November 07, 2018 at 01:40PM Fun fact about me: I had to delete my phone’s Twitter app six months ago. Why? Because the constant influx of news notifications on my feed (mostly political, and mostly bad) was making me incredibly anxious all the time. And this isn’t just me being “overly sensitive.” Nearly 40 percent of Americans reported being more anxious this year than last year in a poll conducted by the American Psychiatric Association (APA). And yet, very few respondents reported seeking help at all (only 28 percent said they had seen a mental health professional.) That’s the catch-22 with stress and anxiety—they’re so common (40 million people suffer from anxiety disorders, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America) and yet so few people are able to seek help. We’re passionate about this issue at W+G, and that’s where you come in. Take a few minutes to fill out the stress and anxiety survey below to help us understand what you’re struggling with. You’ll be helping us better serve you and your needs—and hopefully together we can change a bit how people approach anxiety. (Pro tip: If the survey isn’t loading on your phone, click here.) (function(t,e,s,n){var o,a,c;t.SMCX=t.SMCX||[],e.getElementById(n)||(o=e.getElementsByTagName(s),a=o[o.length-1],c=e.createElement(s),c.type=”text/javascript”,c.async=!0,c.id=n,c.src=[“https:”===location.protocol?”https://”:”http://”,”widget.surveymonkey.com/collect/website/js/tRaiETqnLgj758hTBazgd5y1FGsgX0umGucEcY9Tv77bk2lrdle5lrzWKI3u_2BfAR.js”].join(“”),a.parentNode.insertBefore(c,a))})(window,document,”script”,”smcx-sdk”); Create your own user feedback survey If you want to hear a bunch of awesome, smart people talk about combatting the stigmas around anxiety, join us for our next Well+Good TALK. And find out one of the best ways to calm yourself down the next time a panic attack strikes.
Day: November 7, 2018
15 easy tweaks to help you achieve enviable desk posture
November 07, 2018 at 01:16PM Spending eight-plus hours a day staring at a screen is basically a one-way ticket to bad posture (as well as the back pain that comes along with it). And yet, for most (read: all??) of us, the screen-time is pretty much non-negotiable. With this in mind, Gelcream, a photography and creative direction company based out of Los Angeles, used Instagram’s question sticker to ask their 100,000 followers to share their very best tricks for practicing A+ posture. The tips range from instructive to inspirational, and almost every single is totally free. So if you’re ready to perk up, try these 15 super-simple good posture tips and put a stop to your slouching. 1. “I used to keep a sticky note on my computer that said ‘posture!!’ Surprisingly effective.” 2. “Set a daily phone alarm during a time you find yourself [getting] sleepy and slouching the most.” 3. “Don’t look at your phone all the time. Adjust level of computer to eye.” 4. “Make sure you have good bras! That helped me a lot.” 5. “Hold your chest high. It automatically straightens your back and adjusts your shoulders.” 6. “Hang off a high bar (arms overhead, body dangling) for a few minutes every day.” 7. “In ballet, we were told to pretend like you have a beautiful necklace on and you’re showing it off!!” 8. “Set your lock screen as a picture of the words ‘good posture.’” 9. “[I] wear high-waisted jeans, because they dig in
Was it something you ate? Google data can help figure out where you got food poisoning
November 07, 2018 at 11:48AM After emerging from a bout of food poisoning, the first thing most people want (apart from plain, old saltine crackers and a breath mint) is to find the perpetrator of the foodborne crime. And although consumers won’t necessarily be able to play the blame game quite yet, a recent Google development designed specifically to find the guilty party provides promising hope. The Foodborne Illness Detector in Real time (or FINDER, for short) was tested out in Chicago and Las Vegas, and results—published in the NPJ Digital Medicine—show it’s 3.1 times more likely to locate unsafe restaurants than other health inspection methods, Quartz reports. By analyzing a combination of users’ search history and location services, FINDER tracks down restaurants that may be serving food poisoning as the unwanted special of the day, and then sends health department officials to take a closer look. For example, if someone searched “diarrhea,” then FINDER would comb their location services data over the past day or so to see where they might have caught the illness. 52 percent of restaurants flagged by FINDER were actually deemed unsafe upon inspection—and only 25 percent of restaurants are found unsafe via routine inspections. While yes, the tool does impose a Big Brother–esque vibe, the results of the study reveal that the privacy sacrifice might be worth it (for the sake of never upchucking your sushi roll again). Why? Well, 52 percent of the restaurants flagged by FINDER were actually deemed unsafe upon inspection—and only 25 percent of restaurants are found
Eating zinc with your chocolate might help you live longer? Not so fast
