Tag: body

Sweat

Why Do We Get Side Stitches? (And 8 Other Health And Fitness Mysteries Solved)

Post author By Jennifer Purdie
Post date December 14, 2017

We all have a natural curiosity about life’s strange health and questions. Do bananas really prevent muscle cramps? What the heck are hiccups? Sometimes, we turn to the internet for responses, but with that, we often find a mix of information. It would be nice to know the real answers.

To end the mystery for at least a few of these enigmatic health and fitness questions, we found experts to supply authoritative answers.

Are there really such things as aphrodisiac foods?

According to the University of California, Berkeley’s evidence based wellness publication Berkeley Wellness, the idea of specific foods making you feel extra tingly inside dates back centuries. Newly married couples used to drink fermented honey in water during the first month of marriage, which they believed upped their libido.

The thing is, this brew’s intoxicating effect is likely what led to this uptick in passion.

The Berkeley Wellness entry, citing a scientific literature review published in the journal Sexual Medicine Reviews, reported that “there’s limited or no good research to indicate that any food (or supplement) acts as an aphrodisiac.”

But Jeanette Kimszal, a registered dietitian nutritionist for EduPlated, an online nutrition coaching platform, says not to discount the mind, as it is a powerful thing.

“If you think these foods may boost your sex drive, they may actually work,” she says. She lists foods that people do say get them going: oysters, chili peppers, chocolate, avocado, watermelon, asparagus, pumpkin seeds and celery.

Hey, why not go ahead and see if they work?

Why am I told to eat a banana when my muscles cramp?

In a study published in the journal Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology, researchers found that eating bananas helped reduce exercise-induced muscle cramps. But why?

It’s due to bananas’ potassium level, which is an important electrolyte found in this fruit.

“Muscle cramping can be triggered by electrolyte imbalances,” says Alix Turoff, a registered dietitian nutritionist and certified personal trainer. “When potassium levels are low, it can cause the muscle to spasm.”

She does stress that eating a banana when you cramp will not automatically alleviate the pain, so you should use them on a preventive level.

Why do I urinate so much at night?

According to the National Association for Continence (NAFC), one in three adults over the age of 30 need to go to the bathroom at least twice each night. The majority of these adults are over age 60, but it can happen to anyone at any age.

According to Sasha M. Davidson, MD, this is called nocturia and can happen for a multitude of reasons, including “age; gender; men can have benign prostatic hyperplasia, which is an enlarged prostate gland, and women can have an overactive bladder; medication; diabetes, [because] when you have too much glucose, your body draws excess water; congestive heart failure, [because] when you lie down, you have fluid sitting in your blood vessels, causing your bladder to fill quickly; and sleep disturbances such as sleep apnea or restless leg syndrome.”

If you do face an excessive amount of trips to the bathroom every night, the NAFC recommends addressing the issue now rather than waiting until you get older, because the problem is undoubtedly going to get worse.

You should make a doctor’s appointment and show up armed with information, the NAFC urges. Keep a hydration diary and know what medications you take. Even bringing in the medi
cation bottles can help make the appointment run smoothly, especially if the doctor is not your primary care physician.

Why do my joints hurt before it rains?

No one is truly sure why some people feel joint pain before a rainstorm—and yes, this actually happens—but an accepted theory is that their discomfort is due to low barometric pressure that occurs when it rains.

“The lower atmospheric pressure results in relative higher pressure inside one’s joint space. The joint space is a closed compartment, so it is responsive to changes in the surrounding pressure,” says Edna Ma, MD. She says that people with arthritis are especially sensitive to this pressure change because of the exposed nerve endings inside their joint space.

Why do we get hiccups?

When we take a regular breath, our diaphragm contracts and pulls air into our lungs, and when we breathe out, the diaphragm relaxes and air gets pushed out.

But sometimes, according to Samuel Hetz, MD, the diaphragm becomes irritated and contracts very quickly, “often due to drinking or eating too much or too quickly,” he says.

“This spasm,” reads the WebMD overview of hiccups, “causes an intake of breath that is suddenly stopped by the closure of the vocal cords (glottis). This closure causes the characteristic “hiccup” sound.

But in the vast majority of cases, you shouldn’t worry about them: “Hiccups are usually nothing more than an annoyance, and usually resolve within minutes,” says Hetz.

“However, if hiccups last for a longer period of time or become more frequent, it may be a sign of any underlying serious condition,” he says, which can range from problems of the central nervous system to issues of mental health.

Why does my urine smell after I eat asparagus?

Asparagus: the food that comes back to haunt you. You spend the effort cooking it and relishing in how it is both healthy and delicious, but then you pay for the food consumption come bathroom time. Why?

“Asparagus makes our urine smell due to the asparagusic acid found in this vegetable,” says Kimszal, our trusty dietitian. “When we digest asparagus, it breaks down into sulfur-containing chemicals that produce the pungent, weird smelling odor.”

You might want to tough it out, however. Asparagus is a versatile, low-calorie, nutrient packed food that reduces the risk of obesity, heart disease, and some cancers, reports Medical News Today.

What are the differences between bottled water brands?

Per the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), bottled water is water sealed in bottles that contains no added ingredients. It can, however, “contain a safe and suitable antimicrobial agent” like fluoride, the administration says. The differences between bottle water brands, it turns out, relate to how the water is acquired.

The FDA classifies bottled water as follows:

Well water, which comes from a hole drilled or bored in the ground that taps into an aquifer, which is a body of saturated rock in which water can easily move.
Artesian well water. This water is collected from a well that taps an aquifer—and that aquifer is under pressure from layers of rock above it. Brands include Voss, Fiji Water, and Hawaii.
Mineral water. This water comes from an underground source containing at least 250 parts-per-million total dissolved solids. No minerals can be added later. Brands include Indigo H20 and Gerolsteiner.
Spring water. Collected at the spring or through a borehole, this water comes from an underground that carries water to the surface naturally. Brands include Evian and Crystal Geyers.

You will also find other types of water on the market such as SmartWater, which has added electrolytes (remember what bananas do for you?), and sparkling water, which “typically starts as spring water which is then carbonated by adding carbon dioxide. Many sparkling waters come in flavored varieties which can be either natural or artificial,” says Turoff, our other trusty dietitian.

Why do you feel pain in your side when running or cycling?

“Side stitches” are common among runners and cyclists alike. They hurt like crazy, and they most often occur on the left side or center of the chest.

Rushi Shahiwala, personal trainer and orthopedic clinical specialist of the NY Sports Science Lab, says side stitches stem from improper breathing. Most cyclists “use a shallow breathing technique to move quickly, which not only harms themselves for the long term, but also allows less oxygen into their body.”

Side stitches also occur when fatigue sets in and cyclists begin slouching, putting them “in a closed rib position and does not allow the diaphragm to move properly,” Shahiwala says.

In addition, Shahiwala states that side stitches can come from a poor warm ups, dehydration, eating and drinking too much, and eating gaseous
foods.

What is a runner’s high?

“Experienced runners often revel in a euphoric state called the runner’s high,” says Brady Irwin, owner and coach at Science of Speed, a professional endurance coaching organization. “It is a feeling that often makes us feel super human and even unstoppable. It is also a feeling that, once you experience it, you want to be able to replicate it over and over again.”

For decades, researchers always thought a runner’s high was related to endorphin releases, but it turns out that the release of endocannabinoids might play a roll as well. A 2015 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, suggests a runner’s high mirrors the same system involved in, well, an actual, physical high.

If you are not a runner, you might want to think again: “With these chemicals in the body, runners often feel that they are outside of their own bodies, and can run faster and farther than what they are typically capable,” says Irwin.

Tags 50036846, body, hemingway

Wellbeing

There's A Scientific Explanation For That Old Floating Arm Trick (And Other Body "Magic" Tricks)

Post author By HealthyWay Staff Writer
Post date December 13, 2017

Not all magic is supernatural.

In fact some of the best magic tricks are downright…natural.

Psychology has a long tradition of exploiting such unusual experiences to explain the experience itself.

Take, for instance, one famous stunt that many of us tried as a kid: the floating finger sausage illusion (or, if you happened to grow up in Europe, the “frankfurter illusion”).

If that doesn’t immediately ring a bell, here’s how it goes: First, stand or sit still. Stretch your arms straight out in front of you, like you’re a zombie. Then, point your index fingers toward each other at eye-level a few inches apart while focusing your vision toward the distance beyond your fingers. Finally, move the two fingers slowly toward each other. If you’re doing it right, you should start to see what appears to be a floating third finger between the two real ones. Eerie, right?

The finger sausage trick is one of the simplest and best-understood body magic tricks.

