We Tried Lululemon’s New Craft Beer and Here’s What We Thought

Photo: Lululemon

Cheers, yogis!

In a ploy to “bridge the beer-yoga divide,” Lululemon Athletica is offering up a branded beer at select liquor stores called the Curiosity Lager.

From the athletic clothing label that brought you “anti-ball crushing” pants, the craft brew arrives just in time to toast the company-sponsored SeaWheeze Half Marathon being held in Vancouver’s Stanley Park on Saturday. They teamed up with Canadian brewery Stanley Park Brewing to produce the suds, which clock in at a 4.6% alcohol content and feature chinook and lemondrop hops, per the company’s website.

A Lululemon spokesperson recently said it was a ploy for the male consumer, eliciting eye rolls across the Internet. The bad news (or is it good news?): They produced just 88,000 cans and you can only find them at liquor stores across the border in British Columbia and Alberta, Canada, and at the post-run party tomorrow. Admit it, though, you’re a little bit curious about what a yoga beer can taste like.

Well, just for fun, three Health staffers—and one Health husband!—graciously volunteered to sample it for you. Here’s what our team had to say about it.

RELATED: Got Leftover Beer? Try These 11 Recipes

Michael Gollust

Research Editor, Health magazine; Writer and Video, Health.com

Photo: Michael Gollust

To be honest, I’m no beer expert, but I’ve tried a few in my day and tend to favor hoppy products from Northeast breweries like Smuttynose, Peak Organic, and Harpoon.

Appearance: The Curiosity Lager can jumps out at you with its cheery, whimsical park-and-bridge design. (My wife actually worried it might look too cute and could be mistaken for a flavored ice tea, soda, or sports drink.) The brew itself is a pretty nondescript pale yellow.

Aroma: It offers up a pleasing citrus-y aroma, almost like a floral white wine.

Taste: It came off as a little limp, in my opinion. The flavor was mild, with only the faintest tanginess. It had little aftertaste and a clean finish, but alas, not really much of a start.

Mouthfeel: I’m typically a fan of hoppier, more herby flavors, but I can certainly appreciate a lager for summertime sipping. This one, though, lacked the crispness and the “ahhhhh” I’m usually looking for.

Food pairings: I can see it pairing with fish or chicken, or a bowl of chips and salsa, but it didn’t hold up to a bowl of chili in my dinnertime test.

RELATED: 7 Ways to Keep Alcohol From Ruining Your Diet

Ahmad Shairzay

Product Manager, Health.com

Photo: Ahmad Shairzay

I don’t know if I can claim beer aficionado status but I do enjoy a good brew from time to time. I enjoy light and crisp lagers and pilsners in the warmer months while hearty and hoppy IPA’s and smooth stouts in the colder months. While some IPA are akin to sipping an old gym sock, there’s an enjoyment when it’s done well.

Appearance: Golden and light in appearance. Just about what you’d expect with a lager.

Aroma: Slighty fruity, very, well, “beery”.

Taste: Light but balanced lager, not at all hoppy. Slightly fruity, crisp, and refreshing. It’s a very easy-drinking brew.

Mouthfeel: Crisp and effervescent.

Food pairings: A light and crisp lager like this can go with just about anything, from salty to savory. Personally, I think it would be great with some chips and guac.

RELATED: The Health Benefits of Lululemon’s ‘Anti-Ball Crushing’ Pants

Matt Allyn

Resident Beer Expert; friend of Health.com

Photo: Matt Allyn

I’m a certified beer judge, co-author of  The Brewer’s Apprentice ($16, amazon.com), web editor at Men’s Journal, and husband of Health.com deputy editor Christine Mattheis. Also, I am wearing all Lululemon clothes in this photo. I wanted to really complete the whole experience of testing this beer.

Appearance: Clear light gold with a soft white head.

Aroma: Bready barley aroma with a toasted edge.

Taste: Slightly sweet upfront, with a touch of crisp apple and bread crust. Mild, spicy hops balance the malts and add a little grapefruit.

Mouthfeel: Medium-light bodied, fairly easy to drink.

