November 26, 2018 at 01:00PM Ah, winter time. A time for clinging to your warm beverages, holiday shopping, and—on particularly exciting days—ice skating. But as you run about partaking in these seasonally appropriate outdoor activities, one thing is bound to happen: Your hands will get excruciatingly dry. While most people are fine-tuning their skin-care regimens to be more moisturizing and cold weather-friendly, uber-dry hand treatments tend to get left out. That is, until you feel that horrible pain on your hands and look down only to find them cracked, possibly bleeding, and definitely parched.”The skin on our hands is among the thickest on the body, but it’s the most at risk from the environment because of everyday wear and tear,” says Joshua Zeichner, MD, a New York-based dermatologist. “Especially during winter months, when we’re extra vigilant about hand washing to prevent the spread of germs, the skin on the hands can become extremely dry and even crack.” It’s true—whenever I wash my hands in the winter, it only exacerbates the dryness problem and all of the moisture gets zapped out within seconds. What to do? “A rich hand cream can help soften, hydrate, and repair damaged skin on the hands. It’s key to look for ingredients like colloidal oatmeal to coat and protect the skin.” You can also slather on those same ingredients that you look for in your skin-care products for hydration, like trusty hyaluronic acid or aloe vera. It also helps to avoid washing your hands—yes it can be
Day: November 26, 2018
Medicine prices are sky high—but is it always a good idea to go generic?
November 26, 2018 at 12:32PM Let’s face it: Medicine has never been more expensive in the U.S. than it is right now. The AIDS medication Daraprim jumped from roughly $13 per pill to $750 per pill in 2015, and the life-saving EpiPen now costs $600 per two doses (and the manufacturer is being sued over it). The problem has gotten so intense that Congress passed two bills in October aimed at making drug pricing more transparent up-front. Of course, the tried-and-true advice for saving $$ on meds: Shop generic when you can. Generic drugs (as in, the acetaminophen to your Tylenol) generally cost about 80 to 85 percent less than their name-brand counterparts, according to the FDA. But when it comes to your health, is going generic the equivalent to buying a knock-off designer bag: looks the same, costs less, but is made with inferior materials? Not quite. “Many people assume that brand-name medications are ‘better’ because they cost more, and because of brand recognition,” says Michael Grosso, MD, chief medical officer at Huntington Hospital. But, he adds, there are a lot of people out there who are all about generic drugs. And for good reason: “Federal oversight by the FDA has increased at all levels of manufacturing of generic drugs,” says Alan Mensch MD, FACP, FCCP, the senior VP of medical affairs at Plainview & Syosset Hospitals—making the drugs safe and generally just as effective as name-brand ones (no cheap leather or shoddy stitching here). “More than 80 percent of the drugs purchased in the
4 ingredients Vanessa Hudgens uses in smoothies for an antioxidant-packed punch
November 26, 2018 at 12:07PM With cold and flu season in full swing, there’s no better time to up the amount of antioxidants in your diet. Because the compounds are pros at keeping your immune system strong—as well as repairing any damage—they’re adept at helping you make sure your body stays healthy and sickness-free all season long. Just ask Vanessa Hudgens, who always has four healthy, antioxidant-rich ingredients on hand for immune-boosting smoothies to make sure she’s always feeling her best. In her cover story for Women’s Health, the actress made it clear that her health and well-being is her primary focus, which for her means sticking to a pescatarian diet and keeping kombucha and a container of arugula in her fridge at all times. She’s also a big fan of making a daily smoothie filled with some staples that offer a serious health-boosting punch. All you need to re-create it for yourself is acai berries, blueberries, banana, and coconut oil. “I love finding things that are good for you and also taste amazing,” she says. “I try to get enough healthy fats, protein, and foods that give me energy.” View this post on Instagram This is how much I love working out lol @ggmagree #film A post shared by Vanessa Hudgens (@vanessahudgens) on Sep 12, 2018 at 12:40pm PDT //www.instagram.com/embed.js That’s not the only way Hudgens stays healthy, though. Aside from loading up on antioxidants, she also does six workouts a week (!!!). Her sweat schedule involves a never-boring rotation of SoulCycle,
Coming to a complexion near you: a yoga glow without ever hopping on a mat
November 26, 2018 at 11:42AM If you’ve ever caught a glimpse of yourself in the mirror after 60 minutes of vinyasa flow and thought “damn, girl,” (in a Ryan Reynolds voice, of course) you know that the “yoga glow” is more than just a myth. And the latest beauty trend to hit our Instagram explore pages involves recreating the elusive post-savasana skin with makeup—no actual yoga required. The hashtag #yogaskin has recently racked up hundreds of posts on the ‘gram, with women swapping their head and shoulder stands for a mixture of foundation and highlighter to achieve that faux yoga glowy complexion. “Immediately after a yoga class, the blood flow to your skin is optimized, especially skin of the face when downward and forward poses are practiced,” explains Dr. Adarsh Vijay Mudgil, MD medical director of Mudgil Dermatology, of why your skin tends to look so good when you step off the mat. To mimic this down-dog dewiness, British makeup artist Sara Hill created the “Yoga Skin Technique,” which according to her Instagram feed, promises “healthy, glowing, hydrated, radiant, sheer and natural [skin]” and “skin that looks like skin at its very best.” View this post on Instagram The Yogaskin Technique I created to make the skin look lit from within. Healthy, glowing, hydrated, radiant, sheer and natural. Skin that looks like skin at its very best. ︎Step One – Cleanse and prep your skin as normal. Let your skincare absorb fully before adding the next step. ︎Step Two – Apply a small amount of primer (silicone free).
