Experts Say Essential Oils Can Pose Dangerous Health Risks

Experts Say Essential Oils Can Pose Dangerous Health Risks

Healty

Odds are you know someone who sells essential oils for a multi-level marketing company, and they might just tout them as a miracle remedy for just about everything. While that's a stretch, the plant-derived oils do offer a wide range of benefits-when used properly, that is. They've even gone mainstream: "We are using a growing number of essential oils in our practice at the Mayo Clinic–such as lavender to help deal with stressful times and peppermint for nausea," says Brent A. Bauer, MD, an internal medicine doctor and director of the Mayo Clinic Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program in Rochester, Minnesota. Studies support those benefits and show that essential oils can have positive effects on pain, anxiety, memory and more. If used improperly, however, there can be dangerous consequences, so we rounded up a few expert tips to help you stay safe.

Don't be fooled by nature.

Anything powerful enough to have a beneficial effect on the body could also have negative effects, says Bauer. "Whether it's a drug, an herb or an essential oil, all should be treated with respect," he says. "What works for one person may not work for the next–or may interfere with medications," he says, or have other side effects. Don't assume it's safe because it's natural, and be aware that "not all essential oil companies test their oils for quality," says Roz Zollinger, a certified aromatherapist, instructor and founder of the Heal Center in Atlanta. Research the company before you buy.

Avoid taking by mouth.

Unless you're an expert or consulting with one, it's best to stick to external use, a la basic aromatherapy. "These essences are highly concentrated and have various levels of toxicity if not used properly," Zollinger cautions. She is not against multi-level marketing companies, but says "there are many distributors advocating internal ingestion–some of them without any deeper training in this field." She has heard some reps advise clients to add drops of citrus oil to drinking water, which can lead to burning of the esophagus.

Don't expect one size to fit all.

"Risks vary depending on age of the individual, the manner in which they are using the oils, their personal health history, medications taken, and their personal body chemistry," says Katharine Koeppen, a registered aromatherapist and owner of Aromaceuticals in Dallas, Texas. Don't use on babies and toddlers, she advises, since most children under three or four cannot fully metabolize them. Use caution with older children, as some oils can cause adverse reactions, especially in children who have hyper-reactive airways. Excessive intake can cause liver damage, especially in children. "Consult with a professional if you're unsure," she recommends.

Mind your medications.

Some essential oils interact with common prescription drugs or are not advised for people with certain medical conditions. "For example, something as seemingly innocuous as peppermint essential oil has a surprisingly long list of drug interactions and medical contraindications," says Koeppen. If you're not certain about whether to use the oil with the medication you're taking, just don't, and avoid all essential oils if you're taking multiple medications. "Doing so exponentially increases the chance of a drug interaction," she says.

Don't apply straight to skin.

Using undiluted essential oils on the skin can lead to reactions "ranging from mild contact dermatitis to blistering rash to complete and permanent loss of skin pigmentation," says Koeppen. Permanent sensitization can also occur–sometimes after one or two uses, or it may take weeks or months. Straight-to-skin contact in babies and toddlers can cause breathing and nervous system problems, seizures and coma. Some oils can cause photosensitivity–especially citrus oils like bergamot and lime, so "caution should be taken when applying these essential oils on the skin when exposed to direct sunlight and UV waves," says Zollinger.

Turn to the experts.

Even the experts do it. "For more detailed use, we turn to our colleagues who have been trained in the proper use" of the given method, says Bauer. Since aromatherapy is an growing field, there is much variation in training, credentialing and more, he notes. "Until national standards are created, consumers have to do their homework." Look into where the practitioner was trained, and how many hours of class time and supervised practice they completed. "Talk to friends who have used the service–like finding a good doctor, it can take some homework but is worth it," he says.

Expand your knowledge.

If you're interested in exploring the various benefits of essential oils and how to use them safely, dive into learning as much as you possibly can about them from a variety of sources. "There are many excellent books on aromatherapy, and I feel that even an intro class would be beneficial, since there are definitely guidelines and basic cautions with certain essential oils to be aware of," says Zollinger. "Educate yourselves, read, take classes and understand that these are potent aromatic medicines not to be taken lightly."

www. yahoo .com

Health Experts Want to Shame You by Putting Exercise Labels on Food

Health Experts Want to Shame You by Putting Exercise Labels on Food

Healty

Hello, ma'am, food police here. Are you sure you want to eat those chips?

The U.K.’s Royal Society for Public Health is advocating for packaged food to be labeled with the amount of exercise it would take to burn off a serving in an effort to change eating behaviors, and hopefully reduce obesity. It’s an admirable goal considering just last week we learned that obese people now outnumber underweight people globally. Unfortunately, more gym time isn’t going to solve this problem.

In a viewpoint published in the journal BMJ, chief executive of the RSPH Shirley Cramer argues that since research shows people ignore calorie counts, activity labels on the front would help people make better choices. Specifically, “the aim is to prompt people to be more mindful of the energy they consume and how these calories relate to activities in their everyday lives, to encourage them to be more physically active.” [Emphasis mine.]

When the RSPH conducted a survey on this concept, a little more than half of adults said they would act differently if they saw activity labels, either by eating less, eating something else, or getting active. (That also means that close to half of those surveyed said they wouldn’t change a thing, which is another story.)

Cramer acknowledges the mounting evidence suggesting that you literally can’t outrun a bad diet and that exercise has its own benefits, but she also says, “The public is used to being told to avoid particular drinks and to cut down on specific foods. By contrast, activity labelling encourages people to start something, rather than calling for them to stop.” People prefer this more positive framing, she told Time. But it’s not all that helpful, and it’s honestly a little shame-y.

The proposed labels imply that if you eat chips or chocolate and then do some form of active penance, it all cancels out. Ignoring the fact that it’s not advisable to burn off every calorie that passes through our lips, working out isn’t going to help with weight loss as much as we’ve been led to believe. The consensus is leaning toward the idea that we simply need to eat less. True, some people who see a label telling them a cookie will cost them two miles of running won’t eat the cookie, but from that mind-set, it means cookies aren’t allowed without punishment.

Props to the RSPH for trying to do something different here, but how about pictures of portion sizes to scale? Or if they want to stick with shock value, perhaps photos of festering, sugary wounds?

www. yahoo .com

But Seriously...How Dirty Is Your Yoga Mat?

But Seriously...How Dirty Is Your Yoga Mat?

Fitness Healty

We've all been there: Your friend talks you into squeezing in a yoga class between work, a dinner date, and collapsing in bed, but you don't want to lug your mat to your date. You could just borrow a mat from the yoga studio, right? But how clean are those mats exactly? The answer, it turns out, may have you trying to cram a mat into your Trademark handbag.

"Yoga mats are the worst," said Dr. Robert Lahita, a professor of medicine at Rutgers School of Medicine. In addition to his M.D., Lahita also holds a PhD in microbiology, has worked in both infectious diseases and immunology, and has spent many years as a yoga practitioner, so he is particularly well qualified to comment on what lurks in an unwashed yoga mat. According to him, that can include bacteria, fungi, viruses, and more. "A yoga mat is a perfect incubator for many of our skin infections," said Lahita. "The yoga mat is a very fertile source for infection, mainly because people sweat on them and they rarely are cleaned."

Yoga mats are a fairly modern invention, which have helped revolutionize the practice, and, judging by the many women toting them across town, become a fairly chic fashion accessory along the way. But in the world of microbiology, a yoga mat is considered to be a "fomite," which Lahita defines as "basically, an inanimate object used to spread an infection." What that means is that if, for example, someone has ringworm or a staph infection, works up a sweat doing sun salutations, and then kicks back in Savasana on a mat, whoever lies on that mat next may contract ringworm, staph, or any of a wide variety of bacteria, viruses, or fungi. That's definitely something to meditate on while standing in mountain pose. Or this:

To test what exactly is skulking on yoga mats, we ordered a testing kit from EMSL Analytical, watched a few YouTube videos on specimen collection technique (yes, YouTube has everything), and headed to a handful of gyms and yoga studios in New York City with swabs surreptitiously in hand. After securing our samples, we sent them off to be tested for bacteria and fungi.

Two weeks later the results were in. "We tested for culturable bacteria and culturable fungi," said Melanie Rech, a national bacteriology program manager at EMSL Analytical. "We found Micrococcus luteus and Empedobacter brevis." Micrococcus luteus lives in human mouths, noses, and upper respiratory tracts, meaning that someone had probably coughed or sneezed all over the mat without cleaning it afterwards. While M. luteus is gross, it's mostly harmless for those with healthy immune systems. "Many of these organisms…live on the skin and are fairly harmless, unless you happen to be diabetic or you're immuno-compromised or suppressed," explained Lahita.

