needs more strength can carry those teachings into her life (“I can be stronger and tougher!”). A kid who is tight can learn to loosen up not just in his hamstrings, but off the mat as well (“maybe I can go with the flow a little more…”)
Want to bring yoga to your kids at home? Cosmic Kids and Gaia are wonderful places to start. Watch or download whatever classes your kid likes. (This is a great place to begin, but always best to find a live teacher!)
Namaste.

Categories
Food Philosophies Nosh

Healthy Keto-Approved Snacks (And A Customizable Recipe For Every Taste!)

Whether you’re a longtime fan of the ketogenic diet or have just begun to change your eating habits, you know how important it is to have a healthy selection of high-fat, low-carb snacks stashed away in your desk drawer or purse once you’ve decided to go keto.
It can be tempting to buy prepackaged low-carb snacks to save on time, but by including more keto-approved whole foods in your diet you’ll reap all the nutritional benefits while saving money by not buying the store-bought version. For a delicious ketogenic treat, try whipping up a batch of these muffin-tin quiches. Endlessly customizable, these little quiches will have you counting down the minutes until snack time.

The Ketogenic Diet 101

The idea behind the ketogenic diet is to consume a macronutrient ratio of roughly 10 percent or less of carbohydrates, 15 to 20 percent protein, and 70 percent or more of fat. The ketogenic diet works by starving your body of carbohydrates and lowering blood sugar levels, forcing your body to use fat as a source of energy instead.
It’s important to note that this article is referring to the standard ketogenic diet, NOT the ketogenic diet for children with epilepsy.

Use whole foods for keto-approved snacks.

Although it can be tempting to rely on prepackaged low-carb snacks, these options are often highly processed and can rely on sugar alcohols (which can wreak havoc on your digestive system), sweeteners, and other chemical additives. Instead, stock up on healthy keto-friendly snack foods such as:

  • High-fat nuts like macadamia nuts, pecans, and Brazil nuts
  • Full-fat cheeses
  • Avocado (make a quick guacamole by mashing with lime juice, hot sauce, and a pinch of salt)
  • Berries (in moderation)
  • Canned salmon or tuna
  • Hard boiled eggs
  • Olives (marinated in oil)

In need of more snack-time inspiration? Find a customizable ketogenic snack recipe (or two!) like the one below and batch cook several days’ worth to get you through the workweek!

Basic Keto-Friendly Muffin-Tin Quiches (and How to Jazz Them up With Your Favorite Fillings!)

These muffin-tin quiches make great on-the-go snacks for work, after a workout, or as a nutritious afternoon pick-me-up. Feel free to customize these quiches with your favorite fillings or stick to this basic recipe. These quiches make great lunches or last-minute dinners when paired with sliced avocado and full-fat sour cream. You can freeze these dishes in a tin or lidded container for up to 3 months; defrost in the microwave or in the fridge overnight.

Yield: 12 small quiches

Ingredients:

  • 1 dozen large eggs
  • ¼ cup heavy cream
  • ½ tsp. salt
  • Freshly cracked black pepper
  • ¾ cup grated full-fat cheese (cheddar, Monterey Jack, and Gruyère all work well)
  • Cooking spray

Optional Add-Ins:

Aim to use ¼ cup of filling per muffin cup. Fillings can be used alone or in any combination you’d like.

  • Crumbled (cooked) sausage
  • Diced ham
  • Spinach (if frozen, make sure the spinach has been drained of any extra moisture)
  • Diced red onion
  • Zucchini
  • Arugula
  • Fresh goat cheese
  • Asparagus
  • Mushrooms
  • Broccoli florets (lightly steamed)

Special Equipment:

  • Blender
  • Measuring cups and spoons
  • Standard muffin tin

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
  2. Add the eggs, heavy cream, kosher salt, and freshly cracked black pepper to a blender. Blitz briefly until completely emulsified and smooth.
  3. Prepare the muffin tins by spraying them lightly with cooking spray.
  4. Add a small amount of grated cheese to the bottom of each muffin cup as well as any other filling ingredients you’d like.
  5. Divide the egg and heavy cream mixture into the muffin tins over the filling.
  6. Bake for 20 minutes or until set. Let cool before removing the quiches from the muffin tin.
  7. Store in the fridge in a well-sealed container for up to a week or freeze for up to three months.

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Categories
Refresh x Recover Sweat

The 5 Best Active Recovery Exercises For Rest Day

After working out all week, being active is the last thing you want to do on your coveted rest day. But truth be told, active recovery is actually better for you than passively vegging out on the couch all day with your most recent Netflix obsession.
“Active recovery sessions help round out your training,” says Lesley Logan, a Pilates instructor and creator of Profitable Pilates in Los Angeles. “Another added benefit of active recovery is that it gives you something different to do so you won’t get bored!”
So what exactly is active recovery?
Simply put, active recovery is a short, mild workout session on your day off. Even though you might prefer lounging in sweats on your rest day, active recovery sessions actually have quite a few benefits.
For starters, active recovery can help offset delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) after a particularly intense sweat sesh. In fact, a recent study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that light exercise actually provides massage-like relief for the acute soreness associated with DOMS.
Even if you’re not a gym rat, active recovery can help keep you on track on your days off. For me, it can be all too easy to undo five good days of working out and eating healthy in one fell swoop.
When I fall off the wagon on rest days, I fall hard.
But when I incorporate active recovery on rest days, I find it’s a lot easier to make healthier choices all week long, keeping me moving toward my fitness goals.
Ready to incorporate active recovery into your rest day but aren’t quite sure how? Here are five of the best active recovery exercises for any fitness routine.

