More Evidence Preterm Birth Could Raise Autism Risk

By Amy Norton
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Jan. 21, 2016 (HealthDay News) — According to a new study, very premature infants may have an increased risk of being diagnosed with autism by age 4, although the research questions just how high the odds are.

The Australian study, published online Jan. 21 in Pediatrics, found that just under 2 percent of tiny preemies were later diagnosed with autism between 2 and 4 years of age.

That prevalence, the researchers say, is lower than what’s been seen in past studies — where figures have ranged from roughly 4 percent to 13 percent.

They also said there are reasons to trust the reliability of their findings. This study is one of the few to directly evaluate children, rather than using parent questionnaires, said lead researcher Margo Pritchard, a professor of neonatal nursing at Australian Catholic University, in South Brisbane.

“What we found is that being born very preterm is a risk factor, which is consistent with previous studies,” Pritchard said. “But when diagnostic rigor is applied, using direct assessment, the rate of autism is lower than reported in other studies.”

However, Dr. Paul Wang, senior vice president of medical research for the nonprofit organization Autism Speaks, said it’s not clear what to make of the lower prevalence.

Studies differ in their methods, and some have followed children for longer periods — to age 8 and beyond — so it’s hard to know which estimates are closer to the truth, Wang said.

Instead, he saw the new findings as further support for the overall picture. “Prematurity and low birth weight are risk factors for autism,” Wang said.

He also stressed, however, that there is no single contributing factor to autism spectrum disorder — a developmental disorder thought to affect one in 68 children in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Autism is complex, Wang said, and the mix of causes varies from one child to the next. But in general, experts believe it starts with a genetic vulnerability, in combination with certain environmental exposures at a critical point in development — particularly in the womb.

Researchers are still trying to understand the environmental influences, Wang said.

According to Autism Speaks, studies have implicated a number of factors other than preterm birth. Those include older age of the parents at conception, as well as prenatal exposure to certain infections, air pollution or particular medications — such as the anti-seizure drug valproic acid (Depakote).

For the new study, Pritchard’s team assessed 169 young children born before the 29th week of pregnancy. They were screened at ages 2 and 4 years for possible signs of autism — such as language delays, or a lack of interest in other children.

Overall, 13 percent of the children screened “positive” and underwent further evaluation. In the end, just under 2 percent were diagnosed with autism.

Still, Wang pointed out, nearly all of the children who screened positive but did not get a formal diagnosis did have significant problems — with communication, imaginative play or repetitive behavior, for example.

And since very preterm babies are at risk of various developmental problems, it can be hard to definitively diagnose autism at a young age, Wang said.

Pritchard agreed that it’s challenging to pinpoint autism in those children. But, she added, “gold standard” assessments such as the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule — which was used in this study — can help identify the disorder at an early age.

Whatever the true prevalence of autism is among preemies, it’s important that these children have routine developmental screenings, Wang and Pritchard said.

“These children all need to be followed closely and screened,” Wang said. That way, any impairments — physical, mental or social — can be caught early and addressed.

“Identifying early differences in development can help to link children with effective intervention practices,” Pritchard agreed.

“The take-home message,” she added, “is to take advantage of developmental monitoring and keep children born very preterm on these programs through childhood.”

More information

Autism Speaks has more on environmental risk factors for autism.

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What It’s Like to Work Out With an SI Swimsuit Model

Photo: Roz Frazier

Look, I am no spring chicken. There I said it. But I pride myself on being pretty fit (i.e. marathoner, CrossFitter, etc.) And since I am the fitness editor, it’s kind of my job to be “in shape.” So, when I got the invite from Vimmia to test out some of their ah-mazing gear while sweating alongside 23-year-old Nina Agdal—a.k.a. Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover model and Victoria’s Secret Angel—of course I said yes.

