Here’s Why Your Boobs Hurt Before Your Period

Getty Images

Why do my breasts feel so tender before my period?

You can thank hormones for that. A spike in estrogen just before ovulation causes the breast ducts to enlarge, while a peak in progesterone during the week before your period stimulates the growth of the milk glands. The resulting breast soreness, aching or swelling often goes hand in hand with PMS (ugh!), intensifying during the days leading up to your period.

While most women have tenderness in the upper, outer portions of both breasts, you can feel it all over and even in the underarm area (where some women have small amounts of breast tissue).

RELATED: 19 Medical Tests Everyone Needs

To ease the pain, try wearing a comfy, supportive bra, taking an over-the-counter pain reliever and keeping up with regular exercise. You may find it helpful to limit caffeine, salt, and fatty foods in the weeks before your period; you can also ask your doctor about trying a daily regimen of vitamin B6, vitamin E, and evening primrose oil supplements. After your period begins, the tenderness typically starts to go away. However, if it continues daily for a few weeks, worsens over time, or seems to be in one particular area of your breast, see your doctor.

Health’s medical editor, Roshini Rajapaksa, MD, is associate professor of medicine at the NYU School of Medicine and co-founder of Tula Skincare.

 

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1knAhzs

Child Asthma Rates Leveling Off, Except Among Poor and Older Kids: Study

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Dec. 28, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Rates of childhood asthma appear to have plateaued, except among the poor and kids aged 10 to 17, U.S. health officials report.

Researchers found that childhood asthma rates increased from 2001 to 2009 — a trend that began in 1982. The rate peaked in 2009 at close to 10 percent, then leveled off before dropping to slightly more than 8 percent in 2013.

“Trends in childhood asthma have recently stopped increasing,” said lead researcher Dr. Lara Akinbami, who’s with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics.

“This is mainly due to the leveling off of prevalence among black children, who previously had large increases in the prevalence of asthma,” she said.

“However, more years of data are needed to clarify if asthma prevalence among children will continue to decline, or if it will plateau around current levels,” she added.

The report was published online Dec. 28 in the journal Pediatrics.

For the study, researchers used data from the 2001 to 2013 National Health Interview Survey to analyze the prevalence of asthma in children from birth to the age of 17.

“We found that not all groups of children had the same trends,” Akinbami said.

Among children who are living in families with income below the poverty level and those aged 10 to 17, researchers found that asthma rates increased between 2001 and 2013.

“Trends increased and then leveled out among children aged 5 to 9 years and children living just above the poverty level,” Akinbami added.

Among white and Puerto Rican children, the prevalence of asthma remained the same from 2001 to 2013, Akinbami said. Puerto Rican children had the highest prevalence of asthma compared with all other groups, she said.

These overall findings are good news on two fronts, Akinbami said. First, if asthma rates stop increasing, fewer children are at risk for poor asthma outcomes, such as emergency room visits or even death, she said.

Second, among white and black children, the racial disparity in asthma rates has stopped increasing, Akinbami said. “Previously, asthma prevalence was increasing among black children, but not white children,” she said.

Black children were disproportionately at risk for poor asthma outcomes because they were more likely to have asthma, she said. In 2001, the asthma rate was 30 percent higher among black children than white children. But by 2011, it was over 100 percent higher. This increase in disparity now seems to be stopping, Akinbami said.

“The not so good news is that asthma prevalence still seems to be increasing among children living in poverty,” she said.

These statistics can’t pinpoint the reasons why changes in asthma rates are happening, Akinbami said.

“However, the increase in asthma rates among poor children may be due to their having greater or more persistent exposures to environmental factors that increase the risk for asthma,” she said.

Dr. Jeffrey Biehler, chair of pediatrics at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami, said, “It’s not unexpected that asthma rates would level off at some point. It’s also not surprising that asthma rates haven’t leveled off among poor children.”

Biehler said that poorer children are often exposed to environmental factors that increase their risk for asthma. These include tobacco smoke, mold and mildew, pet dander, dust mites, cockroaches and smog, he said.

In addition, the stress associated with poverty may increase the risk for asthma, Biehler said.

“We need to continue decreasing environmental exposures and help children at every level to reduce their chances of having asthma,” he added.