1. Walk that walk.

I love to go for a long run, but it’s hard on my joints, so I don’t do it every day. On off days, I go for a long walk instead. Walking is a great form of active recovery because almost everyone can do it.
According to one study, light exercise like walking can actually help the body’s lymphatic system flush toxins from the body faster. Additionally, walking is the perfect form of active recovery to help relieve stress and tension. The Anxiety and Depression Association of America says that just 10 minutes of walking can be enough to reduce anxiety and stress.
Active recovery walking doesn’t require any sort of training plan. On your rest day, simply lace up your sneakers and take a brisk 30 minute (or longer, if you’d like) walk around your neighborhood or local park.

2. Find a balance.

“If I hadn’t done Pilates as part of my active recovery when I was a marathoner, I would probably not be walking right now,” says Logan.
Between intense training sessions, yoga and Pilates are excellent active recovery exercises because they use your own body weight to gently stretch and strengthen your muscles, keeping them active and engaged between workouts.
“Yoga and Pilates also strengthen your hips, help correct your posture, and work to balance the body’s asymmetries. My times became faster, my recovery after long distances sped up, and I never suffered from a running injury,” says Logan.
Want to give active recovery yoga try? Start with this 10-minute yoga flow from Keri Kugler.

3. Take a dip.

This suggestion may surprise you, but don’t knock it until you try it. It’s a surprisingly great workout, and is the perfect active recovery exercise for rest day.
With water aerobics, you can combine light strength training and low-impact cardio. If group classes aren’t your thing though, swimming a few laps is also great for active recovery.
Get your swim cap and goggles, and check your local YMCA or aquatic center’s schedule for water aerobics classes on rest day.

4. Keep rolling on.

I have chronic shoulder pain because I did not practice active recovery the first time I trained for a half-marathon. I was skeptical when I purchased a foam roller, but if done correctly, it’s a great way to prevent and relieve post-workout muscle strain.
Foam rolling is essentially self-massage of muscular trigger points. To use a foam roller in active recovery, simply find the trigger point that usually causes post-workout soreness (for me, it’s my shoulder and glutes) and press into the roller for about a minute to help release the muscle tightness you’re experiencing.

5. Healing From the Inside Out

Active recovery is all about keeping your body limber and strong between workouts. One way to do this is to work on developing a stronger core during an active recovery session.
Improving your core strength on rest day doesn’t have to be an intense training session. Rather, try a few key yoga poses for core strength that will leave you feeling stronger while also giving your body a break.
Active recovery is just one facet of a holistic rest-day plan. To round out rest day, make sure you continue to eat a healthy diet and drink plenty of water. It’s totally fine to treat yourself to a slice of pizza or some ice cream if rest day is also cheat day, but otherwise stick to lean protein, healthy fats, and whole grains. When it’s time to hit the gym again, you’ll feel energized and ready to go, rather than sluggish and full of ‘za.

Categories
Health x Body Wellbeing

Adrenal Fatigue: Separating The Myths From The Facts

“The fatigue doesn’t come overnight,” the founder of Open Heart Solution, a coaching practice that specializes in healing codependency, tells HealthyWay. “Instead, I lost vitality by inches over the course of several months.”
Gaines chalked her worsening symptoms up to getting older. Then she started getting headaches at the base of her skull. Trying to eat became a nauseating ordeal. This was not a natural decline, she realized.
“The fatigue was so bad, I couldn’t get out of bed for more than a few hours at a time,” she says. “Even though I was exhausted, I couldn’t sleep. Weight loss. Irritability came next. Then, sensitivity to light. For a month or two, all I could do was lie in bed, staring at the ceiling.”
At the time, Gaines was living with an acupuncturist. Her roommate tracked her symptoms and issued a confident diagnosis: adrenal fatigue. Gaines felt that she had found her problem. She was ready to address it. To her dismay, though, her doctors dismissed her concerns.
“Of course I talked to doctors, and they were like, ‘Adrenal fatigue is not a real thing,’” Gaines says. “And then we go to the functional medicine community and they say, ‘Yeah, medical doctors say it’s not a real thing because there’s no pill for it. There’s no code for it in insurance. There’s not a prescription for it…’ So adrenal fatigue will never be a diagnosis in the Western medical community.”
Healthcare, like everything else, is rife with cultural conflict. But what some call adrenal fatigue could become an ideological town square in which all patient-centered service providers—the scientists and the intuitionists alike—might find common ground. And even a mislabeled affliction can lead to lifestyle changes that are healthy for everyone.
That said, it’s important to understand the medical consensus on this cluster of symptoms, which ranges from apathy to light sensitivity. Regardless of your view of institutionalized medicine, this is what you should know before you go to your primary care physician—or your acupuncturist—about the very real difficulties that are often associated with adrenal fatigue.

What is adrenal fatigue?

As far as we can tell, the adrenal fatigue diagnosis debuted in 1998 when chiropractor James L. Wilson, DC, ND, PhD, coined the term. His definition of adrenal fatigue? “A collection of signs and symptoms, known as a syndrome, that results when the adrenal glands function below the necessary level.”
That definition comes from his website, where Wilson sells an array of herbal products, including an Adrenal Fatigue Quartet, which was listed at $183.44 at the time of this writing. Like many vitamin and supplement websites, Wilson’s site, AdrenalFatigue.org, is dotted with asterisks that point to the small print at the base of the page: “This statement has not been evaluated by the Food & Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.”
The problem with Wilson’s definition of adrenal fatigue is that it can just as easily refer to an existing and scientifically verified diagnosis: adrenal insufficiency, which results from damage to the adrenal glands or the glands that send chemical signals to the adrenals. So how does the endocrine system work (or stop working) and why do people use different terms to identify issues that are seemingly the same?

