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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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Author: HealthyWay Staff Writer
If you’ve ever been in therapy or even just a conversation about relationships, you’ve probably been asked, “Do you know your love language?” Though the concept of love languages is more than 20 years old, the idea that we all have different ways of expressing and receiving love has stuck around.
Gary Chapman, PhD, published The Five Love Languages in 1995, and it remains one of the best-selling relationship books of all time. It’s helped millions of people relate to each other in relationships romantic and platonic alike. On the book’s website, you can take The Five Love Languages quiz to learn which of the five love languages is your primary language. Once you know your language, though, you might have a few questions like: How do I ask for what I want? What is my partner’s love language? I’m single; why should I care?
If you’re new to the concept of the five love languages, you might be wondering where exactly they came from and why they’ve become such a phenomenon.
We spoke with the languages’ creator, Chapman, to find out how his theory has changed over the years, how he interpreted the response to his original book, and how learning the five love languages might help people make positive life changes—even if they aren’t in a long-term romantic relationship.
Here’s a basic synopsis of the five languages theory.
Chapman’s beliefs are simple: People express their love in different ways—specifically, through five “love languages.” Those languages are:
Words of Affirmation: Giving Compliments, Thanks, and Other Positive Comments With a Positive Tone
That last part is especially important, as tone can undercut a positive message. Depending on the context and tone of voice, a statement like “You’re great storyteller” might come off as a genuine compliment—or as scathing condescension.
People who speak this love language aren’t necessarily fishing for compliments; they crave positive affirmation in general, but it’s not because they’re self-centered. If you notice your S/O looking particularly good one day, let them know. If you loved the dinner they cooked for you, explain why you liked it so much. People who want to hear words of affirmation tend to appreciate hearing positive things in general, so try speaking highly about things that your partner appreciates, and make an effort to avoid unnecessary complaints and other harsh, negative speech.
If you aren’t the type to verbalize your feelings, get in some practice with a few sweet text messages or Snapchats a day. Letting your partner know you’re thinking of them and appreciate them is key.
Quality Time: Giving Full, Undivided Attention and Finding Joy in Activities Pursued With a Partner
“Quality conversation is more about listening than talking,” Chapman writes in the book, “but usually, partners want both.”
To speak this love language, block off time specifically for your partner. We know, we know—that’s easier said than done if you’re already juggling work, kids, your own personal health, and myriad other responsibilities, but your romantic relationship deserves your commitment.
Unfortunately, spending time in front of a television set binging on Netflix probably doesn’t count as quality time to those who are attracted to and moved by quality time. Instead, consider taking up a hobby together (yoga, we’re looking at you). Go on a walk a few times a week, just you two. Get in bed early and have a conversation about your day. Make sure you think of this time as a non-negotiable. If you or your partner thrive on getting quality time, it needs to be a priority.
Gifts: Physical Tokens That Are Representative of Love
Gifts is one of the most misinterpreted of the five love languages. If your loved one is gift-oriented, it doesn’t mean they’re a gold-digger. Instead, people whose primary love language is gifts respond best to physical reminders that you’re thinking of them. If that seems difficult to you, start small. Pick up a latte for your partner or make an inspirational Spotify playlist if you know they’re having a tough day at work. If you see a pair of socks you know he’d love, pick them up. If she’s been talking about this beautiful notebook, surprise her with it.
Small tokens of affection can be just as meaningful as more expensive gifts, but if your partner responds best to gifts, be sure to give them regularly—not just on special occasions.
Acts of Service: Doing Chores and Other Actions That Ease a Partner’s Burden
Granted, both partners should help with the chores, but people who speak this love language see a direct correlation between their partner’s love and the amount of time spent serving the household or performing acts of care and kindness.
As with quality time, the trick is to dedicate some time every day to your partner’s happiness and well-being. Surprise them by tackling a home improvement project (you know you want to regrout the tile, right?) or taking the kids to the park. If they hate washing dishes or folding laundry, offer to do those while they clean or put the laundry away. Small acts can make a big difference.
Physical Touch: Holding Hands, Hugging, and Other Forms of Physical Intimacy
When we talked to Chapman, he made sure to clarify that “physical touch” isn’t all about sex (but that’s a big part of a healthy relationship!).
People who speak this language need physical touch as a reminder of your love. Make sure that the physical touch is coming from a genuine place of affection instead of being a constant precursor to foreplay. Reaching over to hold a partner’s hand while watching a movie can work wonders; a slight graze of their back in public might be enough to send shivers down their spine.
Make eye contact, smile, and exhibit positive body language; as with the words of affirmation, tone is everything.
The Five Love Languages makes the case that every person has a primary and secondary love language (they may also “speak” the other languages to a lesser degree). If you and your partner don’t share the same primary love language, it can be hard for both of you to feel loved if you aren’t both working to love each other using your partner’s love language. Those feelings can cause the breakdown of the relationship.
In the book, Chapman discusses each of the five love languages in detail, telling stories to illustrate his points. Occasionally he also references the Bible, which is a possible point of contention, and some reviewers have noted that Chapman’s Christian faith may alienate potential readers of the book. But reviewers like Slate’s Ruth Graham have defended the book’s underlying concepts while noting they were initially resistant to its non-secular approach.
Is there any scientific basis to the five love languages?
The Five Love Languages isn’t based explicitly in science. It doesn’t reference much peer-reviewed research; instead it relies on Chapman’s anecdotes to reinforce its points.
But that doesn’t mean that it’s without academic merit. A 2006 study examined the five love languages and found that they could, indeed, reflect the behaviors that people use to successfully maintain their relationships. More recently, a 2016 study of 400 participants found support for Chapman’s theory.
For adherents of The Five Love Languages, those scientific findings aren’t a surprise. The book uses intentionally simple language and broad concepts to talk about the communication issues that can arise in any relationship, but its core arguments seem quite strong. In any case, it’s certainly worthy of serious discussion.
Talking to the Five Love Languages founder, Gary Chapman
HealthyWay: So I just finished the book. Your background is in anthropology. I was wondering if you could tell me what role that background played in the development of this approach?
Chapman: Ha ha, you know, probably not a lot—at least directly.
A thing that really surprised me—where my anthropology background kind of jumped to the front—was when the book was published. My publisher was approached by a Spanish publisher; they wanted to publish it in Spanish.
With my anthropology background, I said to my publisher, “I don’t know, does this really work in Spanish? You know, I discovered this in middle America.”
And they said, “Well, they’ve read the book, and they want to publish it.” I said, “Well, okay, let’s just go with it.”
It became their best seller. In fact, they’ve told me the other day that they’ve sold 3 million copies in Spanish. After that, the other editions started, and now it’s been translated in 50 languages around the world.
That surprised me because of my anthropology background. But as for directly impacting the writing of the book, there’s no real connection there.
You wrote something about that in the book—the success you’ve had with different translations, and how the “dialects” of the five love languages change in different cultures. Could you talk about that for a moment? For instance, how it would relate to a Spanish audience?
I think—of course, in English, as well—each of the [five love] languages have different dialects. For example, in words, there’s words of praise, there’s words of encouragement, there are other types of words. That’s still true in other languages. But there may well be different dialects in other cultures that we wouldn’t necessarily have.
For example, in the Spanish culture … when you greet somebody, just socially, you might kiss them on both sides of the cheek. Well, we wouldn’t do that in American culture. It’s physical touch, but it’s not a dialect that we would use in our culture.
So I think there are other dialects in all languages. And I wouldn’t even be aware of what many of them would be. But obviously, the translator and publisher would be.
What did surprise me, however, is that the five languages do seem to be fundamental to human nature. And, therefore, they make sense in all the cultures in which they’ve been translated.
I saw there was a 2006 study, which I’m sure you’re aware of, that found evidence that your five love languages “may reflect behaviors performed to enact intended, relational maintenance.”
That seems to provide some scientific credence to the languages. Would you like to see more scientific research like that, to confirm what you’ve written?
You know, I’ve always been open that. I’ve had probably three or four grad students in different places that have written me and asked about doing research on a particular aspect of the love languages. I’ve always said, “Yes, I’m happy for you to do that. And when you finish your research, please send me the results.”
Well, I don’t know if they did it or not, but I never got any results. So I don’t know. But yes, I welcome that.
What are the changes from one edition of the book to the next? How do you update the book, or when do you decide it merits a new edition?
Well, essentially we have changed some illustrations from time to time. And also, in more recent years, we’ve used a few illustrations that include social media and that kind of thing, which obviously was not there when we wrote the book.
But there are no radical changes, really. The concept is still the same, and the five languages are still the same.
That’s interesting—I’m guessing that you notice social media affecting the ways that people communicate emotionally.
I do. Both positively and negatively.
For example, the simple thing of texting can be great for a marriage relationship. I text my wife when I’m traveling. I’ll say, “Okay, I’m at Greensboro airport, da da da,” you know. Then I tell her the next airport. We go back and forth texting, which is more convenient than calling, because sometimes I may be involved and not able to answer the phone.
So, yeah, I think social media has been helpful, but also it can be distracting from the relationship.
For example if a husband or wife spends their free time on the computer, doing whatever, the other person can feel like, “I think the computer is more important to you than I am.” So there’s a downside and a plus side.
One thing that kind of surprised me when I started looking into this, was how many non-religious people seem to appreciate your book and the approach of the five love languages. Is that something that you keep in mind while you’re writing?
Yes, very definitely. When I wrote this book, my desire was to write it in such a way that folks who are not religious would find it helpful.
I knew that religious people would know that all these languages are, for example, found in the Old Testament, the New Testament, and probably in other religious writings. But I didn’t want to write to just one particular group. I wanted to write for a general audience.
And it’s been very encouraging to me, the number of people who are not religious at all—or maybe they have a different religion—how they have found this book to be helpful in their relationship. And that’s what I had hoped would happen.
Do you have any advice for them and how they should approach this book? Should they take a different approach than a person that’s a Christian?
Whatever we read, we bring our religious beliefs, or our philosophy of life. We bring it to a book that we’re reading. We can’t divorce ourselves from our religious or philosophical beliefs about life.
But I think that, whatever the person’s background—religious or not religious—we all want to have good relationships. And we don’t get married to be miserable. We get married hoping we’re going to have a positive, supportive relationship.
I think that is the appeal the book has to all couples.
I found that the book’s about showing love, specifically, but also more generally about emotional communication. Do you think that the love languages approach could help with other types of relationships, like friendships or workplace relationships?
Yes. As a matter of fact, I’ve written a whole series of books that spin off from this original book. The first one is the 5 Love Languages of Children, which I wrote with a psychiatrist who had had 30 years of experience working with children. It’s written to parents, and the same concept applies—that children have a love language, and you need to give heavy dosage of the primary and then sprinkle in the other four [languages]. We’d like the child to learn how to give and receive love in all five languages; that would be the healthiest child.
So I developed that book, and then parents came to me and said, “Okay, that was very helpful, but now our kids are teenagers, and this doesn’t seem to be working. What’s the deal?”
The third book in the series was the 5 Love Languages of Teenagers, written to parents, helping them learn how to [communicate] while the teenager is going through all of these physical, emotional, and intellectual changes. And that’s been well received by parents.