I must admit I was a bit intimidated though. Not so much by the workout or the studio’s intense red lights—we were at Tone House, yes it’s pretty killer—but by the 5’9″ leggy blond I was standing behind. Seriously, Nina’s legs went on for days; they are roughly three-fourths of my paltry 5’4″ frame. Plus she’s gorgeous. Oh and who wants to workout next to a model and be reminded for an hour that you yourself are not a model.

RELATED: I Spent 7 Days Eating and Exercising Like a Victoria’s Secret Angel

That’s pretty much when I decided that I wanted to beat her at any cost. Because it is totally natural to want to out-sprint, out-bear crawl and out-burpee a supermodel, am I right?

As we worked our way through the session, I became less intimated and more impressed. She wasn’t just going through the motions (I’ve been to tons of events were there is a celebrity who comes geared up and never seems to actually workout); she was killing it. She was lithe, quick, and super strong. And when we were strapped into resistance bands during knee tucks, I realized that she was human too, as I overheard her mention that this core move kills her every time. (Me too Nina; me too.) From that point on, I was pretty sure that we were bonded for life—in my head, of course.

But seriously, it was kind of awesome to know that models don’t just wake up like this (cue Beyonce playing softly in the background). Yes, they still look fabulous when they sweat, but they have to put in work like the rest of us, which is comforting. And just as awesome, I got a little bit of an ego boost because I was able to keep up with Nina the entire time. (FYI: I’ve got more than 10 years on her!)

RELATED: Maria Menounos’ Fat-Melting Circuit

Post sweat fest, we exchanged high-fives (she told me I killed the workout!) and then we chatted about some of her other go-to workout obsessions, eating healthy, and when she feels sexiest.

Tone House is one of the hardest workouts I have ever done. Are all of your workouts like this?

Tone House is the most intense workout I do. I do Barry’s Bootcamp on Thursday because it’s all abs. I have my personal trainer, Andy Speer, who’s amazing, and then I do SLT for Pilates.

So do you find that mixing things up helps keep things fresh?

Yeah. I had a period where I only did one type of workout, but it didn’t change me because when you just do one thing your body isn’t challenged. So my advice is to definitely mix it up. Do a fun workout, then do something where you actually get something out of it.

Speaking of getting something out of your workouts. What’s one exercise that is good for your body, but that you hate doing?

Squats. I hate squats. I hate legwork, but it’s where you burn the most calories. And it’s an important body part for a woman to work in order to have a good butt.

RELATED: 5 Booty-Burning Moves for a Better Butt

When you are eating your healthiest, what can we find on your plate?

Raw green salads, vegetables, and lean protein, like white fish or chicken. Very simple meals; nothing added. That’s what I do when I think “eat clean.”

When do you feel most beautiful?

After a good workout, a long shower, and shaving my legs. Oh and wearing my facemask. Doing my whole little routine, that’s when I feel the sexiest.

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Gene Mutations Linked to Rare Form of Female Infertility

By Amy Norton
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 20, 2016 (HealthDay News) — For a small number of women with infertility, mutations in a particular gene may be to blame, a new study finds.

The results, reported in the Jan. 21 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, apply to a rare form of female infertility. But experts said the findings could potentially allow those women to avoid fertility treatment that will not work for them.

Researchers in China found that mutations in a gene known as TUBB8 were the culprit in seven of 24 families where women could not get pregnant for a specific reason: Their eggs could not mature to the stage where they are ready to be fertilized by sperm.

Exactly how many women have this condition isn’t known, said Lei Wang, an associate professor at Fudan University, in Shanghai, who worked on the study.

In China, he said, it’s estimated to affect up to 0.1 percent of women who seek treatment for infertility — based on a study from one medical center.

But while that form of infertility is unusual, the findings are an “important step forward,” said Dr. Jurrien Dean, chief of the cellular and developmental biology lab at the U.S. National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

Until now, no one had known that the TUBB8 gene was essential to women’s fertility, explained Dean, who wrote an editorial published with the study.