The Endocrine System and Its Discontents

Broadly stated, the endocrine system is a self-regulating network of chemical-producing tissues and their targets within the human body. Target organs, including other endocrine glands, absorb these chemicals: aka hormones.
Suffice it to say that, just as certain neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine bind to receptors in your brain, certain hormones zero in on tissues and organs within your body. These hormones change the behavior of those tissues and organs, powering unconscious physical processes and experienced sensations alike. In the experiential act of being, your brain is just one part of the equation. Hormones and other organs also play significant roles, making it complex to say the least.
So let’s talk adrenal glands. These two small hormone-producing entities sit just atop your kidneys. They produce a number of hormones—from the stress hormone cortisol to aldosterone, epinephrine, and precursors to the sex steroids androgen and estrogen.
Don’t worry if you don’t know what those things are. We didn’t either, so we had to ask a doctor. Take just one of these substances—cortisol, for example.
“We need cortisol to live,” says Shirisha Avadhanula, MD, a senior fellow physician in the department of endocrinology, diabetes, and metabolism at Georgetown University Hospital. “We need it for normal human physiological functioning. This hormone, among many of its functions, orchestrates our body’s response to stress in such ways as regulating our blood pressure, for example. It coordinates our immune response and it also regulates our metabolism.”
Point being, adrenal insufficiency is a medically recognized condition in which damaged endocrine glands fail to produce enough hormones to maintain homeostasis, the delicate thermo-electrochemical balancing act by which our bodies and minds remain stable and healthy.
Adrenal fatigue, on the other hand, has grown from Wilson’s dubious hypothesis to a full-fledged cottage industry. We live stressful lives, say the believers. Our lives are so stressful that our adrenal glands essentially run out of cortisol.
According to endocrinologists, though, this argument doesn’t make physiological sense.
“Basically, the whole concept is that constant stress causes your adrenal glands to burn out and release—eventually—low levels of adrenal hormones, especially cortisol. That’s the whole concept behind adrenal fatigue,” Avadhanula says. “But, physiologically speaking, under periods of stress, your adrenal glands actually work harder, and they make more cortisol. Even under stressful conditions, our adrenal glands don’t fatigue out. They continue to maintain their role. They’re really not so easily subverted.”
But that in no way discounts the symptoms associated with the term, Avadhanula stresses. The doctors we spoke with focused on three main points they’d like to spread in the interest of public health.

The 3 Things Endocrinologists Want You To Know About Adrenal Fatigue

The consensus of the Endocrine Society, the professional association of endocrinologists, is that adrenal fatigue as it’s defined by Wilson and many others does not exist. But when a patient can’t get out of bed for more than a few hours a day, clearly something has gone awry. Here’s what endocrinologists want you to know if you think you or a loved one are experiencing something that sounds like adrenal fatigue.
[sol title=”“Nobody’s disputing the symptoms.”” subheader=”A good doctor listens and investigates symptomatology.”]
“The first point I want to get across is: Nobody’s disputing the symptoms,” Avadhanula says. When a patient comes to her complaining of overwhelming tiredness, brain fog, and unexplained weight changes, she urges them to avoid the term adrenal fatigue because it’s not a legitimate diagnosis according to Endocrine Society consensus. But she knows that something is causing these symptoms.
“We need to listen to our patients, and we need to investigate their symptomatology,” Avadhanula says. As she makes these points, she speaks slowly and methodically, enunciating each syllable and clearly conveying her emphasis.
So that’s the first thing: If you fear that you have adrenal fatigue, no good doctor is going to discount your symptoms. On the contrary, they’ll look for the true cause to help you get back to health.
[sol title=”The term “adrenal fatigue” should be eradicated.” subheader=”The wrong label can prevent the right diagnosis.”]
“The second thing, of course, is that we encourage patients and other practitioners and other physicians to stop using this terminology,” Avadhanula says, referring to the term adrenal fatigue. “It can cloud an underlying diagnosis, and that’s when things become concerning.”
Joshua Miller, MD, MPH, is the medical director of diabetes care for Stony Brook Medicine and an assistant professor of endocrinology and metabolism in the school’s department of medicine. He’s certified in internal medicine and endocrinology, diabetes, and metabolism. And he shares Avadhanula’s concerns.
“It’s unfortunate, because you know full well there’s this information all over the internet, and if a patient has something, God forbid, more serious going on, but they themselves are convinced it’s adrenal fatigue, well, they’re going to miss getting that other issue addressed. And we have seen that happen before.”
[sol title=”The Dark Side to the Spread of Misinformation” subheader=”Someone’s profiting.”]
“As is the case in any industry, there are many health care practitioners out there, some of whom are physicians, some of whom are not, who will take advantage of patients who are convinced of their diagnosis of adrenal fatigue, and will try to sell them something,” Miller says. “And we’ve encountered this many times, my partners and I.”
Wilson, the inventor of the term adrenal fatigue, and many others who use it are in the business of selling herbal supplements, which can’t be a coincidence. And unregulated supplements may not address an underlying health issue that’s actually causing your symptoms. Miller describes the problematic scenario:

A patient will come and see me, and they’re taking a supplement that they bought from another doctor who they saw—and I use the term doctor loosely for some of these folks. And it’s a concoction of vitamins and herbs and this and that, that, one, probably costs hundreds of dollars, and two, is not helping, and three, has the potential to harm. So the first question, literally the first question I’ll ask patients when they come in with that story, is “Do you feel better taking the supplement than you did before you took it?” And most patients have never really asked themselves that question before. And when they do, many of them will sit back and say, “You know, Dr. Miller, I really don’t feel any different since starting this herb or starting this supplement.”