It's a similar story for the other culprit found on our yoga mats-Empedobacter brevis (E. brevis). "Empedobacter brevis has caused opportunistic infections in people who are immuno-compromised," said Rech, which means that while it is rare to become ill from E. brevis, if you have a lowered immune system, it's more likely to make you sick. "If you hit it the right way, say you're a diabetic and on insulin and you're on a yoga mat that's been used by five other people and not washed, you run the risk of getting an infection and you can get carbuncles and boils in your skin," said Lahita.

Lahita rattled off a laundry list of other possible contagions lurking on yoga mats, too, including strep, flesh-eating strep (yikes!), and a variety of staph, including Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which likes to hang out on fomites and can cause real problems. There's also just regular old fungi, like ringworm and, of course, athlete's foot. "Most any surface that you look for fungi have fungi," noted Rech, who has tested a fair amount of surfaces during her time in labs.

Yoga practitioners are particularly susceptible to spreading and catching infectious microorganisms, because they expose more of their skin to the mat, including the body's oilier areas that tend to have more organisms on them, like feet, backs, foreheads, and chests. It's not just yogis who are at risk, though-wrestlers, weightlifters, and gymnasts can run into the same problems. Lahita noted a MRSA outbreak on a high school wrestling team because they were wrestling on MRSA-infected rubber mats.

While typical communal yoga mats are risky enough, if you're doing hot or Bikram yoga, the problem could be even worse because organisms tend to thrive in warm environments and people are sweating more. "Many yoga mats are pocked with little holes and these organisms like to live in that, especially if you're sweating and you're providing a very nice environment of warm saline, which comes from your skin," said Lahita.

Of course, it's easy enough to bring your own mat to your yoga class, which can reduce, but not entirely eliminate the risk. "The organisms that reside in the yoga mats are picked up in the room where there are other people doing yoga," said Lahita. "Somebody sneezes or steps over your yoga mat, then you got a problem. That's how infections are acquired."

There's no denying that yoga is good for your mind and body (and that of Canada's prime minister), but there are a few good rules for helping to reduce the chances of getting yourself or someone else sick. Don't go to the gym if you're sick, invest in a yoga towel to keep sweat off the mat itself, and bring your own yoga mat that you clean regularly.

As for how to clean it? "I advise people to clean their mats with a Lysol spray or bleach diluted in water," said Lahita. Many yogis look for natural cleaners or DIY ones, but remedies like these (lavender and tea tree oils; vinegar and water mixtures) won't kill some of the scarier bacteria, like staph and MRSA. So if you really want a clean mat, you'll need to reach for something stronger. Lahita also specifies that you should be careful not to use too much water or spray while cleaning your mat, and to dry it thoroughly after you wipe it down-otherwise it'll get waterlogged and be an even better breeding ground for viruses and bacteria. At that point, you might as well be sun salutation-ing on the communal-use, rarely cleaned gym mat. Namaste.

www. yahoo .com

Yes, Your Sugar Cravings Could Be A Legitimate Addiction

Yes, Your Sugar Cravings Could Be A Legitimate Addiction

Healty

You probably get that it's hard to have just one Starburst, M&M, spoonful of your favorite ice cream, etc. Sugary treats trigger our brain's reward system, flooding our neurons with the pleasure chemical dopamine. We feel awesome as a result but we instantly want more, as dopamine also gives rise to craving. And this is why some scientists now consider sugar to be a legitimately addictive substance.

But is sugar really on par with cigarettes, alcohol, or cocaine? One study freshly published in the journal PLOS ONE offers further evidence that sugar can mess with our brains just as severely as hardcore drugs do. But the same study also suggests that interventions designed to treat substance dependence could help sugar addicts break free from being hooked on sweets.

Researchers from Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, heightened a family of lab rats' sugar cravings by granting them access to a constant supply of super-sweet water for four weeks. These rats developed a tolerance for the sweet water during this time frame, meaning they needed more and more of it to feel satisfied. (Tolerance is a hallmark of addiction, hence why the researchers wanted to build it in their subjects.)

Once hooked on the sugar water, some rats were injected with a drug designed to treat nicotine addiction in humans called varenicline. Others were left to continue bingeing. Rats given varenicline were able to walk away from the sugar water feeder far more often - and easily - than their cousins who received no intervention.

They were also, not surprisingly, able to shed added pounds gained during the weeks they had access to the rodent equivalent of a dessert buffet. This led the researchers to conclude that yes, sugar addiction is legit but it might be stoppable with drugs designed to curb cravings for other addictive substances. "Further studies are required," the study authors said in a press release, "but our results do suggest that current FDA-approved nAChR drugs [i.e., varenicline] may represent a novel new treatment strategy to tackle the obesity epidemic."

Whether drugs designed to curb cravings can also help us solve the purported problem of cheese addiction, which some research suggests is also a thing, we'll have to wait and see.

www. yahoo .com

Catherine Deneuve Drinks Lemon Juice Every A.M. for Her Skin. Should You?

Catherine Deneuve Drinks Lemon Juice Every A.M. for Her Skin. Should You?

Beauty Healty

French actress and style/beauty/life icon Catherine Deneuve spilled her beauty routine to Into the Gloss, and boy, is it everything we’d ever dreamed of. She filled in readers on her favorite makeup (and sold me on giving kohl-lined eyes a real go), why wearing a full face of makeup can be good for your skin, and why slathering on lotion every night might not be. But my biggest takeaway wasn’t anything to buy or debate with my derm — it’s that Deneuve has joined Gwyneth Paltrow and Beyoncé on team Lemon Water in the Morning.

“Every morning I drink lemon juice,” she told the beauty site. “It’s not so much that it cleanses anything, but I do think it’s very good for your skin and the whites of your eyes.” It’s refreshing to hear Deneuve credit something so cheap and accessible (and healthy!) for her timeless beauty. But do her claims check out?

Doctors haven’t linked lemon juice to skin (or whites of the eyes) benefits directly, but many experts do believe drinking the vitamin C-packed juice can have other advantages that may help your face look brighter and less tired.

The acid in lemon juice “works with the body to nourish and to enhance proper function,” Roxanne Sukol, MD, a preventive medicine specialist at the Cleveland Clinic’s Wellness Institute, previously told Yahoo Health. By drinking lemon water, you’re giving your body more time to take in and process the nutrients in the foods you eat afterward, she said. This slow absorption is good for two reasons: It conserves the stores of insulin in your body (insulin is important in regulating the amount of glucose in the blood), and it also helps your body get more out of the food you eat. Plus, quick absorption of certain “stripped” carbs — such as white flour, corn starch, and corn syrup — can be a digestive nightmare, she added. Better digestion can mean brighter, firmer skin, though the two haven’t been officially linked.

But while lemon water may help your skin look happier, it can do the opposite for your teeth if you’re not careful. “By adding [acidic] lemon to water, you are increasing your risk of eroding the enamel away, which can cause issues over time,” Matthew Messina, DDS, told Yahoo Health last year. “Once enamel is eroded away, it can’t be replaced.” That doesn’t mean you should skip the lemon water entirely — there are ways to consume it and end up with a Deneuve-level complexion and smile:

“Drink it as part of a meal, not by itself, to help stimulate saliva production,” Messina advised. Saliva “washes harmful acids and food particles away from teeth and helps neutralize acid, protecting teeth from decay.”
If you want to drink warm lemon water first thing in the morning, try waiting until it cools a bit, and then use a straw. This “may help to push the liquid past teeth,” Messina said.
Drink lemon water before brushing your teeth, so the acid isn’t hitting enamel directly (morning tooth scuzz has purpose!). Then, “it’s best to wait a little while to brush your teeth, approximately 30 to 60 minutes,” he said.

www. yahoo .com

5 Metabolism-Boosting Tricks That Work for Life

5 Metabolism-Boosting Tricks That Work for Life

Healty

Take advantage of any or all of these five easy power-up hacks.

1. Don’t sit still

Fidget, stand, and chew gum; these types of activities, termed NEAT (nonexercise activity thermogenesis), have been shown to help torch an extra 300 to 2,000 calories per day.

2. Become a fan of green tea

Studies indicate that green tea can increase metabolic rate by 4 to 5 percent. Feel free to go for seconds—it has only 2 calories per cup (sans sweetener, of course).

3. Drink more water

A German study discovered that downing two 8-ounce glasses of H2O improved calorie burning by 30 percent in as little as 10 minutes, and the effect lasted for more than an hour.

4. Pucker up

Add fresh lemon juice to your tea or water—it’s loaded with vitamin C. Arizona State University researchers found that exercisers who don’t get enough C may zap 25 percent fewer calories during a workout.

5. Get silly

A classic study published in the International Journal of Obesity revealed that laughing sparks a small increase in calorie burning. (We did the math: Fifteen giggly minutes melts up to 40 calories!)

www. yahoo .com

The 5 worst morning habits for your health (and how to fix them!)

The 5 worst morning habits for your health (and how to fix them!)

