March 20, 2020 at 02:00AM by CWC When practicing yoga, it’s easy to get caught up trying to nail each posture, but postures and movement are just one component of yoga. Yoga breathing techniques, or pranayama (prana means “life force” and yama means “control”), is also an essential element of yoga that enhances and deepens your practice. “Yoga without breath isn’t really yoga,” says Reiki master and certified yoga and meditation teacher Nina Endrst. “The breath is the foundation of the entire practice. Marrying movement and breath is what makes yoga such a special and powerful experience. Using the breath as our guide draws us back to the body and the current moment.” “Using the breath as our guide draws us back to the body and the current moment.” —Nina Endrst, yoga and meditation teacher Still, yoga breathing techniques and exercises are often met with resistance, which Endrst believes is because it makes many feel vulnerable since it is often an unfamiliar practice. “We have trouble sitting that close to ourselves sometimes, but that is when deep healing and connection take place,” she says. Whether you’re on the mat or out in the real world, living life, yoga breathing techniques are great tools to have at your disposal for whenever you need to clear and calm your mind and body. So are you ready to experience the magic of breathing for yourself? Here are five yoga breathing techniques to try, the benefits of each, plus tips on how to incorporate
Category: Your Healthiest Relationship
Why pros say using peppermint oil for hair is the key to healthy strands
March 20, 2020 at 01:30AM by CWC Peppermint is the flavor you know and love from mint chocolate ice cream, candy canes, and peppermint tea. And the extract can be added to your beauty routine for all sorts of benefits, from your skin to your manicure; however, one of its lesser-known perks is using peppermint oil for hair health. “Peppermint is an aromatic herb in the mint family that’s found in North America and Europe,” says Hadley King, MD, a New York City-based dermatologist. Peppermint oil is extracted from the leaves of the peppermint plant, which contains over 40 different chemical compounds, according to Caren Cambell, MD, a board-certified dermatologist in San Francisco. “The two main compounds are menthol and menthone,” says Dr. King. For your hair, peppermint has been known to stimulate the hair follicles, promote growth, and rebalance the scalp, says Paula Simpson, biochemist, author, and formulation expert. Plus, since it’s an essential oil that has microbial, insecticidal, and anti-inflammatory properties, “it can help with itching of the scalp,” says Dr. King. Keep scrolling for more intel on how peppermint oil helps your hair health, plus how to incorporate it into your hair-care regimen. Benefits of peppermint oil for hair health Various studies have looked into the effects of using peppermint oil on your hair, and the overall findings have pointed to hair growth promoting properties, along with clarifying benefits. Though it was a study on mice, one researcher found that a three percent solution of peppermint oil
If your anxiety surrounding COVID-19 is higher than ever, science says there’s a reason
March 20, 2020 at 01:00AM by CWC Over the course of the last week—since COVID-19 became a legitimate concern in New York City, where I live—my anxiety has been debilitating. For days, I’ve been on the verge of tears—or in tears. My heart is pounding and there’s a knot in my stomach that my usual “calm down” toolkit of exercise, meditation, and a daily dose of prescribed SSRIs (aka antidepressants), hasn’t been able to fix. These feelings have made doing even the smallest things, like feeding myself or getting dressed in the morning, seem impossible. And I know I’m not alone in this. Talking to friends and scrolling through Instagram, it’s clear that we are all stressed and scared in a way that’s hard to conceptualize, and it’s only gotten worse as the streets—in NYC, at least—have begun to clear out and take on an eerie sense of apocalyptic “WTF is going on”-ness. There’s a scientific reason as to why our brains respond to uncertain situations—like a pandemic with no known cure—with anxious thoughts and feelings. “The ability to use past experiences and information to predict the future allows us to increase the odds of desired outcomes, while avoiding or bracing ourselves for future adversity,” reads a 2013 study out of Nature Reviews Neuroscience. “Uncertainty diminishes how efficiently and effectively we can prepare for the future, and thus contributes to anxiety.” Right now, as we’re still learning more about COVID-19 seemingly every hour, there is a lot of uncertainty. “This
Why intermittent fasting has been a staple of long-living Blue Zones cultures for decades