Food Pairings: Salad, soft fresh cheeses, grilled seafood and sushi, fresh fruit, burgers and brats.

RELATED: Got Leftover Beer? Try These 11 Recipes

Amelia Harnish

Resident Beer Hater; News Editor, Health.com

Photo: Amelia Harnish

I dislike beer. When I go out, I almost always overpay for a fancy cocktail from the drink menu. Or sangria. I really like sangria! If I’m going to have a drink, I want to enjoy the taste and not feel bloated afterward. I realize this makes me a very stereotypical “girl” drinker, and I’m more than okay with that.

Appearance: Yellow, like a sunflower or like pee. Sorry. All beer looks like pee to me. But, the can is really cute! I like that it doesn’t look like a beer. You could drink this on the beach without getting a ticket probably.

Aroma: Uh….it smells like beer? For the record, I Googled “how to smell beer” to make sure I was doing this right, and I found this Beer Advocate article and followed all directions. I think it’s just hard to compare it to something when you don’t drink beer very often. But if you are like me and you hardly drink beer, the “aroma” will conjure memories of watered-down keg beer from college, probably.

Taste: The Beer Advocate article said to resist swallowing as to “let [the beer] wander and explore your entire palate,” but when I did that it sorta burnt my tongue and all the flavor evaporated and it just tasted like seltzer. Like most beers, this beer tastes the best to me when drank quickly. There is a funky aftertaste, but I feel comfortable saying it’s crisp going down.

Mouthfeel: The other thing I liked about this (besides the can) is that it is easy to drink. I think in the parlance that means it’s “light-bodied.”

Food parings: I drank it with a veggie quesadilla. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Our verdict

For a company that made a fortune deploying Lycra to great effect, it feels like a bit of a “stretch” for Lululemon to venture into craft beer. But whatever the goal was, we suppose it was worth a shot (mostly because we got free beer out of it).

RELATED: The Healthiest Way to Order Drinks at a Party

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Clubs, Adult Support Can Help Kids Stay Slim

FRIDAY, Aug. 14, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Teens who volunteer, belong to after-school clubs and have positive role models and strong adult support at school are more likely to be physically active and less likely to be overweight or obese, a new study finds.

But minority or low-income teens may not have access to these kinds of positive support, the researchers added.

“It’s a sad fact that not all teens have a parent or adult to guide them in a positive way,” study co-author Susan Babey, a senior research scientist at the Center for Health Policy Research at the University of California, Los Angeles, said in a university news release.

“If the teen also lacks adult support at school and support from a positive peer group, they sometimes emulate unhealthy characters they see in movies or on TV — which are not the best places to find role models,” she added.

Researchers looked at data from 12- to 17-year-olds in California to see what effect such “protective social factors” had on the youngsters’ physical activity levels and weight. The data was collected in 2011-2012.

According to the report, published recently in a UCLA Center for Health Policy Research Policy Brief, the proportion of teens who were physically active for an hour or more each day for at least five days a week was:

• 42 percent among teens who volunteered and 34 percent for those who didn’t.
• 46 percent for those who were in after-school clubs versus 35 percent in kids who didn’t belong to after-school clubs.
• 42 percent among those with strong support from adults at school compared with 33 percent who didn’t.
• 41 percent among those who said they had a role model and 34 percent among those who did not.

The investigators also found that 70 percent of teens with protective social factors had a healthy body mass index (BMI — an estimate of body fat based on height and weight), compared with 60 percent of those without those factors.

Low-income teens and those from minority groups were less likely to have these protective factors. For example, only 42 percent of teens from the poorest families and about the same percentage of Asian American teens had a high level of support at school. Overall, about 60 percent of teens reported high levels of support at school, the study found.

Thirty-one percent of the teens in the study participated in clubs outside of school, the findings showed. But for the poorest students, just 19 percent were in after-school clubs. Among Hispanic students, 23 percent were in after-school clubs.

About 70 percent of well-off teens had a role model, compared with about half of poor and Hispanic teens, the research revealed.