Of course, as an adult, this trick may be a bit less mind-blowing than it was as a kid. What remains pretty interesting, though, is how this trick—and other body illusions, which we’ll get into presently—actually work. Turns out there’s a lot to learn about our bodies and minds from these silly parlor tricks!

Just ask Arko Ghosh, a neurologist who studies these sorts of things.

“Psychology has a long tradition of exploiting such unusual experiences to explain the experience itself,” Ghosh tells HealthyWay.

We’ll get deeper into his studies soon, but first, don’t you want to know what’s going on with that frankfurter illusion?

The explanation for the finger sausage trick is deceptively simple.

Humans, like lots of other creatures, including fish, birds, reptiles, and other mammals, have binocular vision—that is, we have two eyes. Because those two eyes are positioned slightly apart from one another, each gets a mostly overlapping but ever-so-slightly different view of what’s in front of them.

Our brains then take the information from both eyes and create a sort of single composite image from a middle point between them. Here’s the crazy thing: Neither eye is seeing that middle point exactly. It’s sort of imaginary.

This cyclopean image allows the brain to perceive depth by processing the subtle differences between the two images. That’s called a “retinal disparity.” But, if an object is closer to your face than the exact point on which your eyes are focused, your brain can’t reconcile the two images.

Instead of a single object, you’ll see two strangely transparent-looking blobs. Don’t believe us? Try focusing on a distant point and holding a single finger in front of your face. You’ll start seeing double.

When you do the finger sausage trick, parts of the two images—the tips of your fingers, in this case—overlap. Your brain processes that bit as though it is its own three-dimensional object. There’s that “sausage” for you.

Now, you might be thinking to yourself, “Wow, that’s a really complicated explanation.” In reality, though, the finger sausage trick is one of the simplest and best-understood body magic tricks.

You see, this weird phenomenon only involves one of our senses: sight.

Lots of other perception-based novelties you may have tried as a kid involve multiple senses and other, even-less-clearly understood mental and physical phenomena. And, as it turns out, the brain combines signals from different senses in some weird and—we’ll say it—magical ways.

In some cases, scientists are still trying to understand what exactly is going on during these tricks.

Ghosh and his colleagues, John Rothwell and Patrick Haggard, used another popular bit of body magic—the “floating arm trick,” known in neurological circles as “Kohnstamm’s phenomenon”—to try to better understand how our brains control our bodies.

For those who somehow made it this far in life without being introduced to the floating arm trick, here’s how it goes: You simply stand in a doorway and place the back of your hands against the frame. Then push as hard as you can against the door frame for 30 seconds straight.

When you step away from the doorway, if you relax your arms, they’ll rise on their own, like they’re tied to giant invisible helium balloons. This bizarre phenomenon occurs when, after prolonged voluntary contractions of the muscles in the arm (specifically the deltoid and supraspinatus), the brain continues to send an involuntary signal to those muscles.

We know that much. What we don’t know, exactly, is why this occurs.

The trio of neurologists set out to to understand what’s going on in our brains during this phenomenon. Specifically, they wanted to know what happens when a subject resists this floating sensation and forces the affected arm to remain at their side.

Ghosh and colleagues discovered that, contrary to what many in the field had previously believed, the brain was not sending out two separate signals, one voluntary and one involuntary, the stronger of which prevailed. Rather, the voluntary signal to keep the arm stationary was completely shutting down the part of the brain that sends the involuntary signal to raise the arm.

In another interesting twist, the researchers also observed that subjects who voluntarily inhibited the arm’s upward movement felt like they were resisting something, like it was an extra effort to hold the arm down.

The most important finding of the study was that voluntary inhibition of movements may be totally different from the absence of voluntary motor commands. In other words, consciously trying not to move probably isn’t the same thing as not trying to move.

That insight could potentially have important implications for treating people with medical conditions that cause involuntary movements—for instance, the tremors experienced by people with Parkinson’s disease.

We wanted to know how else we could play with our own perception, so we asked Ghosh about other weird things like that floating arm.

He directed us to another, lesser-known body magic trick.

“My favorite is perhaps the Pinocchio illusion,” he says. Also known as the “phantom nose illusion,” Ghosh explains that this one does “need some more equipment to go along, unlike the floating arm trick.”

It really feels like your nose is getting longer.

Named and first demonstrated in 1988 by James R. Lackner at Brandeis University, this trick starts with a blindfolded subject, who is instructed to touch their nose with the tip of their fingers. While the subject touches their nose, a vibration is applied to their bicep. This causes a weird sensation, as if the subject is extending the arm.

When the brain combines these signals—the tactile sensations from the nose and arm along with the muscle sensation from the bicep—it gives the subject the sensation that their nose is growing.

As cognitive neuroscientist H. Henrik Ehrsson told The New York Times, when the process is performed on subjects, “they’re very surprised and shocked…It really feels like your nose is getting longer. You start giggling.”

You probably want to try it yourself, right? Well, don’t despair if you don’t have a bicep-vibrating machine in your home. There’s an easy way to create a similar sensation without any special equipment.

Here’s a kind of home version of the Pinocchio illusion.

It’s not quite the same, but it operates on the same neurological principles, so we’re going to call it close enough.

Like the original, this version of the trick will require a blindfold. Unlike the original, you’ll need two chairs and a person you’re very comfortable with (and who is very comfortable with you). First, you’ll need to sit down in one of the chairs. Next, the other person will place the second chair facing the same direction, as close as possible in front of you and sit down in it. Put the blindfold on.

Now, here’s the reason you need to choose someone you’re comfortable with: The next step is for you to use one hand to stroke the nose of the person in front of you, and the other to make the same motions on your own nose. After a while, there’s a good chance that you’ll begin to feel as though the other person’s nose is your own. It’s not quite the Pinocchio illusion, but it’ll do in a pinch.

Ehrsson used the the mental phenomenon behind the Pinocchio illusion to learn about self-perception of the body, which is way deeper than a simple magic trick.

By using a device similar to the one Lackner used on the subject’s bicep, Ehrsson was able to make subjects of his study feel as though their waists were getting smaller. The blindfolded participants were were instructed to place their hands on their waists, and the device was used to stimulate a tendon in the wrist that created the sensation the hands were moving inward.

At the same time, an M.R.I scanner was used to monitor brain activity, which Ehrsson and fellow scientists used to map the parts of the brain involved in body image.

“We know about touch, pain, and position,” Ehrsson told The New York Times. “But the sense of size of body parts has been a mystery. There are no receptors in the skin or muscle that tell the brain the size of body parts, so the brain has to figure it out by comparing signals.”

We don’t know if it’s the cause of anorexia but it’s clearly part of the problem.

According to Ehrsson, this research could help scientists to understand disorders like anorexia, which cause people to wrongly estimate their own size.

“We don’t know if it’s the cause of anorexia,” he said, “but it’s clearly part of the problem.”

While many people might write these illusions off as children’s novelties, researchers like Ghosh and Ehrsson are delving deeper, using them to understand how the human body and mind interact with one another.

Hopefully, that expanded understanding can be used to make people’s lives better. Now that would be real magic.

Tags 50037431, body, hemingway

Sweat

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

Post author By Tara Kulash
Post date December 5, 2017

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

And it happened to Donna Penner.

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

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

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

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

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

Then you wake up.

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

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

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

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

So how long do episodes of accidental awareness really last?

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

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

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

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

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

The right dose of anesthesia is just enough.

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

There are a few other common causes of accidental awareness.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tags 50037316, body, hemingway

Sweat

Beauty Parlor Stroke Is Real: Should We Be Worried?

Post author By HealthyWay Staff Writer
Post date November 30, 2017

A simple trip to the salon can turn suddenly tragic. It happened to Elizabeth Smith.

How could that happen to me?

When Smith, 49, checked in at the Blowbunny: Blow Dry & Hair Extension Bar in San Diego in December 2013, she didn’t expect to leave with anything more serious than some extra luster and body in her hair. Instead, she alleges, she went home with an invisible injury that would eventually lead to a serious health condition: ischemic stroke, in which blood supply to the brain is cut off.

Brain cells can only live for a few minutes without life-giving oxygen, so strokes are extremely dangerous.
But what about a trip to the salon could possibly lead to such dire outcomes? Well, if you’ve visited a beauty salon, you know that most trips include a luxurious shampooing. This can be the most relaxing part of the experience: Your beautician tilts your head back into a deep sink to massage expensive-smelling unguents into your scalp. Then they rinse with deliciously hot water. It’s like a dream.

For Smith, though, that dream quickly turned into a nightmare.

A few days after her appointment, she noticed something strange. Her arms and legs felt somehow off, weaker and less responsive than usual. These alarming symptoms disappeared just as quickly as they’d arrived and Smith put them out of her mind.
Fast forward about a week. As if out of nowhere, Smith suffered a massive stroke.
“Initially, I couldn’t walk at all. It hit both sides of my body but more my left. I couldn’t move my left arm at all,” Smith told CBS Los Angeles. “It was just utter disbelief. How could that happen to me?”

