7 Foolproof Ways to Get Rid of Blackheads

If you’ve never had to deal with annoying little black dots on your nose, then you’re truly #blessed. The rest of us have spent our lives resisting the urge to pick or pop our blackheads, which appear when oils and skin cells clog our hair follicles. Though banishing blackheads can be a challenge, there are ways to do it without destroying your skin. Whitney Bowe, MD, a New York City-based dermatologist, reveals seven safe blackhead treatments that will clear up your skin for good.

Try double-cleansing

Clear skin starts with a thorough cleanse, so be sure to scrub away any makeup and grime before attempting to fight those stubborn blackheads. You might find it most effective to double cleanse: First, wash as you normally would, and then follow with a cleanser that contains salicylic acid. Dr. Bowe’s pick: Neutrogena Oil-Free Acne Wash ($8; drugstore.com), which treats and prevents breakouts without being too harsh.

Photo: Drugstore.com

Exfoliate a few times a week

Getting into an exfoliation routine will is another crucial step to beating blackheads, says Dr. Bowe. Do it twice a week if your skin’s sensitive, and three times a week if you tend to be oily. Exfoliating will help slough away the dead skin cells that would otherwise clog your pores bring on the blackheads. Try Clinique’s Exfoliating Scrub ($21; macys.com).

Photo: Macys.com

 

Use a skin brush

Take your beauty routine one step further by using a mechanical cleansing brush, which helps to deep clean pores and purge oil and dirt buildup. A good scrub around the nose, on the chin, and over the forehead works wonders at fighting blackheads, says Dr. Bowe. She recommends any brush by Clarisonic, such as the Mia Fit ($189; sephora.com). We love this one for its portable design—use it after a sweaty cardio class or while you’re traveling to keep skin looking its best.

Photo: Sephora.com

Try a mask

Clay and charcoal masks are like glue to blackheads. They draw out impurities and leave skin feeling smoother and pores looking smaller. Use one two times a week or whenever you feel that skin could use some clarifying.  Try Herbivore’s Blue Tansy Mask ($48; amazon.com). It packs powerful natural ingredients including fruit enzymes, blue tansy, and white willow bark, which together work to unclog pores and prevent new blackheads from popping up.

Photo: Amazon.com

Add tea tree oil to your regimen

Strengthen your mask’s blackhead-vanishing power with a drop of tea tree oil, suggests Dr. Bowe. Tea tree oil has antibacterial benefits that will help clarify skin and prevent blackheads from forming. This alternative remedy helps restore hydration in the skin that might otherwise end up dry and peeling from using other treatments to combat breakouts. Try the Body Shop Tea Tree Oil ($10; amazon.com). 

Steam, then extract

Using a steamer to open your pores is like a DIY mini facial that will clear away blockages. Try Conair’s Facial Steamer ($30; walmart.com). After a few minutes, pores should be opened up and impurities loosened.

Photo: Walmart.com

Now is the time to try to extract any gunk that’s built up inside. Extractions are only safe to do in a sterile environment using fingertips or an extractor tool like Tweezerman’s Blackhead/Whitehead Remover ($12; amazon.com). And if you apply gentle pressure and nothing pops out, stop, Dr. Bowe warns. Leave it until it’s ready, and keep using the salicylic cleanser and other treatments to keep blackheads at bay.

Photo: Amazon.com

Apply a retinoid treatment

Typically known for its anti-aging properties, retinol also works wonders to help you attain a flawless complexion, devoid of blocked pores, Dr. Bowe says. After steaming, if you don’t want to do your own extractions or if nothing comes out, apply the retinoid to your open pores. Use Philosophy’s Help Me Retinol Night Treatment ($49; drugstore.com), specifically in places where you have congested pores. Over time you will notice smaller pores and fewer blackheads.

Photo: Drugstore.com

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Adult Survivors of Childhood Brain Tumors May Have Lingering Troubles: Study

MONDAY, Feb. 8, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Adults who survived childhood brain tumors may have significant treatment-related thinking, attention and memory problems, a new study suggests.

“Our study was the most comprehensive analysis of a large cohort of adult survivors of pediatric brain tumors, with direct assessment of their cognitive functioning and the resulting impact on social attainment. Also, it was the first to report on the long-term outcomes for multiple types of brain tumors,” said study leader Tara Brinkman, from the departments of Epidemiology and Cancer Control, and Psychology, at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.

The research included 224 adults who survived childhood brain tumors. They were between the ages of 19 and 53.

The survivors had been treated with either radiation to the whole brain and spinal cord, radiation only to the tumor location, or no radiation. Some also needed a shunt to drain fluid from the brain — a condition called hydrocephalus.

