Great sex is one of the best parts of being in a relationship. Sharing passionate, pleasurable moments with someone you find attractive is part of the human experience. But what if you haven’t found that special someone yet, or you aren’t interested in a full-blown commitment right now? Are you confined to just having solo pleasure? Not in the world of friends with benefits.
Imagine calling someone hot—who you also like and trust—when you’re in the mood to play but not in the mood for the excess baggage of more traditional romantic relationships. It can be a breath of fresh air. But as liberating as it is to have commitment-free sex, friends-with-benefits relationships can be tricky to navigate. Are you exclusive friends with benefits, or are you both okay with hooking up with other people? What if your friend with benefits starts to want more from the relationship? And if you stop feeling it, how do you end it? The blurry boundaries can make even the most satisfying friends-with-benefits arrangements nosedive straight into “it’s complicated” territory. Friends with benefits means something a little bit different to everyone. And finding some common ground (beyond the bedroom) will help keep the experience steamy. To learn what works—and what doesn’t—we asked four women for the tips and ground rules they learned in friends-with-benefits relationships. Read on before you decide whether to boink a buddy.
What does “friends with benefits” mean, anyway?
A friends-with-benefits relationship is often regarded as ideal for someone who wants to have sex on the reg but isn’t in a committed partnership. And although there’s some truth to that, this kind of relationship can play out in a million different ways. Maybe two co-workers occasionally escape for quickies on their lunch breaks. Perhaps former lovers decide to rekindle that sexual spark without the emotional investment. Or it could be a couple of college friends who just like to Netflix and chill on the weekends. The setups vary so widely that you might begin to wonder: “What exactly is friends with benefits?” “Friends with benefits is a type of relationship where, ideally, two people have a platonic connection and use each other for sex. There’s no romance, there are no dates, and there is no commitment. Hanging out usually consists of hooking up,” explains Meagan Drillinger, founder of women’s retreat company Vaera Journeys and writer of travel, sex, and dating content. Friends with benefits is a mixed bag. Some women revel in hooking up with someone then going on their merry way. “Sometimes separating sex and romance can be fun, helpful, and life-affirming,” says Katherine Clover, who had a friends-with-benefits relationship that gave her “an outlet to explore sexually in a safe and consensual way.” But there’s also the potential to feel unfulfilled or even used in a sexual relationship that doesn’t have a deep emotional component. Drillinger, who was friends with benefits with a guy she met at the gym, discovered that this kind of relationship left her feeling down. “All he wanted was for me to take an Uber to his apartment after work at 2 a.m., have sex with him, and go home. I felt taken advantage of and as though I was doing all the work. [I learned] that I can’t have a relationship that’s just about sex—I’m looking for connection,” she says. It all depends on what would make you feel happy and fulfilled. If that’s a friends-with-benefits relationship, more power to you! Ignore any naysayers who think it’s promiscuous or inappropriate—they’re missing out. Sex is personal, and as long as you’re being true to yourself and your partner, you should feel open to exploring one of the most fundamental aspects of being human in whatever way is most thrilling to you.
Becoming Friends With Benefits
Turned on by the idea of crawling in bed with a friend? That’s cool. But where do you find that sexy someone who’s just as excited about it as you are? Often, a friends-with-benefits sitch kicks off naturally—maybe as a random hookup that happens to go on for a few months. But if that’s not happening (and you want it to!), there are some ways you can speed up the process. “Ask yourself what you’re looking for in friends with benefits. If it’s sex, then look on platforms more explicitly about hookups. If it’s just a casual partner to see once every few months, or for certain kinds of socializing or experience, then maybe it’s someone already involved in that scene,” saysLouisa Knight, a sex worker in the UK who has friends-with-benefits relationships outside of her profession. “As someone who’s polyamorous, I’ll say that people who practice ethical non-monogamy are often far more open to alternative types of connections, so look into poly Facebook groups or go to some relevant social events.” Dating apps and sites such as Tinder and OkCupid are filled with people looking for all kinds of relationships. Make it clear in your profile what you want, then start reaching out to potential friends-with-benefits matches. Of course, you can always go traditional and seek out someone in person. “Pick any guy you think there might be chemistry with, and ask him out for a drink,” says Drillinger. But you don’t need to jump in bed with the first person who’s open to being friends with benefits. New York–based writer Lindsey Stager (name has been changed for privacy), who was friends with benefits with a colleague for seven months, says that a personality match is just as important as a physical attraction. “The ‘friend’ part of friends with benefits should not be forgotten. Find a person who respects you—someone who treats you as a friend and a person, not a ‘hit-it-and-quit-it’ whose feelings don’t matter. Also, find someone who’s interesting and can have a good conversation. The mind needs stimulation, too!” she says.
Rules of Friends With Benefits
Friends with benefits don’t have the same clearly defined roles as a spouse, partner, or someone you’re seriously dating. No two friends-with-benefits relationships are exactly alike, but there are some rules that can help lay the groundwork for a fun time in bed with a friend. Here Knight, Drillinger, Stager, and Clover dive deeper into the framework every friends-with-benefits relationship should consider.
Rule 1: Everyone must always ask for consent.
Consent is so important when you’re fooling around with anyone, whether it’s a one-time hookup, an ongoing friends-with-benefits relationship, or even a spouse. You and your partner need to be clear about each other’s boundaries. “Consent is crucial, and it operates on several levels, not just sexual,” says Knight. “You can get and give consent around social things as well, like whether or not it’s okay to tell someone information about your friends-with-benefits relationship or if you can leave things at their apartment. And with sex, never assume consent. Just because you did something once doesn’t mean your partner will want to do it again.”
Rule 2: Friends with benefits must always use protection.
Nothing sucks the fun out of sex quite as quickly as getting an infection or having a pregnancy scare. Whenever you’re talking about sexual relationships, you have to consider using protection. “The whole idea behind friends with benefits is that there’s no commitment, meaning either partner is free to have as many friends with benefits as they want. In that case, using protection is paramount,” says Drillinger. Consistent use of protection will help keep you and your partner healthy. But when you have an active sex life, it’s never a bad idea to see your doctor for regular STD screenings.
Rule 3: Friends with benefits must communicate.
If you really want your friends with benefits to work, you’ve got to keep the lines of communication open—and that means listening to your partner and expressing your own desires. “The most important thing is to be honest about why you’re both there and what you hope to get out of friends with benefits,” says Clover. “If those feelings change, you have to let them know.” Knight credits the success of one of her friends-with-benefits relationships to her partner’s willingness to be open. “He was really clear from the beginning about what he wanted and where he was at. That set the tone for the whole thing and lifted this weight of expectation and progress off both our shoulders. We had a really fun sexual dynamic,” she says. There’s a lot that swirls around any friends-with-benefits relationship. Assert what you’re looking for, both sexually and socially, even if it’s uncomfortable at first. Open lines of communication increase your chances of a smooth ride.
Rule 4: Friends with benefits should have fun exploring.
Friends with benefits gives you the chance to embrace your sensual side and experience sexuality in fresh ways. Take advantage of the opportunity by exploring your desires and ultimately having fun with it. Clover says her friends-with-benefits relationship took away the pressure of losing her virginity. “I wanted to get my first time over with, so my friend and I calmly and rationally decided we would ‘practice’ having sex together. There was no pressure—we could just talk about what worked, what didn’t, and what we wanted. It helped me get more comfortable with myself, plus it was really fun,” she says. Even the most experienced hedonists can discover new pleasures during a friends-with-benefits relationship. For Knight, hooking up with a friend might involve trying out a new kinky kit or just fooling around. “Friends with benefits is a great way of getting your sexual needs met, and it can be productive in challenging you to think about different ways of being with someone,” she says. “There’s still so much stigma attached to women prioritizing their own pleasure, and it can be a radical thing to bring your sexuality to the foreground in your life.”
Rule 5: Friends with benefits don’t get jealous.
The whole philosophy behind friends with benefits is that it’s a fun experience for two people without the added requirements that typically come with a full-blown romantic relationship. But with the lack of a commitment comes the potential for your friend to have multiple partners. Jealousy can creep up unexpectedly if you find out your friend is hooking up with someone else. Why does this negative emotion arise, even when you’ve made no commitment to exclusivity? “Monogamy teaches us that sex and love are characterized by exclusive commitments, but it’s always worth questioning that, especially in more casual setups. Often, we misunderstand a lover’s desire for someone else as taking away from their desire for us. But the truth is, many of us have a range of social connections in life, each meeting different needs,” says Knight. It’s counterintuitive, but getting to know who else your friend with benefits is sleeping with can help dissipate feelings of jealousy, says Knight. “You get to know them as another person, not a threat, and take them off that big jealous pedestal you might have put them on,” she says. If you or your partner feel resentment about outside hookups, the friends-with-benefits relationship might not be a great fit for your lives. “Jealousy is a horrible and consuming feeling—and friends with benefits is supposed to be fun. If you’re jealous, ask yourself if this is really working for you,” advises Stager.
Rule 6: Friends with benefits shouldn’t try to be more.
Although you might start out as friends with benefits, there’s always a chance that you or your partner could find you want more out of the arrangement. Is it possible to turn it into a committed relationship? Speak up about your feelings. Your friend with benefits might even want the same thing! But if that’s not in the cards right now, you need to call it quits on the hookups. “It’s really hard to hang out with someone you have a crush on knowing that it’ll never blossom into the romance you want. And it’s even harder when you’re seeing that person naked,” says Drillinger.
Rule 7: Friends with benefits should go after what they’re looking for.
The beauty of friends with benefits is that it gives you an outlet for sexual pleasure even if you’re not in a relationship. But your wants and needs can change over time. You should always strive to be honest about what you’re looking for—and go after it. Stager admits that things would have gone better in her last friends-with-benefits relationship if she and her co-worker were more open about the type of connection they wanted. “Having a conversation that solidified what we were looking for would have been best, but sometimes what you want changes. For me, it’s a vicious cycle—if I like you enough to sleep with you, then I probably want to be with you because I’m attracted to you as a person. It’s not the case for all women, but that’s how it is for me,” says Stager. Regularly reflect on what you’re looking for in a relationship—whether that’s a long-term commitment, steady fling, or casual sex—and make sure your friend with benefits is still meeting your desires.
Rule 8: Friends with benefits should know when it’s time to move on.
No friends-with-benefits relationship lasts forever. Knowing when it’s time to move on will help things end on a high note. “Friends with benefits are really similar to non-sexual friendships—some friends come and go in your life, and that’s natural,” says Knight. “Not everything needs to last forever, or even for the long term, to be worthwhile and exciting.” Keep it going as long as it’s fun. And when the sexual chemistry has run its course, end your friends-with-benefits relationship and move on to something (or someone) bigger.
In the practice of bloodletting, doctors drained patients’ blood in hopes that it would help them stave off illness. It was a dubious practice that was used to treat everyone from medieval peasants to George Washington, and suffice it to say, usually did little to help affected patients.
Thankfully, bloodletting has gone out of style, and most doctors and citizens are as well-informed about proper medical care as they’ve been at any point in history.
However, a number of misconceptions about what to do in medical emergencies or first aid situations still swirl around in the American consciousness. Put grease on a burn? Peroxide on an open cut? If someone has a seizure, should you be reaching for your wallet? HealthyWay spoke to some experts who specialize in training professionals and average citizens in first aid and emergency medical services (EMS). They offered up some advice on what to do, what not to do, and a few hard and fast rules about facing medical emergencies.
1. Butter is for bread. Toothpaste is for teeth. Neither are for burns.
Robb Rehberg is the director of first aid training and program development at the National Safety Council (NSC), an organization that eliminates preventable death through education and advocacy. He meets with a wide range of Americans to train them about proper emergency medical procedures and is very familiar with the inaccurate treatments that are still rattling around out there.
Rehberg asserts that one of the most common misconceptions he’s encountered involve treatment of burns. Over time, some folks have believed that a bit of butter can help sooth a burn, but that’s just not true. Explains Rehberg on treating burned skin with some Land O’ Lakes: “We’re not trying to cook people. Not quite sure where butter came from, but I’ve heard it before. We certainly don’t want to put butter on a burn.”
The truth is this: Not only is butter not an effective burn treatment, but it can actually make the situation worse.
The first thing that must happen after a burn is cooling of the skin, but Rehberg says butter—or other home treatments—will not be helpful: “The skin has been burned and it needs to cool itself. Butter or any ointment is clogging up pores where heat dissipation occurs. We are hindering the body’s ability to cool itself.” [pullquote align=”center”]“Most minor burns will heal on their own and can [be] treated by running cool water over them.” —Andrew Berger[/pullquote]
First aid expert Andrew Berger, who is the owner and training site coordinator at Healthline First Aid, also warns against butter or other believed fixes for a burn, saying that it “can actually make the burn worse by slowing the release of heat from the skin.” Indeed, if butter is a no-go, why do some think that burns need to be treated like a piece of toast?
Berger calls butter an “old folk remedy.” An Australian medical report makes mention of an 18th century document from the Prussian Surgeon General that reads more like a recipe than an emergency procedure, saying that burns should be “painted over with grease or butter, or powdered with flour, starch or powdered charcoal to alleviate the pain.”
Rehberg also says that toothpaste is a common household burn remedy, mostly because it usually feels cool to the skin, but that the “cooling” is just a chemical reaction that is actually irritating the skin, the last thing you want to do to a sensitive burn area.
The best burn fix? A simple running of cool water for about 20 minutes. Berger explains: “Keeping in mind that there are several types of burns and several degrees of burns. Most minor burns will heal on their own and can [be] treated by running cool water over them.”
According to Rehberg, you could also treat the affected area with a burn-specific ointment or aloe vera gel. These substances will actually help cool the burn rather than gunk it up like a stack of pancakes at IHOP.
2. If you’re cleaning a wound, keep the peroxide away.
Another common misconception Rehberg hears from students he teaches at the NSC is the use of peroxide on a wound.
“Every medicine cabinet has peroxide. It’s not the best thing for an open wound,” states Rehberg about the all-too-familiar brown bottle of searing pain. While it may help sterilize a cut, the age-old favorite of teachers and moms could do plenty of damage as well. “You might be killing bacteria, but you’re also killing healthy skin cells,” explains Rehberg. Such an act could hamper the wound’s ability to heal or leave a more noticeable scar.
