Author: Tara Kulash

8 Things People Did Before Plastic Surgery

Post author By Tara Kulash
Post date January 11, 2018

They say beauty is only skin deep, but try telling that to the stampede of women who are now requesting the “Meghan Markle nose” from their plastic surgeons.

Seemingly overnight, Prince Harry’s fiancée has become the most popular inspiration for plastic surgery out there. Even celebrities who preach about self-love and being “Born This Way” often nose-dive into some of their own cosmetic improvements.

We’ve all wanted to look like a celebrity at one time or another, or we’ve at least wondered what we would look like with a few improvements to those “genetic flaws,” like the chest your momma didn’t give you or that nose that children confuse for a beak.

But plastic surgery isn’t accessible to everyone. And what about the days way back when it wasn’t really an option at all? How did people manage to get those dashing dimples they were lusting after?

Well, it turns out they had their ways.

1.) Dr. Lecter’s mask would “fix” facial defects.

In 1912, if you had a facial defect, like wrinkles or sagging flesh (you know, serious facial defects), you could invest in a sort of Hannibal Lecter Mask. It was invented by a woman named Lillian Bender, and you wore it around your throat and face, with a small opening for the mouth.

The diagram itself shows just how user friendly this product is!

Tanya Judge, a plastic surgeon at Tri Valley Plastic Surgery in Dublin, California, called Bender’s face mask “barbaric.”

“Trying to remove wrinkles and sagging flash by putting it in a harness would never work,” she says. “What we have learned is that the facial sagging that happens over time is not just the skin, but the tissue underneath.”

That’s why a facelift works, she says, because it lifts the tissue below and then “re-drapes the skin.”

Unfortunately, some companies are still selling similar gimmicks. Take this “face hammock” for example. It’s supposed to prevent sags and wrinkles by combatting gravity. This similar device, a “face belt,” is pretty self-explanatory.

2.) A Whole New Meaning to the Term “Chin Strap”

This one is fun. It’s called a “Chin Reducer and Beautifier” and promises to deliver the “curves of youth,” which sounds like a bad emo band.

You just secure the chin strap around the top of your head like a belt and place the other strap under your chin. Then, the strings attached to the chin portion go up and through the forehead strap, so that you can tug on the strings and pull your chin up as tight as you like.

This is supposed to prevent and efface double chins, as well as reduce enlarged glands.

Professor Eugene Mack advertised his product as the only mechanism “producing a concentrated, continuous massage of the chin and neck, dispelling flabbiness of the neck and throat, restoring a rounded contour to thin, scrawny necks and faces, bringing a natural, healthy color to the cheeks.”

3.) The Glamour Bonnet might keep you from breathing, but you’ll be prettier for it.

According to D. M. Ackerman, if you want a beautiful complexion, a vacuum to the face will do just the trick. She made the Glamour Bonnet “like a diver’s helmet,” where the atmospheric pressure around the person’s head is lowered, similar to the experience of climbing a high mountain.

Ackerman claimed this vacuum helmet would stimulate blood circulation, thus leading to a more naturally beautiful complexion. Best of all, the advertisement states that “a window has been installed so the customers can read during treatments.”

This means you can catch up on all the latest celebrity gossip while you slowly asphyxiate yourself.

4.) Like being able to breathe? Don’t worry. We have electrocution, too.

An “electric mask,” invented by Joseph Brueck, MD, was supposed to treat lines, wrinkles, and sags through a battery of heating coils. Sounds super-relaxing.

If the image isn’t creepy enough, the description will do the trick. The wearer “breathes through a tube set between the lips of the mask, and views the world through eyes cut where eyes should be.”

Now let that sink in.

Facial electrocution for beauty is still a thing today, as this device attests. Think twice about why this would ever work before buying.

5.) An Easy Way to Recognize the Flaws You Never Knew You Had

If you’ve ever wondered what a medieval torture device looks like, check out Maksymilian Faktorowicz’s “Beauty Micrometer” (the inventor also went by the Hollywood-friendly name “Max Factor”).

This scary-looking thing sits on your head and supposedly shows makeup professionals where all your facial flaws are so they can apply makeup appropriately. It was popularly used on actresses in the 1930s.

“Flaws almost invisible to the ordinary eye becoming glaring distortions when thrown upon the screen in highly magnified images,” according to the product’s advertisement. “But Factor’s ‘beauty micrometer’ reveals the defects.”

It works by using “flexible metal strips which conform closely to the various features. The strips are held in place by set screws, allowing for 325 possible adjustments.” If your nose is even slightly crooked, the ad claims the beauty micrometer will detect it and corrective makeup can be applied.

If you ask us, though, the Beauty Micrometer would only benefit actors who are taking a stab at the role of Pinhead in Hellraiser.

6.) “You have a beautiful face. But your nose?”

Don’t worry, we can fix it right up with the Trados Nose-Shaper.

This harness that you strap to your face went through several models in the early 1900s. Inventor M. Trilety was sure to warn the readers of his advertisements that looks are very important if you want to get ahead in life, and that you should look your best at all times.

… it most definitely would not quickly change the nose, be painless, or remotely comfortable.

“Permit no one to see you looking otherwise,” he warns.

Lucky for you, the harness was meant to be worn overnight, so no one would see you wearing it in public. And not only would it give you “a perfect looking nose,” but Trilety claimed it was comfortable and painless.

In all seriousness, though, these claims were pretty baseless.

Judge says that unless the harness is used on a baby or young child with a still-developing nose, there is no way to squeeze your nose into a new shape.

“Contrary to what the ad states, it most definitely would not quickly change the nose, be painless, or remotely comfortable,” she says. “Reshaping the nose requires surgery.”

That’s why you shouldn’t buy into any similar current products either, like this one, among others.

7.) “Dimples are now made to order!”

Another lovely harness.

This one has a “face-fitting spring carrying two tiny knobs which press into the cheeks.”

Isabella Gilbert invented this contraption in 1936, and we have a feeling she never quite got the results she was hoping for.

