Lifestyle & Wellness

Tak­ing care of your heart is a life­long com­mit­ment. Here’s how to man­age your heart health through all stages of life. 

Heart dis­ease remains the #1 cause of death in the Unit­ed States and kills near­ly 370,000 peo­ple a year. While this mor­tal­i­ty rate has fall­en dra­mat­i­cal­ly over the last 10 years, risk fac­tors are still alarm­ing­ly high. Pre­ven­tion is an essen­tial ele­ment in the fight against heart dis­ease — much of which can be man­aged through diet.

Accord­ing to the Cen­ter for Dis­ease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion (CDC), approx­i­mate­ly eight to ten per­cent of the Unit­ed States pop­u­la­tion will become sick with an influen­za (flu) virus each year. Addi­tion­al­ly, the aver­age Amer­i­can will catch between two to three colds per year. A cold and the flu are both caused by viral infec­tions and pro­duce a vari­ety of unpleas­ant symp­toms. Colds often are accom­pa­nied by nasal con­ges­tion and/​or a run­ny nose, sneez­ing, cough­ing and a sore throat. Flu virus­es can cause sim­i­lar symp­toms as well as fatigue, fever, head and body aches, and for some, diar­rhea and vom­it­ing. While there is no cure for either ill­ness, sev­er­al over-the-counter med­ica­tions and home reme­dies may offer symp­tom relief.

Whether you are hit­ting the pave­ment on a long dis­tance run, ped­dling down the streets or shift­ing into war­rior pose at your neigh­bor­hood yoga stu­dio, keep­ing your ath­let­ic gear in tip-top shape is essential.

Ill­ness­es and injuries often seem to pop up when you least expect them. When med­ical care is need­ed at night or over the week­end, patients are often unsure where to go for treat­ment. The first step is to deter­mine if the med­ical issue can wait for a vis­it with the pri­ma­ry care doc­tor or if it is an acute issue requir­ing imme­di­ate atten­tion. If the prob­lem requires atten­tion out­side of your physi­cian’s clin­ic hours, and depend­ing on the symp­toms, care is avail­able at an imme­di­ate care cen­ter (ICC) or at an emer­gency room (ER) at a local hos­pi­tal. Both the time and cost can vary dras­ti­cal­ly depend­ing on where the med­ical care is pro­vid­ed, so it’s impor­tant to under­stand the dif­fer­ence between the two and the impact your choice may have on your wallet.

Saman­tha once thought she’d nev­er live to see her wed­ding day, much less have the ener­gy to walk down the aisle. Here’s how a bariatric sur­geon who saved her moth­er’s life helped her reclaim her own, and why the jour­ney start­ed with a con­ver­sa­tion, not a decision.

Think­ing about slim­mer, smoother thighs but not sure whether you need lipo­suc­tion or a thigh lift? This quick guide breaks down the real dif­fer­ences so you can choose the option that gets you the results you’re envisioning.

Think you’re healthy? Your body could be hid­ing silent killers like high blood pres­sure, pre­di­a­betes, or skin can­cer that have zero symp­toms until it’s too late. Your pri­ma­ry care doc­tor can catch these sneaky con­di­tions ear­ly, which is why that annu­al check­up might lit­er­al­ly save your life

Up to 15% of new moth­ers expe­ri­ence post­par­tum depres­sion, but it’s often con­fused with baby blues or brushed off as nor­mal exhaus­tion. Under­stand­ing the dif­fer­ence could be the key to get­ting the help you need to feel like your­self again.

Think sup­ple­ments are the secret to bet­ter health? Near­ly 75% of Amer­i­cans are tak­ing them, but these ​“nat­ur­al” prod­ucts aren’t as safe as you think, they can inter­fere with med­ica­tions, cause dan­ger­ous side effects, and aren’t even proven to work for healthy peo­ple. Before you pop anoth­er vit­a­min, dis­cov­er what the FDA does­n’t require sup­ple­ment com­pa­nies to tell you.