Cold-weather sports are excellent ways to fight the winter blahs and get those mood-boosting endorphins in gear, but it’s also important to stay safe. According to estimates from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, there were 5,123 ski-related head and neck injuries in 2007; 7,878 due to snowboarding; 1,042 related to snowmobiles and 6,316 such injuries caused by sledding accidents.
Recent unemployment statistics are enough to cause our stomach to plummet almost as much as the economy — more than 2.6 million jobs were lost last year, according to the U.S. Labor Department. For those who also face the loss of health insurance, Adam Goldstein, M.D., of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine shares his advice.
When we glanced in the mirror this morning we did a double take. Our eyes were looking far more glam than we’re accustomed to in the a.m. Had we forgotten to take off our eye makeup? We rubbed our eyes. No black smudges. And then we remembered: A few weeks ago we had begun brushing the eyelash enhancer RevitaLash along our upper and lower lash line each night.
This month, the nation focused on a critical challenge facing President Barack Obama: Portuguese water dog or labradoodle? As Obama decides on a canine companion — which he said he wanted to get from a shelter — you might be able to adopt a dog or cat for free on Jan. 24.
In light of the growing peanut-butter products recall (due to Salmonella contamination), we read through the Food and Drug Administration’s list to check against our shelves. We were distressed to see a number of our favorite energy and diet bars on the list — among them, five varieties of CLIF bars, as well as ZonePerfect’s Chocolate Peanut Butter and Peanut Toffee Bars.
Just when our weekly workout schedule — two days of sculpting, three of salsa dance, a Sunday ballet barre class and the occasional circuit-training session — was starting to feel the slightest bit tired, love came our way. The object of our affection: Pilatesstick, a new class that’s offered at our local workout studio and is likely to come to a gym near you soon.
Getting rid of the winter blahs is easier than we ever imagined — happiness is contagious, according to a recent study published in the British Medical Journal. Based on 20 years’ worth of data collected on nearly 5,000 people, researchers found that happiness can spread within social networks by “emotional contagion,” where individuals “catch” the moods of others by mimicking body language, especially facial expressions.
With even Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld declaring that “bling is over,” bargain shopping has never been more en vogue. But you don’t have to make a trip to the department store to snag excellent deals on designer labels. Save time — and money on gas — by shopping on RueLaLa.com, a members-only fashion discount site that features in-season clothing at up to 80 percent off.
During the month of January, groups such as the National Cervical Cancer Coalition (NCCC) are bringing awareness to the importance of annual Pap tests during Cervical Health Awareness Month. We were surprised to learn that cervical cancer once was a leading cause of death for women in the United States; statistics from the American Cancer Society show that cervical cancer mortality has dropped 74 percent in the past 50 years.
Between 1865 and 1900, weighing oneself on a decorative parlor scale after a large meal surrounded by family and guests was considered a fun, novel past-time, says Deborah I. Levine, Ph.D., a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Washington University in St. Louis who has researched diet, nutrition and obesity in 19th century America. How times have changed — when we got on the scale after the holidays, the mood was decidedly not celebratory.
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