“This one was a valiant effort but again ineffective,” Judge says.

In her words, dimples are created by a variant of facial muscle that connect to the overlying skin near to the corner of the mouth. When you smile, that skin indents.

“Pressing a spring on the outside of your skin would surely cause a temporary dent on your face, and if you kept it on long enough, would probably cause skin breakdown,” she says. “Creating a dimple can be done in today’s age but requires a small surgical procedure.”

8.) Targeted Vibration: The Cure-All

Little vibrating machines got really popular in the early 1900s, as advertisers treated them like a cure for just about any ailment you had.

“Those women who find that the hips are getting too large” would slim down with the help of the White Cross Electric Vibrator.

It sounds like a first generation hand-held back massager.

Supposedly it would promote soft, glossy hair if you used it on your head, and it would also drive out all the dandruff (at least that part might be a bit believable).

“Nothing would make me happier than if this device worked for fat reduction and scalp health,” Judge says. “But like most things back then, they didn’t understand fat like we do now.”

Judge points to more modern methods of fat reduction, such the noninvasive CoolSculpting or Sculpture, as well as the invasive liposuction procedure. At least the advertisers also mentioned that the vibrators could help with aches and pains.

“The only thing this device was probably correctly advertised for is increasing blood through sore muscles,” Judge says. “It sounds like a first generation hand-held back massager.”

A Clean Cut

Judge says she finds all these products interesting because they show that “we have been striving to better our appearance for decades, and the areas of interest haven’t changed at all.”

… you have to applaud and respect the innovation involved.

We still want to look young, get rid of extra fat, and reshape our noses.

“The difference now, compared to that time period, is that we have comprehensive understanding of the anatomy of the body and the biological reasoning behind why we have extra fat, or an uneven nose, or sagging facial skin,” she says.

That’s why we can effectively and safely obtain the look we want by using surgery or modern noninvasive procedures.

“That being said,” Judge points out, “despite the wackiness and ineffectiveness of all the devices, you have to applaud and respect the innovation involved.”

Yes, they were certainly creative. Just not useful.

Tags 50038081, care, hemingway

Sweat

Accidentally Awake In The Middle Of Surgery: How It Happens And What You Should Know

Post author By Tara Kulash
Post date December 5, 2017

Imagine going in for a low-risk operation that requires some general anesthesia, and everything seems to be going according to plan—when suddenly you wake up.
The surgery must be over, right?
Then you hear the words “scalpel, please,” and you realize you’re awake in the middle of the operation. It’s called accidental awareness during general anesthesia.

And it happened to Donna Penner.

Penner, then 44, went to the hospital for an exploratory laparoscopy in 2008. The procedure requires a few small incisions into the abdomen so that the surgeon can insert medical instruments and examine the organs for a diagnosis.

The Canadian woman had been experiencing unusually heavy menstrual cycles and this operation was supposed to help doctors figure out the cause.
But shortly after the anesthesiologist put Penner under, she awoke. That’s when she heard the doctor say, “Scalpel, please.”

Penner couldn’t breathe. She believed she was about to die.

She said she couldn’t alert anyone because of the paralytic they had given her, and so she heard the conversations and felt the pain of the surgery for an hour and a half. Penner was so paralyzed that she’s couldn’t even form tears.
When she finally began to regain the slightest bit of movement, she mustered all her strength to twitch her foot. In response, a staff member laid a hand on the foot to calm it.
Eventually she could move her tongue, so she tried to wiggle the breathing tube, hoping it would alert someone that she was awake. Instead, the anesthetist thought this meant the paralytic was wearing off and that she could breathe on her own, so he pulled the tube out.

On the contrary, Penner couldn’t breathe. She believed she was about to die.
A nurse was shouting at her to breathe when finally they placed a mask on her face and manually resuscitated her. Penner couldn’t talk about the incident for years because it left her with post-traumatic stress disorder. Now, she’s sharing her story, as in this horrifying essay she wrote for the BBC.
Stories like Penner’s are uncommon, but tell that to the people who’ve lived through the nightmare. It’s not much comfort.
Accidental awareness happens when you’re put on general anesthesia so that you’re unconscious during a surgery, but—for whatever reason—the anesthesia loses its effectiveness.

Then you wake up.

Some studies show that accidental awareness can happen to as many as one or two in 1,000 patients. These reports relied on patient interviews, where the patients were asked a few times over a period of two weeks about their experiences during and after the operation.
The largest study of accidental awareness came out in 2014, and it relied solely on patients making independent reports. The study found about one in 19,000 patients experienced accidental awareness during general anesthesia.

What bothered patients more than pain was the inability to move and not understanding what is going on.

That’s quite a disparity from the other studies, which has led to a bit of controversy, but Professor Tim Cook, who co-wrote the 2014 report, says the newer report doesn’t necessarily discredit the older ones. Instead, it focuses on the population that made reports without being guided.

Could there be patients who experienced accidental awareness and didn’t report it during the 2014 study? Absolutely.
Could there also be patients from the older studies who were asked if they experienced awareness, and through groggy memories confused awareness with dreaming? Possibly. It’s hard to say.
Either way, accidental awareness is so horrible that even once is too many times for it to happen. Because consider this: In an extreme case, the patient could be awake for the entire operation without the doctors realizing it.

So how long do episodes of accidental awareness really last?

According to a report by the Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA), most reported episodes of awareness are short. About three-fourths of those who experience it are only conscious for about five minutes or less.
Cook, who is a consultant anesthetist at Royal United Hospitals Bath in England, says often it lasts even less than a minute.
“In many cases it’s fleeting,” he tells HealthyWay.
On top of that, about two-thirds of the incidents occur before the surgery begins or after it finishes. That means it’s not very likely that you will wake up as your surgeon is requesting a scalpel or some other tool with a similarly scary name.

As far as pain goes, the report states that about 1 in 5 patients experience it during the episode, but Cook says that it actually doesn’t seem to be the most distressing aspect.
“What bothered patients more than pain was the inability to move and not understanding what is going on,” he says. “The inability to communicate with those they wanted to.”