So, yes, I think it applies to all human relationships. We all have the emotional need to feel loved, and most people agree that it’s our most fundamental emotional need—the need to feel loved by the significant people in our lives.
The concept [of the love languages] helps us understand how to do that, how to communicate love so that the emotional need is met.
I appreciated that the book is written in this kind of simple, general language, and I could see the theory applying in all of those different instances that you just mentioned. I saw online that there’s also a version of the book for people who have partners with Alzheimer’s, which I thought was interesting.
I wrote that one with a medical doctor whose wife had the disease, and we’re hoping that’s going to be very helpful to caregivers.
Also, we did a military edition at the request of so many military leaders. And for that one, we added the dimension: How do you speak these languages when you’re deployed, so that you can stay emotionally connected? And we got great ideas from military couples who read the original book and were applying it in their own lives.
Given that we’re living in a time where gender roles are changing rapidly, do you think people can get the same effect from your book if they’re not falling into traditional masculine and feminine roles?
You know, I think so. Because none of these languages are gender specific.
A man can have any one of these five as his primary language. A woman can have any one of the five as their primary language. Now, how we express them might be influenced by the change in culture. For example, an act of service: One man who grew up being told to open the door for a woman, he might open the door as an act of service. But maybe she doesn’t like that; she might say, “I can open my own door, thank you.”
And I say, fine. I’m not opposed to women opening doors, that’s fine, if that’s what you want to do. I’m just saying in marriage, ask your spouse what they prefer. If acts of service is their language, what acts of service would they prefer? If they don’t want you to open the door, then fine, don’t open the door—take the trash out, or do something else.
So, yes, I think culture can affect some of the dialects of how you speak these languages, but fundamentally, the five languages do pretty much cover the bases of what makes a person feel loved.
What is a common misconception people have when they hear about your work?
Well, one common misconception of men is they will say, “Oh, I know my love language, I don’t need to read that book. My love language is physical touch.”
And they mean sex. I say to them, “Well, perhaps that is your language, but let me ask you a question: do non-sexual touches make you feel loved?” And [the guy] looks at me like a deer in the headlights. “Are there non-sexual touches?”
I say, “Well, let me ask you this: If you get out of the car with your spouse, and you start walking into a store, and she reaches over and holds your hand as you walk into the store, does that make you feel loved? Lets says she’s pouring a cup of coffee for you, and she puts her hand on [your] shoulder, does that make you feel loved?
And if he says, “Not really,” I say, “Well, then, your love language is not physical touch. You like sex, but that’s not your love language, okay?”
So that’s a common misconception. Other than that, nothing really jumps to my mind. For the most part, most folks get it. The question most people have is: What if the love language of the other person is something that really does not come natural for you?
And I understand that, because, for example, if you grew up in a home where you never got affirming words, then affirming words will be hard for you. If you grew up where gift giving was not a part of your life, then gift giving will be difficult for you.
But the good news is that you can learn any of these five languages, even if you did not receive them as a child. Once you understand that this is what really makes the other person feel loved, then you can learn how to do it. Yes, it may be a stiff learning curve, but the more you do it, the more comfortable you become doing it.
It’s really like learning to speak another language. It takes you a while for it to begin to become kind of natural for you. But the good news is that any couple can have a meaningful, loving relationship by learning how to speak each other’s love languages.
An elimination diet, broadly speaking, is a specialized eating plan that attempts to identify trigger foods for people with food sensitivities. It’s a short-term diet, not a long-term lifestyle change, and it’s useful when establishing a diagnosis for various autoimmune, neurodevelopmental, or gastrointestinal (GI) disorders.
For example, to determine whether a person has a sensitivity to gluten (a common protein), doctors may recommend a restriction diet that doesn’t include gluten, but the person may be allowed to consume dairy and other possibly problematic foods. If a person has a different food sensitivity, the diet plan might eliminate dairy, eggs, gluten, and other potential triggers, then add those foods back gradually to determine the source of the symptoms.
We should note that there’s a significant difference between a food allergy and food intolerance (also known as a food sensitivity). When a person has a food allergy, their immune system reacts dramatically when presented with a trigger. That can cause serious or even life-threatening symptoms. Food intolerances are generally less severe and often cause gastrointestinal symptoms such as bloating or flatulence.
Elimination diets are typically used to identify food intolerances, not food allergies, but they’re recommended for a wide variety of potential conditions, including some disorders that may seem to have nothing to do with diet. Your physician might recommend an elimination diet as a treatment for ADD/ADHD, migraines, narcolepsy, skin conditions, or even asthma.
Recent health trends have helped the concept of elimination diets go mainstream, and some websites provide resources for people who want to attempt restricted diets on their own. That can be a dangerous idea. If you rush into a restricted eating plan without proper preparation, you could make serious mistakes that could endanger your health.
If you’re considering an elimination diet, or if a healthcare provider has recommended this type of eating plan, here’s what you need to know.
Who should consider an elimination diet?
Before making any significant changes to your diet, you should speak with a physician or dietitian. That’s especially important if you’re contemplating an eating plan with severe restrictions.
“There are steps to take with an elimination diet,” says Deborah Malkoff-Cohen, a registered dietitian, certified diabetes educator, and the founder of City Kids Nutrition in New York. “First, you have to meet with someone who’s qualified.”
That’s especially crucial if you already have dietary restrictions, if you’re nursing or pregnant, or if you have any health conditions that could affect nutrient absorption. One potential issue: You might not be aware of those nutritional deficiencies.
“For instance, my friend who’s nursing her baby—let’s say that she cuts out dairy,” Malkoff-Cohen says. “If she doesn’t take in enough calcium, the baby will take that from her bones, and she’s going to be at risk for osteoporosis.”
“Depending on your diet, supplements or different food choices might be essential,” she says. “You want to make sure that you’re eliminating the right things and that you’re reintroducing foods in the right way.”
Part of the reason that medical supervision is so important is that there are a wide variety of elimination diet protocols, some of which are better suited than others for certain conditions. Your physician may want to restrict entire food groups, foods that were processed in a certain way, or foods with specific additives. That’s part of the reason that you shouldn’t try to take on an elimination diet on your own—you’ll need a highly personalized diet plan.
“[The diet] really depends on the age group and the symptoms,” Malkoff-Cohen says. “I think a lot of people think it’s trendy to be on an elimination diet, somehow. You’re gluten free, or carb free, or dairy free. Everyone’s free of something—but that’s not necessarily healthy. You aren’t necessarily doing your body a service. And you can’t take everything out [of your diet].”
Understanding the Phases of an Elimination Diet
A typical elimination diet consists of several phases. After meeting with a specialist, patients will usually begin with a severely restricted diet consisting of basic, easy-to-digest foods; this is known as the elimination phase.
“You can’t always take everything out,” Malkoff-Cohen says. “We’ll often do a bland diet with protein and vegetables. We’ll take out gluten, dairy, soy, nuts, and eggs. Then we’ll add [food types] in one by one over several weeks and see what comes back. Then, you can figure out the culprit.”
That’s known as the reintroduction phase of the elimination diet. It’s extremely important to introduce a single type of food at a time.
“You have to have the patient feel better first before reintroducing foods. You have to get them back to baseline,” she says. “You have to get all of the symptoms to go away before you can have them reappear.”
Patients often make two types of mistakes: They don’t fully eliminate potential triggers or they add trigger foods into their diets too quickly.
“You have to eliminate the food from every part of your diet. You have to avoid trace amounts—you have to do it 100 percent,” Malkoff-Cohen says. “For instance, if you have something like celiac disease, when you test positive, you have to go through all of your products, including things like hair products and cosmetics.”
“As strange as it sounds, some cosmetics have gluten. It’s also used as a thickening agent in a lot of medications. It’s in hot dogs—most people wouldn’t consider that. So you have to have professional oversight. “
Patients also have to be careful when they’re not preparing their own meals. Restaurants might use dairy when making their bread, for instance, throwing off the diet and triggering a reaction that invalidates valuable diagnostic information. If you’re on an elimination diet, you’ll need to avoid making assumptions about your food, even if they seem reasonable.
As you’re changing your diet, you’ll also need to take extra care to monitor your nutritional intake. Your dietitian may recommend specific foods or nutrient supplements to help you avoid deficiencies. Don’t assume that your diet is becoming healthier simply because you’re cutting out triggers.
“Let’s say someone decides that gluten and dairy are culprits. You have to make sure you’re getting enough calcium and that the grains you’re choosing are the healthy ones,” Malkoff-Cohen says.
“‘Gluten-free’ is not healthier, unless you have a sensitivity,” she explains. “Unless you pick the higher fiber, more nutritious gluten-free grains, you aren’t necessarily doing your body a favor.”
How long does an elimination diet last?
Depending on the goal of your diet, you may have a restricted diet for several months. The most severe phase of the diet typically lasts about three weeks. You should carefully track symptoms and keep a food log, as you won’t be able to reintroduce foods until you’ve eliminated the triggers.
“Some people may see a change in their symptoms in only a few days,” Malkoff-Cohen says. “If you’re addressing gastrointestinal issues, some symptoms might go away as soon as you take the food out [of your diet] … but you also have to heal the gut, which might take a few days to really feel a difference. But you won’t have stomach cramping and things like that.”
“With eczema, skin conditions, and non-GI diseases, the changes could take a few weeks. It’s highly personalized to the patient,” she adds.
Keep track of physical, mental, and emotional symptoms. Doctors often watch for things like mood swings or “brain fog,” a feeling of fatigue that can accompany certain food sensitivities (including gluten intolerance). As some symptoms can be severe, you’ll want to reintroduce potential trigger foods carefully.
“If you take dairy out for a few weeks, I don’t want you just eating cheesecake right afterwards,” Malkoff-Cohen explains.
Elimination diets are, by nature, highly personalized, but the reintroduction phase should always be handled carefully. If your physician believes you have a food allergy, you should only reintroduce foods under medical supervision; allergens can cause a potentially life-threatening reaction called anaphylaxis, which has a rapid onset. Even a trace amount of an allergen might prompt a serious reaction, so it’s important to take the reintroduction phase seriously.
What are the benefits and limitations of elimination diets?
To be clear, elimination diets are never intended for weight loss; they’re highly specialized diets that are meant to identify triggers. They’re also limited in terms of their capabilities. To determine whether a person has celiac disease, for instance, doctors may need to perform an endoscopy and blood tests.
“If you take gluten out [of your diet] before those tests, your results might not be accurate,” Malkoff-Cohen explains.
By the same token, you don’t need to attempt an elimination diet if you have obvious evidence of a trigger.
“For instance, my friend’s son reacts to gluten,” Malkoff-Cohen says. “She was asking about elimination diets. I said, ‘Why would you need confirmation that he’s sensitive to gluten?’ If every time he eats it, he throws up, he shouldn’t be eating it. You don’t always need a confirmation. If every time you eat shrimp, you react, don’t eat shrimp.”
If you’re regularly experiencing mild symptoms, consider keeping a food journal while eating your normal diet.
“Journaling can be very helpful,” Malkoff-Cohen says. “If, for instance, you have migraines, you can go back and check what you’d eaten before your last migraine or aura, then try taking those foods out. You don’t necessarily need the full elimination diet in every case.”
