Author: Jeanne Sager

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Mindful Parenting Motherhood

How To Give Your Kids Self-Esteem For A Lifetime

There’s a YouTube video that I watch when I need a self-esteem boost. I know I can’t be alone. More than 19 million people have watched the video of 4-year-old Jessica giving herself a pep talk in a mirror since it was uploaded to the video site in 2009.
It’s hard to say exactly why a little girl’s “Daily Affirmation” video went viral, but I have one theory: This towheaded toddler brimming with confidence and self-love is video proof for all parents that we can do it. We can raise kids who ooze self-esteem, who are bright and funny and full of life, and who love themselves exactly the way they are.
If you’re nodding along, welcome to every parent’s fondest hope: That we can imbue our kids with the tools to feel good about themselves, their bodies, and their abilities.
There is no magic elixir, but there are some expert-backed tips to help get our kids there.

What is it, anyway?

Self-esteem can often go along with self-respect—having regard for oneself and one’s abilities, so it’s no surprise that developing that confidence in yourself is an important part of development for kids. It helps them grow emotionally, giving them the tools they need to take charge of their academics and later their work and personal lives.  
[pullquote align=”center”]“If a child feels that they had choice, control, and an active part in their success, their confidence and self-esteem grow.”  
—Christina Grosso[/pullquote]
And developing it starts earlier than you might think—as early as birth, says Christina Grosso, director of trauma services and training for the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services in New York City. How we interact and satisfy the needs of our infants helps them make sense of the world and their place in it, playing a role in how they feel about themselves.
“As children move through their toddler and preschool years, their confidence is impacted by how those around them accept their successes and challenges and help them develop problem-solving skills,” Grosso says. “If a child feels that they had choice, control, and an active part in their success, their confidence and self-esteem grow.”  
By the time children reach the age of 5, self-esteem levels are firmly established, enough to be measured.
But when your 4-year-old is whining, “I caaaaaaaaaaaan’t” after you’ve asked him to put on his own socks, or your 7-year-old is insisting she will “never” understand the multiplication tables, it’s natural to wonder: Am I doing this right? Does my kid have good self-esteem?
Relax.
Kids are no more immune to self-doubt than we are, but that doesn’t mean they’re wading in the shallow end of the esteem pool.
Trina Krischon, a child life specialist at Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital in Geneva, Illinois, offers this “test” to evaluate whether your child has good self-esteem: “If a child/adolescent or teen is asked to describe themselves, what adjectives do they use? If asked to create a collage of themselves, what pictures do they use?” Krischon asks. “If those words/pictures reflect positivity, happiness, or goals, I would say that one may be able to assume that the child sees him/herself as feeling good about themselves, their life situation, and therefore likely has a good self-esteem.”
In other words: Your kids can have crises of faith in themselves. That’s part of being human. They can still have good self-esteem…provided you avoid the pitfalls.

The Praise Problem

You’ve probably heard about the biggest pitfall of all already.
Parenting message boards and Facebook groups are rife with battles over helicopter parenting, the rise of “participation” trophies, and accusations from older generations (and the child-free) that today’s parents are raising a pack of entitled brats. The debate over how much praise we give our kids has been so loud that it’s become fodder for a host of studies on what happens when parents work too hard to raise a confident, self-loving kid.
[pullquote align=”center”]“Words of praise alone are not self-esteem building. They can create a false sense of self for a kid.”
—Mayra Mendez[/pullquote]
The general consensus? When it comes to praise, there really is too much of a good thing, says Mayra Mendez, program coordinator for intellectual and developmental disabilities and mental health services at Providence Saint John’s Child and Family Development Center in Santa Monica, California.
“Words of praise alone are not self-esteem building,” Mendez says “They can create a false sense of self for a kid.”
In fact, researchers have spotted what they call a rise in narcissism in Western youth, and they put the blame on parents’ overvaluing their kids achievements, telling them they’re rock stars even when they’re not doing so hot. According to the study, published in 2014 in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, “children seem to acquire narcissism, in part, by internalizing parents’ inflated views of them (e.g., ‘I am superior to others’ and ‘I am entitled to privileges’).”
Kids with too much confidence and a sense of superiority aren’t just insufferable to be around. They’re also more likely to bully others and more likely to blame others when they fail instead of working harder to master a task.
Think of the parent who tells their kid they are the best soccer player on the team when that child has never scored a goal and doesn’t put in any effort on the field. That’s overvaluing a child’s achievements and over-praising, Mendez says.
A better way to build self-esteem, Mendez explains, would be to focus on something your child did accomplish on the soccer field. Did they finally figure out the passing drill that their coach has been working on all season? Were they kind and helpful after practice, cleaning up all of the balls without being asked?
“Empty praise is generally non-specific,” Mendez notes, while self-esteem–building praise makes connections between a child’s actions and their value.
Nor will empty praise help your child feel better when they’re down. Parents mean well, and they’re often trying to protect a child’s ego, Mendez says, but piling on the kudos when your kid is struggling can end up backfiring big time.
In part, it can be internalized as pressure to achieve impossible perfection.
“Perfectionistic kids or kids of perfectionistic parents can sometimes feel that nothing they do is good enough and strive for perfection,” Grosso explains. “When that is not attained—which it mostly isn’t because nothing is perfect—they can become angry, sad, and frustrated.”
All that empty praise can also make kids less flexible and less able to handle failures than their peers. After all, they become used to being told they’re the best without having to work hard for it. When they face actual adversity they may be shocked by their inability to snap their fingers and make things work.
As scientists posited in a 2016 study published in the journal Child Development Perspectives, “Praise can lower these children’s motivation and feelings of self-worth in the face of setbacks (e.g., when they struggle or fail). Lowered feelings of self-worth, in turn, might invite … inflated praise from adults, creating a self-sustaining downward spiral.”

The Gender Myth

Another all-too-common trap that parents fall in comes along with the gender divide. Even as society pushes tired stereotypes back into the 1950s where they belong, research on both moms and dads has shown we still speak differently to our kids based on gender.
We’re more likely to discourage our daughters from taking physical risks and less likely to discuss emotions with our sons. Comments like “boys will be boys” and “girls are better at the arts than boys” remain pervasive…and damaging.
By adolescence, boys tend to have significantly higher self-esteem than girls, especially when it comes to a sense of personal security, faith in their academic competence, valuing their own attractiveness, and feelings of personal mastery. Girls are also two to three times more likely than boys to develop depression during preadolescence and adolescence, an issue researchers have correlated with their self-esteem.
Meanwhile, the world of science and mathematics is plagued by a gender gap that scientists trace back to adolescence, when girls’ faith in their abilities in the subjects tends to plummet, despite evidence that boys and girls have equal abilities in math and and science.
[pullquote align=”center”]“We should treat every child with the utmost respect for their unique ability to learn, develop, and see the world through acceptance.”  
—Trina Krischon[/pullquote]
Although much of the work that needs to be done to correct this is at a societal level, Krischon says parents should be looking at their kids’ individual strengths in helping them build their self-respect, cutting out the gender divide.  
“As parents/society we should treat every child with the utmost respect for their unique ability to learn, develop, and see the world through acceptance,” Krischon notes. “Each child is unique, regardless of gender, and will thrive in an environment that not only provides their most basic of needs but looks to provide positive and enriching experiences that encourage feelings of exploration and individuality regardless of their gender.”
In other words: A son should be treated differently from a daughter, but only because two daughters will also be treated uniquely as they’re unique individuals.  

What Works

So, raising a kid with good self-esteem is not synonymous with raising a kid to think they’re the best thing since sliced bread, the iPhone, and the fidget spinner. Could the real secret be in letting kids feel a little down once in a while?
That’s exactly what the experts say our kids need…balanced with some good old-fashioned praise.
“We have to help our kids tolerate disappointment and accept the reality that they will probably not succeed at everything they try by helping our kids develop skills to tolerate frustration and develop patience and perseverance,” Grosso explains. “We want to offer constructive feedback to help support them in their misadventures and also point out what they did well. Approach feedback as a praise sandwich: specific praise, constructive feedback, specific praise.”
A good praise sandwich might be “You ran so fast today at practice. It’s great to see your runs around the neighborhood at night are helping you increase your endurance. Nice work!” This gives your kid the satisfaction of being praised, but even better, they’re being praised for something they themselves have control over. They made that praise happen with their hard work and discipline.
[pullquote align=”center”]“Help kids gain a sense of mastery by offering them choices so they begin to establish control and self-direction. If kids can succeed on their own accord, they will develop a foundation for learning and positive growth.”
—Christina Grosso[/pullquote]
What’s more, research has shown that parental warmth is a key in helping kids feel good about themselves and develop confidence. They need to hear that we love them and support them, and we can do that by praising their efforts (without piling on false praise). The goal isn’t just to make them feel good, Grosso explains, but to help them develop competence.
“When a child is frustrated by a challenge, help them find ways to problem solve,” she suggests. “Brainstorm ideas, role play and offer choices. Don’t do for your kids to ensure their success. Help kids gain a sense of mastery by offering them choices so they begin to establish control and self-direction. If kids can succeed on their own accord, they will develop a foundation for learning and positive growth.”
If your kids are plagued by self-doubt, worry, and sadness, take heed. Kids who are bullied often have lower self-esteem, and it’s important to take these issues seriously, Grosso cautions. You can talk to your child’s teachers or a school psychologist—but also talk to your kid.
“Encourage kids’ expression through talking, play, art, and music,” Grosso suggests. “This will help them develop a sense of control and “voice” to express thoughts and feelings and help them show us their world. We don’t want to leave them alone on this journey. It is with the support and guidance of their parents/caregivers that they will find their way and develop into happy and confident adults.”
In the end, remember that self-esteem building is part of parenting, but you’re not alone on the journey. Everyone a kid encounters—from classmates to teachers to strangers on a city bus—can have an impact on how our kids see their place in the world. It’s up to us to help them navigate it all.