One type of medication causes more episodes of accidental awareness than any other: muscle relaxants.

In fact, muscle relaxants are one of the leading causes of accidental awareness during general anesthesia. Cook says in a typical operation that doesn’t use muscle relaxants, the patients will begin to move around in their sleep if the anesthesia is wearing off. That alerts the anesthetist to administer more before the patient regains consciousness.

He says about half of operations use muscle relaxants, though, which paralyze the body. If the anesthesia starts to wear off, the patient can’t move, not even to open his or her eyes.
The common response might be, “Why not just administer more anesthesia than necessary?”

The right dose of anesthesia is just enough.

Cook says that can do more damage than good.
“Anesthesia is genuinely complex in that one is trying to run the gauntlet between giving too much of the [medication] and giving too little,” he says.
If too much anesthesia is used, Cook says the person’s blood pressure will drop and they’ll take a longer time to recuperate after surgery. It’s also more likely that there will be complications after the surgery.
“The right dose of anesthesia is just enough,” he says.
The problem with just enough, though, is that if a minor interruption occurs, or if the patient is resistant to anesthesia, it could lead them to wake up.

There are a few other common causes of accidental awareness.

Your age and sex play a part, for example. According to the RCoA report, women and those between the ages of 25 and 45 are more likely to experience accidental awareness during general anesthesia.

There is a fine balance between too much and too little.

Cook says this is likely because those are the most common child-bearing ages, and accidental awareness is more likely to happen during a C-section. That’s because medical staff must minimize the amount of anesthesia given to reduce the effects on the baby.
Obesity is another factor, because anesthesia is fat soluble.
“The location the [medication] works in is the brain, of course,” Cook says. “If you give a [medication] that’s not fat soluble, it doesn’t get to the brain. A lot of the anesthesia will leak into the fat and sort of sit there.”
Also, according to the report, if you are very ill, that could make your blood pressure low, and as anesthesia lowers blood pressure even more, “there is a fine balance between too much and too little.”
For that reason, an anesthetist might administer a lower dose of anesthesia, leaving you more vulnerable to accidental awareness.

Finally, the report states that if the equipment used to deliver anesthesia is malfunctioning, it could take the anesthetist a few minutes to figure out the cause.
“During this time awareness can happen,” the report states. “So equipment failure is sometimes part of the cause of accidental awareness.”

Although it’s scary, you’re not in too terribly much danger.

“It’s undesirable from everybody’s point of view,” Cook says. “We’ve failed in that respect.”
If one had a complete failure of anesthesia, he says, then it’s possible that there would be adverse cardiac responses, but the anesthetist would recognize that and address the problem.
“Awareness in itself is not (physically) harmful,” Cook says.

Psychological harm, on the other hand, is a reality.
In the 2014 report, 65 percent of patients experiencing accidental awareness had “an acute emotional reaction” during the experience, including feelings of panic, helplessness, and/or fear. Other studies report varying numbers, “so how many [patients experience distress] is very hard to know,” Cook says.
“But because you’ve got the paralysis, they feel they can’t breathe, can’t communicate,” he says. “Psychological harm is much more common.”

It’s often when patients aren’t prepared for the possibility of accidental awareness when the experience can leave them traumatized.

One way to lower the rate of post-traumatic stress disorder is to raise awareness of the phenomenon. “We made many recommendations in the report,” Cook says. “It’s really important that if people understand more about anesthesia itself and awareness, then it’s likely that when events happen then they may be less distressing.”

The recommendations we’ve made will undoubtedly make anesthesia safer.

Cook says all his patients receive information about anesthesia before going under.

He also tries to keep them informed during the surgical process so that they remain calm. For example, after the operation is over, there might still be breathing tubes in the patient’s mouth as the paralyzing agent is wearing off. Some patients may experience awareness as the tubes are being pulled out.
Cook says he will talk to the patient as he’s pulling them out, explaining that it only means the operation has come to an end.
He says that anything that can be done to promote knowledge will be useful. The 2014 study happened, he says, because accidental awareness is a very important issue. Penner would most certainly agree.
“I hope it will lead to improved information for patients,” Cook says. “And the recommendations we’ve made will undoubtedly make anesthesia safer.”

Tags 50037316, body, hemingway

Lifestyle

Weird But Popular Beauty Trends That Are Actually Incredibly Dangerous

Post author By Tara Kulash
Post date November 21, 2017

Trends come and go. We’re not sure why some of them “come” in the first place, but they usually “go” for good reasons.

Sometimes we look back on old photos of ourselves and wonder why we ever thought that “daring” haircut was anything but awful. In that case, though, the hair grew back. No harm, no foul. In fact, that awful hair trend just might be back in by next summer, and we can post our #TBT pics on social media to prove we thought of it first.

But it seems like some beauty trends these days are much less innocent than bright blue eyeshadow or all-over body glitter. Some are straight-up dangerous. Even worse, we usually don’t figure that out until we’re already bleeding, on fire, or just plain humiliated.

Such home remedies are best avoided.

Don’t be that person. Check out this list of dangerous beauty trends that have been making waves lately. If you haven’t tried them yet, well, maybe just don’t. And if you have experimented with them already, it’s time to stop.

Scotch Tape, eyeballs, you get the drill.

With degrees in medicine and science of clinical dermatology, and years of training, Sonam Yadav knows a thing or two about skin safety. Yadav, medical director of New Delhi’s Juverne aesthetic medicine clinic (basically non-surgical plastic surgery), says she’s heard of some clients using Scotch Tape under their eyes to get rid of under-eye bags.

“Some doctors even got on the bandwagon and started preaching this quick fix to eye bags,” she says.

You’re supposed to apply the tape under your eyes, peel it off, and then use a moisturizing eyelid serum. At least, that’s the idea. We don’t recommend you try it.

Yadav says that while the technique may technically sort of work (because tape exfoliates and serum hydrates), it’ll actually harm your tender tissues even more.

