So THAT’S Why You’re So Attached to Certain Perfumes

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Similarly to the way you may always seem to gravitate towards the same color when clothes shopping or stock up on one particular item even though you have tons of it already in your closet (hello, t-shirts), we totally become creatures of habit with fragrance. The way your mom smelled of orange blossom as a child might be why you always feel at ease when you smell it. Regardless of whether you have one signature scent or a whole collection of bottles in your boudoir, we tend to sniff out and feel most comfortable with the same notes time and time again.

RELATED: You’ve Been Shopping for Fragrance All Wrong

“It really comes down to personal preference,” says Kerri Nau, Aromatherapy Associates Account Executive & Trainer. “The scents that we ‘like’ are actually linked to what we innately ‘need.’ Inhalation of scents — especially pure essential oils — can alter our emotional and physical state. We are naturally drawn to scents that make us feel a certain way.”

Nau explains that when you inhale a scent, the essence of it is drawn up through the nasal canal which stimulates the Olfactory Nerve. That sends a signal to the Limbic System in our brain, the area she describes as “the seed of our memories and emotions.” Nau notes that the smell of fresh cut flowers personally reminds her of walking through her parents flower shop as a kid.

RELATED: Is Fragrance Monogamy a Thing of the Past?

Geza Schoen, founder and perfumer of Escentric Molecules, equates fragrance to a security blanket of sorts.

“Familiarity gives security,” says Schoen. “A signature scent adapts your environment to a secure idea and a relative reaction.  There is a lot of comfort in having a solid base you can relate to and for some, scent is their aura of comfort.”

In other words, you may associate an event or time in your life with a certain smell… and smelling it again will instantly bring you back to that time.  Who knew that smelling tuberose would make me travel in time back to college?

RELATED: You’ll Want to Copy Emma Roberts’ Braided Updo ASAP

So, basically, don’t be afraid to stick with the same notes time and time again. They tell your story and can speak volumes about your personality.

“Fragrance evokes your personal experiences,” says Christopher Chong, the creative director of Amouage.  It stirs your memory bank of different emotions experienced.  It’s like a fragmented narrative.  The human mind is complicated and unpredictable.  Unlike other art forms, such as visual and music, the sense of smell lacks a coherent language to articulate its nature, so we personalize it by drawing from our own memories.”

Well, I guess now I know why the smell of my ex-boyfriend’s cologne immediately puts me in a bad mood.

This article originally appeared on InStyle.com/MIMI.

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Ronda Rousey is One of Times 100 Most Influential People and This Video Captures Why

Ronda Rousey—who never ceases to amaze us with her incredible athleticism, body confidence, and unwavering honesty—has been honored as one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People. In the touching interview above, the former UFC champ opens up about her crushing title loss to Holly Holm last fall, and what inspires her to keep going; namely, the cancer patient she met just before that fight. 

“This lady—she was dying of cancer—and she came to that open workout and stood out in the sun so she could have a chance to meet me,” Rousey says. “I promised her …she was like ‘Please, please win!’ And I promised her I would win, and I didn’t. I need to come back, and I need to win, and I need to fulfill that promise,” she says as she wipes away tears.

Rousey is now back in the gym, training to regain her title “for the people that believed in me.” In her home, she says she has a wall where she tapes up notes from her fans—”all the good things, like little girl letters, the cutest, sweetest, most adorable things”—as motivation. “I’m somehow helping then, and they’re really helping me back,” she explains.

RELATED: 5 Times Ronda Rousey Seriously Inspired Us

When asked what advice she would give to a 14-year-old girl, Rousey shares these heartfelt words of wisdom:

“First I’d tell her that you’re gorgeous, despite what you think. You’ll never have to chase for the one, he’ll come find you. And then, I’d tell her that you have a right to be anywhere you want to be. As a woman, you are kind of made to feel like you don’t have a right to be certain places. And that’s what I would tell her: You have a right to be anywhere. And whatever you’re worried about now, you’re not going to give a sh*t in five years about it.” She adds, cheekily, “And wear a condom.”

Rousey herself is focused on moving forward, and rediscovering the same “doe-eyed” optimism she felt the first time she walked into an arena: “That’s what I need to find again.” She says that these days, “it’s hope that gets me out of bed.”

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You Can Lose Fat by Sitting Less at Work

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Most of our waking hours are spent sitting down. We drive or sit on trains to get to work, and once we’re there, we’re glued to our chairs until we get home—where another round of sitting commences.

All of that sedentary behavior is contributing to obesity and some of the chronic problems associated with excess weight. But can sitting less really help our health?