The best remedy for cuts and wounds of a manageable size is a simple one: soap and water. Berger claims you don’t need to get too complicated when treating a wound: “People always think you need ointments … for cuts and scrapes. Just wash it with antibacterial soap, it’s the best thing to clean a wound.” A deliberate wash in the sink followed by an appropriately-sized bandage will be more than enough medical attention to allow your body to do what it does best: heal itself.
This is all assuming, of course, that the cut is of a manageable size and won’t need stitches. In every true medical emergency, you should dial 911 for assistance. Or, if your injury isn’t quite so perilous, call your primary care physician for tips on how to handle a less severe medical situation
3. Don’t tip your head back for a bloody nose.
Nosebleeds are one of the most common minor injuries. Sometimes, they are a side effect of another injury, and other times, they just spontaneously show up. Because they happen frequently, nearly everyone seems to know the treatment. However, as you will see in the video below, the traditional nosebleed remedy is also one of the most common medical misconceptions.
4. The truth about frostbite and hot water.
There’s a belief that if any skin or limbs fall victim to frostbite, the affected area should be heated up as quickly as possible with hot water. However, this isn’t exactly what medical professionals recommend. [pullquote align=”center”]“You may actually be causing more damage.” —Robb Rehberg[/pullquote]
First of all, cold limbs don’t necessarily mean frostbite. Berger reveals that the term “is often used too broadly for skin exposed to cold. The first stage of frostbite is frostnip, which doesn’t cause permanent skin damage and should not be treated with hot water.”
There’s no need to get the tea kettle whistling for a case of frostnip. Instead, says Berger, “it can be treated by gently rewarming the area with mild to warm water.”
When it comes to true frostbite, Rehberg says there is no better treatment than contacting the professionals: “If we’re in a situation where we have frostbite and we are close to medical help, we just want to make sure we activate the EMS system.” In certain frostbite cases, a form of reheating the body will include the use of very warm water—“about 110 degrees”—but that this practice is reserved for those with proper training to avoid further injury.
One of the dangers of treating frostbite on your own in the wild is the risk of the affected parts refreezing if subjected to the elements again: “You may actually be causing more damage,” warns Rehberg. For emergencies, there is a practice called wet-rapid rewarming that Rehberg states is “reserved for controlled environments like in a medical facility or advanced courses like wilderness first aid.”
5. Don’t heat up that sprained ankle.
Sprains and small fractures can run the gamut from inconvenience to serious hinderance. How they are treated can have a major influence on how quickly they heal.
One misconception is to add heat to a sprained area. That’s the wrong move, according to Rehberg, who gives an easy rhyme for sprain treatment: “Ice is nice, hot is not.”
Also, patients should follow the proper protocol when it comes to icing: just about 10 minutes at a time. Rehberg advises that people with a sprain should “not ice continuously,” adding that folks should avoid the inclination to “go big or go home.” When it comes to ice on a sprain, more is not always better.
RICE—rest, ice, compression, elevation—is usually the go-to guideline for muscle soreness and injury. However, the doctor that coined RICE, Gabe Mirkin, actually rescinded this acronym, writing that after years of recommendation by coaches, “now it appears that both Ice and complete Rest may delay healing, instead of helping.”
Mirkin, as well as a few studies, realized that while ice does keep inflammation down and numbs a bit of the pain, it also prevents that inflammation from fulfilling its original intent: healing. Long-term icing can be detrimental to the healing process by limiting the amount of muscle repairing cells that can access the site of the injury. Mirkin recommends something similar to Rehberg’s suggestion: It’s okay to ice an injury for 10 minutes once or twice with a waiting period between applications. However, icing should be avoided after this. Mirkin points out that there’s no benefit to applying ice six hours after the injury occurs.
6. If you witness someone faint or have a seizure, don’t worry about their tongue.
There’s an old belief that someone could “swallow their tongue” while passed out. Even Rehberg is familiar with this unique concern, saying he remembers being a kid and hearing rumors of someone passing away because they swallowed their tongue.
“That’s not what happens” asserts Rehberg, “what happens is that the soft tissue in our airway can close off if we’re not responsive.” In the event of an unresponsive individual, Rehberg says the first thing he teaches his students is “how to open the airway very easily by tilting their head and lifting their chin.” By positioning the head in this way, you can prevent the threat of suffocation.
Similarly, it was a long-held belief that someone experiencing a seizure could bite their tongue off, so people were advised to give those in a seizure state a wooden spoon or even a wallet to bite down on.
You might see where this is going: Rehberg advice is to “never put anything in the mouth of someone having a seizure.” The best protocol is to let the seizure pass, then assist with any injuries—putting your hands near the mouth of a seizure victim could be harmful to them, or as Berger says, “it’s a really good way to lose a finger.”
7. Don’t throw up poison until you’ve talked to the pros.
The swallowing of poison is an absolute emergency situation. And though many think that inducing vomiting will expunge the poison from the body, there are certain situations where that might not be the right move.
Bergen states: “Inducing vomiting is not recommended for certain substances which can cause more damage on the way back up. The most important steps to take are call 911 and contact the Poison Control Center.”
Rehberg points out that poison control—which is a hotline that can be reached 24/7 at 1-800-222-1222—may advise you to take other action depending on what kind of substance was swallowed. In the case of acidic toxins, explains Rehberg, “it may better to ingest something like milk to absorb some of it,” though he mentions that isn’t the only remedy that Poison Control recommends. Contacting Poison Control is critical in these situations because every substance could involve dramatically different symptoms and treatments.
8. “Grandpa’s Cough Medicine” has little application in emergency situations.
Over the course of human history, there have been a number of remedies or medical treatments that include drinking beverages that today are only found behind the bar.
A Johnson’s First Aid Manual from 1909 suggests that a sip of brandy could help “encourage circulation” in the case of a victim who has recently recovered from artificial respiration. It was long believed that such substances were stimulants, and, as a result, were recommended for a variety of medical professionals for use in certain situations.
Such usage has declined significantly over time.
Berger says he’s heard of stories of a little brandy to ease various pains, but in general it’s “not something I could recommend to anyone.” He says many people have the image of a dashing doctor taking a bottle of hooch from the bar to clean a wound, but dismisses such things as “very Hollywood.”
The biggest takeaway is that when it comes to any medical situation, you should first and foremost defer to the professionals.
That means, say, your primary care doctor or poison control—and 911 in emergency situations.
It is also extremely useful to get trained by professionals: CPR and first aid training classes are available in big cities and small towns from coast to coast. Large organizations like the NSC will often offer classes; you can find classes at local offices like Healthline First Aid, too. Berger stresses that while knowing what do with burns and sprains is beneficial, “learning proper CPR and how to use an AED [automated external defibrillator] is even more important, considering most cardiac emergencies happen at home.”
What does vitamin D deficiency look like? In its most extreme form, prolonged and severe vitamin D deficiency during childhood, known as rickets, can delay growth and lead to visible skeletal deformities.
Today, rickets is relatively rare, but that doesn’t mean that vitamin D deficiency is—more than 40 percent of Americans are deficient. The potential health consequences of this epidemic are serious, as vitamin D deficiency is linked to osteoporosis, heart disease, diabetes, autoimmune diseases, high blood pressure, and poor pregnancy outcomes.
D-ficient? Odds are you don’t know.
According to the Vitamin D Council, symptoms of vitamin D deficiency can be subtle—or even nonexistent—in the early stages. You might experience some tiredness and general aches and pains, but these symptoms are easy to dismiss because there are many things that cause them.
Aches and pains? You can easily chalk them up to the aftereffects of your last workout—or simply not being 20 anymore. Tiredness? That could be because you aren’t getting enough quality sleep.
Lindsay Obermeyer, MS, RDN, CLT, a Portland, Oregon–based registered dietitian nutritionist and owner of Your Time Nutrition, said she personally experienced chronic joint pain, had labs done, and discovered that her vitamin D was 29 ng/dL (nanograms per deciliter), which is considered deficient by some standards. She started taking a daily dose of vitamin D3, and her joint pain was gone within a week. [pullquote align=”center”]I had two different clients with the same symptoms, had them tested for vitamin D, both were less than 30, both had relief from joint pain after supplementing. It’s a very common problem up here in the Northwest.[/pullquote]
It can sometimes be hard to tell when you’re in need of more vitamin D. Here are 15 signs that will help you know if you’re vitamin D deficient.
1. Muscle Weakness
You should be aware that muscle weakness can present as generalized body fatigue. If you’re experiencing a more general fatigue around your body, muscle weakness issues in specific areas may stay hidden and go unnoticed for months.
As vitamin D deficiency worsens, symptoms become stronger and harder to ignore. General aches and pains may become muscle and bone (musculoskeletal) pain, and tiredness may progress to muscle weakness. Still, it’s easy to search for answers in the wrong direction.
2. Bone Pain
In a study of 150 patients referred to a clinic in Minnesota for persistent, general musculoskeletal pain, 93 percent had vitamin D levels equal to or below 20 ng/mL, a level considered deficient by most experts.
As an adult, your bones are no longer growing, but new bone tissue constantly replaces the old. Severe vitamin D deficiency interferes with that replacement, leading to the softening of bones known as osteomalacia (or “adult rickets”), which causes pain and increases of osteoporosis.
Shunning the sun and avoiding dairy can leave you with a vitamin D deficiency that might lead to bone pain. This can be difficult to distinguish from muscle or joint pain, but it generally manifests itself as a deep, aching pain that isn’t isolated in an exact area.
My bones had been so hurty. So much pain and stiffness and I was miserable.
Remembered to take vitamin d three days ago and suddenly the bone pain has eased. My hands work again! My knees feel only like normal arthritis pain! It's like magic.
There are some indicators that can help differentiate bone pain from muscle pain. Muscle pain is usually centralized to one point and is exaggerated by movement or physical activity. Bone pain, on the other hand, is broader and deeper.
3. Constant Respiratory Problems
Studies show that vitamin D may help defend against respiratory illness, and this is especially true in children. If your child has severe asthma, you may want to increase their vitamin D intake.
Constant respiratory problems may present in different ways. Someone suffering from these issues may feel easily winded after a task they’d normally be fine handling. Or it may be as seemingly obvious as struggling to catch a breath for an extended period.
Years ago, doctors used to ask new mothers if their newborns’ heads were sweating more than normal. This can be a very early sign that a baby is vitamin D deficient. If you’re breastfeeding, it may be helpful to consume more foods that are rich in vitamin D or include some vitamin D drops in your regimen to make sure your baby is getting a sufficient amount.
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Foods that contain higher concentrations of vitamin D include fatty fish (such as tuna), orange juice, soy milk, and some cereals. You’ll also want to stock up on dairy products, such as cheese, that are enriched with vitamin D.
As it turns out, the sun is vital to keeping a smile on your face. Vitamin D is often referred to as the sunshine vitamin because it is activated in your skin by sunlight. If you live in a place that sees less sunlight than global averages, the lack of light could literally kill your mood.
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According to the Vitamin D Council, this essential nutrient helps your brain’s neurotransmitters produce serotonin, which affects our feelings of happiness. Studies have linked low levels of vitamin D with episodes of depression.
In Alaska and other locales with significantly less sunlight for months out of the year, depression due to lack of sun exposure is treated as a very serious medical issue. Residents are encouraged to purchase light boxes—devices that emit therapeutic light that will help them maintain vitamin D levels during dark winter months.
It’s important that light therapy be used to deal with depression caused by vitamin D deficiencies because the two can become seriously intertwined.
There are many different types of light boxes that can improve your health. The Sperti Vitamin D Light Box is “the only recognized ultraviolet light box for vitamin D production,” and the NatureBright SunTouch Plus Light and Ion Therapy Lamp, a bestseller on Amazon, “balances your [linkbuilder id=”6517″ text=”body clock”], leaving you feeling rested, refreshed, and nourished all over.” Each type has the potential to improve your health, but if you’re in need of light therapy, choose one based on what you hope to get out of it.
6. Infertility
Research suggests that vitamin D deficiency may play a role in the development of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a leading cause of female infertility. One common symptom of PCOS is acanthosis nigricans, which results in dark, velvety skin patches.
“In the fertility world in the Northwest we like to get a baseline on all of our patients and we see many who are deficient,” said Seattle-area registered dietitian nutritionist Judy Simon MS, RDN, CD, CHES, of Mind Body Nutrition.
“One young woman in her early twenties had visible acanthosis nigricans around her neck and on her chest. She had PCOS and pre-diabetes. After six weeks of Vitamin D supplementation the acanthosis was practically gone and she was feeling much less fatigued.”
7. Chronic Infections
Vitamin D is known to have an effect on over 2,000 genes in the [linkbuilder id=”6518″ text=”human body”], so it’s no surprise that the strength of your body’s immune system is also tied to how much vitamin D you are taking in.
When there’s a healthy amount of vitamin D being processed by your body, your immune system is resilient and able to fight off infections and disease. However, a lack of vitamin D can be devastating to your overall health and leave you vulnerable to constant attacks and health problems or scares.
Vitamin D supplements are sold everywhere, but make sure your doctor helps you select the best option for you based on your health needs.
8. Cardiovascular Disease
Cardiovascular diseases are heart conditions that may include damaged blood vessels or frequent blood clotting, among other issues. Articles published by the National Institutes of Health have shown that deficiencies in vitamin D can lead to congestive heart failure.
Some cardiovascular disease-related symptoms that are easier to spot are dizziness, heavy bloating (particularly in the legs), respiratory issues, and chest pain. If you’re experiencing any of these symptoms, you should contact your doctor immediately.
If you want to make sure you’re on the right path, home tests are available to check for a lack of vitamin D. These tests will screen your blood and possibly show you if you need to make some changes in your supplementation routine.
9. Psoriasis
Psoriasis may present itself as a scaly rash on your scalp or other parts of your body. Often it can be agitated by stress (unfortunately, finding out you have psoriasis tends to cause stress too). Although psoriasis is not always connected to a lack of vitamin D, the vitamin is sometimes used during treatment. The Mayo Clinic claims that if you have a lack of vitamin D, it will be harder for your body to defend itself against psoriasis.