“The skin around the eyes is delicate,” she says. “Such home remedies are best avoided.”

She says some people also use the tape overnight to prevent wrinkles. That doesn’t work.

“Glue and chemicals galore, too,” she points out. “Avoid.”

Think nothing’s worse than nose hairs? This is.

You might not think it’s such a big deal to rip out the stray nose hair or two with a pair of tweezers. Yadav disagrees.

“This is horribly painful and one can wonder why anyone would dare to attempt this,” she says. “However, it does happen. I’ve had a hairy male patient come by for treatment of terrible painful boils inside the nose from having tried to pluck some offensive nose hair.”

That doesn’t mean you have to let those hairs grow down to your chin, though. In fact, we’ll go out on a limb and say that you should not grow nose hairs any longer than they absolutely have to be. Yadav says that it’s cool to trim your nostrils; just don’t pluck.

Using a small pair of scissors, she says, or an electric trimmer designed for the nose are much safer options.

Oddly enough, “nostril hair extensions” are another recent fad that has taken Instagram by storm. Not dangerous per sey, but definitely bizarre.

Glitter really is just for external use, folks.

Back in August 2017, Melbourne-based makeup artist Jacinta Vukovic was attempting a glitter look on her lips when she accidentally got some on her tongue.

Vukovic posted the look to her Instagram, stating, “I thought I would embrace (the glitter tongue) and make it the main focus!”

Shortly after, Instagram blew up with posts of #glittertongue.

The problem is that—surprise, surprise—most glitter is not edible. It’s made of plastic, which you really can’t digest (unless you are a wax worm, apparently). This is not a substance you want entering your digestive tract.

Even if you try to scrape it all off when you’re finished, you’re bound to swallow some. We all know how impossible it is to clean up glitter after an innocent craft session; good luck getting it out of your mouth.

If you’re really intent on trying the glitter tongue look for some reason, make sure you use an edible glitter that’s FDA approved. (And yes, that is a thing that exists—sort of.)

According to the agency’s advisory, some decorative glitters are promoted for food when they shouldn’t be. If it’s edible, the company is required to list the ingredients. If you don’t see ingredients, don’t put it in your mouth.

And while we’re at it, we should probably mention the Passion Dust craze. Just don’t.

Anything “medical” and “budget” are two words you really don’t want to see together.

This one can get very serious, very quickly.

Many providers are certainly practicing in the dark.

MJ Rowland-Warmann, member of the Joint Dental Faculties of the Royal College of Surgeons in England, is a dental and medical aesthetics practitioner at Smileworks, based in Liverpool. She says she’s seen a dramatic increase recently in young people who go to hair salons for budget lip filler treatments. Yep, we just said “budget” and “lip filler” in the same horrifying sentence.

Lip filler treatments, Rowland-Warmann says, are also referred to as dermal fillers, and they’re made from a sugar-type substance that’s naturally found as a hydrating molecule of the skin. That doesn’t sound too bad, does it? Well, these days the sugars are synthetically produced, she says, in order to have the right consistency and longevity to act as fillers and plump parts of the facial anatomy.

As for the recent popularity of big lips, Rowland-Warmann points to celebrities like Kylie Jenner who have had lip augmentation. “Kylie Jenner’s large lips suit her face, and they seem relatively well done,” she says. “However, some of the faces I’ve lately seen in glossy magazines and on social media have clearly received a less than favorable result.”

Rowland-Warmann says that even when applied by a qualified and registered medical professional, dermal fillers still pose some (usually minor—usually) risks. For example, the client could experience bruising, swelling, tissue damage, and the appearance of lumps. Usually these side effects, if they even do occur, can be managed by a doctor, surgeon, or dentist who has the appropriate training, she says.

“The more experience I get, the more I appreciate the risks and plan for them,” she says. “But ignorance is bliss. And many providers are certainly practicing in the dark.”

Any complications can develop into much more severe outcomes.

The problem is that unlicensed practitioners, such as hair stylists, are performing dermal fillers now. Going the discount route may be tempting for many young people, who may be on a budget. This may not surprise you, but unlicensed practitioners charge less.

How do you think they keep costs down? One way is by purchasing “off-brand” materials for this procedure, which we hasten to remind you, does involve injecting foreign gunk into your lips. Rowland-Warmann says that, as a dentist, she’s able to buy her products from reputable pharmacies that supply top brands like Allergan, Merz, and Sinclair.

Someone without a license can’t do that, so they end up buying from unregulated sources or through the internet, Rowland-Warmann says. That means you’ve got unlicensed practitioners injecting clients with low-quality—or even counterfeit—products.

“Not only are complications more likely to occur due to the inexperience of the practitioner or their lack of knowledge of facial anatomy, but any complications can develop into much more severe outcomes,” Rowland-Warmann says of this troubling trend. “This is because the practitioner doesn’t know what to do when they occur.”

Bottom line: Go to a licensed practitioner.

“If it involves poking you with a needle, it should most likely be done by a qualified and competent medical professional,” she says. “Read up on their qualifications, do your research, and go to a practice that has a reputation for good, safe service.”

The incredible persistence of a well-defined threat

How far are you willing to go for “beauty”? Well, if you’re among the 55 percent of college students who lie down in the carcinogenic rays of a tanning bed according to a 2014 study, kind of a lot. Dare we say “too much”?

The facts are in, and there’s no debate here, not among serious-minded medical professionals. “Indoor Tanning is Not Safe,” bellows a headline on the Center for Disease Control’s website. “Avoid tanning beds and sunlamps,” asserts the American Cancer Society. “No matter what you may hear at tanning salons, the cumulative damage caused by UV radiation can lead to premature skin aging (wrinkles, lax skin, brown spots, and more), as well as skin cancer,” says the Skin Cancer Foundation.

Women under the age of 30 who regularly use tanning beds are six times more likely to develop melanoma, researcher DeAnn Lazovich and colleagues found in 2016. For the women aged 30 to 39 who tanned, that risk factor “only” jumped by four times.