More information

Find out more about asthma from the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1R3eF8v

The Younger the Mother, the Worse Her Health at Midlife: Study

SUNDAY, Dec. 27, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Women who have their first child in their mid-20s to mid-30s have better health at age 40 than those who have their first child in their teens or early 20s, a new study finds.

Researchers looked at data from more than 3,300 American women for the study. The women’s health was followed from 1979 through 2008. The women all had a first child between ages 15 and 35. They rated their own health when they were 40 years old.

At that age, those who had their first child between ages 25 to 35 reported better health than those who had their first child at ages 15 to 19, or 20 to 24. There were no significant health differences at age 40 between women who had their first child in their teens or early 20s.

While the study found an association between early childbirth and worse health at 40, it wasn’t designed to prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

The findings were published in the December issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

“Ours is the first U.S. study to find that having your first child in young adulthood is associated with worse self-assessed health decades later for white and black women, when compared to those who wait until they are over 24,” lead author Kristi Williams, an associate professor of sociology at Ohio State University, said in a journal news release.

The finding that the mid-life health of women is the same for women who had their first child in their teens or early 20s challenges a common belief that it’s better to wait at least until your early 20s to give birth.

The researchers also disproved another widely held assumption: that unmarried women who have children will be healthier if they eventually get married. Instead, the study showed that when single black mothers later married, they had worse health at age 40 than those who stayed single.

However, the study couldn’t say why this was so. But the researchers said their findings suggest that public health efforts to encourage single mothers to marry may have unintended consequences.

“Most studies indicate that marriage-promotion efforts have been unsuccessful in increasing marriage rates. Our findings suggest that may be a good thing, at least for black women’s health,” Williams said.

In the United States, about one-third of all first births occur in women aged 20 to 24, the research showed. In most cases, these women are single, the researchers said.

“We still need to be concerned that women who are having births in their early 20s may face more health challenges as they reach middle age than those who wait longer,” Williams said.

More information

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has more on women’s health.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1mcFlZj

Hospital Prices Vary Widely Across the United States

SATURDAY, Dec. 26, 2015 (HealthDay News) — The cost of medical care varies widely across the United States, a new study reports.

Hospitals negotiate the cost of medical services with insurance companies. And, the new report found that prices at hospitals in monopoly markets are 15 percent higher than those at hospitals in areas with at least four providers.

When the researchers looked at a specific procedure — lower-limb MRIs done in 2011 — they found the cost was 12 times higher in a New York City borough than it was in Baltimore. Even within the same city, however, prices could vary by up to a factor of 9, the study found.

“These price differences between hospitals can be thousands of dollars,” study co-author Martin Gaynor, a professor of economics and health policy at Carnegie Mellon University, said in a Yale University news release.

“For example, the price of an average inpatient stay where there’s a monopoly hospital is almost $1,900 higher than where there are four or more competitors. We know that these higher prices end up getting translated into higher premiums that employers pass on to workers,” Gaynor said.

The study was published recently at the Health Care Pricing Project website.

Health care accounted for more than 17 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) in 2014. About 60 percent of the population has private health insurance, the researchers said.

“The fact that prices are so high and can vary so much for hospital treatments of the same costs and quality is simply mind-boggling to foreign observers of the U.S. health care system,” one of the study’s authors, John Van Reenen, professor of economics and director of the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics, said in the news release.

“This is surely one of the reasons why U.S. health care absorbs a bigger share of GDP than in every other large advanced country,” Van Reenen added.

In conducting the study, researchers reviewed data on spending for nearly 30 percent of people in the United States with employer-sponsored health insurance coverage. The research included 92 billion health insurance claims from 88 million people insured by Aetna, Humana, and UnitedHealth.

What might account for the big differences in the cost of care? One reason may be the number of mergers in the health care industry, the researchers suggested.

“There have been over 1,200 mergers in the hospital industry since 1994, and 457 since 2010. Our work shows that the consequences of this wave of mergers can be dire for consumers. There’s a real need for continued vigorous antitrust enforcement and other policy options to encourage competition and combat market power,” Gaynor said.

The researchers also found that spending patterns for privately insured people are significantly different than for people on Medicare.

