May 01, 2019 at 07:12AM by CWC As someone who lives with a profound fear of the dark, I’ve learned a thing or two over the years about how light affects my sleep. For instance, the black light that made my high-school era neon velvet posters glow isn’t optimum for bedtime. And like any chronic appsturbator knows, the blue light of your phone is all but guaranteed to keep you up. Ultimately, it’s a dark-horse contender that shines brightest for not disrupting your snooze game: scarlet bulbs. Even better, you can nab a red night light for only $10. And research backs me up here. One 2013 study published in The Journal of Neuroscience tested the effects of different light wavelengths. Exposure to white and blue light increased depressive-like symptoms (in hamsters, not humans it should be noted—but keep an open mind here). But the hamsters exposed to red light? They were far better off, putting forth the idea that if you need to get a night light, the safest bet is to see red. If you need to get a night light, the safest bet is to see red. Another study, published in 2017 from the University of Haifa, investigated how different lights eff up our sleep schedule. The blue screen light, on average, shaved off 16 minutes of sleep time and slowed down the production of that sweet, sweet, melatonin. Red light, by contrast, which produces a very similar level of melatonin as total darkness does, was shown to
Category: 2019 Health
How the keyhole became the swimsuit’s most functional feature
May 01, 2019 at 06:00AM by CWC Swimming laps in the wrong type of bathing suit is the swimwear equivalent of playing with fire. Sure, bikinis look great in Instagram pictures, but the minute you attempt to wear one while performing the butterfly, you run the risk of flashing your top half, bottom half, or in the case of my eighth grade pool party, both at the same time. One pieces are problematic in an entirely different way, because they fill up with water and slow down your strokes. And don’t even get me started on tankinis, which deserve their own place in the 10th circle of hell. So what’s a burgeoning Katie Ledecky to do? Invest in a keyhole swimsuit, which I hereby declare to be the holy grail of all the fashions that are actually meant for swimming. You know the ones I’m talking about—those ultra-chic, yet functional, one pieces that have a circular-shaped cutout right below the boobs. We love ’em because aside from giving the girls a little bit of understated airtime, the artfully placed hole allows for water to move in and out of the suit so it won’t get stuck and make you feel like a waterlogged—albeit well dressed—pufferfish. “We’ve used a keyhole construction on the front of our Peak Suit as a way to allow water to easily flow out below the bustline, says Shannon Savage, co-founder of Left on Friday. The brand also offers a suit with a keyhole in the back, which helps
Are you there, God? It’s me, a grown-ass woman trying to learn to love her period
May 01, 2019 at 05:00AM by CWC I got my first period at the underripe age of 10. I looked down into my sparkly, frog-print underwear from Limited Too one night, and there she was. I immediately started sobbing. By that point, I had already spent hours of my life poring over Judy Blume’s The Care and Keeping of You in anticipation of this exact moment, but even so, when push came to flow, I was confused, horrified, and embarrassed. Holy hell, was I embarrassed. Even though I was the only girl I knew who had been wearing deodorant and a training bra for two-plus years, I still figured I was years (light-years, even!) away from having to deal with cramps and mood swings and panty liners. After all, the average age for getting a first period is 12-and-a-half…guess I was advanced. Ugh. Aside from my mom, I didn’t tell a soul. I didn’t want to divert my friends’ attention from blissfully decorating their Lisa Frank Trapper Keepers and learning the since-forgotten art of cursive. I didn’t want anyone to know my mom had to teach me how to use tampons during spring break so I could take my cool new tankini for a spin in the water without the scene looking like an outtake from Jaws. I wanted total anonymity because I felt like a freak. For years. Even when the rest of my friends eventually got their periods, I never got totally comfortable with the notion of my
6 benefits of peaches that make me really want it to be summer already
May 01, 2019 at 04:00AM by CWC Few sweet snacks embody summer quite like a peach. Feeling the soft fuzz against your upper lip, its slight tartness hitting your tongue, and sweet juice dripping from the corners of your mouth onto your hands are what warm backyard nights are made of. However, peaches have a lot more to offer than just that summertime feeling (although that’s definitely a big plus, IMO). Here, integrative and functional dietitian Nour Zibdeh, MS, RDN, CLT, explains what exactly it is about peaches that makes them so good for you. What are the benefits of peaches? 1. Peaches are a good source of vitamin C. Sorry oranges, you aren’t the only fruit in town good for this. One medium-sized peach has 10 milligrams of the important antioxidant (about 13 percent of your recommended daily intake). “This is good for the immune system, reducing free radical oxidative damage, and reducing the risk for chronic diseases,” Zibdeh says. 2. They’re full of vitamin A. Zibdeh points to peaches’ high vitamin A content as another reason why the fruit is a healthy win. “Vitamin A is important for healthy skin and eyes, reducing inflammation, and boosting the immune system,” she says. “It’s also needed for building a healthy gut lining which is going to help fend off pathogens that we might encounter in our food or environment.” Carrots tend to get all the attention when it comes to vitamin A, but as Zibdeh points out, it’s far from the