Categories
Mindful Parenting Motherhood

What To Do (And What To Avoid) When Baby Gets Sick

It’s inevitable. Friday night, when all the doctors’ offices have closed, baby starts coughing. That little forehead feels like your cheeks after you’ve run a marathon. Those little eyes are staring at you in utter confusion, wondering why Mommy can’t just make all the misery go away.
Of course, babies get sick every day of the week, but it always seems to happen when we’re headed into a winter weekend as cold and flu season rears its ugly head.
So, do you really need to run your baby to the emergency room, or is it OK to wait it out until Monday? We talked to the experts so you can put your mind at ease.

Fighting That Fever

You learned back in grade school that the average human’s body temperature sits at a cool 98.6. When baby’s temperature starts to climb above that, you need to be wary, but what you do next comes down to baby’s age, says Lavanya G. Shankar, MD, chair of pediatrics at Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield, Illinois.
“Eight weeks and under, when they have a fever, whether they have other symptoms or not, an immediate call to the pediatrician is a good idea,” Shankar says. If you don’t hear back, don’t wait. Get in the car and drive to the closest ER or urgent care.
That fever, she notes, doesn’t mean 98.7 degrees. From a medical standpoint, doctors worry when the temperature hits 100.4 degrees in babies, and that temperature should be taken rectally (aka by sticking a thermometer in baby’s hiney).
“That’s the most accurate for babies 12 months and under,” Shankar explains.
That’s because babies that young won’t be able to keep a thermometer under their tongue the way older kids might, and there’s too much margin of error with ear and forehead thermometers.
If that rectal test shows a baby between 3 and 6 months has a fever, Shankar still recommends a call to the pediatrician, whether there are other symptoms present or not. “But you don’t need to rush anywhere,” she notes.
The urgency changes if your little one is showing other symptoms of illness, such as extreme fatigue or listlessness, glassy eyes, refusal to nurse or take a bottle, or excessive vomiting. If any (or many) of those symptoms are present, it’s time to take that trip to the ER.  
Infant Tylenol and infant Motrin can help baby fight a fever, and many pediatricians suggest switching between them throughout the day for babies older than 3 months, Shankar says. Your baby’s doctor can help you determine the right dosages and whether or not acetaminophen is appropriate.
One thing not to do? Don’t buy into old wives tales about starving a fever, Shankar warns. It’s important for babies to continue to eat a normal diet. If they’re not eating, it’s a sign you need to seek medical care.

Cutting Through Congestion

When cold and flu season hits, so does congestion, and baby’s little sinuses can take a wicked hit.
Typically the cause is a virus, says Benjamin Bring, DO, a primary care physician at OhioHealth Primary Care Physicians in Dublin, Ohio. Rhinovirus, also known as the common cold, is usually responsible as baby’s immune system isn’t equipped to fight off the disease that hits some 18 million Americans every year. But babies are also particularly susceptible to coronavirus, parainfluenza virus, adenovirus, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
These viruses will cause baby to cough and sneeze, and make their little noses run thanks to increased mucus production (which stuffs them up). But because they’re viral, Bring says antibiotics are generally off the table. They won’t help—and in some cases they’ll actually make things worse.
“Babies and infants should be treated with conservative measures and rarely with medications,” Bring notes.
In other words? It’s not just okay to go old school when it comes to baby’s congestion—the methods used by our grandmas are often the best, and in many cases, they’re doctor approved.
“Some good treatments include cool mist humidifiers to help break up mucous secretions and a bulb syringe to help remove the mucus,” Bring says. “Saline nose drops can help in some circumstances as well. Often parents will use the steam from a shower in a bathroom if [they don’t have] access to a humidifier to help their baby breathe better [despite] a respiratory infection.”
Congestion itself isn’t cause for immediate concern, but if baby’s struggling to breathe, has a cough that sounds like a seal barking, or their skin turns a blue or dusky color, it’s time to make a run to the urgent care or emergency room, Bring says.
“This can indicate that the baby isn’t getting enough oxygen due to inflammation of the airways from the infection,” Bring explains. “Typically oxygen levels can be measured at an urgent care or ER through use of a pulse oximeter.”
If the congestion is accompanied by fever and other signs of illness (lethargy, glassy eyes, refusal to eat, etc.), you’ll want to make that hospital run.

Stock the medicine cabinet.

The baby section of your local pharmacy has almost as many choices as the adult areas, but be wary. There are plenty of items on the shelves that doctors warn against.
“There are very few over-the-counter medications [that] are recommended for young children and almost all of the cough [and] congestion medications should not be administered to children under age 4,” Bring warns.
The American Academy of Pediatrics warns parents against OTC cough and cold medicines, and pediatricians have come out against the use of Vicks Vapo Rub on kids under age 2. Even “natural” remedies such as echinacea, vitamin C, and zinc get the side-eye from the experts.
Instead, stock up on ibuprofen and acetaminophen (e.g. baby Tylenol and baby Motrin), which your pediatrician can suggest dosing out based on baby’s age and weight. In addition to bottles of each, grab bulb syringes for your medicine cabinet (and your diaper bag!), as well as saline nasal drops.
If you can, run cool mist humidifiers in your home to keep the whole family’s sinuses moist and comfortable.

An ounce of prevention…

Avoiding illness is every mom’s goal, but let’s face it: The world is full of germs, and babies are still building their immune systems. While adults tend to get two to four colds a year, kids can get five to 10.
The best ways to ward off serious illness? Good old-fashioned hygiene!
“Parents, caregivers, and anyone around the baby should be vigilant about handwashing, especially during the winter months,” Bring says.
If your baby is 6 months or older, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends a flu vaccination to help protect them from the flu.
“Getting a flu shot does not give you the flu,” Bring notes. “The immunization gives your child’s immune system a chance to create an immune response to a dead virus prior to being infected. This gives young children a head start for their immune system to start working on fighting the flu in case they do get infected with the virus later in the season.”
If illness does hit, be proactive. Take their temperature. Watch for the signs. Call your doctor. Trust that mom’s intuition. It can make all the difference.

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Healthy Relationships Wellbeing

6 Questions Every Woman Should Ask Herself Before Making A Relationship Official

It’s time. You’ve been seeing someone, and you’re about to make this thing Facebook official. Or maybe…not.
The average couple takes six dates to decide they’re done “dating” and ready to be in a committed relationship. That means they’re ready to stop seeing other people, at least according to survey data from TimeOut. But by definition, average means there are couples out there doing it much more quickly…and much more slowly.
So how do you know when it’s time to make the leap from seeing each other to seeing only each other?
Don’t leave your potential partner to make the decision alone. If you want to be an empowered part of your relationship, you need to ask yourself some serious questions. So what should you be considering?
We asked women to share the questions they’ve asked themselves before deciding if it’s time to dive in with both feet—or lace up their sneakers and run for the hills.

1. How would they treat me if we broke up?

When Erica M. asks herself this question, she’s not hoping for a breakup. She’s just being realistic. According to survey data compiled by Bridebook, most people have at least two serious relationships before finding their happily ever after.
[related article_ids=8074]
If your potential partner is more Mr. or Ms. Right Now than Mr. or Ms. Right, do you really want to spend time with someone you can easily imagine posting revenge porn or refusing to share custody of the dog should things not work out?

2. Do I like who I am when I’m with them?

People change when they’re in relationships. Some people experience a boost in their mental health. Some of us are less stressed thanks to a dip in our cortisol levels. But for all the good changes that can come with coupledom, there can be ill effects, too.
Are we giving up on the things we like because our potential partner has expressed a disinterest? Are we letting go of our closest friends because they’re not crazy about this guy or girl?
Before making the jump to “relationship” status, Miriam A. always asks herself, “Can I love and trust who I am when I’m with them?”
If you’re not loving the person you are when you’re with your date, it might not be a good idea to take things to the next level.