We found the crystal-infused heating pad Lena Dunham uses
November 26, 2018 at 11:21AM Lena Dunham doesn’t shy away from showing the internet what her world looks like behind closed doors. The Girls’ leading lady has spoken bravely (and publicly) about the pain associated with her endometriosis, gaining and losing weight as a result of her health, and other shouldn’t-be-tabboo subjects in between. Her recent profile in The Cut proves no exception: In her notoriously candid manner, Dunham talks about struggling with a Klonopin addiction, PTSD, her hysterectomy, and that’s just the beginning. But eagle-eyed readers may also notice that the interview briefly mentions that, among the multi-talented performer’s possessions, is none other than a crystal-powered healing modality—the BioMat 7000MX, a tourmaline-infused infrared heating pad (though, there’s also a amethyst option). Those who know a thing or two about gemstones will remember that both amethyst and tourmaline are frequently used throughout many people’s healing process. But tourmaline is extra special because it’s also believed to offer its wearer protection. When you combine these stones’ superpowers with the mat’s infrared heat (which has been found to lower blood pressure, reduce chronic pain, and improve your mood) the product’s description says the effect is pretty, well, high vibe: “[The mat] uses many pounds of hot amethyst crystal to produce a unique signal of infrared light. This light is experienced as a wholesome and enveloping warmth that is both gentle and powerful at the same time.” If you want to experience Dunham’s go-to infrared treatment, there are a ton of mat options you can shop right now (depending on how much cash you’re willing
A mom’s BMI shifts are contagious—as if women needed *another* thing to worry about
November 26, 2018 at 10:21AM The whole “monkey see, monkey do” thing can be cute when your little one is trying on your beloved matte lipstick or mimicking your moves from the boutique fitness class you stream on the daily. But while some copy-cat behavior is fun (funny, even), others can majorly impact your kiddo’s health now and in the future. In a new study published in BMJ Open, researchers analyzed the activity levels and body mass index (BMI) of more than 4,400 Norwegian parents and their children for an 11-year period, and they found that the rise and fall of the children’s BMIs closely followed their mothers’. Meaning, when Mom lost weight, so did the kids. And when she decreased her activity level, her children’s BMIs increased. The fathers’ weight, meanwhile, didn’t correlate with their kids’. The team thinks there’s one likely explanation for why mothers are more influential than fathers when it comes to BMI: the patriarchy, basically. As in, women are still primarily responsible for the family’s lifestyle habits, like what’s being eaten on the day-to-day and the activities on the schedule. “Parents have a major impact on their children’s health and lifestyle. Behaviors that lead to obesity are easily transferred from parent to child,” said Marit Næss, study author and doctoral candidate at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, in a press release. “Mothers whose activity levels drop as their children are growing up are linked to children with higher BMI in adolescence.” Not exactly groundbreaking to say
Sorry, but your Thanksgiving leftovers don’t last nearly as long as you think
November 26, 2018 at 10:13AM If you’re planning on reliving your melt-in-your-mouth good Thanksgiving dinner by eating exclusively leftovers all week long, you might want to rethink that decision. Sure, eating leftovers days after the fact seems like it would be totally fine, but just because it still looks as fresh and tasty as it did on day one doesn’t mean it is. (Nope, not even the Paleo pumpkin pie.) Unfortunately, the expiration date on leftovers isn’t nearly as long as you think. According to the USDA, you can only keep them in the refrigerator for three to four days before bacteria starts to take over your feast. So if you ate your big meal on Thanksgiving, that means today is the day you’ve gotta make the decision to eat everything or toss it out, because if you do decide to try your luck tomorrow, you might be setting yourself up for getting sick. And who wants to spend their first week back at work with a nasty foodborne illness? Now, not all hope is lost. As long as it’s not over four days, you can still freeze your leftovers today so you can enjoy ’em later. The USDA says the quality is still A+ as long as you don’t eat anything after six months. But again, you have to freeze them today in order to ensure that you’re not freezing bacteria with it, too. Other than that, it looks like it’s back to your regular meal-prepping schedule. They’ll be plenty more