Greater understanding of normal egg maturation could eventually be useful in fertility treatment, Dean said.

But more immediately, he said, fertility clinics could test women for TUBB8 mutations, so they can avoid expensive treatments, like in-vitro fertilization, that would use their own eggs.

“There would be no point in doing those procedures,” Dean said. “That’s incredibly useful information because it allows patients to move forward and consider other options for having a family — such as using a surrogate, or adoption.”

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 6 percent of married women younger than 45 are unable to get pregnant after a year of trying. The causes of female infertility can include problems with ovulation or abnormalities in the uterus or fallopian tubes. Sometimes, there is no known explanation.

For the new study, Wang’s team looked at 24 families in which women had sought infertility treatment. All were found to have eggs that stopped maturing at a critical point called meiosis I.

According to the experimental data, in seven of the 24 families, affected women carried mutations in the TUBB8 gene, which regulates a protein that appears essential for normal egg development.

Wang said the mutations were inherited from the father in five of the families, and arose spontaneously in the other two. Once they identified the gene, the researchers used experiments with egg cells — from mice and humans — to prove that the TUBB8 mutations do halt egg maturation.

“The practical implication of our discovery is that it will now be possible to screen women who seek [infertility] treatment using a simple DNA-based test,” Wang said.

If they carry any of the implicated TUBB8 mutations, Wang said, “they can spare themselves the expense and discomfort associated with an [in vitro fertilization] procedure that has little or no chance of success.”

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on infertility.

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New IBS Drug Eases Stomach Pain and Diarrhea for Some: Study

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 20, 2016 (HealthDay News) — A new drug for irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea seems to reduce symptoms for some patients for at least six months, two clinical trials found.

Based on these findings, the drug Viberzi (eluxadoline) was approved recently by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In the phase 3 trials, more than 30 percent of patients experienced improvement in their symptoms at least half of the time they were taking the drug. This compared to about a 20 percent improvement in those taking a placebo, the study authors said.

“This drug offers another option for patients who have IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) with diarrhea who have not found relief with currently available treatment,” said lead researcher Dr. Anthony Lembo, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

This drug, taken twice daily, should only be used for IBS with diarrhea as the predominant symptom, not for those whose main symptom is constipation. The drug treats the diarrhea and reduces stomach pain, Lembo said.

However, Dr. Arun Swaminath, director of the inflammatory bowel disease program at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, said, “Viberzi is not a silver bullet.”

The drug helps only about one-third of patients, Swaminath said. “And if you look at the difference between the placebo group and the group taking the drug, there is only a 10 percent benefit,” he said.

That means 10 patients need to get the drug to find the one patient it will help, he explained.

Swaminath also said that those who benefit from the drug feel about 30 percent better on 50 percent of the days they take Viberzi. “So this is hardly going from feeling abnormal to completely normal,” he added.

Results from the trials were published in the Jan. 21 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Funding for the studies was provided by Furiex Pharmaceuticals, maker of the drug.

Irritable bowel syndrome causes pain or discomfort in the abdomen and changes in bowel movement patterns. IBS affects 10 percent to 15 percent of adults in the United States, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

For the new study, researchers randomly assigned nearly 2,500 adults with IBS with diarrhea to one of two doses of Viberzi or a placebo. In one trial, patients took Viberzi twice a day for 26 weeks, and in the other trial they took the drug for 52 weeks.

The researchers found that by the 12th week of the trials, almost 30 percent of patients taking the highest dose of the drug (100 milligrams twice daily) saw improvement in their symptoms, compared with less than 20 percent of those taking the placebo. These results remained similar when assessed again at 26 weeks, the researchers said.

The most common side effects of Viberzi were nausea, constipation and abdominal pain, the study found. These side effects were mild and passed quickly, Lembo said.

