Year: 2019

January 29, 2019 at 08:03AM by CWC If one thing remains true about my everyday wardrobe, it’s that you’ll always find a simple black hair tie around my wrist. I don’t know when this beauty essential became such a steady part of my look—it doesn’t even come off in the shower, TBH—but I like to be prepared in case I want to pull my hair back at a moment’s notice. But without fail, after a few hours of wearing my trusty black “bracelet,” I’ll wind up indent around my wrist, which makes me wonder if I’m maybe cutting off the supply of blood flow to my hand. On the extreme end of the spectrum, I’ve even woken up with the tell-tale indent on my wrist and some slight tingling in my hand to wonder what’s going on. To finally figure out what the heck is the deal is—and to confirm whether I’m doing something bad to my circulation—I sought a cardiologist’s advice. In the most obvious news: “If you have numbness or tingling in your hand, or it becomes cold and pale, your hair tie on your wrist is probably too tight,” says Suzanne Steinbaum, DO, a volunteer medical expert for the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women movement and director of women’s cardiovascular prevention, health, and wellness at Mount Sinai. She says your hair elastic-related numbness is generally caused by a lack of blood flow. (However, arm and hand numbness can be caused by a number of other factors,

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January 29, 2019 at 07:39AM by CWC I remember the barren look in my mother’s eyes when I told her I was diagnosed with depression and was also taking medication to treat it. It was as if the words that had left my lips were too weighty for her to carry. Full of too much pain for her to even try to digest because it might make her sick to her stomach and upset the taste of truth. This is my story, but it’s also the story of many black women. Women with mahogany skin are constantly having to hide their pain because they are told that it’s too much, too serious, too exaggerated. I had always been told and taught that my pain could go away if I worked a little harder, slept a little later, ate a little more, or complained a little less. Being depressed while wrapped in black skin is difficult not only for my kin, but for the society that I live in. Someone asked me once if I think progress is being made to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health in our society. I didn’t know how to answer. One part of me believes the answer is yes, we are making progress. Yes, because years ago, the word depression seemed a little dirty. Like it was a foreign language that only the hurt and broken understood. But now people are having open conversations about depression and anxiety. Celebrities are openly talking about going to

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January 29, 2019 at 07:15AM by CWC This past summer, I attempted to take a pole dancing class in Portugal. It didn’t exactly go as planned. I was bummed about this, as I’d never taken a pole dancing class before and it’s one of those things only an assignment would make me brave enough to actually do. Months went by and I forgot about this short-lived ambition, but since my New Year’s resolutions center around finding things to spark joy in my always-bored life, I figure it might be time to get myself onto the pole at long last, assignment be damned. (Also, I secretly want to be in a Cardi B video, so there’s that….) Luckily, I live in Los Angeles, where you can find innumerable classes in just about anything, especially if said “anything” puts you at center stage. Keep reading for all the deets on the city’s best (of many) pole dancing studios—including one run by the actual pole dancer from Cardi B’s “Money” video. 1. The Pole Garage Westside girls need look no further than The Pole Garage, one of the friendliest pole studios in town. The family-owned (by founder/instructor Drea Roers and her husband) space offers “pole teaser” classes for beginners; however, if despite the space’s cozy vibes, you’re still scared to go it alone, consider getting 5–7 of your best girls together for one of the box’s standard-issue private pole parties instead. 1720 20th St., Suite 205, Santa Monica, CA, 90404; (310) 392-2605 2. Evolve Dance

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January 29, 2019 at 06:41AM by CWC As a kid, my mom always bundled me up A Christmas Story–style when temperatures even threatened to drop below freezing. She dressed me in 100 layers of thermals, snow pants, and scarves with a warning: Anything less, and I’d be at risk for frostbite. And just like with so many other things in life, Mom was right. Sigh. While the whole frostbite threat may have seemed like a clever tactic to get you inside in time for dinner after hours devoted to building the perfect snowman, it’s a real thing—and it could seriously hurt your body. With the ridiculously cold temps that have already hit a large portion of the country this winter, some attention to the condition is totally warranted. “Third-degree burns look a lot like frostbite, and fourth-degree frostbite can affect nerves down to the muscle and bone.” —Dr. Chris Hogrefe Sports medicine and emergency medicine Chris Hogrefe, MD, told Vogue he saw a handful of people with frostbite come into the ER within a week at the Chicago hospital where he works. Usually the condition affects the cheeks, ears, nose, fingers, and toes, and if you feel numbness or notice a change in your skin color or texture to something rubbery or waxy-feeling, you should go to urgent care immediately, he said. “We treat it a lot like burns; third-degree burns look a lot like frostbite, and fourth-degree frostbite can affect nerves down to the muscle and bone,” Dr. Hogrefe said. So how can frostbite be prevented in

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January 29, 2019 at 06:34AM by CWC When it comes to childhood sicknesses, most parents expect their kids to suffer through a bout of chicken pox and the occasional ear infection. But measles? It’s 2019—didn’t we eliminate the disease in the United States? (Hint: We did.) Yet, here we are. On Tuesday, health officials declared a state of emergency due to an outbreak affecting two Washington counties, according to NPR. How exactly did this happen? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, measles—a viral infection causing a fever, rash, and inflammation—was a major problem in the United States in the early 1900s, leading to about 6,000 deaths a year. But after the introduction of a safe and effective vaccine, in 1968, the number of people infected began to plummet. By 2000, the disease was declared eliminated in the U.S. (In countries where a vaccine isn’t readily available, measles is still common.) NPR correlates the resurgence in measles cases with state laws allowing parents to opt out of vaccinating their children. To this end, the CDC is urging parents to vaccinate children as young as 1 year old. The problem with waiting until after you suspect the virus has been contracted, the nation’s health protection agency says, is that it may take up to four days for symptoms to appear. Meanwhile, children easily (and unknowingly) expose others to the disease. Measles is an airborne contagion with a 90 percent infection rate. It spreads so easily that an infected child who coughs in

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January 29, 2019 at 05:00AM by CWC Let’s get real: After you post an Instagram photo and the notifications start rolling in, you totally track who’s giving you digital hearts. If the person you’ve been crushing on has liked your latest, you are almost certainly aware—as is the case when that person views your Instagram Stories. In short, you know when someone is keeping up with you on the reg, but that reality doesn’t stop your stomach butterflies from fluttering or your mind from wandering and wondering about what it means. Because, hey, a sudden uptick in Instagram Story-viewing must mean something, right? And by liking your photo, the object of your desire surely intends to subliminally communicate that what they really like is you, correct? Well, according to one expert, these feelings may just be a case of seeing what you want to see. A big part of how we perceive a person’s interaction with us is how we feel about them, says sex therapist Amie Harwick, PhD, MFT. “Our feelings toward the other person can be projected on a situation. We tend to see what we want through the lens of our own experiences, desires, and fears.” So it’s important to look at the bigger picture of your interaction with your crush—not just their Instagram behavior. Are they texting you, or singling you out to talk to you when you’re with a big group of people? If so, there may well be attraction there. But if your relationship is

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