This derm-approved trick lets you try natural deodorant *without* soaked underarms
November 26, 2018 at 09:46AM By now, pretty much everyone I know is on board with clean beauty. They’ve swapped skin-stripping cleansers and chemically packed moisturizers for skin-care products with more nourishing, plant-based ingredients (praise). But, the hardest product to swap out, no doubt, is antiperspirant in lieu of an aluminum-free natural deodorant. I understand: Finding a natural deodorant is a lot like finding the one. Some are too wet, some are too powdery; some leave pits irritated at the hands of baking soda; and still some, though otherwise perfect, just aren’t antiperspirants. A quick refresher (ahem) on the difference between deodorant and antiperspirant: The former simply helps to wick away armpit sweat and help mask any odor that comes from the area; while the latter actually plugs the sweat glands to keep you from sweating altogether. So why choose one over the other? In recent years, aluminum-laced deodorants have come under scrutiny linking them to breast cancer, and while the American Cancer Society firmly says there’s no connection, many people are opting to replace them anyhow and just sweat it naturally. And that’s why I’m happy to report that I’ve found a way to start using natural deodorants on pits most days and still prohibit that pesky sweat: It’s called deodorant cycling. To do this, you simply alternate between using natural deodorant for two days in a row and then on the third day, you use an antiperspirant. This works because many antiperspirants prevent sweat in the area for 48 hours, during which time you can
How to answer super-nosy questions without making things awkward
November 26, 2018 at 09:04AM Ahhh, the holidays. That special time of year when nosiness is in the air, and your entire family unanimously decides that no topic is off limits. Your relationship status, political views, and current income will all be on the table for possible dinner fodder, so having an expert-approved game plan in place for navigating many a probing (and involuntary) round of Table Topics may be key for making it to the new year unscathed. In a recent episode of the Savvy Psychologist podcast, Ellen Hendriksen, PhD, tackles how to answer nosy questions in the heat of the moment (without it leading to a Real Housewives of New Jersey table-flipping moment). Here are her four methods. 4 tips to keep your cool when asked about hot-button topics 1. Push back: As the most aggressive of Dr. Hendriksen’s tips, this method involves calling out whoever’s giving you the third degree. “The direct method isn’t for everyone, but if you’re so over being asked when you’re going to get married, set an unmistakable boundary such as, ‘I’m really not comfortable being asked that’,” she says. So if you’re feeling extra done with the current round of 20 Questions, this may be your best course of action. 2. Offer a non-answer: Before you head home for family festivities, go ahead and store a few non-answers up your proverbial sleeve. A few of the psychologist’s favorites include “That’s so nice of you to ask,” “How sweet of you to be concerned,” and “That’s a great question—I
I detoxed my home from plastic and it’s going to save me thousands of dollars
November 26, 2018 at 08:39AM I became weirdly plastic-phobic after reading an article about how sperm counts have decreased by 50 percent in 40 years, and how there is some expert consensus that this change is likely due to neuroendocrine disruptors like the BPA found in plastic. (And also, receipts.) Now, why do I care about sperm counts as a lady (who is not trying to conceive)? Perhaps because reproductive issues are seen as sort of the canary in the coal mine when it comes to health—meaning, they are often the first sign that something in our bodies is going wrong. And while science may not be 100-percent settled in terms of plastic’s effects on our systems, health isn’t the only reason it makes me cringe. Not long after reading that article, I was fortunate enough to take a trip to the Maldives, an island nation in the Indian Ocean. No plastic was allowed on the island I visited, and I actually noticed…meaning, I’m so used to seeing plastic littered all over natural environments and washing up on shore that I actually noted its absence. This stressed me out—and for good reason. According to the Plastic Pollution Coalition, eight million tons of plastic enter the ocean annually, and a recent study showed that by 2050, there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean. This isn’t just bad for the marine life—for whom it’s really bad—it’s also bad for those of us who consume them (and, you know, the overall ecosystem