Compared to those who received no radiation, survivors treated with radiation to the brain and spinal cord were nearly three times more likely to have severe intelligence deficits, as well as attention and memory problems, the study showed.

The study also found that the survivors had a nearly fourfold increased risk of major shortfalls in academic skills.

They were also more likely to be unemployed and to be living with parents or caretakers, the study revealed. Hydrocephalus was also associated with poor mental function decades after treatment, the researchers found.

The study was published online recently in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Previous studies indicated that adult survivors of childhood brain tumors were at risk for reduced mental function, but they evaluated survivors only five to 10 years after treatment and many included only a small number of patients.

The new findings could help lead to new ways to prevent and treat such problems, the study authors.

“We hope to help these kids while they are on therapy, to prevent the onset of some of these neurocognitive difficulties,” Brinkman said in a hospital news release.

“For the survivors who have finished therapy, we want to intervene to mitigate such problems, so they don’t develop into the severe problems we are seeing with the current adult survivors,” Brinkman added.

More information

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about childhood brain and spinal tumors.

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Vacation Weight Gain Can Lead to ‘Creeping Obesity,’ Study Finds

SUNDAY, Feb. 7, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Along with souvenirs, there’s a good chance you’ll return from your vacation with some extra weight, new research suggests.

The study looked at 122 American adults, aged 18 to 65, who went on vacations ranging from one to three weeks between March and August.

Sixty-one percent gained weight while on vacation, with an average gain of 0.7 pounds, and that weight tended to stay on after they returned home. Some gained as much as 7 pounds, while others lost weight, the investigators found.

One of the main contributors to vacation weight gain was increased intake of calories, especially from alcohol. The average number of drinks went from eight a week before vacation to 16 a week while on vacation, the researchers said.

The findings are alarming, according to study author Jamie Cooper, an associate professor in the department of foods and nutrition at the University of Georgia.

“If you’re only gaining a pound or two a year and you gained three-quarters of that on a one- to three-week vacation, that’s a pretty substantial weight gain during a short period of time,” Cooper said in a university news release.

The results support the theory of “creeping obesity,” in which adults gain small amounts of weight over a long period, increasing their risk of future health problems.

“One of the challenges people face is unless you’re diligent about weighing yourself before and after vacation, usually you’re not going to notice a pound of weight gain,” Cooper said. “People don’t realize it’s happening, and that’s why they don’t lose weight following a vacation.”

The study was released online in advance of print publication in the journal Physiology and Behavior.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explains how to prevent weight gain.

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Super Bowl Safety: Protect Kids From Toppling TVs

SATURDAY, Feb. 6, 2016 (HealthDay News) — As families gather to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday, they should protect children from television tip-overs, experts say.

More than 17,000 children are treated in U.S. emergency departments each year for injuries from a toppling TV, according to a study published in the journal Pediatrics. That works out to about one child every 30 minutes, with kids younger than 5 years at greatest risk, the researchers said.

In most cases, the television fell from a dresser or armoire, and about 30 percent fell from an entertainment center or TV stand, the study found.

With TVs the star attraction in many homes on game day, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center shared the following safety tips:

• Place TVs on low, stable pieces of furniture and install safety anchors and anti-tip devices on all TVs not mounted to the wall.
• Never place remote controls or toys on top of TVs because children might try to climb and reach them. It’s also important to keep TV cords out of reach so children can’t pull on them.
• Recycle any old TVs no longer in use.

More information

Safe Kids Worldwide has more about TV and furniture tip-overs.

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Super Bowl Safety: Protect Kids From Toppling TVs

SATURDAY, Feb. 6, 2016 (HealthDay News) — As families gather to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday, they should protect children from television tip-overs, experts say.

More than 17,000 children are treated in U.S. emergency departments each year for injuries from a toppling TV, according to a study published in the journal Pediatrics. That works out to about one child every 30 minutes, with kids younger than 5 years at greatest risk, the researchers said.

In most cases, the television fell from a dresser or armoire, and about 30 percent fell from an entertainment center or TV stand, the study found.

With TVs the star attraction in many homes on game day, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center shared the following safety tips:

• Place TVs on low, stable pieces of furniture and install safety anchors and anti-tip devices on all TVs not mounted to the wall.
• Never place remote controls or toys on top of TVs because children might try to climb and reach them. It’s also important to keep TV cords out of reach so children can’t pull on them.
• Recycle any old TVs no longer in use.

More information

Safe Kids Worldwide has more about TV and furniture tip-overs.

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7 Facts About Having a Baby With a Gestational Surrogate

Surviving Spouse Still Influenced By the Other

FRIDAY, Feb. 5, 2016 (HealthDay News) — The influence of a husband or wife on their spouse’s quality of life remains strong even after death, a new study says.