There is no cure for psoriasis, but it is controllable with treatment. Besides reducing stress and getting your vitamin D, there are other methods for dealing with troubles caused by psoriasis.
For example, specially medicated shampoos can be prescribed to keep your scaly rashes at bay. Depending on the severity of your condition, there are also ointments, oils, and other treatments that could help reduce your psoriasis-related discomfort.
10. Chronic Pain
If you experience chronic, widespread pain throughout your body, it could be due in part to a lack of vitamin D. This connection was only recently discovered. In 2010, researchers began looking into the link between chronic pain and a lack of vitamin D.
Studies have now shown that low vitamin D levels increase a person’s chances of having chronic pain; supplements can sometimes help relieve it. So, if you’re in pain, talk to your physician about the best way to boost your vitamin D intake.
If you want to try a preliminary test for determining if what you’re experiencing is the same thing as chronic pain, doctors have a recommendation: Press against the area of your chest known as your breastbone (also called your sternum). If you feel a sharp pain when you press down on that area, it’s likely that you’re experiencing chronic pain related to vitamin D deficiency.
11. Tiredness
Vitamin D is one of the vitamins your body needs to create energy, and without it, you can end up feeling tired most of the day. This will make it hard for you to get around or even get to work. Without much energy, you may start changing your daily behavior in negative ways, which in turn may impair your overall health.
Continued tiredness can contribute to other symptoms caused by low amounts of vitamin D in the body. If you’re tired, you’re less likely to exercise or go outside. Avoiding activity or sunshine can amplify the effects of a vitamin D deficiency. If you fall into a routine that involves avoiding strenuous activity or sunlight, you’re much more susceptible to issues like depression or mood swings.
Listen to what your body is telling you. Something might be seriously off if you notice that you just don’t have the drive to stay active anymore. You should consult your doctor if you have constant feelings of tiredness that last longer than a few days.
It’s important to note that high blood pressure can significantly increase your risks for serious health issues such as heart attacks and strokes.
But don’t panic if you think or know you’re suffering from hypertension. It’s a common health issue that affects more than 3 million people in the U.S. every year. It can be identified without any blood or medical tests but will require an official diagnosis from your doctor, at which point appropriate treatment can be prescribed.
If you do suffer from anxiety, you may want to consider purchasing vitamin D supplements and adding them to your daily routine for that reason. Vitamin D has been proven to have positive effects similar to antidepressants and may reduce your overall blood pressure.
13. Crankiness
As we mentioned in relation to depression, vitamin D affects the levels of serotonin in your brain, which is what affects your mood. If you’re feeling cranky, it might be because you’re not producing enough serotonin. Vitamin D will help your moods stay balanced by ensuring your brain is working with the materials it needs to stay energized and focused.
If you notice mood swings that seem out of the ordinary, visit your doctor for a simple blood test. They will be able to identify what’s going on, and if a lack of vitamin D is the issue, they’ll help you make a plan to get better.
The solution may be as simple as getting out in sunlight more often or eating foods that are rich in vitamin D. For people who can’t handle too much direct exposure to the sun, supplements are readily available, so consider reaching for some before going off on anyone or getting too frustrated with yourself!
14. Chronic Kidney Disease
Kidneys help remove waste from your blood. When they’re not functioning correctly, your bloodstream can fill up with waste, seriously damaging your health. Doctors have recently connected kidney health to cardiovascular disease. They’ve also discovered how important vitamin D can be to your kidneys’ health.
As you get older your kidneys are not as efficient at processing vitamin D. Be sure to eat some vitamin D–rich foods or take a supplement. If you do take a supplement, also consider taking vitamin K2 to activate the right proteins in the digestion process. Ensuring that your kidneys are working properly to process vitamin D is just as important as getting your proper nutrients.
15. Reduced Endurance
If you’re an athlete and you’re seeing your endurance decrease for no apparent reason, it might be because you have low vitamin D levels. Experts in athletic circles now realize that vitamin D is crucial to energy levels, especially when it comes to endurance. Even active people who get outside every day can experience these issues, despite getting more than the recommended amount of sunlight per day (20 to 30 minutes).
Fortunately, if vitamin D deficiency is causing your issues, your endurance should return to normal when you get your vitamin D levels back to normal. Remember: You don’t always need to opt for pills to get your proper dose of vitamin D. Try a supplement in powder or liquid form to mix with your smoothies or protein shakes.
A Side Effect of Modern Life?
For many of us, work means days spent at a desk and leisure means binge-watching the latest Netflix series or catching up on social media. That’s a lot of indoor time, but even when we are outdoors we’re likely to double down on sun protection to prevent premature aging and skin cancer.
Dairy products are fortified with vitamin D, but milk sales are in decline, as more people avoid dairy due to restrictive diets, milk allergies, or lactose intolerance.
What’s your risk?
Although 4 in 10 Americans may be deficient in vitamin D, some people have a higher risk. As mentioned, if you spend a lot of time indoors and protect your skin with clothing or sunscreen when you are outdoors (as you should), your risk increases. Living in northern climates—where winters are longer, colder and darker—amplifies this risk. But a few other risk factors might surprise you:
1. Dark skin. The darker your skin, the more sun it takes to make vitamin D.
2. Body mass index (BMI) over 30. Vitamin D can become “sequestered” in excess body fat instead of making its way to the bloodstream.
3. Past gastric bypass surgery.
Why It Matters
Linke says that bringing vitamin D levels back to the normal range has been a “game changer” for many of her clients who have autoimmune conditions. She cites another client—a woman in her late twenties—whose vitamin D was a 4.
Her rheumatoid arthritis was very bad, she couldn’t walk down stairs unassisted, couldn’t walk without holding on to walls, couldn’t fit into her shoes so she wore flip flops.
Within 10 days of starting vitamin D, along with magnesium (magnesium deficiency can interfere with vitamin D metabolism) and dietary changes, she was able to wear regular shoes and walk without assistance.
As with all health-related issues, talk with your doctor or another medical professional if you are seeing any signs or symptoms that concern you. Deficiency is simple to test for and simple to treat. If in doubt, talk to your healthcare provider.
Herbalism popped up on my radar a few months back, when I was considering visiting a chiropractor or acupuncturist to address some ongoing health-related issues. I’m all for eating, drinking, and working my way toward my own personal definition of wellness, but until recently I hadn’t considered herbal medicine as an approach to managing chronic headaches, allergies, or reproductive health issues. If you’ve ever found yourself in Whole Foods feeling completely overwhelmed by all the unfamiliar herbs and supplements you could stock up on, or if you’ve wondered what it’s like to take tinctures or use herbal teas medicinally, here’s my tell-all, plus a Q+A with Zoe Kissam of Traditional Medicinals—whose products you’ll enjoy even more once you know how they’re made and who they’re supporting.
How Herbalism Found Me
Last fall I reconnected with Charis Boke, a Cornell PhD candidate I met eight years ago at Cornell’s Intensive Nepali Language Program. I was immediately enamored with Boke. Her Nepali was awe inspiring; she was well read, well traveled, and well spoken (in the this-is-social-justice-in-action kind of way); and she taught me how to pour a beer. Boke’s research interests have changed since we last saw each other. She studies and writes about herbalism and self-identifies as “a scholar–practitioner, an environmental and medical anthropologist who takes plant medicine and its practitioners seriously and practices herbalism herself.” In addition to her research and teaching—and leading student groups in the Himalayas—she was willing to talk herbalism with me when we reconnected.
Why Herbalism Piqued My Interest
We covered a lot of ground during our Skype session, from herbal teas and infusions to fermented foods and digestive aids. The way Boke speaks about plants and food on the level of metaphor—Roses are beautiful, but they have thorns. They have boundaries, right?—is exciting. I also appreciated the judgment-free space she created, which wound up carrying over into my initial consultation with Kristine Brown, an American Herbalists Guild registered herbalist who practices over the river on the Illinois side of the Saint Louis metro area, where I live. Like Boke, Brown was completely unperturbed by my self-disclosure of not-so-fun female health issues and having participated in intense group therapy sessions in 2017. (We’re talking everything from anger- and shame-release techniques involving boxing gloves and punching bags to practicing guided meditation.) Meeting with Brown, I got to see how and where an herbalist works, which wound up being an important part of my introduction to herbal medicine. She welcomed me into her study—the front room of a saged-out farmhouse piled high with books and adorned with eclectic artwork and animal bones—and we settled in for a most interesting (and thorough) intake visit.
Interested in seeing a registered herbalist? Here are my recommendations based on my initial consultation.
Dear Curious, meet the American Herbalists Guild.
Boke told me in our Skype session that she recommended I see an herbalist in person, given the extent of my health concerns. She pointed me to the American Herbalists Guild (AHG), a non-profit organization that “promotes clinical herbalism as a viable profession rooted in ethics, competency, diversity, and freedom of practice” and “supports access to herbal medicine for all and advocates excellence in herbal education.”
Poking around the Herbalists Guild site took the edge off my concern that herbalism might just be the kind of woo-woo that deserves the cynic’s raised eyebrow. It should be noted that in many states, anyone can call themselves an herbalist as an extension of their free speech, but becoming a registered herbalist (or RH) through the AHG involves years of study, casework, and mentorship. It was through the Guild’s site that I found Brown, who runs Luna Farm,Luna Herb Co., and Herbal Roots Zine (meaning she is a farmer, writer, and educator in addition to being a practicing herbalist). Brown has trained under Leslie Alexander, PhD, a registered herbalist with a background in laboratory science and environmental epidemiology (all of which sounds decidedly less woo than my background in the humanities). Long story short: If you’re ready to graduate from curious about herbalism to consulting with an herbalist, visit the AHG’s list of practitioners.
Set aside some time to complete the intake paperwork.
After scheduling my initial appointment, I printed out Brown’s 15 pages of intake paperwork, which included information about her relationship with the American Herbalists Guild and dozens of questions about my family history, physical health, childhood, dietary habits, the state of my emotions and feelings, and my impetus for seeking out an herbal consultation. One Saturday afternoon I curled up with my lapdesk and a trusty pen and got to work. I answered the questions as honestly as possible and was impressed by how effortlessly they guided my thoughts on my experience of health. I was able to really get a sense of how herbal medicine approaches the mind–body connection, which prepared me for a raw and real discussion. I suggest giving yourself a chunk of alone time to complete your herbalist’s paperwork because it will require concentration and a great deal of self-honesty about your relationships (both with your body and the other people in your life). For me, it was akin to a journaling experience—not something you want to be doing over breakfast with your SO, while paying bills, or when you’re responsible for supervising kiddos’ playtime.
Invest in a snazzy calendar or notebook.
Or prepare to get cozy with Google Calendar or a favorite diet-tracking app. I’ve always shied away from this exercise because it seems so nitpicky, but Brown’s intake paperwork featured a lot of questions about diet, and I wish I’d started tracking my eats prior to scheduling my first appointment. If you’re considering seeing an herbalist but haven’t set something up yet, start logging your snacks and meals today; it’ll make the intake paperwork and initial consultation that much easier. If you’re off to see an herbalist tomorrow, know that they will likely encourage you to log your diet in addition to whatever herbal teas and other herbal supplements you wind up incorporating into your self-care routine.
Forget palm reading: Prepare to have your tongue read.
Yes, you read that right. One of the ways an herbalist might evaluate your overall health is by having a good look at your tongue—and diagramming it. “Stick out your tongue” is something most of us have heard since the days of pediatricians with popsicle sticks, but when it came time for my tongue reading (which I was expecting after reviewing Brown’s consultations page), I realized I shouldn’t have sipped mint tea during the drive from the office to her place. I wanted to have fresh breath for the appointment but wound up muddling things a bit. [pullquote align=”center”]Herbal medicine emphasizes emotional well-being just as much as it does the use of herbal remedies for physical ailments.[/pullquote] Among other things, Brown noted a green film on the underside of my tongue, which she told me could be from the tea or an indication of certain nutritional deficiencies. My takeaway: Stick to water the day of your appointment.
It’s not the therapist’s couch, but…
Get ready to answer some questions you haven’t been asked by your GP and to explore some unexpected ideas. I was surprised by many of Brown’s questions and my own responses, and I learned that herbal medicine emphasizes emotional well-being just as much as it does the use of herbal remedies for physical ailments. Going into your initial consultation, you can take heart in the American Herbalists Guild code of ethics, which features a confidentiality statement: “Personal information gathered in the herbalist/client relationship will be held in strict confidence by the AHG member unless specifically allowed by the client.” Brown’s paperwork went so far as to reference HIPAA privacy regulations, so between that and the professionalism and open mindedness she exuded, I felt comfortable telling her anything I would share with a doctor or even a shrink. And ultimately my openness with her led to creative and insightful recommendations that went far beyond herbal supplementation.
Know that herbalism isn’t either/or.
While herbalism might seem super crunchy or “far out,” herbalists aren’t anti-MD or against allopathic medicine. According to a peer-reviewed study that included 479 naturopaths and Western herbalists, 99 percent consider documented, traditional evidence to be essential or important. The study’s conclusion: “Naturopaths and [Western herbal medicine] practitioners accept the importance of scientific evidence whilst maintaining the importance and use of traditional evidence.” Anecdotally, during my initial visit, Brown discussed how helpful it can be to have the results from recent bloodwork, and her intake paperwork makes it clear that she’s supportive of clients having an MD in addition to working with an herbalist. Also, I did not turn to herbalism for a diagnosis. [pullquote align=”center”]I see herbalism as a new way to approach my body that allows me to move from asking “What’s wrong with me?” to “What more can I know about myself?”[/pullquote] I understand my symptomatology in light of diagnoses from healthcare providers including an allergist, a geneticist, and a wonderful women’s health nurse practitioner and see herbalism as a new way to approach my body that allows me to move from asking “What’s wrong with me?” to “What more can I know about myself?”
