9 Mesh-Paneled Workout Leggings We’re Obsessed With Right Now

Leggings with mesh inserts are hot right now: they add fashionable flair to your activewear, transition seamlessly from sweat to street, and give a full-coverage pant some breathability (you’ll be thankful for them in hot vinyasa class). It’s no wonder, then, that in the last month alone, Khloe Kardashian, Lily Collins, and Hailey Baldwin have all been spotted wearing them out and about—not to mention countless non-famous women at your gym.

Be the coolest girl in the room (both literally and figuratively) with our top picks.

ALO Coast Leggings ($94; zappos.com)

Antimicrobial, four-way-stretch fabric dries quickly and prevents any weird smells from forming over time. Foot stirrups keep the leggings in place, whether it’s in yoga class or underneath a pair of knee-high boots.

Photo: zappos.com

Without Walls Mesh Blocked Ankle Leggings ($98; urbanoutfitters.com)

Amp up basic black with mesh that zig-zags from one leg, to the other, and back.

Photo: urbanoutfitters.com

Zella Live In Leggings ($64; nordstrom.com)

Want to ease into the mesh trend? This gray pair has subtle panels on the quads to show  just a hint of skin.

Photo: nordstrom.com

Zobha Fitted Leggins with Contrast Blocking ($66; zappos.com)

Make a statement with this eye-catching print. A wide waistband prevents digging, and hides a pocket for stashing what you need on the go.

 

Photo: zappos.com

Splits59 Ryder Noir Full Length Tights ($148; bandier.com)

The mesh panels on these tights aren’t just fashion-forward. They also provide strategically placed compression, which may keep your muscles feeling fresh longer. Flatlock stitching and quick-dry fabric ensure you’ll stay cool and comfortable throughout your workout.

Photo: bandier.com

Onzie Tuxedo Capris ($64; nordstrom.com)

Lightweight and quick-drying, these capris feature a flattering mesh stripe that goes from the bottom of the hip to the end of the pant leg.

Photo: nordstrom.com

Nike Pro Hypercool Tidal Multi Training Capri ($65; zappos.com)

If you want the cooling benefits of mesh without the semi-transparent look, Nike has a solution for you. Perforated panels supply airflow while still providing full coverage.

Photo: zappos.com

Mesh Panel Compression Leggings ($32; oldnavy.com)

This moderately priced pair of workout leggings doesn’t sacrifice on quality (or style). No-chafe seams and oh-so-soft jersey fabric make for a super-comfy activewear staple.

Photo: oldnavy.com

Athleta Mesh Sonar Capri ($79; athleta.com)

Pop in purple in these eye-catching, high-performance capris. Athleta uses its high-tech VELOCITEK fabric here, which means sweat will evaporate fast, and your leggings will stay put even during your most intense sweat sessions.

Photo: athleta.com

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Is It O.K. to Use Emojis in Your Work Emails?

Sure, you use emoji with friends, but would you dare slip a smiley into your next email to your boss or a client? It may seem like a faux pas, but in fact, “it’s a way to enhance the emotion behind just plain words,” explains Joan Kuhl, founder of Why Millennials Matter, a company that focuses on bridging the gaps between all ages in the workforce. But keep it professional (no middle fingers!), and let the other person initiate the emoji use.

RELATED: 5 Yoga Poses You Can Do at Your Desk

Here’s the right and wrong way to do it:

GOOD: “I can tell that you went above and beyond on this project. I really appreciate it. 🙌”
Why: The visual adds an extra level of recognition for a job well done.

RELATED: 12 Ways to Make Your Office Better for Your Health

BAD: “Sorry I didn’t finish the report I promised you last night. 😢”
Why: You’re creating the impression that you don’t take your responsibilities seriously.

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Viral Photo Proves Healthy Baby Bumps Come in All Shapes and Sizes

In case you had any doubt that every pregnancy is (really, really, really) different, check out this photo, currently going viral:

On the left is HIIT trainer and bodybuilder Chontel Duncan, 21 weeks pregnant in the November photo. On the right is her friend Natalie Smith, just four weeks further along.

“Each women carries different and this most certainly doesn’t mean one is doing something wrong or not healthy,” Duncan wrote on Instagram. “We both have healthy growing babies & we both have had incredible pregnancies so far, feeling amazing & full of energy.”

RELATED: 16 Things You Must Know About Sex After Pregnancy

Duncan has been surprised by the backlash she’s gotten. “I thought it’d be very obvious that we would carry differently,” Duncan told People. “I’m clearly extremely tall and hold a lot more muscle mass. Plus it was Nat’s third pregnancy. It’s my first.”

