December 06, 2019 at 01:00PM by CWC Stress is a word with which we’re all very closely acquainted, and many of us may well use a form of it to describe how we feel about a number of items on our daily to-do list. Stress is a states that’s both common and often spoken about, yet it still often goes unnoticed, existing under the radar. That’s because there are certain signs of stress that may not register to every person, meaning it’s totally possible for it to affect you without you even knowing that it’s happening. “Sometimes stress can mount over time, so you don’t really realize you have it,” says clinical psychologist Thea Gallagher, PsyD. “People don’t realize they’re stressed because nothing substantive has changed. It can be a slow burn.” Denial, which is a coping mechanism, can also keep you from realizing you’re stressed, says clinical psychologist John Mayer, PhD, author of Family Fit: Find Your Balance in Life. “People don’t realize they’re stressed because nothing substantive has changed. It can be a slow burn.” —clinical psychologist Thea Gallagher, PsyD But whether or not certain signs of stress register on your awareness radar, they can still make an impact on your body and general functioning. “When stress levels are chronically high, it can cause problems for you, even if you don’t consciously realize you’re stressed,” says psychiatrist Gail Saltz, MD, author of The Power of Different. Because your mind and body are interconnected, she says stress can manifest certain physical
Category: Your Healthiest Relationship
Lex is the new photo-free dating app that anyone with swiping-fatigue has been waiting for
December 06, 2019 at 12:00PM by CWC Dramatic queen seeks switchy nerd. Enby DJ seeks chill lover. Insatiable bottom 4 masochistic top. Gay cowboy for makeouts. These one-liners, without a doubt, tell you more about who someone is and what they’re looking for than a photo of them holding a fish or making kissy-face in the bathroom mirror. And herein lies the point of the recently launched “texts first, selfies second” dating app for lesbians, bisexuals, asexuals, queer folks, womxn and trans, genderqueer, intersex, two-spirit, and non-binary people interested in meeting lovers and friends: Lex. Inspired by old-school newspaper personal ads, the idea of Lex is to swap snapshot swiping with blurb-reading. The brainchild of Kell Rakowski, Lex first lived for a few years on Instagram under the handle @_personals_ (which has since been changed to @Lex.app). Here, Rakowski and a small team posted over 10,000 user-submitted personal ads (like this one and this one), linking to posters’ IG accounts so interested muses could slide into their DMs. While Personals was a major success, introducing folks who later went to sext/sex/date/love/marry, the number of submissions overwhelmed the account. So, the concept platform-hopped in early November, and now lives full-time as an app (which is available for download on iPhone and Android). A queer dating app that offers a nostalgic and important nod to the past Personal ads aren’t exclusively a #queerthing, but as sex educator and pleasure advocate Lateef Taylor explains, the personal ads in the back of magazines like
Meditation might not be a good fit for everyone—here’s why
December 06, 2019 at 02:00AM by CWC Eva*, a 31-year-old living in Paris, has dealt with severe anxiety for as long as she can remember. As an adult, she frequently experiences vivid flashbacks that take her right back to the trauma she experienced as a young girl, during which she can’t breathe, think, or work. Eva heard about meditation and its benefits for physical and mental health, and decided to give it a shot to see if it would help with her anxiety. She downloaded a meditation app and started using it every other day. But instead of overpowering her stress or silencing her trauma, Eva experienced the opposite effect. “When I attempt to make my anxiety go away using meditation, my mind fixates more strongly on the thoughts and issues at hand and [I get] overwhelmed,” says Eva, making meditation feel impossible. “The guilt afterward—that I could not clear my mind or focus for those 20 minutes—makes me feel like I wasted time and was a failure, and, therefore, the anxiety gets worse.” Meditation can be potentially triggering The majority of people can benefit from some kind of meditation practice, as it can help with a wide range of physical and mental issues, says Anne Dutton, LCSW, the director of mindfulness education at the Yale Stress Center. There’s so much evidence indicating that meditation can lift your mood, improve your focus, and help with stress management. Yet stories like Eva’s are not unheard of. Many people anecdotally report feeling
The 5 basic Pilates moves that *everyone* should incorporate in their workouts for better mobility