3. How do I feel about heading home to them?

For 33-year-old Morgan B., making the decision to commit came down to how she’d feel at the end of the day knowing she’d head home to find that person in her space.
“Do I wish I had more time alone? My own space? Will I get to relax when I get there? …Basically, do I feel safe and look forward to coming home to this person at the end of the day?”
The last man whose presence had her saying, “Yes, I feel safe”? Her current husband.

4. Have people warned me about this person?

When 35-year-old Jenny E. decided it was time to make the next move in her current relationship, she took a mental inventory not only of what she thought about her partner but what friends and family had said about him too.
[related article_ids=8351]
Friends and family may not always be right, but it’s worth listening to warnings, especially when they come from the people who love you.

5. How do they treat other people?

Amy S. used to work as a waitress, so it’s no wonder she watches how her dates treat waitstaff. She’s seen more than her fair share of people who seem to be having a lot of fun with the company at a table only to be rude and inconsiderate when a server or busser swings by.
Sometimes called the waiter rule, this question doesn’t have to be limited to how your potential boyfriend or girlfriend treats people in restaurants. Do they hold the door open for the next person at the bank? Do they step to the side when a mom is trying to navigate a larger stroller down the sidewalk? Do they stand in the grocery store line, oblivious, while the cashier is trying to pack their groceries and a long line is forming?
If they can’t show compassion for other people, how certain can you really be that they’ll show it for you?

6. Does this person love themselves?

Committing to a relationship means committing to be with a person through the good days and the bad days. But if the person Jeana B. has been seeing always seems to have bad days, she tells HealthyWay it’s a red flag. “He might be the nicest guy, but if he’s not happy with himself, I can’t fix that.”

Categories
Health x Body Wellbeing

“I Had Cancer In My Twenties”—Here’s What It’s Like

There’s no good way to find out you have cancer. With her toddler in her arms and her infant daughter in a car seat on the floor of the doctor’s office, Kara Passante started to yell at her husband to please just get their daughter out of the room so she didn’t have to hear that her 29-year-old mom had breast cancer.
“I was in shock. I was terrified and furious. I was in a state of confusion that can’t really be explained. Everything I thought was normal was flipped upside down,” the co-founder of cancer charity Ride 2 Survive recalls. “It felt like a movie where everything suddenly goes in slow motion.”
There’s no good time to be diagnosed with cancer. Passante doesn’t wish it on anyone of any age. At 29, with a fairly new marriage, two small babies, and so many dreams yet to be fulfilled, she says it felt like being robbed of her future.

The Faces of Young Adult Cancer

Cancer in young adults is rare in America, where the median age of cancer diagnosis is 66. Annually, a quarter of the Americans diagnosed with cancer are already of retirement age.
And yet, rare does not mean non-existent. Rare does not mean women in their twenties are guaranteed a cancer-free decade. In fact, an estimated 2.7 percent of new cancer diagnoses made this year will be in people ages 20 to 34.
[pullquote align=”center”]“I was terrified and furious. I was in a state of confusion that can’t really be explained.”
—Kara Passante, Co-Founder of Ride 2 Survive[/pullquote]
The medical community calls them AYAs, adolescents and young adults. They’re people like Passante. People like Allyson Strong, who was a 24-year-old graduate student when doctors diagnosed her with small cell cervical cancer. People like Erin Mast, who spent the first few months of her twenties applying a cream to her vagina that would burn through the cancer cells on her vaginal walls—a cream that killed the cancer but left her unable to walk without extreme pain.
The cream was still in a clinical trial phase, and the side effects were excruciating, Mast says, but it was her only hope of having kids. At 19, when she was diagnosed, her doctors told her she could undergo radiation and chemotherapy to kill the cancer in her vagina, but it would almost definitely render her infertile. She opted for the cream instead.

Decision Making in the Face of a Cancer Diagnosis (as a 20-something Woman)

While older women are typically past their childbearing years, a cancer diagnosis for a woman in her twenties often means suddenly having to face egg retrieval and egg freezing (which can be costly and is rarely covered by insurance), or giving up the possibility of ever having children and grieving that loss.
“I was considered ‘lucky’ to have already had children,” Passante recalls. “I was told cancer treatment would destroy my ability to have any more. So what if I wasn’t so ‘lucky’? Chemotherapy wrecks havoc on the reproductive system of both women and men. These young people are potentially being stripped of their ability to produce children. That’s a huge, terrifying concern when you’re young.”
Fertility is just one of the issues that sets cancer in a person’s young adult years apart from cancer during any other life stage, says Barbara Strong, CEO of the Allyson Whitney Foundation, a national non-profit that provides grants to young adults battling cancer.
[pullquote align=”center”]“These young people are potentially being stripped of their ability to produce children. That’s a huge, terrifying concern when you’re young.”
—Kara Passante, Co-Founder of Ride 2 Survive[/pullquote]
Strong is Allyson Whitney’s mom. She lost her daughter in 2011, just 14 months after her diagnosis. She knows, as a parent and advocate, what it’s like for a woman in her twenties to have her future ripped out from under her.
“Emotionally, you’re isolated,” Strong says. “You’re going to these places where you’re not going to see [familiar] faces in the lobby, in the waiting room.”
Other cancer patients are typically much older. People your age are in college. They’re having bridal showers and welcoming babies. You’re getting a port implanted in your chest for chemotherapy. You’re shaving your head so your hair doesn’t fall out in clumps.
Even your friends don’t know what to do, Barbara says. “You come back [home], and your friends have never experienced having a friend with cancer. They don’t know how to talk to you,” she says.
For many young people, a cancer diagnosis comes at a time when they’re just beginning to establish themselves in a career. Sick days are few and health insurance limited.
[pullquote align=”center”]People your age are in college. They’re having bridal showers and welcoming babies. You’re getting a port implanted in your chest for chemotherapy.[/pullquote]
If they’re lucky, Strong says, they can move home to live with their parents, but their parents are still typically young enough to be in the workforce. The parents of AYAs with cancer often find themselves turning their own lives upside down, taking time away from work to care for their adult children.
“It’s your child,” Strong says. “You’re stopping life to get this done.”
The rates of survival for AYAs vary depending on the type of cancer they face. AYA survival tends to be worst for those with female breast cancer (regardless of estrogen receptor status), acute lymphoid leukemia (ALL), and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). When compared to survival rates for younger and older people with the same diagnoses, AYA rates in these cases are the worst.
In part, misdiagnosis is to blame. When a woman in her twenties walks into a doctor’s office complaining of pain, cancer is not the first thing doctors think of. Mast was diagnosed first with pelvic inflammatory disorder, then a spastic colon. Neither diagnosis was accurate. Ultimately, it was her family physician who trusted Mast’s gut and referred her to multiple specialists who eventually diagnosed her correctly.
[pullquote align=”center”]“It’s your child. You’re stopping life to get this done.”
—Barbara Strong, CEO of the Allyson Whitney Foundation[/pullquote]
In Passante’s case, it was her own advocacy.
“In your twenties, mammograms aren’t even a thought,” she says. “It’s never okay to be given a cancer diagnosis, but in your fifties and sixties there are known risk increases, so prevention is more diligent. In your twenties, you are going in blind, and by the time it’s determined cancer, it’s often progressed to an advanced stage because there was no prevention at all.”

A Message for Women

With World Cancer Day taking place on Feb. 4, Passante, Mast, and Strong have a message for women: Trust your body. Be your own advocate. If you feel something, say something.
The American Cancer Society lists these signs of cancer that are most likely to occur in the AYA stage:

  • An unusual lump or swelling in the neck, breast, belly, testicle, or elsewhere
  • Unexplained tiredness and loss of energy
  • Easy bruising
  • Abnormal bleeding
  • Ongoing pain in one part of the body
  • Unexplained fever or illness that doesn’t go away
  • Frequent headaches, often with vomiting
  • Sudden eye or vision changes
  • Loss of appetite or unplanned weight loss
  • A new mole or other spot on the skin, or one that changes in size, shape, or color

If you or a loved one receives a cancer diagnosis, Passante offers this advice: “One day at a time. Break it all down. When you’re in your twenties and you hear cancer, chemo, medi port, surgery, radiation, hormones, drugs, reconstruction, etc., it is beyond overwhelming. Everything in your life suddenly becomes about what doctor you have to see next, what procedure is next, what’s next, what’s next. Break it down. One day at a time. Don’t obsess over the whole picture: It’s too much. One day at a time. Little victories.”   
If you’re facing a cancer diagnosis in your twenties and need somewhere to turn, the Allyson Whitney Foundation’s Life Interrupted grant applications are processed twice a year. If you’ve battled cancer and come out the other side, The Samfund offers financial assistance and other forms of support to help you get back on your feet.

Categories
Health x Body Wellbeing

Liver Disease Symptoms Can’t Be Ignored: But Do You Know Who’s At Risk?