To find out, Danish and Australian researchers went to 19 offices in Denmark—a country where all office workers have sit-stand desks (yet most don’t use the stand option). They randomly assigned 317 people to either get more encouragement to incorporate more standing during their day or to receive no additional education about the benefits of sitting less.

RELATED: Sitting Is Killing You

After just one month, the researchers report in the International Journal of Epidemiology, people who used the sit-stand desks sat about 71 minutes less per day than those who didn’t use them, and walked about 7% more. “We expected people to sit about an hour less a day, but they actually did more, which was really positive,” says Ida Hogstedt Danquah, lead author of the study from the National Institute of Public Health and University of Southern Denmark.

Even more encouraging was the finding that the group that sat less also had about a half-percent less body fat after three months, compared with the group that sat more.

RELATED: Sitting All Day Isn’t as Bad if You Do This

While it’s not likely that getting up from your chair will become a major source of weight loss, the results point to yet another benefit that sitting less may have on health. Simply by being out of your chair, say experts, you’re more likely to move a bit more, whether it’s walking or fidgeting, and that can contribute to burning more calories.

This article originally appeared on Time.com.

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Childhood Cancer Survivors Often Feel Older Than Their Years

THURSDAY, April 21, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Surviving a childhood cancer can take a toll on health, and new research shows that young adults who’ve been through the ordeal often feel aged before their time.

“Our findings indicate survivors’ accelerated aging, and also help us understand the health-related risks associated with having had cancer as a child,” said study senior author Dr. Lisa Diller. She is chief medical officer of Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center.

“What’s encouraging is that the lower quality-of-life scores are associated with chronic disease after treatment, not with a history of pediatric cancer itself,” Diller explained in a Dana-Farber news release.

The researchers studied data on thousands of childhood cancer survivors in the United States. Among 18- to 29-year-olds, overall health-related quality-of-life scores were similar to those of adults in the general population in their 40s, the investigators found.

The more chronic health problems childhood cancer survivors had, the lower their health-related quality-of-life score, according to the study.

The findings were published April 21 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Previous research has shown that childhood cancer survivors are at increased risk for heart disease, lung disease, infertility, cancers and other chronic conditions. These are mainly associated with treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation and surgery, the study authors noted.

“This research provides an easily accessible way to compare adult survivors of childhood cancer to the general population, in terms of their health-related quality of life, which normally declines as people age,” Diller said.

“If we can prevent treatment-related conditions by changes in the therapy we use for the cancer, then childhood cancer will become an acute, rather than a chronic, illness,” Diller concluded.

Reviewing one study of more than 7,000 pediatric cancer survivors, the researchers found only 20 percent had no chronic conditions.

More information

The American Cancer Society has more on cancer in children.

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1 in 8 U.S. Workers Has Some Hearing Loss: CDC

THURSDAY, April 21, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Nearly 13 percent of U.S. workers suffer from at least some hearing loss, a new federal government study finds.

And 2 percent of the more than 1.4 million workers tested across nine industry sectors between 2003 and 2012 had “moderate or worse” hearing loss, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report.

The agency defined moderate hearing loss as “difficulty hearing another person talking, even in a quiet place or on the phone.”

Workers in the mining, construction and manufacturing sectors were especially prone to noise-linked hearing loss, the new report found.

One expert wasn’t surprised by the findings.

“Hearing loss is the third most common chronic physical condition in the United States, and is more prevalent than diabetes or cancer,” said Katrien Vermeire, director of hearing and speech at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, N.Y. “Thousands of workers every year suffer from preventable hearing loss due to high workplace noise levels.”

The study looked at the results of hearing tests called audiograms, conducted on workers in various occupations across the United States.

The research found mining to be the toughest industry on the ears, with 17 percent of employees having some form of hearing impairment. These workers also had the highest rate of exposure to “hazardous” noise, with 76 percent experiencing such exposures.

The construction industry came in a close second in terms of hearing-impaired workers, at 16 percent, while manufacturing came in third at 14 percent.

Fewer manufacturing workers (37 percent) are exposed to hazardous noise levels, the CDC team said, but in sheer numbers of workers, they now make up “the largest number of workers with hearing impairment.”

In fact, certain subsectors in the manufacturing industry — wood products, apparel and machinery manufacturing — have people with hearing impairment levels that rival those of miners, the study found.

The research was led by Elizabeth Masterson of the CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Her team stressed that most workplace ear damage is unnecessary.

“Occupational hearing loss is a permanent but entirely preventable condition with today’s hearing loss prevention strategies and technology,” the researchers wrote.

Vermeire agreed. “Noise-induced hearing loss is almost entirely preventable,” she said. “Make sure to wear hearing protection devices — such as earplugs or earmuffs — when you are involved in loud activities, either at work or when involved in noisy recreational activities.”

