Health on TIME.com
Meet The Man Who Won’t Stop Running
Scott Jurek has been an Ultramarathoner for twenty years
Published on April 20, 2015 at 06:15PM
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Showing posts with label Health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Health. Show all posts
Monday, April 20, 2015
Health: Most Americans Think Medical Marijuana Shouldn’t Be Used By Kids, Poll Says
Health on TIME.com
Most Americans Think Medical Marijuana Shouldn’t Be Used By Kids, Poll Says
And 80% think adults shouldn't use medical marijuana in front of children
Published on April 20, 2015 at 05:22PM
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Sunday, April 19, 2015
When A Queer Woman Counts Calories
One Monday in September on a busy street in New York, my girlfriend and I fought loudly about how little I had eaten that day.
My younger brother had just visited me for a long weekend; we’d eaten our way through the boroughs like royalty. Still full of barbecue and Cuban food, I skipped breakfast the Monday he left and allotted 200 calories for lunch.
The plan derailed when my girlfriend Kaitlyn came by my office and suggested we grab a bite. When I placed my order at the soup and sandwich restaurant, she caught me.
"That's not even 300 calories," she said as we waited to pay. "That's not a meal."
"It's full of vegetables," I said. "I eat it all the time."
"That doesn't make it a meal."
We sat down at a wobbly laminated table, surrounded by hurried office workers on their lunch breaks. I tried to pretend nothing was up as I watched her shoulders clench. Had I done something wrong? Is there something bad about eating a light lunch after a gluttonous weekend?
"Camille," she said. "Say something."
"I'm going to eat the whole thing,” I said. “I have it all the time."
She packed up her untouched sandwich and walked out, tears brimming. I chased her outside.
"You always do this," she said. "You know exactly what it is you’re doing, but you refuse to believe there's a way out. "
We had never talked in public about my trouble with eating, and I was hyperaware of how many people shuffled around us, swinging in and out of the Starbucks next door.
“What do you want me to do, go back in and order something else?"
"That would be a great start, yeah."
I glanced back inside the restaurant. My legs locked. The pressure in my chest threatened to pop. 200 calories for lunch. I promised.
"I'll eat more later," I said. "It's not a big deal."
“You don't even think about what effect this has on me and everyone else in your life,” Kaitlyn said, raising her voice and locking her eyes on mine — both scolding me and scared for me. “It's not all about you."
Guilt rolled down my cheeks. She was right and she was wrong. I did think about the toll I was taking on her — maybe even too often — and so I pushed back.
"Don't tell me that I don't think about how this affects you," I said. "I hate myself for it, and I wonder if you’d be better off if I let you find someone else."
Her shoulders dropped and she let herself exhale. Her anger quieted now that I’d said out loud that I was just as scared as she was.
I shut up and she hugged me. Lower Manhattan carried on around us, but we stood on the sidewalk oblivious to honking cars and sweaty excuse-mes and falafel sizzling on the cart outside the restaurant. I hoped none of my co-workers would walk by. If they did, my head was buried too deep into her shoulder to notice.
We held on to each other and prayed to nobody in particular that I could break this — that it wouldn't break us.
I have always been obsessed with scales, BMIs, calories, and nutrition facts; they were the only tools I had to document changes in my body as a teenager before I had settled into my adult shape and size. Nutrition by number has always made sense, so I didn’t notice when, after moving to New York City for my first job two years ago, those numbers started to dictate my days again.
It is offensively easy to count calories in New York. Chain restaurants are required to post caloric content on their menus. Gym culture is inescapable. Over the tops of cubicles, I heard co-workers chatting about their fitness accomplishments. The city that never sleeps never stops running.
I nursed my infatuation with counting at the office, where snacking between meals kept my spirits down and my numbers up. One day, I unstuck a yellow Post-It note and wrote in thick Sharpie, “LTH>LTF.” A little too hungry is better than a little too full. I kept it in a desk drawer for inspiration. After I cut out snacks, I started cutting out meals.
In an office where everyone misses lunch sometimes, nobody noticed. With no room for a table or even a couch in my tiny apartment, I ate all my meals alone in bed. Kaitlyn and I were still dating long-distance at the time, and texting each other during dinner wasn’t the same as having her next to me, preparing full portions of a meal we’d lovingly cooked together.