Robin West needs a liver. At 34 years old, the U.S. military veteran and mom of a rambunctious toddler spends her days waiting for a call that will change her life—a call that her name on the Colorado transplant list has been matched with someone whose organ can be transplanted into her body.
Born with a rare gastrointestinal disorder called biliary atresia, a condition that progressively destroys the bile ducts that carry bile from the liver to the intestine. She underwent surgery when she was just 8 weeks old, when doctors performed a procedure sometimes known as a Roux-en-Y or a Kasai procedure. It was meant to reroute her bile drainage system and take pressure off her liver.
It bought West’s body time. She had a normal childhood. She went to college. She signed up to serve her country. But she was serving in the U.S. Army in 2016 when she thought she’d caught the flu.
A trip to the emergency room said something different. She was experiencing liver disease symptoms. “My liver enzymes were off the charts,” West tells HealthyWay.
She was diagnosed that day with primary sclerosing cholangitis, a progressive liver disease that has since landed her on the transplant list. She is one of millions of people in America who live every day with liver disease and its symptoms.
West’s childhood diagnosis with biliary atresia was a harbinger that she may have trouble in her future. It’s the most common liver disease that requires transplantation.
 

But for millions of Americans, a liver disease shows up unannounced, and it’s not caused by a childhood illness.
In fact, everything from our weight to our sex lives could eventually lead to damage (or even disease) of the liver. And the numbers of people diagnosed are growing.

What the Liver Does

Located in your abdominal cavity, above the stomach, the liver is one of the body’s biggest organs, and we can’t live without it. The liver is responsible for converting the nutrients we take in into substances the body can use, and when it’s functioning properly it will break down the fats we eat to help make energy.
A healthy liver also helps our bodies to handle toxins, removing things like alcohol and the byproducts of certain medicines from the blood and processing them so they can be released back into the blood or the bowels.

Maybe there’s a problem?

As a society, we tend to think of liver disease as something that crops up in aging alcoholics. The internet is rife with memes that poke fun at the idea that one’s “liver light” might come on after a weekend of partying and t-shirts warning “shut up, liver, you’re fine.”
Tastelessness of the jokes aside, the idea that liver disease is singular to people who drink excessive amounts of alcohol is patently false.
The most common cause of liver disease in America is actually viral hepatitis, particularly hepatitis C, says Lauren Nephew, MD, a hepatologist at Indiana University Health. The chronic (aka lifelong) disease infects some 4.6 million Americans, and an estimated 2,000 die from it every year in the U.S.

“Some risk factors for hepatitis C include [intravenous] drug use, intranasal cocaine, blood product transfusions before 1987, and non-professional tattoos,” Nephew explains.
Hepatitis B also kills some 2,000 Americans annually, although rates of infection are rapidly declining, thanks to vaccinations created in the early 1990s that are now given to babies (and are available to older Americans). Whether hepatitis B is contracted via sex, contact with an infected person’s blood, or birth (it can be transmitted from mother to child), estimates of how many people are affected with it vary wildly. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) puts the figure anywhere between 85,000 and 2.2 million Americans.
Another cause of liver disease that’s taking root in America is non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), sometimes called just fatty liver disease.
“This is expected to be the leading cause of liver disease in the U.S. in the next decade,” Nephew notes. Linked to America’s growing obesity problem, risk factors for fatty liver disease include obesity, diabetes, and high cholesterol. According to the National Library of Medicine, “as the rates of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and high cholesterol are rising in the United States, so is the rate of NAFLD.” It now affects some 25 percent of the global population.

Typically, diseases that damage the liver eventually result in cirrhosis, a swelling of the liver that is usually the result of years’ worth of damage to the liver. It can be (and often is) caused by alcoholism, but it’s also caused by hepatitis C, bile duct diseases (such as cholangitis, which West is currently suffering from), or a genetic condition such as Wilson’s disease or hemochromatosis. Exactly what sort of disease might affect a liver can be related to lifestyle, to genetics…or to gender.

Liver Disease and Women

“Women are more prone to certain types of liver disease, such as autoimmune hepatitis, primary biliary cholangitis, and toxin mediated liver injury, which includes alcohol-induced liver injury.” explains Seth Levin, DO, a gastroenterologist with the OhioHealth Physician Group. “They are also more likely to present with acute liver failure and to develop benign liver lesions.”
While (cisgender) men are considered more likely to abuse alcohol than women, women are more susceptible to its toxic effects on the liver, Levin says, regardless of how much we drink. What’s more, compared to our male counterparts, if a woman develops an alcoholic liver disease, she’s likely to see it progress more rapidly.
 

The difference in body size can’t be ignored here—and it’s one reason scientists think women are taking a bigger hit. But researchers into the gender divide in liver diseases also put the blame on our immune systems, noting differences in the way the female body reacts to toxins.
“Alcohol is toxic to the liver cells called hepatocytes,” Nephew explains. “Over time, that reoccurring damage can cause other cells to attempt to repair the damage and lay down scars. Scar or fibrosis in the liver can progress to cirrhosis.”

What’s happening? Common Symptoms of Liver Disease

Many diseases that affect the liver are asymptomatic, meaning liver disease symptoms won’t show up until someone has reached advanced stages. But if your liver is malfunctioning, there are some basic signs and symptoms of liver disease to look for.

Common symptoms of liver disease include:

  • Jaundice (yellowing of the eyes or skin)
  • Swelling in the lower extremities or abdomen
  • Confusion
  • Unexplained weight loss
  • Bloody or black stools


Some milder liver disease symptoms include itching and fatigue, Nephew says. It’s important to call a doctor immediately if you’re observing some of the common symptoms of liver disease, so your healthcare provider can run blood tests and begin treatment if necessary. Even diseases such as hepatitis C can be treated if they’re caught early enough.

Liver Damage or Liver Disease?

Unsettling as this all may sound, the liver has an amazing trick up its sleeve that’s not present in many other body organs. The liver can repair itself from certain harms.
In other words? Sometimes damage to your liver can be undone…depending on the cause and amount of liver damage.
“We describe liver diseases as acute and chronic,” Nephew explains. “Acute means that the condition is likely reversible when the cause of injury is removed. This could be alcohol, a medication, or a virus that the body quickly clears. …After an acute injury, the liver can repair and be normal again,” she continues.
Chronic liver diseases, on the other hand, are conditions that are not immediately reversible and require treatment or monitoring.
“Over time, a chronic liver disease can cause enough damage to the liver that that damage is not reversible,” Nephew says. “We call this damage fibrosis. If there is enough fibrosis present we call this cirrhosis.”

Still, there is hope with a chronic disease. Chronic liver disease does not (always) immediately lead to death. There are people walking around living with chronic liver diseases. There are people receiving treatment for chronic liver disease and living relatively normal lives. The outcome depends, once again, on the reason for the disease and sometimes on a patient’s willingness to adjust their lifestyle.
But people like West fight a stigma that comes with chronic liver disease every day.
“I get a lot of people thinking I drank a lot or have hep C,” she says. “Not all of us are alcoholics, some are born this way or develop problems over time.”
In West’s case, lifestyle changes aren’t enough. Because her liver was affected by biliary atresia, the disease she has had since birth, the development of cholangitis was a natural progression of the disease.
“Basically, it means I need a new liver, because my old one will not last very much longer,” West says.
 

West has a drain on her side for the bile that builds up in her body, bile that a healthy liver would process. She can’t work. She has to be careful when playing with her little girl because she fears the drain will fall out and she’ll land back in the hospital. Infection could kill her. Infection also pushes her down the transplant list.
This is life with a chronic liver disease. For thousands of Americans, this is the way it is. For thousands more, there’s still hope.

Ch-ch-changes

If you’re fortunate enough not to be born with a liver condition or genetic predisposition, prevention is key…and relatively simple for the bulk of conditions that affect the liver.
Because of the spike in fatty liver disease diagnoses on the horizon, lifestyle changes can make a real difference. Ask your doctor to run blood tests to determine your cholesterol levels. Keep your weight in line with your doctor’s recommendations. Address any blood pressure concerns.
If you’re on regular medications, ask your doctor if they can affect the liver. Antidepressants, in particular, are often linked to liver damage, especially those classified as monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors. If you’re taking an antidepressant regularly, your doctor may recommend regular blood tests to determine your liver’s health. Acute damage from a medication can be repaired, Nephew says, so it’s important to follow up on blood testing recommended by your doctor rather than putting it off because you hate needles!
If you haven’t already received the hepatitis B vaccine, the CDC recommends calling your general practitioner and scheduling the shot immediately to protect yourself from the blood-borne disease.

Hepatitis C risks, such as intravenous drug use, should be avoided for simple health reasons, but if you had a blood product transfusion before 1987, Nephew suggests asking your primary care physician to do a hepatitis C screening.  
And if you indulge in alcohol at all, it’s wise to keep your drinking in check. Although it’s not the only cause of liver damage and disease, Mommy’s wine time can quickly become a problem, not least because of the role our gender plays in risk factors.
“Women should make sure not to drink more than the recommended amount of daily alcohol,” Nephew says. “Women should know that our livers are more sensitive to the toxic effects of alcohol than men’s livers; therefore it takes a smaller amount of alcohol to damage the liver.”
The recommendations from the doctors are strict: Women should have no more than one alcoholic beverage per day, and that doesn’t mean one bottle of wine. One 12-ounce beer, one 5-ounce glass of wine, or 1.5 ounces of liquor is the limit.