Vermeire also stressed, “If you’re exposed to hazardous noise on the job, annual hearing tests are important to identify any change in hearing that might indicate under-protection from the noise.”

Dr. Darius Kohan is chief of otology/neurotology at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. He noted that in the new study, “employees who utilize ear protection in noisy environments, such as firemen, police, ambulance workers, had the lowest prevalence of hearing loss — demonstrating how proper noise protection can be achieved with minimal effort.”

Kohan also believes that “there are very strict OSHA [Occupational Safety and Health Administration] regulations for loud noise exposure to prevent work-related hearing loss, but few industries adhere to them.”

The study was published April 21 in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

More information

To find out more about protecting your hearing, head to the U.S. Department of Labor.

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Do Genes That Protect Against Dementia Guard Against Chronic Diseases?

THURSDAY, April 21, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Healthy elderly people have a higher-than-normal number of genetic variants that protect against mental decline, a new study reports.

The findings suggest a possible link between long-term brain health and protection from chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes, the researchers said.

“For many decades, we have searched for the genetic causes of disease in sick individuals,” said Eric Schadt, founding director of the Icahn Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology at Mount Sinai in New York City.

This study “presents an attractive alternative by studying those who are well in order to uncover the solutions nature has provided to protect us against disease,” said Schadt, who was not involved with the study.

The researchers — from the Scripps Translational Science Institute, in La Jolla, Calif. — analyzed the genetic makeup of 511 Americans, aged 80 to 105. All of the study participants were free of any chronic medical conditions or diseases — and were referred to by the researchers as “Wellderly.” The research team then compared the participants’ genetic makeup with the genomes of 686 people in the general population.

The Wellderly group had a much lower genetic risk for Alzheimer’s and heart disease, but did not have a lower genetic risk for cancer, stroke or type 2 diabetes, the study found.

That suggests that other genetic characteristics or protective behaviors might be factors in the Wellderly’s well-being, according to the researchers.

The study — funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and part of a larger effort called the Wellderly Study — was published online April 21 in the journal Cell.

“We didn’t find a silver bullet for healthy longevity,” study co-author Ali Torkamani, director of genome informatics at the science institute, said in a Scripps news release. “Instead, we found weaker signals among common as well as rare variant sites, which collectively suggest that protection against cognitive decline contributes to healthy aging.”

Schadt is enthusiastic about the research team’s work.

“The initial discoveries around protective factors for Alzheimer’s disease and coronary artery [heart] disease demonstrate the keys the Wellderly may hold in unlocking ways in which we all may live healthier lives,” Schadt said in the news release.

More information

The U.S. National Institute on Aging has more about healthy aging and longevity.

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Breast Cancer Meds Won’t Raise Chances of Heart Attack Stroke Study Suggests

THURSDAY, April 21, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Treatment with estrogen-lowering drugs called aromatase inhibitors doesn’t raise the risk of heart attacks and strokes among breast cancer survivors, a new study suggests.

However, the researchers did find that women who took the drugs had a slightly higher risk of less serious heart problems, such as an abnormal heart beat or swelling and irritation of the membrane surrounding the heart.

“Our study is a comprehensive assessment of the impact aromatase inhibitors have on cardiovascular risk and provides reassurance that the hormone therapy to reduce breast cancer recurrence does not increase risk of the most fatal cardiovascular events,” said study author Reina Haque. She is a research scientist at Kaiser Permanente’s Southern California Department of Research and Evaluation.

“A particular strength of our study is that we accounted for women’s other potential cardiovascular risk factors, as well as medication used to treat high blood pressure and high cholesterol,” Haque added in a Kaiser news release.

The study was published April 21 in the journal JAMA Oncology.

Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death in older breast cancer survivors, the study authors said. Previous research has linked tamoxifen, another commonly prescribed hormone-altering drug, with a serious risk of stroke, they added.

The new study included more than 13,000 postmenopausal women. The women were diagnosed with either progesterone or estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer. That means the growth of the breast cancer is fueled by one of those hormones.

The cancers were diagnosed between 1991 and 2010. The women’s health was followed through 2011.

As part of their breast cancer treatment plan, some postmenopausal women take only aromatase inhibitors. In other cases, women may take tamoxifen for one to five years and then begin using aromatase inhibitors, the researchers explained.

In this study, more than 28 percent of the women took aromatase inhibitors. Almost 32 percent took tamoxifen. About 20 percent took both drugs. Just over 19 percent didn’t take either drug, the researchers said.

The study found that women who took aromatase inhibitors didn’t have a higher risk for heart attacks and stroke than those who took tamoxifen did.

But, women who took only aromatase inhibitors or used them after tamoxifen treatment had up to a 29 percent higher risk of less serious heart problems than those who took only tamoxifen, the research revealed.