Elimination Diets for Children: What to Know
Physicians may recommend elimination diets for children, which can create quite a bit of stress for both kids and parents. Most kids already have fairly restricted diets—even if that means that they refuse to eat broccoli—and many parents are apprehensive about applying severe restrictions.
“I see a lot of kids [with] autism, and they’ll do gluten- [or] dairy-free diets. That type of diet can sometimes help kids with autism by limiting some of the primary symptoms in terms of concentration, eye contact, and things like that,” Malkoff-Cohen says. “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. When you have a kid who eats five foods, you have to consider that going free from gluten or dairy could mean eliminating their whole diet.”
Elimination diets aren’t exactly fun for adult patients. But for kids, they can be downright torturous, and they’re not an option when a child already has a severely restricted diet. With that said, if your doctor has recommended an elimination diet, there are ways to make the process easier for your child.
“When you work with children, you want to replace what they’re already eating,” Malkoff-Cohen says. “If a child like waffles, you replace it with a gluten-free waffle. If they like pizza, you try a gluten-free pizza. Find analogs that the child will be more likely to accept.”
Granted, it’s not exactly a foolproof strategy. Parents should try to understand the child’s emotional state when starting out on a highly restricted diet.
“Kids are picky, and they’re not always going to like the replacement,” she says. “A 5-year-old doesn’t understand what’s happening…and gluten-free pizza doesn’t usually taste like a normal pizza.”
Try planning all meals carefully at the outset of every week, then commit to eating the same foods as your child. Many hospitals offer online resources to make this process easier, although it’s important to follow the exact recommendations of a dietitian, even if they conflict with the information found in online resources.
As with adults, journaling is an essential part of the process. Parents should work with kids to log both physical and emotional symptoms, along with food types, quantity, and meal times.
And while we don’t want to belabor the point, it’s imperative that parents obtain medical supervision when implementing significant changes to a child’s diet. Never attempt an elimination diet under any circumstances without help from a physician or dietitian.
That really goes for all age groups. Elimination diets are diagnostically useful, and although they can restore quality of life to patients with food sensitivities, they’re not something to take lightly.
Run out of foundation this morning? No worries. Head to the pantry and give peanut butter a try.
Where do you think we got that idea? From a YouTube trend, of course. At some point in the recent past, YouTube makeup artists began creating full-face looks with items from their pantry. Some have more success with their ingredients than others, but the array of foods they use, and the looks they create, are incredibly impressive—even the bad ones. Especially the bad ones.
Lily Lowe is a popular YouTube makeup artist who decided to try out the food-as-makeup challenge.
[pullquote align=”center”]“I knew the [food-as-makeup] trend existed, and I find it so enjoyable and fascinating how every single thing around us is an instrument for art.”
—YouTuber Lily Lowe[/pullquote]
“It’s obvious that fruits and stuff with food colouring will leave a nice tint, so I thought, ‘Perfect,’” she tells HealthyWay. “What’s going to go wrong?”
Lowe isn’t the only one taking on the challenge. It’s a full-fledged trend, and if you want to get in on the tasty action, just keep reading. Just keep in mind that this is just a one-off experiment, not a dedicated, daily makeup regimen.
Oh, and before you run off to the store and stock up on foods to try this yourself, be aware of allergies you might have. If you’re unsure about how something will react on your skin, test out a small patch first before slathering it across your whole face. And obviously, don’t use foods you have a known allergy to. That wouldn’t be good.
First, exfoliate.
Before you get ready for the day, it’s always a good idea to clean and exfoliate your skin. Exfoliation helps get rid of dead, dull skin cells, leaving you looking as radiant as possible. There are lots of different products out there, but why not save money and use a secretly amazing exfoliant that’s probably already in your pantry?
We’re talking, of course, about coffee grounds. Not only do you get to enjoy a cup of joe in the morning, but you can then use the grounds as part of your beauty routine. Coffee grounds are coarse but not harsh, and you can use them on your face or your whole body. In fact, coffee grounds have nearly the same pH as your skin, so they shouldn’t leave you feeling too oily or dry.
2. A Tasty Foundation
Once your skin is clean and smooth, it’s time to apply your base foundation. A handful of artists use peanut butter because it is similar to a cream-based foundation. Make sure you buy smooth peanut butter, and if you need to make it thinner for easier application, just add a little coconut oil—this was Lowe’s saving grace during her attempt. Once you have the product prepared, just smooth it onto your face and use a brush or beauty sponge to smooth it into your skin.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BFPe3WkGH9p/?hl=en&taken-by=lou_flores
Plain peanut butter tends to work best for lighter skin tones, but you can add cocoa powder to the mix to adjust the pigment. If you find the peanut butter too thick or not as manageable as you’d like, you can mix cornstarch and cocoa powder to make a food-based powder foundation.
3. Eyeshadow
With so many colorful options available for eyeshadow, you might think there’s no way the food options can compare. Not true! Depending on the look and style you’re going for, there are a ton of food items that can replace store-bought products.
The first option is to use different fruits. Smash blackberries and blueberries and (carefully) apply the juice to eyelids for a dark, yet soft tone. For earthy tones, you can use plain cocoa powder or spirulina. Be careful not to be too heavy-handed with the powders, though. Use a small brush and start off with a tiny bit of product, then build from there.
4. Brows and Contour
If you need to fill your eyebrows in, there are a few food-based options. However, most of them only work for those with darker hair. Cocoa powder can work as a brow filler, or you could use almost any other chocolate product. You could warm up a chocolate icing, a chocolate candy bar, or peanut butter and use those similarly as a liquid or cream product.
The same goes for using food for contouring. Chocolate products (in either powder or cream form) can be applied with a brush or sponge and used to contour your face. Some will blend better than others. And remember, if you’re having difficulty getting something to blend or set, try adding some coconut or jojoba oil.
YouTube star Ms. Yeah takes this makeup trend to the next level in her video. Not only does she use a plethora of food products found in her office (including chocolate powder for brow filler), but she creates a brow brush from an actual chicken feather.
5. Baking
Now you can actually “bake” your face with real baking ingredients! In case you aren’t familiar with the term “baking” in regards to your makeup routine, it’s a way to set your foundation for a flawless look. Baking involves dusting your face with a translucent powder, allowing the heat from your face to set your foundation and concealer for 10 minutes or so. Then you dust the powder off.
If you want to try baking your food-based full face, you can use actual baking flour. After you’ve applied your foundation, use a powder puff and press flour onto your cheeks and under your eyes. Wait 10 minutes and then dust the flour off.
6. Lips
Remember devouring tons of candy as a child and realizing if you ate enough Skittles or Jolly Ranchers your tongue would turn colors? Well, now you get to use those candies in place of boring ol’ lipstick.
https://twitter.com/vicesadvirtues/status/975307589599686656
Skittles or Kool-Aid are good options for funky lip stain colors. To use Skittles, warm the candy in your hand, or melt them down in a microwave (but be sure to let them cool before touching). Once they are soft or slightly runny, you can use your finger or a small brush to apply the color to your lips. For Kool-Aid, dampen your finger, dip it in the powder (just a little at a time), and apply to your lips.
You can also use crushed berries, barbecue sauce, or even hot sauce (though we aren’t sure why you’d want to do that) for more subtle tones. Check out Stephanie Lange’s video that shows her using barbecue sauce as lipstick and brow filler.
7. Blush and Bronzer
After all the work (and food) you’ve used to make yourself look great, you need to top everything off with a nice blush or bronzer/highlight. Why go through all that trouble to not look as stunning as possible?
Again, you can reuse a lot of the food products from other sections here, too—it all depends on your skin tone. Cocoa powder can work as a bronzer or as contour. Crushed strawberries or raspberries work well as natural blush colors. If you want something with a little more sparkle, you can try out some edible glitter as highlighter or blush.
Now, it’s your turn.
If you’re curious about this makeup trend but don’t know where to start, there’s a good chance your favorite makeup artist has already made a video of them trying it out. Some have more success than others, but you can see how each food item reacts and works in different situations.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNIBbarhrQX/?taken-by=makeup_maven
Lowe, who you’ll remember from the beginning of this article, set out to do a natural, full-face look using nothing but food.
“I knew the trend existed, and I find it so enjoyable and fascinating how every single thing around us is an instrument for art,” Lowe tells HealthyWay. “So that was my main reason for making up my face with food, combined with the fact that I just fancied a light-hearted fun challenge for my channel.”
In the video, Lowe does a great job at implementing the products…but some of them just won’t cooperate.
Lowe’s plan included: peanut butter for foundation, setting the foundation with flour, contour and eyeshadow with cocoa powder, edible glitter for highlighter, blueberries for eyeshadow and mascara, a mix of cocoa powder, flour, peanut butter, and coconut oil for her brows, and Skittles as a lip tint. Lowe was confident with her choices in the beginning.
“I did have a lot of faith in the food at first! I’d done some research beforehand, [which taught me that foods] that have good color pay off,” she says.
When Lowe began applying the foods to her face, she quickly encountered some difficulties. Thinning the products with coconut oil definitely helped, but each item came with its own difficulty in regards to blending and covering the skin evenly.
“Getting my base done was definitely the hardest,” Lowe says. “Mixing everything with coconut oil seemed to be my savior, as it thinned the peanut butter ‘foundation’ to a nice consistency, but it definitely doesn’t feel the best on your skin, nor does it supply any coverage you may be surprised to hear.”
These problems didn’t stop Lowe! She powered through and finished applying all the items, discovering some surprises along the way. Despite the peanut butter being tacky and the cocoa powder refusing to blend, Lowe created a beautiful, neutral-tone look, and says she is eager to try all of this again.
If you’re worried about how your skin will react to being covered in food, just know that this wasn’t a problem for Lowe.
“I think a lot of people expected my skin to suffer a lot after this, but I can truthfully say that my skin was completely fine afterwards,” she says. “If you think about it, there is probably a lot more harmful chemicals in the stuff we put on our skin everyday, and it was only sitting on my skin for a brief time before I cleansed it thoroughly.”
Another makeup artist, seen above, took this challenge to a whole new level and only used food items to apply her makeup. No brushes—only food. Think you can master these techniques?
Before you try either one of these, it’s important to try to waste as little food as possible. Buy products you would normally use, and only take out small portions at a time. This way, you’ll be looking good responsibly. Good luck!
If you’ve got your finger on the pulse of the skincare industry, you’ve likely heard of red light therapy as a cure for many ailments: fatigue, acne, fine lines, anxiety, run-of-the-mill injuries, and even cancer. And despite the fact that the skincare industry seems to try and discard trends every single day, light therapy—particularly red light therapy—has had notable staying power.
Just the other day, a friend posted an Instagram story in which she was sitting in a sauna built for one with red lights shining down on her as she bobbed her head to one of her Spotify playlists (because of course an aux cord was included in said sauna). Red light therapy is definitely still trendy. But people also really believe it helps their skin, their sleep, and even their busy minds in need of stress relief.
We spoke to dermatologist Rhonda Klein, MD, about the red light therapy claims and how she uses red light therapy in her practice. If you’re wondering what red light therapy it is or how it could possibly work, read on.
What is red light therapy?