Talking about sex is SO much easier with this step-by-step guide
May 01, 2019 at 03:00AM by CWC Why can it be so difficult to talk about sex? Well, for starters, it’s because our culture doesn’t really encourage it. Here, sex expert and relationship coach Lila Darville points out how to begin solving this problem—and start to enjoy sex more—in her latest for the Well+Good Council. There is this idea that great lovers shouldn’t talk and instead just know exactly what they are doing. But the truth is that the most skillful lovers are the ones who are attuned to themselves and their lovers—and they are asking great questions. To have great sex, you have to talk about it. This is a new paradigm of sexuality. It’s a different mindset from what we have picked up from our culture, media, and porn, where sex looks like it flows seamlessly. The reality is, asking for what we want is something that all of us don’t do enough in every area of our lives. To have great sex, you have to talk about it. We don’t ask for what we want because it is scary. We are scared of being rejected, ruining the moment, displeasing or hurting someone, and here’s a big one: We’re scared of actually getting what we want. Fear stops us from diving fully into relationships, from communicating, from requesting what we desire, from knowing what we desire, and from getting what we need to feel safe so that we can authentically be in pleasure. On any given day our
If your lower back is sore, this is the sneaky place you might not be stretching enough
May 01, 2019 at 02:00AM by CWC Despite the fact that I’m teetering on the edge of 30, I often come home from work with the same issues that a full-on grandma would have. “Alexa, my back hurts,” I complain to the closest thing I have to a roommate (bonus points: she doesn’t complain about my incessant complaining). And it’s true: After spending over eight hours a day hunched over my laptop, things start to hurt—so much so I’ve spent many an evening on the couch with a hot water bottle parked above my derriere. And while I’m cool spending my weeknights acting like an 85-year-old (hot tea, Turner Classic Movies, and single-serving candies? Um, yes please), I would prefer to have my bodily issues act my age, thank you very much. While my heating pad admittedly helps with my lower back issues to some degree, there’s one other thing I should be doing to help ease the pain, and that’s stretching—but not necessarily the way you’d think. “More often than not, a tight or sore muscle is caused by a problem elsewhere,” says Brad Walker, founder of StretchLab. “The lower back is one of the most common areas where people experience consistent chronic pain, and one of the most common causes of this pain is tight hip flexors. When the muscles in the front of your body, around your hips and quads, became tight and restrictive, they pull your hips out of alignment, which puts a lot of strain on
3 women share their hair loss stories—and the surprisingly different reasons they faced thinning hair
April 30, 2019 at 06:30PM by CWC We all know hair-washing day is the day we schedule our entire social calendar and workout schedule around—but it also often means discovering what seems like hundreds of loose strands all over your hands and in the drain once you’re done. It’s usually nothing to stress over (we all shed), but sometimes excess hair shedding can be a symptom of something more. In a recent survey of 2,600 of our readers, we learned that 40 percent of you face thinning-hair issues that go beyond the slapping-strands-on-the-shower-wall situation. “There are a number of natural and external factors that can cause thinning hair and it varies from person to person what exactly is the root cause of their specific problems,” says David Adams, consultant trichologist at Thicker Fuller Hair. “Natural causes include genetics, hormones, and general physical health, and external causes include side effects of medications, over-styling, stress, and poor nutrition.” The takeaway from our survey? You’re definitely not the only one experiencing it—but one thing’s for certain: You can totally do something about it. Thicker Fuller Hair is a hair-care regimen created by an Ayurvedic chemist to deliver nourishment from scalp to your ends, so it helps your strands return to their former glory days with plant-based ingredients like vegan keratin, quinoa, and more. On our mission to gain more insight into the thinning-hair phenomenon—and spread more awareness that there are formulas out there that can help—we asked three Well+Good staffers to share their