Instead, with nobody sitting at my side, I ate as little as I wanted, proud as I'd ever been of my self-discipline. This was the biggest self-improvement project I had ever taken on, even if I didn’t have an exact end goal in mind. I wanted full control over what I put in my body.
Objectively, there is nothing wrong with knowing how many calories you take in. Balancing meals and physical activity is doctor-recommended. We wear bracelets and program our phones to remind us to put down that soda or push through that extra mile. So when I organized my every day around netting as few calories as possible, I didn't think of it as an eating disorder. I thought of it as math.
Distorted body image takes on a tricky dynamic in a relationship between two women. For every unkind thought you've ever had about yourself, it's likely she's told herself the same. When you restrict and exercise and count, count, count, it's because of the same societal forces that have inflicted both of you — inflicted all women, equally and indiscriminately.
Of the "big four" health concerns lesbians are disproportionately prone to — smoking, drinking, breast cancer, and obesity — obesity has been of particular interest to researchers lately. A survey from 2013 has affirmed that while lesbians and bisexual women skew heavier than straight women, they're also less concerned about being overweight. One possible, pleasing explanation is that queer women tend not to care about fitting the standard of "beauty" perpetuated by — and designed to please — straight men.
I’ve long identified as bisexual, and even though I’m now in an amazing relationship with another woman, I can't fully relate to this hypothesis. The last time I stopped eating, I was pursuing a man who ran half marathons, climbed mountains, and dated a gaggle of beautiful women with delicate waists and legs like lightning rods. Now he was gone, and I had Kaitlyn, and I couldn’t care less whether men liked how I looked. I should have been immune to this illness — this contagion so often shaped by patriarchy’s impossible demands of women. I didn’t believe I was sick because this wasn’t my disease to have.
A woman I love loves me for me, I thought to myself every night on the subway home. Why do I care about looking like what men want?
Last May, I weighed less than I had as a sophomore in high school. I was coming up on my one-year anniversary in New York, work was stressful, my then-roommate and I were on shaky terms, and I had all but stopped eating.
At the end of the month, Kaitlyn would be moving from Chicago to New York to move in with me, a certified big step. It was a convenient coincidence that my attachment to counting calories reached its peak just before this major life change.
After a year of long distance, Kaitlyn and I were both eager for our new life to start. She knew I’d been having trouble with my body — she commented that I looked thinner on each of our visits — but we didn’t see each other often enough for her to get a clear image of how calculated my eating rituals had become.
Even though living together sounded like a dream, I couldn't let go of the fear that my strict schedule would unravel. I wouldn't have time for two-hour nightly workouts, and she would see what I ate or didn’t eat. Presented with the option of healing with the girl I loved by my side, I was shamefully afraid of giving up my comfortable, controlled routine.
I brainstormed ways to keep it up under our shared roof: I could lie about my lunches, do push-ups at the office, or even start purging. I could make it work.
Or I could let it go, break up with counting, and nurture my healthy relationship with the girl I loved. But I couldn't do both.
When moving day came, my parents and Kaitlyn's made the trip north to lend a hand. They were an immense help, but by the last day everyone was sick of everyone else; shuttling a U-Haul around Manhattan in June will do that to you. My patience broke when we all went out to dinner that night.
The house was a mess, we had so much more to do, and my family was fighting at the restaurant, so I took charge of myself the only way I knew how. In the middle of the meal, I escaped to the bathroom to cry and quietly pronounced myself un-hungry when I got back to the table. It was immature, but it gave me back some control amid all the frantic energy.
When we got home (sans parents) and I confessed that I was hungry, Kaitlyn didn't shame me for skipping dinner or tell me I'd brought it on myself. Instead, she made us a plate of cheese and crackers to share and then produced a box of Trader Joe's cookies from one of her suitcases.
I was shaken from fighting and embarrassed to stray from my conviction not to eat, but this space felt safer than the public display of a restaurant; it was not quite a haven where calorie counts no longer applied, but a transitional place where I could remember what it felt like to eat for pleasure again. I still felt vulnerable, my throat raw and lumpy as I swallowed bite after bite — but I chose to eat, just like I'd chosen not to an hour before.