The most serious side effect of Viberzi was pancreatitis, which is inflammation in the pancreas, the study found. Although rare, pancreatitis can develop in people with pancreatic problems, and therefore Viberzi isn’t recommended for anyone with known pancreatic problems, Lembo said.

In addition, Viberzi shouldn’t be used in patients with a history of bile duct obstruction, severe liver impairment or severe constipation, or in patients who drink more than three alcoholic beverages a day, according to the FDA.

Swaminath doesn’t think he would prescribe Viberzi as a first-line treatment, but would reserve it for people who aren’t responding to other treatments.

The basics of IBS treatment, according to Swaminath, are changes in diet to increase fiber, and using prescription drugs and over-the-counter drugs to control diarrhea. If these approaches don’t work, then he would try other drugs, including Viberzi.

“If patients have been on the standard medications and they didn’t work or they couldn’t tolerate the side effects, then we have a new option,” Swaminath said.

More information

For more on irritable bowel syndrome, visit the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

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Identifying Colon Cancer Patients Who May Need More Than Surgery

By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 20, 2016 (HealthDay News) — An easily detected genetic marker could help identify aggressive colon cancer in early stages, telling doctors that these patients need chemotherapy, a new study suggests.

Colon tumors that don’t produce a protein called CDX2 are more likely to return following surgical removal in patients with stage 2 colon cancer, according to the study results.

Current standard practice holds that people with stage 2 colon cancer are not given chemotherapy following surgery to remove their tumors, because the risks of chemo outweigh the benefits, said study lead author Dr. Michael Clarke. He is a professor of cancer biology with the Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, Calif.

But at least 5 percent to 10 percent of stage 2 patients are CDX2-negative, and therefore could benefit if doctors added chemotherapy to their treatment, Clarke said.

The study findings were published Jan. 21 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, said the new study is likely to change the way that cancer doctors treat stage 2 colon cancer patients.

It wouldn’t be difficult to put the test into practice, Brawley said. “Given this paper, I am going to be hard-pressed not to give these patients chemotherapy,” he added.

People with stage 2 colon cancer generally have a favorable prognosis, Clarke and Brawley said. In this stage, the cancer has grown within the colon but has not yet spread to other parts of the body.

Patients with stage 2 colon cancer have a five-year survival rate of 63 percent to 87 percent, depending on the extent of the cancer throughout their colon, according to the American Cancer Society.

Progress in chemotherapy has improved survival rates during the past decade for advanced colon cancer. But, doctors have not been able to identify patients at earlier stages who might also benefit from these new chemo regimens, the study authors said in background notes.

Clarke and his colleagues decided to focus on colon cancer cells that appeared to function more like stem cells, which are not as tightly regulated by the body and thus are more likely to be aggressive.

The researchers landed on the CDX2 protein, which plays a role in determining how cells will be used to form the inner lining of the colon, Clarke said. Without CDX2, colon cells are less regulated and, therefore, cancerous cells are more likely to be aggressive.

Another advantage of the CDX2 protein is that tumors can be screened using a simple antibody test, rather than requiring an expensive genetic scan, Clarke said. “That makes it much simpler for pathologists, and much less prone to error,” he said.

To test their theory, the researchers analyzed medical data for nearly 1,900 patients with stage 2 or stage 3 colon cancer.

The researchers found that about 4 percent of the patients had tumors that didn’t produce CDX2.

In an initial study of 466 patients with any stage of colon cancer, only about 41 percent of those with CDX2-negative tumors lived disease-free for five years after treatment, compared to 74 percent of those with CDX2 in their cancer cells.

Further, patients whose tumor cells didn’t express CDX2 were more likely to benefit from chemotherapy in addition to surgery than were people with CDX2-positive tumors.

About 91 percent of patients with CDX2-negative cancers treated with surgery plus chemotherapy lived disease-free for five years, versus about 56 percent of those who did not receive chemotherapy, the study found.

Because this study did not involve a test on new patients, doctors can’t be certain that this association is valid, Clarke warned.