Starting the Herbal Regimen
Herbal medicine isn’t a quick fix. I would love to say I’m less hustle and more flow, but I tend toward a third descriptor: the less-sexy antsy. It takes time for an herbalist to put their recommended protocol together, but I’m used to a world where I can swerve through the pharmacy’s drive-through and have a prescription in my hands 30 minutes after leaving the doctor’s office. When I received Brown’s recommendations via email—six days after we met—I felt like a long-distance lover pining for an emotionally charged airport reunion. It was go time! Or not…because incorporating herbal medicine into your routine is predicated on having herbs, which in many cases means ordering them, waiting for them, and preparing them (sometimes overnight or throughout the day), all of which makes herbalism just as much ritual as it is remedy. In between receiving my protocol from Brown and getting the herbs to put the plans into action, I had plenty of time to think about her recommendations, which fell into four categories: herbal, supplement, dietary, and lifestyle. I’ll share the basics to give you a taste, but note that dosage information is omitted since it will differ significantly depending on a person’s needs, symptoms, size, and sensitivities.
Herbal Suggestions
Herbal Extracts
Also known as tinctures (such a cool word, right?)extracts are essentially herbs in alcohol or another solvent that are dispensed from a little dropper bottle. Brown recommended a vitex, aka chasteberry, tincture for rebalancing my never-sure-how-it’s-feeling female reproductive system, and she suggested New England aster drops for addressing my allergies and asthma. While there’s plenty of research on the use of vitex for female reproductive health (it’s formally approved for the treatment of PMS in Germany), New England aster is a more obscure treatment that’s being revived by herbalists including Brown and jim mcdonald, who both have wonderful articles on their experiences with the strong, flowering plant. I purchased my herbal tinctures directly from Brown, who makes them herself, and they’re the first thing I got my hands on because they were available locally. I picked them up one morning before work and excitedly hauled them into the office. Brown told me some people squirt tinctures directly into their mouths, and I’m a fan of sour, bitter, and bold flavors. So seated comfortably in a bathroom stall thinking Go hard or go home, I leaned my head back and took the dropperful of vitex straight—no chaser. It was potent, but not unbearable. Next up was the New England aster tincture, and whoa mama, I don’t recommend that. My eyes were watering, my throat burned, and I was worried that my co-workers would think I’d had a two-martini breakfast. I learned then and there to dilute my herbal tinctures in a splash of water or the end of a cup of herbal tea. In addition to diluting tinctures, I also recommend keeping dropper bottles of them easily accessible wherever you’ll be taking them to cut down on the hauling back and forth. For example, I take them first thing in the morning, after lunch, and before bed, so I have dropper bottles of both herbal tinctures at home and on my desk at the office, which has made following the regimen significantly less stressful.
Herbal Infusions
I wouldn’t call myself Tincture Girl (though following the regimen has gotten easier), so I was pretty excited to see if the infusions were more my jam. What’s an infusion? Think an overnight or all-day tea. Instead of steeping a bag or infuser of loose leaf for a few minutes before sipping, you let larger quantities of dry ingredients—for example, a cup of dry herbs in four cups of water—soak while you sleep. In the morning, you have an herbal infusion you can drink throughout the day. Brown recommended I rotate infusions of linden, milky oat tops, and nettle: one infusion a day each day of the week. According to her protocol, “Milky oats is nourishing to the nervous system; nettle is full of vitamins and minerals, gives energy, and can decrease allergic reaction to various types of allergies over time; linden is another nervine and also supportive of the heart, both physically and emotionally, and increases circulation,” all of which sounded excellent, especially considering I have a cold constitution (think perpetually chilly hands and feet). [pullquote align=”center”]I went from pouring myself a cup to panicking that I wasn’t going to be able to follow the infusion regimen.[/pullquote] The pound of linden—leaves and flowers from the linden or lime tree—arrived first. The night the package came I boiled a kettle full of water before bed, dumped the goods in a trusty thermos, and let ’er steep. In the morning, I went from pouring myself a cup to panicking that I wasn’t going to be able to follow the infusion regimen. I’m not a fan of the term mouthfeel, and the linden infusion did not have a good mouthfeel. Thick and gelatinous sums it up, and I was pretty much choking it down. The oat top infusion was pleasant (and tea like), but on day three, I found the nettle infusion disturbingly strong, like straining the liquid off of sauteed spinach and slurping it down. I felt like a failure. Had I messed up the ratios? Did I just have a weak stomach that would forever get in the way of my healing? I texted Brown, who encouraged me to try diluting the linden infusion and turning to another herb, peppermint, to mask the “green” flavor of the nettles. The next time I made the linden tea, I used a third of the amount of dry herb she’d initially recommended; a bag of peppermint tea per cup of nettle infusion has made it my favorite-tasting herbal remedy so far. Planning on incorporating herbal infusions? You’ll want to have plenty of mason jars on hand, and get yourself a wide-mouth funnel and a strainer set to ensure your infusions make it from vessel to vessel seamlessly.
Supplement Suggestions
I was diagnosed with vitamin D deficiency years ago and take a vitamin D supplement daily. Brown recommended I stay on that and add a magnesium supplement, which she said helps with vitamin D absorption. Although she noted that powdered magnesium, which you’d mix with water and drink, is the most bioavailable form, I asked her to recommend a capsule. Between the tinctures and infusions, I wasn’t excited about adding one more liquid (that wasn’t coffee or LaCroix) to my routine.
Dietary Suggestions
Bone broth, cinnamon, and lentils were among Brown’s dietary suggestions, though I was pleased to get her overall stamp of approval on my flexitarian approach to eating. I’ve definitely noticed that I’m drinking more water and fewer sugary beverages since incorporating the herbal infusions into my everyday, and I do put cinnamon in my overnight oats regularly since receiving the protocol. At this point, bone broth is still on my to-try list, and I see myself continuing to turn to various curries for the boost of turmeric associated with the lentil dish Brown recommended for weekday lunches.
Lifestyle Suggestions
Ecotherapy
I’m not a cold-weather person, and I’m not going to lie: The dreary winter months meant many nights on the couch with Carrie, Mr. Big, and the ladies of Sex and the City. During my intake visit, I told Brown I take a walk to the grocery store or around a park or my neighborhood about once a week, but that may have been fudging a bit. Her recommendation: more time outdoors for the sake of my mental health. “Start by doubling what you do now. Instead of one walk a week around the block or in the park, try twice a week. Even a walk around the block at lunchtime is good. Make a point to seek out natural environments during the walk: Focus on birdsongs, plants emerging, flowers blooming, trees leafing out. Gradually work on increasing this until you are walking four to five times a week.”
Alone Time
This recommendation was the clincher. After hearing about my home life and routines that mean I’m out of the house a lot while my husband works from home, she suggested I “work out a schedule for alone time in the house” while my husband is gone, “so you have time to just be with yourself.” As a married person who struggles with codependent tendencies, this was a tall order, but it wound up leading to a fruitful conversation and more of what I need. (Not sure where to start when it comes to prioritizing self-love and alone time when you’re in a relationship? Check out these tips.)
Concerned about cost? Here’s what you can expect to invest in herbal products and consultations.
According to a University of Minnesota Taking Charge of Your Health & Wellbeing resource, initial herbal consultation fees range from $30 to $60, and a monthly supply of herbs can cost between $30 and $60. These numbers echo the investment I’ve made so far, and unlike chiropractic care and acupuncture, which are sometimes covered by insurance, consulting with an herbalist and purchasing bulk herbs and extracts based on their recommendations likely involves an out-of-pocket expense. That said, the American Herbalists Guild’s code of ethics espouses humanitarian service, stating that members should not make monetary compensation their primary consideration. In addition to individual consultations, many herbalists offer more affordable group workshops that might put herbalism within reach regardless of your current financial situation.
Unsure about diving head first into working with an herbalist? How about a nice cup of (herbal) tea instead?
While following an herbalist’s recommendations has been an interesting and high-impact experience for me (nice to meet you, noticeably gentler monthly cycles and fewer headache days), when Boke and I first chatted herbs, she pointed out that many people incorporate herbalism into their daily routine without even knowing it. If you’ve ever sipped on a lemony brew when you’ve had a sore throat or peppermint tea for an upset stomach, you’ve treated yourself to a mugful of herbal medicine. As my exploration of herbalism unfolded, I reached out to Traditional Medicinals—the most popular seller of wellness teas in the States and an American Herbalists Guild member institution—and was treated to a Q+A with Zoe Kissam, Traditional Medicinals herbalist and marketing manager of innovation. Despite there being many barriers to herbalism and other complementary approaches to health, Kissam points out that “tea is a really accessible and unintimidating way of introducing people to herbs.” I also appreciate and want to note that:
Regardless of your locale, odds are you can find quality herbal teas at your go-to grocery store.
If cost is a barrier, herbal teas may be more accessible than supplements, tinctures, and infusions. They require a modest initial investment—typically less than $10 for a box or tin of about 20 servings.
You can take teas on the go. By throwing a few bags of your favorite herbal teas in your purse, diaper bag, or coat pocket, you can enjoy an impromptu tea time whenever you have a moment for yourself and access to hot water.
Herbal Tea Q+A
Kissam is a Sonoma County, California, native who first started incorporating herbs into her wellness routine as a teenager. She worked at a health food store, grew her understanding of what it meant to live a holistic lifestyle, and went on to earn her certification in herbalism and her clinical certification. As of 2018, she’s worked at Traditional Medicinals for 11 years (and counting). Publisher’s note: This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
HealthyWay: Who were you educated under and what traditions inform your approach to herbs?
Kissam: I studied at the California School of Herbal Studies, which focuses on Western herbal medicine but touches on a myriad of traditional herbal medicine practices like Chinese medicine and Ayurveda and even Native American herbal medicine.
What is Traditional Medicinals’ process for determining its herbal tea blends?
New products come to our innovation team in a number of ways. Our herbalists consider the need state or benefit that the tea should provide and then look at traditional formulations or modern phytotherapy that will support the best and most rational herbal formula to meet those needs. All formulas are reviewed through our [research and development] team for safety, as well as through our supply chain to make sure we can find enough high-quality herbs to meet demand.
What are Traditional Medicinals’ most popular blends and why?
Smooth Move is our best-selling laxative tea for occasional constipation. It is loved by tea drinkers and non-tea drinkers alike because of both its reliability and its gentle action in the way it works. Throat Coat is one of our original formulas, featuring soothing slippery elm, licorice, and marshmallow root promote throat health.
Turmeric With Meadowsweet and Ginger is one of our new kids on the block but is quickly becoming a top seller because of its unique combination of well-known turmeric and herbalist-loved meadowsweet and ginger. This tea is an herbal trifecta of ancient wisdom and soothing relief that promotes healthy digestion and supports a healthy response to inflammation associated with exercise.
What different types of professionals does Traditional Medicinals have on staff, and what is it like working with these different people—and learning from them—to make and market herbal products?
Traditional Medicinals employs over 180 people that support our mission-driven different company in so many ways. We have eight herbal experts that span the company from [research and development] and marketing to quality control. Collectively, they have over 100 years of combined experience during which they have authored more than 25 books, led a wide variety of industry groups and panels, and helped a vast number of people improve their health and wellness with plant medicine. But we have a belief that the plants call people to work in this company, and all 180 of those employees are herb nerds in some way or another. It is this group of impassioned people that truly believe in serving our mission that embraces sustainability, ingredient purity, and social and environmental activism.
Why do you think people are comfortable with teas, and what role do you see Traditional Medicinals playing in making herbal medicine accessible?
Well tea itself, referring to the Camellia sinensis plant which produces green and black tea, is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world. For me, it’s a personal connection—my mom drank a cup of tea every night after dinner and my grandmother and her friends always served tea with dessert. Many people have rituals around drinking a cup of hot tea and may not even think about it. Many associate herbal tea with relaxation, which is an obvious reason why some of our teas for tension and stress are so popular and why chamomile tea itself, for all brands, is the number one selling herbal tea in the health and natural foods channel. Tea, as a form, is warm, comforting, and inviting. The fact that it can also have a benefit is icing on the cake. This is why we believe tea is a really accessible and unintimidating way of introducing people to herbs.
Are your teas as potent as tinctures or infusions?
All of our teas are formulated to provide benefits and support the claims we make. There are some herbs that are more beneficial in capsule or tincture form because they are not water soluble. However, all of our blends use herbs that are quite appropriate in tea—digestive teas getting right where they need to go, Throat Coat tea coating the throat as it is consumed, and so on. Anyone drinking these teas should feel very confident that they are getting an appropriate dose of the herbs that we blend with.
What types of teas, if any, do you recommend for pregnancy, anxiety, and depression, and why?
For pregnancy, depending on the stage of pregnancy you are in, there are many herbs that can be supportive.
Raspberry leaf can help in the second trimester and beyond to tone the uterus and get the body prepared for labor.
For occasional anxiety we have several formulas that are great to take, and honestly just sitting down and slowing down and having a cup of tea can be really helpful.
Our Chamomile With Lavender tea settles your nervous system and relaxes your digestive system, [so it’s] especially good when stressed or tense.
Our Stress Ease Cinnamon tea features a favorite herb of herbalists, skullcap, which relieves stress and irritability and promotes relaxation, plus it’s really tasty! I love drinking it in the late afternoon on a hectic day or right before my cycle starts and I’m feeling a little, let’s say, “edgy”?
Do you have any recommended regimens for regular consumption or drinking during an illness, PMS, or menstruation?
Our teas support various functions of the body and aid in conditions like occasional constipation, getting a good night’s sleep, or heart health. We have over 60 that are supportive for digestion, relaxation, seasonal care, women’s health, et cetera. For PMS and menstruation we have a range of teas that can offer support during different phases of a woman’s life.
Healthy Cycle is a blend of herbs that can help regulate the menstrual cycle and can even help with cramping.
Stress Ease Cinnamon can help support irritability and promote relaxation and can be really helpful during PMS.
Is it safe to combine Traditional Medicinals’ teas with other medications? Are there any specific teas that should be approached with caution?
Everyone should check with their doctor or healthcare practitioner before using herbs in combination with other medications. All of our teas include cautions and warnings on the box that are different depending on the products and should be referenced.
Are there any teas women should avoid while pregnant or breastfeeding?