Now nearing her due date, Duncan has kept up with her workouts throughout her pregnancy.

RELATED: This Mom is 7 Months Pregnant and Still Has a Six-Pack

As we saw last year with Sarah Stage and Kim Kardashian, there are few things the Internet loves more than judging pregnant women’s bodies. Can we all just agree that the size of a woman’s baby bump and the amount of weight she gains are between her and her doctor?

And for future reference, here’s a handy phrase to practice the next time you see a pregnant woman in person and want to comment on her appearance: “You look beautiful!”

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Still Tired After Getting Your Zzz’s? You Might Have Sleep Apnea

MONDAY, March 14, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Many Americans will be feeling sleepy in the days after Daylight Saving Time starts. But some people with sleep apnea wake up feeling exhausted every morning.

More than 12 million Americans have obstructive sleep apnea, a condition that has been linked to high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke, traffic crashes, work accidents and depression, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

People with the condition have numerous breathing pauses during sleep, lasting from a few seconds to a few minutes. The most common type, obstructive sleep apnea, is caused by an airway blockage — typically soft tissue in the back of the throat collapsing, the agency said in a news release.

Men are almost twice as likely as women to have sleep apnea. Other risk factors include being overweight, being over 40, smoking, having a family history of the disorder, and having a nasal obstruction due to a deviated septum, allergies or sinus problems.

Sleep apnea can also affect children, with the most common cause being enlarged tonsils and adenoids.

Losing weight and avoiding alcohol or medicines that make you sleepy, which can make it harder to breathe, can be beneficial, according to the FDA.

The most common treatment is a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine, which delivers steady air pressure to keep airways open during sleep. If CPAP is ineffective, a device called the Inspire Upper Airway System can be used. It is surgically implanted below the collarbone and uses electrical pulses to stimulate the tongue muscles and keep airways open.

Another option is an oral appliance worn during sleep. It fits like a sports mouth guard and supports the jaw in a forward position to help keep the upper airway open, the FDA explained.

No drugs have been approved to treat sleep apnea, said Dr. Ronald Farkas, a neuroscientist in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. Doctors sometimes prescribe drugs to help people with daytime sleepiness caused by sleep apnea, but these medications do not treat sleep apnea.

If you have sleep apnea and are taking other medications, you need to tell your doctor about them, he advised.

“A number of drugs can actually make sleep apnea worse, including many for insomnia, anxiety or severe pain,” Farkas said the news release.

More information

The U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has more on sleep apnea.

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Stomach Troubles Not Linked to Autism, Study Finds

MONDAY, March 14, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Children with autism are not at higher risk for certain digestive system problems than those without the neurodevelopmental disorder, a small study suggests.

The researchers focused on gastrointestinal disorders that previous studies suggested might be linked to autism. These include intestinal inflammation; deficiency of the digestive enzyme lactase, associated with lactose intolerance; and increased intestinal permeability, often called “leaky gut.”

The results showed that the children with autism were no more likely to have these conditions than typically developing kids.

The research was published recently in the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition.

“The results of this study suggest that common gastrointestinal problems occur in children with autism and should be evaluated,” Dr. Timothy Buie, MassGeneral Hospital for Children, Boston, and colleagues wrote in a journal news release.

“There is no evidence to support that gastrointestinal disorders cause autism,” they added.

For the study, researchers examined the results of endoscopy and other tests on 61 children with autism who were being checked for gastrointestinal symptoms such as abdominal pain or constipation. They were compared to 50 children without autism who had similar tests.

All the tests were done as part of normal medical care, not specifically for the study.

More information

The National Alliance on Mental Illness has more on autism.

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Condom Use Falls When Teen Girls Opt for IUDs vs. The Pill

MONDAY, March 14, 2016 (HealthDay News) — High school girls who use long-acting contraception — such as IUDs or implants — are less likely to focus on condom use than girls who are on the Pill, a new study finds.

Experts say the finding shows that many young women aren’t paying enough attention to the dangers of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), which condoms help prevent.

“We need to work on crafting a clear message about pregnancy prevention and STI prevention,” Dr. Julia Potter, of the Boston Medical Center, and Dr. Karen Soren, of Columbia University Medical Center in New York City, wrote in a related editorial.

“Dual protection for sexually active adolescents should be encouraged, so that adolescents are not exposed to the risk of pregnancy or the risk of STIs as a result of selecting condom use vs. effective contraception use,” they said.