Red light therapy, also known as low-level laser light therapy (LLLT) or biostimulation (BIOS), is the name given to a large range of therapies that use certain wavelengths of light to promote healing, improve skin tone, and enhance circulation. Red light therapy is said to be effective for pain management, acne treatment, and the healing of certain sports injuries, among other applications.
Those are some pretty big claims, so we decided to look into the science of red light therapy. Admittedly, we’re pretty skeptical of anything that claims to cure so many things, especially when, at first glance, it boils down to spending time under a certain lightbulb.
That said, while red light therapy isn’t necessarily a miracle treatment, it’s not entirely bogus either.
How does red light therapy work?
While “Stand under this light for a while” covers the basics, red light therapy is (fortunately) more complex. Patients typically undergo multiple treatments during which they’re exposed to low-level lights. The light waves are said to stimulate production of collagen, an important protein found throughout the body. The Los Angeles Times also reports that under the right conditions red light therapy can reduce inflammation, potentially allowing tissues to heal more quickly than they would in the absence of treatment.
So, why is red light more therapeutic than other types of light? It isn’t—at least, not as a rule.
Some light therapies also use blue lights or full-spectrum lights, but different wavelengths of light have different effects. For example, blue light is more effective than red light for managing the symptoms of seasonal affective disorder (SAD), while red light seems more effective for certain cosmetic skin treatments.
The main difference is the light’s wavelength and intensity. Red light has a longer wavelength than blue light, which allows it to penetrate deeper into tissues. Its waves also have a lower frequency, which may make them better suited to promoting pain reduction. No matter what type of light you’re being treated with, the exact wavelength is important; you can’t simply sit under a red traffic light for half an hour and expect any results (other than maybe a traffic ticket).
How do dermatologists use red light therapy?
In dermatology, red light therapy is more accurately called low-level laser light therapy (LLLT). Proponents of the technology claim that LLLT can successfully treat various conditions including acne, vitiligo, and psoriasis.
For conditions like acne, red light therapy seems to be effective, but it’s often less effective than topical treatments and medications.
“[Light therapy is] definitely nowhere near first line,” says Klein, who offers light therapy services at her clinic in Connecticut, “but it’s good for [acne] patients who don’t want to take prescription medications.”
For example, one of Klein’s patients decided to use light therapy for acne treatment prior to a wedding since other options could have caused unwelcome side effects (nobody wants an upset stomach on their big day). Klein says that phototherapy can be effective for treating acne, although it’s not necessarily the cheapest or most effective option.
“Generally, unless they’re coming every week or two, [light therapy] is not going to make a great difference, and it’s not usually covered by insurance,” Klein says. “We offer treatments for $75, and honestly, we do that for the patients … It’s not something we make money on.”
Can red light therapy tone the skin or reduce wrinkles?
Proponents of red light therapy often claim that it can rejuvenate the skin, reducing the appearance stretch marks and wrinkles.
“It’s thought to potentially incite collagen [production],” Klein says. “I don’t know that we really have any studies backing that up. It may potentially give you a glow.”
We looked into the available research, and it’s a mixed bag. A 2014 study found that red light therapy wasn’t any more effective at treating wrinkles than broadband photobiomodulation, which uses a broader range of light wavelengths. However, that study found that both light sources “demonstrated efficacy and safety for skin rejuvenation and intradermal collagen increase when compared with controls.”
Several other studies seem to indicate that light therapies could improve the appearance of skin, but the American Academy of Dermatology notes that while light treatments can be effective for that purpose, patients should only pursue those therapies with help from a physician.
That’s also true if you’re looking to regrow lost hair. Some studies do show that low-level laser therapy can promote hair growth in humans, but the wavelength and intensity of the light source are important factors, so seeking out treatment from a qualified professional is essential.
Can red light therapy be used to manage chronic pain?
Here’s where we get into slightly murky waters. There’s substantial evidence to suggest that LLLT can help relieve pain better than a placebo.
The problem? Scientists aren’t totally sure how the therapy prevents or lessens pain.
One theory is that it inhibits neural enzyme production, and there’s some evidence to suggest that LLLT can increase endorphin production while enhancing blood flow. That said, red light therapy might simply reduce inflammation by providing a modest heat source, in which case an electric blanket would serve the same function.
Researchers also disagree about the extent of red light therapy’s effect. A 2010 study found that phototherapy patients experienced no difference in chronic pain as compared to placebo groups, while another meta-analysis from the same year found that phototherapy was remarkably effective for pain management.
Some scientists believe that the issue is in the methodology, meaning physicians likely aren’t using the same techniques when treating chronic pain patients. Likewise, pain is extraordinarily difficult to study since research relies on self-reporting from patients.
“Studies differ in overall dosage and wavelength which limits the ability to accurately draw conclusions,” wrote J. Derek Kingsley, et al, in a 2014 research review. “Pain is a very complex condition that manifests itself in a variety of different forms. Perhaps there is no set standard of care that will encompass everyone’s needs. However, it is clear that LLLT may be beneficial for many individuals suffering from pain, regardless of the condition that is causing it.”
Can red light therapy kill cancer cells?
Dermatologists can use photodynamic light therapy to destroy cancer cells. As fantastic as that might sound, there are, of course, caveats, and you’re certainly not getting this benefit from a tanning bed outfitted with a few red light bulbs.
Typically, doctors treat patients’ precancerous growths with a topical aminolevulinic acid, then use a red or blue light to activate the medication. This isn’t what most people think of as “red light therapy,” though, since the medication is doing all of the heavy lifting.
It’s also why over-the-counter phototherapy treatments are ineffective for treating things like cancer. While there’s some evidence that targeted light therapies could effectively treat tumors in humans, the technology isn’t there yet.
“Half of what [dermatologists] do all day is dispute marketing claims,” Klein says. “Medical professionals can’t make claims without data, but med-spas and other professionals can. So I’d just tell people to be careful and to research claims for themselves.”
The takeaway: If you you have a skin growth that’s concerning you, give your dermatologist a call instead of trying to treat it yourself.
Can red light therapy cause cancer?
Melanomas are the deadliest form of skin cancer, and sadly, even one indoor tanning session can increase a person’s risk of developing a melanoma by 20 percent. Since some tanning salons now offer services that use red light, we wondered: Could a red light therapy lamp cause cancer?
In a word: Nope. Tanning lamps create ultraviolet light, which has a shorter wavelength than any form of visible light. Ultraviolet light is a form of ionizing radiation, which is capable of disrupting DNA and causing cancer.
Red light, on the other hand, is non-ionizing radiation. Its wavelength is too broad to cause a carcinogenic effect, and while some researchers have expressed concerns that low-level light therapy could cause existing cancers to spread, those concerns appear unfounded.
Red light therapy doesn’t have too many side effects outside of potential eye strain, so if you enjoy sitting under the red lights at your local gym or tanning salon, go for it. Of course, that assumes that the red light device is being used properly. Which reminds us…
What should you know about getting red light therapy?
Outside of a doctor’s office, the most common uses of red light therapy are workout recovery and cosmetic enhancement. Many of the businesses that offer red light therapy won’t make the specific claims referenced in this article because they don’t want to draw the ire of the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), which issued a letter in 2011 warning consumers about inaccurate red light therapy claims.
At the time, tanning salon owners were simply replacing the lamps in their tanning beds and booths with red lights, then claiming to offer the full therapeutic benefits of red light therapy and LLLT to customers. That was an issue because the wavelength and frequency of a phototherapy light matters, meaning you can’t just hang a red light bulb and call it a day.
That said, it’s certainly possible that some over-the-counter products and services could be effective for some issues that red light therapy has been claimed to fix. The problem is that there’s no way to know for sure.
While the FDA approves some types of lamps for certain therapeutic purposes, it’s important to know most of the products on the market are not FDA approved.
If you’re considering red light therapy product, you can search through the FDA’s database of cleared medical devices. Otherwise, take any pseudoscientific product claims with a big grain of salt.
Red light therapy isn’t magical, and while it’s a promising field of scientific study, it also gives less-than-reputable marketers a new way to make loads of money. If you’re interested in trying red light therapy, carefully consider the potential benefits of a device or treatment, then make sure that those claims have strong scientific support.
If you end up trying out a red light therapy sauna, that’s fine (and please take an ’80s-inspired selfie). Just make sure that the light source is actually red light, since ultraviolet light can be very dangerous.
Ultimately, red light therapy and other forms of phototherapy might be enormously beneficial, but as with all health products, the best piece of advice is simple: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
[related article_ids=395,17610]
When a loved one starts losing their memory, the world feels like it’s falling apart.
Alzheimer’s disease is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States, and by some estimates, five million Americans are currently living with the disease. It’s an incredibly difficult diagnosis, both for the patient and the caregiver. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, 35 percent of caregivers for people with Alzheimer’s (or other dementias) say that their care responsibilities have negatively affected their health.
We spoke with author Leslie Breslin, who cared for her father as he struggled with Alzheimer’s. He passed away in 2007. She detailed the harsh realities of dementia—and provided a few words of advice for staying healthy while facing an Alzheimer’s diagnosis.
[Editorial note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.]
HEALTHYWAY: You’ve got a pretty amazing story of when you first noticed your father’s symptoms. It was Alzheimer’s, correct?
LESLIE BRESLIN: That’s what they concluded. But, you know, 10 years ago, many dementias were diagnosed as Alzheimer’s. Since then, I’ve realized there’s many different forms of dementia, so was it true Alzheimer’s? I don’t know.
Could you briefly tell the story of the moment when you realized things might not be okay?
Well, my birthday is September 12, and I’m an only child. My dad was very into current events.
This was 2001, and I did not hear from my dad when everything happened in New York. Considering that I was born in NY, and we had friends and family in New York, not hearing from my dad was weird.
I let it go for a week, and I called him basically to give him a hard time for not calling me. And pretty much the first sentence freaked me out, and I knew something was wrong. I asked him, “Did you see all the stuff that’s going on in New York?” And his response was, “Yeah, I saw those bodies falling out of the sky, and those planes crashing into each other.” He said it like he was there.
I said, “Dad, were you in New York on Tuesday?” And he said, “No, I was sitting at the bar.” He was in Florida at the time. That’s when I knew.
[Editorial note: The Alzheimer’s Association provides a list of 10 symptoms of Alzheimer’s, which we’re linking here for any readers interested in recognizing the early warning signs. Remember, only a trained physician can make a diagnosis.]
How long after that was there a diagnosis? Or did he go to the doctor after that?
No, I finally got him to the doctor. It took four months before I finally got him to a doctor and got him an official diagnosis. He was living with me at the time.
But within about three weeks of that phone call, he called me one day…I had gone to see him, and I knew. Good lord. The way he was living.
I knew he couldn’t stay by himself. And at that same time—he was taking care of his mother with dementia for 10 years, and he told me that he had recently put her in a nursing home.
Well, I spoke to the nursing home people, and I spoke to Adult Protective Services in Florida, and they told me that he had not put her in a nursing home. That they had taken her away for her own safety, because he was being so erratic. They thought he was [an] addict.
How old was he at that point?
He was 63. But, when all was said and done, and I looked back on things that he had been doing, I realized he was probably suffering from age 50.
How did other members of your family react to the diagnosis and the changing behavior?
Well, nobody really saw him but me. As far as their reactions—they didn’t care. It was mostly, “Well, what are you going to do with your Grandma’s stuff?”