Because every pregnancy is different, always check with your healthcare practitioner prior to using herbs while pregnant or breastfeeding. We find that some moms commonly enjoy the following teas during pregnancy or breastfeeding. For use of other teas during these times, please speak with your healthcare practitioner. Pregnancy: Ginger tea, Pregnancy tea, Raspberry Leaf tea, Lemon Balm tea Nursing: Mother’s Milk, Mother’s Milk Shatavari
Are all your teas organic? How does Traditional Medicinals decide where to source ingredients from?
95 percent of our teas are organic. We source our organic and high-quality herbs from the environments where they can be grown at a medicinal grade. This helps to ensure that the active constituents are in the right amounts so that you get a consistent benefit from our teas, cup after cup.
Traditional Medicinals is making a Throat Coat “Just for Kids.” How does it differ from Throat Coat, and do you recommend any other teas for children?
Just for Kids Cold Care is formulated specifically for children featuring lower doses of herbs and a [sweetener-free, 100 percent herbal] taste kids enjoy. Currently this item is only available for purchase online, via Amazon or other retailers. For other teas, always read the side panel. Teas not suitable for children will indicate they are for adults only and may list age restrictions.
Any tips for preparing and enjoying herbal teas?
First, check the back of your Traditional Medicinals tea box and read the instructions to see if there are any unique suggestions, such as adding milk or sugar. Each of our teas will also have a suggested steeping time, which depends greatly on the herbs inside. These practices often improve the taste of the tea and effectiveness of the herbs. Boil water and pour into your teacup with the tea bag placed inside. Cover your teacup and allow the herbs to steep. After a few minutes, it’s not just water that is acting on the herbs. The water itself changes as the herbs infuse into it. Depending on what compounds are first released, the water can become a mild acid or base, which in turn affects the release of other compounds in the herbs. The act of covering your tea ensures warmth, a full extraction, and that the essential oils of the herbs, which are very beneficial, stay in your cup. This is why the recommended steeping times on our tea boxes range from five to 15 minutes for full potency.
I’ve been poking around Plant Power Journal and noticed that Traditional Medicinals has a number of other outreach and educational efforts.
Traditional Medicinals is committed to social development projects funded in sourcing communities—and women and girls are some of the greatest beneficiaries. One of Traditional Medicinals’ programs is the Revive Project, which focuses on water security interventions in the senna-growing villages of Rajasthan, India. In 2009, Traditional Medicinals, Traditional Medicinals Foundation, and WomenServe launched the project in the Thar Desert, one of the driest places on earth, where temperatures can reach as high as 122° F. Women and girls must walk miles for hours each day in search of water for their families, crops, and livestock. In an effort to overcome these challenges, the Revive Project’s initiatives have so far benefitted six communities with around 12,000 villagers. The project has desilted and expanded six large community ponds, dug and rebuilt 145 agricultural rainwater catchment systems, and constructed 510 taankas (underground rainwater catchments) for families in need. These taankas provide year-round water security, eliminating the need for women and girls to walk thousands of miles each year and providing them with the opportunity to attend school and trainings, engage in income-generating activities, and become empowered village leaders.
The human body is pretty incredible.
But some bodies are, shall we say, more incredible than others. Your genetics can give you a superpower—even if it’s a really, really dumb superpower. You’d want to know about something like that, right?
Sure you would. There’s nothing cooler than having a useless ability. We’re talking about stuff like…
1. Some people really don’t need to sleep very much.
If you’re lucky enough to have a specific variant of the BHLHE41 gene, you might be genetically resistant to the effects of sleep deprivation.
To put this another way, you can sleep less than most people while still enjoying all of the benefits of a full night’s rest.
People with this condition are called familial natural short sleepers (FNSS), and they get about two hours less sleep per night than the average person (so six hours instead of eight).
Many famous people, including Margaret Thatcher, are believed to have “suffered” from this unusual condition.
2. Tibetans are actually genetically mutated for high altitudes.
Tibetan sherpas are renowned for their ability to survive at high altitudes. They’re very aware of what it takes to survive on an elevation like that of Mount Everest—but recent research suggests that they’ve gotten a bit of a hand from evolution.
Researchers tested 50 Tibetans, along with 40 Han Chinese (Tibetans split off from the lineage of the Han Chinese some 2,750 years ago).
They found that 34 of the Tibetans had different genes from the Han Chinese. What’s more, one of those genes “codes for a protein involved in responding to falling oxygen levels and is associated with improved athletic performance in endurance athletes,” according toThe Guardian.
One of the most amazing parts of the story is that the mutation appears to have become commonplace less than 3,000 years after the populations diverged. That makes this one of the fastest evolutionary mutations ever recorded in humans.
3. Some people have a second row of eyelashes.
Many people consider long, full eyelashes to be quite desirable, but who knew that there’s actually a defect that could cause this? Watch the video below to find out more about distichiasis—and which famous figure had the defect.
4. The palmaris longus is a fascinating evolutionary remnant.
You can find out whether you have this tendon by pressing your thumb and pinky together and looking at your wrist. If you see a big tendon sticking out, congratulations—that’s your palmaris longus.
Apart from being an awesome band name, the palmaris longus has no real significance. It’s thought to be a remnant of a tendon that we used to climb trees earlier in our evolution.
If you’ve got this structure, there’s some good news: If you ever need a wrist tendon graft, that’s the tendon they’ll use. It doesn’t affect grip strength in any noticeable way, so it’s a purely pointless part of your body. Still, about 14 percent of people don’t have it, although that percentage varies greatly depending on your lineage.
Wikimedia
The preauricular sinus may be another vestigial feature from evolution. This is a tiny hole on your ear; some believe that it’s a remnant of gills, and one study makes a fairly convincing case.
5. You might be able to see more colors than most people (but probably not).
Your eye probably has three cones, which are structures that allow the eye to collect information about color and transmit it to the brain.
If you’re colorblind, you’ve only got two cones, and as a result, you see fewer differences between certain similar colors.
But some people are born with more. Tetrachromats have four cones in their eyes, allowing them to see 100 million distinct colors. Could you be one of them? Test how well you see color with this quiz:
Scientists have trouble tracking down tetrachromats, since these people rarely realize that they’re different. As a result, they may never “train” their eyes to look for the additional colors, which prevents them from seeing them (vision is kind of complicated). However, Popular Science was able to track down Concetta Antico, an artist who’s believed to be tetrachromatic.
So, what’s it like to have this gift?
https://www.instagram.com/p/Byk_L2GBhRQ/
“It’s shocking to me how little color people are seeing,” she said. “You might see dark green but I’ll see violet, turquoise, blue. It’s like a mosaic of color.”
6. One of the most eye-popping abnormalities is globe luxation.
Literally. Globe luxation is a rare condition in which your eyes can pop out of your head.
There’s no real advantage to this (although you can probably do a really, really good impression of the trucker from Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. It’s mostly just a party trick that could possibly damage your eyes if you’re not careful.
It’s not all fun and games, however. One study notes that common causes of the disease include “thyroid eye disease, shallow orbit, and floppy eyelid syndrome.”
After you’re done snickering at the magnificent English phrase that is “floppy eyelid syndrome,” we’ll sadly inform you that globe luxation can also be associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. With that in mind, if you’ve got this condition, you should probably see your doctor.
7. Perfect pitch certainly isn’t common, and there’s debate over whether it’s a natural gift.
Perfect pitch is the ability to identify and differentiate musical notes based on specific frequencies. In other words, you could hear a C# and correctly identify it as a C#.
If you’re not a musician, you might expect this to be a pretty common ability, but it’s incredibly rare. Fewer than 1 in 10,000 people has perfect pitch, and there’s been significant scientific debate as to whether it’s a natural ability.
For a long time, researchers believed that humans were either born with perfect pitch or they had to develop it at a very young age. Past a certain point, if you don’t have it, you won’t pick it up.
But recent research indicates that adults may be able to develop perfect pitch. That means that with enough training and perseverance, you, too, can immediately identify the key of your favorite Justin Bieber song.
8. You almost certainly don’t have an outie belly button.
You’re either an “innie” or an “outie,” and unless you heard differently, you probably assumed that it was about a 50/50 mix. That’s not quite the case; one study found that only 4 percent of adults have an outie. That percentage is significantly higher in children (for reasons that we’ll get into in a moment).
You might have also assumed that the shape and size of your belly button was dependent on how your doctor cut your umbilical cord, but this isn’t really the case. Most outies are caused by an umbilical hernia.
Basically, your inner parts push through your outer parts, but it’s not such a big deal—after all, your umbilical cord is kind of the best possible place for a hernia to occur.
Even so, doctors might eventually decide to close larger umbilical hernias. Most of these hernias close on their own by the time a child turns 5.
“I’ve been out of the relationship for 10 years, and I’m so much happier now.” Mary Magnetico, a chef at Chestnut Creek Baked Goods in Grahamsville, New York, says that she was married to a narcissist. At the beginning of the relationship, he was an entirely different person. “You’re made to feel special,” she tells HealthyWay. “That usually happens rather quickly. They proclaim their love for you—and very fast, too.” Gradually, the relationship turned serious. That’s when Magnetico began noticing some of the signs.
“[Narcissists] try to isolate you from friends and family,” she says. “I learned, years later, that my ex would go behind my back and trash talk me—all while making himself look good. …Then came the insults. They’re master manipulators, and they feel a deep sense of entitlement. Rules don’t apply to them, because they’re just so superior to the rest of us.” Magnetico left the relationship, but her story’s not too unusual. Clinically, narcissism is arare diagnosis, but it’s often considered as part of a spectrum (some theorize that itmight even be on the autistic spectrum). Obviously, narcissistic tendencies make relationships difficult. While researching this piece, we received dozens of responses from people who claimed to have been in relationships with narcissists. Interestingly, every one of those responses came from women. Perhaps that shouldn’t be surprising; according to one scientific review,men are more likely to be narcissists than women.
But what is narcissism, exactly? How can we recognize narcissistic disorders in our partners—or in ourselves? To be clear, only a licensed physician can make an actual diagnosis. However, many narcissistic behaviors can serve as red flags.
1. Narcissists have fragile egos.
“I think, a lot of times, people consider narcissism to include a lot of grandiosity, and a lack of shame or remorse or empathy, and all of those are certain key components of narcissism,” says Kate Balestrieri, PsyD, a licensed psychologist and co-founder ofTriune Therapy Group in Los Angeles. Balestrieri designed a workshop to help people heal from the trauma of being in relationships with narcissists.
“But clinically, we look at things like: ‘Does someone have a very fragile sense of self?'” In other words, while we might think of narcissists as self-centered jerks, they’re operating as a result of deep-seated insecurities. Those insecurities often show up in the narcissist’s social behaviors. “They’re very quick to align themselves with organizations [or] people that would be high in status—the best of the best,” Balestrieri says. “They have a need for admiration. …If my ego is fragile, I need a lot of other opinions to bolster my sense of self, so underneath all of that grandiosity is a pretty low and fractured sense of self-worth. And a lot of shame, usually.”
People with narcissistic disorders often overcompensate for that shame by bragging about the ways that they’re superior to others. Those beliefs are real—but fragile. “They might go on and on about how great they are,” Balestrieri says, “or how much this person likes them, or that person likes them, or they got accepted into a certain organization. They’re really aligning themselves with anything that further capitulates their fantasies around fame, or importance, or superiority, or just being great.” Those insecurities can certainly affect romantic relationships.
2. Narcissists have an inflated opinion of their partners.
“The journey of dating a narcissist has several distinct phases,” says Sal Raichbach, PsyD, ofAmbrosia Treatment Center. “At first, they’ll make you feel special. Since they feel they’re special, only other special people can understand them. Over time, though, this feeling will carry less weight. You’ll start to feel like they don’t even really know you, mainly because you don’t spend much time talking about yourself.”
Balestrieri agrees, noting that narcissists often fixate on their partners’ best qualities, but in shallow or superficial ways. “If you just meet someone and they start telling you straight away that they love you and you’re amazing and you’re the most beautiful person in the world, the most incredible partner that they’ve ever met—it’s just all about kind of inflated, kind of fantastical thinking and projection—that’s a pretty big red flag,” she says.
When a narcissist stops receiving the kind of positive feedback they need to satisfy their insecurities, they can quickly change. Suddenly, that loving partner might become an enemy. “We see narcissists do what I call ‘shame rage’ often,” Balestrieri says. “If they make a mistake, do they put other people down to try to make themselves feel better? That’s a big indication that you’re in the presence of a narcissist.”
3. Narcissists require tremendous amounts of attention.
“Narcissists like to talk about themselves, which is another obvious sign,” Raichbach says. “Instead of sharing and listening to you, they’re emotionally evasive and expect you to save your breath for reinforcing their specialness.”
https://twitter.com/camiiil/status/975155864201056256 Over time, they’ll demand more attention from their partners. According to Balestrieri, that can manifest in insidious ways. “Someone with [narcissism] might be pretty antagonistic, actually,” she says. “And negative attention is better than no attention. The thing that would get to the narcissist’s core the quickest is being irrelevant, and when we don’t give a narcissist attention, they feel irrelevant. Often, they can get provocative and antagonistic as a way to at least secure that [attention].”
no more dating narcissists for me. I’m so serious. The world doesn’t revolve around you if my feelings are now involved.
— BeautyIsHerName ♕ (@NeedHer_LoveHer) May 3, 2018
To a narcissist, the line between “positive” and “negative” attention might be razor thin. Narcissists often behave in less agreeable ways thannon-narcissists, particularly when they have low self-esteem. “Think about the little boy who goes to the refrigerator and says ‘Mom, mom, mom, mom—look at me, look at me!'” Balestrieri says. “She’s on the phone, and he finally turns over a carton of orange juice and smiles—because now, he has mom’s attention, even though he’s doing something naughty.”
“A narcissist can show up like that, too. They can be a hero or they can be a villain. It doesn’t really matter. As long as they’re getting that supply. …It’s not just about violating rules so much as it’s about just doing whatever they can to stay relevant and in the forefront of people’s minds.”