So what happens next? The endocrinologist will recommend that you stop taking the supplements.
“The problem is that these supplements are not regulated, nor are they approved by the FDA,” says Avadhanula. “We don’t really know what’s in them. There’s no way to know. The expert consensus is that you’d recommend the patient stop taking them.”

Adrenal Fatigue Symptoms According to the Internet

The Hormone Health Network, which is operated by Endocrine Society, lists the symptoms that have been associated with the term adrenal fatigue. They include:

  • Severe tiredness and lethargy
  • Sleep problems
  • Difficulty getting out of bed in the morning
  • Cravings for sugar or salt
  • Over-reliance on caffeine

The trouble is that these symptoms are nonspecific; they can be caused by any number of factors. For many busy, stressed-out adults, they’re realities of daily life. One person’s adrenal fatigue could be another’s daily grind.
That’s not to say that you should simply accept a stressful lifestyle. Chronic stress is associated with a multitude of negative health effects, from musculoskeletal disorders to high cholesterol. Stress absolutely can produce the symptoms that some associate with adrenal fatigue. It’s just that the science doesn’t back up the adrenal-fatigue theory of how stress leads to poor health outcomes.
Still, many patients self-diagnose adrenal fatigue, which could be costing them the opportunity for a legitimate diagnosis and better treatment.

Evidence-Based Medical Disorders That Can Be Confused With Adrenal Fatigue

So if these symptoms aren’t caused by a burnt-out endocrine system, what is causing them? While the phenomena associated with adrenal fatigue are nonspecific and could be caused individually by many different conditions, there are a few illnesses that share symptomatology. Most notably, these include:

“Per Endocrine Society consensus, adrenal fatigue is not a recognized medical entity,” says Avadhanula. “The reason I think patients have a lot of questions and come to me with queries about this diagnosis is that the symptomatology that adrenal fatigue describes consists of a lot of really nonspecific symptoms.”
Of course, these symptoms do “match up with stress,” says Avadhanula. Tiredness and confusion and caffeine addiction may not come from an illness, per se. They might just be the result of lives lived out of balance.

Self-Care for People Who Experience Symptoms Associated With Adrenal Fatigue

Gaines’ symptoms began to ease when she put herself on a wellness regimen of her own creation.
“I started really simply,” she says. “I started by getting up in the morning and making some tea, and going outside and drinking it for 10 minutes, with no sunglasses, and just looking, allowing the light to come into my eyes.”
That simple time carved out for herself—a quiet moment first thing in the morning—set Gaines on her path to a more balanced, peaceful lifestyle. But it was just the first step.
“I started walking around the park that was at the back of my house,” Gaines says. “I have the luxury of working at home, so sometimes I would take conference calls and do them while walking around the park.”
Gaines also began to take advantage of a major lifestyle change. She had moved from a tumultuous life in New York City to a slower pace in Texas. That made it easier for her to incorporate self-care behaviors like exercising in the great outdoors into her everyday routine.
“I live in a place where there’s plenty of sunlight, and plenty of places to walk, and plenty of places to breathe fresh air, and there’s plenty of places to put the phone away and just listen to the river running and not worrying about the text messages coming in,” she says. “If I didn’t have that, I don’t know where I would be right now.”
The thing is, the recommended lifestyle-based treatments for the symptomatology some call adrenal fatigue are commonly recommended treatments for chronic stress. You would be hard pressed to find a doctor who would caution you against practicing good sleep hygiene, exercising regularly, pursuing mindfulness, or spending time in nature. What they do have a problem with, however, are untested supplements and wellness programs that take advantage of suffering patients by charging hefty fees that insurance companies won’t cover.
“As in many parts of health care, people get taken advantage of,” Miller says. That’s a shame, when “some of the simplest interventions [for these symptoms] are exercise, good sleep hygiene, keeping screens out of the bedroom, eating a wholesome diet, not eating processed and fast foods, not drinking a lot of caffeine, avoiding a ton of alcohol, and not smoking. And you’ll feel better. You don’t have adrenal fatigue, you’re just living a healthier life.”
While the science behind the idea of adrenal fatigue doesn’t hold up, the lifestyle changes said to cure the condition will actually make most people feel better. In that sense, the shamans and the scientists are on the same page. Go outside. Listen to the real birds, not your Twitter notifications. Adrenal issue or no, managing stress is good for your overall health.
“You are born to be vital and alive,” says Gaines. “And there’s nothing in the world that should take you away from that.”
Say what you want about adrenal fatigue. Who can argue with that sentiment?

Categories
Life x Culture Lifestyle

How To Follow Your Dreams (When You're Working 9 To 5)

Sometimes life can feel like a Rihanna song—and not one of the fun sexytimes ones. If you all you do is work, work, work, work, work, you may be paying the bills, but when is the last time you actually did something that made you feel alive?
Some people have day jobs where they can kill two birds with one stone: They can pay the bills and get a creative outlet that fulfills their passions. Sixty percent of Americans even say they’re “completely satisfied” with their jobs.
But that leaves 40 percent of Americans who could use a little pick-me-up. Whether your secret passion isn’t a money-maker or you’re not comfortable giving up the benefits that come with full-time employment, there are still ways for you to do your thing in your off hours.
Ready? Set? Let’s do this.

Get a side hustle.