In 2011, Grand Junction, Colo., had the third-lowest Medicare spending per beneficiary. But this area ranked ninth for highest inpatient prices. It also had the 43rd highest spending for each person with private insurance, the report showed.

“Virtually everything we know about health spending and most of the basis for federal health policy comes from the analysis of Medicare data,” one of the study’s authors, Zack Cooper, an assistant professor of health policy and economics at Yale, said in the news release.

But Medicare only covers 16 percent of the population, Cooper said.

“This information is critical to creating better public policy,” Cooper said. “Many of the regions cited by policymakers as models for the nation — like Grand Junction, Colo.; Rochester, Minn.; and La Crosse, Wisc. — have extremely high spending for the privately insured,” he said. “Simply put, we cannot use these areas to shape federal policy.”

More information

The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services provides a comparison of U.S. hospitals.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1NGScvI

Move of the Week: Cross-Leg Diagonal Crunches

To achieve a cinched waist, it’s important to target all of your core muscles. This move in particular is fantastic for working out your obliques (those ab muscles on the side of your body.) Learn how to do Cross-Leg Diagonal Crunches with the help of Health‘s contributing fitness editor, Kristin McGee.

 

Here’s how to do it: Lie down on your back. Bend your knees, place your feet flat, and shift your hips over to the right. Then extend both legs straight in that direction. Take your left leg, cross it over your right leg. With your hands behind your head, crunch straight up to the ceiling. Go for 50 reps on that side and lower down. Then reset and do 50 more reps on the other side.

Trainer tip: Try to really scoop up your abs and get your shoulders off the mat.

RELATED: 10 Flat-Belly Tricks

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1QQTPdV

5 High-Tech Winter Running Accessories That Will Make You Want to Work Out in the Cold

Winter’s shorter days and colder temperatures make fitting in a run no easy task—not to mention how arduous it is to stomp through snow or tiptoe over a sheet of ice. But, running throughout the winter months gives us serious health benefits. Not only do we stay in tip-top shape, but research suggests that exercise can help alleviate symptoms of depression—something especially important during the winter months when seasonal affective disorder (SAD) strikes as many as 20% of Americans.

Make sure you stay well-equipped and warm with all of your tech needs during your run so nothing gets in your way when you’re out on the street.

UR Powered Fleece Audio Headband ($36; lordandtaylor.com) 

Never worry about your earbuds popping out while you’re out running (or running errands) again. This fleece headband from UR Powered not only keeps your ears toasty when cold weather is in full force, but it also doubles as your headphones. It comes with HD speakers that thread directly between two layers of fleece and connect to a wire that feeds into your smartphone or audio player. The speakers are removable so you can easily throw the headband into the wash on laundry day.

RELATED: Run Happy All Winter Long

The North Face Etip Glove (starting at $36; amazon.com)

Don’t ever get caught swiping your phone with your nose again! The fingertips are touchscreen-capable, so you don’t need to remove your gloves to send a text. While not necessarily new, these gloves are a tried-and-true solution to handling cold weather while you’re out on a run. They are thin enough so as not to overheat you, but warm enough to shield you from the elements. And, with a silicone grip on the palm, your smartphone won’t go flying from your hands into a pile of snow.

 

 

Hoodie Buddie Super Pullover ($66; amazon.com)

Now you’ll never tangle those pesky headphone wires again. This hoodie builds headphones directly into the drawstring, with the earbuds at the end so you can just pop them in and get moving. All you have to do is slip it on, plug in your smartphone, and tune out as you hit the streets. Guess what? This hoodie is 100% washable, which means that you don’t have to worry about water damage to your headphones.

RELATED: 15 Running Tips You Need to Know

Athleta Altitude Down Vest ($168; athleta.gap.com)

It’s important to keep your core and extremities warm throughout a winter workout. You’ve got the gloves, now stay toasty (but not too warm!) in this vest. It’s packed with 800-fill goose down that keeps you warm without weighing you down. If you find yourself often fiddling with bouncing headphone wires during your winter runs, you might want to invest in this vest, which features a media pocket to keep your smartphone secure, along with a port to run your headphone cables through.