None of the family did anything. Nobody did anything to help me.
So after the diagnosis, you’re pretty much on your own, trying to care for your father as he’s facing this horrible disease.
I became caregiver for him in my house. In the midst of all that, I figured out my mom’s dad was suffering, and he wanted to come live with me as well. And it was like, “No, I can’t.” So I called my aunt, and she ultimately ended up moving in with him and taking care of him until he passed.
Your grandfather had dementia as well?
Yes.
Were his symptoms very similar, or did his dementia manifest in a different way?
I did not see him, but I spoke to him. I was the one who figured it out, in talking to him on the phone. For the life of me, I can’t remember exactly what he said, but he said something that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up, and I immediately called my aunt and said, “Grandpa’s got Alzheimer’s.”
They at first diagnosed him with a stroke because he’d had a stroke before. But I kept telling everybody, “No, it’s dementia.”
And they finally diagnosed him after—he lived in the Bronx and had a girlfriend, and he used to take her to and from work, which was about two blocks away. And one night he went to pick her up from work at 9 p.m., and they found him at 3 a.m. in Jersey.
We spoke with a psychologist who mentioned that that’s kind of the first sign for a lot of people. When people have to go somewhere as a matter of routine, they get confused and don’t go to the right place.
At that point, you’re living with your father. Could you tell me what it was like?
Well, I got post-traumatic stress disorder, having my dad live with me. I also had a 3-year old, an 8-year old, and a husband who was bipolar with schizophrenic tendencies and wouldn’t take his meds. So, yeah, that was a little insane. The sundowning was the worst part. He would go into his bedroom at night and all hell would break loose, and all hell would break loose when he would come back out.
[Editorial note: Sundowning refers to increases in behavioral problems and sleep issues, beginning at dusk and sometimes continuing late into the night. People with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia often experience sundowning, and may become agitated, confused, or anxious late in the day.]
I would wake up and he would be standing naked at the foot of my bed. Or he’d be coming out of my bathroom, which was in my bedroom. He constantly insisted that we had 13 bathrooms and we were moving them at night. We had a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house, and the bathroom was across the hall from his room.
[pullquote align=”center”]”Well, you have to—and this is hardest thing for anybody to do, me included—you have to not take anything they say or do personally. And keep telling yourself, ‘It’s not them, it’s the disease.'”
—Leslie Breslin on Alzheimer’s[/pullquote]
I had to do laundry every single day because of that. And the reason why I eventually ended up tricking him into taking himself into a psych ward was because he threatened to kill my children.
He was also running away every day. And one of the days, he ran away after threatening my kids, my husband went and got an actual outside door lock, and we put it on the kid’s bedroom doors, so that to get into the kids room, from the outside, you had to have a key. And when we put them to bed at night, we told them, “You have to lock the door from here, and do not open the door for anybody but me, your dad, the police, or the fire department.”
Did he have any sort of violent tendencies before the diagnosis?
Yes. My dad was abusive to my mom, his girlfriends, me. I have scars to this day. And his mother was violent as well. And the strange thing is, when she got the dementia, she became the grandmother I always wanted.
My grandmother and I hated each other until she got dementia, and then she became a sweet little old lady. She just didn’t know who I was. My dad stayed violent.
So, as you mentioned, humor is one of the coping mechanism you’re using. What are some other coping mechanism you have?
Well, you have to—and this is hardest thing for anybody to do, me included—you have to not take anything they say or do personally. And keep telling yourself, “It’s not them, it’s the disease.”
And that’s the hardest thing to do.
There are those moments where their “old selves”come back, and I imagine that’s incredibly difficult. How do you reconcile that when they’re doing something negative?
You don’t. You don’t. You can’t. Because you start to be all over the place emotionally because they’re all over the place emotionally.
And they can slip from who they really are to the disease, in the blink of an eye. And sometimes you don’t even realize [what] you were dealing with until later, until you reflect.
That’s especially true once they get from moderate to more of the advanced stages of the disease.
There was a moment with my dad that broke my heart, and it was after he was already in the nursing home. He had fallen and hurt himself, and they took him to the hospital. And when I got there, the doctor said, “Well, he’s non-communicative.”
And I said, “No he’s not, he talks all the time. He talks to me everyday when I go see him.”
He talked to me, but he wouldn’t talk to the doctors. I don’t know what he was seeing—I’m assuming he was hallucinating—but I was able to get some verbalization from him, but obviously I couldn’t get like, answers or anything from him that the doctors needed.
But after everybody left, I was just kind of talking to him out loud and crying, and I said, “Dad, I’m so sorry, I’m going to do whatever I can to get you out of this nursing home.”
He was behind me, so I wasn’t even looking at him, I was just kind of talking. And he said, “You will? You’ll do that for me?”
And I looked at him, and said, “Yeah, dad, of course.”
And he said, “Thank you.” And then he went away.
What do you mean he went away?
Like, he went back to inside of his head. And he was gone again.
Did you get him out of the nursing home?
Yes, I did. I got him into a different nursing home.
[Editorial note: The Alzheimer’s Association provides this page to help family members find capable residential care facilities. The organization also provides resources for families who prefer in-home care.]
And what was that like?
It was better, because the place he was in—it was horrible. The next one was a very nice environment. Everybody was really sweet.
For a while, I tried to get him back home once he became docile, and I did get him back home for one day. But my husband, at the time, was out of town, and I was home alone with my kids and my dad. The day that they brought him home was the day that he stopped walking.
I couldn’t handle him by myself. So I got him for a day, and then I had to take him back to the nursing home the next day.
What were his symptoms at that point? Was he pretty much non-communicative?
Yes, he was non-communicative most of the time. He would speak, but it was nonsensical. By then, he had a feeding tube. Like I said, he stopped walking. He was just—he was a shell.
When did he pass away?
It took me another two months to fight them to get the feeding tube out. He died 48 hours after they took out the feeding tube.
What year was that?
2007.
I mean, all of this in the course of—
Five years.
That must have been incredibly difficult. What advice would you have for someone who’s just starting to go through this, that just received a diagnosis?
Get their finances in order as quickly as possible or it’s a nightmare. Get them to a doctor as quickly as possible to get an official diagnosis or it’s a nightmare. Because if you don’t have an official diagnosis, you can’t do anything.
These people are grown adults. At the beginning, they’re in that stage where they can bluff, and to people who don’t know them, they sound rational. But if you do know them, you know that what they’re saying isn’t true or non-nonsensical. So get a diagnosis, officially, as quickly as possible, and then gather as much support as you possibly can around you.
Because it’s rough. And you will end up being ill yourself if you try to do it yourself.
Have you thought about getting some regular testing for dementia?
For myself?
Yes.
I’ve worried about me, so I have gotten testing. So far, I’m fine. But I do worry.
I don’t know how to phrase this. I’m just thinking of the people who suffer from this and how we should treat it as a society. Do you have any thoughts on that?
Stop vilifying the family members that tell you that their family members have this. Believe people…I kept getting advice like, “Well, he’s a grown man, let him do what he wants. If he wants to drink, let him drink.”
Okay, he’s out of his mind. I can’t just let him do what he wants to do.
So help people. Don’t overburden them.
For women, thinning hair can be downright devastating.
According to the American Hair Loss Association, women make up about 40 percent of American hair loss sufferers. While hair loss (also known as alopecia) isn’t easy for anyone, women face an especially heavy social stigma when dealing with this difficult—and complex—problem.
“This is one of those subjects that’s really complicated,” Sharon Keene, MD, president and medical director of Physician’s Hair Institute, tells HealthyWay. “There is not one diagnosis that fits all.”
We spoke with Keene to find out what women should know about alopecia. For starters…
Don’t assume that your hair is thinning “naturally.”
As your hair starts to thin or your hairline begins to change, you might assume that there’s nothing you can do about it. After all, to some extent, hair loss is a normal part of aging, right?
To a degree, yes, but Keene says that can be a dangerous assumption.
“It’s a complex diagnosis, because hair loss can occur due to metabolic disturbances, thyroid disease, parathyroid disease, polycystic ovary syndrome, hyperandrogenism, malnutrition, or for other reasons,” Keene says.
Some of those conditions are potentially dangerous. Polycystic ovary syndrome has long-term complications that include type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
“If we can identify [women with polycystic ovary syndrome] earlier, that’s very helpful to them,” Keene says.
When nutritional deficiencies cause hair loss, treatment is vital since the deficiencies can prevent the body from functioning normally. However, there’s rarely a simple solution; physicians need to take a complete patient history and perform clinical tests before offering treatment options.
“I’ll ask questions, like: Is the hair loss sudden? …Has it been happening over time? Is there a family history?” Keene says. “There is not one diagnosis that fits all. Typically, when women come into my office, we have them fill out a medical history form, and we do a physical examination, because all of the variables that go into hair loss can make it complicated to get the correct diagnosis.”
First things first: Get rid of stress.
Stress can push hair follicles into their “resting” phase, temporarily preventing new hairs from growing over certain parts of the scalp. It can also cause trichotillomania, the “irresistible urge to pull out hair from your scalp, eyebrows, or other areas of your body.”
“Anything that causes either physical or emotional stress on the body can contribute to hair loss,” Keene says. “That type of hair loss would be self-limited and will usually correct itself.”
Fortunately, treatment for stress-induced hair loss is fairly straightforward: Learn to handle emotional stress with techniques like meditation, and if possible, remove the stressors from your life.
Physical stressors can also cause alopecia. Although hormonal changes during pregnancy sometimes result in shinier, healthier-looking hair, women often experience some thinning after delivery, according to the American Pregnancy Association. “During pregnancy,” they wrote, “an increased number of hairs go into the resting phase …”
Certain hair care habits can also prompt or exacerbate hair loss.
“Tight ponytails, braids, or cornrows can damage the scalp over a long enough period of time,” Keene says, noting that some women can wear tight ponytails for decades without any ill effects.
“But anyone who’s doing that needs to be aware of it. We never know how sensitive their hair could be.”
If your diet is badly imbalanced, get it back on track.
Various nutritional deficiencies can cause or contribute to alopecia. Zinc, iron, niacin, selenium, fatty acids, folic acid, amino acids, biotin, protein, and vitamins D, A, and E all play a role in your hair’s health.
That’s quite a list. If your doctor finds a deficiency with one or more of the nutrients listed above, correcting your diet might reverse the hair loss.
“Women with heavy menstrual cycles are especially likely to have iron deficiencies,” Keene says. “Vegans are also at risk. There’s also an interesting thing about tea drinkers—tea will help to prevent iron absorption, so women have to be careful about drinking too much, especially if they’re already prone to iron deficiency.”
Research in Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition suggests that tea’s hindering of iron absorption can be counteracted by ingesting sufficient amounts of “iron absorption enhancers” like ascorbic acid, meat, fish, and poultry.
Vitamin D deficiency is common in women, and while it’s usually easy to treat—the human body naturally produces vitamin D when exposed to sunlight—some patients run into an unusual problem.
“A lot of patients use sunscreen, so they’re not absorbing those rays that convert to vitamin D and cause the normal reaction that allows us to absorb vitamin D,” Keene says.
To be clear, Keene isn’t recommending walking around outdoors for hours at a time without sunblock. She’s simply highlighting how a single habit could contribute to a nutritional deficiency.
