September 05, 2019 at 02:00PM by CWC In general, I’m a skeptic when it comes to supplements. I’ve clicked on too many headlines warning me that I’m just “peeing them out,” which is literally money down the toilet. I need my wellness budget for cute leggings, cauliflower gnocchi, and $25 spin classes. If I’m going to fork over money for something in the name of wellness, I want to know it’s working. Of course, some of the strangest wellness experiences—sleep robots, gemstone facials, lymphatic drainage massages—can come with some surprisingly legit benefits. It’s the cornerstone of our YouTube series, What the Wellness, which explores which out-there treatments are worth it and which ones are just plain weird. So when I was tasked to try out liposomal vitamins—which were once described in the Well+Good office as “vitamin snot”—I decided to check my skepticism at the door and investigate whether the trendy supplement was truly worth the hype. Speaking of vitamins, here’s the deal with IV drip therapy: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuhsUzxI3To] What the science says Liposomal vitamins don’t use capsules or tablets or powders to deliver nutrients. Instead, the vitamins are encapsulated in pockets of fat cells called liposomes (hence the name). Apparently this is the most effective way of ensuring the vitamins in the supplement actually get absorbed into your body (and not just, you know, peed out). The whole fat pocket concept was confusing, so I asked Pauline Jose, MD, a member of the pH Labs Proactive Health care team and
Month: September 2019
The 6 healthiest grains to eat every day, according to a functional medicine doctor
September 05, 2019 at 01:01PM by CWC If I could only choose one food group to eat for the rest of my life, it would be grains. And I don’t think I’m alone in that. Grains make meals more delicious and satisfying, and they’re loaded with vitamins, minerals, and fiber. But it’s a good idea to be picky because there are only a handful of options a functional medicine doctor recommends. Corn (except for organic corn on the cob, which is then a vegetable), white rice, and wheat are the most popular grains in the world—and they’re also the three picks Mark Hyman, MD, would never add to his grocery cart. One reason to limit your consumption of these grains is that each variety consumes a lot of resources, including water, fossil fuels, and fertilizer. “Cutting down on your consumption of ubiquitous starches protects your health and improves you microbiome,” writes Dr. Hyman on Instagram. View this post on Instagram Grains can be a great source of vitamins, minerals, and fiber. And let’s face it: They taste pretty good too. This is why we’ve been bingin on them for decades, but grains are not for everyone. Cutting down on your consumption of ubiquitous starches like rice and corn protects your health and improves you microbiome, plus it lessens the environmental impact of industrial agriculture. Corn, rice, and wheat are the most popular grains in the world, but growing them consumes a lot of resources, including water,
Think you could pass the U.S. Army sit-up test?
September 05, 2019 at 12:01PM by CWC If you thought you knew what the perfect sit-up looked like, you’re probably wrong—at least according to the military. The general technique for the U.S. Army sit-up standards are familiar—knees bent, feet on the floor, and a continual up-and-down motion—but a few adjustments make this the move of a soldier. The U.S. Army sit-up is slightly different in that with the military-approved technique the only part of your foot in contact with the ground is your heels and your feet should be 12 inches apart. The standards also require a very specific position body position at the top of the sit-up—or it doesn’t count. The changes might seem small, but once you perform the exercise like a soldier, the difference is very clear. How to perform proper U.S. Army sit-ups Lie down with your legs bent at a 90-degree angle and only your heels touching the floor. Keep your feet 12 inches apart. Lock your fingers behind your head and keep your elbows down. Raise your body up into a sit-up, hovering your elbows above your knees. Don’t allow them to touch. Make sure the base of your neck passes the base of your spine. Lower back down until the bottom of your shoulder blades touch the ground. Keeping your form—and without cheating!—see how many sit-ups you can perform in two minutes. To meet U.S. Army sit-up standards, you must score at least 50 points (as part of the Army Physical Fitness Test
These New Art Exhibitions Want To Help You To Act On Climate Change
September 05, 2019 at 11:00AM They’re equal parts beautiful and purposeful. Continue Reading… Author Emma Loewe | Life by Daily Burn Selected by CWC
Well+Good readers have spoken—these 10 books are total page-turners
September 05, 2019 at 03:00AM by CWC The literary community has a soft spot for summer reading. But me? I find myself so much more smitten with books come autumn. Leggings, chunky sweaters, and really good words just go together—you know? That’s why, now that we’ve crossed over Labor Day and are careening towards autumn, it’s high-time to refresh your TBR (that’s “to be read”) pile. When we asked Well+Good readers far and wide to name the titles they treasured the most in the dog days, they’re picks were straight-up golden. Whether you’re in the mood for a 200-page-long spiritual journey, fiction you can fall right into, or s(h)elf help, they have you covered. Below, find book recommendations that pair perfectly with any and every fall drink. 10 best book recommendations from Well+Good readers All Graphics: Well+Good Creative 1. Mastering Your Mean Girl by Melissa Ambrosini This book is all about learning to how to say quiet to your inner-critic, so if you’re ready to renovate the less positive parts of your mind, this is a must-read. 2. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes “I have never loved a character more than I loved Charly Gordon,” read an Amazon review. Now, if that’s not a ringing endorsement, I don’t know what is. 3. The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk, MD I, too, love this book. It offers a scientific look at trauma that’s neither daunting nor superficial, and reading it taught me so much I didn’t know
Impulse shopping is a mind game you’ll never lose again thanks to these tricks
