Posts with tag health

Sure a cheeseburger can represent all things evil – grease, fat, lbs. Wanna know why it doesn't?

Ugh, waking up in the morning is a drag. Puffy under eyes and sometimes dark circles – ew! And the most common culprits probably aren't the ones you think they are. Let's take a look.

Do you hate sharing your soda? Does it disgust you when someone wants to borrow your lip balm? Your problems are over! Introducing the latest in cold sore chic, the rhinestone lip bling.

Sure, everyone wants to be healthy, but looking healthy is so passé. Plaster these babies on your lips and never be bothered again. For added effect we suggest a sock in the eye and Goldschlager tears. No longer will you live in fear of jerks eyeballing your YooHoo (or your drink).

Seriously, what in the world could motivate someone into going the lip bling route? Granted, we can think of one legit reason to add traction to one's lips, but we can't write about it on this site.

Stylelist is running a poll over at their site today on this very issue. They probably won't say that someone rubbed the model's face in Pop Rocks, but they'll say something, and then you'll vote. It's the American way.

Keep smiling!

No joke, we thought this was an April Fool's story when first we read it, but realized that it had to be true because it was "news" a week earlier.

Demi Moore uses leeches to keep herself looking young.

On the Late Show with David Letterman, the 45 year old revealed that she underwent a "cleansing" that used highly trained medical leeches placed in her belly button. Enzymes in the leeches get released into the patient's (patient, or victim?) that make her bleed more than usual, supposedly optimizing health and detoxifying the blood.

Wow. Whatever happened to using a good night cream? Or better yet, what ever happened to being beautiful as you are at the (still young) age of 45?!?!

By now, most of you have seen the video/read the article/received the email on how nasty the bottoms of our purses are. If this is news to you, just take a moment to think about all the places you set your handbag -- floors, chairs, etc. And then, chances are, you set it on the kitchen counter, on the table, and you certainly touch the bottom with your hands, right?

As it turns out, there's more than just a little dirt there -- everything from e-coli and salmonella to fecal contamination and vomit has been found on random handbags. Lifestyle does play a role, with nightclub frequenters and those with children having the dirtiest bags (doesn't that make you wonder what's on Nicole Richie's purse?).

Wearing lipstick? Careful, more than half the brands on the market were recently found to contain lead.

This according to a new report from the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, highlighted in a post on our partner site, Green Daily. The study actually found lead in 61% of the lipsticks they tested, and in one third of those cases, the products contained more lead than what the FDA allows in candy, which, seeing as lipstick gets ingested, is pretty gross.

Because the FDA doesn't have a set limit for lead in lipstick, there's no incentive for companies to keep it out of their products, much less tell you if it's in there in the first place. Subsequently, it's hard for consumers to tell what's safe and what's not since popular brand names like Cover Girl, L'Oreal and Christian Dior were implicated.

The good news is that you can see the full report, including the amount of lead the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics found in each lipstick on the organization's website.

The post-lunch afternoon meeting can be torturous. You're tired; your boss is boring you. Your co-workers are grouchy, and you've started to notice an ominous grumbling in your intestinal region.

You may not want to admit it, but we've all probably found ourselves in this situation before, and unless you're incredibly rude and/or work in the most informal office on the planet, you likely held it in and hoped for the best.

Then again, holding it in can only work for so long since when push comes to shove -- and you know what I mean by 'shove' -- gas has to go somewhere.

But fear not modest office employees -- those gassy sounds and smells can be absorbed by the GasBGon, a flatulence filter seat. GasBGon is a thin chair pad that uses high-tech carbon filter technology to muffle the evidence of a digested lunch gone wrong. According to the company, the GasBGon can handle up to 90% of the odors given off during the 14 farts that the average person emits during the day.

So, by all means, let her rip.

According to Scotsman.com Living fashion is bad for your health. Say what? Lucky for fashion, I don't care. I will risk my health to look good. But for you health nuts out there I will share this disturbing news. Apparently, everything from your jeans to your sunglasses can have negative effects on your health.

Jeans: To me and most jeans don't quite look perfect until you have squeezed (baggy jeans just aren't cute) into them then properly broken them in. Well even the tiniest hips can suffer from tight fitting jeans as they could cause nerve damage. A Canadian doctor has found that pressure around the waistband of hipsters can pinch a nerve under the hipbone and cause a condition called meralgia paresthetica.

Thongs/ Panties: VPL is gross, so we opt for things that crawl up our backside like thongs and g-strings. But Dr. Thomas Gent from the Association of Gynecologists believes friction damage from the underwear's string section can aid the spread of bacteria and cause fungal infections (nasty).