“For instance, excessive ingestion of raw egg whites can inhibit biotin absorption,” Keene says. “I don’t know who would want to do that, but people do it.”
Supplements can help—but they can also do a lot of damage.
Let’s say that you’re fairly sure you’ve got one or more of the vitamin deficiencies we just listed. You should start taking a supplement, right?
Not quite.
“It’s really important not to take supplements you don’t need. Especially minerals and micronutrients,” Keene explains. “Patients have to be careful that they’re not self-treating without diagnosis. …Supplements can contribute to toxicity that can actually cause hair loss.”
Here’s the problem: Supplements are unregulated, and many contain massive amounts of nutrients. That sounds like a good thing, but when those nutrients build up, they can actually harm your body. A 2017 paper published in the journal Dermatological Practical & Conceptual found that supplement research is limited, at best, and that “some supplements carry the risk of worsening hair loss or the risk of toxicity.”
What about biotin, the B vitamin most commonly associated with hair and nail health? Keene says it can be a useful supplement for some patients, and because B vitamins are water-soluble, women can safely take them without risking side effects due to toxicity (in other words, if you take too much biotin, the excess amount will pass harmlessly out of your body through your urine).
However, Keene says that while biotin supplements won’t hurt, they probably won’t help.
“What biotin can do is prolong the hair’s growth cycle,” she says. “What it can’t do is prevent androgen-mediated hair loss, or prevent hair loss from any of the other causes … and most patients aren’t biotin deficient.”
Don’t immediately rush toward surgery.
While hair loss surgery has come a long way, it’s a last resort, not a first measure. Unfortunately, Keene says that many not-so-reputable clinics promote transplant surgeries to every client, regardless of circumstances.
“There are a lot of people who bought a machine and they’re offering surgery, but they don’t really know about the various causes and the methods of evaluating it,” Keene says. “You don’t want someone who isn’t qualified, someone who promotes surgery as a first course of action. After all, when all you have is a hammer, everything is a nail.”
“A lot of female patients are not good candidates for surgery, or they’d benefit from medical treatment before being considered for surgery,” she says.
Another reason to seek out a real hair specialist: Physicians who don’t study hair loss might not understand the gravity of the issue.
“If they don’t have an interest in hair, they may not be very attentive to a patient who’s full of anxiety because they’re losing their hair,” Keene says. “A lot of physicians think it’s just a superficial thing. For the patient, it’s quite serious. It can affect your quality of life.”
Know when to see a physician.
If you noticed hair loss after a major life event or if you’ve been battling nutritional issues, you may be able to address the problem on your own. However, a physician can make the process much easier—and in some cases, medical intervention is downright necessary.
“One of the things I’d really like to make a point about for your readers is that I do think that unless your hair loss came [to be due to] a specific event, it’s time to see a hair loss specialist,” Keene says.
https://twitter.com/CBCalamity/status/974932117800005632
Your specialist can look at your family history, perform a physical examination, and look at other factors that may be contributing to the problem. Even if your alopecia has a clear genetic component, you’ll have plenty of treatment options. Minoxidil, the active ingredient in Rogaine and other over-the-counter hair loss treatments, can be very effective.
“[Minoxidil] won’t work for everybody,” Keene says, “but it’s effective for some women. You have to have enough of a certain enzyme, which allows your body to convert minoxidil into minoxidil sulfate.”
Keene says that various other medications can make a difference, and for some patients, treatment is a matter of finding and eliminating triggers. She also says that recent medical breakthroughs could change alopecia treatment over the next decade or so. Oral minoxidil treatments, for instance, might be more effective than topical treatments, according to recent research.
In order to take advantage of those treatments, however, women need to take the first step, even if the idea of treating hair loss brings on feelings of anxiety.
“I have female hair loss in my own family,” Keene says. “Luckily, I haven’t had to deal too much with it, but every time I go through a shedding phase, I get anxious. …Sometimes, seeking treatment is about getting reassurance. Find out about the options—there’s no reason to ignore it. It’s not a purely cosmetic issue.”
Caroline Malatesta is a mother of four who lives in Alabama.
For her fourth child, she had a very specific birth plan in place. She wanted a natural birth—a departure for Malatesta, who had epidurals and episiotomies while delivering her three other children.
The mother decided she wanted to give birth in a more natural way; she wanted to forgo the medicine and avoid laying on her back. Her birth plan was unconventional by modern standards, so she chose to have the baby at Brookwood Health Center, which explicitly advertised that they would follow any birth plan.
“They were using phrases like ‘personalized birth plan,’ ‘It’s about that birthing plan…whatever you want out of your birthing plan,'” Malatesta wrote later for the advocacy blog BirthMonopoly.
“No other hospital in town so much as mentioned such progressive concepts (and it should be noted that assisted out-of-hospital births aren’t legal here in Alabama).”
The Brookwood facility offered “autonomy,” according to advertisements, and even had birthing tubs on hand to accommodate mothers’ wishes. Malatesta spoke to the doctors at the medical facility who assured her that they would do everything possible to meet her needs. It seemed like the perfect place to bring a new child into the world.
Malatesta’s out-of-state friends introduced her to the concept of natural birth, and she was fascinated by the idea of being able to move about the room during labor, avoid drugs during the birth, and use a traditional birthing position rather than lying on her back with her feet in stirrups.
She made up her mind: She’d switch hospitals and give birth in a more natural way.
“I carefully made a birth plan based on best medical research, approved by my doctor,” Malatesta wrote in her BirthMonopoly piece. “I was ready!”
But when the time came to deliver the baby, the experience was a nightmare, Malatesta said.
Nurses immediately put her in a hospital gown and forced her onto her back, contrary to her wishes, she said; she’d wanted to walk around during her contractions, wearing her own clothes. When she tried to change positions, one nurse physically restrained her, according to a blog post by Malatesta’s lawyers.
“Caroline had no freedom of movement,” the post reads. “Instead, she was restrained, sometimes forcibly. Caroline was offered no choice; it was the nurses’ way or no way.”
When Malatesta voiced her concerns or objections, she alleged that the nurses simply ignored her. She claimed the nurses actually seemed annoyed that she would object to their instructions, despite the fact that she’d gone over a specific birth plan with her doctor.
Then, the situation somehow got worse; the baby began crowning, but the doctor wasn’t there. The nurses reportedly began physically holding the baby in place, preventing Malatesta from pushing the baby out. This struggle lasted for six minutes until the doctor finally arrived.
The medical records showed Malatesta’s struggle.
“Unfortunately, the patient was not able to [behave] in a controlled manner,” the records read, as reported in Malatesta’s piece on BirthMonopoly. “She was pretty much all over the bed.”
The baby’s head immediately came out and her son, Jack, was born a minute later. Fortunately, Jack was perfectly healthy, but Malatesta certainly doesn’t credit the medical staff for that positive outcome.
“I kept asking, “Why? Why?” but the nurse wasn’t answering me,” Malatesta wrote. “She ignored me, acting almost annoyed with me. As we went back and forth—me asking questions and telling her this was more painful for me, and her getting increasingly irritated—it became very clear that this wasn’t about health or safety. It was a power struggle.”
But unfortunately, Malatesta continued to suffer. She says that the ordeal left her permanently injured, suffering from a chronic pain condition called pudendal neuralgia. The main symptom of this condition is permanent pelvic pain, which she says ruined her family life.
About eight months after giving birth, Malatesta tried to work with the hospital for compensation for this painful condition. The hospital wasn’t interested in negotiating, Malatesta claimed. In fact, they didn’t even provide the answers that she asked for.
“I grew up in a medical family,” she wrote in a piece published by Cosmopolitan. “My dad is a doctor; my granddad was a doctor. Litigation, medical malpractice—it’s not something we take lightly. When the nerve injury really revealed itself, I wasn’t planning to file a lawsuit. I just wanted answers.”
Soon, however, Malatesta was reconsidering that stance. She filed a lawsuit against the hospital, and two years after filing, she went to court. Even during the lawsuit, Malatesta’s pain affected her; she wasn’t able to sit for more than a few hours a day, so she couldn’t spend much time in the courtroom.
But something incredible happened: Other women began to come forward with other stories of obstetric violence.
#BirthRights and the hidden threat of #ObstetricViolence.
Right to informed consent/refusal of tests treatments & procedures & #BodilyAutonomy are key. Sadly, relevant in #IrishMatExp as well.#8thref#repealthe8th #everypregnancy #repeal4betterbirth https://t.co/WJDiMDcpii pic.twitter.com/nxmaabl6KD
— Meghan Rice Cunningham (@MeghanJRice) March 14, 2018
“I became acutely aware that this wasn’t just about me,” Malatesta wrote in Cosmopolitan. “This became a cause for me, almost. To bring the truth out on behalf of so many other women. I was surprised how much it meant to these other women that I was filing a lawsuit.”
The suit, filed in 2014, took two years to litigate. A jury deliberated for nine hours, then returned a stunning verdict, awarding the Malatesta family $10 million in compensatory damages, $5 million in punitive damages for “reckless fraud,” and $1 million for loss of consortium.
While the jury’s decision will go a long way towards holding the perpetrators of obstetric violence accountable, Malatesta says that she’ll likely live with horrific pain for her entire life. She hopes that her struggle will help to prevent this type of scenario from playing out the same way in the future. The good news? Malatesta is not alone in this mission.
Taking on Obstetric Violence
Obstetric violence, which took such a terrible toll on Malatesta’s health, lies at the intersection of institutional violence and violence against women, says the advocacy group Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights. The mistreatment affects women who are pregnant, in labor, actively giving birth, or in the postpartum stage. Women may be denied treatments, have their requests ignored, endure verbal humiliation, and receive forced, coerced medical treatments. They may even experience physical violence, invasive practices, and other dehumanizing, humiliating treatments.
Women face this abuse at the hands of the healthcare industry far too often, says Jamie Yates, a seasoned New York City doula and childbirth educator.
“Unfortunately, these types of situations are all too common in hospitals,” she tells HealthyWay. “Most incidents of dissatisfaction go unreported because women are guilted into believing that because they have a healthy baby, that they should be happy, even thankful, that unnecessary procedures were performed on them.”
[pullquote align=”center”]“The absolute most important decision every pregnant person must make is who they choose to be their care provider.”
—Jamie Yates[/pullquote]
This seems to be a uniquely American problem, Yates explains.
“Our current maternal care system ranges from the deeply flawed to downright dangerous for moms and babies,” she says. “The U.S. has one of the worst maternal mortality rates in the developed world, and the maternal mortality rate is four times higher for black women.”
(Actually, Yates is the slightest bit off here. The U.S. doesn’t have one of the worst maternal mortality rates in the developed world—it has the absolute worst, by a wide margin. She’s close enough on the racial disparity though; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracked a mortality rate of 12.7 perI a 100,000 live births among white women in the years 2011 through 2013. During that same period, black mothers passed away during childbirth at a rate of 43.5 per 100,000.)
Ending the Epidemic of Violence
The solution to obstetric violence isn’t simple, but it starts with women being in charge of their bodies and their choices during pregnancy, says Yates.