“Levels higher than that can over time damage the liver,” Nephew warns.  
A final piece of advice comes from West: Be vigilant if you are noticing what you think might be symptoms of liver disease.
“I wish I would have gone to the doctor when I first got sick,” she says. “I thought I had the flu and it would pass. I was wrong. If you have any unusual symptoms, I’d suggest getting them checked—particularly, yellow skin, fevers, abdominal/back pain, flu-like symptoms.”

Help for Those Who Need It

If your liver is in good condition, you can help out those who are struggling. Most transplants come from deceased donors, but the liver is one of the few organs that can be transplanted from a living donor. That’s because only a section of the liver needs to be transplanted, as it will regrow in both the donor’s body and the transplant recipient’s body.

If you know someone who needs a liver, you could consider being tested to see if you’re a match for a living transplant. You can also sign yourself up as an organ donor to help someone after you die.  
Even if you’re not a candidate for donation, it’s important to ignore the myths about liver disease…for your sake and for those who suffer.
Someone who doesn’t exhibit the most common symptoms of liver disease isn’t necessarily abusing drugs or engaging in risky behavior. “Just because someone doesn’t look sick doesn’t mean they are not or [they don’t] have issues going on. So be nice and kind to everyone,” West says.
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Categories
Mindful Parenting Motherhood

Beyond Baby Talk: How To Help Babies And Toddlers Learn Through Speech

You can’t help it. You stare into your baby’s eyes and you let out a sentence full of words that you’ve never said before, in a voice that doesn’t sound quite like yours.
Welcome to parenthood, the land where babbling isn’t just OK—it’s part of helping our babies develop the speech they’ll eventually need to tell us how much they love us (hey, that’s the plan, right?).
How parents talk to their kids, and the “right” way to teach children their mother language has been studied and debated by scientists for decades. Should you be pulling out board books when you’re still just a day or two postpartum and reading to your newborn? Do you really need to buy those fancy flashcards they advertise on all the baby sites? And what’s the deal with baby talk anyway?
Slow down. You’re talking too fast! Here’s what the experts have to say about it all!

Baby Talk

What we say to our kids matters. They need to hear “I love you” for their emotional development. They need to hear a variety of words for their speech development. And Mother Nature’s got our back.
Parents are hardwired to adjust their speech patterns when babies arrive, especially moms, who tend to switch to what’s called “infant-directed speech” without even thinking about it, says Greg Bryant, PhD, associate professor and vice chair of the Department of Communications at UCLA.
Unlike baby talk—which is essentially using nonsense words and diminutives when talking to your baby (think phrases like cutsie wootsie instead of cute)—infant-directed speech describes a change in speech patterns.
The voice generally goes up an octave (or two), and we tend to elongate our vowels, enunciating words so they’re sounded out rather than mushed together in the speedy way we tend to speak to other adults. Think about how you try to teach a baby to say mama. Instead of a quick mama, we tend to say maaa-maaa. That’s a classic example of infant-directed speech.
“Early on, kids need to learn the sounds of the language they’re going to speak,” Bryant explains. “They more clearly they hear it, the easier it is to learn.”
But while it’s an important part of being a parent, Bryant is quick to tell parents not to get stressed out by the headlines that implore them to read to kids from infancy in order to boost their vocabulary and literacy skills, or warnings that kids as young as 18 months can experience a “word gap,” lagging behind their peers with larger vocabularies.
“[Reading] helps to make them literate,” he says. But language development is minimal when they’re sleeping through the book and not engaged with the story, he says. It’s OK to hold off until they’re able to at least see the pictures on the pages!
Pediatric speech language pathologist Jenny Cardinal of Riley Children’s Health in Indianapolis says much of language development for babies and toddlers happens more organically.
“Children learn language through the vocabulary and language modeled to them through their everyday interactions and natural environment activities such as eating snacks and bath time,” she notes.
Although every baby is different and will develop at their own pace, parents can generally expect the following in the baby stage:

Birth to About 3 Months

Baby will make cooing or vowel sounds and have cries that mean different things, for example, “Change my diaper” or “I’m hungry.”

4 to 6 Months

Baby will likely be cooing and making speech-like babbling sounds such as ba, pa, and mi.

7 to 12 Months

Babies will babble longer strings of sounds such as mimi, up-up, and baba. It is also around this age that they will imitate different speech sounds and say one to two true words—such as hi, dog, dada, mama, or uh-oh—around their first birthday.

Walking but Not (Necessarily) Talking

Although many babies can say “real” words before they hit age 1, every child will progress at different rates, and the words they use may not make a whole lot of sense to anyone other than their parents and caregivers.  
“Children typically have one to two true words by between 12 and 15 months of age,” Cardinal says. “These words may not sound exactly as an adult would say them (e.g., da for dog), but the word is used consistently to mean a specific thing.”
Cardinal suggests engaging in play and talking about what is happening using a variety of words, not just labeling with nouns.
“Model action words and adjectives, too, to help your child expand their vocabulary,” she says. “When playing, get at eye level with your child so they can see your mouth modeling words for them. Take turns with them so that they understand how conversations work.”
Cardinal encourages parents to make investments of their time. “The more practice with talking your child gets, the better they become! It is always helpful to read books together so that they hear a variety of vocabulary words and can use the pictures to help them understand.”
In their second year of life (the 12 months between their first and second birthdays), kids tend to start making the m, p, b, h, and w sounds. Typically they pick up a variety of new words, although they’re still not stringing together sentences.
Between 2 and 3, Cardinal says children typically use the t, d, n, k, g and f sounds within words. More complex speech sounds such as l, s, r, v, z, j, ch, sh, and th continue to develop through the age of 7.

You’ve got a talker!

Infant-directed speech should continue through about age 4 or 5 Bryant says, but it naturally lessens as kids get older and more adept at language. Think about it—when was the last time you encouraged a school-aged child to say Maaa-maaaa?
To keep language development going, reading to and with kids is important, as is challenging them to use the words they see and hear every day. That can simply mean using “big” words in your vocabulary or asking them to describe things they see, fishing for adjectives that stretch their imagination.
As Cardinal says, it’s in those rides in the car or dinner table conversations that “they not only hear and learn to produce speech sounds modeled to them, but also learn how to put words together to make phrases and sentences using a variety of words including pronouns, nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, etc.”
Her final piece of advice?
“Talk at a level your child understands and model grammatical phrases and sentences.”

Categories
Health x Body Wellbeing

What Is Cupping Therapy? And Is It Right For You?

When Vivian Manning-Schaffel leaves her acupuncturist’s office after a cupping session, her back is covered in cup-shaped bruises, and she’s sore. But the NYC-based writer says she knows what’s coming: Her muscles will start to ease out of their clenched position, and she’ll suddenly feel like she has a whole new back.
“Cupping is so amazing,” Manning-Schaffel says. “It’s the part of the [acupuncture] treatment I look forward to the most.”
Looking forward to a bruised back covered in big red marks might sound a bit…odd. But thanks to a degenerative disease that can leave her back in spasms, Manning-Schaffel has found herself among a growing number of Americans who’ve made cupping a regular part of their wellness routines.
Rooted in Chinese medicine, cupping has been around for centuries, but the practice has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years. Photos of Olympians with skin that looks like it’s covered in grade school hickies pop up regularly in the media, proving that some of the nation’s most elite athletes turn to cupping. And then there are those Facebook friends who are crowing about the miraculous new treatment that’s cured their back pain.
If you’ve been tempted to try cupping, you’re not alone. Here’s a look at what it really is…and what the scientists say it can do for you.

What is cupping, anyway?

Remember when you were a kid, and you use to place your mom’s vacuum hose on your arm or leg before flipping the switch? Then you’ve got at least somewhat of an idea of what cupping is all about.
As the name implies, cupping involves small cups (typically made of glass, bamboo, or silicone) that are placed on the skin in areas where someone feels pain. A vacuum pump is used to create suction so the small cups grip the skin, pulling the blood toward the skin’s surface.
It’s that increased blood flow that’s credited with most of the practice’s healing properties, but different practitioners offer techniques that will enhance the therapy. Some acupuncturists use typical acupuncture needle techniques in conjunction with cupping, while others will move the cups around on the surface for a suction-based massage.
Although cupping traditionally has been offered in acupuncturists’ offices, the spike in wellness centers in the U.S. and the surge in alternative pain treatment popularity have cupping moving into the mainstream too. These days you’ll find cupping offered at some pain clinics and physical therapy offices as well as alternative wellness centers.
No matter where you go, though, it’s wise to ask if the cupping procedure will be dry or wet.
With wet cupping or hijama, therapists typically make small incisions in the skin to allow blood to escape. That step is skipped in the dry version of the practice.