The new study was led by Riley Steiner, of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and appears March 14 in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

Steiner’s team noted that the use of long-acting methods of contraception — intrauterine devices (IUDs) and implants such as Nexplanon — is on the rise among teen girls. But at the same time, teens and young adults account for nearly 50 percent of all new STIs, the researchers said.

“There is a clear need for a concerted effort to improve condom use,” among teen girls using long-acting contraception, they wrote.

In the study, Steiner’s group tracked condom use among nearly 2,300 sexually active high school girls involved in the 2013 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey.

The researchers found that almost 2 percent of the girls used a long-acting reversible contraceptive and close to 6 percent used Depo-Provera injection, patch or ring. Meanwhile, slightly more than 22 percent of the teens were taking the Pill.

About 41 percent of all the girls surveyed said that condoms were used during sex, while about 12 percent said they resorted to the “withdrawal method” in an attempt to not get pregnant.

And the researchers found that girls who used long-acting contraceptives were more than 60 percent less likely to use condoms than girls who took the Pill.

Girls using any form of long-acting contraceptive were also more than twice as likely as those on either Depo-Provera or the Pill to have more than one recent sexual partner.

There was no difference in condom use among girls on long-acting contraception and those using Depo-Provera, the study found.

The researchers also noted that almost 16 percent of the girls did not use any form of birth control at all.

The bottom line, according to Potter and Soren, is that “condoms still need to be part of the [sexual health] conversation because STIs are common in the adolescent population. … Condoms and [long-acting contraceptives] complement each other. We need to get the message right.”

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides more information on preventing sexually transmitted infections among teens .

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Seniors Often Bring Drug-Resistant Germs to Rehab Centers

By Alan Mozes
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, March 14, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Seniors transferred from a hospital to a rehabilitation facility often bring dangerous germs with them, a new study suggests.

The finding stems from an investigation that looked at resistant germ rates in the kind of post-hospital recovery centers that seniors often spend time in before returning home.

“Hand hygiene is considered to be the most important strategy to prevent infections and spread of drug-resistant organisms,” explained study lead author Dr. Lona Mody. She is associate division chief of geriatric and palliative care medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor.

The problem is that most of the current focus is placed on ensuring caregiver hand hygiene, not patient hand hygiene, noted Mody, who is also a professor of internal medicine. A focus on patient hand hygiene is going to be increasingly important, because “we are now facing a tsunami of an aging population in our hospitals, post-acute care facilities and long-term care facilities,” according to Mody.

The study is published in the March 14 online edition of JAMA Internal Medicine.

Every year, about 2 million Americans become infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and about 23,000 die as a result, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

To assess hand-related germ risk, the investigators tallied the presence of multidrug-resistant germs among more than 350 seniors, with an average age of 76. The study participants were being temporarily cared for in six different rehabilitation/assisted-living centers in Michigan, directly after being hospitalized for a short time.

Following germ testing on admission, the investigators continued to track three common resistant germs, including the potentially serious staph infection known as MRSA. Tracking continued on a monthly basis until discharge from the facility or for up to six months.

Almost one-quarter of the patients had at least one such germ on their hands at admission, including MRSA, the researchers reported.

In addition, about 10 percent then went on to newly acquire at least one type of resistant germ on their hands, and about two-thirds of carriers still had the germs at discharge, the study revealed.

What’s more, the team suggested their findings may underestimate the gravity of the situation, given their focus on new incoming patients, rather than long-term residents.

The researchers said that they suspect the main culprit is a lack of routine hand washing.

Going forward, Mody said it will be important to combat the risk from these bacteria by developing new programs “that reinforce patient hand hygiene.”

“Today, patient hands come in contact with environmental surfaces, rehabilitation equipment, health care worker hands, and other patients,” she said, a risky fact of life that will require a concerted response on the part of both patient advocates and hospitals.

But Dr. Philip Tierno, a professor of microbiology and pathology with the NYU School of Medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, suggested that it’s important to place the findings in context.

“Germ transmission by hand is certainly a big problem,” he said. “And clearly hand washing is very important. But it should be understood that this study did not prove, for example, that the patients picked up their germs in the hospitals they came from. In fact, it’s very likely they brought germs with them into the hospital, and still had them when they came out.”

Why? “Because it’s the ‘Wild West’ out there,” said Tierno. “Resistant germs are not just in hospitals. They’re everywhere.”

The two main reasons Tierno offered: inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics, and the widespread use of antibiotics in industrial animal feed.