4. Narcissists are fixated on envy.
Envy often plays some sort of role in romantic relationships, but people with narcissistic tendencies might become obsessed. “[Narcissistic people] definitely can be interpersonally exploitative,” Balestrieri says. “Someone who’s narcissistic can get really fixated on envy, and they often think that people are jealous of them.”
She says that, once again, the narcissist’s fragile ego drives the behavior. “They can live in a kind of a hot bed of their own envy [towards] other people, because they’re constantly comparing themselves to others to derive a sense of self,” she notes. “They can be really haughty, arrogant, or dismissive while devaluing of other people.” In a romantic relationship, that creates a predictable series of events. Narcissists gradually turn against their partners, eventually becoming negative or even outright hostile towards them.
“There’s a cycle that we often see play out with narcissists where they idealize a partner or friend,” Balestrieri explains. “Then, the minute there’s some kind of falter in the fantasy of who that person is, they devalue them—almost knocking their knees out from under them—and then discard them.” To the narcissist, this type of behavior is a defense mechanism.
“That’s a way that narcissists stay safe,” she says. “They’ll say, ‘You’re amazing…but if you stop being amazing for whatever reason, you’re no longer someone that I want to align my star with. So you’re useless to me.'”
5. They push against your personal boundaries.
According to researchers, narcissiststend to have problems with empathy, although they’re not necessarily sociopaths (people largely incapable of expressing empathy). As part of their quest for attention, however, they can push against personal boundaries, which can have dramatic effects. “Something narcissists will do is often push your boundaries and try to get you to show up more for them than you want to initially,” Balestrieri says.
For example, a narcissist might compel their partner to make sacrifices or major commitments early in a relationship. Refuse, and you’ll likely experience some negative consequences, potentially including verbal and emotional abuse.
If you’re involved with a narcissist, seek help from a professional.
Narcissists often have trouble with empathy, but they’re not inherently bad people. With therapy, they can treat some of the underlying insecurities that prompt their manipulative or harmful behaviors. [pullquote align=”center”]“…if you’re going to be in a relationship with a narcissist, you have to have solid boundaries.” —Sal Raichback, PsyD[/pullquote] “If you’re seeing signs, know that narcissistic personality disorder is not curable,” Raichbach says. “That said, it can be managed if they’re willing to commit to long-term therapy.”
We’d like to reiterate this point: Only a psychologist or psychiatrist can diagnose narcissistic personality disorder, and if you’re involved with a narcissist—and you want to continue the relationship—the best course of action is to seek professional help. With that said, if you’re in a committed relationship with a narcissist, Balestrieri recommends looking at your own boundaries. “That’s a really acute part of examining how you want to proceed with a narcissist,” Raichbach says. “You might decide to stay with this person, [or] you might decide to retract and find other people to interact with, but if you’re going to be in a relationship with a narcissist, you have to have solid boundaries. You have to be willing to enforce them, and you have to not get caught up in the guilt that can come with [enforcement].” “You have to be prepared not to provide the ‘supply’ that [the narcissist will need] all the time,” she says, “or be prepared to lose yourself.”
According to the American Thyroid Association, about 12 percent of Americans will have thyroid conditions at some point in their lives. By their estimate, 20 million Americans currently have thyroid conditions, but over half are completely unaware.
Why is that? Most people aren’t aware of the symptoms of thyroid dysfunction. In fact, a large portion of people are unaware of what the even thyroid does.
https://twitter.com/wellybadger/status/198021474152497153
The thyroid is a gland that controls metabolism and sends hormones throughout the body. It’s shaped like a butterfly, and it’s located near the base of your neck.
“It produces hormones that regulate your metabolism by controlling how many calories you burn, as well as how fast or slow your brain, heart, liver, and other organs work,” endocrinologist Christian Nasr, medical director of the Thyroid Center at the Cleveland Clinic, told Health.com.
Because it plays a critical role in your overall health, you should know some of the symptoms of thyroid dysfunction.
Before we get to the symptoms, however, an important note: If you have any of these symptoms, seek assistance from a qualified physician. Only a doctor can diagnose thyroid issues, and this article is intended to raise awareness, not to function as medical advice.
With that said, let’s look at 12 of the most common symptoms, as explained by medical professionals and sources.
1. Fatigue
1. Fatigue
A recent study in the journal Frontiers found a link between hypothyroidism (an underactive thyroid) and chronic fatigue syndrome. While further studies will help us understand the link, the Frontier findings make sense. The thyroid controls metabolism, which affects your weight and your ability to store and use energy. If the gland isn’t functioning properly, you may notice regular fatigue, even after you’ve had 8 to 10 hours of quality sleep.
However, note that between 50 and 70 million people in the United States have sleep or wakefulness disorders. Sleep disturbances are also linked to a number of other diseases and disorders, including depression, hypertension, sleep apnea, and more, so you should undergo a sleep study to definitively diagnose the issue.
2. Anxiety and Depression
According to Harvard Health Publishing, when the thyroid gland creates too much or too little of the hormone it uses to regulate metabolism patients often report mood disturbances.
These can manifest in a variety of ways, depending on the nature of your condition, but if you’re feeling anxious, jittery, nervous, or depressed, there’s a chance that your thyroid is to blame.
3. Constipation
Without getting too graphic, hypothyroidism is associated with constipation.
This is because your thyroid’s main role is—you guessed it—metabolism, and it therefore controls the function of your digestive tract. When your body isn’t producing enough thyroid hormone, you’ll have trouble “producing,” to use a very strained euphemism.
Thyroid hyperactivity, on the other hand, can have the opposite effect, causing excessive trips to the bathroom. Any sudden changes in your digestive habits are a good reason to see your doctor, since they can be indicative of other medical conditions.
4. Random Sweat
“Is it hot in here, or is it just me and my hyperactive thyroid?”
If your body is having a tough time regulating its energy production, you may start sweating at apparently random times. You may also feel extremely warm, even when the room is cold. You might also feel perfectly comfortable as you’re sweating up a storm, though this symptom depends on the person.
This is the thyroid dysfunction symptom that most people know about: if you have an underactive thyroid, you might gain weight easily.
If you have an overactive thyroid, you might have trouble putting weight on.
Try not to get too obsessed with overall “weight,” though, since that can be misleading. Body fat percentage is a better metric to track, since weight varies considerably throughout the day.
More importantly, pay attention to how you feel, and note any sudden changes in your appetite. If you’re eating a lot, but you’re always hungry and you can’t put on weight, hyperthyroidism might be the culprit.
6. Changes in Taste
Thyroid dysfunction can change how you taste certain foods, since your body will incorrectly gauge how much nutrition you need—and what type of nutrition.
Severe and prolonged issues with your thyroid, according to the British Thyroid Foundation, can cause hair loss. When your thyroid isn’t functioning correctly, your body wrongly assumes that it needs to divert resources to essential body functions. In other words, your body thinks that it has very limited energy reserves, so it goes into a “conservation mode” that de-prioritizes anything that doesn’t keep you alive.
Unfortunately, your hair might be one of the top targets of these misguided conservation efforts. People with thyroid issues (especially hyperthyroidism) often notice thinning hair. In some cases, they’ll lose hair entirely, but the good news is that adequate treatment will usually restore hair.
8. Muscle Soreness
Thyroid issues can be painful. According to the Mayo Clinic, physical symptoms include aching extremities, muscle pain, tenderness, and stiffness. If you have arthritis, the condition may be worsened by thyroid dysfunction. Severe thyroid issues can also manifest with painful aches in the neck (where the thyroid is located).
You might also notice cold sensations in your fingers and toes along with occasional numbness. This is, again, due to changes in your body’s energy regulation.
9. Visible Lumps
If you notice lumps in your neck, these could be signs of a thyroid condition, but they could also be a goiter—an enlarged but perfectly functional thyroid—or simply enlarged lymph nodes.
While hyperthyroidism may make you sweat too much, as mentioned earlier, it’s also possible your body might not sweat enough due to hypothyroidism. The lack of moisture can quickly result in dry, flaky, or itchy skin.
The limited hormone production will also affect other parts of your body; you might notice cracked, brittle fingernails and toenails, for instance. Of course, dry nails and skin can also be caused by a lack of hydration, so make sure you’re drinking enough water. The Mayo Clinic recommends eight 8-ounce glasses of fluid per day, noting that any fluid counts toward the daily total.
11. High Blood Pressure
It is known that both hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism can result in high blood pressure, although scientists disagree about the specific mechanism that causes that high blood pressure, according to the American Heart Association.
The most popular theory is that low thyroid hormones will slow the heartbeat, affecting the flexibility of blood vessel walls and eventually resulting in high blood pressure. Likewise, high thyroid hormones cause the heart to beat faster, creating a more direct effect.
In either case, sudden changes in blood pressure always warrant a medical examination, so if this is something you’re experiencing, you should speak with your physician.
12. Menstrual Cycle Changes
Women with thyroid issues may experience sudden changes with their periods, although this isn’t always directly linked with thyroid hormone production.
Instead, metabolism changes may prompt a woman’s body to go into an anemic state (meaning a deficiency of red blood cells). This can cause fertility issues, so, again, it’s a symptom that shouldn’t be ignored. If you notice any changes in your menstrual cycle, tell your doctor right away.
So, what do you do if you have hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism, or thyroid disease?
First things first: get to your doctor. No internet article can provide treatment advice—it can only make you aware of the potential symptoms and issues they cause.
For the millionth time, please get your medical advice from a doctor! Not from Twitter. Not from WebMD. Not from the Internet.
Typical treatment strategies involve short-term hormone therapy, which can restore normal functionality very quickly. Your doctor may also look into the causes of the thyroid condition, as some are commonly caused by autoimmune disorders, medications, and other obvious triggers that will need to be addressed for a long-term cure.
Remember, medical diagnoses should always be handled by a qualified physician. Many of the symptoms on this list can also apply to other conditions, so don’t assume that you have a thyroid issue when you speak with your physician.
There’s good news, however: if you do have a thyroid disorder, you can often treat it safely and effectively in a matter of months.
What’s more relaxing than a trip to the nail salon?
Well, pretty much everything, when you realize what goes on behind the scenes.
To be fair, many manicurists and pedicurists run well-cleaned, wonderful shops—we certainly don’t want to denigrate the profession as a whole. Each year, Americans spend over $7 billion on nail services, and the vast majority walk away happy.
However, there are a few things to keep in mind before heading in for your next appointment. For starters…
1. There might be hidden fees.
Let’s start with one of the most obvious (and least dangerous) secrets. Manicurists tend to charge by the service, but they’re not always upfront about what’s included for that single fee. For instance, they might charge separately for a base coat, a nail strengthener, and the polish.
The only way around this trap is to start a conversation. Ask what’s included for the fee you’re paying. When the manicurist goes to work, if you’re not sure what they’re doing, ask them before they begin. You have every right to refuse services or products that you don’t need—and that you’d really rather not pay for.
Keep in mind that you can always bring your own favorite nail-care products. When you walk into the salon and hand the manicurist your own favorite base coat and polish, they’ll usually be happy to charge you just for the application. Again, though, make sure that’s a conversation you have before they get started.
2. There’s only one way to ensure sterilization, and your salon probably isn’t using it.
You’ve read the horror stories about people getting terrible infections from contaminated tools at a nail salon. There’s a simple reason why that happens: It’s actually really hard to completely sterilize what is essentially surgical equipment.
Surgeons use a machine called an autoclave to make sure they eliminate 100 percent of the fungi, bacteria, and viruses that can live on stainless steel tools. Autoclaves use a combination of pressure, heat, and steam to sterilize equipment.
“It’s a specific device that sterilizes equipment with steam, making it sanitary and safe, since no chemicals or irritants are used,” says Debra Lindy, co-founder of Sani Sak, a company that produces sanitized manicure tools. “This is very rarely purchased by nail salons, as it can be cost prohibitive.”
The problem with this is that only Iowa and Texas have laws on the books that require nail salons to disinfect equipment with autoclaves. In the rest of the country, manicurists typically use chemicals or UV light boxes to sterilize their tools.
Hey, UV light is better than nothing, right? Well, yes, but while those instruments might get rid of most of the infectious organisms that live on nail clippers, they’re not 100 percent effective.
Be sure to ask your manicurist how they sterilize their equipment before committing to a procedure. Many salons will also allow customers to bring their own tools; while that might initially feel awkward, it can help to prevent a painful infection.
Oh, and as this Answers user points out, it’s also not a bad idea to call your local health department if you’re especially curious about a salon’s practices.
3. Those UV lamps they use to dry your polish might increase the risk of developing skin cancer.
Granted, the risk that you’ll get melanoma from drying your polish under a UV lamp is pretty small, but it exists. Perhaps more importantly, the cell damage can build over time.
“Considering the low UV-A energy exposure in an average manicure visit, multiple visits would be required to reach the threshold for potential DNA damage,” wrote a team of researchers from Georgia Regents University, in a study published in JAMA Dermatology. The researchers also noted that typical exposure wouldn’t be enough to cause DNA damage, but customers who regularly get manicures or pedicures might be at risk.
Besides, the researchers found, there aren’t any good standards for manufacturers of UV nail lamps. Chris Adigun, MD, a board-certified dermatologist, told CBS News why this lack of regulation is dangerous.
There is little to no regulation on the manufacturing of these nail lamps,” Adigun said. “As a result, the bulbs, wattage and irradiance of these lamps varies dramatically from one manufacturer to the next, and individuals utilizing these lamps in salons have no way of knowing just how much UV exposure their skin is receiving upon each manicure.”
4. Nail techs are not necessarily trained to properly sterilize their equipment.
Podiatrist Robert Spalding, DPM, has the salon industry firmly within his sights. As author of Death by Pedicure, Spalding is a leading voice about the dangers of contemporary nail salon practices.
Spalding maintains that techs simply don’t have the training to verify when tools are safe to use. There is “industry-wide confusion about the definition of the term ‘sterilize,'” Spalding wrote.
Nail techs are “neither schooled nor licensed to work in the presence of blood or to maintain a surgically sterile environment,” he wrote. In other words, it’s not exactly their fault that they’re working on customers with infected tools. Rather, it’s the misunderstanding of what constitutes true sterilization.