The mother of two is still dealing with complications from that event. Four years later, Smith has difficulty walking, loss of motor skills, dizziness, and impaired vision. Even worse, Smith still has a blood clot in her brain, she said. At any moment, the clot could dislodge, travel through her blood vessels, block the flow of blood to a certain region of her brain, and even take her life.
Smith traces the entire medical disaster back to that fateful day at the salon. More precisely, she traces it back to the sink and the shampoo job. Smith is suing Blowbunny for damages and to help cover the cost of her medical bills.

What happened?

While the type of stroke Smith had isn’t rare (ischemic strokes account for 87 percent all of stroke cases), the way in which it occurred is incredibly uncommon—but not at all unheard of. Budding neurologists are familiar with the link between beauty salons and strokes. In fact, the condition is familiar enough in medical circles to be given its own name: beauty parlor stroke syndrome.

No one really knows what the mechanism is. But hyperextension or injury are the causes given by the medical dogma.

The terrifying condition arises when visitors to the salon lean their heads back into the wash basin for the shampoo. If they tilt their heads too far, they can hyperextend the neck—and that can lead to a horrifying injury that victims might not notice until it’s too late.

Vascular surgeon Charles Dinerstein explains that this type of stroke “is a result of an injury to the vertebral artery in which a portion of the three-layered wall become partially detached forming a flap. The flap is pushed by the blood flow against the opposite wall (like a valve) and cause[s] blood flow to stop.
“This is termed a dissection because of the separation of the artery wall. In other instances, the injury to the inner lining of the artery provides an area for a small clot to form which then travels further downstream into the brain,” he tells HealthyWay.
“These vessels supply the back of the brain so that symptoms of a stroke are not the classic problems with speech or movement of one side or another,” Dinerstein says. “It can impact balance and coordination primarily, speech in making it confusing or garbled, and coordination.”
These symptoms would be tragically familiar to Smith and the women who, like her, have experienced strokes following trips to the salon. And as if dizziness and balance problems weren’t enough, there’s always the possibility of clots remaining in the brain, as in Smith’s case.

However, before you swear off a shampoo at the salon entirely, be aware that there are usually factors well beyond hyperextension of the neck at play when someone experiences a stroke after visiting the salon, Dinerstein tells us.
The surgeon explains that, while the assumed mechanism of the stroke is hyperextension of the neck, “you would have to be bending the neck back a lot” to cause the injury that leads to stroke.
The more likely scenario is “a combination of some weakness of the wall along with hyperextension. No one really knows what the mechanism is. But hyperextension or injury are the causes given by the medical dogma,” Dinerstein says.

Examining the factors that lead to stroke—beyond beauty parlor visits.

It’s not just beauty parlor stroke you should be aware of. It’s important to be know the things that increase your chances of having a stroke of any kind.
Remember that, if you’re at risk for a having a stroke, your visit to the salon is probably not going to be the deciding factor. We’re not sure if this is comforting or just makes things worse, but the risk factors for stroke go way beyond salon visits.

Many common health problems increase your risk of having a stroke. And they are cumulative. That is, the more risk factors you have, the greater your chance of having a stroke becomes.
High blood pressure is the biggest contributing factor for most strokes. Luckily, it’s also one of the more controllable medical issues in the diagnostic guides. Having regular checkups, changing your diet, quitting smoking, or taking prescribed medication can all help keep your blood pressure under control. Heck, why not try all of them?
Diabetes, obesity, and heart disease are also major risk factors for stroke. Again, patients can usually control these things through lifestyle changes and/or medication.
But there are also plenty of things that raise your risk of stroke that you can’t control at all, like ethnicity, sex, and age.

Black, Alaskan Native, and Native American adults are at a higher risk of stroke than those who are Asian American, white, or Hispanic. Younger men are more likely to suffer from strokes, but women are more likely to die from having one.
Over ethnicity and sex, though, age is the great equalizer when it comes to stroke: The older you grow, the higher your chances of stroke tend to become.

If you have one or many of these risk factors, it’s important to know the signs and symptoms of a stroke.

Since stroke victims are racing against the clock to restore blood supply before their brain cells start dying, time is of the essence. Immediate medical attention is crucial, so watch out for the most common symptoms of the health event.

Time is brain tissue.

The American Stroke Association has a great acronym for recognizing these symptoms: FAST (F: face drooping, A: arm weakness, S: speech difficulty, T: time to call 9-1-1).

If you or a loved one begins showing any of these signs, “you should seek medical attention in an emergency room immediately,” says Dinerstein. “The statement for strokes is that ‘time is brain tissue’, so the sooner it can be diagnosed the sooner measures can be taken to protect the brain and reverse injury.”

So should you be worried about beauty parlor stroke syndrome in particular?

“Short answer—no,” Dinerstein tells HealthyWay.

It is exceedingly rare.

Yes, there are multiple reported cases of beauty parlor stroke, but it’s not something you should lose sleep over, not even if you’re a frequent salon customer, the surgeon says.
“It is exceedingly rare,” he explains. “The estimated incidence of [beauty parlor stroke syndrome is] 1 to 1.5 [out of] 100,000 people, or 0.000015 percent. Or to put another way, you are 20 times more likely to be struck by lightning than experience this injury,” says Dinerstein.

Again, we’re not sure this is any comfort, but plenty of everyday activities and movements might cause you to have an ischemic stroke. That’s why it’s difficult to have a 100 percent positive diagnosis that a stroke was caused by a trip to the salon.
It’s a little scary, but we can do some serious damage to our bodies without even trying. Playing sports, holding a cell phone between your shoulder and ear, whiplash, or even sneezing wrong can create an arterial tear. If you want to reduce your risk to zero, you’d probably have to stop moving entirely.
Because beauty parlor stroke specifically is so rare, then, there’s nothing you need to do to prevent it from happening to you. There are other common and more dangerous activities people participate in on a daily basis. For instance, it appears that chiropractors are responsible for many more of these injuries than hairdressers.

Dinerstein tells HealthyWay that neck injuries from chiropractic work are much more common than beauty parlor stroke syndrome, and can also have serious consequences.
“There is a larger literature on injuries to the vertebral artery due to chiropractic manipulation so that significant hyperextension of the neck and manipulation should be avoided,” Dinerstein says.
The point is that, yes, beauty parlor stroke can happen. But the chances are so slim that you probably shouldn’t let it keep you out of the salon when you really want a nice blowout.

Tags 50037216, body, hemingway

Sweat

Franchise Gyms Want Their Members To Fail. Here's How To Fight Back.

Post author By Jennifer Purdie
Post date November 21, 2017

The “Grand Opening” sign lures you inside, and the fit, effervescent membership specialist appears eager to speak with you about joining this gym. She touts the group classes inclusive of the fee, and she recommends the gym’s state-of-the-art cardio equipment.

“You can watch television while you work out,” she says, and she gestures behind her to the rows of treadmills with small screens attached.

It all sounds enticing: You could burn calories while you watch HGTV? This is multitasking at its finest—a triumphant life win-win. Spending the money for the gym membership will feel worth it because you’re investing in your health, AND you can finally quit cable. This makes the gym cost a wash, really.

You happily sign the dotted line and start coming to the gym a few times a week after work, but soon you notice that customer service falls flat. Broken machines never get fixed, and the ones that do work are always in use. On top of that, the bathroom never has any paper towels to dry your hands. Your once-enthused, gym-loving spirit dies out, and you stop going. Sound familiar?

You are not alone. According to Statistic Brain, an organization providing statistics to business markets, 67 percent of people with gym memberships never use them, and the average individual amount of gym membership money each month that goes to waste due to underutilization is $39.

Franchise gyms actually want it this way—they want to keep you out of the gym. In fact, this remains a heavy part of their well-established business model: Gyms set up locations near cities with their target demographic, they accept everyone who enters through the door, and they push hard sales. Most require a membership fee—certain gyms ask for a 12-month contract and others accept month-to-month contracts—but usually at a premium price.

Once you join, they rarely speak to you again, expect you to reach gym boredom and stop going, and seldom bother keeping equipment up to date. They desire your money, but do not desire you to walk through the front door.

“Emptiness equals success,” reads the description an episode of NPR’s Planet Money podcast. In the episode, reporters found a gym with a 300-person capacity and a 6,000-person-long list of members. Half of those members never showed up.

You should not let this traditional franchise gym model turn you off. Although gym owners might actively work against you, you can combat such maneuvers by following the helpful advice of experts.

Get yourself to the gym.

Rather than paying for a gym you do not attend, you can push yourself to go.