Couples who have been married a long time develop a high level of interdependence, and one partner’s quality of life at death continues to influence the survivor, the University of Arizona researchers said.

“If your partner has higher quality of life before they pass away, you’re more likely to have higher quality of life even after they’re gone. If he or she has lower quality of life before they pass away, you’re then more likely to have lower quality of life,” lead author Kyle Bourassa, a psychology doctoral student, said in a university news release.

The researchers examined data from thousands of older couples in 18 European countries and Israel taking part in an ongoing study of health, aging and retirement. Specifically, the researchers compared 546 couples in which one partner had died and 2,566 couples in which both partners were still alive.

There was no difference between the two groups in the strength of the quality-of-life interdependence, according to the study published recently in the journal Psychological Science.

“Even though your marriage ends in a literal sense when you lose your spouse, the effects of who the person was still seems to matter even after they’re gone. I think that really says something about how important those relationships are,” Bourassa said.

This ongoing connection after death is likely due to the thoughts and emotions a person has when thinking or talking about a deceased spouse, according to the researchers.

The findings could prove valuable for end-of-life care and for helping people who have lost their spouses.

“Relationships are something we develop over time and they are retained in our mind and memory and understanding of the world, and that continues even after physical separation,” said study co-author Mary-Frances O’Connor, an assistant professor of psychology who specializes in grief and the grieving process.

“If you can boost someone’s quality of life before they pass, that might affect not just their life, but the quality of life of their partner and their family,” Bourassa said.

More information

The U.S. National Institute on Aging discusses mourning the death of a spouse.

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Record Heat, Drought May Explain Zika Outbreak in Brazil: Research

FRIDAY, Feb. 5, 2016 (HealthDay News) — There may be a link between the recent hot and dry winter and spring in Brazil and the outbreak of the Zika virus, preliminary research suggests.

“The extreme temperature and drought are due to a combination of the El Nino phenomenon and the climate changes of recent years,” researcher Shlomit Paz, from the department of geography and environmental studies at the University of Haifa in Israel, said in a university news release.

This week, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the mosquito-borne Zika virus a global health threat because it may have caused thousands of cases of a severe birth defect in Brazil in the past year. The birth defect, known as microcephaly, causes babies to be born with permanent brain damage and very small heads.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that pregnant women consider not traveling to about 30 countries and territories where Zika infection is active.

In addition, pregnant women with a male sexual partner who has traveled to, or lives in, an area affected by active Zika virus transmission should refrain from sex or use condoms during sex until the pregnancy is over, the CDC advised on Thursday.

Some scientists have said the outbreak is associated with El Nino-related heavy rains in parts of Latin and Central America. But Paz and Jan Semenza, of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control in Stockholm, have a slightly different take on the problem.

Instead, the study authors reported that the outbreak is due to the record-high temperatures and severe drought that occurred in northeast Brazil in the latter half of 2015, which is winter and spring in the southern hemisphere.

The hot temperatures and lack of rainfall were actually due to a combination of El Nino and climate change, the researchers explained.

High temperatures can boost the growth rates of the Aedes mosquitoes, which carry the Zika virus. Mosquitoes also require water, something that could be a problem for them in a drought. However, people in northeast Brazil store water in containers during droughts, and these containers provide a perfect habitat for the mosquitoes, Paz said.

The study was published online Feb. 1 as a research letter in The Lancet.

The researchers are continuing their investigation into how climate conditions may have contributed to the outbreak.

“In light of the health risk, and the fact that the Aedes mosquitoes also carry other viruses, such as dengue fever and chikungunya, it is important to address the impacts of climate which we have found when analyzing the causes of the current outbreak,” Paz said in the news release.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about the Zika virus.

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Science Says Resting Bitch Face Is Real

Photo: Getty Images

If, like me, you’ve ever been told to “smile” a countless number of times by complete strangers while you’re innocently trying to grocery shop, catch a train (or, alternately, valet your car), work out at the gym, or complete any other innocuous activity, you’ve probably considered the possibility that maybe, just maybe, you have Resting Bitch Face (RBF).

The term has been thrown around a lot over the past few years, often jokingly, but, in truth, there are a hella lot of people out there whose seemingly neutral faces are perceived as angry, upset or just plain disgusted.

Finally science is catching up with RBF. Last October researchers Abbe Macbeth and Jason Rogers, employees of Noldus Information Technology, a software-developing company that focuses specifically on observational and behavioral research, analyzed the faces of a slew of celebs who boast what one might consider RBF (we’re looking at you K-Stew). They ran the mugs of the stars through Noldus’ FaceReader software and the results are not only interesting, but a relief for anyone with RBF.