That doesn’t sound so bad—until you consider that it’s a 400-percent increase in the chance of developing a cancer that was estimated to already take the lives of nearly 10,000 people in the United States in 2016.

Need we go on?

With odds like that, you’re better off slathering your tongue in glitter. At least the worst that can cause is a spot of constipation, if Glamour magazine is to be believed.

You may be willing to do just about anything for a better Instagram post. We get it. But before you go attacking your own nostrils or getting back-alley plastic surgery, just remember: There’s always Photoshop.

Tags 50037136, body, hemingway

Lifestyle

10 Items That Really Shouldn't Be Shared

Post author By Tara Kulash
Post date November 15, 2017

Since preschool we’ve been taught that sharing is caring, and it’s true. If you share your crayons and glue with your neighbor, the world will be a better place.

As we get older, though, we tend to share more items with each other—clothing with our best friends, toothpaste with our housemates, and tools with our coworkers. And as a true sign of trust and caring, we sometimes share things with our loved ones that we know aren’t meant to be shared.
Maybe your best friend is staying the night and forgot her toothbrush, so you lend it to her. Sure, you know it’s gross, but it’s just one time and you can rinse it under hot water after, right?
Well it turns out some of these habits are even grosser than we think, and maybe even dangerous for us.
If you’re sharing any of these things, it’s time to think twice.

1. Toothbrush

It’s something we rarely do, but every now and then a situation arises that calls for a shared toothbrush.
Just about everyone is grossed out by it, and rightfully so.

A study found that 1 in 10 people had shared a toothbrush.

A review of case studies published by Nursing Study and Practice shows that toothbrushes retain a large amount of bacteria after each use. Toothbrushes can carry bacteria and viruses, such as E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and the herpes simplex virus.

What’s more, some of the toothbrushes in the study had sufficient numbers of the herpes simplex virus to infect someone who didn’t carry the virus.
When we brush our teeth, sometimes our gums bleed in such a small amount that we don’t notice. In this way, it’s very easy to transfer blood-borne diseases through a toothbrush (including HIV).
As part of the United Kingdom’s annual National Smile Month, a study found that 1 in 10 people had shared a toothbrush. That’s one more than it should be.
From now on, keep a couple of new toothbrushes on hand for the next time your visitor forgets to bring one.

2. Hair Brushes and Combs

When you were a kid, you parents might have taught you not to share brushes, because that’s how you get lice. Well, newsflash: Lice aren’t just for children. Adults are equally susceptible to the little invaders.

And it doesn’t stop there. The fungal infection ringworm can infect the scalp, and it’s contagious. Catch this one and you’ll get a rash, temporary baldness, a crusty scalp, and brittle hair. Gross.

3. Keyboards and Mice

Let’s keep this one simple: You shouldn’t let anyone use your computer.
A 2016 study found that keyboards have 20,000 times more bacteria than a toilet bowl, and mice contain 45,000 times more than the flush handle.

Mice carry four types of bacteria that can lead to problems such as food poisoning and streptococcal infections.
Some good news is that track pads are less dangerous, as they carry only two of the four bacteria.
So if someone does use your computer, which they inevitably will, wipe it down afterwards with an alcohol disinfectant. Otherwise, just hope they aren’t carrying strep throat.

4. Phones

Now you have an excuse not to share your phone, either.

Cell phones do tend to get pretty gross.

According to PhoneSoap, a company that sells products to charge and sanitize your phone with a UV light, phones are warm due to their tech interior. We keep them even warmer by storing them in warm places, such as our pockets and purses. Warm places are breeding grounds for bacteria. Furthermore, PhoneSoap reports that 1 in 6 phones carry fecal matter, probably because we tend to bring them in the bathroom with us.

“Because people are always carrying their cell phones even in situations where they would normally wash their hands before doing anything, cell phones do tend to get pretty gross,” said Emily Martin in an interview with Time. Martin is an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.
It might seem near impossible to avoid spreading germs on your phone, and that’s true. But Martin said to at least leave it out of the bathroom.
“Taking a cell phone into the bathroom is kind of like going in, not washing your hands, and then coming back out,” she said. “It’s the same level of concern.”

5. Towels and Shower Accessories

It’s probably best to claim your own towels, washcloths, and loofahs, too.
“These items come in contact with both your skin and water, so not only are you spreading the bacteria or infections that might be on your body, like warts, but also you are creating an environment for bacteria to grow in,” Caitlin Hoff, a health and safety investigator with ConsumerSafety.org, tells us.

Hoff says to wash your towels, loofahs, and shower shoes frequently. The loofahs and shower shoes should be washed in hot water or disinfectant, and they should be allowed to dry completely.
Sharing razors—we know, but it does happen—is even worse. The viruses that cause herpes and hepatitis can cling to the blades or in the moist area in between. When you shave, your dead skin cells mix with bacteria. Even if you don’t cut yourself, shaving causes tiny nicks in the skin, where hepatitis and even HIV can enter the blood quickly.
Hoff says a good rule of thumb is to only use your own razors and to change the blades frequently.

6. Earbuds

We’ve all done it. We’re in a public place when a friend says, “Hey I want to show you this song. Put on my earbuds!”
You don’t have to look hard to see the gross wax build-up inside those tiny speakers, but even worse, there are bacteria.

“When someone wears earbuds, they are blocking air flow, allowing more bacteria to thrive,” Hoff says.
Sharing earbuds can cause a lot of problems, she says, such as ear infections, fungus, and blackheads and pimples.
Tell your friend you’ll be happy to look up the song when you get home.

7. Underwear and Bathing Suits

We all remember the story about how Gayle King borrowed Oprah Winfrey’s underwear during a snowstorm sleepover, and just like that they were best friends. Also note that King says Winfrey drew the line at sharing a toothbrush.
But was she already a step over the line?