Wyatt Fisher, PsyD, a licensed psychologist from Boulder, Colorado, offers the following tips, most of which deal with accountability:

Get a trainer. It can feel intimidating to not know how to work out, but hiring a trainer can be motivating. In addition, a personal trainer makes you liable; as someone expects you to show up at a specific time. Plus, you’re spending extra money you do not want to waste, on top of the gym membership fee.
Find a workout buddy. Developing a workout routine with a friend can hold both of you responsible and provide nice encouragement as well.
Join a workout class. If you sign up for a class, you might feel more likely to go, especially if you develop relationships with other people attending.

You can also look for organizations that work toward lessening gym stagnation. For example, TaskTwins helps people change habits by harnessing the power of accountability partners.

The company pairs two accountability partners that share the same goal, e.g., losing we
ight, and sends e-mails with valuable information on how to optimize their workout experience. They also provide motivation along the way by sending pictures and videos.

How to Change Your Habits

Gyms expect you to fall back into your old habits of never going. According to the International Health, Racquet & Sports Association, only 44 percent of members use the gym at least 100 times a year—people tend to lose interest over time. To fall into that 44 percent, you need to change old habits, or you risk throwing your gym fee away.

Psychologist and sports/exercise enthusiast Eamonn Leaver says all habits form around a basic neurological loop: cue —> routine —> reward.

“Some cue triggers a set of behaviors (a routine), which leads to some reward,” he says. “When this loop is completed enough times, eventually the routine is done without thinking whenever the cue is encountered (whether the reward is present or not), and thus a habit is formed. Forming or changing any habit is about conscious awareness of, and purposeful action around, these three elements.”

He recommends following these steps to reverse habits:

Define your routine. This could sound like “put on my gym clothes and travel to the gym.” This is a specific routine to form a habit around, and it will actually make it easier to complete the most important behavior in all of this: working out.
Choose a reward. Rewards come in two varieties: Intrinsic, which come from within you and provide a sense of personal satisfaction, and extrinsic, which do not, but still have value to you—for those, though, you might need to experiment with them to see what is right for the habit you are trying to form. The thinking behind rewards is that if a behavior produces a sense of accomplishment or some other form of satisfaction, then it will feel relatively easy to turn it into a habit.
Choose the cue. As it happens, time of day and preceding action tend to provide the most appropriate cues around which to base fitness-related habits. This is why most habitual exercisers (not just gym-goers) tend to exercise at a specific time of day or immediately after some specific action (e.g., eating breakfast, getting home from work, etc.). You need to ensure consistent behavior; cues do not work without consistency.

Set goals.

A main reason people stop going to the gym is due to lack of results. Gym owners expect this; they anticipate people feeling frustrated and giving up on their fitness goals. It is important to know that you can control those goals.

David Ezell, LPC, a clinical psychologist and director of counseling and wellness group Darien Wellness in Darien, Connecticut, provides valuable tips to achieving what you want in a gym:

Set small and reasonable exercise goals. Most people join the gym and hit said gym hard with weights, aerobics, and then some more weights. They return the second day and hit it hard again. A few days more of that, though, and the aches and pains from inexperience start to affect their performance, and they “take a day off” (or even worse, they sustain an injury and the doctor makes that decision for them). Flash forward a few months later, and it is all a distant memory.
Go to the gym two days a week, first thing in the morning, and walk on the treadmill for 10 minutes. If you cannot, examine what thoughts are getting in your way. By applying this incremental approach, you normalize gym-going gradually, making it an enduring habit.

Over time, as one success leads to another, you can expand and identify what is a reasonable next step in gaining mastery over your exercise plan.

Jason Eckerman, PsyD, a licensed psychologist for ImpactPsych, also recommends:

Making a plan. You need to put yourself in a position to succeed from the beginning and build a plan that will last.
Knowing the details. You need to be more specific than saying “I want to work out more.” Make a plan for how many days you will work out and what you will do each day, and establish your long-term goals.
Anticipating the obstacles. Plan for the most common problems, like waking up late, and figure out what you will do when they happen.
Link it to what you already do. We have behaviors we do every day, like watching television, drinking a glass of water, or brushing our teeth. Start your habit by linking exercise to the things you already do.
Know that tomorrow’s not magically different. The most common thing we go to when we do not feel like going to the gym is “I’ll do it tomorrow.” In saying that, you expect to be a stronger and more motivated person tomorrow than today. How will that happen if you don’t go to the gym?

Know that not all gyms are the same.

Not all gyms follow a pushy sales model. If you feel uneasy about listening to an aggressive salesperson, certain franchise gyms like 24 Hour Fitness allow you to join online.

Often, local boutique gyms focus more on the welcoming, inclusive feel. They believe that sells the gym—not a fancy sales spiel.

You do not need to fall into the predatory schemes of gyms.

By following the expert tips, you can avoid another wallet-draining gym membership—you simply need a healthy dose of motivation to transform your old habits. Set small but attainable fitness goals, remember the tips above…and keep walking through your gym’s front door.

Tags 50037091, body, hemingway

Lifestyle

Weird But Popular Beauty Trends That Are Actually Incredibly Dangerous

Post author By Tara Kulash
Post date November 21, 2017

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

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

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

Such home remedies are best avoided.

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

Scotch Tape, eyeballs, you get the drill.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Glitter really is just for external use, folks.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This one can get very serious, very quickly.

Many providers are certainly practicing in the dark.

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

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

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

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

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

Any complications can develop into much more severe outcomes.

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

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

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

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

Bottom line: Go to a licensed practitioner.

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

The incredible persistence of a well-defined threat

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

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

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

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

Need we go on?

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

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

Tags 50037136, body, hemingway

Wellbeing

Diabetes Warning Signs That Most Women Ignore

Post author By Heather Vecchioni
Post date November 17, 2017

Hold on to your pancreas: Did you know that if you live in the United States, you have close to a 1 in 10 chance of developing diabetes? If you are one of the many who will find themselves diagnosed with this complicated condition, you’ll join about 30.3 million people in the country who already have it.
The bad news is that managing diabetes can be challenging, and women seem to have an even tougher time getting things under control than men do. Fortunately, women with diabetes can lead very healthy, fulfilling lives, says Kate McKernan, program coordinator for UPMC Susquehanna Diabetes and Nutrition Care Center in Pennsylvania.
[pullquote align=”center”]“As women, we tend to focus on caring for others and not ourselves.”
—Kate McKernan[/pullquote]
“As women, we tend to focus on caring for others and not ourselves. If you are a woman diagnosed with diabetes, it is most important to make an appointment for yourself to learn as much as you can about how to best manage your diabetes.”
Let’s take a look at how diabetes affects women and what you can do if you find yourself diagnosed.

Signs of Diabetes in Women

Although you’ll need to check with your doctor to find out for sure what they mean, your body will often give you warning signs that things aren’t working how they should. Along with common signs of diabetes like hunger, fatigue, and increased thirst and urination, some symptoms are specific to women.

Recurrent Yeast Infections

High levels of glucose in the blood can cause fungus to grow. The result? Recurrent yeast infections. An overgrowth of yeast can appear as thrush in various parts of the body. But don’t wait if you think you have this type of infection, cautions nutrition consultant Sandra Arévalo, spokesperson for the American Association of Diabetes Educators and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

“Women may feel ashamed of [a yeast infection] caused by diabetes and leave it untreated until it’s severe,” she says. If you find yourself with feminine itching, “it’s mostly likely due to a yeast infection that is easy to treat. Do not wait, and contact your health care provider to seek early treatment and get relief of the symptoms.”
Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Another sign of diabetes that is specific to women is polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). The often painful condition occurs when a woman’s hormones are unbalanced.

The result is usually cysts on a woman’s ovaries, changes in her appearance, and if left untreated, the development of diabetes.
Urinary Tract Infections

Diabetes often causes poor circulation in the body and can stop white blood cells from traveling through the bloodstream to eliminate infections. Because of this, women with diabetes often experience frequent urinary tract infections (UTIs).
Seeking a doctor’s care as soon as you detect a possible infection can help you find out if you have diabetes and can prevent a more serious kidney infection.
[related article_ids=1002508]

Risk Factors of Diabetes

Unfortunately, certain risk factors put some women at risk for developing diabetes, and in some cases there’s not much they can do about it.

Gestational Diabetes

There are a number of potential complications that pregnancy presents, and developing gestational diabetes is prominent on the list. For more on what gestational diabetes can mean during pregnancy and beyond, watch the video below.
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Obesity

Carrying excess weight can cause your body to develop type 2 diabetes. Unlike type 1 diabetes, which occurs when the body’s immune system destroys the cells that make insulin, type 2 often develops when the body makes insulin but isn’t able to use it effectively. Obesity can exacerbate this issue.