“The data is extremely strong, but you need a prospective analysis to be 100 percent sure,” he said. “It should be validated in a prospective trial.”

The test could be put into practice right away, given that many laboratories can run this sort of antibody check on colon tumor cells, Clarke and Brawley said.

Brawley agreed that the study does not prove that chemotherapy will improve the outcome of patients with stage 2 colon cancer. “That is still a stretch,” he said.

However, he expects cancer doctors will go ahead and give chemotherapy anyway to patients who are CDX2-negative.

The test likely will be applied only to stage 2 patients, however. That’s because stage 3 colon cancer patients already get chemotherapy alongside surgery, Brawley said.

More information

For more on colon cancer, visit the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

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The One Beauty Product You Need for Perfectly Glowy Skin

During Pregnancy, Skin Cancer May Be Deadlier: Study

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 20, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Women diagnosed with melanoma skin cancer during or just after pregnancy are at greater risk from the cancer than other women, a new study finds.

Pregnancy hormones may fuel the most deadly type of skin cancer, the researchers said.

“The rate of metastasis (cancer spread), recurrence and death in our findings were astounding — as the rates were measurably higher in women who were diagnosed with melanoma while pregnant, or within one year after delivery,” lead investigator Dr. Brian Gastman, a plastic surgeon and director of melanoma surgery at the Cleveland Clinic, said in a hospital news release.

However, the study was only designed to find a link between melanoma outcomes and pregnancy; it cannot show a cause-and-effect relationship.

The study looked at almost 500 women diagnosed with melanoma between 1988 and 2012. The women were aged 49 or younger. The researchers followed their health for two years or more.

The investigators found that women diagnosed with melanoma during pregnancy or within one year of giving birth were five times more likely to die of the cancer. They were also seven times more likely to have their cancer spread, and nine times more likely to have a recurrence of their cancer, compared with other women, the research revealed.

The study was published online Jan. 20 in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

Melanoma rates in the United States doubled between 1982 and 2011, the researchers said. These new study findings show that women younger than 50, especially those who are pregnant, need to be especially vigilant in monitoring themselves for signs of skin cancer, the researchers advised.

More information

The American Cancer Society has more about melanoma.

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Race Not Tied to Threat of Second Stroke, Study Finds

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 20, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Younger black people are three times more likely to have a stroke than their white peers, but they may not be at greater risk for a second stroke, new research suggests.

“The interaction between black race and age appears to be remarkably different for the risk of first versus second stroke,” said study author George Howard, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

“There was very little difference in race for the risk of a second stroke,” he said in a news release from the American Academy of Neurology.

The seven-year study involved almost 30,000 people, including close to 3,000 with a history of stroke. Over the course of the study, about 300 of the people who had a previous stroke suffered another one. Meanwhile, just over 800 of the remaining people had their first stroke during the study period.

By the age of 45, the black study participants with no history of stroke were almost three times more likely to have one than the white participants. This discrepancy disappeared by the age of 85. But race wasn’t associated with a greater risk for a second stroke among black people at any age, according to the study published online Jan. 20 in Neurology.

“Almost all of the ‘traditional’ risk factors for a first stroke proved to also be a risk factor for a second stroke, suggesting that controlling these risk factors may help avoid both conditions,” Howard said in the news release. “These risk factors include heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking, irregular heartbeat and others.”

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on risk factors for stroke.

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Eating More Healthy Fats May Extend Life, Study Suggests

By Kathleen Doheny
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 20, 2016 (HealthDay News) — For years, experts have preached the gospel of eating “healthy” fats and limiting “unhealthy” fats. Now, a new study contends that if people worldwide began to eat healthier fats, there might be more than a million fewer deaths from heart disease every year.

Although a great deal of attention has been focused on reducing saturated fats from the diet, the researchers said the focus should be two-fold: reducing unhealthy fats such as saturated fat and trans fats, and replacing them with healthy fats, such as polyunsaturated fats.

