The advantages of taking a siesta
MikeA September 5th, 2010
Knowledge: The advantages of taking a siesta
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Archive for the '8. Health News' Category
How high pressure weather systems can affect your health
MikeA September 5th, 2010
Knowledge: How high pressure weather systems can affect your health
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10 Oddly Insured Celeb Body Parts, Sleep Disorder Linked to Dementia, and Healthy No-Bake Cookies
MikeA September 5th, 2010
- Turns out happiness isn’t about how many gold stars you get after all. A recent study found connecting with people gives us more joy than our individual accomplishments. [Lemondrop]
- Despite advances in research, no one is really sure what exactly causes dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. This sleep disorder may be a new angle to consider. [Huffington Post]
- Aching for a sweet treat but can’t bear to turn on the hot oven? Try these healthy no-bake cookies! [Vitamin G]
- Lunges can help you sculpt powerful legs and a tight booty, but these five variations on the basic lunge can produce even greater results. [FitSugar]
- No matter how awkward your early teen years were, you must have had an easier time fitting in than this Brazilian teen, who is one of the tallest in the world at 6 feet 9 inches. And she’s only 14! [AOL Health]
- You walk facing traffic, you bike with traffic. What side of the road should you run on? [That’s Fit Canada]
- Professional football player Troy Polamalu recently insured his hair. For $1 million. While that’s shocking, he’s not the only celeb to take precautions. Here are the top 10 oddly insured celebrity body parts. [Time]
- Knowing your family’s medical history isn’t just for show—it can help you prepare for and prevent health problems down the road. Here’s what you need to know. [Fox News iMag]
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Ready, Set, Glow! Flattering Fall Makeup
MikeA September 5th, 2010
Perry Hagopian
By Melanie Rud
From Health magazine
Everyone looks better in candlelight. But until the world’s fluorescent lights are replaced with votives, we need an easy way to fake that gorgeous glow. Enter fall’s hot new makeup look: a wash of gleaming satin-finish shades that give you the same soft radiance.
“The look of satin-finish makeup is really modern, and the reflective quality actually diminishes the appearance of fine lines,” notes Sarah Lucero, Stila celebrity makeup artist.
Plus, the new formulas and colors are so sheer, “you can use them all over your face—eyes, cheeks, lips—simultaneously, without it looking as if your features are competing for attention,” says Dick Page, Shiseido makeup artistic director.
Read on for tricks and product picks to help you pull off two great versions of the look: a subtle take for day and a richer, more dramatic one for night.
Eyes
Prep lids first
Before applying shadow, tap a small dab of foundation or eye shadow primer—try Urban Decay Eye Shadow Primer Potion ($18; sephora.com)—from lash lines to creases. This helps color last longer and prevents creams from creasing by absorbing your skin’s natural oils.
Pick one color family
“You want an all-over, soft, velvety finish with a gradation of color, not contrasting shades,” Lucero explains. Working with liquid or cream shadows, apply a light shade as a base from lash lines almost to brows, then blend a slightly darker hue along creases and—if you want extra definition—an even darker color along lash lines.
Next page: Cheeks
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Is My iPod Making Me Deaf?
MikeA September 5th, 2010
Getty Images
By Roshini Rajapaksa, MD
From Health magazine
Roshini Raj, MD, is Health’s medical editor and co-author of What the Yuck?! The Freaky & Fabulous Truth About Your Body. Board-certified in gastroenterology and internal medicine, Dr. Raj is an assistant professor of medicine at New York University Medical Center and a contributor on the Today show. In our new book, Dr. Raj fields personal and provocative questions—about your body, sex, even celeb health fads.
Q: Is my iPod making me deaf?
A: You may have heard that one in five American teens suffer from hearing loss, according to a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). That’s a 30% increase from just 20 years ago. What’s making all these teens deaf? Likely the same thing you’re worried about—iPods, concerts, and loud music. And while this study was specifically looking at teens, it serves as a warning for all of us who’ve been known to pop in some earbuds and rock out.
Audiologists and hearing experts have been sounding the alarm over hearing loss associated with MP3 players for a few years now. Twenty-six million adults have high-frequency hearing loss caused by exposure to loud noises—aka noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL).
The risk of hearing loss from an iPod depends on how loud you’re cranking it up. Most MP3 players have a maximum decibel level (decibels are how we measure sound) of 100, but a few independent studies have found that they can go as high as 120.
So what does that mean? Well, the sound of an ambulance siren is about 120 decibels. Would you listen to that for several hours every day of the week? (The average American who has an iPod listens to her iPod two hours every day.) Here’s another way to think about it: By law, employees exposed to on-the-job noise of about 115 decibels for longer than 15 minutes must have sound-protection equipment.
You might be saying to yourself, “Well, I only listen to it halfway up most of the time.” That’s good; it’s possible you’re not getting yours high enough to cause any damage (sounds below 75 decibels don’t usually harm hearing). But hearing loss can be the result of a one-time exposure to an intense sound, or repeated exposure to sounds at or above 85 decibels. The louder the noise, the shorter the time period before NIHL begins. Have you ever turned your iPod up to rock out to your favorite Nirvana song? Or pumped up the volume to drown out background street noises? You may have permanently damaged your hearing.