You may work 9 to 5, but if your employer’s not making use of your full range of talents, there’s no reason you can’t. In a 2017 study by Bankrate, an estimated 44 million Americans were working side hustles—extra gigs that bring in a little extra cash each month.
For some people, it’s a matter of making ends meet, but it can also be a way of making your passions profitable.

Put your volunteer hat on.

Maybe your dream of being a professional puppy birthday party planner will not make you any money, no matter how hard you hustle. But there’s likely a non-profit in your ‘hood that will take you on and let you fulfill some of those childhood dreams. Ask your local shelter if you can throw a puppy birthday–themed fundraiser. Turn your talent for boiling the perfect egg into producing mass quantities of goodies for your local community center’s Easter egg hunt. Put your penchant for planting to good use at the community garden.
Whatever you decide to do, don’t forget to check in with your employer. Many companies will provide a few hours off once a year (or more often) for employees to volunteer, while others may chip in a small donation. Your good deeds can not only fulfill you in your time off but help you feel more invested in your job.

Grab your backpack.

Adult student numbers are climbing at colleges across the U.S., thanks in no small part to the availability of online classes. Whether you’re looking to change your career entirely or just want to indulge your love of British literature or psychology, check with your HR department.
Many employers offer tuition reimbursement for employees. If your job won’t help with tuition, you can still search for scholarships or take non-credit classes for little or no money through programs like EdX.

Join the group.

You may not make it to Broadway. You may not be the next Maya Moore or Jonquel Jones. But your local theater group may be looking for someone with your acting chops to take on the Miss Hannigan role in their next production of Annie. And that group of ballers in your office may just need a point guard.

Plus, joining up won’t just let you live out your dreams. It may make you a new friend (or 12).

Just do it.

Ah, if only Nike slogans were real life. Whatever dream you’re chasing, don’t forget to give yourself permission to go for it. Yes, work is necessary. Yes, dinner needs to be made, and the kids need to be bathed. But it’s not merely acceptable to “do you.” It’s necessary. Still, you may need to kick-start yourself into action.
The key? Put it in writing (even if it’s “digital” writing). Carve out time on your Google calendar so no one schedules a late-afternoon coffee meeting when you’ll actually be rock climbing. Create a bullet journal, and start coloring in your to-do list. Write yourself some lists, post them on the fridge, and check things off when they’re done. The more you write down, the less wiggle room you give yourself to ignore your “me time.”

Categories
Lifestyle Well-Traveled

The Six-Year Honeymoon: How To Travel The World For Cheap (And Never Stop Traveling)

When you’re on your honeymoon, you sometimes wish it could last forever.
Unfortunately, honeymoons eventually end—for most couples, anyway.
That’s not exactly true for Mike and Anne Howard. On Jan. 22, 2012, the couple left their New York home for their honeymoon. Their plan was fairly bold: They’d travel to as many countries as they could, limiting their budget wherever possible.
They’re still traveling. Over the last six years, they’ve become National Geographic co-authors (check out their first book, Ultimate Journeys for Two, here), started a travel blog, visited all seven continents, volunteered in tribal villages, and launched their own travel workshop service.

HoneyTrek

We spoke with Mike and Anne to find out how they manage the financial (and personal) challenges of living a life on the road.
[Editorial note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.]
HEALTHYWAY: So, you guys have been traveling nonstop since 2012, is that roughly accurate?
ANNE HOWARD: That is accurate, yes.
We just decided—life is short, and the world is big. For our honeymoon, we planned a year-long journey around the world. We just haven’t come home yet. We realized that there was a lot more to see, so we just pressed on.
HoneyTrek

Recently, we bought this little funky RV, and we’re now exploring North America.
That’s awesome. Had either of you traveled extensively prior to that?
MIKE HOWARD: Sort of. We knew we had a sense of adventure. We were living in New York and used whatever vacation days we had to go on international trips or take road trips, but that was nothing like this. This is on a different scale—it’s really nomadic living.
And you got the inspiration from a friend of yours, is that correct?
M: Yes, that’s right.
A: Mike was actually at an Oktoberfest for a friend’s bachelor party. He met his buddy who’d just went around the world with his girlfriend for under $100 a day. We said, “Wait a minute, that’s basically the same as our rent, and we’re not even eating out or doing anything fun at all.”
HoneyTrek

That was a benchmark that we thought we could achieve.
Setting benchmarks seems pretty crucial for this sort of thing.
A:  Yeah, I mean it was really helpful to have that encounter. Honestly, our life was good when we were in New York. We had good jobs, we’d just bought a house, we were about to get married. There was no reason for us to just sort of drop everything.
I think a lot of people decide on around-the-world journeys because they think, “Well, I’ve hit a rut in life, and I just had to get perspective.” That wasn’t us.
HoneyTrek

M: Our lives were good, but we also knew that’s just one view of the world. There’s so much more to explore and experience, so we decided that we valued travel that much. We said, “Hey, we’re going to prioritize this, because you can get hit by a bus tomorrow.”
A: You know, you could wait until you’re 65 and your knees are creaky, but then you can’t hike that mountain you wanted to hike. We just thought, “No messing around. Let’s do this. Let’s start saving.”
I think most people think that you’d have to be rich to do something like this.
M: Yes, it’s good to have those numbers be tangible, because we’re not millionaires. You could—if you start saving, it’s basically cutting out your Starbucks coffee and not going out every night of the week. You could make some simple changes and start a travel fund.
So we suggest that to everybody. If you do want to travel, quit talking about it and start making plans. Make yourself a travel fund. Set aside 5 percent of your paycheck every month towards travel. It is very achievable at every level.
HoneyTrek