November 07, 2018 at 11:27AM You already know dark chocolate is a pretty solid way to give your health a boost, but lately there’ve been a slew of headlines that claim adding zinc to the treat can help you live longer. Well, don’t chase your chocolate bar with a supplement and expect miraculous results just yet—it turns out that statement might be a bit overblown. Here’s the backstory: In a study published in the journal Nature Chemistry, researchers looked at how the mineral zinc interacts with a type of polyphenol called hydroquinone. (Polyphenols are plant compounds with antioxidant properties, and you’ll find them in foods like chocolate, coffee, and wine.) When teamed up, zinc and hydroquinone appear to degrade superoxide, a substance that has been linked to oxidative stress if there’s too much of it in the body. Oxidative stress, of course, causes cell damage and has been linked to health issues including faster aging, cancer, heart disease, and neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s. So basically, this study shows promise that zinc could help boost the power of existing antioxidant compounds. “The study doesn’t make use of any of the polyphenols found in coffee or chocolate, so recommending that people add zinc to these would be a bit premature. From the work done so far, I could not guarantee that any benefit would result.” —Christian Goldsmith, PhD Here’s the deal, though: it’s WAY too premature to assume based on this study that eating chocolate and zinc will make you live longer. First of all, nothing has been tested
Why is everyone all of the sudden obsessed with storing their skin care in the fridge?
November 07, 2018 at 11:26AM Move over, salsa and carrot sticks. Lately, it seems like everyone is making room in their refrigerators for their skin care—and, in some cases, even getting mini fridges that are solely dedicated to their go-to products. Sure, slathering on something fresh out of the fridge might feel a little more luxe than something at room temperature, but is there any real benefit to the craze? (Spoiler: the answer is yes. A lot of ’em) Now, first thing’s first: The whole skin care-in-the-fridge thing isn’t anything new. According to Lana Pinchasov, a dermatology-certified physician’s assistant in New York City, this is an old tactic that’s now making a comeback. “Years ago, there were some acne products that required refrigeration to prevent chemical breakdown, and interestingly enough, patients hated having to refrigerate them,” she tells me. Oh how times have changed. Today’s #shelfies are starting to involve the shelf of the refrigerator…and no one’s complaining about the many perks of the colder products. While room-temp skin-care products are still doing your complexion plenty of good, there are some items in particular that benefit from being refrigerated. And one of the biggest? Any sort of gel. “I love gel products to help cool, irritated skin. The skin doesn’t always need creams, so gel masks are a great way to maximize hydration without adding a thick layer on top of the skin,” New York City-based dermatologist Dendy Engelman, MD, tells me. “Throwing them in the fridge adds an extra cooling and
The ‘eat the frog’ technique is the most productive way to start your day
November 07, 2018 at 10:18AM There’s one main problem with procrastinating. All that avoidance works for a while, but it never makes those dreaded tasks on your to-do list disappear, no matter how badly you want it to. There might be a technique that could finally help you get ahead, though—you just have to open wide and “eat the frog.” Okay, okay—don’t worry: No real frogs were actually harmed in the name of increased productivity. In this technique, your “frog” is essentially the big, important tasks you desperately need to get done—and devouring ’em is a pretty genius way to start the day. Based off of Mark Twain’s famous quote “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day,” Mental Floss reports doing a seven-step process in the a.m. could help you get ahead once and for all by finally getting the things you’ve been putting off out of the way, one step—or, umm, hop—at a time. Ready to ‘eat the frog’? Follow these steps to finally tackle your to-do list. 1. Figure out your top goal that you want to achieve most. 2. Write the goal down. 3. Set a deadline. 4. List all the steps you need to follow in order to accomplish that goal. 5. Rank those steps by order of priority. 6. Get to work! It’s time to put your plan into action. 7. Do something every day that will bring you closer to achieving your goals. So
What every woman with tweaky hormones needs to know about acupuncture