Bras: For a big night on the town we all want to show a little cleavage. But did you know that push-up bras can cause you some problems? The squeezing is said to cause difficulty breathing which in extreme case can cause irritable bowel syndrome and constipation (ewwww).

Handbags: An oversized tote may dwarf your figure, but that heavy handbag can also cause neck strain, and shoulder tendonitis.

Sunglasses: Now what could be wrong with these? Scratched glasses can cause non UV-absorbing spots on the glasses which can cause more damage than not wearing glasses at all, which can score you cataracts as you age.

Shoes: I saved the most obvious for last. Too high or uncomfortable shoes can cause bunions, corns, calluses, and hammertoes. They can also cause stress to the rest of your body in the form on knee, hip, and spine pain. Ouch.

I am guilty of all these health offenses and the only one I plan on changing is my sunglasses. What about you StyleDashers?

When I was in high school, the litmus test for determining who was "healthy thing" and "unhealthy thin" was menstruation. And so long as a woman still had regular periods, there was no reason to worry for parents or coaches to worry about her health.

A new study by Anne Loucks and Aiden Shearer of Ohio University challenges the legitimacy of that health assume. The research project looked at the role of nutrient intake and bone formation in women ages 18 to 32. What they found was that restrictive diets can still impair bone formation, even in instances where a women still has regular periods.

The researchers discovered that women with restrictive diets and strenuous exercise habits are at a significantly increased risk of low bone formation. The lower levels of bone formation in young women can lead to significant health problems down the road, like osteoporosis and broken bones.

With the recent string of model deaths over the past two years, it comes as no surprise that under-eating and overexercising does a number on your body. What struck me about this finding was that the description of the at-risk behaviors matched up perfectly with the diet and exercise habits of many women I know, none of which I would characterize as anorexic.

Sad as it is, I don't expect any of gym rats I know will make their peace with eating carbs anytime soon. The irony is that there is so much pressure on women to be thin that truly dangerous long-term consequences like osteoporosis wouldn't matter in the least. Being slim now is worth more than a preventing a broken hip bone then.

Sure it's dumb, but what would expect from Nicole Richie?

Hair loss is a touchy subject for most men. But scientists in Pennsylvania may have found a cure for baldness.

Relax, fellas, the new cure doesn't involve sprays, comb-overs, or transplants from your back. This revolutionary treatment regrows hair through gene therapy. Scientists found that hair growth is actually connected to the "wnt gene", which is responsible for would healing. The study suggests that when the wnt gene is blocked, hair follicles become inactive, but when the wnt gene is stimulated, hair follicles started to grow.

A clinical version of the gene therapy is still a few years down the road, so in the meantime, try to stay patient.

Sephora wants to be more than just your spot for cosmetics and perfume, the chain is creating a new, in-store beauty concept emphasizing nutritional supplements and drinks. WWD reports that the new line will start in France and if it works out, then it will sell in other countries. Sephora now has a consulting nutritionist who will create beauty regimens combining nutritional supplements and drinks as well as skin care for a total health program.
The beauty bars will have around ten brands of supplements and drinks including Fushi, Dr. Perricone and Dr. Murad. Sephora stores in the U.S. currently sell the Borba brand, a line of drinks and supplements that have benefits for the skin.

"Running barefoot" and "wear running shoes" certainly don't seem to belong in the same sentence, but there's a whole new category of footwear designed to help runners feel like they're running barefoot. Olympic running athletes have trained by running barefoot because it forces the runner to make a soft landing on the front of the foot, reducing the possibility of knee and ankle injuries. With the exception of the shoe from Puma, they aren't all that pretty, but hey, sometimes bare feet aren't all that pretty either.

• Vibram Five Fingers, www.vibramfivefingers.com
  
• Nike Free 5.0, www.nike.com
  
• AEI, www.aeishoes.com
  
• Puma Cortlandt XC, www.puma.com
  

Over the past six months, I have spent a small fortune on Dannon's immune-boosting, probiotic dairy drink, DanActive. Not to be too much of a product pusher, but based on the non-science I like to call "My Personal Experience," all signs point to the fact that the L. Casei Immunitas cultures -- the active ingredients – work very well. I haven't been sick in six months.

However, my love affair with probiotics has grown rocky. You see, the last time I was at the grocery store, I noticed that DanActive swapped its appealing pale-blue packaging for a snotty, yellow make-over. Now, I'm sure there was a large amount of "market research" that went into this decision. No doubt, this is an attempt to distinguish DanActive from regular, blue-packaged Dannon yogurt. But just the same, I want my blue bottles back! Think about yellow for a second. Yellow is the color of jaundice and bile! It is not the color of health-inducing L. Casei Immunitas or delicious vanilla-flavored probiotic dairy drinks.

Are there any other DanActive fans out there who are similarly displeased by this bunk aesthetic change?