What the Science Says

Thousands of years of practice doesn’t always mean something is scientifically sound (see also: throwing salt over your shoulder or knocking on wood). But when it comes to cupping, researchers have dug deep into whether there are therapeutic benefits and come up with good news.
One look at 75 different randomized controlled trials of traditional Chinese medicine practices concluded that cupping is “relatively safe” and “could be efficacious in treating the pain and disability” associated with chronic neck pain and chronic low back pain, specifically.

Is cupping for you?

Because it’s not a traditional Western modality, it’s no surprise that the National Institutes of Health recommends against using cupping in place of traditional doctor’s visits, and it’s always wise to visit your physician before embarking on any new wellness plan.
But if a doctor signs off, cupping could prove promising for countless people. Studies have found cupping therapy beneficial for migraine sufferers, people with lower back pain, and even those with skin conditions like psoriasis.
If your pain clinic or physical therapy office has a cupping practitioner on staff, the hunt is made easy. No such luck? The National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine hosts an easily searchable directory that can help you find a practitioner.
After your visit, you can expect to feel some soreness like Manning-Schaffel does, and you’ll likely get a warning that you should up your water intake, similar to a post-massage regimen. But you may just find yourself looking forward to that back covered in red marks…for the sake of the relief that comes next!

Categories
Healthy Pregnancy Motherhood

Foods To Avoid During Pregnancy

Coffee. Cheese. Cold cuts. The list of foods to avoid during pregnancy seems to go on and on, and it can seem like all our favorites are suddenly off the table just when we’re feeling like we could really use some comfort food.
But how many of the foods that one woman in your moms-to-be Facebook group swears you need to trash are legitimate no-nos, and how many foods do pregnant women end up avoiding due to wives’ tales and bad science? Do you really need to clean out your entire fridge and start over?
You’ve got just nine months of pregnancy (give or take), so let’s dive in and get some answers!

What’s off the menu?

You’ve already said Bye bye cute little two-door car, hello mom van. And you’re sharing your body with a growing human. So what else do you have to change?
Let’s start with the good news, shall we? “Truly, the list of foods that are big no-nos is pretty short,” says Anita Somani, MD, an OB-GYN with Comprehensive Women’s Care at OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.
The following foods should be avoided—that is, completely cut out of your diet—when pregnant, according to Somani:

  1. Alcohol

    2. Studies on how much alcohol will hurt a growing fetus send moms-to-be mixed signals, but the official stance of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) leaves nothing up to interpretation.
    The official ACOG statement warns, “Even moderate alcohol use during pregnancy can cause lifelong problems with a child’s learning and behavior. Any amount is risky for women who are pregnant or trying to become pregnant. All types of alcohol are harmful, including beer and wine.”
    Drinking alcohol during pregnancy has been linked to fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) in infants, a condition that leads to problems with brain development, lower-than-average height and weight, smaller-than-normal head size, and abnormal facial features. Conflicting headlines and studies aside, ACOG’s ruling notes, “Birth defects related to alcohol are 100 percent preventable by not drinking during pregnancy.”

  2. Raw Meat, Raw Fish, Deli Meat, and Unpasteurized Cheese

    3. Pregnant women are 13 times more likely to contract listeriosis, a food-borne illness caused by the listeria bacterium. According to ACOG, the disease can cause miscarriage, preterm labor, and stillbirth, as well as neonatal listeriosis and possible neonatal death.
    Your favorite cold cuts, raw meats, and unpasteurized cheeses all make the list of foods with a high risk of listeria contamination—hence the suggestion that you steer clear. It’s also recommended you keep track of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) food recalls, as some fresh produce has been linked to listeriosis outbreaks in recent years. You can visit the FDA’s site regularly or sign up for recall warnings to be sent right in your email inbox.

  3. Fish That Are High in Mercury

    4. Mackerel, swordfish, marlin, ahi tuna, shark, tilefish, and orange roughy make the list of no-nos from the FDA, as mercury is considered a neurotoxin that can harm unborn babies.


According to the Environmental Protection Agency, exposure to mercury in the womb can “adversely affect unborn infants’ growing brains and nervous systems.” Because they’re still developing, a fetus’ systems are also more vulnerable to the effects of mercury than an adult’s would be.

Stay the course or buckle in for change?

So, if there aren’t that many foods you really need to avoid during pregnancy, you can just keep on eating the way you did when you were eating for one, right? Not so fast. Step away from the junk food aisle for a second and listen up.
The biggest dietary changes you should commit to aren’t necessarily in types of foods at all, Somani says, but in how much (or how little) a woman should be consuming during the nine-plus months she’s carrying her baby. A woman’s pre-pregnancy weight can affect her own health, so it only stands to reason that it can affect her pregnancy, from increasing her chances of developing gestational diabetes to upping her risk of preeclampsia, a pregnancy-related blood pressure disorder.
Your OB-GYN will likely ask you to hop on the scale early on, not only to record your weight for monitoring purposes, but to determine your nutrition plan for the entirety of your pregnancy. They may start talking goal weight gain…or even weight loss.
“If someone is overweight, we encourage them to lose at least 10 percent of their body weight to improve fertility, decrease the risk of diabetes and hypertension and stillbirth,” Somani says. “If someone is underweight, we encourage them to gain weight or eat more calories during pregnancy to decrease growth restriction in the fetus.”
If your pre-pregnancy weight was within healthy limits, you’re ahead of the game. “There is less risk of neural tube defects and growth issues,” Somani says.
For women in this boat, the big diet changes will depend on pre-pregnancy proclivities. If you drank alcohol, lunched on sushi or beef tartare, dined on unpasteurized cheese, or spent a lot of time bellying up to the deli for sliced cold cuts, get ready to give things up.
Otherwise, ACOG recommends moms-to-be eat a well-balanced diet that consists of protein, carbohydrates, and fats, says Yves-Richard Dole, MD, an OB-GYN at Mercy in Baltimore. In general, a mom with a body mass index (BMI) that’s considered “normal” should shoot for weight gain of about 25 to 35 pounds over the course of the pregnancy, he adds.

Controlled Cravings

Although some foods are strictly off the menu, there are others that pregnant women are told to avoid when possible but don’t have to eliminate entirely.
Seafood, for example, may be on the must-avoid list when it’s served raw or if it’s high in mercury, but ACOG has recently loosened up its rulings on grabbing your dinner from the sea. These days, the group allows for moms-to-be to eat two to three servings (8 to 12 ounces) a week of a long list of fish, including fresh-water trout, catfish, cod, and even clams and shrimp. Other fish, such as albacore tuna or monkfish, get the thumbs up if they’re limited to 6 ounces per week.
You may even want to work fish into your diet if you aren’t otherwise eating it, Somani says—at least the “good” kinds.
“Fish that are high in omega-3 fatty acids … should be eaten in pregnancy,” she notes, because those omega-3s are good for babies’ development. You may even notice they’re one of the nutrients in a variety of prenatal vitamins.
Likewise, avoiding unpasteurized cheeses doesn’t mean all cheeses make the “foods to avoid during pregnancy” list. Soft cheeses, such as feta, brie, and queso fresco, are sometimes pasteurized—you just need to check the packaging. Hard cheeses, such as cheddar, gouda, and parmesan, are almost always pasteurized, and semi-soft cheeses, like mozzarella, are typically in the clear as well.
And while your BFF may have been told no coffee or other caffeinated beverages during her pregnancy, many doctors allow for a little morning pick-me-up once you’re in your second trimester.
“Most experts state that consuming fewer than 200 mg of caffeine (one 12-ounce cup of coffee) a day during pregnancy is safe,” Somani says.
Also allowed in limited doses? Giving in to your cravings. While “eating for two” is a dangerous myth that can result in too much weight gain, Dole says there’s no reason you can’t have a family member or partner supply you with a steady stock of the foods your body is crying out for.
“Ice cream, chocolate, and french fries are common cravings that can be indulged in moderation,” he says.
On the other hand, if you’re craving dirt, chalk, sand, toothpaste, or other non-edibles, you may be struggling with a pregnancy-related condition called pica. Skip the sampling and call your healthcare provider, Dole warns.
Moms-to-be have long been warned against consuming peanuts during pregnancy, but you may find your OB-GYN giving you the all-clear to pop a can of Planters and chow down. While nut allergies have tripled in recent years, a study published in JAMA Pediatrics suggests the risk of your child developing a peanut allergy dips if you eat nuts while they’re in utero. Even better: The more peanuts and tree nuts a (non-allergic) mom ate, the lower her child’s risk, according to the study’s findings.
“Peanuts have been discouraged in the past, but now we are encouraging them to reduce the risk of nut allergies in the fetus,” Somani explains.