Eventually, though my road to body self-care was studded with disagreements and occasional interventions from Kaitlyn, I reached a place where I could focus less on undoing damage and more on taking proactive steps. I started eating breakfast again. I ordered a subscription of boxed healthy snacks to my office and let myself have one every other day. I quit the gym, kicking and screaming. I talked about food in therapy and cried on the bus home.
Even with Kaitlyn next to me now, cheerleading and coaching and sometimes doling out necessary tough love, letting go of my decade-long yearning for physical perfection is not an easy task. Because it doesn't actually matter what men want; it's about a universal, inhuman ideal of female beauty, a sublime goal that lingers no matter who you date. The standards are set. The damage is done.
But even if I can’t upend the norms by myself, I can challenge them — by loving a body that the magazines I grew up reading say is not good enough, and by letting someone else love it too.
When old bad habits tempt me, I remember that first night Kaitlyn and I spent alone, after our parents had gone and the furniture was built. To wash down the Trader Joe’s cookies, we opened a bottle of champagne and ordered in cheesecake and watched Netflix all night. For the first time in a year, I didn't check the label to see how many calories I was taking in. In that moment, it didn't matter. I could be myself in this body, in this house, with this woman.
Recovery isn't a flipped light switch. It's a dimmer that hums even at its lowest setting. After half a year, many sessions of therapy, and a few loud fights, I ripped the Post-It note in my office drawer into Scrabble tiles. I joined a new, smaller gym, where I’ve learned to exercise responsibly. My therapist suggested I never weigh myself again. Body self-consciousness is not a spirit that lifts out of you and never comes back, so I'm preparing for it to come and go, while I collect habits to help me muffle numbers that never stop shouting.
Making peace with food has been a shared experience. Kaitlyn and I cook together, go out for drinks, do yoga occasionally, watch Food Network constantly. Food, as it turns out, is a huge part of our relationship. Therapy and common sense remind me to get better not because it makes someone else's life easier, but because I owe it to myself. While I’m working toward loving my body on my own behalf, for its protection, its strength, and its power, it would be dishonest to say Kaitlyn’s validation doesn’t make a difference. She fills in the gaps.
Not long ago, I came home from the gym giddy after a milestone and played a joke on her.
"Guess how many calories I burned on the elliptical?" I asked.
I heard her breath catch. "I don't know."
"I don't know, either. I turned that function off today. First time ever."
Kaitlyn beamed and hugged me and told me she was proud. We opened a couple of beers, made dinner, and the hum softened.
Source BuzzFeed - Health http://ift.tt/1JVI7bl
Friday, April 17, 2015
Health: Smokers Don’t Think a Few Cigarettes Will Harm Their Health
Health on TIME.com
Smokers Don’t Think a Few Cigarettes Will Harm Their Health
Nearly everyone knows that smoking is harmful for your health. But some refuse to admit that their habits may be killing them
Published on April 17, 2015 at 06:02PM
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Thursday, April 16, 2015
Health: Eating Out May Lead To High Blood Pressure
Health on TIME.com
Eating Out May Lead To High Blood Pressure
One additional meal eaten away from home correlates with a more than 5% increase in the chance of having prehypertension
Published on April 16, 2015 at 06:32PM
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Wednesday, April 15, 2015
One Thing All Type 1 Diabetics At Disneyland Should Know
Dealing with lows at the happiest place on Earth.
So, you know that gearing up for an entire day at Disneyland (or Disney World) can be kind of intense.
Of course, you have your glucose meter, supplies, and insulin to start...
But you're also going to be carrying around a bunch of other stuff to deal with your levels — Cokes or juices, glucose tablets or gel, and lots of extra snacks, just in case.
Plus lots of H2O.
Source BuzzFeed - Health http://ift.tt/1J3nNUe
Here's Why Women Should Embrace Their Stretch Marks
We’ve all got them, so let’s flaunt them.
Here's a truth: You can be any size and have stretch marks.
Don't believe us? Just ask Chrissy Teigen, who recently posted a pic of her "stretchies" on Instagram.
