Author: News Room
What Really Happens to Your Body When examines the head-to-toe effects of common behaviors, actions and habits in your everyday life. In This Article When you’re living with depression, taking antidepressants can be life-changing. But as you start to feel better, and your doctor gives the OK, you may consider getting off the medicine. You may wonder, “how will this affect my body and mind?” While they aren’t addictive, people who stop antidepressants can feel withdrawal symptoms — sometimes called antidepressant discontinuation syndrome. In fact, more than half of people who stop antidepressants report withdrawal effects, according to an October…
In This Article Many of us struggle with tight lats and triceps. We use these muscles for lots of exercises, and they can get stiff when we sit all day at work. The bad news: Over time, tight lats and tris can negatively impact our shoulder mobility and contribute to pain in our shoulders, neck or lower back. But there’s good news, too. You can loosen up your upper back, arms and shoulders — and improve your shoulder mobility — using a drill called the bench prayer stretch. The bench prayer stretch, also known as the bench thoracic spine mobilization,…
In This Article Sometimes your body needs a little movement to help you relax before catching some shut-eye. However, engaging in an invigorating sweat session before your head hits the pillow often isn’t the answer. That’s because doing high-intensity workouts in the evening (if you work the day shift, that is) can elevate your heart rate and may ultimately disrupt your sleep cycle, a small May 2014 study in the European Journal of Applied Physiology found. However, some types of workouts may not leave you feeling “amped up” for hours on end. Exercise that requires light to moderate effort —…
There are typically three areas of wellness where I like to maintain a healthy routine: drinking lots of water, eating balanced meals and moving my body. The issue? There never seems to be enough time in my day to check off all three of my main to-dos. Yes, I can usually meet my water intake goal and most days I’ll move my body at least a little bit. Cooking, on the other hand, tends to be an area I skip over too often. With work, life and everything in between, I’ve finally come to terms with the fact that nightly…
What Really Happens to Your Body When examines the head-to-toe effects of common behaviors, actions and habits in your everyday life. From charcoal toothpaste to organic floss and tongue scraping, there have been a lot of dental health trends over the years touted to benefit your smile. One such trend is called oil pulling, which is actually a long-standing practice of ancient Ayurvedic medicine in India. It involves swishing oil — like sesame or coconut oil — in your mouth for about 20 minutes to promote dental hygiene, per a June 2016 review in the Journal of Traditional and Complementary…
Building lower-body muscle at home doesn’t have to cost thousands of dollars or take up your entire garage: You can just grab a kettlebell. “It takes up less space than a pair of shoes. It’s affordable. It’s versatile. Yes, it’s just a tool. But it’s a damn good one,” says kettlebell-loving trainer Steven Head, CSCS, author of Not Another Fitness Book. “Anything you can do with dumbbells, you can do with a kettlebell — and that’s not so much true in reverse.” That’s because the unique shape of a kettlebell makes it an ideal tool for exercises like cleans, snatches…
In This Article Movements like climbing stairs, carting a trash can out to the curb and squatting down to load the washing machine may seem like second nature. But as you age, grow more sedentary or change your lifestyle, those seemingly simplistic tasks can feel as difficult as scaling a mountain or pushing an Olympic bobsled. Enter: functional fitness, a training style meant to help you move easily and live pain-free. Here, pro trainers break down the key elements of the fitness approach, why it’s so beneficial and how you can start incorporating functional fitness into your routine with a…
If you strive to make efforts towards taking care of your skin, you’re probably quite serious about one of the most important steps in any skin-care routine: cleansing. This typically involves rinsing your face with a skin-friendly cleanser that’s formulated with ingredients to remove makeup, oil, debris, pollutants and other impurities from your skin. “Most dermatologists consider skin cleansing to be paramount to skin health, as it helps prevent these impurities from clogging your pores, leading to acne or even causing free-radical damage that accelerates aging over time,” says Dendy Engelman, MD, FACMS, board-certified cosmetic dermatologist and Mohs surgeon at…
Contrary to popular belief, upper-body workouts aren’t only for looking like the Incredible Hulk. Upper-body exercises can strengthen your bones and stabilize your joints — two important factors in preventing injuries. Body-weight exercises are a great way to improve your health without the use of equipment, which means these exercises can be done anywhere, anytime. Plus, they can improve your muscle endurance and strength just as effectively as if you were to use weights. The following 15-minute upper-body workout is designed to work multiple muscles at once (as opposed to isolated one muscle group), so you’ll get more bang for…
There are so many reasons to celebrate reaching the menopausal transition. For starters, you never have to deal with period cramps again. Worrying about unplanned pregnancies also becomes a thing of the past. But, as your progesterone and estrogen hormone levels take a nose dive in the time leading up to your last period, your body becomes more susceptible to a host of health issues and side effects. These include hot flashes, anxiety, osteoporosis (a condition in which your bones become weak and brittle), cardiovascular events and sarcopenia (the loss of muscle and strength), as explained in a July 2011…