“Diabetes happens when your pancreas doesn’t produce enough insulin and the glucose can’t enter the cells to become energy,” says Arévalo.
“Insulin resistance happens when there is enough insulin but it isn’t working properly, leading to diabetes. When you are obese your body needs larger amounts of insulin and its deficit can lead to higher sugar levels, and if left untreated, to diabetes. Basically, the larger your body the more insulin you need.”
Heredity and Health

Unfortunately, you can’t change what genes are passed on to you. A family history of diabetes means you may have the problem in the future. The current condition of your health can also put you at risk, says McKernan.

“Other risk factors for men and women include being overweight or obese, age, [having an] immediate family member with diabetes, high blood pressure, and low activity levels or an inactive lifestyle,” she says.

Preventing Diabetes

Something else you can blame on your parents: your chances of getting diabetes. If either have diabetes, you have an elevated risk. Unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot you can do about that, but you can decrease the chances by taking care of yourself and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

“One tip is to make healthy food choices for meals and snacks,” suggests McKernan. “Consider filling half of your plate with a variety of non-starchy vegetables and fresh fruit at both lunch and dinner. Also include items higher in fiber and whole grains, and keep total fat grams low.”
She also recommends incorporating physical activity into your daily routine.
“This can be as simple as going for a walk or can be more intense such as aerobic activity, bicycling, and swimming. Vigorous cleaning and yardwork count, too.”

Drinking at least eight cups of water per day, exercising for 30 minutes at least five days a week, reducing the amount of processed foods you consume, and eating vegetables with each meal can reduce your risk for diabetes, says Arévalo. As can dropping a few pounds.
https://twitter.com/Jori_Rae/status/992240380153344001
“If [you’re] overweight, it’s time to change your eating habits and lose weight,” Arévalo says. “Research indicates that losing eight to 10 percent of your weight can help reduce your blood sugars and improve your health.”

Management Options for Diabetes

Typically, diabetes is initially treated with diet and lifestyle changes. If that doesn’t work, doctors may need to move on to a more aggressive approach.
[pullquote align=”center”]“Insulin is one of the most natural medications used in diabetes management, and the insulin prescribed today is a much better match to what our bodies make naturally.”
—Kate McKernan[/pullquote]
“Nowadays, there are many different medications, and you can start on one and little by little, depending on the severity of the diabetes, you can add or change meds as needed,” says Arévalo.
And if you need insulin, don’t fret, she says. “Insulin is the right treatment when your body doesn’t make enough or [any] insulin, and it will help you survive and live a much longer life.”
And although using insulin can be a frustrating process of trial and error, it can play a crucial role in keeping you healthy.

iStock.com/LisLud

“Many people believe that taking insulin is bad for you,” says McKernan. “Insulin is one of the most natural medications used in diabetes management, and the insulin prescribed today is a much better match to what our bodies make naturally.”

What Your Doctor Wants You to Know About Diabetes

Receiving a diagnosis of diabetes doesn’t have to be cause for despair. In fact, many misconceptions surround the disease.

It’s probably not as bad as you think.

Are you destined to a lifetime of bland food? Will you have to cut out your favorite snacks and stay away from sweets forever? Probably not, says McKernan.
[pullquote align=”center”]“Most people with diabetes can enjoy a wide variety of foods … the key is moderation.”
—Kate McKernan[/pullquote]
“The biggest misconception about diabetes many people have is that you cannot eat certain foods,” she says. “In fact, most people with diabetes can enjoy a wide variety of foods, including sweets, and the key is moderation.”
There’s no such thing as having diabetes a little.

You may have heard of people having “a touch of high sugar” or “borderline diabetes.” And although it’s good that they are aware their sugar is elevated, they may not take it is as seriously as they should.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BaVBLOODyQy/?hl=en&taken-by=amdiabetesassn
“These common phrases are often misleading as they may mean that the person has prediabetes, a serious health condition that increases their risk for heart disease and stroke,” says Allweiss.
Don’t assume your symptoms are normal.

Common symptoms of diabetes are often overlooked by women. But by not seeing a doctor and determining the root of your problems, you may make your condition even worse.
“When diabetes is left untreated it can have serious consequences,” says Arévalo.

iStock.com/tronand

“Often times, as women, we need to go to work, come home, take care of the family, care for extended family and even friends, and we have little time to ourselves. We start to feel tired, thirsty, can’t sleep well, get frequent headaches, and rashes, and we blame it on being stressed, busy, and overworked.
[pullquote align=”center”]“Prevention is better than cure.”
—Sandra Arévalo[/pullquote]
“The reality is that it is always good to check with a doctor if there is an underlying condition we might be having that needs more attention. Prevention is better than cure.”
You’re at risk for other problems.

Women with diabetes not only have high blood sugar but can end up dealing with other issues as well.

Many girls and women with diabetes engage in disordered eating, which can mean restricting certain food groups, abnormal eating habits, or binge eating, says McKernan.
Women with diabetes also commonly suffer from stress and anxiety because of their condition.
“Diabetes distress is also a common issue that presents itself in people with diabetes,” McKernan says.

[pullquote align=”center”]“Managing diabetes is a lot of work: 24 hours a day, 365 days each year, and no vacation.”
—Kate McKernan[/pullquote]
“Imagine having to check your blood sugar one to six or more times a day, count your carbohydrates, take your medication one or four more times each day, and add in exercise in addition to all your regular responsibilities. Managing diabetes is a lot of work: 24 hours a day, 365 days each year, and no vacation.”
Joining a diabetes support group, hiring a dietitian, finding a great doctor, and asking for help when you need it can make living with diabetes that much easier. With the right help and outlook, you can still be yourself and do what makes you you.

Tags 50036961, body, hemingway

Sweat

Workout Machines That Can Hurt Your Progress (And What To Do Instead)

Post author By HealthyWay Staff Writer
Post date November 16, 2017

Sometimes, simply getting yourself to the gym feels like a serious accomplishment. The bad news is that it’s probably not the accomplishment you might think. While getting some kind of exercise is better than sitting on the couch for the umpteenth night in a row, achieving fitness results is not as simple as just showing up.
So what do you do when it’s workout-o’clock? There are a lot of options at a typical commercial gym. You’ve got your cardio machines, your assisted weight machines, and even that intimidating free-weight area. But not all of these devices give you equal return on your hard-won sweat deposit.

You see, the terrible truth is that it’s not enough to work out. You have to work out the right way. Add to that the fact that toning the body can be counterintuitive. (For instance, you’ll never get that coveted six-pack with nothing but an ab machine, even if you put in hours every day.) Too many people give up their fitness goals in despair, when the real problem isn’t that they aren’t working hard—it’s that they’re not working smart.
While changing your body can feel difficult, even impossible, don’t sweat it (er—poor choice of words). We’re here to shed some light on what the workouts that actually help you transform your body—and the workout machines that won’t. (Plus, we’ll even throw in a few helpful tips to get you on the path to being fit and healthy. You’re welcome.)

1. “Assisted” anything won’t really help.

For a breakdown on fitness goals and which machines will (or won’t) help you achieve them, we spoke with James Harris, a physical therapist and the owner of Brentwood Barbell, a strength gym in St. Louis, Missouri. Harris has worked with athletes and clients of all abilities for more than a decade in the fields of physical therapy and fitness and now focuses on getting clients stronger with basic barbell strength training.
Perhaps the biggest factor in gaining strength, building muscle, and losing fat, Harris proposes, is your own personal effort. Since assisted weight machines often take less exertion than free weights, the amount of personal effort necessary decreases.

“If you spend your time sitting on a machine, pushing on a lever, and adjusting a pin, you’re putting in the minimum amount of effort,” Harris tells us. “If you want more from your program, you have to put more into it.”
Assisted weight machines can give people a false sense of accomplishment, Harris explains, and that’s the last thing you want.
It’s also important to treat fitness as learning process—and for that, you need a gym that offers support, not a machine without instructions. Harris emphasizes the importance of finding “a gym or coach that teaches the skill of lifting barbells.” Do this, he says, and “you will find your program much more enjoyable.”
The key, Harris says, is to “focus on the process of learning a skill that results in better health rather than focusing on trying to improve your health in the absence of learning.”

If you surround yourself with a positive, informative, and helpful support system, you’ll be more likely to succeed. All the time and effort you put into building a solid, positive foundation will pay off later.
What we’re really saying here is that the most effective fitness facilitator at the gym may be the community of people who work out alongside you.

2. Walking in place will keep you there.

In addition to creating a support system, you have to learn how to manage your time at the gym. When many people begin their fitness journey, they fall into an easy routine, using machines that they are familiar with. That usually means spending hours at a time on the treadmill or elliptic. Those are bound to be beneficial, right?