November 07, 2018 at 10:12AM Acupuncture has long been a popular treatment for infertility, but now, women are gravitating toward Chinese medicine for overall hormonal help. “Over the past few years, I’ve noticed a change; a movement, particularly amongst younger women, to take charge of their cycles long before they want to start a family,” says Jill Blakeway, DACM, a licensed and board-certified acupuncturist and clinical herbalist in New York City. (As evidence of the growing popularity of these treatments, note this: Her clinic, the Yinova Center, has just raised a round of seed funding, which it will use to open new clinics and build out its product and digital offerings.) Among these acupuncture newcomers are women looking for natural ways to handle perimenopause and menopause; younger women challenged by the effects of synthetic birth control; and, basically, women who simply feel like their hormones are off-kilter. “Women understand that their cycles affect their whole body,” Blakeway says. “They know that their mood swings are related to their hormones or that their fatigue is particularly acute at a certain point in their cycle. They are seeking out practitioners who also see them as whole people and treat them accordingly—and that often leads them to Chinese medicine.” Curious to see if acupuncture could help you restore hormonal balance? Here are 4 things to know. Photo: Antonika Chanel on Unsplash Acupuncture can help with a host of problems You might have heard positive things about how acupuncture can work as a fertility
The top sneaker on the planet right now is a dad shoe from Nike
November 07, 2018 at 08:59AM Every quarter, the global online retailer Lyst releases its rankings of the buzziest fashion items from the past three months. Its intel comes from data on over six million products and more than five million shoppers per month. And this fall, the top sneaker (and fifth overall item in the women’s category) is Nike’s M2K Tekno. Curious about the sneaker that launched so many add-to-cart clicks, I reached out to Nike for details on the kicks. What I learned is the M2K Tekno isn’t quite the mother of all dad shoes—but it’s close. That all-important OG title goes to a M2K derivative: The Nike Monarch I, a cross-trainer that debuted two decades ago. It’s one of “the most undeniable heritage ‘dad shoes’ of all time,” says Jin Hong, a senior footwear designer for Nike. And after seeing the chunky sneaker trend starting to return in 2016, Nike tasked Hong and her fellow designers with giving the Monarch a millennial makeover. The result? The $100 M2K Tekno. “The Nike M2K Tekno, along with the ‘dad shoes’ trend in general, captures this generation perfectly. This generation is not afraid of true self-expression.” —Jin Hong, Nike designer “For the M2K Tekno, we had fun infusing design details that are contradictory to the Monarch I—using sleeker lasts to deliver everyday comfort and bringing a sharp/modern edge by adding a heel clip,” says Hong. “It was an unexpected clash of old and new, which delivered something that felt relevant and unique
Get rid of a headache in 10 seconds flat—then ponder why you’re just now learning this trick
November 07, 2018 at 08:21AM Nothing like a massive headache popping up out of nowhere to ruin an otherwise good day, right? One second you’re just minding your own business, and the next the pounding is so intense that you might as well just forget about trying to get through your to-do list. All hope isn’t lost, though. In fact, one physical therapist has a quick trick to help you banish the pain in 10 seconds flat. Tension headaches—the most common type of headache, BTW—often start with something as simple as a clenched jaw. Tightening the masseter muscle—which connects your jawbone and cheekbone—can make other muscles in the area stiff, too, leading to the brain-area pangs. “When the force is too great, you can get tension headaches,” physical therapist David Reavy tells Prevention. So, knowing how to do masseter muscle massage comes in handy. It turns out tension headaches often start with a clenched jaw, and a masseter muscle massage could help get rid of ’em. The exercise is a simple way to release that built-up tension in your jaw, which in turn helps loosen the surrounding muscles and gets rid of your headache. To do it, Reavy says to first find the masseter muscle on each side of your face and apply gentle pressure with your fingers. (If you make a chewing motion, you’ll be able to feel it working and better pinpoint it.) Next, slowly open your mouth as wide as you can, then slowly close your mouth. Repeat this motion until you feel
I don’t care what you say, it’s totally fine to listen to holiday music on November 1
[facebook url=”https://www.facebook.com/skynews/videos/1972902619390992/” /] A resounding no, because I found time-tested research that has my back. A study—which was published in 1989, has recently been making the rounds across the web in rebuttal—and it found that hanging your holiday decor ASAP not only boosts your mental health, but also makes your neighbors perceive you as more sociable, according to Today. So, cue up the holiday Hallmark marathon and channel your inner Frosty…or don’t. Either way…#science. In less mellow dramatic holiday news, here’s the best time to book your flight home and why you might want more sex this time of year. Continue Reading… Author Kells McPhillips | Well and Good Selected by iversue