Twenty-two percent of the teens in the study said a family member was their role model, 15 percent of teens named an athlete, while 11 percent named an entertainer. Just 4 percent of teens named a teacher as their role model, and 4 percent named friends, the study authors said.

More information

The American Academy of Pediatrics has more about teens and fitness.

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4 Ways Women Differ From Men When It Comes to Weight Loss

Photo: Getty Images

As the saying goes, men are from Mars, women are from Venus—even when it comes to weight loss.

For various psychological and biological reasons, women tend to have a very different relationship with food than men do. Take this example: For a 2009 study, researchers had a small group of men and women fast for 20 hours, then undergo brain scans while being presented with their favorite foods (like pizza and chocolate cake). The volunteers were asked to smell and look at the foods, but not eat them. In the end, the researchers found that both men and women could stifle the urge to eat when asked to try, but only the men showed an actual decrease in activity in the motivation centers of their brains.

In other words, unlike the men’s brains, the women’s brains were still driving them to indulge. Scientists say this could be due to hormonal differences, or simply that women are hard-wired to eat when food’s available because they need more body fat than men do.

RELATED: 14 Ways You Lie to Yourself About Your Weight

Women also tend to have a different relationship with their bodies, and often have different reasons for gaining weight in the first place (hello, baby weight!). In my practice, I’ve counseled plenty of people of both genders working hard to shed pounds, and I’ve found that some tactics seem to work for men, but not women and vice versa.

Gender differences aren’t true across the board—everyone is different. But with that caveat, here are four ways women differ from men when it comes to weight loss, plus the strategies that are particularly important, specifically for women.

How they think about the scale

Many (not all) of the men I work with are pretty objective about the number on the scale, and view it simply as a piece of data. For many women, however, an increase, no change, or not enough of a decrease, can trigger feelings of frustration, anger, or depression, leading to a loss of motivation. If that’s true for you, banish the scale.

The truth is weight fluctuations are normal, no matter how much you weigh. And you could be losing body fat but still seeing no change on the scale because you’re more hydrated or gaining muscle. The bottom line: You’ve got to focus on the pattern over time. You know your body better than anyone, so use other means of assessing how well you’re doing, including not just how you look and how your clothes fit, but also how you feel (more energy, better mood, predictable hunger, and so on).

RELATED:  Why You’re So Much More Than What the Scale Says.

How they handle stress

One of the top weight loss derailers for women is emotional eating. It can be true for men as well, but in my experience, there is a definite disparity. One reason is that many men I work with have habitual activities that help them cope with stress, like playing golf or video games.

But many of the women I counsel either don’t have regular ways to blow off steam, or their usual outlets revolve around eating or drinking (example: girls’ night). If food has become your go-to way to either disconnect from intense emotions, or cope with them, no amount of willpower is going to break that pattern. The key is finding other healthy ways to address emotions so you won’t need chips, chocolate, or a sugary cocktail. What works for one person may not work for another though, so try different things (meditation, art, crafts, music, writing) to find your non-food escape.

This may be the single most important strategy for long-term weight loss success.

The kind of support they need

On a similar note, I find that support can make or break weight loss success, particularly for women. Many of my female clients feel that their significant others or family members not only don’t lend support, but sometimes subtly sabotage their healthy efforts (just have a bite, let’s order a pizza). Most women really need someone in their corner who gets it, cheers on small successes (like not giving into emotional eating) and isn’t going to talk them out of continuing on a healthy path. It can be a professional, a friend, or even someone you connect with online through social media who has a similar goal. If you’ve had a challenging day and need a pep talk, having someone at the ready to turn to can allow you to hang in there and keep on keeping on.

RELATED: 16 Ways to Lose Weight Fast

The all-or-nothing approach

While it’s generally not true for men, many women I counsel tend to have an all-or-nothing approach to weight loss, meaning one “bad” meal or day leads to throwing in the towel. But deep down they know that it’s not realistic, or even necessary, to go through life never eating dessert or a French fry.