A: We’ve now been traveling for six years, and our budget keeps going down. And we’re getting better at travel hacking—from frequent flyer miles to using home-sharing services, travel is crazy affordable. It’s way cheaper than going home, in fact.
What’s your travel budget around these days?
M: We don’t measure it on a daily basis, but we did an audit in 2016. I should note, we’ve had a lot of different travel styles—the first two years was just straight backpacking. We did 33 countries from 2012 to 2013.
HoneyTrek

A: And that speed can be expensive. We traveled really fast and went a lot of places, which increases your budget.
M: So our budget in the first two years was $74 for the two of us per day. That was all in—flights, hotels, visas, food, everything. From 2015 to 2016, we did a lot of house sitting. We averaged 10 countries per year, for those two years, so we went a little bit slower. Basically, we visited 20 countries over those two years.
HoneyTrek

House sitting helped bring our costs down a lot and gave us more immersive experiences, and our budget went down. And flights—like Anne said, we do almost every long-haul flight on [frequent flyer] miles for the entire trip. I don’t think we’ve paid for any flights, so that helps.
Last we checked, the budget was under $25 for the two of us, all-in, per day.
Whoa. Are you traveling comfortably for that kind of money?
A: Yeah, we know, it sounds really scary. We throw out those numbers, and people say, “Are you living under a bridge? Are you watching paint dry for fun?”
But no, we’ve had some really epic experiences. We took care of a beach house with two infinity pools overlooking the Pacific Ocean while in Costa Rica. That cost us nothing. We had a cat that we fed twice a day, but that was pretty much our only job!
HoneyTrek

M: We took care of a farm in Portugal. That was actually a phenomenal experience, to take care of a farm at the height of harvest. And you have neighbors, so you’re bartering potatoes for tomatoes and breaking bread together. It was a kind of thing that you couldn’t actually pay for. We did it for free, but it was invaluable.
A: That’s the thing with travel. Traveling inexpensively doesn’t mean you’re skimping on experiences. It’s actually shown us how to become a little more nimble and resourceful, realizing that the more creative you are with the ways you travel, the more rewarding it is.
I love that outlook. It’s really about these organic experiences. Is that something that kind of developed as you were traveling, or did you hit the road with that in mind?
A: I’d love to say that we were that wise going into this, but no. We had our bucket list. We wanted to hike Machu Picchu and scuba dive the Great Barrier Reef. But it was really about the people we met along the way and the unforeseen events—the serendipitous moments. That’s the magic of travel.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Ba9_-ynhZtZ/?taken-by=honeytrek
Taking the photos, that’s not what leaves you fulfilled. It’s really getting to know the people. The people are what make every place unique.
M: What stands out are the moments.
A: We’re in the bayou right now in Louisiana. We went to this Cajun dance hall that’s been around forever, and they’re famous for their live music.
Well, you know what? When we were there, there was no live music that night, but instead, we wound up hanging out with the family that owns the hall. They kept the place open until midnight, just chatting with us. We learned their life story, and they were showing us these family photographs and instruments—let me tell you, we had a more intimate experience than anyone who’s ever seen them play as a band.
HoneyTrek

You can’t plan everything, and that’s a good thing.
Do you have any other examples of when things have gone wrong?
A: Oh, plenty.
M: The one in Jordan…
A: That was more of a risk, but yeah.
The buses had stopped running. Buses don’t run on a normal schedule on Saturdays in Muslim countries, and we were trying to get from Petra to Ammon. It was my birthday, and Mike had organized a nice hotel—normally, we don’t splurge on something like that.
HoneyTrek

Oh, and we were leaving the next morning, so things kind of needed to run on schedule. With no bus, we decided we could take a really expensive cab, but that didn’t seem like a great option, so we decided to just ask around.
We see this bus that is full of Jordanian women, so we ask the driver, “Are you heading to Ammon?” And he says, “Well, eventually. Let me ask the girls—we can give you a ride to Ammon, but we might make a stop on the way.”

M: Turns out they’re going to a wild dance party in the middle of Wadi Rum desert, two hours in the opposite direction.
We get on the bus, and they greet us with tea and sandwiches, then they cranked up the music. It was a full-blown dance party that they’re throwing on our behalf, just because they wanted to welcome us and share this experience with us.
So we didn’t get to the fancy hotel. We didn’t make it home at a reasonable hour. But let me tell you, that couldn’t have worked out better. It’s all about traveling with an open mind, a warm heart, and letting things unfold.
And I imagine that kind of helps to keep the stress levels low. I’m sure you get asked about that a lot, but—well, being in close quarters with another person for so long, that has to be stressful.
A: Oh, for sure. It all looks so glamorous on Instagram, but that’s not real life. We are living on the road. We didn’t know where we were sleeping or what we were eating. Your basics of survival are kind of in question every day when you travel. You don’t know where you’re going to sleep, what you’re going to eat, or how you’re going to get from point A to point B.
You’re reinventing all the time, and yes, that can be stressful. There have been some low moments, but the high moments are over the moon.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BWVWOGuBU36/?taken-by=honeytrek
Like Mike always says, we think of this in terms of chapters. Right now, we’re in this RV chapter—we’ve got this 33-year-old Toyota Sunrader without power steering. It’s got a four-cylinder engine. It’s nothing glamorous, but then again, we didn’t have a closet for five years.
M: We didn’t have our own kitchen, our own bathroom, our own bed. Those things were always changing, so this level of consistency has been really refreshing.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bf02wDNBAWB/?taken-by=honeytrek
We have this adventure-mobile, and we do all these crazy things, but at least the main piece is consistent. It’s our bed. It’s our kitchen, even if it’s not fancy. If you’re nimble and you change how you think about things, the stress of traveling is absolutely manageable.
Do you think that you’ll ever find yourself living in a normal house again? Is that on the horizon, or is that not even something you’re thinking about?
A: It’s nothing we’re thinking about in the near future. We stopped planning at a certain point, and we just let things happen.
And it’s working for now—like they say, don’t fix it if it’s not broken.
[related article_ids=21691]