“The absolute most important decision every pregnant person must make is who they choose to be their care provider,” she says. “Most low-risk women would be better served by a midwife. Midwives, on average, spend more time with their patients and have a greater understanding and acceptance of a pregnant person’s ability to birth their own babies. If, for whatever reason, a midwife isn’t an option, it’s important to choose an obstetrician who listens and is willing to answer questions from the beginning.”
[pullquote align=”center”]Plans can change, but there should be one constant throughout the experience—respect. Birthing people deserve to be participants in their own labor and, most of all, deserve all of the information so they can have true informed consent or refusal of intervention.”
—Jamie Yates[/pullquote]
Of course, the luxury of multiple health care options isn’t always possible. Regardless, women should be on the lookout for red flags. Some doctors won’t even discuss birth questions until the last trimester—that’s not good, says Yates.
“If your doctor is unwilling to have conversations about options and provide clear evidence-based information at your appointments, switch providers,” she advises. “If they are unwilling to listen prenatally, they are unlikely to respect your needs during labor.”
Even with a supportive doctor or partner, navigating hospital policies can be overwhelming. This is where Yates suggests enlisting the help of a doula.
“While a doula can’t ‘save’ a person’s birth, a good doula can help them get the information they need in order to make informed choices about their birth,” she says. “Doulas can be the eyes and ears in the labor room along with helping the laboring person and their partner feel supported.”
It’s also important to realize while having a great support system and a rock solid plan is a great start, anything can change in an instant once labor begins. Being flexible is just as important.
“Plans can change, but there should be one constant throughout the experience—respect,” says Yates. “Birthing people deserve to be participants in their own labor and, most of all, deserve all of the information so they can have true informed consent or refusal of intervention.”
Malatesta, it’s clear, paid the price for an unresponsive health care team. By speaking out, she’s helping to ensure that the next mother won’t face the same tragic experience.
We spend about one-third of our lives sleeping—or at least trying to: getting our rooms to the perfect temperature and lighting, nestling under just the right amount of covers, arranging our limbs into the best sleeping position. And yet sleeping—one thing that should be so easy—is a struggle for many.
Of course, sleep is complicated. Sleep quality is a major health issue for Americans. According to 2014 numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 35.2 percent of adults get less than seven hours of sleep per night.
If that sounds like you and you’re looking to make a change, take note: Your bedtime and your sleeping position aren’t the only factors that determine the quality of your sleep. According to the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School, improving your sleep hygiene—the habits that affect your sleep—can make a substantial difference. If you’re on prescription medication, living la vida loca, feeling especially stressed out at work, or are indulging in a few too many coffees a day (especially close to bedtime), look at tweaking those parts of your life where you can.
But if you’ve already zenned out around matters both professional and personal, you eat the healthiest foods at the healthiest of times, and your bedroom is perfectly designed for a peaceful slumber—and you still can’t sleep, it might be time to look at how you’re sleeping. Specifically, you need to figure out the best sleeping positions for you because the way you sleep impacts how good that sleep is—and your overall health.
“The biggest purpose for sleep is to help us recover from the activities of the day physically, mentally, and emotionally,” says Scott Bautch, chiropractor and president of the American Chiropractic Association’s Council on Occupational Health. “The physical part is that if I sleep in a good posture, meaning neutral, my spine is resting, and everything is in the right position…I’m trying to help the body recover by trying to be as neutral as possible, so those ligaments and muscles get a chance to recover from the activities of the day.”
A poor sleeping position can contribute to all sorts of conditions, from insomnia to back pain. But you can make a few minor changes to the way you lay to figure out the best sleeping position. Don’t be surprised if you see—and feel—major results.
Best Sleeping Positions: The Basics
Sleep specialists typically break down positions into three categories: side, back, and stomach. Within those three categories, there are plenty of variations. For instance, sleeping in the fetal position will actually affect you differently than sleeping with your back straight in what some refer to as the log position.
Sleep specialists typically make a simple recommendation: Do what makes you comfortable. If you’re having issues falling asleep or staying asleep, however, the best sleeping position for you likely involves sleeping on your side.
That’s especially true if you have trouble breathing in other sleep postures. Harvard’s Division of Sleep Medicine also suggests that side sleeping is the best sleeping position for you if you struggle with troubled breathing at night as it may reduce the risk of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), an extreme and potentially dangerous type of snoring. The school notes that weight loss and continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy are more effective methods of ensuring long-term healthy sleeping, but if you only experience breathing issues while sleeping on your back, you might consider being comfortably situated on your side as your new best sleeping position.
Best Sleeping Positions for Insomnia
Around 10 percent of American adults suffer from daytime impairment resulting from insomnia and around 30 percent of American adults deal with regular sleep disruption. It’s clear that sleep is a problem in America, and it seems to be getting worse: According to reporting from The New Yorker, insomnia diagnoses rose from fewer than one million to more than five million between 1993 and 2006. It’s a big deal, considering that sleep deprivation can seriously affect health.
To treat insomnia, you have to identify the cause of the condition. That’s not always easy, though, since everything from diet to television-watching habits can affect how you sleep (or don’t). One factor that researchers generally agree upon is that finding the best sleeping position for you can affect whether or not you’re getting healthy sleep.
Issues like back pain and indigestion can also contribute to insomnia, and if you’re constantly tossing and turning to try to get more comfortable, that won’t help you solve any of those issues. That’s why identifying any other physical issues—and attempting to remedy those through sleeping positions and other measures—is key.
Best Sleeping Positions for Back Pain
Back pain is incredibly prevalent. In 2012, the American Physical Therapy Association reported that nearly two-thirds of Americans experience low back pain. Put another (equally painful) way, on any given night, some 31 million people will suffer from low back pain in the States alone.
Even worse, low back pain and poor sleep work together to make sufferers miserable: One study from The Clinical Journal of Pain found that a bad night’s sleep indeed led to a day of increased back pain. Here’s the kicker: A day of worse pain was also associated with a bad night’s sleep! It’s easy to fall into a downward spiral of pain and fatigue.
Finding the best sleeping position for back pain that works for you could be a game changer. Here’s what medical science says about finding the best sleeping positions for back pain:
Supine Sleeping (or Log Position)
The best sleeping positions for back pain involve keeping your posture neutral, meaning that the body doesn’t bend or twist out of line. Bautch explains, “If you’re standing up and your ears are over your shoulders, and your shoulders are over your hips, and your hips are over your knees, there’s a neutral posture from front to back and left to right. So we want to reproduce that [in sleep].”
Whatever you do, don’t sleep on your stomach, researchers say. The key to finding a healthy sleeping position that eases pain in your back is to keep the spinal column aligned according to its natural shape, which requires support. Sleeping on your stomach doesn’t offer much support for the spine and may even push it into an unnatural curve.
Sleeping face-down can lead to other health problems as well, Bautch warns. “That’s by far the worst,” he says, referring to stomach-sleeping. “People that sleep on their stomachs have more hand and arm problems than any other population…And because we’re not going to breathe into our pillows, we twist our neck all night long. Often we bring our knee and arm up. We’ll put our hand underneath our head, and that continued irritation, we don’t recover from. As life goes on, we start to have more numbness symptoms in our neck and arm.”
Your spine is a long cord of vertebrae, the smaller interlocking bones. Between each vertebra, there’s a squishy intervertebral disk—the skeleton’s shock absorbers. These disks are mostly made of water. Why is this important? When you’re upright, you put pressure on your intervertebral disks, slowly squeezing out some of the fluid. Sleep is when your disks rehydrate. Therefore, the best sleeping position for back pain is one that evenly distributes your body weight to keep pressure on the spine at a minimum.
If you’re most comfortable sleeping on your back, that’s great (unless you’re pregnant—in which case, read on!). “Sleeping on your back is definitely the best position for all body parts, because we’re less likely to twist or compress the nerves,” says Bautch. “Sleeping on your back is definitely the preferred way.”
Just be sure to get a few extra pillows. Place a small one behind your knees, bending them slightly. (If you want to get technical, bend your knees to 135 degrees—the angle prescribed by ergonomist Bart Haex in his book Back and Bed: Ergonomic Aspects of Sleeping.) Find a pillow that keeps your neck and shoulders in line with your ears and hips, which will keep your spine straight all the way to the base of your skull.
Lateral Sleeping
The lateral sleeping position—lying on your side—can also be a good sleeping position for back pain. Pull your knees a bit upward toward your torso to maintain stability. The right mattress also goes a long way here. You want your hip and shoulder to sink into the mattress just enough to keep your spine straight. Perfect the lateral sleeping position by placing a firm body pillow between your knees.
“If you sleep on your side, think about if you looked down and said, ‘Okay, here’s how wide my knees are when I’m standing normally,’” Bautch says. “I’m a big fan of body pillows. You put them between your knees, from your ankles to your knees, all the way to your arms. You hug them, and you have a tendency to keep your arms and legs in the right place.”
Try to align your hips, shoulders, and ears. If you can’t, adjust your pillows. “From your shoulders, you could draw a line on your spine and it would go all the way to your pelvis,” Bautch says. “And if I drew that line, it would continue right through between your knees and all the way to your ankle. That’s how I’d want to try to sleep.”
Long story short: The best sleeping positions for back pain are supine (on your back) and lateral (on your side). Use pillows to support parts of your body that aren’t sinking into the mattress, and to keep your body stable during sleep. Remember, you won’t be awake to purposely adjust.
And if that back pain gets worse, or doesn’t go away? Talk to your doctor.
Best Sleeping Positions for Neck Pain
Neck pain and your sleeping position are strongly associated with one another. In fact, poor sleeping positions can not only lead to unhealthy sleep, but to musculoskeletal disorders in the neck and shoulders as well. You want the neck to remain straight, lying in the neutral posture. Unfortunately, that’s not something most contemporary pillows are built for.
“Most pillows are biggest in the middle and smallest at the edge,” says Bautch. “But they really need to be bigger on the edge and smaller in the middle because our head needs to sink down so we stay neutral all the time.”
If you have a conventional pillow, you probably need more neck support to get truly healthy sleep, especially if you sleep on your side. Your pillow alone is unlikely to keep your neck and spine aligned, which means it can exacerbate neck pain rather than providing relief.
Bautch suggests you modify your pillow. “Roll up a towel or something. You need to get an edge. The edge needs to be more supportive than the middle.”
Again, sleeping on your back is the best sleeping position to keep your body in a neutral position. If you can drift off on your back (and don’t snore, especially if you’re sleeping with your boo), you won’t go wrong with that sleeping position. Your neck will thank you.
Best Sleeping Positions for Digestion
Everyone knows they’re not supposed to eat just before bed, but many people do it anyway. Maybe you worked late and got home starving. Maybe dinner was just so satisfying that it put you into a food coma and bedtime became inevitable. No matter what happened, your sleeping position can determine how well your body is able to digest that late-night meal.
Figuring out your best sleeping position is particularly important if you’re prone to heartburn or acid reflux. The gold standard that doctors recommend for people with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is to raise the head of the bed with six- to eight-inch tall blocks. Extra pillows just won’t cut it according to “Effect of Bed Head Elevation During Sleep in Symptomatic Patients of Nocturnal Gastroesophageal Reflux”—a study published in the Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology in 2012—because they may only lift the head and shoulders. Besides, you might just roll off the pillows in your sleep.