September 05, 2019 at 01:00AM by CWC It’s a Saturday afternoon and you stop by Target or Costco or some other chain for a few necessary household items, like shampoo, batteries, tissues, laundry detergent, and milk. Inevitably though, you wind up leaving with additional items in your bags that you didn’t intend on buying…like a decorative wall clock, chewing gum, and the entire box set of Frasier. (There’s also a pretty good chance in the midst of all this, you forgot the milk.) Puzzled as you may be as to why this impulse shopping happens…all the time, rest assured that you’re hardly the only victim. What’s come to be colloquially referred to as the “Target Effect” references the phenomenon of retail stores tapping into our psyches, compelling us to buy more than what we actually need. But how, exactly, do retailers pull this off and, way more importantly, how can we, as consumers, avoid the pitfalls of impulse shopping? Below, experts in fields of consumer habits and marketing share their secrets so we can be aware of them and become more mindful shoppers, owners, and people. What causes impulse shopping? There are two main factors that lead a person to fall victim to impulse shopping, says Yanliu Huang, PhD, an associate professor of marketing at Drexel University. The first encompasses situational factors, like a shopper’s time and money (the more time and higher budget a person has, the more likely they are to purchase impulsively), and second includes customer characteristics,
Why you should stick with a skin-care routine for at least 28 days
September 05, 2019 at 12:12AM by CWC We live our lives on a 24-hour cycle. It’s some iteration of wake up, work out, go to work, eat, shower, and then repeat—with a glass of wine or a green juice thrown in every once in a while for good measure. But while our brains and bodies can rest, recover, and revive over the course of that short stint, our skin needs a whole lot more time to undergo the same process. Like 28 of those 24 hour-cycles, to be precise. An adult’s skin regenerates itself over the course of four weeks (sometimes longer), a process that involves a new skin cells forming beneath the surface to replace a matured one, which will eventually slough off. “Think about planting a tulip bulb, and you have to wait until it grows and blooms—you plant them and then over the month they come up and bloom and it smells so good, but you can’t really rush the process,” says New York City dermatologist Ellen Marmur, MD. “The way the skin is made, it has a basement membrane that is like a layer, but it’s where everything comes from, so all the cells called keratinocytes—the skin cells—all come from this basement membrane, and then they grow. As they’re growing, they’re changing and maturing and developing. So they go from babies to toddlers to adolescents to adults, and then at the very top of the skin, they’re as mature and strong as they can possibly be.”
You can buy every fall wardrobe essential you could possibly want on Amazon, and we’ve got the proof right here
September 05, 2019 at 12:00AM by CWC Before you start jumping on the trends of the season (hiya, fall!), it’s important to make sure you’ve got a solid fashion foundation to build on. Not only will it help give your wardrobe longevity—because, let’s be honest, nothing says “forever” like a good leather jacket—but it will also give you few go-tos that will make getting dressed a far easier endeavor… especially on those late-in-the-year mornings when you need to do so before the sun is fully up. What’s more, while you might add or subtract layers as seasons come and go, the essentials are totally season-less and can be worn with ease all 365 days of the year. While building your ultimate wardrobe from the ground-up might seem like a daunting task, we are happy to report that you can one-stop-shop everything on your must-have personal style list on Amazon. The company has upped its game on shoes, apparel, and accessories of late and—might we add—it shows. Not to mention that most of the items below can be ordered through Amazon Prime, which means that you could have a little black dress on your doorstep practically as fast as your take-out sushi order. Below, find your eight ultimate wardrobe essentials, and the pieces of each we’re currently snatching up on Amazon. Leather Jacket Buy Now Mackage Baya Leather Jacket $950 Buy Now Cupcakes and Cashmere Vivica Vegan Leather Moto Jacket $118 Buy Now BlankNYC Moto Jacket, $113 A leather jacket is
Self care is a lifeline for many women—but it’s not enough
September 04, 2019 at 11:17PM by CWC Take a five-minute scroll through your Instagram feed, and you’re bound to find snapshots of women’s toes peeking out from their bathwater, selfies modeling their latest face mask purchase, or a mini-altar decked out with enchanted crystals, candles, and incense—each image stamped with the #selfcare hashtag that’s been used over 18 million times and counting. The term “self care,” defined as taking care of one’s own health and needs, hit a five-year high of Google search interest in November 2016 after the presidential election, and has been steadily climbing ever since. (At Well+Good, we’ve been talking about it since at least 2016.) But the phenomenon has roots in something bigger than just one election. “Our current culture is so focused on productivity that we over-schedule ourselves from the morning till the night,” explains Jessie Borelli, PhD, associate professor of psychological sciences at the University of California, Irvine. “If left to our own devices, we probably won’t just naturally build opportunities for enjoyment or pleasure into our daily lives.” So we create self care moments and calendar appointments to force us to do these necessary actions. “Emotional self care is key in my psychotherapy practice—acknowledging, labeling, and experiencing emotions is a big component to self care,” explains Julie de Azevedo Hanks, PhD, LCSW, therapist and author of The Burnout Cure and The Assertiveness Guide for Women. “It’s simply taking care of and attending to the different aspects of life—social, emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual,” she
Scientists Have Found Another Way To Safely Treat Peanut Allergies
September 04, 2019 at 11:14PM Consider your nut allergy handled. Continue Reading… Author Jamie Schneider | Life by Daily Burn Selected by CWC