Good Eating

So you know what not to eat during pregnancy. You know what to eat only sometimes during pregnancy. What about all the foods you should be eating throughout your nine months?
Aside from eating a balanced diet, are there any specific foods you should be piling onto your plate? Absolutely, experts say.
If you aren’t already doing so, pregnancy is the time to hike your folic acid intake to help your fetus develop and grow. Studies have found that folate deficiency is not only very common in women of childbearing age, but it has been associated with abnormalities like anemia and peripheral neuropathy in moms-to-be and congenital abnormalities in fetuses.
The good news: Foods such as spinach, strawberries, and citrus fruits are rich in folates, Somani says, and they are “critical to preventing neural tube defects.” It’s suggested that women increase their folic acid intake to somewhere between 400 and 800 micrograms per day during pregnancy, although your OB-GYN will be able to nail down just how much you should be ingesting via food sources as opposed to vitamins and supplements.
Calcium is another nutrient that can’t be ignored during pregnancy, whether it’s consumed via the “safe” cheeses, slugging down glasses of milk to fight that pregnancy heartburn, or eating (moderate amounts of) ice cream.
Doctors still recommend taking a prenatal vitamin starting as early as possible. If you’re not pregnant yet but think it’s time to start trying to conceive, your doctor may even suggest you start with prenatal vitamins now.
“The critical period of neural tube development is in the first trimester—often before a woman recognizes she is pregnant, and that’s where preconception folic acid is so important,” Somani points out.

Keep it going.

Once baby arrives, the diet pressure is off…sort of. Of course, nourishing, well-balanced meals are a part of being a healthy mom who can juggle motherhood and everything else life throws at you. If you’re formula feeding, you can re-introduce all of the forbidden foods, provided you’re not sharing them with baby!
If you’ve opted to breastfeed, on the other hand, you will still need to abide by some of your pregnancy dietary restrictions, Dole says. “Eating well-balanced meals ensures an adequate milk supply, and it prevents mom from becoming chronically fatigued from nutritional deficiencies,” he notes. “Continuing prenatal vitamins is recommended to ensure an adequate supply of vitamins and minerals.”
Caffeine can pass through breast milk, so Dole suggests keeping your coffee intake to a minimum, and mercury is still a risk, so seafood rules remain the same during breastfeeding as they were in pregnancy. Your child’s pediatrician may also have other recommendations for your diet based on any health issues baby is exhibiting (such as allergic reactions).
But even breastfeeding moms get a break from the pregnancy-centric eating plan. The good news for breastfeeding moms?
“Cravings for sushi, deli meats and sandwiches, and that favorite glass of wine can now be satisfied,” Dole says. And breastfeeding can help the body burn anywhere from 300 to 500 calories a day, so it may help you shed some baby weight if that’s one of your postpartum goals.
Moms who are breastfeeding do still need to be wary of how much alcohol they consume and when, Dole warns. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends against mixing breastfeeding and alcohol, but its guidelines note that if a woman does choose to imbibe, she should do so “after she has nursed or expressed milk rather than before, and allow at least 2 hours per drink before the next breastfeeding or pumping session.”
The AAP also warns against excessive drinking, as “there are concerns about long-term, repeated exposures of infants to alcohol via mother’s milk,” and “chronic consumption of alcohol may also reduce milk production.”

Categories
Life x Culture Lifestyle

This Is How You Can Help Fight Human Trafficking

Almost 21 million people. It’s a shocking number, even more so when you realize it represents how many victims of human trafficking there are in the world today. At least a quarter of those are children, innocent kids forced into modern-day slavery.
In a nutshell? People are trapped, forced to work or have sex (or both) against their will, and often have no means of escape.
This is their life every day. Across the globe and right here in America, human trafficking statistics are on the rise. From 2015 to 2016 alone, there was a 35 percent jump in reported cases.  
But for all the bad news, there’s a light in the dark. You don’t have to go back to college, take criminal justice courses, or join the local police department’s special victims unit to help.

Be a savvy buyer.

You already focus on buying healthy fruits and veggies and reading food labels. But do you know if the blueberries in your morning smoothie were picked by a child who’s being refused the right to attend school and have a normal childhood? If they’re coming from Argentina, they might be!
Check out the U.S. Department of Labor’s list of goods produced by child and forced labor in countries around the world before you hit the store. Refusing to buy those products takes money out of the pockets of traffickers and makes it less lucrative for them to enslave people.

Ask questions.

Those semi-weekly massages may be a crucial (and let’s face it, amazing) part of your complete wellness routine, but have you checked with your massage therapist to make sure she’s digging into your tight glutes because she wants to…not because she has to?
Just this past November, massage parlors outside of Raleigh, North Carolina, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, made headlines for illegal trafficking busts. And it’s no coincidence: Massage parlors, farms, and sweatshop-type factories are highest on the list of place where you’re likely to find someone being trafficked.
Another hot spot is airports, as victimized people are often shuttled back and forth by their traffickers via airplanes, moved from their homes to far-flung places where they’re forced to work.
Your to-do: Pay attention and ask questions…during your massage or while you’re waiting for your flight.
Not sure what to look for? The U.S. State Department offers these potential red flags that someone is being exploited:

  • Living with employer
  • Poor living conditions
  • Multiple people in cramped space
  • Inability to speak to individual alone
  • Answers appear to be scripted and rehearsed
  • Employer is holding identity documents
  • Signs of physical abuse
  • Submissive or fearful
  • Unpaid or paid very little
  • Under 18 and in prostitution

If something’s not right, follow the adage “if you see something, say something.” You can call 911 or the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 888-373-7888. The latter is toll-free and open 24 hours, with people available to speak a number of languages to help answer questions.

Get on board.

Write a check. Call your local member of Congress and ask them to vote on important trafficking issues.
Or roll up your sleeves and lend a hand.
There are hundreds of non-profits across the country doing work to cut down on human trafficking, be it through work with kids or adults. Some organizations, such as Annie Cannons, address the aftermath for rescued victims, providing job training and a soft landing as they try to re-enter everyday life.
Other groups don’t even have trafficking as a focus but work to prevent it nonetheless.
Because statistics show that one out of six endangered runaways reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children were likely child sex-trafficking victims, work with kids is especially vital in fighting traffickers in America. Organizations that work with at-risk teens, for example, can encourage them to stay in school and provide them healthy alternatives to risky behavior, which may keep them from ending up in a trafficker’s eyeline.
Every little bit makes a difference.
 

HealthyWay
Sources: International Labour Organization and Polaris Project

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Favorite Finds Wellbeing

Wellness Watch 2018: 6 Trends To Try In The New Year

We spent 2017 eating avocados, sipping bone broth, and breathing in essential oils. Some of the big trends of this year are probably going to stick with us for a while (#AvocadoToastForLife), but 2018 is bringing us a whole host of new things worth trying in the pursuit of health and wellness.
As we head into the new year, the variety of new foods we’ll get to eat and workouts we can opt to tackle are endless. But what [linkbuilder id=”5664″ text=”fitness trends”] will get you up and moving in 2018 and what eats will find their way onto your breakfast table?
Read on to explore the surprises and advances that are in store for the new year…

1. Digging Into DNA

One of Amazon’s top Black Friday sellers wasn’t a hot toy or a big TV. It was a DNA testing kit—and this is a trend that’s just getting started, says Jennipher Walters, founder and CEO of Fit Bottomed Girls. While DNA testing used to be either exorbitantly expensive and thus limited to medical needs, in recent years, at-home testing has allowed people to dig deeper into their genealogy. New advances have taken the at-home tests one step further, empowering people to access information about their own bodies and well-being thanks to more detailed results.
[pullquote]Testing is rapidly becoming a powerful purveyor of medical information and is on its way to being a standard aspect of the average person’s healthcare.[/pullquote]
“Individual tests … are delivering medically actionable results that can change people’s healthcare plans and even save people’s lives,” explains Ben Kobren, a spokesperson from Color, a company that offers testing for the BRCA breast cancer gene and other hereditary disorders.
“For too long, high costs and other barriers prevented large populations who could otherwise benefit from learning risks of hereditary disease from genetic testing, but today that testing is rapidly becoming a powerful purveyor of medical information and is on its way to being a standard aspect of the average person’s healthcare.”
An increasing number of testing companies are offering tests that detect cancer genes and allow people to better understand their risk for high cholesterol and conditions that can be addressed with their physicians, empowering them to develop a plan to mitigate, if not eliminate, their risk. When Walters took her own test, she says she found out more about how her body is designed to react to diet and nutrition than she could have learned in a decade of trial and error with food and workouts.
For some people, the results can do even more, Kobren says.
“The expertise that goes into a clinical-grade test—board-certified genetic experts analyzing data, interpreting genetic variants, reviewing and signing out reports—makes the information they provide highly reliable and, in many cases, life-changing because they’re medically actionable,” Kobren notes. “Recreational genomics can be fascinating. Clinical genetic testing could change or even save your life.”