The best solution, I find, is to plan splurges in advance. For example, if you’re going to a restaurant that serves one of your favorite desserts, order a healthy meal of lean protein and veggies to make room for it, then savor it, stop when you feel satisfied, and move on, without guilt. One of my clients recently followed through with this tactic, and while she reported that it “felt weird” compared to her usual pattern of eating “perfectly” or going all out (drinks, bread, dinner, dessert) she felt great afterwards (satisfied but not stuffed), her clothes weren’t tighter the next day, and she said it felt like a lifestyle, not a “diet”—bingo!

If you’re a woman, some of these may not hold true for you. If that’s the case, I do think it’s important to know what helps you boost your personal stick-with-it-ness. Regardless of your gender, understanding that is an important key to losing weight successfully, and keeping it off for good.

RELATED: 19 Weight-Loss Secrets From Around the World

What’s your take on this topic? Chat with us on Twitter by mentioning @goodhealth and @CynthiaSass.

Cynthia Sass is a nutritionist and registered dietitian with master’s degrees in both nutrition science and public health. Frequently seen on national TV, she’s Health’s contributing nutrition editor, and privately counsels clients in New York, Los Angeles, and long distance. Cynthia is currently the sports nutrition consultant to the New York Rangers NHL team and the New York Yankees MLB team, and is board certified as a specialist in sports dietetics. Cynthia is a three-time New York Times best-selling author, and her brand new book is Slim Down Now: Shed Pounds and Inches with Real Food, Real Fast. Connect with her on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

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Serving in Middle East May Raise Skin Cancer Risk in U.S. Vets

FRIDAY, Aug. 14, 2015 (HealthDay News) — U.S. veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are at increased risk for skin cancer because of long hours spent in the desert sun, a new study suggests.

“Our study has identified factors that put veterans at risk for skin cancer, including melanoma, but we need to better understand the ‘why’ of sun protection in the field,” said study author and dermatologist Dr. Jennifer Powers, an assistant professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.

Factors contributing to this higher risk include long periods of sun exposure in a desert climate, lack of training about the need for sun protection, and limited use of sunscreen and other types of protective gear, she and her colleagues said.

The researchers analyzed data from 212 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who were asked about sun exposure and protection during their last deployment. Only 13 percent said they regularly used sunscreen, and 87 percent described their sunscreen use as “sporadic” or “sometimes.”

Fewer than one-quarter said the military had made them very aware of the risks of skin cancer, according to the study published recently in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology.

Seventy-seven percent of the veterans spent four or more hours a day in bright sunlight, and 63 percent had at least one sunburn during deployment. The researchers also found that spending more than six hours a day in the sun was associated with lower availability of sun protection gear, such as sunscreen, shade structures, hats and sunglasses.

The shortfalls in sun protection could put these veterans at risk for skin cancer, the researchers concluded.

There were times when lack of availability was associated with lack of sun protection use, Powers said. “Understanding how to provide practical and effective sun protection to servicemen and women in warm climates is the next step,” Powers said in a university news release.

“This study demonstrates room for improvement for skin cancer prevention and early detection in the military population, including possible screening of higher-risk personnel,” Powers concluded.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about sun safety.

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Here’s What Happened When I Used Only Conditioner for a Month

Photo: Getty Images

I’m totally down with the whole clean-not-clean movement that’s happening right now: I clean my face with oil, wash my hair only two or three times a week, and while I do shower every day, I don’t scour myself like mad from head to toe. So the logical next step on the “no ‘poo” path: co-washing, or conditioner washing, using a cleansing conditioner but no shampoo.

The idea behind co-washing is that it’s a gentler way to clean your scalp and hair: Without the harsh detergents found in shampoos, hair maintains its natural oils and stays healthier. It’s supposed to be especially great for dry and curly hair. (In fact, many women with coarse or curly hair have been doing it for years.) And no, it’s not a shampoo-plus-conditioner; there’s no lather involved at all.

I decided to give cleansing conditioner a try for a month. I have thick but fine-textured hair, mostly straight (but a little wavy), and slightly oily—in other words, not the ideal candidate for co-washing. Would I end up drowning in my own greasiness? Here’s what happened.