“With years of experience as a nail technician myself, I cannot say I’m confident that everyone is trained to handle situations that may involve blood or sterile environments,” says Lindy.
As we’ve mentioned, only an autoclave can completely sterilize equipment. Anything less than this gold standard of sterilization might leave some microorganisms behind. That’s how people get infections. The point is that “some infective microorganisms are easy to kill, some are not,” according to Spalding.
5. There are even cases of customers getting warts from certain nail salons!
Forget fungal infections. How would you like to battle warts on your feet after an unclean pedicure?
The uncomfortable truth is that warts are often caused by a viral infection. If equipment and the environment of a nail salon isn’t kept to the most rigid standards of cleanliness, wart viruses might be present. All that stands between you and a lifetime of bumpy feet is the slip of the tech’s hand—if you get a wart virus in an open wound, you’ll probably end up with the infection.
That’s not even the worst of it. Serious viral infections, including HIV and hepatitis C, can also lurk in dirty nail salons. Make sure you attend a high-quality, trusted facility—preferably one with an autoclave. We’re not saying every nail salon is a hive of infections, but use common sense and stick with a salon that you trust.
6. If your pedicurist offers to “shave” your calluses, say “no thanks.”
We understand the temptation. Callouses aren’t the most attractive thing on the human body, and they can even be a bit painful. But remember that those are there to protect your skin—essentially, your body developed them for a reason.
That’s not the only reason to decline an offer to shave your calluses, though. The fact is, the procedure is probably illegal in your state.
You see, callus-shaving requires a tool called a credo blade. Technically, credo blades can only be used in “medical procedures,” which most states forbid from being performed at nail salons.
Instead of trying to lose the calluses altogether, podiatrists recommend smoothing them over with a little light pumice stone treatment. There’s a chance your nail salon offers this service, but remember that pumice stones are notoriously hard to disinfect. You might want to travel with your own.
7. Have you shaved your legs recently? If so, skip the salon.
If you’ve picked up one thing from this list, we hope it’s that breaking the skin in an unsterile environment is a great way to pick up a nasty infection. That’s true whether you get a cut on the cuticle or a tiny opening on a hair follicle on your ankle.
When you shave your legs, you create tiny, invisible openings in your hair follicles. These little holes may be too small for us to see, but for viruses, bacteria, and fungi, they’re like huge, inviting archways. They’re basically an invitation to move in and set up shop. Jackie Sutera, DPM, a podiatrist based in New York, toldHuffPost that you should wait at least two days between shaving your legs and heading to the salon for a pedicure. Otherwise, Sutera said, “you can literally end up in a hospital.”
8. It’s up to you to guard your health and safety at a nail salon.
No nail tech wants to get a customer sick. Still, salons are capitalist enterprises, first and foremost. Owners want to make as much money as possible, and that doesn’t create a strong incentive to turn away customers—even if they have a clear fungal infection and shouldn’t be anywhere near a nail salon.
“Because the industry isn’t regulated often enough salon technicians often slack off,” Lindy says. “…It doesn’t take much to transfer a contagious infection or spread bacteria. One negligent technician can transfer [microorganisms] to all the tools in the salon, especially if they’re all using the same disinfectant and the bacteria is resistant”
The danger, Spalding wrote, is “the transmission of infection from one client to another.”
In other words, be on the lookout—and, for heaven’s sake, if you have a viral, bacterial, or fungal infection yourself, don’t go to the nail salon. Beauty can wait. After all, what is beauty without health?
It isn’t easy to be a doctor. There are literally infinite causes of any cluster of symptoms, and it’s your job to narrow that down to a single diagnosis. Odds are, you’re going to get it wrong every now and then. In fact, the National Academy of Medicine warns that “most people” will have at least one incorrect diagnosis in their lifetimes. More than 20 percent of the patients who visit the Mayo Clinic show up with the wrong diagnosis. The point is, doctors make mistakes. That’s no consolation when a physician tells you to start preparing for the end…and it turns out you’ve just got a cold. These patients of Reddit can tell you all about it. In fact, they will. We’ve edited these stories a bit for grammar, style, and readability. Here are some of the most terrifying tales of misdiagnosis from all of Reddit:
There’s one diagnosis that we all fear more than any other: cancer.
Of course, a doctor telling you it’s cancer doesn’t necessarily make it so. Here are a few folks who have stared down the “emperor of all maladies” only to find out they’re actually doing pretty alright…at least compared to having cancer. “Leukemia,” wrote a Reddit user, getting right to the point. “I spent two weeks continuously going to my doctor because I started feeling sick the night I graduated high school. They thought it was mono at first and did countless mono tests. They were all negative.”
“Then they told me it might be HIV. Thankfully that test was negative. After two weeks of no luck, my doctor put me in the hospital and said I might have leukemia. I was 18 and just graduated. I spent a lot of time crying.” “Anyway, I was there for a week. They did countless tests and finally diagnosed me with mono. I don’t know why it took so long, but that’s all I had. I still had to go to a cancer center and have tests done every two weeks for six months just to be sure.” That’s awful. Patients themselves aren’t the only ones who suffer, though. Another Reddit user describes what happened when his father got a false cancer diagnosis. “My dad came home and told me, with tears in his eyes, that he had been diagnosed with leukemia,” wrote MacFluffle. “He spent a few months thinking he was going to die before he went to another doctor and they told him it was type 1 diabetes.”
Of course, cancer is just as easy to miss as it is to misdiagnose.
Here are a few Reddit folks whose cancer looked like something else—at least to their doctors. “[The] dermatologist thought the spot on my face was acne and gave me acne medication,” wrote WickedCurious. “One year later the spot is bigger and not going away. Turned out to be basal cell skin cancer.”
In a lot of ways, women have it worse than men in the misdiagnosis department. Here’s one example of that dynamic: “My doctor told me I had PMS in response to my repeated visits about severe stomach and back pains, cramping, and of course issues with BMs,” wrote Moos_Mumsy. “[They] told me to take some Midol and to get over myself. Turns out it was colon cancer.” Yikes. But we saved the saddest story for last (in this section…oh, there’s much more to come). “Not me, my dad,” wrote juanangrybadger. “[He] was misdiagnosed with gallstones. They kept cancelling his operation—three times in total.” “When they finally did open him up they found nothing there. [It] was actually bowel cancer, and by the time they got round to treatment…they found it to be pretty much untreatable. He died that October, a day before my mum’s birthday.”
If you think you have appendicitis, well, you very well might be right.
Every year, 250,000 patients are treated for appendicitis. Something like 7 percent of Americans have the disease at any given time. It’s not rare. Still, doctors often have a hard time diagnosing the condition. Here’s all the anecdotal evidence you’ll ever need: “They said I was constipated,” wrote DialTone657. “My appendix almost bursted.” Yes, we’re aware that the past tense of “burst” is “burst.” We were just charmed by “bursted,” so we decided to leave it. That’s what you call editorial privilege. Anyway.
“Mine was that my pediatrician thought my ruptured appendix was the common cold,” wrote a Reddit user who’s since left the site. Doctors have called burst appendixes pretty much everything you can think of. “Mine thought my ruptured appendix was constipation,” wrote Zamochy. “After some x-rays, they sent me to the hospital where one of the doctors there thought I was faking it.” We do mean everything. “My appendix was perforated in two places and I almost died,” wrote gumiho-9th-tail. “[The doctors called it] ‘growing pains.’”
On the other hand, some patients just have weird appendixes.
It’s hard to fault the physician in the following case. ‘“It’s definitely not your appendix,’” wrote Ozyman_Dias, channeling a misguided doctor. “You’re describing pain in the wrong place.’” “One burst appendix and a heap of gangrene later, it was confirmed to me that my appendix lay in a non-standard place in my body.” Then there are those cases where doctors don’t diagnose anything; they just miss what’s right in front of them. “[The] pediatrician couldn’t find anything wrong with me,” wrote dottmatrix. “A day or two later, my appendix ruptured.”
Appendicitis is almost as hard on parents as it is on the patient herself.
Here’s an epic tale that will strike horror into the heart of every parent out there. “When my daughter was in second grade, she became very ill,” wrote JazzyJerome. “[I] made her an appointment for her doctor. [The doctor] examined her [and] told us there was a bad flu bug going around and that’s what she had. [She] gave us some meds and sent us home.” “Later that evening, my daughter wakes up screaming, saying her stomach hurts. [I] give her meds and put a warm compress on her stomach. She falls back to sleep for around 15 minutes and starts screaming again.” “[I] carry her to the bathroom and let her take warm bath. [I] dry her off and lay her back on the couch. She tells me she wants to lay in my bed instead. She starts walking down the hallway and collapsed, screaming in pain again. I try to pick her up and she screams louder.”
“When I finally get her to calm down, I call the nurse and explain what’s going on. Her doctor said it was the flu but she’s never reacted to one like this. The nurse informs me to rush her to the emergency room. We get there, still thinking it’s just a bad flu. After an hour of waiting, a doctor finally examines her. They tell us she needs surgery right away.”
“They told us her appendix ruptured.”
“The operation would take 45 minutes or so…she was in there for two hours. Her stool had been leaking in her body, and it was all over the intestines. They had to clean her insides.” “She spent one week in the hospital while nurses were teaching my wife and I how to give her antibiotics through a catheter. We finally took her home, where she spent two more weeks with a nurse coming to our house to clean her catheter.” “[That was] one of the scariest moments of being parent for me.” But we won’t end on a sad note. There’s a happy ending to this terrifying story.
“When she was able to go back to school, all her classmates came up to hug her and gave her a huge ‘We Missed You’ card, signed by all her classmates and faculty,” concluded JazzyJerome.
Apparently, infections and illnesses are tough to spot, at least for some general practitioners.
“I had H. pylori, which is bacteria on the gut, which overproduces acid,” wrote Hoyata21. “The stupid doc said I was depressed.” Helicobacter pylori is the main cause of stomach ulcers, and you definitely don’t want it taking over your stomach. Meanwhile, though, another Reddit user had an even worse infection. “[The] lab mistook MRSA for regular staph,” wrote creepyredditloaner. The Reddit user is talking about methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). It’s a form of staph bacteria that’s evolved to resist many of the antibiotics doctors rely on to control infection. So if a lab calls it regular staph, the health care team will blast it with useless medications while it thrives and damages bodily systems…which is exactly what happened in this case. “I almost lost my leg and kidneys multiple times,” creepyredditloaner continued. “[It] took over a year to heal completely. It’s been a little more than a year since it healed, and I still have ghost sensations of fluids running down my leg.”
Just like infections, diseases of the bowel can escape the notice of the physician on duty.
“I was 18 or 19, [a] freshman in college, and [I] started experiencing this soft pain in my stomach,” wrote another Reddit user. “I didn’t think much of it, but it got worse, so I went to the student clinic. Nothing came of it.”
“Things got much much worse. Severe vomiting, stomach pain, fatigue, and a couple other symptoms I don’t really want to mention. Turns out I had Crohn’s but it took about 5 months for a proper diagnosis even after CT scans and such. They just thought I had IBS. Nope, IBD.” That’s “inflammatory bowel syndrome” (IBS) and “inflammatory bowel disease” (IBD), for the record. Neither one is a picnic. Pivoting a bit, here’s a story about a common-enough illness that the doctors managed to misdiagnose as another familiar disease: “I had a doctor tell me I had a mild sinus infection, and it would clear up on it’s own,” wrote natalie_d101. “He told me I was being dramatic.” “Five days later, I black out in the bathroom of a Good Year Tire store. Turns out my mild sinus infection was pneumonia. That was a fun time.”
At least broken bones are pretty easy to spot, right? Ummmmm…
Not to alarm you, but a glance at an X-ray isn’t enough to diagnose a lot of broken bones. Based on the testimony of the Reddit community, doctors miss broken bones all the time. Here are just a few examples: “[The] doctor told me my X-ray was clear and that my foot was fine,” wrote eatsleeplaugh. “[It] turned out they had X-rayed the wrong part of my leg, and by the time they noticed, my heel-bone was shattered completely.”
“I had been walking 20-plus miles a day, thinking I was just imagining the pain. My foot was ridiculously swollen but I kept telling myself it was nothing because ‘X-ray was clear,’ and I could push through it with enough willpower. I ended up in a wheelchair for three months and a cast for four months.” Remember that your bone doesn’t have to be strictly “broken” to be terribly injured. This story makes the point: “A super apathetic nurse examined my foot X-rays after I ate s*** skateboarding and came to the conclusion that it wasn’t broken,” wrote pizzapede. “He said he was going to get some bandages and he’d be right back.” “About 10 minutes later, a doctor came around the corner and asked if the nurse talked to me, then informed me that I had actually put so much tension on a ligament or whatever that it peeled part of one of my bones off.” “If you wanna get technical, the nurse wasn’t wrong, but I haven’t been back to that hospital for obvious reasons.”
You’ve probably broken a bone at some point in your life.
Hopefully, you didn’t have an experience like this one: “When I was about 17 I broke my fibula in two places, and the resultant chunk was displaced a fair bit,” wrote Kobe_Wan_Ginobli. “[I] went to the doctor and he pressed up and down that bone real firmly, asking me if it hurt, and I told him it did. Then he told me it was just a bruise and told my dad I just felt pain more than most kids.”
“Two weeks later, I’m still getting a fair bit of aching pain along with severe pain when going down stairs or kicking the footy or even just putting weight through it the wrong way, and we have to go back and demand an X-ray. As soon I got the results I was sent to an orthopedic surgeon to see if surgery was necessary. Turned out to be borderline, so I opted for crutches instead, though it still pains me if I run long distance.” Or this one: “[The] doctor told my mother and I that my arm was simply hyperextended and that I’d be okay after a few weeks in a sling,” wrote wavinsnail. “A few weeks in a sling later and I couldn’t move my arm without extreme pain. Turns out that my elbow was broken and too far along the healing process to do much else. I spent eight weeks in a sling in sixth grade. That sure made me popular…”
Finally, here’s a story that boggles the mind…and the foot. “[I] went in with an obviously broken foot,” wrote ThanatosX23. “There was even a bone sticking through the skin, along with massive bruising and swelling and my foot being bent at a 90-degree angle where there’s no joint.” Okay, we’re convinced. “They X-rayed it, shoved the bone back in, put a Band-aid on, wrapped the ankle in an ace bandage, and tried telling me I had a sprained ankle,” continued ThanatosX23. “[I] got a second opinion. That moron said it was a heel spur. Finally, [I] got a third opinion from an orthopaedic surgeon who immediately said I’d broken six different bones and dislocated my big toe.” “There are too many quacks around here.”