You can get 'em at any age: from puberty, through pregnancy, from weight gain or loss.
And here's the thing: Stretch marks are actually cool battle scars.
Source BuzzFeed - Health http://ift.tt/1CNRKCI
A Dad Asked Facebook To Help His Son Feel Better About His Surgery Scars But Never Expected This
Strangers from all over the world are now letting a little boy know that his open-heart surgery scars are beautiful.
Mark Gentle's son Carter was born with a congenital heart defect that has so far required a total of five open-heart surgeries. The seven-year-old's most recent surgery was to repair the pacemaker he's had since he was an infant.
Gentle told BuzzFeed that Carter was very emotional about the way his chest looked. So Gentle posted this photo to Facebook in the hope that his Facebook friends would cheer Carter up.
#CHDAWARENESS We were a little apprehensive to post this but I feel it's important. Carter took his bandages off this morning. He cried for 45 minutes when he saw his scars. He said that he's afraid people will think he is ugly. This was hard to hear as a parent. We told him that his scars are beautiful and make him look like a superhero. How many likes can Carter get for his bravery?! Feel free to share. #CartersSong #HeartHeroes #CHD
To say Gentle's plan worked is a bit of an understatement, though. His photo currently has over a million likes and has been shared almost 100,000 times.
Source BuzzFeed - Health http://ift.tt/1yr1GHp
Health: Baby Food Recalled For Containing Glass
Health on TIME.com
Baby Food Recalled For Containing Glass
Beech-Nut Nutrition has recalled approximately 1,920 pounds of baby food
Published on April 15, 2015 at 06:31PM
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Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Health: Egg Company Execs Get Jail Time For Food Safety Breach
Health on TIME.com
Egg Company Execs Get Jail Time For Food Safety Breach
The execs were tied to a 2010 salmonella outbreak
Published on April 14, 2015 at 07:01PM
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Lena Dunham Thanks Exercise For Helping Her Manage Anxiety
“It ain’t about the ass, it’s about the brain.”
Lena Dunham has posted the best mirror selfie of all time, explaining that her motivation to exercise is her mental health.
The photo, taken in a Tracey Anderson studio, shows a workout-ready Lena looking flawless AF.
In the photo's caption, Lena says that although she knows it's "mad annoying" when people tell you to exercise, she now understands how helpful it can be for people struggling with anxiety, OCD and depression.
"It ain't about the ass, it's about the brain."
Frazer Harrison / Getty Images
Lena also thanks personal trainer Tracy Anderson for "showing her the light", finishing the caption with a hashtag highlighting that the post wasn't sponsored.
On her own Instagram, Tracy thanks her "stunning strong superstar student", re-posting Lena's super fierce selfie.
Keep up the good work, Lena!
HBO
Source BuzzFeed - Health http://ift.tt/1I80ad7
Guys Answer The Hard Questions Women Have About Boners
Warning: Includes awesome GIFs of triumphant boners.
Three BuzzFeed writers who get boners on the reg decided to answer some questions raised about boners.
Nick Wray for BuzzFeed
Does it hurt when you have to tuck your boner into your pants?
Brett: I think that depends if it's SUPER hard... AND it depends on the pants. The jeans tuck can hurt, but the sweatpants or shorts tuck, not so much.
Nick: It does. It's just super awkward if you do it and forget to wear a shirt though.
Rob: It can, depends how hard it is and what you’re tucking it into.
Does it always grow to the same size?
Brett: I definitely think that there are there stages. 1) Flaccid 2) Slightly hard 3) SUPER hard. Not a ton of in-between in my experience.
Nick: Ditto Brett.
Rob: I guess it depends how hard you are. I’d say there’s like 90%, 100% and 110% for those really special moments.
Hasbro
Is your penis extra sensitive when you have a boner?
Brett: Everything is pretty toughened up. You can hit that thing around a bit. But the tip is!
Nick: It's probably the same.
Rob: No? But also yes if in the right places.
Warner Brothers
Source BuzzFeed - Health http://ift.tt/1I80aKh
11 Things Everyone With A Slow Metabolism Understands
The struggle never ends.
Blaming your parents for your faulty genes.