Lily Kunin’s step-by-step guide to making the supercharged matcha of your dreams
April 30, 2019 at 06:30PM by CWC If you could grant yourself a wellness superpower, picking only the perfectly ripe avocados out of a stack and whipping up extraordinary matcha lattes at home would make your top five. (Same!) Well, good news and bad news: While you’re stuck with the luck of the draw in the avocado department, you’re golden on the matcha-latte front—because we’ve got the step-by-step, beginner’s guide to becoming a matcha whisperer, straight from wellness luminary Lily Kunin. As a Well+Good Council member and founder of Clean Market, a serene wellness haven for New Yorkers, Kunin slings tonics and specialized self-care services (IV drips, infrared saunas, and cryotherapy) to the masses. And a supercharged matcha is just the thing she needs to start her busy day. “My go-to matcha has matcha, collagen, coconut butter, Brain Octane, and cinnamon,” Kunin says (FYI, Brain Octane is basically fancy MCT oil, the beloved keto ingredient buzzed about for its energizing properties). “Besides being delicious, it’s a great way to fuel my morning (has over 10 grams of protein) and turn my brain back on.” To help you start an invigorating morning matcha routine, we teamed up with Reebok UNLOCKED (the wellness rewards program that hooks you up with exclusive Reebok offers plus beauty, food, and fitness bonuses curated by yours truly) to score Kunin’s personal recipe for mind-body domination. Scroll down for Lily Kunin’s handy GIF instructions to whip up the perfect cup of dairy-free matcha. https://content.jwplatform.com/players/n2JLV7Pz-dUl83MEz.js 1. Gather all the
Magnesium—the MVP of the periodic table you probably aren’t getting enough of
April 30, 2019 at 06:30PM by CWC Since that month in chemistry class devoted to memorizing the entire periodic table, you probably haven’t revisited what the elements—specifically magnesium—can do for your health, right? Don’t worry, there won’t be a pop quiz at the end of this article, but we did tap Amy Shapiro, RD and founder of Real Nutrition, to give us a quick lesson on the benefits of magnesium and how it can be a real wellness game-changer. “I find through my research that if we eat a balanced diet full of foods that provide great sources of magnesium, we should feel quite balanced, and many of our daily ailments will be alleviated,” she says. Most Americans are deficient in magnesium, which is why getting enough of it makes a noticeable impact on how you feel. (So yes, this is one case where eating your problems away is totally a thing.) “If we eat a balanced diet full of foods that provide great sources of magnesium…many of our daily ailments will be alleviated.” This OG element is found in chocolate (yas), fish, almonds, avocados (double yas), green leafy veggies, and pumpkin seeds—which are having a moment in the superfood space right now. With more brands tapping into the magic of magnesium via pumpkin seeds, Health Warrior Superfoods is leading the charge with its Organic Pumpkin Seed Protein Bars that deliver 35 percent of your daily recommended value of magnesium, plus eight grams of plant-based protein and major flavor (oh
9 ultra-clean laundry detergents for people with sensitive skin
April 30, 2019 at 05:00PM by CWC It’s kind of ironic that cleaning products are typically some of the least “clean” items in our homes. Laundry detergents in particular are heinous offenders, according to experts. They’re often filled with chemicals that aren’t great for humans or the environment. So what, exactly, constitutes better-for-you laundry detergents? Here’s the thing: When it comes to cleaning products, finding the safest option isn’t always as simple as just reading labels. As Well+Good Council member and non-toxic living expert Sophia Gushée points out, brands aren’t required to list all of their ingredients, so it’s hard to know for sure what’s really inside the bottle. In general, many laundry detergents contain certain types of stabilizers, colors, preservatives, surfactants, solvents, and brightening agents linked to negative health effects. (Think respiratory issues, hormone disruption, skin allergies, and even cancer.) Other common laundry detergent ingredients, like phosphates, can create harmful algal blooms that disrupt the ocean ecosystem. If there’s one thing Gushée always avoids, it’s “fragrance”—a vague, unregulated term that can actually hide many different chemicals—aromatic and not—under its umbrella. “Fragrance can contain an unknown number of potentially threatening ingredients, some of which could contribute to cancer, reproductive and developmental toxicity, allergies, and skin irritation,” says Gushée, author of A to Z of D-Toxing: The Ultimate Guide to Reducing Our Toxic Exposures. If this freaks you out, there are plenty of brands now making fragrance-free suds—or choosing to disclose exactly what’s in their fragrances—which makes that part of the equation,