Allergies are famously hard to identify, so it makes sense that doctors make mistakes wherever they pop up.
“My mom was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when I was young,” wrote enchantedrosemary. “She was given a few years to live, at most, and told that she would die a painful, terrible death.” “We packed up and moved across the state to be closer to family since my dad was going to be left alone with several small children (I was the oldest at 7) supposedly quite soon. I remember her getting frequent shots, lots of hefty doctor’s bills, her crying all the time, etc. Very traumatic.”
“Well, apparently her symptoms didn’t continue to escalate the way they expected, so they ran more tests and found out it was just a food allergy all along. To this day, I’m still super confused about what happened there…” If you’re not too traumatized by that last story, here’s another. “[I] ended up sick most of my childhood/teenage life, throwing up, horrible intestinal problems, cramps, just general illness,” wrote nightlymare. “They did every stomach test they could do and found nothing, so they pushed me onto a shrink thinking I had an eating disorder [or] was mentally depressed and making myself sick.” “Turns out I have severe allergies to animal proteins. The huge glasses of milk and pork chops, meatballs, and other meat/dairy-based items my mother was feeding me were making me ill. Cut the animal products out of my diet and am now 100 percent.” At least there was a happy ending to this story.
Some conditions are rare enough that doctors rarely even think to check for them.
“[I] had a bone cyst in my neck that was eating my spine, which had collapsed on my nerves connected to my arms, giving me the worst pain I’ve ever felt when I so much as moved,” wrote Blue-Rhapsody. “I was told this was because ‘I slept wrong’ and to do lots of stretches and exercise every day, which only made things worse. “On the bright side, now part of my spine is made of metal, and a few years later and many surgeries, I feel almost good as new.” We guess that’s a bright side? Let’s hear another. “My cholesteatoma was misdiagnosed as a bad ear infection,” wrote pianogod. This one requires a bit of explanation. Cholesteatoma is a noncancerous growth that pops up behind the eardrum. It’s a dangerous condition that can damage hearing and even paralyze muscles in the face. What cholesteatoma is not is a “bad ear infection.”
Here’s another scary one: “I have problems with low blood sugar and asked my new doctor to refer me to a nutritionist,” wrote Meelissa123. “Instead, she diagnosed me as depressed and tried to give me drugs. F that.” Our sentiments exactly. Moving right along: “I had a rash from a medication reaction, and [the doctor] told me it was bedbugs,” wrote one Redditor.
It seems that hepatitis C is a go-to diagnosis, regardless of the actual cause of symptoms.
“My doctor told me I had hepatitis C,” wrote cant_afford_gas. “Turns out taking Mucinex can make your liver appear pretty screwed up.” We couldn’t verify the visual effects of Mucinex on the liver, but we do know this: Other Reddit users also complained of false diagnoses of hepatitis C. “Heh, fun story about being told you have hepatitis C by mistake,” wrote Sweetwill62. “So when I was 16, I went to go donate blood. About two weeks later I get a letter in the mail saying I have Hep C, and at the time [that] wasn’t very likely in the slightest.”
Fun!
“Turns out I make a protein that looks like Hep C on the kind of tests they were using. That was not a fun trip to the doctor, to be told I shouldn’t have been sent that letter because they had already re-tested it and realized it was a false positive.” Oops, we guess? Here’s a particularly egregious misdagnosis: “Went to the doctor for a rash,” wrote cphoebney. “[The] nurse swore up and down it was something flesh-eating.” “It was dermatitis.” Finally, we’ll leave you with a misdiagnosis that led to a joyful event…more or less. “My mother went to the doctor with stomach pains and the doctor ran some tests and diagnosed it as gas or something and gave her some pills,” wrote amart591. “Turns out that was me, and I was almost accidentally [never born]. Thankfully she got a second opinion.” Get those second opinions, folks.
“When you don’t have health insurance, you’re constantly gauging just how severe your ailment is and whether it’s worth taking that trip to the hospital,” says Steve DiMatteo, an Ohio resident. Many people think accessible healthcare should be a given, but what happens when you can’t afford health insurance or choose to forgo paying upwards of $500-$1,000 each month for medical attention you may or may not need? “Those without health insurance often go without until they are in crisis,” says Kryss Shane, a dual-licensed social worker from Ohio. According to PBS, approximately 44 million people in the U.S. don’t have health insurance, and another 38 million have inadequate health insurance. In fact, research from 2017 shows that up to 11.3 percent of Americans can’t afford health insurance at all.
“This means that nearly one-third of Americans face each day without the security of knowing that, if and when they need it, medical care is available to them and their families,” the study reads. So what do they do?
For one, they don’t get sick.
They can’t afford to. Staying healthy becomes top priority when you don’t have insurance, says digital marketer Richard Kelleher, who lives in Arizona. “That means eating correctly, being in the gym every morning. It takes regiment and dedication” As a self-proclaimed “solopreneur” who prefers to invest in digital marketing education and training, Kelleher has known what it’s like to be uninsured for the past decade. But he notes there’s a downside. “Last year, I went to a dental school after visiting two dentists with a toothache. I ended the year spending $3,000 on dental work.”
According to one study, uninsured people are both less likely than those with coverage to use any health services in a given year and have lower expenditures for services on average. Dorma McGruder, who lives in the greater Detroit area, hasn’t had insurance since 2013 and has instead learned to manage her health issues by working on her weight and stress levels. Despite struggling with migraines, high blood pressure, astigmatism in both eyes, and much-needed dental work, she relies on a combination of natural remedies, prayer, and exercise. “Sometimes the pain is unbearable and my blood pressure shoots up to 190/110.” “I take something over the counter, lay down and rest,” she says. “But I have to keep going.”
They self-diagnose.
Google becomes the go-to for all things health. Those without insurance will often self-diagnose using resources they find on the internet, according to Shane, and this can cause unnecessary stress and anxiety. Back in 2012, in a piece for The Atlantic, writer Gary Sternreported that a staggering 97.5 million Americans used health websites to obtain information.
While this can seem perfectly convenient in the moment (when you’re unsure what that suspicious rash is), it poses significant risks in that you can’t really know for sure what that rash is unless it’s seen by a medical professional. Here are just a few dangers that arise from self-diagnosis: Unwarranted panic and worrying about worst outcomes (which goes back to the stress Shane mentioned). Trusting unreliable sources. Health blogs written by unqualified advice-givers don’t equate to a doctor that knows your medical history. Dangerous self-medicating, aka using products with unforeseen side effects. Experts advise instead to try alternatives like 24-hour nurse hotlines, where you can discuss symptoms and whether it’s urgent for you to be seen at a clinic.
They take their health issues abroad.
“I travel internationally often and get all my work done overseas in countries that have better healthcare than where I live in Seattle—and is only 20 percent of what it would cost in the U.S.,” says Alex, who prefers to be identified by his first name only. He goes to Bangkok to get his teeth deep cleaned annually and receives his regular cleaning when he’s in Vietnam or Korea. This form of medical tourism, where people live in one country and travel to another to receive medical, dental, and surgical care, is nothing new. In fact, there’s a whole association devoted to it, and that association says Americans can enjoy a 90 percent cost savings if they opt to receive healthcare abroad. As of this year, Nian Hu of INSIDERreports that more people than ever are ditching U.S. healthcare in favor of traveling to other countries for medical procedures that are more affordable. “Compared to the rest of the world, people in the US pay much higher prices for medical services such as hospitalization, doctors’ visits, and prescription medication,” Hu writes, pointing to a 2015 report that found 150,000 to 320,000 Americans travel abroad every year to receive healthcare. While the pros are advantageous for people living with chronic illnesses and who can budget in a yearly trip, what about those who don’t travel abroad for work and can’t afford a quick flight out of town?
Fortunately, there are a growing number of assistance programs for those without insurance or who need help paying their premiums. Below are just a few to look into: CoverageforAll.org offers a state-by-state directory answering all of your insurance-related questions and information on eligibility for programs based on the federal poverty level. Free clinics are an option for those who don’t have insurance or have limited healthcare coverage. Check out this handy list of free clinics provided by the United States Department of Health and Human Resources. BenefitsCheckup.org and Eldercare.gov are resources for older Americans without insurance. They can help them explore their long-term care benefits and assistance options for food and nutrition.
They become over-the-counter connoisseurs.
Shane points out that those who do seek healthcare treatment typically go to a drugstore or grocery store clinic for their medical needs. This is true for Alex, who refuses to buy insurance through his employer. He says he’ll try to tough it out when he gets sick. “I take over the counter meds, and usually it goes away within a few days.” “If I do need to visit a doctor, I will usually pay out of pocket, and that is still less than what I would have paid with insurance.”
According to an article published in the Journal of Bioanalysis and Biomedicine, many older adults rely on self-management of medications to treat common medical conditions such as the common cold, pain, diarrhea, and constipation. And while using over-the-counter meds have their advantages, they’re also associated with risks of misdiagnosis, excessive drug dosage, prolonged duration of use, and unknown drug interactions. If you can see a doctor and do get a prescription, trying to get a prescription filled without insurance can be a daunting task, but it’s not impossible. The good folks at USA Today compiled this helpful list of options including alternatives to paying out of pocket, including an overview of discount and pharmaceutical assistance program that can save you up to 85 percent on the prescriptions you need.
They get by with a little help from their friends.
“When you’re single and under a certain age, you don’t think about health issues until ‘it’ happens,” says Los Angeles resident Nicholas Christensen. And by “it,” he means a big enough health scare.
In his case, it was flu-like symptoms that gradually appeared in a 12-hour period which became monumentally worse during a short flight home. “I was doubled over with stomach cramps, feeling nauseous, gassy, bloated, and literally started to morph into a white walker from the Game of Thrones.” All kidding aside, it was not looking good. “I went to urgent care, which is advertised as an ‘affordable alternative’ to emergency rooms.” He assumed the medical attention would be within his budget since he had missed the open enrollment period for health insurance, but he was wrong. While the doctor in attendance wanted to admit him to the emergency room, Christensen resisted. “After getting a rough estimate of the urgent care treatment, which came with sticker shock, I decided to call my high school friend who is a third-year resident in NYC.” Together, they determined that his symptoms were most likely a virus or bacterial infection caused by swimming in stagnant lake water. “Sometimes the more affordable option is finding a doctor friend or google your symptoms—free of charge!”
While somewhat extreme, Christensen’s concerns are not exactly unfounded. According to Maureen Groppe of USA Today, while emergency departments are required by law to stabilize and treat anyone entering their doors regardless of their ability to pay, that doesn’t mean the uninsured can get treatment for any old ailment. “It also doesn’t mean that hospitals won’t try to bill someone without insurance. And the bill they send will be higher than for an insured patient because there’s no carrier to negotiate lower prices,” she writes.
Groppe points to one 2016 study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, which found that someone who goes into the hospital without insurance doubles their chances of filing for bankruptcy over the next four years. While opting out of the ER is certainly more affordable, it’s also a slippery health slope that can have dire consequences. Luckily, WebMD offers five tips to consider for ER visits, the top one being, “Don’t assume it’s the right place for you (if it’s not broken, burnt, or cut deeply, you’re better off at urgent care).” In other words, if your symptoms are bad enough to think your health will be in danger if you don’t get care right away, the ER is probably the right place for you.
They seek help online.
Approximately 56 percent of American adults with a mental illness do not receive treatment, according to an article by Nicole Spector for NBC News. And in many cases, it’s the cost of therapy and prescription drugs that deters people from getting the help they need. So what’s a person to do? According to Shane, those who need mental healthcare often use social media to request support when they feel lonely, or seek out online or texting therapists in an attempt to get care.
Sites like BetterHelp offer online counseling as a more affordable and convenient way to seek mental health support, but it’s also come under scrutiny related to ethical questions regarding privacy and safety challenges. In her NBC article, Spector recommends checking out other resources such as private therapists who will work on a sliding fee scale (sometimes offering their services for as low as $10 an hour), finding out whether you are eligible for Medicaid, or even turning to local training institutes that sometimes provide patients with free sessions for up to two years.
They use HealthShare plans.
“I am very healthy physically and think it is a waste to spend $500 to $1,000 a month on health insurance when there is very little chance of something happening,” notes 27-year-old Stacy Caprio in Boston. “And I’m self-employed, so I would have to cover the whole cost myself as opposed to being partially reimbursed by an employer.” Caprio currently has a HealthShare plan that fulfills the Affordable Care Act (ACA)requirement (otherwise known as Obamacare) but is also, according to her, “low cost and low coverage.” As of 2016, due to the rise in healthcare costs, health sharing memberships have more than doubled—going from about 200,000 to about 530,000 participants annually.
While attractive because of their low monthly costs, it’s important to note that these plans are cooperatives (often faith-based) and do not equal health insurance—meaning consumers have very few legal protections. “For me right now, it is okay, because I am young and healthy,” explains Caprio, “but it is a risk that I am living with day to day.”
They try to maintain a positive mindset.
They have to. “I have more good days than bad by using a lot of prayer and mental discipline,” says 61-year-old McGruder. She says it’s scary being unemployed and wondering about her health future at this age. “It’s embarrassing because I have never been in this place before,” she adds. “I have to get healthier so I don’t end up in a facility with no insurance to cover basic needs.” Ultimately, maintaining a positive mindset makes her work harder to be healthier and less dependent on medicine. “I have to. I can’t get any.”
More Than Positivity
Overall, staying healthy and positive can only take you so far when you’re in the midst of an unexpected health scare (appendicitis comes to mind).
Taking the time to research your options and learn what resources are available can help you better prepare and avoid putting your life at risk. Remember, even some coverage is better than none at all.