March 20, 2020 at 12:00AM by CWC Blue Zones founder and The Blue Zones Kitchen Cookbook author Dan Buettner has spent his career studying the longest-living people on the planet. Teaching people longevity-boosting habits is his bread and butter, so to speak. His travels and research have shown him a lot about how often people who live long, healthy lives eat and live. While there are definitely dietary patterns that are solidly connected with longevity (ahem, the Mediterranean diet), Buettner has also found something else that many centenarians have in common: a natural tendency towards intermittent fasting, aka limiting eating to certain time periods within a given day or week. “Some centenarians in Blue Zones regions [eat] large breakfasts and smaller dinners,” he said in a recent Ask Me Anything in Well+Good’s Cook With Us Facebook group. “Breakfast was traditionally a time when people would eat after fasting for a long period of time, breaking their fast, and there is research that going back to that tradition has positive benefits, even if you eat your dinner at 6 p.m. and eat your breakfast at 7 a.m,” he wrote. This might not sound like IF, but it’s very similar—the 16:8 plan, for example, has people eat for an eight-hour window during the day and fast for the remaining 16 hours. Beyond being an OG practice in Blue Zones areas, there is research connecting intermittent fasting with living longer. “There is an association between intermittent fasting and longevity, but it’s important to
This garlicky 5-ingredient herb sauce is a neurologist’s favorite part of every meal
March 19, 2020 at 11:29PM by CWC There’s a general consensus among chefs and home cooks that garlic makes everything taste better. Seriously, name a single savory dish it doesn’t completely change for the better. You can’t. And yet there’s one more reason to add it to all your meals: It’s a favorite of two brain doctors. Dean Sherzai, MD, PhD, and Ayesha Sherzai, MD, a husband and wife team of neurologists, have made it their mission to spread the word about how eating a healthy diet is an essential part of protecting your brain health. One food in particular they love for all of its many benefits is garlic, and it’s no surprise that it’s one of the stars in their use-on-everything garlic tahini sauce recipe. The doctors shared their garlic tahini herb sauce with Blue Zones, and the simple mix only contains a handful of ingredients: garlic (of course!), tahini, lemon, almond milk, and chopped dill. It only takes seconds to put together, and it’s something you can use all week long. You can use it to dress your salads, drizzle it over a Mediterranean-style grain bowl, or use it as a dip for crudité. No matter what you’re planning on making this week—be it roasted veggies, tacos, or even baked potatoes—drizzle on some of this garlic tahini sauce recipe. You can’t go wrong with a mix that tastes amazing and gives your brain a boost. Garlic tahini herb sauce Yields 4 servings (makes about 1 cup) Ingredients 1/2
7 best noise-cancelling headphones to make WFH calls more manageable
March 19, 2020 at 10:00PM by CWC Who here has ever tried to take a work call in a busy coffee shop or a cramped apartment with roommates? The slightest bit of noise is wildly distracting, and you feel like a jerk when you say, “I’m sorry, I missed what you just said,” for the 37th time. What you need, my friend, is a quality pair of noise cancelling headphones. Noise cancelling headphones don’t have to be big and bulky—there are so many sleek, foldable versions that won’t ruin your look. And if headphones aren’t your jam, there are some pretty amazing noise-cancelling earbuds on the market. Best noise-cancelling headphones 1. SONY WH-1000XM3 HEADPHONES, $275 These silver Sony headphones with gold accents make noise cancelling headphones extra special. This pair is bluetooth compatible, and has a built-in rechargeable battery with a 30-hour lifespan. The foldable design with swivel earcups make this pair super easy to store and tote around. 2. BOSE HEADPHONES 700, $399 Bose makes super sleek headphones with 11 levels of noise cancellation, meaning you can eliminate as much or as little noise as you’d like. It’s also compatible with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. You can get up to 20 hours of wireless battery life. 3. MARSHALL MID A.N.C. HEADPHONES, $198 Covered in a textured black vinyl, and emblazoned with a brass-colored Marshall logo, these headphones are reminiscent of a retro speaker stack. They actively filter out ambient noise, and if your device supports Bluetooth aptX, you
Your head weighs ‘as much as a bowling ball’—these 4 stretches help you use that weight to ease neck pain
March 19, 2020 at 09:00PM by CWC You might have heard that your head weighs about as much as a bowling ball. In reality, there’s some pretty complicated math involved in determining exactly how much weight your neck is carting around on a daily basis. What we all share in common, however, is that we need stretches for neck tension in our lives. Like, yesterday. Keren Day, DC, a chiropractor and professional stretcher at Racked stretching studio in New York City, says that we’re all pretty well equipped to deal with the massive ordeal of, um… having a head. The problem arises when we continually turn to unnatural types of movements. “Our bodies were designed to hold our head’s structure. The issues start with all of the unnatural postures that put repetitive stress on our bodies. Activities like looking down on our phones and computers all day increase the stress and pressure on your neck,” says Dr. Day. Over time, text neck and other bad posture habits put us at risk for chronic neck pain, tension headaches, and even discomfort in the shoulder area. So in this brave new world in which so many of us spend typing away (and jutting our heads so far forward), Dr. Day says you should bookmark a few stretches to move through when your noggin’ feels like weight that is just too much of a burden to bear. 4 stretches for neck tension that use the weight of your head as a counterbalance 1. The chair forward