RELATED: Running With Your Dog: 17 Dos and Don’ts

Nike Shieldrunner ($250; store.nike.com)

Nothing is more annoying than finding a logical way to wire yourself while loaded in layers so you can pump great tunes into your ears to keep you going. This jacket has a media-cord port and secure pockets, so you won’t be bothered anymore. Perfect for cold weather running, this jacket completely blocks wind and keeps out the rain. Just add your base layer and you’ll be set.

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1J8pWDo

Skin Care Experts Reveal Their At-Home DIY Beauty Recipes

Image: Courtesy of Popsugar Beauty/Benjamin Stone

Sun. Stress. Sleep deprivation. The list of things wreaking havoc on your skin on the daily goes on — especially since cold weather and holiday season is here. Whether you’re in need of some brightening (lemon peels, anyone?), bronzing (bring on the henna!), or bump-soothing (eggs are wonderful in more than your morning omelette), many beauty experts suggest looking into your own pantry. There, you’ll discover healthy, convenient, and often cost-efficient solutions to some of your most common beauty gripes. Behold, some of their tried-and-true, tasty recipes that you can whip up to get gorgeous skin!

Coffee Body Scrub

Image: Courtesy of Popsugar Beauty/Anna Monette Roberts

What You Need:

• 1 spoonful brown sugar
• Almond or coconut oil
• 1/4 cup organic coffee grinds

What to Do:

Mix brown sugar and coffee grinds, adding in almond or coconut oil until you’ve created a paste-like consistency. After your shower (in the tub to prevent a mess), massage the paste into your skin using an upward motion, concentrating heavily on any areas with cellulite. Leave the paste on for 15-20 minutes and then rinse with cool water.

Why It’s Great:

“Caffeine can be used for cellulite, as it reduces the size of cellulite fat cells by 17 percent,” noted Ildi Pekar, founder of Ildi Pekar Skin Care. “This will also work as a quick exfoliate to remove any dead skin so that the end result is that your skin is fresh, glowing, and has reduced cellulite!”

Nutmeg and Milk Evening Exfoliating Face Mask

Image: Courtesy of Popsugar Beauty/Nicole Perry

What You Need:

• 1/2 tablespoon ground nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon whole milk
• 1 small bowl
• 1 small spoon

What to Do:

Combine nutmeg and whole milk in small bowl, stirring well. Then, apply mask to a freshly washed, makeup-free face. Massage the mixture into your face in small circles (you can also use it on your décolletage). Leave mask on for 5-10 minutes, then rinse well with warm water and pat dry using facial sponges or a baby washcloth. Finish by applying evening moisturizer.

Why It’s Great:

“Nutmeg has natural antibacterial and calming properties so it’s good for healing sensitivity,” explained Renee Rouleau, founder of Renee Rouleau Skin Care. “Whole milk offers natural exfoliating, hydrating, and soothing properties.”

Get more DIY beauty recipes at Popsugar Beauty.

More from Popsugar Beauty:

6 of Your Favorite Discontinued Essie Shades Are Making a Comeback

What Biting Your Nails REALLY Says About Your Personality

“Quiet Chair” Allows Clients to Avoid Awkward Salon Small Talk

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!

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1QQJZbZ

Meals on Wheels Can Deliver Emotional Nourishment, Too

FRIDAY, Dec. 25, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Social isolation is common among many U.S. seniors, particularly during the holidays. But, home-delivered meals can significantly reduce their feelings of loneliness, new research finds.

The study involved more than 600 people in eight U.S. cities who were on waiting lists for Meals on Wheels, a program that delivers food to homebound seniors. They were randomly selected to have daily fresh meal delivery to their home, weekly frozen meal delivery or to remain on the waiting list.

At the start of the study, seniors in all three groups had similar levels of loneliness. After 15 weeks, loneliness levels remained the same among those on the waiting list, but had fallen among those who received fresh or frozen meal deliveries at home.

Also, seniors with daily meal delivery were three times more likely than weekly recipients to indicate that home-delivered meal service helped them feel less lonely, the researchers reported.

“This continues to build the body of evidence that home-delivered meals provide more than nutrition and food security,” said lead author Kali Thomas, assistant professor (research) of health services, policy and practice at Brown University School of Public Health in Providence, R.I.