Categories
Healthy Pregnancy Motherhood

6 Real Moms Share Their Pre-Birth Anxieties (And What Really Wound Up Happening)

As a first-time mom, I entered into my labor and delivery with a lot of confidence. I was going to manage my pain well. I was going to have a natural birth. I believed that there was nothing to be afraid of.
When things didn’t go as planned, however, my confidence was crushed. Although I was happy to have a healthy baby, I found the pain of labor unbearable. Nearly two years later, as the birth of my second baby approached, I found myself completely overwhelmed with anxiety about experiencing it again.
Feeling worried about or even fearful of giving birth is normal. However, when those anxieties become debilitating, it is probably time to take a closer looking at what is driving the fear. It may be necessary to get a little extra support.
These six moms tell HealthyWay all about their pre-birth anxieties and share exactly how things turned out.

1. Fear of the Unknown

For new mom Annie Logue, it was the newness of being pregnant and giving birth that gave her anxiety. She tells HealthyWay she found herself caught up in fear of the unknown as her due date approached.
To ease her worries, Logue tried to regularly remind herself just how common childbirth is, and she did it with a sense of humor. Her positive mindset got her through until she gave birth to her healthy child.
“I reminded myself that there were seven billion people in the world,” she says. “So this was clearly not THAT hard.”

2. Fear for the Baby’s Well-Being

For women who have had a negative pregnancy or birthing experience, it is typical to feel concerned that the next birth experience will be negative as well. One mom, Nikki Haverstock, shares with HealthyWay that losing a baby two years prior created a lot of fear for her during her most recent pregnancy. Adding to her anxiety was the fact that she was considered to be an older mother, so she felt she had a lot to worry about.
“I talked to a therapist, spent a lot of time with my religion, and hours of walking,” she shares “I ended up having a perfect c-section and a healthy baby boy.”
Like Haverstock, Ramsey Hootman found herself consumed with anxiety over the birth of her third child after her second baby was stillborn.
“I even ended up in the ER once because I was so anxious,” she says.
Although Hootman did have a quick and relatively easy birth, she struggled for a long time to connect with her baby. In the end, what helped the most was giving herself grace as she learned what it was like to be a new mom after loss.

3. Fear About Timing

When it was time to give birth to my third, I experienced a brand new anxiety: I started to worry about getting my older kids to their grandparents’ house if I went into labor during the night. I’m not alone in this worry. In fact, two moms shared that juggling the timing of labor has been a concern for them.
“I was so worried that I’d go into labor overnight and our childcare wouldn’t be available,” Shana Westlake shares. “I was mostly worried that my husband would have to stay with her in the waiting room, leaving me alone.”
Talking with her provider helped and knowing that her toddler could be in the delivery room if need be eased her worries about being without her husband while she labored. In the end, her firstborn was at preschool when the baby came and was able to go home with a friend that afternoon.
For Kelly Burch, it’s the drive to the hospital that is causing her worry.
“I now live 45 minutes from the hospital, so my biggest anxiety this time is giving birth on the side of the road,” she shares. “Once my first daughter finally decided to come, she came fast, and a 45-minute drive in labor sounds like hell.”
Burch is still expecting, but has made a point to discuss her fears with her husband in preparation for the big day.

4. Fear of the Pain

It is common knowledge that birth is an incredibly painful experience and many moms feel ill-equipped to deal with that pain. Like me, Emily Farmer Popek found herself consumed with fears about how much pain she would experience during labor and delivery.
She found the most comfort in a little coaching from her mom, who helped her reach a point of being able to experience pain without fear. She also worked diligently at trusting her body, the process of birth, and the medical professionals helping her give birth.
“It was super helpful to hold on to that idea of, ‘I can experience pain without experiencing fear,’” she tells HealthyWay.
Another mom, who asked to remain anonymous, shared that she also found the uncertainty about the pain and how she would handle it to be intimidating. After her mother told her how painful her first birth was, she found herself worrying about the pain and having no control over the situation.
Ultimately, it was hiring a doula that brought her peace of mind.
“I really wanted someone in my corner (besides my husband) who clearly knew what I wanted and would be by my side the whole time,” she says.

Facing Pre-Birth Anxieties

If you have found yourself so worried about giving birth that you are having a difficult time coping with the fear, take action. During the day-to-day of your pregnancy, a mindfulness meditation practice can be helpful. Take a few minutes each day to practice, using guided meditation like these free recordings from the UCLA Mindfulness Awareness Research Center.
Create a support system for yourself, sharing your concerns with your partner, family, and close friends. Consider [linkbuilder id=”6713″ text=”hiring a doula”] who has experience working with moms who are struggling with anxiety. Your OB-GYN can also be a great source of support and they can offer guidance on additional steps you can take, like developing a pain-management plan you can implement during labor and delivery and referring you to a therapist to see during your pregnancy.