Healty

There’s a whole slew of bad habits people do first thing in the morning. Some of them may seem innocent enough (like slamming your hand on the snooze button and sleeping in a few extra minutes every weekday), but according to master life coach and mentor Bruno LoGreco, recurring bad morning habits may not only set your day off on a downward spiral, but they can lead to negative health implications that can sabotage your life.

“In order for people to really break a bad habit, they have to first recognize the reward their getting from that bad habit, and then they’ve got to replace it with something more constructive,” said LoGreco, who has helped mentor and transform lives on such programs as “Style by Jury” and “Save Us from Our House.”

For a more productive day, LoGreco suggests breaking these five bad morning habits:

1) Hitting the snooze button

Hitting the snooze button in the morning for a few extra minutes of sleep can unintentionally give you a late start to the day and cause you to stay at work longer.

“By the time you get to the office, you’ve got to sit down, you’ve got to get acclimated, you’ve got to check your e-mails, you’ve got to figure out what’s going on for that day. You’re already behind the eight ball,” said LoGreco.

Solution: Instead of rewarding yourself with a few extra minutes of sleep, remind yourself that if you get to work on time, you’ll have more time after work to do the things that you want to do.

“Look at it and say: ‘I’m going to get up early today,’” said LoGreco. “I’m going to get through everything that I need to get through and that will allow me to come home early, on time, and spend more time with my family or my loved one.”

2) Bad hygiene

What normally follows after people hit the snooze button is bad hygiene—mainly because people may already be running late for work, or getting their kids ready for school.

Solution: Take the time to practice good hygiene (like showering and brushing your teeth). Taking a shower can also help “cleanse” your soul and prevent you from carrying over bad energy from the previous day.

“When you’re not taking a shower, you’re not rinsing that stuff off,” said LoGreco.


3) Bad nutrition

People who wake up late and are rushing to get ready tend to skip breakfast, which is probably the most important meal of the day, because you’re depleted of energy.

“The prefrontal cortex needs energy,” said LoGreco. “And when you’re sleeping all night and you haven’t had any food in your system for about 12 or 13 hours, your prefrontal cortex is depleted. So not having proper nutrition actually slows you down and drags your morning.”

Solution: To avoid exhaustion due to poor nutrition habits, try making breakfast ahead of time for busy weekday mornings, or prepare a healthy on-the-go breakfast snack that could easily be stored in a tight container and thrown in your work bag. That way you’ll still be able to enjoy a healthy breakfast, but won’t have to be in a rush to prepare it every morning.

4) Energy drinks for breakfast

Since poor nutrition can lead to fatigue, some people load up on energy drinks in the morning to get an extra boost. Unfortunately, according to LoGreco, it’s simply an artificial energy boost and these people will “come crashing down in just a few minutes.”

Solution: Nix the energy drink and opt for a healthy, protein-packed peanut butter banana smoothie—this will give you a natural energy boost and it also makes a great “make-ahead” breakfast that could be consumed on-the-go.

5) Not knowing what you’re doing for the day

The worst habit that people could have during the day, or when they first wake up, is not knowing what they’re going to do that day — something that typically comes about due to lack of planning.

“When (people) wake up, they become very reactive to their life…they’re constantly running late, they’re making up for shortfalls, they’re not controlling their life,” said LoGreco, who notes that it could ultimately lead to people feeling unfulfilled in their personal and professional lives.

Solution: The night before you go to bed, take five to 10 minutes to figure out what the following day is going to look like and what you want to accomplish. That way you’ll be controlling your life, rather than having life control you.

“The reward that people get from not controlling their life, is that there’s no failure, there’s no fear, there’s nothing that they have to worry about,” said LoGreco.

“But if they recognize that, (they can) say ‘I’m going to put myself out there, I’m going to put my vulnerabilities out there, and even if I fail, and I do something—I’m going to accomplish something at the end and that’s going to be my reward. And in return, I’m going to feel more accomplished and more fulfilled.’”

www. yahoo .com

Here’s What Happens to Your Body When You Take a Break from Exercise

Here’s What Happens to Your Body When You Take a Break from Exercise

Healty

You’re bound to miss a workout or two every once in awhile. But c’mon, how much of a difference can a few missed workouts really make? More than you think.

Here are more details on what happens at each stage:

When You Haven’t Worked Out in a Few Days…
It’s no biggie. If you’ve been working out on the regular, your body probably welcomes the chance for recovery. It’ll use the time to repair your muscles and help you spring back stronger. That said, if your days off are paired with unhealthy food and booze, you might feel a bit bloated.

When You Haven’t Worked Out in a Week…
You’re likely feeling a little “softer” than usual. That’s due to your muscle fibers starting to dwindle and your body retaining some extra fluids. But for the most part, you’re not feeling too bad. If you head back to the gym now, you probably won’t even notice any significant changes in how fast you can run or how much you can lift.

When You Haven’t Worked Out in a Couple of Weeks…
Your fitness is definitely on the downhill slide now. As the number of mitochondria, the microscopic power plants that fuel your muscles cells, decreases, your cardio endurance will be the first thing to go. Taking the stairs might make your legs burn or even leave you sucking wind.

When You Haven’t Worked Out in a Month…
Most of your cardio and strength gains from the past few months have gone kaput. You’re sporting less lean muscle mass and more body fat. Plus, stress has a greater hold on you, and without exercise supporting your circadian rhythms, getting a good night’s sleep may be a challenge.

When You Haven’t Worked Out in a Few Months…
Your metabolism joins the ranks of things to go. So besides burning fewer calories, you probably feel fatigued pretty often—and quickly. Your heart has to work harder with every beat and your lungs don’t absorb as much oxygen as they used to.

You Haven’t Worked Out in a Year…
Aside from a soaring body-fat percentage, complete loss of muscle, and sluggish metabolism, you’re also at a greater risk of serious health issues like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, insomnia, and depression.

www. yahoo .com

These Are the Best Exercises for Anxiety and Depression

These Are the Best Exercises for Anxiety and Depression

Healty

“We know that the old divisions of body and mind are false,” says Ben Michaelis, PhD, an evolutionary clinical psychologist and author of Your Next Big Thing: 10 Small Steps to Get Moving and Get Happy ($2; amazon.com). “The body is the mind and the mind is the body. When you take care of yourself, you are helping the whole system.”

Needless to say, you should always consult with your doctor about your treatment options, says Michaelis. But it can’t hurt to incorporate exercise, of any kind, into your routine. Research suggests that these three activities in particular could help alleviate symptoms of depression or anxiety.

Running

There’s a reason you’ve heard time and again that running is one of the best exercises for your health: It can torch calories, reduce food cravings, and lower your risk for heart disease. Running for just five minutes a day might even help you live longer, according to 2014 research.

But it’s also been shown to improve mood in a variety of ways, Michaelis says. “Running causes lasting changes in our ‘feel good’ neurotransmitters serotonin and norepinephrine, both during and after exercise,” he explains. What’s more: The repetitive motions of running appear to have a meditative effect on the brain.

The mental benefits can be especially powerful for people who suffer from depression. In a 2006 review published in the Journal of Psychiatry & Neuroscience, researchers found evidence that exercise can work in a similar way to antidepressants, alleviating major depressive disorder by promoting the growth of new neurons in the brain.

Also good: Running may make it easier for you to fall asleep at night, says Michaelis, which benefits your overall mental health by improving memory, lowering stress levels, and protecting against depression.

Hiking in the woods

To maximize the mental health benefits of your sweat session, consider hitting the trails. “Nature has a calming effect on the mind,” says Michaelis. “There is evidence that being around plants, trees, and especially decaying trees can help reduce anxiety because these plants emit chemicals to slow down the process of their decay, which appears to slow us down as well.”

In a 2009 study published in Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine, Japanese researchers sent participants to either a wooded or urban area. They found that those who’d taken a 20-minute “forest bath” (a.k.a. a walk in the woods), had lower stress hormone levels than the participants who had been in a city.

Newer research seems to reinforce the idea that being immersed in nature is good for your mental health. A study published last summer, for example, discovered that when young adults went on a 50-minute nature walk, they felt less anxious and had improved memory function.

Yoga

In a small 2007 study published in Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, all of the study’s participants who had taken yoga classes experienced “significant” reductions in depression, anger, anxiety, and neurotic symptoms. The findings led the researcher to recommend yoga as a complementary treatment for depression.

In 2012, another group of researchers conducted a review of trials that examined the effects of yoga on anxiety and stress. In 25 out of the 35 studies, subjects experienced a significant decrease in stress and anxiety symptoms after starting yoga.

“The great thing about yoga is that besides the stretching and core strengthening, there is a tremendous focus on breathing, which helps to slow down and calm the mind,” says Michaelis.

Experts believe that yoga’s focus on the breath is especially beneficial for your mental health because it’s difficult to be anxious when you’re breathing deeply. To take advantage of the perks of deep breathing in and out of yoga class, Michaelis suggests trying a relaxing trick popularized by Andrew Weil, MD, called the 4-7-8 breathing technique.

www. yahoo .com

Can Caffeine Really Help Reduce Cellulite?