RELATED: 16 Hair Myths You Need to Stop Believing

I had to relearn how to wash my hair

Once upon a time, Seventeen magazine told me to lather only my scalp and condition only the length and ends of my hair. That’s how I’ve been washing my hair ever since. So the directions on my bottle of Unwash Bio-Cleansing Conditioner ($30, amazon.com) freaked me out: Massage a sizable amount into the scalp, work through to the ends, and rinse.

Conditioner on my scalp??? Ew! Well, I am here to report that it feels…exactly like rubbing a big handful of conditioner into your scalp. Gooey. Disconcerting. But the Unwash combs through to the ends nicely (though it’s not super “slippy” like some conditioners), and rinses out feeling clean. When I combed my hair afterward, I was surprised that I actually had fewer tangles than with regular conditioner.

I had second-day hair every day

You know how right after you wash your hair, it can be a little unmanageable and flyaway, but by the end of the day or even the next day, it’s softer and holds a style better? The best way I can describe the way my hair felt after co-washing is to say it was like second-day hair. Soft, but with a little texture (not slippery like squeaky-clean hair can be). I didn’t need to use as much styling product, either. And here’s something fascinating: It actually seemed wavier than before. I liked it!

RELATED: 10 Reasons We Love Dry Shampoo

I didn’t save time

I’d hoped that co-washing would cut down on my shower time, given that I was eliminating a whole step. But truthfully, it took just as long to massage the stuff into my scalp, then work it through to the ends, as it would to shampoo and condition separately. Maybe even longer, since I was being extra thorough with the scalp massage out of paranoia that I wasn’t getting clean enough.

I really did get clean enough

When I started co-washing, it was the height of a grimy, humid New York City summer. I used cleansing conditioner after long sweaty workouts, days at the beach, and encounters with my 3-year-old, who likes to lovingly stroke my head with yogurt on his hands. Impressively, cleansing conditioner got out all the grime. And no, I didn’t smell!

…After I adjusted, that is. Around week two, my scalp had a weird freakout and suddenly seemed much oilier and flakier than usual. It even made my face feel oilier. I’m not going to lie, I was grossed out—and I’m someone who was already comfortable having not-squeaky-clean hair (remember, I only shampooed a few times a week).

RELATED: Get Gorgeous Hair with Conditioner

Apparently this adjustment period is pretty normal if you go no ‘poo, and all the websites swore the greasies would subside as my hair and scalp adjusted to the new routine. Sure enough, after about a week, everything calmed down and I no longer felt like a walking grease bomb.

I never wanted to go back to shampoo

In that first month, I used shampoo just once, after a day at the pool with my kids; I figured I should thoroughly wash out the chlorine. I shampooed and used regular conditioner, just like I always used to do. And I hated the way my hair felt. Even the next day, it was drier than I’d become used to—crunchy, even.

So I’m here to say that I’m a total convert. I’m never going back to regular shampooing. Now, I just have to find something to do with all the half-used bottles of shampoo in my shower…

RELATED: 6 Nutrients for Healthy Hair

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Clearing Land Around Farms Doesn’t Improve Food Safety

FRIDAY, Aug. 14, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Clearing areas of natural habitat around farm fields doesn’t improve food safety, a new study shows.

The practice began after a 2006 E. coli outbreak was traced back to packaged spinach from a California farm. That outbreak killed three people and sickened hundreds of others in the United States, researchers said. The source of the E. coli that caused the outbreak was never officially determined.

“Wildlife took much of the blame for that outbreak, even though rates of E. coli in wildlife are generally very low,” study author Daniel Karp, a postdoctoral research fellow in the department of environmental science, policy and management at the University of California, Berkeley, said in a university news release.

“Now, growers are pressured by buyers to implement practices meant to discourage wildlife from approaching fields of produce. This includes clearing bushes, plants and trees that might serve as habitat or food sources for wild animals. Our study found that this practice has not led to the reductions in E. coli and salmonella that people were hoping for,” Karp said.

He and his colleagues assessed the use of this practice at farms in the United States, Mexico and Chile. Their findings were published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Having natural habitats around food crop fields can actually offer a number of benefits, the researchers said.