Damp, dark places are the perfect breeding ground for bacteria, fungi, and viruses. Even though shared undergarments may be washed before you wear them, studies have shown that washing them in even the cleanest conditions doesn’t always get rid of the intruders.
To get the gruesome idea, examples include candidiasis, scabies, gonorrhea, syphilis, hepatitis, and more.
So, please, Oprah, if you’re reading this: We know that you and Gayle are a prime example of sisterhood, but you don’t need to share underwear to prove it.

8. Tweezers

If you’re just using your tweezers to pluck a few stray eyebrow hairs and your friend wants to borrow them for the same reason, it shouldn’t be too big of a deal to share.

However, sometimes plucking leads to a bit of unnoticed bleeding. Sharing contaminated tweezers could lead to skin infections.
Furthermore, if you go to a professional salon to get your eyebrows done, make sure the esthetician is properly disinfecting the tweezers after each use. If not, get out of there fast.

9. Drinks and Food

This is the really sad one. Brace yourselves.

We share our drinks and food with friends all the time. Heck, we even share them with acquaintances. It could be a co-worker who tries a bite of your lunch salad, or your friend who forgets her water bottle during your morning run together, so you share.
“A sip or two seems harmless now, but how would you feel if you got sick after sharing a drink?” Hoff asks. “Sharing a drink or utensils can pass on germs, bacteria, and illnesses ranging from strep throat or the common cold to more serious disease like the herpes virus, meningitis, and the mumps.”

10. Makeup and Skincare Products

Alan J. Parks, MD, founder of Eastside Dermatology & Skin Care Center in Ohio, says sharing makeup is also sharing bacteria.
“Think about a foundation sponge or a makeup brush,” says Parks, who also founded DermWarehouse, a website for skin and hair products. “You put these on your face where there’s dirt, oil, and plenty of bacteria. When you share this type of product, you’re transferring that dirt, oil, and bacteria from one person to another.”

Parks also points out that many products come in a jar, which leads us to use our fingers to scoop them out. Besides the importance of washing our hands before use, he says not to share them either, “as you’ll be getting the germs from someone else’s fingers into your products.”
Hoff also points to lipstick, lip gloss, and chap stick because they can carry the herpes virus.
The worst product, though, could be eye makeup, especially mascara. Eye infections, such as pink eye, are super contagious, and Parks says if your mascara wand is infected, you will become infected, too.
We’re not saying that your best friends are unclean creatures. But why take the chance?

Tags 50036506, care, hemingway

Nosh

Cantaloupe, Cutting Boards, And Other Things In Your Kitchen That Can Make You Sick

Post author By Tara Kulash
Post date October 31, 2017

It seems like every other day scientists discover a seemingly benevolent, everyday food item is actually a germ-riddled toxic bomb. For instance, remember that time when researchers studied restaurant lemons and found them to be covered in pathogens more commonly associated with the bathroom than the kitchen? Everyone and their mother claimed they would never order lemons in their water again.

Unfortunately, the problem goes way further than just lemons.

There are many food items in the kitchens of our homes and restaurants that carry a plethora of microbes that can be dangerous for us. Those microbes are also breeding on our appliances. Most people don’t know this and haven’t been properly cleaning their food (or kitchen).

It’s not about being excessive or having a compulsion. It’s a matter of being safe about food.

Still, it’s better to learn late than never. That’s why we’re here to share with you some common microbial problems in the kitchen and what you can do to decrease their presence.

The 5-second rule is not as trustworthy as we thought.

If you drop your pizza on the floor and then quickly pick it up, you might think it’s okay to continue eating it, but that’s not necessarily the case.

While it’s true that the amount of time spent on the floor makes a difference, studies show that other factors are important, too, such as what sort of germs were on the surface and whether the surface or the food were wet.

For example, if you drop a dry chip onto the kitchen counter that you recently cleaned, your chances are of getting sick are lower. But if you drop oily pizza onto a floor where your pets are walking, you will likely be picking up a lot of unwanted bacteria.

Lemons carry a multitude of microbes on them.

A study back in 2007 found that more than two-thirds of lemon slices in restaurants had microbial contamination.

Lemon juice itself is actually supposed to be antimicrobial, the study says. Many people will squeeze it onto their hands, food, or kitchen utensils to sterilize them. But the lemons in the study had 25 different microbial species on the peel and flesh. Researchers said they could have come from fecal matter, raw-meat, or poultry contamination.

In another study commissioned by ABC in 2012, cameras caught restaurant employees handling lemons with their bare hands.

A more recent study from 2017 found that if lemons were contaminated with E. coli and left at room temperature for 24 hours, the bacteria population increased. And while refrigeration managed to stave off population growth for the others, it did not kill off the already-present bacteria.

One possible solution is to squeeze the juice of the lemon into your drink instead of putting the whole slice inside.

Most produce items are carrying microbes.

It’s not just lemons you have to watch out for. Other drink garnishes like olives, cherries, and celery could be covered in the same microbes. It’s not a restaurant-specific problem, though. Much of the produce we bring home from grocery stores is also contaminated.

Glenner Richards, PhD, is the director of microbiology and analytical chemistry laboratories at Microban, a world leader in antimicrobial research and technology. She researches this sort of thing every day.

Richards tells HealthyWay contamination usually happens in the field before shipping the product to grocery stores or restaurants.

“When it’s contaminated and you take it home and put it in your refrigerator, obviously you can contaminate other food items and surfaces in your refrigerator,” she says.

Lettuce, spinach, and tomatoes are good examples of food prone to contamination, Richards says; she also cautions us about cantaloupe.

“Cantaloupe have a very rough exterior,” she says. “So bacteria are hiding out there and it has been proven that if the skin is contaminated and then you use a knife to cut through, you’re introducing the bacteria off the flesh.”

Obviously you won’t be removing everything, but it’s cleaner.

Richards recommends washing your cantaloupe and drying it with a paper towel before cutting into it.

“Obviously you won’t be removing everything,” she says. “But it’s cleaner.”

Double-dipping is as gross as we think.

Lots of people are grossed out by double-dipping, but how bad is it really?