Can Caffeine Really Help Reduce Cellulite?

Healty

With shorts season around the corner, you’re probably in the midst of prepping your skin for the warmer temps. (Hello, there, long-lost razor.)

But young or old, rail-thin or curvy, light or dark, if you’ve inherited the genetic predisposition for it, the cellulite fairy has gifted you with a smattering of dimples on your thighs, bottom, and even your belly. And if you want to hide them or get rid of them altogether, it’s pretty dang hard unless you’re willing to pay for a pricey in-office procedure to laser or snip the fibrous bands responsible for that puckering effect.

At home or on a budget, your options are limited to caffeinated creams and scrubs, which claim to help you smear your skin into smooth submission.

But how well do they work? Well, caffeine can dehydrate the water content of your fat cells, so they’re less swollen, and cellulite looks less obvious, says Howard Sobel, M.D., a New York City dermatologist and founder of DDF Skincare. However, the results will be subtle, at best, and temporary, says Angela J. Lamb, M.D., assistant professor of dermatology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. Womp, womp.

Still, if some improvement—any improvement—sounds good to you, look for a formula that also contains Vitamin C, which can help increase collagen production and make skin look firmer and smoother, explains Sobel. And the higher the caffeine content, the better, adds Lamb. We like Vichy Celludestock ($40, vichyusa.com), which contains five percent pure caffeine—the most we’ve seen touted on a bottle.

Another product we love: Dr. Brandt Cellusculpt ($59, drbrandtskincare.com), which has a massaging applicator that cools the skin on contact. (Bonus: It soothes sore legs, too!) Want to keep it on the cheap? Whip up this DIY coffee scrub recipe, instead. The act of exfoliating can actually add to the smooth look, since it’s getting rid of dead skin cells in favor of fresh ones.

Sign up for Women’s Health’s new newsletter, So This Happened, to get the day’s trending stories and health studies.

The bottom line: While in-office procedures are your best bet to blast cellulite away for good, caffeine-laced creams and scrubs can give you some in-the-moment smoothness.

www. yahoo .com

Millions of Obese Americans Are Actually 'Quite Healthy'

Millions of Obese Americans Are Actually 'Quite Healthy'

Healty

A new study finds that more than 50 million “quite healthy” Americans have been mislabeled as obese or overweight thanks to an over-reliance on BMI as a measurement of health, the Los Angeles Times reports.

“This should be a final nail in the coffin for BMI,” says A. Janet Tomiyama, lead author of a study published Thursday in the Journal of Obesity.

Tomiyama and her team looked at the blood pressure, glucose levels, cholesterol, and more of 40,420 people. They found 47.4% of people with an “overweight” BMI and 29% of “obese” people were actually healthy. Conversely, more than 30% of people with a healthy BMI were surprisingly unhealthy.

“Obesity is just a number based on BMI, and we think BMI is just a really crude and terrible indicator of someone’s health,” Tomiyama says.

A recent proposal from the federal government would allow employers to charge employees who don’t meet health criteria—including BMI—more for health insurance. Tomiyama says this would unfairly punish “overweight” individuals who are actually healthy, according to a press release. For example, NPR reports that not a single member of the Denver Broncos, who are obviously fit enough to play in the Super Bowl, has a “healthy” BMI.

A coauthor of the study recommends people focus more on eating well and exercising regularly than strictly on weight. One expert argues BMI is still useful as a quick test to indicate health but should be followed with additional tests to determine a person’s true health. (Your father’s sperm might be making you obese.)

www. yahoo .com

How to Eliminate Sugar From Your Diet in 21 Days

How to Eliminate Sugar From Your Diet in 21 Days

Healty

Mounting research shows that going overboard on sugar can lead to high cholesterol and blood pressure and a greater risk of cancer, diabetes, and heart disease, not to mention excess weight gain. But there’s a difference between added sugars and the kinds found naturally in whole foods, like fructose in fruit and lactose in dairy: Eating naturally occurring sugars is generally considered healthy because they contain nutrients with metabolic benefits, such as fiber and antioxidants. Added sugars (sweeteners put into food for flavor) have no such perks; they are the type you’ll be eliminating during this challenge.

Week 1 to-do list:

• Clean house: The more sugar you have, the more you crave it, says Mark Gold, MD, a professor at the University of Florida College of Medicine. Sleuth out and avoid common culprits.

• Learn sugar lingo: Sound the alarm when you spot cane, syrup, nectar, words ending in “-ose,” agave, and fruit juice concentrate in ingredient lists. Dining out? Skip glazed, honey-dipped, sticky, and BBQ options.

• Purge the pantry: Throw out sugary packaged food and drinks. When in doubt, check the ingredients rather than the sugar grams; nutrition labels don’t yet specify how much of a product’s sugar is added versus natural.

• Sticker sweeteners: Put a Post-it on items like honey and brown sugar to act as a caution sign when you open the cabinet.

• Have a backup plan: Stash an emergency snack (like a banana or low-sugar Kind bar) in your bag, advises David Katz, MD, director of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center.

Week 2 to-do list:

• Start slashing: Retrain your palate by making incremental changes. “You can lower your taste for sweetness in two weeks,” says Dr. Katz.

• Measure carefully: Scoop the sweetener you think you need—then put back half. “Half a teaspoon goes a long way,” says Sally Kuzemchak, RD.

• Mix it up: Combine no-sugar-added foods with the sweet versions (think ½ cup of plain, unsweetened almond milk with ½ cup of vanilla).

• Drink only water:  For a full week, down H20 instead of sodas (including diet kinds) and fruit juices.

Week 3 to-do list:

• Plan long-term: You’ve upped your sugar IQ and neutralized your sweet tooth. “After about three months, this diet overhaul will be the new familiar,” says Dr. Katz.

• Eat dessert:  Going cold turkey can cause headaches and cravings for some—so have a well-portioned treat if you want it.

• Increase healthy fat:  Add a “good” fat—avocado, olive oil—to every meal, urges Mark Hyman, MD, director of the Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Functional Medicine: “Healthy fats shut off receptors in your brain that stimulate sweetness cravings.”

• Stick to a schedule: Aim to eat your meals and snacks at the same time each day. “Having a routine keeps you from getting caught off guard by hunger and giving in to something that comes in a wrapper,” says Maria Rodriguez, RD, program manager of the Diabetes Alliance at the Mount Sinai Health System.

www. yahoo .com

Sleep Deprivation Is the Same as Being Drunk, Study Says

Sleep Deprivation Is the Same as Being Drunk, Study Says

Healty

Americans just can't sleep. Fifty to 70 million U.S. adults have a chronic sleep disorder and one in three adults get less than seven hours of sleep a night according to the CDC. Now, a new extensive sleep study conducted in the UK by the University of Oxford and the Royal Society for Public Health is bringing to light more health risks associated with skimping on Zs. It covers what groups of people are most prone to sleep disorders, how losing sleep connects with cancer, cardiovascular disease, mental health, and how sleep ties to obesity.

One standout finding is that a lack of sleep affects the body the same way drinking alcohol does. Research found that after 17 hours without sleep, our alertness is similar to the effects of a blood alcohol concentration of 0.05%, which according to U.S. law is considered "impaired" on the legally drunk scale. After 24 hours without sleeping, the body is in the same state it'd be in at a BAC of 0.1%–well beyond the 0.08% BAC that identifies someone as legally drunk.

Basically, pulling all-nighters are just as bad for you as downing a couple of beers. Pick your poison. Or, you know, actually get some sleep.

www. yahoo .com

What Can Those Mail-Order DNA Tests Reveal About Your Beauty?

What Can Those Mail-Order DNA Tests Reveal About Your Beauty?

Beauty

As someone who was raised by her biological parents, both of whom have a pretty clear idea of their respective lineages, I've never been able to really justify being intrigued by mail-order DNA tests that tell you "where you come from." Do I need scientific confirmation of everything I've always known and inferred? No. Do I want to know about which genetic variants I carry that may not affect me but could cause health problems for a child I'd have? Considering I'm doing everything in my power to avoid procreating, not particularly.

So it's never been a high priority for me to spend 10 minutes hocking dry-mouth loogies into a plastic vial and ship it off to a lab, despite my inexplicable fascination.

Last Thanksgiving, however, a friend of our dinner host just happened to have his 23andMe results printed out and in his pocket (I have no idea why — perhaps he has a hard time starting conversations and needed a prop?), and he let me take a look. I was surprised to see that, in addition to things like your ethnic composition, there was an entire section of reports on physical traits.

The inexplicable fascination was suddenly explicked! It has a beauty purpose! One of these tests could explain (explick!), scientifically, why I'm so darn cute. OK, not exactly — but 23andMe can give you a better idea of how your genetic makeup (makeup like structure, not cosmetics) impacts your physical features, and if your particular traits match what's most common among those with a similar background.