Well, not in terms of really sculpting your physique, no.
If you want to see changes, your body needs to be challenged, and while a nice long stroll on the treadmill may help improve your health, it won’t get you the abs you want, for instance.
For serious sculpting results, you’ll need to start weight training, keep a strict eye on your diet, and use a serious, detailed plan. Harris explains the basic outline of a successful workout regimen:
“Assuming an hour to train each day, a better use of time [than machines] would be to strength-train three times per week, focusing on large compound movements like squats, presses, chin ups, and deadlifts done for two to three sets each,” he says.

“After eight to weeks the trainee could then begin making dietary changes that support their goals,” he continues. “Finally, after resistance training and nutrition are reasonably dialed in, the trainee would then add moderate intensity interval training once per week. This schedule is very effective, time efficient, and sustainable.”
Reaching your goals is completely doable—if you put the work into building a smart plan and have the discipline to stick with it. You can’t get everything done just by walking in place.

3. Deduct abduction and adduction.

If you’re serious about getting in shape, it’s time to skip hip abduction/adduction machines.
“If you can read a magazine while ‘exercising,’ I propose that you’re not really making any lasting measurable change,” says Harris.

Sitting on your butt while doing focused movements actually shuts down large muscle groups in your body. If you want to get stronger, start thinking bigger.
These hip abduction and adduction machines are popular because they supposedly workout your inner and outer thigh—spots lots of people wish were more toned. Harris isn’t a fan of this machine, though, because they “utilize a poor range of motion,” he tells us. “They are simply unnecessary. A trainee can work the entire hip/leg musculature with short list of deadlifts, squats, lunges, and step ups.”
Motions and workouts that use the whole body will get better results faster than using machines that focus on micro-movements.

4. Forget the abdominal obsession.

Another gym standard many people flock to with the hopes and dreams of gaining an iron stomach is the abdominal machine. Many exhaust themselves doing rep after rep and then walk away from their workout sore, feeling that they’ve done something beneficial. But “being sore does not equate to progress,” Harris cautions.

“Unfortunately, you can’t take fat off a muscle by working that muscle locally,” he says. “Rather, fat is lost over time through consistent training and a caloric deficit.”
Harris suggests that, instead of using an ab machine, “a better alternative would be a strength program that consists of compound movements such as deadlifts, chin ups, and presses along with a structured nutrition plan, and possibly some interval training.”

5. Don’t keep up with the Joneses by going after the Smiths.

The Smith machine, which locks a barbell into a strict range of vertical motion, is another piece of equipment that looks tempting but it isn’t the best to base your workouts around, Harris tells us.
“The only real use for items like the Smith machine is to overwork an already exhausted area of the body,” he says.

So if you’re lifting heavy and have already completed a full workout of squats and lunges, the Smith Machine is fine to use to finish off the workout.
It’s not, however, a great machine to use for the entire time you’re at the gym.

6. You’re cycling to nowhere.

You are probably wondering about how cardio fits in with all of this, too. Stationary bikes take up a lot of space in many commercial gyms, and they are very tempting to use. But unless you’re specifically working on endurance training, you should limit the amount of time you spend pedaling in place.
At Harris’ gym, they “use cardiovascular exercise as an adjunct,” he says. “It’s part of the plan, just not the centerpiece. We find that a barbell-based strength program with some accessory cardio is what works best for most people.”

And if you really want to work the cardio angle, there’s a better way to do it than mindlessly pumping away at the stationary bicycle.
“If I had to do cardio work in a commercial gym I would use a treadmill and perform walking intervals,” Harris says.
“I would walk at a moderate pace and incline (say 3 mph at 5 percent) for three minutes and then increase the incline to an uncomfortable level (say 15 percent) for two minutes. I would repeat this simple five-minute cycle, working up to 30 minutes two times per week.”

But wait… There’s a twist.

Creating a solid workout plan, setting goals for yourself, and using your gym time efficiently are all major factors in setting yourself up for fitness success. But even the most well-managed workout routine will only take you so far. If you’re serious about reaching your fitness destination, you’ve got to prepare your mind.

Nick Woolery is a personal trainer also based in St. Louis. Woolery works with athletes, diabetics, weight-loss clients, and those with chronic pain and injuries to dramatically improve quality of life by focusing on quality movement, strength, and a holistic approach to nutrition and preventative healthcare—and he wants you to get your brain in the game.
“Here’s a little secret: whether you use the Smith machine or not, or an ab machine or not, has almost nothing to do with whether you will reach your goals or not!” Woolery tells HealthyWay. “What’s going to dictate your success in the gym is your consistency with regards to attendance, your compliance to a nutrition plan, and your intensity while you are using your favorite machines or dumbbells.”
If you aren’t ready to focus and challenge yourself, it will be easy to abandon any goals that you’ve set.

“People don’t fail in the gym because they are using machines instead of free weights or vice versa; they fail because they are not forcing their bodies to adapt to progressively more challenging stimuli,” Woolery explains. “The most useless machine in the gym, if you are not seeing results, is your brain.”

The key to success? Exercise mindfully.

How do you get into the proper mindset at the gym? While there’s tons of workout programs and apps you can use on your phone, you probably find yourself checking emails or scrolling through Twitter in the middle of your workout.
The first step to getting focused is ditching your phone. “Your brain and your phone are your two worst enemies in the gym,” Woolery says. “Turn the former on and the latter off.”

How can you ever get through a workout without your digital device, you ask? Simple—buy a stopwatch. It’s a small investment that will lead to big results. Woolery suggests using the stopwatch during workouts: “For one week, time every single rest period and force yourself to start after 45 seconds of rest; reduce the weight five pounds if you need to. Do your muscles burn after three or four sets of eight to 12 repetitions? Good!”
If you don’t want your planning and effort to be in vain, set proper goals for yourself. Woolery outlines a quality goal as something “specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time sensitive.”
Your goal should be exact, but not impossible. You need to be ready and whole-heartedly want to make changes in your life to reach it.

What it comes down to is how badly you want to see your fitness goals come to fruition.
“Stop blaming machines even if most of them are a waste of time,” Woolery says. “Lift heavier than you think you should. Focus on your biggest muscle groups. Find movements that make you stabilize your torso. Spend one hour of your day completely out of breath and learn to love the 45 or 60 seconds of rest that your stopwatch grants you.”
The key is to push yourself; that’s how all those hard bodies on TV got that way themselves, after all.
Woolery concludes, “If you want to look more like an athlete, train more like one.”

Tags 50036721, body, hemingway

Lifestyle

You May Be Completely Misusing These 15 Beauty Products

Post author By Brooke Geller
Post date November 13, 2017

I want you to take a moment to think about how long you’ve been wearing makeup. How many years have you been committing a small part of your day to using products? How much have you changed your routine? And more importantly, how much have you not changed your routine?

No matter how many videos you’ve watched from beauty vloggers, there’s bound to be a few gaps in your hair and makeup knowledge. Even those with perfect eyebrows are probably doing something that’s not quite right.
Are you one of those people? Take a look at these common beauty blunders and see if you’ve been misusing any of your products.

1. Beauty Sponges

If you’re struggling to achieve smooth foundation application and basically wasting a whole lot of product thanks to your makeup sponge, then chances are you’re not using it correctly. Before you throw that beauty blender in the trash, ask yourself one question: Are you using it dry or damp?
Instead of applying your foundation with a dry sponge, make sure it’s damp, and gently dab the product on your face. Amazing, right?

Don’t forget: There are completely different rules for using silicone sponges. You don’t need to use nearly as much product, thanks to the non-absorbent material. You should also use a circular motion first before dabbing.
Speaking of flawless complexions, beauty blogger and YouTuber Lucy Kyselica—known as Loepsie to her readers and subscribers—thinks ideal coverage comes down to two things: the right color applied sparingly.
“I like to say there are no rules to makeup, but it always makes me a bit sad to see girls applying thick layers of foundation all over their faces like a mask, often covering up perfectly beautiful skin,” she says. “I’m a big fan of just using a light foundation to cover ‘problem areas,’ like parts of the skin that show redness or are discolored.”

This technique is used by makeup artist Lisa Eldridge and is even known as “the Eldridge technique.” It’s perfect for problem skin and, as Kyselica says, allows you to “wear your natural skin wherever possible.”
“Applying foundation this way looks really natural and fresh and is better for the skin,” she says.

2. Brushes

If you’ve spent a ton of money on a skincare regimen just to still experience pesky breakouts, then you might want to focus on your tools rather than your products.

Makeup brushes and even those sonic cleansing brushes aren’t going to do squat to help you achieve that flawless complexion unless you’re regularly cleaning them. Product and bacteria will build up over time, causing breakouts and even posing a health risk.
Sephora has got a video full of handy tips for choosing—and cleaning—brushes.