According to one s
tudy, it depends on what you’re dipping in.

Researchers tested salsa, melted cheese, and chocolate syrup to see how much mouth bacteria appeared after double dipping. Salsa had five times more bacteria than the chocolate and cheese.

Food scientist Paul Dawson told CNN that there was a likely reason for this.

“Common sense tells you that if you bite it and dip it in the salsa and more of it falls back into the bowl and doesn’t stick to the chip, then there’s going to be more bacteria going back in the bowl with it,” he said.

The chocolate syrup and the cheese, unlike the salsa, managed to stay on the chips better and therefore did not transfer as much bacteria.

So what’s the obvious solution? Don’t double-dip.

Blowing out the birthday candles is not good for your party guests.

Birthday cake in general is not something to be feared. However, if the guest of honor blows out some candles on the dessert, you might think twice about having a piece.

Dawson learned that when we blow out candles, there are 15 times more bacteria on the frosting than when the candles are not blown out. This is because the bacteria in our mouth travel through blowing.

“The amount of bacteria varies a lot from person to person based on how sloppy someone is when blowing their candles out, but it does occur,” Dawson told CNN. “I don’t know the chance of this occurring, but in fact if someone is sick, carrying a disease, and blows on the birthday cake, there is going to be bacterial transfer.”

Kitchen appliances are harboring a lot of the bacteria we want to avoid.

Sometimes it’s not the food itself but the tools we’re using that could make us sick.

Richards lists several kitchen appliances that are havens for bacteria.

Remember that moisture only encourages growth.

It may sound ironic, but the first on her list is the dishwasher. “It harbors a lot of microbes for the simple reason that there’s a lot of moisture,” she says.

Dirty dishes carry nutrients with them into the dishwasher. If the dishwasher remains wet, it can become moldy and encourage the growth of bacteria and yeast. All that gross stuff is then transferred to what we think are our clean dishes. Richards recommends leaving your dishwasher open to dry and periodically doing a hot rinse with bleach water.

The refrigerator can also be dangerous because it’s full of highly perishable foods, such as meats, eggs, and dairy.

“Of course you’re coming in with the packaging from the grocery store, so whatever microbes and germs are in the refrigerator at the grocery store, you’re putting them in your refrigerator,” she says. Chicken, for example, could be leaking from the bag, and if you put that bag in the refrigerator, there could be a salmonella presence.

Richards reminds us that the refrigerator does not kill germs. It only slows their growth. What’s more, there are some microbes that continue to grow at a steady rate in colder temperatures.

She recommends occasionally emptying your refrigerator and wiping down the surfaces with warm, soapy water. Then leave them to dry. Remember that moisture only encourages growth.

Also be sure to wash and dry your produce and then put them in separate containers in the fridge, rather than just dropping them on the surface. Finally, she says, don’t buy more food than you need. Try to keep food items stocked in your fridge for no more than a week.

If your food gets moldy and you consume it, there can be long-term consequences. Richards says those molds develop mycotoxins, which are proven to be carcinogens.

Finally, when it comes to storing and transporting goods, she tells us it’s better to wash your reusable grocery bags and to designate one bag for produce and another for meat so that you can avoid cross contamination.

It’s no joke that appliances are dirty. Here are some more examples:

Yet another dangerous kitchen item is the cutting board.

Richards says the grooves that are formed from our cuts become “excellent places for microbes to get lodged into and they reproduce.”

She recommends having separate cutting boards for various uses, such as one for poultry and one for produce. She also says to periodically throw out your cutting boards and get new ones.

The blender and can opener are other breeding grounds.

“I have an electric (can opener) at home and there’s a tiny blade that goes into the food, and then residue is left over,” she says. “You’re just moving all those germs from one can to the next.” That’s why it’s important to disassemble appliances and wash thoroughly.

Also be sure to wash and drain your sink, Richards says. She uses vinegar because it’s not corrosive like bleach.

“It’s not about being excessive or having a compulsion,” she says. “Our immune systems work, but you [need to] try to keep contamination to a minimum. It’s a matter of being smart about food.”

For more ideas on how to keep your kitchen and food safe, visit Microban’s website, The Cleaner Home, which provides a virtual kitchen to explore.

Tags 50036486, fuel, hemingway

Wellbeing

The Science Behind Luxury: Why We Pay Top Dollar For Things We Don't Need

Post author By Tara Kulash
Post date October 25, 2017

Whether we’ve got the budget for it or not, luxury goods will probably never go out of style.

On the contrary, they couldn’t be more au courant. Globally, annual sales for luxury brands are rising at more than $200 billion per year.

So what drives us to buy these products? They’ve clearly tapped into a side of us that we just can’t suppress.

You may have many words to describe it, but there’s only one umbrella emotion that covers it all: pride. We buy luxury goods out of pride.

So is pride a good or a bad thing? That would depend on how you look at it, as well as which type of pride you’re experiencing.

Pride is two-faced.

Just as we would imagine it, one face is pretty admirable. The other? Not so much. But both sides play into our national love affair with luxury brands.

Let’s look at this long-standing tagline from Rolex: “A crown for every achievement.”

The idea that Rolex is working with is that if we feel accomplished, our authentic pride will lead us to seek out a reward. For example, after your boss announces that she would like to promote you, that feeling of accomplishment could lead you to buy yourself the new Apple iPhone. Or maybe you know that you will need a car for your first job, and since you graduated with honors, a car with all the bells and whistles is in order.

Well-meaning enough, right? It’s the type of pride we encourage in others.

Rolex Comercial from Pablo Robleto on Vimeo.

Yet there’s another face for pride, and it’s called arrogance.

Imagine a handsome man driving a Mercedes-Benz with a beautiful woman in the passenger seat. She laughs at something he says and leans into him. Finally, he turns and sees you. He rolls up the tinted windows, hits the gas, and leaves you in the dust.

You go home, open a magazine, see the shine of that car once again—a Mercedes-Benz C-Class. “A class ahead,” the advertisement reads.