“There is strong evidence that natural habitats surrounding crop fields encourage wild bee populations and help the production of pollinated food crops,” study senior author Claire Kremen, a professor of environmental science, policy and management at the University of California, Berkeley, said in the news release.

“There have also been studies that suggest that a landscape with diverse plant life can filter out agrichemical runoff and even bacteria. Changing this dynamic shouldn’t be taken lightly,” she added.

More information

The U.S. National Library of Medicine has more about food safety.

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Coping Tips for Summer Weather Hazards

FRIDAY, Aug. 14, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Severe summer weather and thunderstorms can threaten your safety and health, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns.

Potential hazards include extreme heat, powerful storms and wildfires caused by dry conditions.

Heat-related illness occurs when your body can’t properly cool itself. Seniors, young children and people with chronic health problems are most at risk for heat-related illness and death.

From 1999 to 2010, there were more than 7,400 heat-related deaths in the United States, an average of about 618 a year, according to a CDC news release.

In extreme heat, you need to stay cool, hydrated and informed about weather conditions. If your home doesn’t have air conditioning, go to a shopping mall or public library with air conditioning, or call your local health department to locate heat-relief shelters in your area, the agency suggests.

Drink plenty of nonalcoholic fluids, regardless of your activity level. Wear lightweight, loose-fitting clothing. Never leave any person or pet in a closed, parked vehicle. Check with older adults at least twice a day.

Also, take steps to protect yourself and your family in case of tropical storms, hurricanes, thunderstorms and tornadoes, the CDC says. Follow lightning safety tips and be ready for flooding that can result from summer storms. Never walk or drive through floodwater.

Smoke from wildfires can hurt your eyes, irritate your respiratory system, and worsen chronic heart and lung diseases. If there is wildfire smoke in your area, try to limit your exposure.

Don’t rely on face masks because they won’t protect your lungs from the smoke, the agency says. If you have asthma or other lung conditions, follow your doctor’s management plan. See a doctor if you have trouble breathing.

Listen for advice from local authorities, the agency added, and follow their instructions.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about extreme heat and health.

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Till Bolt Cutters Do Us Part: Titanium Rings a Challenge in the ER

FRIDAY, Aug. 14, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Like wedding vows, some wedding bands aren’t meant to be broken. But British doctors have solved the challenge of removing titanium rings from patients’ fingers — using bolt cutters.

Even firefighters were unable to cut through the titanium wedding band of a man who sought emergency treatment because of a painfully swollen ring finger, according to a case report published online Aug. 14 in the Emergency Medicine Journal.

“Our method used simple equipment that is readily available in most hospitals at all times, took less than 30 seconds to perform and could be performed by a sole operator without damage to the underlying finger,” wrote Andrej Salibi, of the plastic surgery unit at Sheffield Teaching Hospital in the United Kingdom, and colleagues.

Titanium is an increasingly popular alternative to gold and silver for wedding rings because it’s light but strong, durable and doesn’t cause skin allergies, the study authors noted.

Silver and gold rings can usually be removed from swollen fingers with basic ring cutters. But titanium rings require specialized cutting equipment, such as dental saws, drills or diamond-tipped saws, according to background information in a journal news release.

A swollen finger caused by ring constriction is common in emergency departments. If the ring can’t be removed quickly, it may cut off the blood supply, resulting in tissue death and possible loss of the finger, the doctors explained.

The usual methods used to remove titanium rings can take up to 15 minutes, may require more than one health-care provider and can burn the skin. Also, not all hospitals have quick access to the specialized equipment, the authors added.

In the newly reported case, the finger swelling was caused by spending too much time in a warm spa bath.

The doctors were unable to remove the ring using traditional methods such as elevation, lubrication, finger binding to reduce swelling, and a manual ring cutter. Even firefighters with specialized cutting gear failed to slice through the metal, according to the report.

Finally, the doctors tried a large pair of bolt cutters — a standard piece of equipment in operating rooms — and had the ring off in less than 1 minute. The patient made a successful recovery, the study authors said.