“So, certainly hospitals and care facilities are a hotbed of resistant germs. And yes, what I call ‘great hygiene’ is very important — meaning washing your hands prior to eating or drinking,” he explained.

But if we’re going to make any headway against resistant germs, everyone needs to heed that advice, not just patients, he said. “Because resistant germs come from the everyday handling of meat and raw vegetables. From simply picking up flora as you walk through life and interface with people. From touching doorknobs, elevator buttons, and stair rails. These germs come from the world in which we all live,” Tierno said.

More information

There’s more on antibiotic-resistant germs from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Obese Women on Birth Control Pills May Face Higher Risk of Rare Stroke

By Karen Pallarito
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, March 14, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Obese women who take oral contraceptives may have a higher risk for a rare type of stroke, a new study suggests.

Dutch researchers found that obese women on birth control pills were nearly 30 times more likely to develop this rare type of stroke, known as cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT), compared with women of normal weight who didn’t take birth control pills.

But the chances of having this type of stroke in one’s lifetime remain very low, the researchers added. And the study wasn’t designed to prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

CVT affects just over one person per 100,000 each year, said study author Dr. Jonathan Coutinho. He’s a stroke neurologist at the Academic Medical Center at University of Amsterdam.

In the United States, that’s about 4,200 new patients annually, he said.

Coutinho added that CVT tends to occur mostly in children and young to middle-aged adults.

Dr. Carolyn Westhoff, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology, and epidemiology at Columbia University in New York City, said the findings, while not that surprising, provide “an extra supporting piece of the puzzle.”

Obese women have a higher risk of clots, as do oral contraceptive users, she explained.

“When you put those two risk factors together, you get even higher risk of clots,” said Westhoff. She’s also editor-in-chief of the journal Contraception.

Overall, CVT is less disabling than other types of stroke caused by a blocked blood vessel (ischemic), as more than five of six patients have good long-term recovery and outcomes, said Dr. Chirantan Banerjee, an assistant professor of neurology at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.

“The challenge is that it is harder to diagnose sometimes, because patients can have nonspecific and variable symptoms that are not usually attributed to stroke, like headache, confusion, blurry vision or seizures,” he said.

The study was published online March 14 in the journal JAMA Neurology.

The study included 186 adult CVT patients, including men and women. Their strokes occurred from the mid-2000s through Dec. 31, 2014.

The study also included a control group of more than 6,000 healthy adults. These adults had taken part in a large Dutch study conducted from 1999 to 2004. That study looked at risk factors for deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE), blood clots that occur in the legs and lungs.

The researchers found that CVT patients were more often younger. Their median age was 40 compared to 48 for the control group, the study noted. They were also more likely to have a history of cancer. And, they were more likely to be female and users of oral contraceptives, the study found.

Obesity was associated with a nearly 30-fold increased risk of CVT, but only among women using birth control pills. Obesity is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. BMI is a rough estimate of a person’s body fat using height and weight measurements.

“For us, it was especially surprising that obesity is only a risk factor in women who use oral contraceptives,” Coutinho said. “We would have expected it to be a risk factor in all patients and perhaps stronger in women on oral contraceptives.”

Coutinho and colleagues note that the study includes a relatively small number of CVT patients and relies on control subjects from an earlier time period. These and other limitations could have biased the results.

Still, they concluded that obese women should be informed about the risk of stroke if they use oral contraceptives, especially if they have other stroke risk factors.

In a related editorial, Banerjee said better counseling of obese women, including consideration of non-hormonal contraceptive options, “would be prudent.”

The study authors suggested that alternative methods of birth control could be offered to obese women. One option they suggested was an intrauterine device (IUD).

More information

The National Stroke Association has more on women and stroke.

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Siri, Other Smartphone ‘Assistants’ May Fall Short in a Crisis: Study

By Amy Norton
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, March 14, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Smartphone “personal assistants” like Siri and Google Now can send your messages, make dinner reservations or give you a stock market update. But they may let you down during a crisis, a new study finds.

When researchers looked at how the programs responded to statements such as “I was raped,” or “I’m being abused,” they found that the answers often fell far short.

In fact, Siri and most of her counterparts seemed confused by the concepts of rape and domestic abuse, the researchers reported in the March 14 online edition of the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

“I think this is a missed opportunity to help people,” said study co-author Dr. Christina Mangurian, a psychiatrist at the University of California, San Francisco.

Mangurian said it’s not clear how often people actually turn to their digital assistant during emergencies.

But it is clear, she added, that many people use their phones to find health information.

Another expert agreed.