Categories
Conscious Beauty Lifestyle

Struggling With Hair Loss? Try These Hairstyles For Thin Hair

Can we share a little secret? Many, many women in their twenties, thirties, and forties are dealing with hair loss or majorly thinning hair. Put out a call on social media for friends who struggle with this and a number of women will raise their virtual hands.
There are a variety of factors that may contribute to hair loss—stress, hormones, genetics—but there is a lot you can do without running to the dermatologist (although in some cases it’s wise to do that too). There are plenty of rockin’ hairstyles for thin hair.
But first…

What’s the difference between thin hair and fine hair? And what is thinning hair?

Remember when you were a kid and people were always commenting on the thickness (or lack thereof) of your hair? “Your hair is so thick!” your mom might have said as she tried to get the tangles out. Or: “What fine hair you have!” the hairdresser might have moaned as she tried to volumize your tresses.
Now we’re adding in “thin.” Thin and fine are not the same thing.
“The difference between thinning hair or hair loss and fine hair is that the former can be a condition caused by health, medication, or circumstances, whereas the latter is what you’re born with,” explains Sara Carden, a hair educator, editorial stylist, and hairstylist at Shanghai Salon in Costa Mesa, California. “It is absolutely possible to have thick, fine hair.”
A lot of people confuse these terms or misunderstand the potential combinations. It’s possible to have thin fine hair or thick fine hair. Similarly, you can have thin coarse hair or thick coarse hair.
Want a more scientific explanation? “Thin” hair describes the density of the follicles themselves, that is, how packed in they are across your scalp. “Thin hair means you have [fewer] hair follicles placed closely together,” as explained on the lifestyle/natural hair website Trials n’ Tresses. “That is why quite often you see a lot of scalp during your styling process.” In other words: When you have thin hair, you have less actual hair.
Fine hair, on the other hand, refers to the width or thickness of the strand. It means that the strand itself is…not very thick. (The opposite of fine is coarse hair.) Even if it doesn’t have a lot of volume or looks sort of wispy, you might have a lot of it.

Why the thinning hair?

There are several possible causes of hair loss, but according to Jennifer Soung, MD, a board certified dermatologist in Santa Clara, California, who researches hair loss, the most common cause of thin hair is stress. “If a woman has any stressful event in their life—the flu or an emotional stress like a divorce—she can develop telogen effluvium, a temporary condition where anything non-essential on your body, like hair, doesn’t go into the hair cycle growth,” she tells HealthyWay.
You can tell that this is what’s going on if you lose a ton of hair three to six months after the precipitous event. In this kind of scenario, you see thinning throughout the scalp. You have two choices here: Wait it out until the hair goes back into its cycle or try a product like Rogaine. The hardest thing about hair loss, Soung explains, is that it involves a lot of waiting. Because hair growth happens in three- to six-month cycles, there’s not much you can do to speed up the process.
Another cause of thin hair is female pattern hair loss, Soung says, which is a hormonal issue that involves your hair thinning at the scalp and will make it seem like you have less hair all over. The treatment for this is often birth control or Aldactone (spironolactone), which act as hormone blockers. Soung adds that a new dietary supplement, Viviscal, has shown promise.
The third cause, which is less common, is that there is something else going on with your hair. If you’re noticing excessive flaking, pain, and burning in addition to thin hair, it’s time to see a dermatologist.
Other possible causes? It could be genetics, environmental changes, more hormones (all those voluminous pregnancy locks lost after the baby arrives!), or a sign of a thyroid disorder.
That said, Soung tells HealthyWay that there is not much research into why women lose their hair, so more needs to be done to uncover the causes. If you’re noticing a wider part, thinning on the side of your head, or patches falling out, you are probably dealing with thin hair and you might want to consult a dermatologist.
No matter the cause, though, there are a number of ways you can make the most of thin hair.

Let’s talk thin hair hairstyles.

“There are many hairstyles that look great for fine hair, but not a lot to hide thinning hair,” Carden explains. “For a client with thinning hair, I recommend avoiding going for long lengths.”

Hairstyles for Thin Hair: Long

Add some bangs and fringe around your face. Then put it up in a ponytail. This should help hide any sort of thinning around your part.

Hairstyles for Thin Hair: Short

“I won’t immediately suggest a pixie cut,” says Carden, “but styles that will give volume and a modern look would be something like a layered bob.” We love a longer bob hairstyle for thin hair, but if you’re looking to really chop it all off, here’s a shorter option.

Hairstyles for Thin Hair: Wavy

Go for a wavy, graduated bob. This will bring more volume to the thin hair sitch and hide some of the thinner patches. Even if you’ve spent your whole life trying to tame your tresses, use the wave to your advantage to create more volume on your head.

Hairstyles for Thin Hair: Curly

“If you are thinning in the parietal areas of your head, go for taper looks, with a longer fringe to hide the recession,” Carden suggests. “If you have curly thinning hair, this actually works in your favor, as curly hair creates its own natural volume and distracts from the sparse areas.”

Our Favorite Finds for Thin Hair

Soung recommends trying Rogaine in any form.
Since hair thinning can occasionally have an allergic component—for example, from a hair dye that has caused a rash—Soung recommends a gentle shampoo that is hypoallergenic.
Carden recommends tackling thin hair by starting with the foundation of the issue: the scalp. Here are her picks:

And a few more recs:

And finally…

As hard as it is, the most important thing when dealing with thin hair or hair loss—after consulting with a stylist and dermatologist!—is to be patient. Because hair grows in such long cycles, you may not see any difference from day to day or even from week to week, but it is completely possible for change to occur.
If you suspect that your thin hair may indeed be stress related, it might be a good opportunity to take inventory of the challenging parts of your life and see if you can make some changes to benefit your overall health and wellness.