3. Hair Oil

If hair oil is leaving your hair more, well, oily than moisturized, you’re probably not applying it correctly. Pumping oil into your palm and raking it through your hair will only leave you with greasy streaks while the rest of your hair is still crying out for attention.

Instead, dispense a few drops into your hand and rub it between your palms to warm it up. Ensure your entire palm and fingers are evenly coated in oil. Next, lightly apply it to your mid-lengths and ends using a twisting motion.
Try not to apply the oil directly to your roots, as your scalp already produces its own oils.

4. Mascara

Even the most expensive mascara isn’t going to grant you voluminous lashes if used incorrectly.

Rather than raking the brush directly up, hold the brush against the lash roots and gently wiggle it upward. This helps to really coat your lashes in product and achieve maximum volume.

5. Coconut Oil

Coconut oil is often touted as the miracle solution to all your problems. It can help you achieve silky-smooth shaved legs, moisturize your body, and remove even the thickest layer of eye makeup.

But before you go lathering it all over your face, you might want to do a patch test first. Why? Because coconut oil is super comedogenic. This means that if you use it as an oil cleanser or moisturizer, you might end up with major breakouts rather than the complexion of your dreams.
Coconut oil can also produce undesirable results as a hair mask, since it’s loaded with protein. If your hair is just dry rather than damaged, you should probably steer clear.
Everyone’s skin and hair is different. You might be better off using something like jojoba oil on your face and moisturizing olive oil as a hair mask.

6. Baking Soda

If you’ve ever used baking soda to clean your home, then you’ll know that it’s great at scrubbing away and lifting grease. As tempted as you might be to apply the same method to your face, just…don’t.
Baking soda is simply too harsh for your skin. It can really irritate it and strip away much-needed oils, throwing everything out of balance. No one needs an exfoliant that strong!
https://twitter.com/knee_chole/status/433079609387921408
The No ‘Poo Method has no doubt helped baking soda sales skyrocket worldwide, but there are concerns that it may be too drying to be used as a shampoo.
So does baking soda have any place in your beauty routine? Surprisingly, yes—it can actually be used to clean your makeup brushes!

7. Pore Strips

There’s nothing more disgustingly satisfying than using pore strips. Unfortunately, they’re not going to help your pores get any cleaner.

Those little bumps left on the strip aren’t dirt, but sebum, which your pores need. Sure, you may remove a few blackheads. But after you remove the sebum, your pores are waiting to be filled by whatever dirt happens to come in contact with them. This may lead to even more blackheads.
A better solution is to treat blackheads with these dermatologist-recommended methods. They will be much gentler on your skin and actually get results.
Using pore strips is kind of like squeezing a pimple. You really want to do it but you know it’s not good for you. Just be aware of the consequences!

8. Dry shampoo

Dry shampoo is basically a miracle product, helping to seriously freshen up your hair between washes. It works by soaking up the grease in your hair, mimicking the appearance of clean locks.
Many people apply dry shampoo in the morning before they leave the house. But the best time to apply it is actually before your hair looks like it needs it.

Applying dry shampoo before you go to bed on a between-washes day means you’ll wake up with much cleaner-looking hair. Similarly, apply it before a sweaty gym session rather than after.
It’s also important not to apply it too close to your roots. Hold the can a good few inches away from your scalp and spray sparingly. Otherwise, you might end up with obvious splotches on your hairline.

9. Brow Products

Whether you use a gel, a pencil, or a powder, technique is crucial to achieving a killer brow. If you literally try to fill them in like you’re attacking a coloring book, you’re bound to end up more Groucho Marx than Cara Delevingne.

Instead, use small, light strokes to draw on natural-looking hairs, focusing on the most sparse areas first.

10. Hairbrush

Brushing your hair shouldn’t be a painful experience. If it is, odds are you’re doing it wrong—and it might just be the cause of all those flyaway hairs.
First of all, never start brushing your hair from your roots. This can cause the bristles to snag on knots and cause breakage. Instead, hold your hair and gently brush from the ends, working your up to the top of your head as you untangle.
If you have curly hair, then your head might resemble more of a frizzy lion’s mane than Marcia Brady’s silky locks. Try brushing your hair only before you get in the shower to avoid breaking your curl pattern.

11. Bobby Pins

Here’s a surprising fact: Almost every single one of us is using bobby pins upside down.

Ever noticed how bobby pins have a bumpy side to them? That’s the side that’s supposed to face down in order to grip your hair. No wonder they always fall out!

12. Eyelash Curler

If you’re not using an eyelash curler, then you should seriously consider it. This nifty little tool can make you look more awake and wide-eyed and can perfectly complement the right mascara.

However, make sure you’re not curling your eyelashes at the wrong step of your beauty routine. Curl those lashes before mascara, not after. Otherwise, your lashes can get stuck to the clamps, pulling them right off your eyelid and leaving mascara all over your curler.
Oh, and since it comes in such close contact with your eyes, make sure to clean it regularly. Eye infections are not a great look.

13. Perfume

Many people believe that applying perfume to “pulse points,” such as the wrists or neck, can unlock the subtle notes in a perfume’s scent. Unfortunately, this is garbage science with no real merit.

As for rubbing your wrists together? It doesn’t exactly “bruise” those scent molecules, but it does produce heat, which can cause the perfume to evaporate faster. You’re probably not going to enjoy the smell quite as long as if you left it alone.
There are some lesser known but super effective places you can apply perfume instead—like your hair.

14. Heat Tools

Even if you apply a heat protectant beforehand, you may still be committing some major sins when it comes to using heat tools.
When it comes to blow drying or straightening you hair, maximum heat does not equal maximum style. Dial down that temperature and save your hair the damage.
According to Kyselica, women have been curling their hair for eons. But they didn’t always use heat.
“Curly hair has been popular all throughout history,” she says. “And since curling irons weren’t that easy to use for a long time—they were literally irons, which you’d heat in the fire or over a stove, eek!—ladies resorted to overnight curling methods.”

Whether you’re looking to achieve vintage pin curls or the more frizz-tastic 18th-century paper curls, you’d be surprised at what you can achieve without the use of heat tools.
“The key is to start with damp hair and a setting product,” says Kyselica. “Separate the hair into even sections, twist each section into a curl and secure it according to the method you’re using. Then allow your hair to dry and set overnight.”
The result? Beautiful curls with no damage whatsoever. Trust me: your ends will thank you.
“Overnight curling is much better for the hair than heat styling, and often tends to last longer as well,” she says. “Definitely a lost treasure, if you ask me!”

15. Conditioner

Unless you’re following the Curly Girl Method and co-washing, you should never apply conditioner to your roots. Your scalp probably produces enough oil, and adding more may leave you with greasy hair.
Focus on the mid-lengths and ends when applying conditioner. Make sure to leave it in for a couple of minutes before rinsing it out so it can really work its magic on your hair.
The best part about washing your hair this way? Your hair stays much cleaner for longer. You’re welcome.

Tags 50036731, body, Commerce, hemingway

Wellbeing

Real Misconceptions That Men Have Had About Menstruation

Post author By Brooke Geller
Post date November 13, 2017

Allow me to set the scene for you. It’s a Wednesday afternoon at Wirth-Parks Middle School in Cahokia, Illinois. Police have been called to attend to a gruesome discovery by the school’s janitor. An excruciating three hours pass. The coroner is called in. This doesn’t look good.
What exactly did that janitor find in the girls’ bathroom? A used menstrual pad.

Of course, he didn’t realize that’s what it was at first. The janitor—and apparently the local police—suspected it was actually fetal remains. They even sent it away to get tested at a lab. Spoiler alert: It was just period blood.
As crazy as that story is, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that so many men were unable to recognize the sight of period blood. When it comes to menstruation, men are often left in the dark—willingly or otherwise.
Not convinced? Then you’d better prepare for a rude awakening. Who knows, you might even learn a thing or two.

1. Period pain comes from the birth canal.

Katie Atkins is a 37-year-old artist with a 31-year-old partner who recently revealed that he didn’t fully understand the deal with period pain.

“He thought women got pain inside—like, the ‘lining’ of the sides,” she says. “Basically where a tampon goes. Because he heard the word lining, I guess.”
“I burst out with crazy laughter and was like, ‘I’m not laughing AT you, I promise.'”
For the record: Periods can cause discomfort in other areas like the lower belly and the back, but the actual cramps are caused by contractions in the uterus. The pain can range anywhere from mild to severe and it is true that some lucky women don’t experience them at all.

2. Period blood can be held in, like urine.

Contrary to popular belief, getting your period is not the same as urinating. Nevertheless, some men believe that it is, in fact, very similar to urinating.