She hopes the findings will assist policymakers as they make decisions about programs that provide services to the elderly in their homes.

“In a time when resources are being further constrained and demand is increasing, it is important that we have evidence that guides decision-making in terms of what services to provide and how best to provide them,” Thomas said in a university news release.

Many of the study participants were socially isolated. More than half lived alone, 14 percent said they had no one to call on for help, 20 percent said they were in touch with family and friends less than once or twice a month, and only 25 percent said they took part in group activities.

“The number of people who reported they had no one to call on for help is a cause for concern,” Thomas said.

The study was published online recently in The Journals of Gerontology: Series B.

More information

The U.S. National Institute on Aging has more about the benefits of social interaction.

---

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1J8jxb9

Is Your Humidifier Making You Sick? 4 Things You Need to Know

Photo: Getty Images

There are a lot of reasons to love your humidifier, especially during the cold, dry winter months. By releasing more moisture-filled air into your home, these handy gadgets could help you fight the flu, ease dry eye, and combat dry skin and sinuses. Thing is, there’s a chance you’re not cleaning yours properly—and you could be setting yourself up to get seriously sick.

Studies have shown that as many as 75% of swab samples from humidifiers reveal fungal growth, while as many as 87% reveal bacteria growth, says Aileen M. Marty, MD, an infectious diseases professor at Florida International University. “This happens not only in homes, but also in clinics and hospitals—including ICUs,” she says.

Breathing contaminated air from a dirty humidifier puts you at increased risk for developing pneumonia, asthma attacks, or lung conditions such as Legionnaire’s disease. And if you have a chronic breathing condition, a humidifier can actually aggravate symptoms: “Although increased humidity can ease breathing in children and adults who have asthma or allergies, ironically, when the humidifier is releasing dirty mist—mist that may include an increased growth of fungi that act as allergens—they can trigger or worsen asthma and allergy symptoms,” Dr. Marty says.

Here, four important ways to use your humidifier safely.

RELATED: 22 Ways to Survive Cold and Flu Season

Change the water often

“Bacteria and fungi thrive in standing water left inside of a humidifier—and a whole lot of them will accumulate in only a couple of days,” Dr. Marty warns. For this reason, you should ideally change the water in your humidifier every day to prevent bacteria and fungus from taking over, especially if you use a “cool mist” or ultrasonic humidifier. Humidifier filters should be replaced every two months.

RELATED: 20 Things You Shouldn’t Do Before Bed

Not all cleaning methods are created equal

Simple cleaning solutions are best here. Dr. Marty recommends using water or an alcohol-based cleaner to refresh your humidifier, being sure to unplug the unit before emptying the water tank, then drying the inside surfaces and refilling with clean water. If there are any mineral deposits or film on the top of the tank, remove them using an ethanol-based cleaner, such as Purell Cottony Soft Sanitizing Wipes ($4; drugstore.com).

“You should never use chemical cleaners, such as products that contain hydrogen peroxide,” she says. The reason? “There is a horrible condition that can develop if someone uses the wrong type of humidifier disinfectant called ‘humidifier disinfectant-associated lung injury.’ It’s characterized by spontaneous air leak in their lungs, rapid progression, lack of response to treatment, and can even be fatal.”

Use the right water

Sorry, but tap won’t cut it. “You should always fill your humidifier with bottled, pre-filtered, or demineralized water,” says Dr. Marty. Demineralized cartridges or filters are also helpful to use if compatible with your unit, he adds. And although you might be tempted to think that using filtered water will let you skip a cleaning or two, that’s not the case: “Even when you use filtered water, you still have to clean and store your humidifier properly every day,” she says.

RELATED: 21 Natural Ways to Prevent and Treat Headaches

Replace it

“Over time, humidifiers eventually build up deposits that are difficult or impossible to remove and encourage growth of bacteria and fungi,” Dr. Marty says. In other words, if your unit is more than a few years old or if you haven’t been cleaning it regularly, it’s better to err on the safe side and invest in a new one. The good news? Many humidifiers are affordable: here are three of our editor-approved picks.

from Health News / Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health http://ift.tt/1J8h8gD

8 Times Celebs Inspired Us to Hit the Gym This Year