The folks at 23andMe kindly sent over one of their kits, which is so simple that I was sure I was going to screw it up, if only because a) I couldn't stop laughing at how the box says welcome to you because I kept picturing Kristen Wiig in a swan boat saying "Welcome to me," and b) the vial I was about to spit into over and over (after not drinking even water for more than a half-hour, as directed) reminded me of one of those women-can-pee-standing-up-too funnels.

I managed to pull myself together, though, and, after the collection process, dropped a sealed box of precious drool into a public mailbox, which felt incredibly unnatural.

While you're waiting for the results, you're encouraged to answer as many questions as you can through your online 23andMe account, regarding everything from illnesses you've been diagnosed with to whether or not you sneeze when you eat dark chocolate (which I didn't even know was a thing). This self-reported, anecdotal information doesn't affect your reports, but when it's paired with genetic results, it contributes to a more detailed picture of the kinds of attributes shared by those with a similar background.

A couple months after mailing my glandular goo to faceless scientists, I got an email notifying me that my reports were ready.

Even though my personal and professional passions made me eager to check out my Traits Reports, I looked at my Ancestry Reports first. As I expected, there was nothing very surprising. I'm of 98.9% European descent, with 95.8% of that considered Ashkenazi. (In layman's terms, I'm an Eastern European Jew, and can we please not get into a semantics argument about the dual meaning — religion versus ethnicity — of the word Jewish? Thanks.) It was fun to see that the other one percent of me was mostly Middle Eastern, with a teensy-tiny surprise that took me back to my Tinder days.

I also learned that I'm a little bit Neanderthal, but most people are probably more Neanderthalian (about as real of a word as explicked) than me.

After learning that I do not carry the variant for a number of diseases I've never heard of but sound like they're named after celebrities (Zellweger Syndrome! Usher Syndome!) I moved on to my Traits Reports.

First, under the Face section, I learned:

I am genetically unlikely to have a cleft chin.
I am genetically unlikely to have cheek dimples.
I am genetically unlikely to have a unibrow.
I am genetically unlikely to have a widow's peak.
All true for me! Though I do have a cowlick front and center in my hairline that could be mistaken for a widow's peak.

I also learned that 65% of 23andMe customers who are genetically similar to me have dark hazel, light brown, or dark brown eyes. I have medium-brown eyes, if do say so myself, but I assume that counts as typical for my makeup. A big chunk of my family — including my half-sister, maternal aunt and paternal first cousin — all have bright-blue eyes, though, which is apparently very rare for those who run in our genetic crowd.


Here's where things got interesting — to me, at least.

I have freaky-deaky attached earlobes. I always thought of that as something that wasn't uncommon to one particular genetic type, though, and rather just the rarer of the two types of lobes universally. Now I'm curious if there's an ethnicity where, like, everyone's earlobes are attached.

In the Hair section, I learned that most people genetically similar to me have dark brown hair, which I pretty much assumed as the dark-brown-haired child of two dark-brown-haired parents. However, the results also said that only 6% of 23andMe customers with a similar background have red hair, which fascinated me because my paternal grandmother, Ethel, was a natural redhead. (I've always wondered if that contributed to how auburn my hair was when I was younger.)

In terms of texture, almost 80% of the 23andMe-ers I have a lot of gene stuff in common with have either straight or wavy hair, and I fall into the latter category. I can coax my waves into loose curls on some days, but my niece, Elyssa, has tight curls, which, according to these reports are a single-digit-percentage rarity. (I always thought curls were pretty common among Ashkenazi folk!)

In the Skin Reports, I wasn't surprised to see that I'm likely to have "fair to beige" skin — and it looks like their idea of beige is a pretty deep caucasian tan. Although I'm fair-skinned these days, I was always capable of tanning quite easily when I allowed myself as a kid. I call those The Uninformed Years. And speaking of sun exposure, as someone with a freckly nose, I was surprised to see that fewer than half of my genetic compatriots had more than a couple freckles.

There's also a Wellness Reports section, where I learned that I'm probably tolerant of lactose (true), that I probably consume less caffeine than other genetic makeups (maybe?), and I'm unlikely to flush after drinking alcohol — unless I'm really drunk and then I'll definitely forget to flush. THANK YOU, I'LL BE HERE ALL WEEK.

Interestingly, 23andMe recently added on more results to my reports as they've developed the ability to analyze such information: sleep stuff. I discovered that I don't have the variant that would make me a deep sleeper — ain't that the truth — and that I'm not the type to flail about in my sleep.

I kind of love that they're able to continue giving you information about your DNA as it becomes possible. And even though I've completed all the questions initially asked before my reports came back, they're always adding new ways to contribute to research by answering questions used only for the purpose of furthering an understanding of genetic traits.

I think it would be amazing to see a test like this get super-specific about physical features that are of interest in the beauty realm, like the likelihood to get blackheads versus whiteheads, what age you'll probably start going gray, or if you possess a genetic tendency to have a really great ass without working out. Those reports are probably waaaay off in the distant future — and might require more than a couple hundred bucks — but I wouldn't be surprised if the technology already exists.

In the meantime, it's pretty cool to get a basic run-down of my genetic beauty fundamentals and see how they fit in — or don't — with people whose ancestry looks a lot like mine.

Have you ever done a mail-order DNA test?
What genetic information about your physical features would you be most interested in learning?
Have you ever tried repeatedly spitting with a dry mouth? It's kind of torturous.

www. yahoo .com

The 30 Best and Worst Foods To Eat Before Sleep

The 30 Best and Worst Foods To Eat Before Sleep

Healty

Whether you're lying in bed all night long because you can't stop thinking about that big presentation at work tomorrow or you're worrying about your kid's school report, losing out on some ZZZs may set you up for a miserable day of nutrition and unwelcome weight gain.

Besides being unbearably cranky the next day, the later we go to sleep and the less restful sleep we catch also makes us more likely to be overweight. A study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found when people miss out on shut-eye, it makes them eye more calorie-dense meals the next day. While many Americans suffer from stress-induced or nutrient-deficiency-induced insomnia, another reason you're counting sheep every night might be because of what you ate before bed.

That's right. It's not just the blue light from your devices' screens that can sabotage your sleep cycle. As it turns out, what you choose to snack on before bedtime can play a big role in how well you hit the hay. If you can't sleep and can't figure out why, look no farther than some of the following sneaky foods that can ruin a restorative night's rest.

And while some foods are ruining your chance at some shut-eye, there are other nocturnal noshes that will help you get more of it. Forget what you've heard about the "don't eat past 8" rule, eating before bed is not necessarily a diet no-no. Contrarily, going to bed hungry may have worse consequences when it comes to a restful night's sleep. Eating one of the best foods before bed may help you ease into dream-land. And when you're getting the right amount of rest, you'll be able to make the right nutritional decisions the next day, like making one of these healthy breakfasts!

First… The Best

1. Something
Going to bed hungry may actually hurt your slim-down efforts. On one hand you save yourself some calories, but on the other, a rumbling stomach could prevent you from falling asleep or wake you up mid-slumber. A restless or shortened sleep can confuse your metabolism enough to promote weight gain. Not only that, but starving yourself of energy causes your brain to get hangry, and it signals your body to delve into its lean muscle stores for fuel. Go with a light snack around 200 calories of any of the following foods. It's substantial enough to keep hunger pangs at bay through the night, but not so heavy that it will disrupt your sleep.

2. Kiwi
Get under the down comforter with this sleep-inducing food from Down Under. Participants who consumed two kiwifruits 1 hour before bedtime nightly for 4 weeks fell asleep 35 percent faster than those who didn't eat the New Zealand fruit. Besides being rich in antioxidants, carotenoids, and vitamins C and E, it also contains a familiar hormone, serotonin. This sleep hormone is related to rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and its low levels may cause insomnia. Similarly, kiwi is rich in folate, and insomnia is one of the health issues that is a symptom of folate deficiency.

3. Cherries
Sleep is a huge part of making any diet and exercise plan work, as it allows your body to process and recover from all the sweat and breakdown of muscle. And cherries are the perfect fruit for the job. A study published in the European Journal of Nutrition found that people who drank just one ounce of tart cherry juice a day reported that they slept longer and more soundly than those who didn't. So what's going on here? Cherries act as a natural sleep aid thanks to their melatonin content, a naturally produced hormone that signals to our bodies that it's time for bed. So enjoy a cup of cherries for dessert—they'll help you maintain your toned physique by replacing less virtuous desserts and moving along your snooze process.

4. Cereal and Skim Milk
Although it's considered a breakfast option, a low-sugar cereal paired with skim milk is a perfect bedtime snack. Milk contains the amino acid tryptophan, which serves as a precursor for the hormone serotonin, a sleep-inducing agent. (Just make sure your milk is skim. Higher fat whole milk will take your body longer to digest, keeping your body working late rather than snoozing.)