When faces are analyzed, typically the software will read the face as 97 percent neutral with three percent underlying expression (the culprit for showing shade of emotions like sadness or happiness).

RELATED: Barbie Ferreira Just Got Candid About That “Other” Barbie

“We see that people who have this RBF expression [have] double the amount of emotionality expressed,” Macbeth told CNN. Those afflicted with RBF may show a jump of trace emotions as high as 6 percent and most of the emotion expressed is of contempt: the feeling that something is worthless or deserving scorn.”

Armed with these findings, Rogers and Macbeth next want to explore why some people have RBF while others don’t, and why people consider the trait to be such a bad thing.

RELATED: Here’s What Happened When a Reporter Asked Why Serena Williams Wasn’t Smiling

Personally, I’m looking at it this way—shouldn’t we all relax our facial muscles when we’re not engaged in any sort of banter? If my “neutral” face happens to settle into what others perceive to be sad or annoyed, so be it. But I’m glad scientific research is interested in backing me up.

This article originally appeared on MIMIchatter.com.

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Why Organic Food Might Be Worth the High Price

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The most infamous fact about organic food is that it’s expensive—about 47% more expensive, according to a recent analysis from Consumer Reports. But a new review study published in Nature Plants analyzed everything research currently knows about organic farming versus the conventional kind and found that organic offers a lot of good that outweighs its sticker shock.

When organic farming first began, it was derided as an idealistic and inefficient way of feeding people. Not surprisingly, there was little research about it. “There were just a couple handfuls of studies back in the ‘80s,” says John Reganold, professor of soil science and agroecology at Washington State University and co-author of the new study. Reganold has been studying organic agriculture for more than 30 years. “At the turn of the century, it just skyrocketed, and now there are probably at least 1,000 studies,” he says.

Reganold analyzed 40 years of available data and focused on how organic farming impacts several types of sustainability: productivity, impact on the environment, economic viability and social wellbeing.

“If I had to put it in one sentence, organic agriculture has been able to provide jobs, be profitable, benefit the soil and environment and support social interactions between farmers and consumers,” Reganold says. “In some ways, there are practices in organic agriculture that really are ideal blueprints for us to look at feeding the world in the future.”

Organic may even be our best bet to help feed the world in an increasingly volatile climate, he says.

At first, this might sound unlikely, given that the crop yields of organic agriculture are typically 10-20% lower than conventional. That’s because conventional growers can use synthetic fertilizers, most of which aren’t allowed in organic food production. “When farmers add fertilizers, those nutrients are immediately available to the plant, and the plants can grow faster,” Reganold explains. Organic crops, on the other hand, are fertilized by organic matter like compost or animal manure, which takes more time to decompose and release its nutrients. (This slow, steady approach is called building the soil.)

RELATED: 17 Cheap Organic Foods You Should Be Buying

But Reganold found one scenario where the research shows that organic yields are consistently greater than conventional: during periods of drought. Organic soil is built up with organic material, which can hold onto water, he says. That means that by the time a farmer plants and grows a crop, the plant has access to more water, so yields increase. For every inch of rainwater soaked up by soil, a plant can produce another 7-8 bushels of wheat, Reganold says.

Organic farming typically uses less energy, too. “When you look at ecosystem services, organic agriculture really shines,” he says. “The value they bring in areas like biodiversity, pollination, soil quality—if you were to put an economic value on those, and some researchers have, then it more than makes up for the higher price or price premium of organic food.”

A 2015 meta-analysis about the economics of organic farming, published in the journal PNAS, even determined that organic farming is more profitable than conventional, earning farmers 22% to 35% more money. They determined that the organic price premium (which was around 30% in the study) only had to be about 5% for organic profits to break even with conventional.

There’s a lot left to learn about organic food, including whether or not it’s healthier than conventional in a meaningful way. The latest study points out that of the 15 or so scientific reviews focusing on nutrition, 12 studies have found evidence that organic is more nutritious than conventional by having more vitamin C, antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids. Other studies indicate that children who eat organic foods have lower levels of pesticide metabolites in their bodies than those who eat conventional.

The popularity of organic food is growing fast. Back in 1997, less than 1% of the food and beverage market was organic, and now it’s 5%, Reganold says. But organic faces several setbacks. “We have policies that support the more conventional model,” Reganold says, along with a relative dearth in research about organic agriculture.

“The challenge facing policymakers is to create an enabling environment for scaling-up organic and other innovative farming systems to move towards truly sustainable production systems,” the study concludes. “This is no small task, but the con- sequences for food and ecosystem security could not be bigger.”

This article originally appeared on Time.com.

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