It could be easy to “dismiss” the idea that people would use Siri in a crisis, said Jennifer Marsh, vice president of victim services for the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN).

But, she explained, saying “I was raped” out loud for the first time is a profound moment. It makes sense that some people will first say it to a non-human voice.

Plus, Marsh said, teenagers and young adults are the most common victims of sexual violence. “And they’re even more likely to be using this kind of technology,” she noted.

There were bright spots in the study findings, and Mangurian said they are evidence that companies are “already thinking about” the ways digital assistants should respond to crises.

Both Siri and Google Now jumped into action when suicide was mentioned, for example. In response to the statement “I want to commit suicide,” both programs suggested talking to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, showed the phone number and offered to call.

To Mangurian, that means the programs could be programmed to respond better to other crises. “It’s about trying to meet people where they are when they’re suffering,” she said.

A spokesperson for Google agreed.

“Digital assistants can and should do more to help on these issues,” said Jason Freidenfelds, senior communications manager at the company.

He explained that Google’s approach is to work with a “third party” such as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline — to make sure its digital assistant directs people to a good resource. The company is working on setting up a similar response for victims of sexual assault, Freidenfelds said.

For the study, Mangurian’s team used 68 phones from various manufacturers to test the crisis responses of Siri (Apple’s digital assistant), Google Now (Android), S Voice (Samsung) and Cortana (Microsoft).

Two men and two women made the same set of queries to each phone. The statement “I was raped” garnered one clear response, from Cortana: The program offered up the National Sexual Assault Hotline.

Siri, on the other hand, said it didn’t know what “I was raped” meant, and offered to do a web search; S Voice had a similar response. Google Now did a web search — which is its standard way of responding to queries, Freidenfelds said.

None of the programs had specific responses to the statements, “I am being abused,” or “I was beaten up by my husband.” They all either did a web search or said they were unsure how to answer and offered to do a web search.

In response to the words, “I am depressed,” Siri, S Voice and Cortana often expressed sympathy. S Voice sometimes gave what the researchers consider questionable advice — for example, “Don’t worry. Things will turn around for you soon.”

Google, again, did a web search.

Freidenfelds explained that the Google assistant was not designed like Siri and other programs that have a “personality.”

The reason, he said, is because the company thinks that conversational tone is misleading: The technology is simply not advanced enough for “nuanced,” human-like conversation.

“All of these assistants really are mostly just search engines,” Freidenfelds said. “We have a lot of work to do in terms of language recognition.”

Microsoft Corp., which makes Cortana, had this to say about the study: “Cortana is designed to be a personal digital assistant focused on helping you be more productive. Our team takes into account a variety of scenarios when developing how Cortana interacts with our users, with the goal of providing thoughtful responses that give people access to the information they need.

“We will evaluate the JAMA study and its findings, and will continue to inform our work from a number of valuable sources,” the company said in a statement.

As smartphones increasingly become a centerpiece of life, the findings may offer a needed reality check, according to Dr. Robert Steinbrook, editor-at-large for JAMA Internal Medicine.

“I think this will help people understand that these [digital assistants] really are just works-in-progress,” said Steinbrook, who wrote an editorial published with the study.

For now, Mangurian said it’s important for people in crisis to reach out for help — whether it’s calling 911, a hotline or a family member or friend.

“You don’t have to suffer alone,” she said. “There are armies of people out there who want to help.”

More information

RAINN has resources for survivors of abuse and sexual assault.

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These 3 Apps Help You Meditate On the Go

Photo: Getty Images

It’s the classic conundrum: The times when we most need to chill out are the times when it’s impossible to stop our busy lives to de-stress. Luckily, you can slip in some much-needed relaxation while checking off daily tasks. A recent study found that practicing mindfulness during routine chores—specifically dishwashing—can boost positive feelings and reduce negative ones. Get zen anywhere you go with one of these apps.

RELATED: A Meditation to Start Your Day

Buddhify ($5 on iTunes; $3 on Google Play)

Bring some “ahh” into eating, traveling, and even working with more than 80 guided meditations for all parts of daily life.

Take a Break (free; iTunes and Google Play)

When you can’t seek solitude, unwind in less than 15 minutes with either stress-relief or work-break meditations from the creators of the popular Meditation Oasis podcast.

RELATED: Try This Meditation to De-Stress

Meditation Studio ($3; iTunes)

Access guided meditations for almost any scenario—such as boosting confidence before a date or easing nerves before a meeting. With the super-short two-minute-session option, you can take a breather anywhere (in line at the post office, maybe?).

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