Here Comes Honey Boo Boo / TLC
Picturing the abs you’re definitely going to have soon.. yep… for sure.
Giphy / Via media.giphy.com
Knowing that every workout now is only staving off your inevitable descent into obesity later.
Fun2video.com / Via media.giphy.com
Trying to squeeze into pants that definitely fit you last week.
The Simpsons / 20th Century Fox
Source BuzzFeed - Health http://ift.tt/1EwiQnQ
How Do You Keep Migraines From Ruining Your Life?
Do you have a foolproof method of prevention or a healing post-migraine ritual? We want to know your favorite migraine-related tips, tricks, routines, and products!
Some migraines hit without warning.
Rockstar Games / Via gifbay.com
Others come with a signal, maybe a visual disturbance, before the pain sets in.
Disney
Source BuzzFeed - Health http://ift.tt/1FFvYU2
What The F**k Is Up With Dental Dams?
Yes, they really exist. Here’s everything you need to know about the world’s most misunderstood prophylactic.
The attitude toward these mythical sheets of latex seems to be that no one actually uses them — if they even exist at all.
Source BuzzFeed - Health http://ift.tt/1zaG2C6
Monday, April 13, 2015
16 Red Pandas Who Are Living Their Best Life
An inspiration to us all.
This dude, who knows it's okay to take a timeout from life:
This guy who's observing his surroundings from on high:
This little one who knows not to take life so seriously:
This one who knows that snacking between meals is the spice of life:
Source BuzzFeed - Health http://www.buzzfeed.com/sallytamarkin/that-red-panda-life?utm_term=4ldqpia
Saturday, April 11, 2015
21 Reasons The Best Eggs Are Hard-Boiled
The perfectly packable protein you’ve probably forsaken.
Huffington Post / huffingtonpost.com
Huffington Post / huffingtonpost.com
Source BuzzFeed - Health http://ift.tt/1CvhjKb
Friday, April 10, 2015
What Do People Actually Do When They Have Sex?
BuzzFeed asked 50 people about the last time they had sex—and it wasn’t all P in the V, people. Extremely open, honest, and revealing answers ahead.
Alice Mongkongllite
Ever since we outgrew the base system, we've lost touch with what our peers and confidantes actually get up to when they get laid. Does "sex" exclusively mean vaginal penetration? Or does sleepily masturbating a few feet apart count too? And what do lesbians even do, anyway? In search of answers, BuzzFeed anonymously surveyed people of all ages, genders and sexualities. We asked them to describe the nitty-gritty of their last sexual encounter—however they define it—and to be completely honest.
Here's what they said.
"I had sex with a guy I just started dating for the first time last week. It was great until we needed lube, which he didn't have. (Guys. You need lube. You are a grown-ass man who's had sex with other people. YOU NEED LUBE.) So we just took turns going down on each other — which, as a person who has gay sex way more frequently than straight sex, I enjoyed more than P-in-V.
Fingers OR tongues are way more dexterous than dicks, and also oral sex lasts waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay longer than 'regular' sex. More intense, focused pleasure over a longer period of time is always going to be a winner. I came twice and he came three times before I left the next morning."
—26/F/Bisexual
"I have an inability to have 'normal' sex because of vaginal conditions that I have. My boyfriend and I have found so many ways around it. Just recently, I kneeled in front of him on the bed with my back to him while he caressed me until I came. And then I did the same for him. Some days, I will get on top of him and 'dry hump' until we both come (yes, this is possible), and other days he will get behind me and do the same. It's all about experimentation and finding out what works for the both of you."
—23/F/Straight
Source BuzzFeed - Health http://ift.tt/1OiZCos
Health: A Virus Spread by Ticks Could Be More Dangerous Than Lyme Disease
Health on TIME.com
A Virus Spread by Ticks Could Be More Dangerous Than Lyme Disease
There is no cure for Powassan virus
Published on April 10, 2015 at 06:47PM
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This Dog Is All Of Us Dancing To Katy Perry
“Mark my words / This love will make you levitate.”
If this isn't how you dance during "Dark Horse"... you're doing it wrong.
Source BuzzFeed - Health http://ift.tt/1HZqcPO
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