If you’re just looking for relief from an overfull stomach, though, and you don’t want to break out the wood blocks, try sleeping on your left side, which is considered the best sleeping position for digestion. Just be sure not to lie on your right side. A major study found that reflux was significantly worse in healthy subjects when they lay on their right sides rather than their left.
Researchers fed 10 subjects sausage-and-egg biscuits and coffee, then had half of them lie on their left sides and half on their right. The latter group suffered more acid exposure and more episodes of reflux. The takeaway? Next time you overindulge just before bed, try lying on your left side. Just don’t forget that pillow between your knees.
Best Sleeping Positions for Pregnancy
Expecting mothers develop sleep disorders frequently, which isn’t completely surprising, considering the vast range of hormonal, physical, and emotional changes that accompany pregnancy. Sleeping in the best position is, again, one factor among many. If poor sleep is routinely affecting your quality of life during pregnancy, you’re best off speaking with your OB-GYN.
That said, the American Pregnancy Association says sleeping on your back is one sleeping position you should definitely avoid during pregnancy since it can cause a decrease in both maternal and and fetal circulation. They also advise against sleeping on your stomach, because, well, you’re a little too big for that.
Citing the work of OB-GYN Glade Curtis, the Association says that the best sleeping position for pregnant women is on their left sides, keeping their legs and knees bent. Placing a pillow under the abdomen can improve comfort in the last trimester. If you have hip pain, again, try placing a pillow between your knees. Try to get as much sleep as you can now, mama!
For most athletes, one Olympic appearance is a lofty goal. Five Olympic appearances seems downright impossible.
Just ask Danielle Scott-Arruda. She played indoor volleyball at every Olympics from 1996 to 2012, setting the U.S. record for most Olympic appearances by a female volleyball player and bringing home two silver medals in the process (along with the Best Blocker award at the 2000 games). In 2016, she was inducted into the International Volleyball Hall of Fame.
In her final Olympic appearance, Scott-Arruda was 39 years old—much older than the average Olympian—but still a force on the team, serving as a valuable mentor for younger players at her position. Behind the scenes, she was savoring every moment.
We spoke with Scott-Arruda to find out what it’s like to compete in the Olympics, how it feels to narrowly miss out on a gold medal, and the athletes Olympians need to be in order to compete at the highest possible level.
[Editorial note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.]
HEALTHYWAY: Tell me how you got your start. As I understand, you didn’t have a typical path to the Olympics.
DANIELLE SCOTT-ARRUDA: Well, I actually did a lot of different sports growing up, and going through to college, actually.
That started with physical education classes [in grade school], just being exposed to different sports and activities. It’s unfortunate we don’t do a lot more P.E. in schools today!
But in those classes, that was when I was first introduced to the sport. I didn’t play with a team until my 6th grade year, which is actually pretty late when we’re talking about something like the Olympics.
Of course, nowadays, there are club teams. Some parents start their kids as toddlers. At the time I started, I wasn’t even allowed to compete in 6th grade—those were the rules. So I did other sports. I did basketball, softball, and track and field through high school. Eventually, I got a scholarship for volleyball and basketball.
Flash forward, and I was invited to the national volleyball team. After the 1996 Olympics, I took a couple years off and tried out for the WNBA, but I didn’t quite make it, and then I went back and continued my career in volleyball.
I didn’t realize you’d tried to make the WNBA.
Yeah, it wasn’t in the cards for me. Seven years had passed since my collegiate basketball days by that point, and I was pretty well-established in volleyball. I ended up putting my basketball shoes back in the closet after the third attempt.
So, at what point in your athletic career did you realize that you had a chance at going to the Olympics?
It was actually pretty late. I started club volleyball in my sophomore year of high school. I was 15, and kids were starting a lot earlier. It wasn’t until the end of my junior year when I started getting recruiting letters.
That’s when people started telling me—”Hey, you know, you might be able to compete in the Olympics.”
Had you watched many Olympics by that point? Was competing there one of your goals?
Sure, we watched the Olympics at home, as a family, but I wasn’t watching it saying, “Someday, that’ll be me.”
I didn’t have that sort of confidence until I had these outside influences telling me that I was pretty good. That’s important. Look—I was really shy growing up. I wasn’t the confident kid. A strange thing happened: When people started boosting my confidence, I continued to get better.
By my junior year of high school, I thought the Olympics were a possibilility. By my senior year, rumors were flying around—”Maybe you’ll make the ’92 games.”
So I started really working towards that. In my freshman year of college, there were tryouts for the national team, and things really spiraled from there. That started the process. It happened gradually.
You’re at your first Olympic games in 1996. What did it feel like just stepping into the arena the first time?
You know, it was so amazing. It was my first games, and to have it at home, in Atlanta—well, to be clear, Atlanta isn’t my home, but the United States certainly is—anyway, it was incredible.
[pullquote align=”center”]“It never tapered off. In fact, all the little things that a lot of Olympians do traditionally … it was never old.”
—Danielle Scott-Arruda[/pullquote]
It was such a long process. To become an Olympian, you don’t work every four years, you work every day, training for six to eight hours. It’s your life.
With that kind of an investment, I can’t imagine what it feels like to get the call.
When you’re finally named to the team, it’s just—you don’t believe it.
It stays that way, if you’re fortunate enough to compete in multiple Olympics. Each time after that it’s that same reaction: “Wow, I did it.”
You know, you can work really hard to accomplish that dream, but the reality is that only 12 people make the team, along with a couple alternates. So when you finally make it, it’s just that sigh of relief. All that work was worth it.
Do you have time to just sit back and enjoy that accomplishment?
Oh, no! The work continues. After you’ve received the call, now you have compete and train with a small, specific group of athletes—teammates—and really hone in on your common goal. You have to know what each person’s role is, and you’ve all got to get on the same page very, very quickly.
We have to know how we want to finish in the Olympics, and there’s really only one goal at that stage—win. Strategy is an enormous part of that.
But, with that being said, we did get to appreciate the accomplishment, even if we weren’t “sitting back.” My first Olympics was in Atlanta, as I said, and a lot of my family was able to attend. We had so much support, being on our home turf. That was definitely exciting.
And really, once I competed at that level, it got in my blood. I was like, “Okay, I’m just going to do this thing until I don’t. Until I can’t.”
Did any amount of the excitement taper off with each successive Olympic invitation?
It never tapered off. In fact, all the little things that a lot of Olympians do traditionally—with the pin trading, and going to opening and closing ceremonies, the flag-bearing ceremonies, all those little things—it was never old.
[Editorial note: This seems like as good a place as any to mention that Olympic pin trading gets pretty crazy. Athletes, journalists, and dignitaries arrive at the Olympic games with boxes of country-specific pins, which they trade with athletes and obsessed collectors.
In the modern era, pins essentially function as currency. According to one collector, “You can get in some places with a pin where you probably couldn’t get in if you handed them a $20 bill.”]
At my fifth Olympics, I was the only one that went to the closing ceremonies. I’m like, “What, you guys aren’t going?” I can’t believe that! This is a once in a lifetime thing!”
And okay, we were blessed to do it more than once, but the point stands. You’ve got to appreciate every moment.
It must be hard to live in the moment. I imagine the spirit of competition is just kind of weighing on you the entire time that you’re there, but you want to enjoy the experience, too.
Right. Every other day, we’re competing, so you have to practice and rest the day before the competition. And it’s kind of that continuous cycle of living moment to moment.
But our coaches were more conscious of letting us have a balanced experience. We were still focused, but we made time to go to chapel or spend time with friends and family. We wouldn’t necessarily watch other competitions, but at least we’d spend time with the people who went through that journey with us.
From talking to you, it’s clear that you love representing the United States.
I would always have this expression: If you cut me, I’ll bleed red, white, and blue. I love competing for the United States. To travel, and to represent our country—I mean, for me, it never got old. I never got burned out.
You won a silver medal in 2008, right?
In 2008 and 2012.
Can you tell me what it was like to win that first silver medal?
Winning the silver medal was kind of bittersweet, you know?
By that point, I had gone to three previous Olympics, and I’d left with nothing. Of course, it’s all about the journey and all of that, but when you’re working so hard with that one big goal…
And with our teams, we weren’t necessarily expected to be the top contender, but we were able to overcome some difficult obstacles. We felt like we were playing for something bigger than ourselves. Then, we won the silver, and it was great, because we were going home with something physical. But—well, I’m sure you’ve probably heard this before—when you lose the gold, it’s hard to really celebrate.
So it takes a moment to realize extent of the accomplishment. I think I was able to appreciate our second silver more.
But, gosh, we were so close to winning gold, and I think that’s kind of one of those things that kept me wanting to contribute, in whatever way I could, and keep playing as long as possible.
[Editorial note: Close it was. In 2008, the U.S team won four of five matches in the preliminary round, only losing to Cuba, and then beat Cuba 3–0 in the knockout-stage semifinals to advance to the gold medal game. Scott-Arruda scored seven points in that game—third on her team—but they ultimately fell to Brazil three sets to one.
In 2012, they came arguably closer. They won all five matches in the prelims, only dropping two sets out of 17 played. In the knockout phase, they shut out the Dominican Republic and South Korea before falling, once again, to Brazil in the finals. As a reserve, Scott-Arruda played six sets.]
Did nerves play a role? I mean, I’m sure you’re used to playing in front of people by that point, but—
Well, I think each person kind of deals with nerves differently. And I always felt some butterflies, but to me, that meant I was ready to compete.
I’d just say, “This is part of my routine.” In fact, if I didn’t get the butterflies, I’d feel like something wasn’t right. It’s a fine line, I guess, but if you prepare properly for a game, you probably won’t have severe nervousness by that time. You’ll have it under control.
I was confident in our preparation so I could dig through the anxiety. And that’s just how it was for me—everyone’s different.
What other personality traits would you expect an Olympian to have?
I think have that desire, that drive. There will be obstacles and setbacks. You have to be willing to learn from them. You have to have a growth-type mentality.
You don’t lose, you learn. You learn from each experience. And you’ve got to be able to learn from criticism, focus in, and make adjustments. At the same time, you can’t beat yourself up or say that you don’t deserve to be there.
In team sports, you’ve also got to deal with a different coaching staff every time. Each staff has their own goals and plans, and you’ve got to be willing to change. Never feel like you know everything.
Because in the Olympics, you’ve got to keep adding tools to your toolbag. And when I have camps and clinics, I tell the kids, “Hey, this is just something else you can add to what you already know.”
I think it’s interesting—you said that you were able to get to the Olympics thanks, in part, to the the confidence instilled by coaches and family members. It’s really cool that you’re working with young players now and giving that confidence to other athletes.
Definitely. It definitely gives you a sense of accomplishment.
I remember this one experience, I was coaching with the 8th grade team at a local school here. And one of the athletes could not serve the ball over. But she was getting better, and I could see her effort.
Still, sometimes, she would immediately come towards the bench to be subbed out. We had a great lead against another team, and I was like, “No, go ahead give it a try.” You know where this is going—she served it over, and scored a point.
Those little moments, where you see a kid develop—it brings so much to the job. That self-confidence is important for sports, but it’s important for life, and it’s absolutely wonderful to watch it develop.
Find out more about Danielle Scott-Arruda’s volleyball training programs here.