December 06, 2019 at 12:00AM by CWC If you’re not a Pilates fan, you might brush off the fitness modality’s entire catalogue of core-centric moves. But this is a mistake, because, everyone—no matter what their sweat mode of choice is—can benefit from certain basic Pilates exercises. The workout, at its (ahem) core, is about better overall mobility, which we could all use a little more of. “With Pilates, we do our work eccentrically, which is a fancy way of saying, ‘working in length,’” says Amy Jordan, founder of Wundabar Pilates. “In Pilates, you elongate your muscles as you sculpt them.” With this type of workout, you’re recruiting your stabilizer muscles as opposed to your more-commonly engaged “primary mover” muscles, like your biceps, quads, and glutes. This is universally beneficial for how you move in general, and boosts your performance in other workouts. “You can think of ‘mover muscles’ as muscles you can activate with thought, like turning on a light switch,” explains Jordan. “The ‘stabilizers’ that Pilates focuses on, like the transverse abdominus [a deep core muscle] or multifidus [in the spine] are like a dimmer switch, because it takes a little time and focus to light them up.” These “dimmer switch” moves, she says, can help people protect their bodies from injury, and teach them to use their stabilizing muscles to carry out larger movements. One example, plucked straight from Jordan’s Pilates class? Using your inner thigh to lift your heel off the floor (rather than just picking up the
These dreamy multi-tasking night serums are like lullabies in a bottle
December 05, 2019 at 11:54PM by CWC Chances are, you’ve got your bedtime routine down to a science. Whether it’s drinking herbal tea or unwinding with a few pages of Gabby Bernstein’s latest, by now, you’ve likely figured out the best way to power down your body, and you should be doing the same exact thing for your skin by using the best night serums around. “Most skin repair happens at night, so it’s very important to prepare it by ‘putting skin to sleep’ as best as possible,” says board-certified dermatologist Sapna Palep, MD of Spring Street Dermatology in New York City. “Your skin is affected by circadian rhythms. Stem cells in the epidermis mainly reproduce at night, creating new skin cells that replace aged cells and reduce the appearance of aging. This is the time when these delicate processes are less likely to be interrupted or disturbed by the external environment.” Most skin issues—including UV damage, inflammation, pigmentation, and the loss of collagen, elastin, and hydration—are best remedied while you sleep. A few other ingredients worth looking for while you snooze? Hyaluronic acid and glycerin, which help with hydration; ceramides, which strengthen the skin barrier; as well as “calming” ingredients like CBD and niacinamide, since skin tends to be more prone to inflammation at night. Below, six of the best-of-the-best evening serums that deliver on this and more. Photo: Superflower Superflower The Everyday Serum, $68 While this serum is technically called “the everyday,” its calming, soothing, and hydrating properties
Here’s how your gut microbiome changes as you age—and what you can do to keep it healthy
December 05, 2019 at 10:06PM by CWC Keeping the good bacteria in your gut happy—and helping it multiply—is advice health experts preach no matter your age. But it’s especially important to pay attention to your gut microbiome later in life, according to gastroenterologist Will Bulsiewicz, MD. “While it would seem that your gut microbiome is completely capable of regenerating itself and would simply never age, it’s unfortunately not the case,” says Dr. Bulsiewicz. He points to a study that shows how the microbiomes of older participants are less capable of processing fiber and producing short-chain fatty acids than participants in their 30s. (Fiber is the crown jewel of gut health, of course.) He highlights another study that shows how the diversity of good bacteria has a tendency to decrease as a person ages. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Will Bulsiewicz MD MSCI (Dr B) (@theguthealthmd) on Dec 4, 2019 at 4:38pm PST //www.instagram.com/embed.js A decrease in the diversity of good bacteria likely has to do with lifestyle changes that occur as people get older. “These were cross sectional studies, so we haven’t tracked the human microbiome ‘through the years,’ and frankly that would be a difficult study to do,” says Dr. Bulsiewicz. “But I think we can all agree that as we age, it’s quite common for our diet to change. Some have dental issues or inadequate saliva and struggle to chew on fibrous foods. Others have an altered sense of smell or taste
9 percent of birth control pill users get pregnant every year—this new pill could change that
December 05, 2019 at 09:37PM by CWC Despite the fact that birth control pills are 99 percent effective, 9 percent of women who take oral contraceptives get pregnant each year. The reality is that life often gets in the way of taking a pill at the same time each day, and every once and a while you forget entirely. A monthly birth control pill—currently being developed by a team of researchers at MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital—could offer an option that removes human error from the equation. In a report published Thursday in the journal Science Transitional Medicine, the group of researchers announced that they’ve designed a polymer (a large molecule) that can withstand the acidic environment of the human stomach for about 30 days. After infusing the polymer with levonorgestrel, a progestin often found in birth control, the team conducted a test on pigs. Tthey discovered that the once-monthly contraceptive released the same amount of levonorgestrel into the pig’s bloodstream on a daily basis as the daily pill. “With a progestin-only pill, timing is important to maintain a steady-state of the hormonal concentration in the body, thus preventing pregnancy,” says Kecia Gaither, MD, a double board-certified OB/GYN and maternal fetal medicine doctor. The monthly pill would ensure that steady-state happened throughout the month—without having to make it a daily habit. Currently, the only long-lasting birth control methods are more invasive options like implants and IUDs, so the simplicity and convenience of the pill could make many millions of lives easier. And