To prevent further harm, always use the middle setting or lower on your iPod’s volume control. As a rule of thumb, if you are using earphones and someone next to you can hear your music (or worse—identify the song!), it’s too loud.
For more answers to embarrassing questions, check our out new book, What the Yuck?!
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Is It Safe to Gain and Lose Weight Like the Stars Do?
MikeA September 5th, 2010
Getty Images
By Roshini Rajapaksa, MD
From Health magazine
Roshini Raj, MD, is Health’s medical editor and co-author of What the Yuck?! The Freaky & Fabulous Truth About Your Body. Board-certified in gastroenterology and internal medicine, Dr. Raj is an assistant professor of medicine at New York University Medical Center and a contributor on the Today show. In our new book, Dr. Raj fields personal and provocative questions—about your body, sex, even celeb health fads.
Q: Is it safe to pack on and then lose weight rapidly like the stars do?
A: Julia Roberts told Entertainment Weekly that she gained 10 pounds while filming the scenes in Italy in the new chick flick Eat, Pray, Love. “If you look at any of the scenes of eating, by the end of the scene, I’m done eating. Like in the scene with the pizza, by the time the scene is over, I’ve eaten the entire piece. When we were in Naples, we started shooting at 8 in the morning, and I think by 8:45 I’d eaten 8 or 10 pieces of pizza. Pizza was what I ate all day that day,” she said.
Unlike Julia, who probably lost those pounds with a few extra cardio sessions, some stars are adding and dropping much larger amounts and much more quickly. Take rapper 50 Cent, who dropped over 50 pounds for his role as a cancer patient in Things Fall Apart. Or Russell Crowe, whose scale goes up and down for films such as Gladiator and Body of Lies. They have been fodder for many celebrity-magazine headlines.
Here’s the bottom line: It’s risky. Rapid weight gain can put a stress on your heart and joints. Rapid weight loss can damage your liver and cause gallstones, hair loss (due to low protein), and loss of muscle mass; in starvation mode (which happens when you restrict calories too severely), your body hangs on to fat and breaks down muscle. It can also lead to loose, hanging skin, which—while not dangerous—is unattractive and hard to get rid of without surgery.
Of course, celebs are under a lot of pressure to shed their movie-part pounds in time for the next awards show, but no one should be speed dieting. One to two pounds per week is the fastest anyone should be losing weight. Even celebrities.
For more answers to embarrassing questions, check our out new book, What the Yuck?!
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Where Can I Find Good Health Info Online?
MikeA September 5th, 2010
Getty Images
By Roshini Rajapaksa, MD
From Health magazine
Roshini Raj, MD, is Health’s medical editor and co-author of What the Yuck?! The Freaky & Fabulous Truth About Your Body. Board-certified in gastroenterology and internal medicine, Dr. Raj is an assistant professor of medicine at New York University Medical Center and a contributor on the Today show. In our new book, Dr. Raj fields personal and provocative questions—about your body, sex, even celeb health fads.
Q: Where can I find good health info online? Is any site really trustworthy?
A: Last week, a new Harris Poll found that more adults than ever are going online for health-care information. Back in 1998, only 50 million American adults said they had used the Internet to look for information on health issues and topics. Now, that number has jumped to 175 million. A full 88% of adults who are online have used the Internet to look for health information.
As a doctor, I appreciate patients who are interested in their health care. It’s important that you understand what is going on, the symptoms, treatments, and possible side effects. And you can find really good, reliable information if you know where to look.
But first, a big caveat: Reading the information on these websites may put you in an unnecessary panic—the term “cyberchondriac” is often used to refer to someone who thinks she has a disease she read about online. Internet research can also falsely reassure you, which is just as bad. Diseases act differently in different people, and you may find it hard to “connect the dots” of your symptoms to those that a website says you should be experiencing. You should also know that there are a lot of non-MDs doling out medical advice on the Web. So always have a healthy bit of skepticism, and trust your instincts: If the information seems incorrect or the site is trying to sell you something, look elsewhere.
That said, you can get good advice on the Internet. I trust information provided by academic medical centers, like New York University, and nonprofit medical centers, like the Mayo Clinic. The National Library of Medicine within the National Health Institutes also offers great information, as does the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Large consumer-health websites, such as Health.com and WebMD, work with top medical professionals to provide carefully vetted medical information too.
But just remember: There is no substitute for an actual doctor’s visit, during which she can hear you describe your symptoms, ask questions, and give you a thorough physical examination. So even if you think you’ve found a solution online, follow up with a trip to your trusted physician.
For more answers to embarrassing questions, check our out new book, What the Yuck?!
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Kids’ Cereals: Good Advertising, Poor Nutrition
MikeA September 5th, 2010
Do your kids beg you for their favorite sugared cereals? Learn the facts and don’t get swayed by crafty advertising.
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Glass ‘can determine drink level’
MikeA September 5th, 2010
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Ban on Chancellor’s brother lifted
MikeA September 5th, 2010
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