“Our findings highlight the importance of ending America’s fear of all fat. We estimate that nearly 50,000 Americans die of heart disease each year due to low intake of vegetable oils,” said Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, senior study author and dean of the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy in Boston.

However, while the study found an association between risk of death from heart disease and the types of fats consumed, it didn’t prove cause-and-effect.

The study was published online Jan. 20 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Polyunsaturated fats are found in fatty fish (such as salmon, herring, mackerel and trout), soybeans, tofu, soybean oil, corn oil, sunflower oils and seeds, and walnuts. These fats help lower bad cholesterol, and have been linked to a lower risk of heart disease and stroke, according to the American Heart Association (AHA).

Saturated fats are found in meat and dairy products. Trans fats are found in processed, baked and fried foods, according to the AHA.

To estimate the number of deaths linked to various patterns of fat consumption, Mozaffarian and his team used diet information from 186 countries. They looked at research from previous studies that followed people over long periods of time to see how eating certain fats affects heart disease risk. Death rate information was gathered from a 2010 study.

Using all of that information, the researchers estimated that more than 700,000 deaths worldwide each year, or about 10 percent of heart disease deaths, were due to eating too little healthy omega-6 polyunsaturated fats, as opposed to saturated fats and refined carbohydrates.

Eating too much saturated fat instead of healthier fats accounted for roughly 4 percent of heart disease deaths — about 250,000 deaths that might be prevented with decreased saturated fat intake. And, about 8 percent of heart disease deaths were estimated to be due to an excess of trans fats, the researchers said. That means decreased trans fat intake could result in about 537,000 fewer heart disease deaths, the study estimated.

Residents of different countries reported different patterns of fat consumption. For instance, deaths from trans fats are declining in Western nations as the unhealthy fat is garnering more attention. However, the United States and Canada were still in the top four nations for heart disease deaths attributed to trans fat intake, the study showed.

Residents of Russia, Germany and Egypt had the highest rates of heart disease death due to low intake of healthy polyunsaturated fats. Residents of the Philippines, Malaysia and tropical nations had the highest heart disease death rate due to eating too much saturated fat, the researchers said.

The new study comes out at an ideal time — January, said Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, a cardiologist and director of Women’s Heart Health at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. She reviewed the findings. “Diet is on everyone’s mind,” she said.

The new study shows that “reducing saturated fats actually makes a difference,” Steinbaum said. And, she added, “it provides an understanding of the huge impact that food has on heart disease.”

Steinbaum plans to cite the study with her patients who come in saying this is the year they will lose their excess weight. “What I am going to use this for is to say, ‘Check this out, this is around the world,’ ” she said, pointing to the saving of 1 million lives a year by eating healthier fats.

“I will use it as a power tool to change behavior,” she said.

More information

To learn more about fats and oils, visit American Heart Association.

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24 Hacks to Make 2016 Your Best Hair Year Ever

Image: Courtesy of POPSUGAR Photography / Benjamin Stone

The Chinese zodiac may say 2016 is the year of the monkey, but we think it’s the year of the hare—well, the year of the hair, that is. (Sorry, couldn’t help ourselves.)

We all have something we’ve been trying far too long to fix with our manes—such as frizz, a tedious morning blow-dry routine, or locks that won’t hold curls.

Make 2016 the year this all changes: the year you “hack” your mane. To help you do so, we’ve rounded up our favorite tips and tricks—a range that is guaranteed to cover even the most problematic hair issues. The struggle may be real—but, at least this year, the hair struggle doesn’t have to be.

Style your hair the night before

Image: Courtesy of POPSUGAR Photography / Benjamin Stone

Girls with especially thick and/or long hair have been doing this for years—but any style or cut can benefit from this time-saving hack. Whether you’re sleeping in braids, a texturizing product, or even on straightened locks, styling the night before saves you the morning hassle. Plus the next-day look is always better.