8 of the best products to help melt away lower back pain
December 05, 2019 at 07:45PM by CWC While a back massage here and there can work wonders, sometimes you don’t have the luxury of hitting the spa to unwind. Luckily, there’s a whole wide world of tools that are specifically made to melt away the back tension that comes from sitting at a desk all day. And I mean a whole. wide. world. Lower back pain relief products are wide ranging and include heating pads, back pain-relieving balls, and full-on foam rollers that all aim to decompress the spine. There are all different categories of these back pain-solving products, though, so it helps to know what you’re looking for in order to navigate the aisles. Some are preventative, like posture-boosters you can put on your desk chair (or use instead of a desk chair), while others like topicals or percussive devices aim to undo that stiffness outright. To help you shop, we asked Rebecca Lubart, founder of Dynamic Body Pilates and body mechanics pro, for her recommendations on how to stock up your recovery toolkit. Keep scrolling for expert-approved lower back pain relief products to try for yourself. 1. Sunbeam Electric Heating Pad, $25 Ah, a heating pad. It’s a classic back pain relief essential that you probably saw your grandparents use, and you can snag one in practically any drugstore (or, ya know, on Amazon). “Especially in the winter, people are prone to waking up stiff and achey,” says Lubart. “I don’t go fancy on this. Go pick up
Why banana flour is the new ingredient taking over healthy pantries
December 05, 2019 at 07:30PM by CWC If anyone has insight into what food trends are on the rise among healthy eaters, it’s the Whole Foods team, which works tirelessly to curate cool, healthy, up-and-coming products on its shelves. And one of the biggest things they’re predicting for 2020: the rise of alternative flours. Well+Good has watched this for a while too, as healthy eaters have sought to replace traditional wheat flour with gluten-free alternatives sourced from fruits and vegetables. Almond flour, coconut flour, even apple flour have all gained traction with the wellness crowd. And we’re going one step further to say that banana flour is the next up-and-coming alt-flour. The humble banana has already shown to be a rising wellness superstar in other ways, popping up in the form of jerky, chips, and even serving as a base for vegan ice-cream. Now, brands like Hearthy Foods ($19 per pound), LiveKuna ($25 for 32 oz), NuNaturals ($12 per pound) are all jumping on the banana flour bandwagon to help healthy eaters a way to use the ingredient in foods they’re making at home. Banana flour is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: a flour-like substance made from green, unripe bananas. “The way we make our banana flour is by gathering the bananas when they’re still green and then slow cooking them before it’s finally milled [aka ground into a fine powder],” says Hearthy Foods founder Riaz Surt. Santiago Stacey, the co-founder and CEO of LiveKuna, says their production process
This 1-question test tells you if you’re a giver, taker, or matcher
December 05, 2019 at 07:00PM by CWC “When I meet someone new, what’s my first impulse?” According to Adam Grant, organizational psychologist and best-selling author of Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World, says that’s the only question you need to answer to find out what type of conversationalist you are: a giver, a taker, or a matcher. On a newly-released episode of Dax Shepard’s podcast Armchair Expert, Grant told Shepard and actor Kristen Bell that the easiest way to figure out what kind of human you are is to analyze your reaction to a new acquaintance. “When you meet someone new, what’s your first impulse? Are you looking for ways you might be able to help them? Are you looking for a trade that you could do? Or are you evaluating the person in terms of what could this person do for me?” he says. “When you meet someone new, what’s your first impulse?” —Adam Grant, organizational psychologist For example, let’s say you meet a professional astrologer named Vicki. If you’re immediately thinking of ways you could help Vicki further her career interpreting the universe, you might just be a giver. If you’re thinking of ways you could use Vicki’s career to your advantage (“Do the cosmos say I’ll have career success in 2020?”), then you’re probably more of a taker. And, if you find yourself thinking, Maybe we can swap earthly and heavenly gifts… you’re matcher. Of course, your own perception of who you are may not tell the whole story.