And according to a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, eating a high-glycemic carb like jasmine rice (or rice cereal) 4 hours before bed can cut the amount of time it takes to fall asleep in half compared to a low-GI food. This is because high-glycemic carbs, which spike insulin and blood sugar more quickly than low-GI foods, can help increase the ratio of tryptophan circulating in your blood by siphoning off other amino acids to your muscles. This lets the tryptophan outcompete those other amino acids for entrance into your brain, allowing more of the sedative to signal it's time to put your head to the pillow.

5. Bananas
"Sleep aid" is #17 on the list of 21 Amazing Things That Happen To Your Body When You Eat Bananas. Because they're an excellent source of both potassium and magnesium, bananas can put your body into a sleepy state by helping with muscle relaxation. In a study in the Journal of Research and Medical Sciences, magnesium had a positive effect on the quality of sleep in older adults with insomnia by extending the time they spent sleeping in bed (rather than just lying there) and making it easier to wake up. Bananas also contain tryptophan, the precursor to calming and sleep-regulating hormones serotonin and melatonin.

6. Almonds
Another great muscle-relaxing magnesium source? Nuts! Cashews and peanuts are good, but almonds are great. That's because almonds are also high in calcium. This tag team works together to calm the body and relax muscles. Calcium plays its role by helping the brain convert the amino acid tryptophan into sleep-inducing melatonin. This also explains why dairy products which contain both tryptophan and calcium, are one of the top sleep-inducing foods.

7. Spinach
Yet another reason to love this versatile food. With its long list of sleep-inducing nutrients, spinach is an insomniac's best friend. Not only is it a source of tryptophan, the green is an excellent source of folate, magnesium, and vitamins B6 and C, which are all key co-factors in synthesizing serotonin, and subsequently, melatonin. Spinach also contains glutamine, an amino acid which stimulates the body to get rid of the cellular toxins that lead to sleeplessness. When it comes to how to cook spinach, high heat is known to break down glutamine as well as vitamins C and B, so be sure to eat spinach raw—combine with a banana and almond milk for the perfect before-bed snack.

8. Poultry
Don't count sheep, eat lamb! (Or better yet, a bit of turkey.) Tryptophan, an amino acid found in most meats, has demonstrated powerful sleep-inducing effects. A recent study among insomniacs found that just 1/4 gram—about what you'll find in a skinless chicken drumstick or three ounces of lean turkey meat—was enough to significantly increase hours of deep sleep. And that can translate into an easy slim-down. Pair your source of tryptophan with a carbohydrate-rich food like brown rice (also high in sleep-supporting magnesium and vitamins B3 and B6) to enhance the eye-shutting effects.

9. Low-Fat Yogurt and Granola
For a tryptophan triple treat, combine low fat yogurt, honey-sweetened granola, and some banana. Yogurt, honey, oats and bananas all contain tryptophan, and the carbs from the banana and whole grain granola will help the tryptophan-rich foods get absorbed by the brain. Oat's tryptophan content is even higher when it's left uncooked. So instead of overnight oats, make them during the day!

10. Peanut Butter On Whole Grain
The "whole" part is important. Whole grains include the germ of the grain, which is removed during the refining of whole wheat grains into white flour. This germ includes important B vitamins such as folate and vitamin B6—both important micronutrients required for proper absorption of tryptophan—as well as magnesium to loosen your muscles. Pair it with tryptophan-containing peanut butter (and perhaps some bananas and honey) to help you catch some ZZZs.

11. Cottage Cheese
Completely avoiding food before bedtime can actually be bad for your weight loss goals. Have a little cottage cheese before bed. Not only is it rich in casein protein—a slow releasing milk protein that will keep a rumbling tummy at bay through the night—it also contains the amino acid tryptophan. Mix it with hummus for a savory spread and an added tryptophan boost (the amino acid is also found in chickpeas!), or with guacamole for some muscle-relaxing magnesium!

12. Passionflower Tea
What ailment can't be solved with a cup of tea? At least not sleeplessness! Many herbal teas offer sedative effects through their flavones, flavanoids, and resins. For starters, passionflower tea has the flavone chrysin, which has wonderful anti-anxiety benefits and is mild sedative, helping you calm nervousness so you can sleep at night.

13. Lemon Balm Tea
Another relaxing tea is lemon balm. A European study found that lemon balm serves as a natural sedative, and researchers reported that they observed reduced levels of sleep disorders among subjects using lemon balm versus those who were given a placebo.

14. Valerian Tea
Valerian is an herb that's long been valued as a mild sedative, and now research is showing what tea enthusiasts have known for centuries. In a study of women, researchers gave half the test subjects a valerian extract, and half a placebo. Thirty percent of those who received valerian reported an improvement in the quality of their sleep, versus just 4 percent of the control group. While researchers have yet to identify the exact active ingredient, they suspect that receptors in the brain may be stimulated to hit "sleep mode" when coming in contact with valerian.

15. Hop Tea
Legend has it that when workers were gathering hops for the master brewer's latest beer, they kept falling asleep on the job! People began to realize there was a sedative property to the hops, and they started using them in teas to aid with sleeplessness. Now, researchers found its pharmacological activity is due primarily to the bitter resins in its leaves. Acting in a similar way to melatonin, hops increase the activity of the neurotransmitter GABA, which helps combat anxiety. While hops have been used for centuries to aid with sleep, studies have only been able to prove its effectiveness when combined with valerian.


And Now… The Worst

1. Coffee and Soda
We hope you'd know this one by now! But in case you need a little background info: "Caffeine can stimulate the central nervous system several hours after consuming it," say The Nutrition Twins, Lyssie Lakatos, RDN, CDN, CFT and Tammy Lakatos Shames, RDN, CDN, CFT. "If you're at all sensitive to it, you will probably lie awake." Caffeine's stimulating effects can last anywhere from 8 to 14 hours, so make sure to keep your sleep in mind when you're thinking about the timing of that cuppa joe or afternoon diet soda. We'd recommend laying off around 8 hours before you're planning to hit the hay.

2. Chocolate
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but that chocolate treat after dinner isn't doing your REM any favors. Like coffee, dark chocolate also contains caffeine, which can increase arousal, prevent your body from shutting down, and decrease your ability to develop and sustain deeper stages of sleep. Chocolate bars have varying amounts of caffeine, but an average 2-ounce, 70 percent dark chocolate bar contains around 79 mg—over half of what's in an 8-ounce cup of coffee. If you know you're sensitive to caffeine, but don't want to ditch the dark chocolate completely, try savoring your sweet treat earlier on in the night or cutting down on portions.

3. Alcohol
That nightcap might actually be doing the opposite of its intention. While a late-night glass of wine can help relax you and help you fall asleep faster, it actually prevents your body from fully indulging in its REM (Rapid Eye Movement) cycle, which is where truly restful sleep and dreaming occurs. According to nutritionist Mitzi Dulan, RD, "Research shows that drinking alcohol before bed can make you more likely to wake up throughout the night and diminishes quality of sleep. We also know alcohol can lead to snoring since it is a potent muscle relaxer." For a little motivation to cut back on the booze, check out these amazing benefits of giving up alcohol!

4. Fatty Foods
We're talking about the usual suspects here, like cheeseburgers, loaded burritos, and ice cream sundaes. (Yep, you'll have to say bye-bye to Ben and Jerry before bed!) "These high-fat foods take longer to digest," offer The Nutrition Twins, which they explain will keep your body up working rather than relaxing. Fatty foods "often cause bloating and indigestion that interferes with a sound night's rest," they continue. This leads to a more fragmented sleep, so you wake up the next morning without feeling refreshed.

5. High-Sugar Cereals
Pass right by the fruit loops, please. "Eating high-sugar cereals will make your blood sugar spike and crash, which will affect your sleep," says nutritionist Lisa DeFazio, MS, RDN. She continues, "choose cereal with less than five grams of sugar per serving."

6. Hot Peppers&Spicy Foods
Spicy foods are a go-to when it comes to revving up your metabolism, but they're also ruining your chances at falling asleep. Spices like cayenne and Tabasco get their metabolism-boosting properties from capsaicin, which can trigger heartburn in sensitive individuals. Erin Palinski-Wade, RD, CDE, explains this compound gets your blood flowing as well, "Its thermogenic properties can increase the body's core temperature." Since your core temperature naturally decreases as you get ready to sleep, raising it can cause you to feel more awake and struggle with staying asleep.

7. A High-Protein or High-Fat Dinner
A little lesson in logic: "You may think a high-protein or high-fat dinner will keep you full all night, preventing you from waking. But research shows that eating a high-protein meal before bed can lead to sleep disturbances," advises Palinski-Wade. Experts believe it's because a meal containing a high protein content contributes less tryptophan—the amino acid which is a precursor to the calming hormone serotonin—than it does other amino acids. A lower tryptophan to other large amino acids ratio actually reduces serotonin. And, like many other foods on this list, you may wind up with indigestion or acid reflux since you'll be lying down with a full stomach.