How? As this Reddit post posits, women somehow have the ability to hold in their period blood. Which would mean that any woman who accidentally leaks on her clothing, mattress, or any other surface is willfully soiling herself.
For the record: Women have absolutely no control over when their period happens. There is no pause button. We wish there were a pause button. Somebody, please, invent a pause button.

3. All women get their periods at the exact same time of the month.

Have you ever noticed that all women everywhere are mysteriously moody, sporting hot water bottles and reluctant to engage in strenuous physical activity at the exact same time every month? Yeah, me neither.

This in itself should be enough to make you realize that women aren’t all “synced up” like clockwork, but apparently not. One woman posted on Twitter that her male co-worker thought all women menstruated at the same time at the end of each calendar month.
For the record: Every woman is different, and no two women share exactly the same cycle. There has been some research to suggest that women who live together can sometimes “sync up” on their cycles (a process referred to as menstrual synchrony) but the jury is still out on that.

4. Premenstrual syndrome is a myth.

This is one misconception that I personally wish were true. Unfortunately, it isn’t. But that doesn’t stop some men from believing it. Apparently we’re incapable of experiencing either extreme pleasure or pain.

I had the misconception that the media had played up PMS and that it was a bit of an excuse to vent.

Jhey Aymes, a 37-year-old father of two, didn’t buy into the “PMS myth” conspiracy, but he did feel that it was a tad exaggerated.
“My first serious girlfriend, who I was with from 16 till 23, had very mild periods and not much mood fluctuation,” he says. “So I had the misconception that the media had played up PMS and that it was a bit of an excuse to vent. I have since had partners who are very debilitated by their cycles and know its a gamut.”

Nowadays, Aymes is a father of a toddler and a teenager, and has made sure both his kids are fully educated on menstruation.
For the record: Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) is a broad term that describes the physical and emotional symptoms that can occur a few days before a woman’s menstrual cycle including cramps, mood swings, and headaches. There is actually some debate about whether the cause of PMS is more biological or psychological, but it remains a widely recognized condition in the medical community. A more severe form of PMS called Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD) does appear in the DSM-5.

5. Period blood attracts grizzly bears.

No, it’s not just an iconic line from Anchorman. Many men are genuinely concerned that being in the presence of a menstruating woman may put them at risk of encountering dangerous wild animals, such as bears or sharks. Supposedly this fear can be traced back to a bear attack in Montana in 1967 which left two women dead, one of whom was having her period at the time.

For the record: This misconception is so pervasive that the National Park Service published research to show that no, grizzly bears are not interested in your tampon.

6. You can squeeze blood out of a menstruating woman by hugging her too tightly.

As much as I wish I’d read this on the internet, unfortunately I had to experience this firsthand when a male friend did indeed hug me a little too tightly.

I winced and asked him not to do that, as I was having my period. I assumed he would know that I was trying to tell him I was in pain and that a tight hug may hurt me.
He immediately released me, a horrified look on his face, before comparing me—in all seriousness—to a sauce bottle. That’s right: He thought that if he squeezed me too tight, he would squeeze the blood out of my body.
For the record: Period blood can’t be forced out. As stated above, women don’t have any control over how much blood comes out or when.

7. You can’t get a woman pregnant during her period.

This is one menstruation misconception that even women are guilty of believing (which is dangerous, considering that it can result in, well, pregnancy).

For the record: The risk of pregnancy while menstruating is very low but can be higher depending on the length of a woman’s cycle. Sperm also has the ability to survive for quite a long time in the body, so you could end up with a fertilized egg days later, especially if you have a shorter cycle.

8. Every cycle is the same.

Andrew Hann, a 58-year-old carpenter, believes he has a pretty open mind and had always been quite confident in his knowledge of women’s anatomy. But even he admits to once having some misconceptions of his own.

“The only misconception I can think of pertaining to a woman’s period is that it was for a day or two,” he says. “Not sure where I got that one, but I found out later that not all women experience the same duration or intensity and that it does affect hormones and mood for up to close to a week.”
For the record: There is no “normal” period length. It varies from woman to woman, and the menstrual cycle might occur every 21 to 35 days and last two to seven days. These cycles can be regular (the same length every month) or differ from month to month.

Why do men think these things?

It’s hard to believe that someone who received comprehensive sex education at school could believe any of the things on this list. And yet it seems that some men are learning much of what they know about periods from their significant others. At the same time, they’re failing to understand how differently each woman experiences her cycle.
Both Hann and Aymes admitted to showing an interest in learning about physiology from a young age, reading books and asking their parents questions. Hann also believes he received adequate sex education from his public school. As for his friends, he assumes their knowledge of menstruation probably isn’t lacking.
“The men I know probably wouldn’t have gaps because we are older now and have had ample time to learn, although there are still some that won’t go near it,” he says. “This is a difficult question because I can’t ever remember talking in detail about it with other men.”

Atkins thinks that the gaps in her partner’s knowledge may be caused by his inadequate sex education.
“I feel like they didn’t talk too much about things like periods when he was growing up, and he’s too polite to ask,” she said. “He said he was a tiny bit embarrassed and pretty much acknowledged that he didn’t get taught this kind of stuff at school.”
And then, of course, there are online communities that actively perpetuate mistruths about women’s bodies and reproduction in order to degrade and shame them. Let’s not mention them by name.

Anti-feminists aside, there’s still the issue of men who simply aren’t aware of the scientific facts. Their formal sex ed classes may be long behind them, so how can men be expected to learn what they don’t know?
The answer might be honest discussion about menstruation from both men and women.

It’s hard to see your own blind spots.

“It’s hard to see your own blind spots,” says Aymes. “I think that the whole thing has been somewhat normalized but also has a ways to go. I mostly interact with women and have not had many discussions with males about it, but if many women still think it’s ‘gross’ and struggle to express what they need in that time, then I am sure there are men who are confused and perpetuating negative stereotypes.”

Tags 50036761, body, hemingway

Are there really such things as aphrodisiac foods?

Why am I told to eat a banana when my muscles cramp?

Why do I urinate so much at night?

Why do my joints hurt before it rains?

Why do we get hiccups?

Why does my urine smell after I eat asparagus?

What are the differences between bottled water brands?

Why do you feel pain in your side when running or cycling?

What is a runner’s high?

Not all magic is supernatural.

The explanation for the finger sausage trick is deceptively simple.

In some cases, scientists are still trying to understand what exactly is going on during these tricks.

He directed us to another, lesser-known body magic trick.

Here’s a kind of home version of the Pinocchio illusion.

Ehrsson used the the mental phenomenon behind the Pinocchio illusion to learn about self-perception of the body, which is way deeper than a simple magic trick.

And it happened to Donna Penner.

Then you wake up.

So how long do episodes of accidental awareness really last?

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

There are a few other common causes of accidental awareness.

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

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

A simple trip to the salon can turn suddenly tragic. It happened to Elizabeth Smith.

For Smith, though, that dream quickly turned into a nightmare.

What happened?

Examining the factors that lead to stroke—beyond beauty parlor visits.

If you have one or many of these risk factors, it’s important to know the signs and symptoms of a stroke.

So should you be worried about beauty parlor stroke syndrome in particular?

Get yourself to the gym.

How to Change Your Habits

Set goals.

Know that not all gyms are the same.

You do not need to fall into the predatory schemes of gyms.

Scotch Tape, eyeballs, you get the drill.

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

Glitter really is just for external use, folks.

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

The incredible persistence of a well-defined threat

Signs of Diabetes in Women

Recurrent Yeast Infections

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Urinary Tract Infections

Risk Factors of Diabetes

Gestational Diabetes

Obesity

Heredity and Health

Preventing Diabetes

Management Options for Diabetes

What Your Doctor Wants You to Know About Diabetes

It’s probably not as bad as you think.

There’s no such thing as having diabetes a little.

Don’t assume your symptoms are normal.

You’re at risk for other problems.

1. “Assisted” anything won’t really help.

2. Walking in place will keep you there.

3. Deduct abduction and adduction.

4. Forget the abdominal obsession.

5. Don’t keep up with the Joneses by going after the Smiths.

6. You’re cycling to nowhere.

But wait… There’s a twist.

The key to success? Exercise mindfully.

1. Beauty Sponges

2. Brushes

3. Hair Oil

4. Mascara

5. Coconut Oil

6. Baking Soda

7. Pore Strips

8. Dry shampoo

9. Brow Products

10. Hairbrush

11. Bobby Pins

12. Eyelash Curler

13. Perfume

14. Heat Tools

15. Conditioner

1. Period pain comes from the birth canal.

2. Period blood can be held in, like urine.

3. All women get their periods at the exact same time of the month.

4. Premenstrual syndrome is a myth.