That’s the sort of image we tend to have when picturing hubristic pride. It’s snobbery. It’s also the feeling other luxury brands might try to give us when they market their products. They want us to imagine ourselves as that luxury car driver.

They want us to think about how it must feel to have what others want.

These two marketing schemes were not created equal.

So which is more likely to work?

Almost a decade ago, researchers Brent McFerran, Karl Aquino, and Jessica L. Tracy set forth to answer that question.

McFerran, an associate professor of marketing at Simon Fraser University in Canada, tells HealthyWay that he and Aquino were interested in studying luxury brands, and Tracy was in the middle of a study on the expression of pride.

“We thought there was a natural overlap there, particularly the association that seems to be held among many laypeople linking hubristic pride and luxury brands,” he says.

What they found through their combined research is that while authentic pride is more likely to drive a luxurious purchase, the results can actually be more hubristic.

In the paper “Evidence for two facets of pride in consumption: Findings from luxurious brands,” the researchers recount the time that one of them (they remain tight-lipped about who) had lunch with a friend and noticed a beautiful pair of sunglasses on the table.

He asked for an opportunity to try them on and found the sunglasses to be lightweight and perfectly fitting on the bridge of his nose. These weren’t cheap sunglasses. They were Prada.

He stood up from the table and walked to a nearby mirror, noticing several people glance in his direction, “the way people sometimes do when an arresting object catches their eye,” the paper states.

He stood up straighter and imagined wearing the glasses while taking a walk down a beach promenade.

After returning to the table, he was reluctant to give the glasses back. They had given him an air of superiority that he didn’t want to lose.

This, the authors say, is what we refer to as hubristic pride, or arrogance.

So here’s what we learned from the study:

There were seven experiments in total. In one, resear
chers gave participants a task that would lead them to feel either authentic or hubristic pride. The participants who completed the task and felt authentic pride were more likely to express a desire for luxury goods than those who felt hubristic pride, it turned out.

Authentic pride, in a phrase, made them want a Rolex, not a Casio.

In another, the researchers measured the chronic feelings of accomplished and snobbish participants. Those who experienced higher levels of accomplishment tended to have a stronger desire for luxury goods.

These two experiments led the researchers to believe that people are more motivated to buy luxury goods when they have a sense of authentic pride—hence the effectiveness of the Rolex tagline.

Still, this does not mean you’re safe from snobbery.

The key word that connects authentic pride to a luxurious good here is the purchase of the product.

The consumption of the product, though, is another story.

In one experiment, participants imagined an item they owned. Researchers found that if the item was a luxury brand, the participants were more likely to display hubristic pride.

Furthermore, no matter what your intentions are, other people will probably look at your luxury purchase as an act of snobbery.

The authors note in the paper that this highlights a paradox.

“These purchases are sought out of heightened feelings of accomplishment (and not arrogance), but they instead signal arrogance to others (rather than accomplishment),” they wrote.

Not everyone will experience a change in attitude, though.

There are a select group of people who seem to be a bit immune to the effects of luxury consumption.

According to the paper, McFerran and his fellow researchers believe those high in narcissism are less likely to experience a surge in hubristic pride when they use a luxury good.

That might sound backward, but it’s only because narcissists are naturally high in hubristic pride anyway. Adding on a luxury good isn’t going to increase that feeling much more.

But for a person low in narcissism, good intentions can unfortunately go awry.

This finding, the paper states, “documents for the first time that what is often thought to be an adaptive form of pride (authentic pride) can give rise to another, presumably less desirable, form (hubristic pride).” In other words, honest pride can lead to arrogance.

Additionally, those low in narcissism might even experience an emotion reversal and feel ashamed for their use of a luxury good because they realize they look snobbish to outsiders.

The folks who feel this way are not wrong, either. The researchers conducted another experiment for their study in which participants were asked to read a story in that the narrator listed his favorite items. In one version of the story, luxury items were listed, while in the other version, non-luxury items were prominent.

Participants who read the story about luxury goods rated the narrator as more hubristic than participants who read the story about non-luxury products. Furthermore, the participants regarded the “hubristic” narrator to have more anti-social qualities.

Think back to the guy driving the Mercedes. We sort of couldn’t stand him, right? That’s because we generally find snobbery to be pretty unattractive.

But despite the embarrassment we might feel later, we continue to buy luxury goods.

That’s because it probably hasn’t occurred to you yet how others could perceive it.

“As consumers, and as people more generally,” McFerran says, “we do not often do a good job of predicting how others will view our actions.”

The lead author says this is something he’s learned over the years to check in with himself.

“Given what I research, I am fairly conscious about what a particular product might signal about me to those around me,” he says.

Still, it’s not exactly surprising that one form of pride could lead to another. They’re both pride, after all.

“Authentic and hubristic pride are somewhat correlated,” McFerran says, “So they can both go hand-in-hand in a sense.”

Knowing all this, we could make more informed purchases in the future.

It should be noted that this study isn’t meant to drive you away from luxury brands. Many people purchase luxury goods because of a perceived (and often accurate) notion that they are better quality and will last longer or be more enjoyable.

Surely there’s a difference in taste between a cheap beverage and an expensive, aged bottle, for example. Or perhaps you want the Dr. Martens boots because you know they will last a lot longer than the knock-offs.

After all, you get what you pay for.

The concern is
more for people who don’t really have a reason to spend that extra dollar, especially when they can’t realistically afford it.

As McFerran mentions in his blog for Psychology Today, there’s a growing number of consumers who are obsessed with luxury brands.

Perhaps family members, financial advisers, or counselors could help the consumer to make a more self-aware decision before purchasing a luxury good, he says.

And of course, this research can help companies that sell luxury goods to market their brands more effectively, probably tapping into that sense of accomplishment instead of snobbery.

Just keep in mind that if an authentic Dr. Jekyll makes the purchase, he might bring along a hubristic Mr. Hyde for later.

Tags 50036481, hemingway, mind