8. Dried Fruit
Consuming too much of a high-fiber food like dried fruit can bother your stomach and cause you to have gas and cramps during the night, according to DeFazio. "This is thanks to their high-fiber, low-water content." Come morning, don't eat 'em, either. They're one of the top foods nutritionists wish you would stop adding to your overnight oats.

9. Water
You might want to rethink having that tall glass of H2O on your bedside table—unless you're saving it for the morning. "Yes, you should drink plenty of water during the day to stay hydrated. In fact, even slight dehydration can significantly drain your energy levels," offers Palinski-Wade. "But if you drink too much right before bed, you may find yourself awakening multiple times to urinate. Instead, start to taper off your fluid intake about three hours before bedtime." To chug more water during the day and help aid your weight loss efforts, try one of these detox waters!

10. Pizza
Whether it's a quick fix for working late or your go-to drunk food, a slice of pizza might satisfy your cravings, but it'll leave you worse off in the A.M. "The combination of fat in the cheese and the acid in the tomato sauce can have a negative impact on your sleep quality," says Palinski-Wade. "High-acid foods can trigger acid reflux, especially when eaten close to bedtime. Even if you don't feel 'heartburn,' this reflux can cause you to awaken partially from sleep and leave you tired the next day."

11. Peppermint
Leave those apres-dinner mints on the check and head home! There are health benefits of mint, but sleeping well isn't one of them. "Many people pop peppermints into their mouths after dinner to freshen their breath," says Hayim. "Some people have it in their tea thinking it will soothe them. But, as it turns out, peppermint is a heartburn trigger. So, definitely stay away from it before bed!"

12. Green Tea
We are huge fans of green tea at Eat This, Not That!—after all, we created an entire best-selling plan in which happy test panelists lost 10 pounds in a week! So enjoy this nutritious sipper throughout the day, but make sure to taper off several hours before bedtime, at the least. On top of caffeine, green tea contains two other stimulants, called theobromine and theophylline, which Hayim tells us may cause increased heart rate, feelings of nervousness, and overall anxiety.

13. Fries and Ketchup
This fast-food combo serves up a double whammy when it comes to disrupting those sweet dreams. On top of fries being greasy, they're also high in fat, and will keep you up as your body tries to digest them. Dipping them in ketchup is asking for more trouble. "Ketchup is extremely acidic thanks to the tomatoes it's made with," offers Hayim. "In addition to the acid that is naturally there, ketchup is usually preserved with other chemicals that make them even more acidic and may lead to heartburn." Watch out for tomato sauce, too: "Pasta and marinara sauces can contribute to indigestion and heartburn," The Nutrition Twins say. "This is especially important if you're prone to indigestion. When you lie down to go to bed, digestion slows and the horizontal position can make heartburn and indigestion even worse."

14. Raw Onions
Being able to kiss someone goodnight isn't the only reason to give up these guys right before bedtime. "Onions can cause gas that affects the pressure in your stomach," says Hayim, which can result in acid to enter back into your throat—not a pleasant feeling when you're trying to catch some ZZZ's. She explains, "Studies have found that raw onions can cause potent and long-lasting feelings of reflux in people who already have heartburn." Now that's something to toss and turn over. So even if you're eating healthy on those late-nights at the office, be sure to nix these from your salad.

15. Too Much Food
While you shouldn't go to bed starving (that presents its own body-busting problems, like depleting your lean muscle storage), you also shouldn't hit the sack completely stuffed. When you eat a large meal before bed, your body is working to digest it long into the night — and if your body is still worked up, so are you. The later you fall asleep, the less rest you'll get, and you'll wake up feeling groggy and more likely to reach for calorie-dense items.

www. yahoo .com

Why Your Facial Oil Isn't Working + Tips To Fix It

Why Your Facial Oil Isn't Working + Tips To Fix It

Beauty

Facial oils, oil-based serums, and oil cleansers are very popular these days, but there is one problem with these products: They lack water. Don't get me wrong; I'm a huge fan of plant oils and use them in my personal skin care regimen, but using them correctly is key to a healthy glow.

Water is essential for healthy skin. Without water, skin barrier function becomes compromised, and the skin can start showing symptoms such as inflammation, breakouts, flakiness, roughness, not to mention premature aging. The skin is made up of hydrophilic (water-loving) and lipophilic (oil-loving) layers. The deeper part is hydrophilic while the top layer is lipophilic.

Naturally, water is what keeps the skin hydrated and healthy and also keeps everything working. The top, oil-loving layer helps keep water from evaporating but protects the skin in many other ways as well. This is why facial oils work wonders and why those of you with naturally oilier skin have skin that actually ages slower, is less prone to inflammation, and is more effective at fighting free-radicals (thank you, sebum!).

So, water and oil work together to keep your skin healthy. Your skin needs water to function and oils to prevent water from evaporating and to protect the skin. Turns out water and oil do get along!

Remember how the top layer is oil-loving and the deeper layer is water-loving? This means that water-based products will actually travel deeper into your skin layers. Adding water-based products after cleansing will help deliver nutrients deeper into the skin than using only oil-based products.

Topical application of water in its many forms (hydrosols, teas, aloe juice, etc.) is a great way to help your skin stay hydrated while also delivering extra benefits deep within your skin.

So how can you add water back into your routine without ditching your oils?

You might be tempted to turn to lotions, but the water content in lotion can evaporate quickly and may not leave skin feeling hydrated. Lotions also often contain fillers, emulsifiers, and preservatives that your skin doesn't need.

I suggest that instead you apply water-based products in between your cleanser and facial oil. This can be an alcohol-free toner, facial mist, and/or water-based serum.

For added benefits and extra hydration, look for products that contain hydrosols/floral waters, herbal teas/infusions, and humectants like hyaluronic acid.

The key is to apply these water-based products immediately before your facial oil (so apply the facial oil when your skin is still damp). If you use a lotion or cream as well as a facial oil, apply the lotion/cream before your oil or balm.

www. mindbodygreen .com

Why Health Resolutions Fail + How To Get Back On Track

Why Health Resolutions Fail + How To Get Back On Track

Fitness

Forbes reported that 80 percent of all New Year’s resolutions fail after approximately six weeks.

So why is that?

Over the past eight years of being a transformational coach, this question has fascinated me. I have explored many tools and processes to help my students (and myself!) make New Year's resolutions that stick.

Here are four ways to reboot your resolutions so you can reach your 2016 goals and dreams:

1. Understand the "why" that drives you.

We often use resolutions as a chance to try to become the person we think others want us to be. Make sure your 2016 goals are yours and yours alone by taking some time to journal and meditate 10 minutes a day. Ask yourself, "What do I really want?" or "If I could pause my life for 1 year and no one knew I was gone I would…"


2. Know the creative process.

Understand that success doesn't happen overnight, and reaching your goals is a six-stage process.

Stage 1: Inspiration Think of a great idea (aka your resolution) .
Stage 2: Frustration Things don’t go as planned and self-doubt and procrastination will eventually kick in. Knowing that this is part of the processes makes it a lot less frustrating. During this stage, simply let go of the expectation of HOW you thought it was all going to work out, but hold onto your goal. Allow yourself to open up and trust that there is another possible solution. There are millions of ways to bring a goal to fruition … not just one!
Stage 3: Incubation You've struggled with your goal, and it's time to put it on the back burner and let it simmer.
Stage 4: Strategize Find someone to brainstorm with about how to make your dream a reality.
Stage 5: Illumination This is when you figure out how to realize your goal and you catapult over the brick wall of frustration. By this point, you're well on your way.
Stage 6: Verification Your goal becomes a reality!
3. Set a plan o' action.

Create an action plan that prioritizes measurable results: the how, the what, the when. For example if you want to write a book, the "what" is to write a book, the "how" is to get up early and write one hour a day before work, the "when" is the deadline that the first draft of your manuscript should be finished.

You then can plug these action steps into your planner or phone calendar, and set reminders to keep you on track. At the beginning of each week, create a new plan of action to keep the momentum going.

4. Remember that accountability is key.

Whether you and a friend email each other your weekly goals or you join a larger coaching group, make sure you surround yourself with others who want you to succeed. If you keep your goals and resolutions inside your head, no one is watching to see if you do them or not! Have people who you trust hold you accountable.

www. mindbodygreen .com

10 Food Rules For Glowing Skin At Any Age

10 Food Rules For Glowing Skin At Any Age

Healty

What you eat can determine, to a large extent, how old you look and how quickly you age. As a practicing plastic surgeon for the past 13 years, I’ve found that even if you slather on sunscreen, refrain from smoking, and apply anti-aging creams, eating the wrong foods can cause your skin to age prematurely.