Extend your blowout with dry shampoo

Image: Courtesy of A Beautiful Mess

One of the best parts about a blowout is that you can make it last a few days after the actual treatment—aka, skip the hassle of washing and styling your own hair. Win, win. One of the best ways to extend the blowout without letting your hair turn greasy is to apply dry shampoo to the roots, around the ears, and at the nape of the neck. Then massage it in, brush it down, or blast it with a blow-dryer. Poof. Your hair is perfect again.

Eliminate dandruff with lemon juice

Image: Courtesy of POPSUGAR Photography / Nicole Perry

One of the most embarrassing hair problems is undeniably the culprit behind white flakes left behind on collars and scarves: dandruff. For a homeopathic and DIY solution to this common issue, use a combination of lemon juice, olive oil, and water to lift the flakes and moisturize the scalp underneath.

Clean hair with baking soda

Image: Courtesy of POPSUGAR Photography / Sarah Lipoff

If there’s product and residue left even after shampooing, a DIY water-and-baking-soda paste can easily strip even the worst buildup. The best part? There’s a good chance you already have this product in your house.

Leave an inch border between your hairline and your moisturizer

Image: Courtesy of POPSUGAR Photography / Benjamin Stone

If your roots tend to get greasy after a blowout, it may be your moisturizer that’s doing the harm. By applying moisturizer up to the hairline, some is likely to travel to your roots—instead, leave an inch border between this product and your blown-out hair to ensure that your style lasts longer.

DIY coconut oil hair mask

Image: Courtesy of POPSUGAR Photography / Lizzie Fuhr

The religion of 2015 was coconut oil, and there’s no surprise that this moisturizing product makes a great DIY hair mask. To get the best benefits, smooth it over your hair before bed and leave in (after wrapping it up to spare your sheets) while you sleep, and then wash out in the morning.

Twist wet hair to enhance curls

Image: Courtesy of POPSUGAR Photography / Benjamin Stone

Wavy hair can often be difficult to define and coax fuller curls from, but it’s possible courtesy of the twisting method. By turning strands into twists while still wet—even before blotting dry—it helps curls take shape.

Lighten dark hair with chamomile tea

Image: Courtesy of POPSUGAR Photography / Anna Monette Roberts

While lemon juice is often used to create natural highlights by reacting to sunlight, chamomile tea is a great way to brighten dark hair in the non-Summer months. By steeping the tea, pouring over your mane, and leaving overnight, superdark strands can achieve a golden glow.

Reduce frizz with a dryer sheet

Image: Courtesy of POPSUGAR Photography / Benjamin Stone

Since frizz is a form of hair static, it makes sense that this laundry product also works on our strands—even if it does sound a bit odd. Grab one sheet, and rub it over your head to solve this common problem on the run.

Curl your hair with socks

Image: Courtesy of My Style Vita

Yes, you read that right—all you need to achieve salon-worthy mermaid waves are a few pairs of socks. Check out the tutorial from Nicole Sykes to learn this supersimple and convenient trick for waking up with a ready-to-go style.

Apply conditioner to fine hair with a comb

Image: Courtesy of POPSUGAR Photography / Benjamin Stone

For women with fine, long hair, finding ways to detangle can be tricky. One of the easiest ways to ensure your tresses don’t dry in a rat’s nest is simply by applying conditioner with a long-tooth comb in the shower.

For 12 more great hair hacks, visit popsugar.com.

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POPSUGAR Beauty puts the focus on hair, makeup, nails, and fragrance — from inspiring celebrity photos and fun polls, to easy how-tos to re-create the latest trends at home, to expert tips from the world’s top stylists! Find out the latest color trends for your face, hair, and nails with hot new products and daring nail design ideas. DIY ideas turn your home into a spa, and make you knowledgeable on any beauty topic. Let POPSUGAR Beauty be your guide to all things skin care, makeup, and hair care!

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