2. Working Out Your Way

If you’ve been mixing up your week with boxing on Mondays, yoga on Wednesdays, and maybe a step class here and there, consider yourself ready for 2018.
Committing yourself to only one type of fitness is old school, Walters says.
“People are finally getting that there is no one-size-fits-all approach [to fitness],” she notes. That’s reflected not just in allowing people to customize their workouts within a particular discipline but also in how people are looking to diversify their routines, spending time dabbling in different forms of fitness to touch on the whole body.
[pullquote]People are opting for ways to stay fit for reasons besides superficial ones.[/pullquote]
“In general, the days of doing just tons and tons of cardio [are] over, unless you’re training for a race or something,” she notes.
Fitness expert Nadia Murdock says the diversification trend will move us toward treating exercise as medicine—a way to treat our bodies rather than “improve” them—in 2018.
“People are opting for ways to stay fit for reasons besides superficial ones, fixing common ailments with workouts and improving lifestyle practices have larger rewards,” Murdock says.
For example, she notes that impact workouts are excellent for improving bone strength and could remedy osteoporosis. Yoga, on the other hand, offers stretching that can undo the damage done to the body by long hours in front of a computer.
In 2018, expect trends that will support you in giving your whole body attention, whether that manifests as CrossFit gyms that also offer yoga classes or wellness centers where you can find yoga and pole dancing classes alongside acupuncture and massage services.

3. Sleep for Strength

Sleep has been getting the short end of the stick for decades now, with most of us falling woefully short of the doctor-recommended seven to nine hours of shut-eye. If you’re one of the many sleep-deprived Americans, you’ll fall hard for this 2018 health and wellness trend: sleep!
“For years we’ve pushed to diet harder, work out harder, and stretch ourselves thinner,” Chris Brantner of SleepZoo tells HealthyWay. “We are just now beginning to understand that sleep is crucial for our health. Our muscles actually grow post workout during sleep. Adequate rest helps us lose weight and make wiser food choices. Meanwhile, new studies show that not getting enough sleep disrupts metabolism and hormones, increasing obesity risk. In fact, data suggests that [linkbuilder id=”5668″ text=”people who sleep more”] tend to have lower BMIs.”
[pullquote]Club members curl up with music, sleep masks, and cool temperatures for 45-minute naps.[/pullquote]
Of course, you can sleep at home. But if you’re struggling to catch enough Zs when you’re snuggled in bed (raises hand, guiltily), Napercise could be 2018’s answer to your problem. Think napping…in exercise class form.
“During these classes, club members curl up with music, sleep masks, and cool temperatures for 45-minute naps,” Brantner explains.
Started in Britain by fitness club David Lloyd in 2017, Napercise was designed to “reinvigorate the mind, the body and even burn the odd calorie,” according to the club website, which explains, “The frantic nature of modern life means that few of us seem to get enough sleep, and if you’re a parent, a good night’s rest becomes even more of a luxury. So we’ve created a new group class—group napping classes for exhausted mums and dads to help boost their mental and physical wellbeing.”
The trend has jumped the pond, and it’s expected to take hold in the U.S. in 2018.
“I think this is only the beginning,” Brantner says. “In this fast-paced world, the pendulum is swinging back, and we’ve only begun to realize how important sleep is. More and more research is coming out linking lack of sleep to things like Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and other ailments.
“I think lack of sleep and fatigue are growing due to an increasingly fast-paced way of living, as well as an obsession with our devices (teen sleep, for example, seems to have decreased in direct relation with social media and smartphones).”
He concludes, “I think new technology like sleep trackers (think Fitbit, Sleep Cycle app, etc.) are making people more aware of the type of sleep they are getting.”
Sound familiar? Time to take a nap!

4. Food as Medicine

The word diet has long been a dirty word, one we associate with weight struggles and deprivation. But 2018 could offer a new take on the term according to April Peveteaux, author of the Gluten Is My Bitch cookbook series.
While some people still look to diets for weight control, Peveteaux sees an increasing number of people turning to food as a means to treat the body, with diets designed to address specific issues—be they gluten-free (Peveteaux started her popular blog shortly after being diagnosed with celiac disease), anti-inflammatory, or otherwise.
“The most common is an anti-inflammation diet (Whole30, Paleo, anti-lectin, plant based) to calm the body down to keep it from reacting,” she says. “[There’s also] cutting out hormones and anything that has antibiotics as a way to keep those things out of your system and not causing inflammation and cancer and cutting out sugar for the same reasons: inflammation and cancer growth.”
Eat for health in 2018 with:

5. Biohacking

We’ve been hearing about hacking computers for decades, but hacking the body is a relatively new idea that can sound a little scary. A Pew Research Center survey from 2016 showed that the majority of Americans were worried about biomedical technologies.
And yet just two years later, biohacking is one of the hottest wellness trends on the horizon.
Lest you worry that someone’s going to implant a computer chip in your brain and take over, the good news here is that it’s less newfangled invention and more “new term for an old thing.”
[pullquote]The concept came about a few years ago, when non-scientists got together to start exploring anecdotal health therapies and pool their knowledge.[/pullquote]
“Biohacking is a fancy term for healthcare DIY—taking everyday things we use and/or do, and turning them into healthcare treatments,” says Tania Elliott, MD, chief medical officer at EHE. She calls biohacking a new version of the home remedy.
The idea behind this 2018 wellness trend? You “hack” your body’s biology to improve how you feel. Biohacking goes hand-in-hand with trends such as digging into your DNA results to change your lifestyle or modifying your diet to stave off health concerns, and it takes advantage of technology and advanced know-how about the body to help us bring out the best in ourselves.
“The concept came about a few years ago, when non-scientists got together to start exploring anecdotal health therapies and pool their knowledge,” Elliott explains. “Now people have gone out on their own with all kinds of health tricks and tips.”
Technology plays a major role here too, says Geoff Woo, CEO of human enhancement company HVMN.
He tells HealthyWay, “Biohackers rigorously track inputs into their bodies and quantifiably track the bodies outputs with biosensors, assays, and other tools to obtain quantitative feedback measures.” He goes on to say, “Biohackers are especially interested in nootropics (cognitive enhancement), intermittent fasting, ketosis, and biosensors.”
Learning more about the science behind these fads might be a good idea before the new year!

6. Cannabis

Legalization measures have made cannabis legal for recreational use in seven states plus the District of Columbia, and medical marijuana now has state approval in 29 states (plus DC).
Ballot referendums and an increasing number of studies showing that cannabinoids (chemical compounds in the cannabis plant) can treat conditions ranging from chronic pain to depression have done much to change the image cannabis brings to mind.
[pullquote]Cannabis is a powerful anti-inflammatory with an excellent track record for managing pain. It’s also a wonderful mood enhancer and contributes to overall quality of life.[/pullquote]
More than half of the country wants to see marijuana legal across the land, and the vision of the dude bro with no job smoking a bong in his grandma’s basement is slowly but surely being replaced by stories of blue and white collar professionals making use of cannabis-related products to treat diagnosable conditions.
The biggest growing sector of cannabis users? Women, says Christie Strong, marketing communications manager at Kiva Confections, a California-based company that makes cannabis-infused edibles.
“Analytics have shown us that women are among our largest demographic of users,” Strong tells HealthyWay. “Many report using our products for cramps; cannabis is a powerful anti-inflammatory with an excellent track record for managing pain. It’s also a wonderful mood enhancer and contributes to overall quality of life.”
The reason for the change in the market comes down to science, Strong says. There’s more evidence out there about cannabis, and that evidence is helping us feel safer about using cannabis-derived products.
“New research is leading to new products, formats, and approaches to cannabis ingestion. We have learned more in the past decade about this plant and its benefits than the thousands of years before it,” Strong says. Her predictions for 2018?

If I had a crystal ball, I’d say we’re going to see the cannabis microdosing trend increase this year as more and more people realize what a safe, effective alternative cannabis can be to many pharmaceuticals. We’re going to see the demographics of users evolve and the stigma of the “stoner” further fade as increasing numbers of parents, seniors, and business professionals speak up about their cannabis use. The fact that it is a Schedule I controlled substance is going to seem more and more absurd as time goes on.

While some cannabis use involves traditional marijuana smoking, if you’re looking for smoke- and high-free alternatives to add cannabis to your wellness routine, there’s plenty to choose from, and there will be even more options in the new year.
Thanks to scientific advances, many of those products make use of cannabis strains that are devoid of tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, a cannabinoid that gets you high. A prime example? CBD oil, short for cannabidiol hemp oil, is derived from a part of the plant that’s THC-free, and studies have shown its healing properties can help with conditions and symptoms including seizures and pain.
Looking to 2020, the Hemp Business Journal expects the CBD market will grow to $2.1 billion in consumer sales by 2020. Yes, billion.
Another cannabis-related wellness trend you might be trying in 2018 ties into biohacking: More women are expected to be microdosing in the new year—using small amounts of the drug and testing how it reacts with their body, tweaking dosages to improve their health and performance.
“Microdosed edibles and CBD products in all formats are gaining steady market share,” Strong says. “Users want more control over their cannabis experience and they’re realizing that they have more targeted options than ever before to treat their conditions.”