More information

The U.S. National Library of Medicine has more about swelling.

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More American Children Diagnosed With ADHD

FRIDAY, Aug. 14, 2015 (HealthDay News) — The number of American children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is rising, U.S. government experts say.

And it’s important for the disorder to be recognized and treated. Untreated ADHD can cause serious problems for children, such as falling behind in school, difficulty making and keeping friends, and having conflicts with parents, according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Children with untreated ADHD have more emergency room visits and are more likely to have self-inflicted injuries than those who receive treatment, according to a news release from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In addition, teens with untreated ADHD are more likely to take risks, such as drinking and driving, and have twice as many traffic crashes as those who receive treatment, the FDA said.

The number of American children aged 4 to 17 diagnosed with ADHD rose from about 8 percent in 2003 to 11 percent in 2011, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found. The disorder typically appears between the ages of 3 and 6 years. It can continue through the teen years and into adulthood.

Parents who think a child has ADHD should consult their family doctor or pediatrician, Dr. Tiffany Farchione, a child psychiatrist at the FDA, said in the news release.

There are two types of medications approved by the FDA to treat children with ADHD: stimulants and non-stimulants. Behavioral therapy can also benefit children with ADHD. Parents should contact their child’s school and community support groups for information and advice on how to cope with a child’s ADHD-related behavior.

“It’s helpful to engage with the different individuals who are involved in a child’s life when managing the disorder,” Farchione said in the news release.

Children aren’t the only ones dealing with ADHD, the FDA experts added. Adults can have the disorder, too.

About 4 percent of American adults are believed to have ADHD, the FDA said. In adults, the disorder may cause problems such as poor time-management skills, restlessness, and difficulty with multitasking and activities that require sustained concentration.

“For some adults, a diagnosis of ADHD can bring a sense of relief,” because it offers an answer for their problems and leads to treatment that can help them, Farchione said.

More information

The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

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Almost 1 Million Signed Up for Obamacare After Open Enrollment

FRIDAY, Aug. 14, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Close to 1 million Americans signed up for coverage under the Affordable Care Act, also called Obamacare, after the open enrollment period ended earlier this year, U.S. health officials reported.

The new customers signed up with the federal health insurance exchange after they became eligible due to changes in their circumstances, such as losing work-provided coverage or having a baby, according to a Thursday statement from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

With these new sign-ups, it’s likely that the federal government will meet its target of 9 million to 10 million people who have paid for coverage through insurance exchanges by the end of the year.

“So far this year, nearly 950,000 people have gained the peace of mind that comes with access to coverage by taking advantage of a special enrollment period, providing us with further evidence that the Health Insurance Marketplace is working for America’s families,” Kevin Counihan, CEO of HealthCare.gov, the federally run health insurance exchange, said in the statement.

“We want people to know that if they lose a job, get married, have a baby, or experience other life changes, we’re here to help them find coverage they can afford,” Counihan added.

The new enrollees include people who chose plans between Feb. 23, 2015 and June 30, 2015 in the 37 states that rely on the federal exchange. It does not necessarily mean they have paid premiums, according to the CMS.

CMS said nearly 85 percent of those people signed up for one of three reasons: half had lost their health insurance or access to minimal benefits required by law; 20 percent learned they were ineligible for Medicaid; and 15 percent found out they would have to pay a penalty for not having health insurance.

The latest sign-ups included a large number — 2.5 million — of people aged 34 and younger, which suggests they had switched jobs, were no longer covered under their parents’ plans or went through major life changes such as marriage or becoming a parent, CMS said.

However, Obamacare — the centerpiece domestic legislation of President Barack Obama’s presidency — remains controversial. Republicans have consistently vowed to repeal the law.

During open enrollment this year, about 8.8 million people chose a plan or were re-enrolled through HealthCare.gov. As of March 31, 7.5 million people had coverage and paid premiums, and 2.9 million had obtained coverage and paid premiums through state-run exchanges, the Wall Street Journal reported.

More information

Visit the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for more on the Affordable Care Act.

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