Keeping that in mind, here are some practical tips that can slow down the aging of your skin and your entire body:

1. Go whole grain.

Whenever you have a choice, choose whole grains over refined grains. Change your white toast to whole-wheat toast. Change white rice to brown rice. Choose whole-grain cereals or oatmeal instead of refined sugary cereals. Try whole-grain pasta, including brown-rice pasta, instead of the white stuff.

Be aware that many products will advertise themselves as “whole grain” or “multigrain” or “whole wheat” but will actually contain only a small amount of whole grain compared to refined grain. This is especially common with bread products, including bagels, English muffins, and hamburger buns. Read the label. The whole-grain ingredients should be listed first. Ideally, the product will contain 100 percent whole grains. Popcorn is a whole grain, so snack on that whenever you need something crunchy. Just don’t drown it in butter and salt.

2. Use protein.

If you decide to eat a food with a high glycemic index, such as something with sugar or white flour, always pair it with protein to slow down the release of glucose in your bloodstream. For example, have a hard-boiled egg with your waffle, put lean steak in your stir-fry, or have almonds with your raisins.

3. Go green.

If you are a coffee drinker, try alternating a cup of coffee with a cup of green tea. You’ll still get the caffeine boost you crave, but you’ll also get powerful antioxidants. Coffee has antioxidants, too, but green tea has different ones that are particularly skin-friendly. Peppermint tea is another good option since it is also full of antioxidants that slow down aging of the skin.

4. Spice (and herb) it up.

Many herbs, spices, and seasonings also contain potent antioxidants, so use them liberally, especially the spices cinnamon (skip the sugar), cloves, cumin, curry powder, turmeric, and saffron, and the herbs basil, lemon balm, marjoram, oregano, peppermint, rosemary, sage, tarragon, and thyme.


Use herbs and spices liberally when cooking, sprinkle fresh herbs on salads or sandwiches, and add a shake of cinnamon to your coffee or tea to fight off wrinkles and aging!

5. Pass on the processed food.

Anything that comes in a package is suspect, but baked goods and snack foods are the worst—cupcakes, cookies, doughnuts, and kids’ cereals contain refined flour and too much sugar, which will spike your blood sugar and your insulin levels. Fried foods like chips and crackers are often loaded with salt and fat and may contain trans fats.

Beware of so‑called healthy versions of your favorite snacks, too. Low-fat versions often contain an extra load of sugar (this can be especially true for peanut butter), and even whole-grain snacks may contain too much sugar, salt, and fat.

6. Start your day with fruit.

A plate of fruit every morning is a great way to load up on antioxidants without fat, salt, or added sugar. My father eats a plate of fruit every morning, and I suspect that man is going to live to be 100.

7. Satisfy your sweet tooth with dark chocolate.

Chocolate is graded according to how much raw cocoa it contains. The higher the percentage of raw cocoa, the greater the antioxidant activity. Look for chocolate with at least 70 percent cocoa for maximum antioxidants and minimum added sugar. I like the 85 percent cocoa chocolate. Several brands make an 85 percent chocolate bar, including Lindt, Green and Black, Ghirardelli (86 percent), and Endangered Species (88 percent).

Hershey’s bars, chocolate kisses, and dark-chocolate versions of your favorite candy like Special Dark, dark-chocolate M&M’s, and dark chocolate Raisinets, as well as anything made of milk chocolate, don’t have enough raw cocoa to be beneficial, so skip them. They are mostly sugar.

8. Remember: green, yellow, orange, red.

The most antioxidant-rich foods are brightly colored.

9. Eat more protein.

Protein provides the building blocks of collagen, and your body needs it to repair and replace collagen that has degraded with age or that is damaged by free radicals. One study showed that women with lower protein intake had more wrinkles than women with higher protein intake. The USDA recommends 0.8 to 1 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. For example, a 150-pound (68.2 kg) woman would require about 68 grams of protein per day.

10. Drink up!

Water is extremely important for hydration. Everything in your body will work better when you are well-hydrated, and the more you drink, the more you will moisturize your skin from the inside. If you are chronically dehydrated (and many people are), drinking eight glasses of water a day can make you look younger almost immediately.

www. mindbodygreen .com

4 Herbal Remedies That Could Help With Breastfeeding

4 Herbal Remedies That Could Help With Breastfeeding

Healty

While researching their new book, The Informed Parent: A Science-Based Resource for Your Child's First Four Years, science journalists Tara Haelle and Emily Willingham, Ph.D., sifted through thousands of studies on parenting practices—from birthing and breastfeeding to sleep training and screen time—to find out what moms and dads really need to know. In this adapted excerpt, Haelle and Willingham take a look at the science behind boosting breast milk.

Although about 8 in 10 newborns started to breastfeed in 2011, only half of infants born that year were still breastfeeding at 6 months old, and just over a quarter at 1 year.

For mothers who planned to formula-feed or to stop breastfeeding before a year, that's fine—but a large proportion of those decreases reflects mothers who aren't meeting their own breastfeeding goals. A 2014 study of more than 2,300 women who planned and started to breastfeed found that 12 percent of those women experienced problems related to breast pain, low milk supply, or infant latch. That means 1 in 8 women didn't reach the breastfeeding goal they set for themselves due to these common problems.

In our book, we address some of the most common problems nursing moms face and provide an overview of the related research. In this section, we'll focus on milk production.
Many women worry about low production and want to know ways to boost it. A Cochrane Review didn’t find evidence that drinking extra fluids boosts milk production (though dehydration can hurt it). As for the old wives’ tales about beer drinking, one review found that barley, an ingredient in most beers, can stimulate prolactin, the hormone that stimulates the production of breast milk, but alcohol can inhibit the letdown reflex, so the effects might cancel each other out.

Listening to music while pumping or breastfeeding, relaxation techniques like deep breathing or massages, and having pleasurable food or drink have all been shown to help a little bit with milk supply, most likely because they all reduce stress. Some hormones have been tested for increasing milk supply, such as oxytocin and human growth hormone, but data on effectiveness and safety are thin.

For women who have a diagnosed insufficiency, the prescription drug metoclopramide can increase prolactin levels, resulting in up to 1.5 ounces more milk per feeding, but it should only be used short term, no more than three weeks. It can cause gastrointestinal side effects, anxiety, or sedation in moms, but there’s no evidence of effects in babies.

And then there are the herbal remedies, and lordy, there are a lot!

Unfortunately, there isn’t much reliable research, and plenty of problems exist with what little research there is. Studies are usually small, with 10 to 75 people, and aren’t often well-controlled. The women aren’t necessarily representative of all women, and dosages are all over the map. Because herbs are not regulated in the United States, supplements aren’t standardized, and it’s hard to know how much of an herb is in a capsule and what other ingredients are in there.

We’ll run through the most popular herbs here, but keep in mind that none of them has a strong evidence base, and all the studies discussed are very small. The ones with the “best” evidence are fenugreek, milk thistle, and torbangun.

Fenugreek

A trial using tea with fenugreek against a placebo group and a control group led to double the pumped milk from the fenugreek tea group compared to the other two. The best dosage, based on a poorly described anecdotal account of 1,200 women, is three capsules (580 to 610 milligrams) three times a day, and if it’s going to work, the effects should appear within two to three days.


Possible side effects include nausea, diarrhea, flatulence, and smelling like maple syrup (seriously!). Fenugreek can also interfere with some medications and increase the risk of bleeding in women taking blood-thinning medications and may cause congenital anomalies if taken while pregnant. Those allergic to chickpeas, soybeans, or peanuts may have an allergic reaction to fenugreek since it’s in the same family.

Milk Thistle (Silybum marianum/St. Mary’s Milk)

A placebo-controlled trial of 50 Peruvian women found a 64 percent increase in milk production among women taking silymarin (the commercially available form), compared to 22 percent in the placebo group after a month. At two months, the silymarin group experienced an 86 percent increase, compared to 32 percent in the placebo group.

Shatavari (Asparagus racemosus)

One trial found a 33 percent increase in prolactin levels and a 16 percent increase in babies’ weight in women taking this herb, compared to a 10 percent prolactin increase and a 6 percent baby weight increase in the comparison group. Possible side effects are a runny nose or red eyes during preparation, and it may cause congenital anomalies if taken while pregnant.

Torbangun/Spanish Thyme

After a month of use, mothers’ milk volume increased 33 percent compared to a 15 percent drop in two comparison groups, one of which was taking fenugreek. This herb may increase the risk of bleeding in mothers using blood-thinning medications.

Other herbs

Fennel, blessed thistle, chaste tree seed, goat’s rue, raspberry leaf, basil, black seed, anise, caraway seed, alfalfa, and stinging nettle have all been tried or suggested, but no data exist on them. Chaste berry or chaste tree seeds may be unsafe to take while pregnant. Blessed thistle may increase bleeding risk if taken with blood-thinning medication, and fennel may interact with some drugs’ effectiveness.

www. mindbodygreen .com