These 5 healthy foods are totally safe to keep in the pantry instead of the fridge
March 19, 2020 at 08:00PM by CWC Just like that we’ve all got plenty of time to cook more at home. (Be careful what you wish for, right?) Because we’re living in such uncertain times, it’s a good idea to stock up on food, but being prepared presents another problem: figuring out where to put everything. With a lack of space, it’s a good idea to know the foods that don’t need to be refrigerated—as well as the foods that probably do. It’s a very American mindset to stick the majority of a grocery haul in the refrigerator (you won’t find Europeans putting eggs or bread in there), and while some foods definitely require a consistently chilly atmosphere, chances are that you can utilize your space outside the fridge more than you may think. 5 healthy foods that don’t need to be refrigerated 1. nut butters Whether your go-to is peanut, almond, or something more unexpected, Salzman and Cotter both say all nut butters can be safely stored in the pantry or on the counter. “I actually find that my nut butters don’t dry out as quickly when I store them outside the fridge,” says certified nutritionist and Nourishing Superfood Bowls author Lindsay Cotter, CN. (That said, once opened, nut butters will stay fresh twice as long in the fridge, says Allison Scheinfeld, RD, a Brooklyn-based registered dietitian. But they’ll still be good for months in the pantry.) 2. non-dairy milk If you’re stocking up on items meant to last
Does dairy really cause inflammation? It’s complicated
March 19, 2020 at 07:00PM by CWC When it comes to inflammation, there are certain foods that have a clear connection to helping or hurting it. Sugar is a definite driver of inflammation, while antioxidant-rich berries are for sure in the beneficial camp. But when it comes to dairy, there’s a lot of confusion, even among healthy food experts themselves. For some people, eating dairy can wreck havoc on their bodies. The morning after pizza night, they may wake up to newly sprouted pimples. Or it may mean dealing with bloat or other digestive woes. Other people seem to have no problem with dairy, able to down a glass of milk (yes, from a cow) with absolutely no symptoms whatsoever. Because dairy seems to cause inflammatory responses in some people but not everyone, it’s tricky to know if it can be classified as an inflammatory food or not. It also shouldn’t be overlooked at dairy is full of nutritional benefits, containing calcium, vitamin D, and in the case of yogurt, probiotics. Could something so nutrient-rich really cause an inflammatory response? Here, a doctor, a nutrition expert, and a scientific researcher all give their input, based on their professional experience and research. What makes dairy so complicated According to nutrition expert Katie Boyd, there are several reasons why dairy is difficult to classify as inflammatory or not. The first reason is that unlike singular foods like sugar or berries, there are a lot of different types of dairy. It’s not unusual
Hey, it’s okay if you’re not checking everything off of your to-do list right now
March 19, 2020 at 06:00PM by CWC There was a minute—a sparking, optimistic minute—when I thought I’d emerge from this national emergency with the screenplay for my pandemic-themed rom-com. That sounds terrible, but you know you thought the same thing, too. In fact, with ample time in self-isolation among the spread of COVID-19, there’s this big push that you should be tackling all those huge goals. You finally have time to write the great American novel, learn how to make stromboli, release your bedroom lo-fi pop album—whatever. And while I’m a huge fan of creativity and self-improvement, let’s be crystal clear about something here: you just have to do the bare minimum. Everything else is a bonus. “A scarcity mindset is what encourages this must have/get done mentality,” says psychotherapist Jennifer Teplin, LCSW. “Thinking that if you don’t achieve or get something immediately you’ll miss out creates anxiety and oftentimes disappointment.” I know you may not be getting that message, and that’s because of a certain strain of thinking, a virus that derives from the American obsession with being busy. We have all this “free time” encouraging us to be productive, so we’re not only supposed to use it wisely but optimize it. And that can add a lot of unnecessary worry and anxiety for people who, I don’t know, already have worry and anxiety about their entire world collapsing. You don’t need those extra negative feelings because you failed to work on that huge project, or don’t have the emotional