More information

The American Cancer Society has more about aromatase inhibitors.

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While Travelers Sleep Brain Patrols for Danger

THURSDAY, April 21, 2016 (HealthDay News) — When you sleep in a new place, a part of your brain remains alert for potential threats, a new study finds.

The findings might help explain why many people sleep poorly on their first night in a hotel, a sleep laboratory or other new location.

“In Japan they say, ‘if you change your pillow, you can’t sleep,’ ” study corresponding author Yuka Sasaki, research associate professor of cognitive linguistic and psychological sciences at Brown University in Rhode Island, said in a university news release. “You don’t sleep very well in a new place. We all know about it.”

The researchers measured brain activity in 35 people over two nights of slumber in a sleep lab, a week apart.

Among all the participants on the first night, one particular network in the brain’s left hemisphere showed greater activity than in the right hemisphere during a deep sleep phase called slow-wave sleep, the researchers said.

When sounds were played in the participants’ right ear to stimulate the brain’s left hemisphere, they were more likely to wake and to be alert on waking than if sounds were played in the left ear to stimulate the right hemisphere.

On the second night in the sleep lab, there were no significant differences in activity between the left and right brain hemispheres, not even in the network that was activated the first night.

During the day, that network — dubbed the default-mode network — tends to continue running when the brain is otherwise fairly idle, the researchers said.

Because they only measured the first slow-wave sleep phase, the study authors said they don’t know if the left default-mode network remains vigilant all night or if it works in shifts with the right side later in the night.

The study was published April 21 in the journal Current Biology.

More information

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

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Rich-Poor Life Expectancy Gap Shrinking for U.S. Youth

THURSDAY, April 21, 2016 (HealthDay News) — If you’re an American aged 20 or under, your expected life span is now less affected by whether you’re rich or poor than it used to be, a new study finds.

Researchers at Princeton University report that the life expectancy gap between rich and poor youth in the United States narrowed between 1990 and 2010.

“Our big message here is that the health of the next generation in the poorest areas of the United States has improved tremendously, likely due to social policies that helped the most disadvantaged families,” study co-lead author Hannes Schwandt, an assistant professor at the University of Zurich, said in a Princeton news release.

Schwandt and Princeton researcher Janet Currie led the study, which tracked U.S. Census data from 1990 to 2010, assessing changes in life expectancy of Americans from birth.

Overall, the gap in life expectancy between rich and poor American adults rose during the study period, a finding the researchers said was consistent with previous studies.

However, the life expectancy gap between rich and poor Americans up to age 20 has declined rapidly. This finding was most pronounced in poorer counties across the United States, the researchers said.

The rate at which children and young adults of both sexes died fell rapidly, especially in poorer counties, the researchers said. This positive change accelerated for young children between 1990 and 2000, the study authors added, and there was significant improvement among older children between 2000 and 2010.

The researchers cited better health care, food and nutrition programs, and lowered pollution rates as factors that may be helping boost the health of young people.

“There have been tremendous improvements in the health of poor American children over the past 20 years,” Currie said.

“One thing we hope that people will take away from this study is a sense that differences in mortality are not inevitable but are strongly mediated by policy,” she added. “Health insurance, income support, anti-tobacco initiatives and reductions in pollution really do make a noticeable difference at the population level, especially at younger ages. So we hope the results will encourage policymakers to take measures that promote public health.”

Life expectancy for Americans overall rose between 1990 and 2010, the study found. However, income continued to play a key role. For example, U.S. males from rich counties can expect to live six years longer than those in poor counties, the study found, and that gap is three years for females.

Schwandt had one theory about the continuing disparities.

“Smoking rates have decreased dramatically over the past 50 years, but the decline occurred first among the rich and only later among the poor,” he noted. “In cohorts who entered old age during the past 20 years, the rich had largely stopped smoking while smoking rates remained high among the poor. Hence, the increasing inequality that we’re currently seeing in old-age mortality may simply be the consequence of the great reduction in smoking that occurred with some lag among the poor.”

The study was published April 21 in Science.

More information

The U.S. National Institute on Aging has more about healthy aging and longevity.

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Common Class of Breast Cancer Drugs May Not Trigger ‘Chemo Brain’: Study

THURSDAY, April 21, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Some breast cancer patients complain of a fogged mental condition often called “chemo brain,” experienced after their therapy.

Now, new research suggests that at least one class of chemotherapy drugs, called anthracyclines, is not related to the debilitating condition.

Anthracyclines include medications such as doxorubicin and epirubicin, among others.

One expert not connected to the study said the findings should be reassuring for patients.

Used in combination with other drugs, anthracyclines “have a long track record in the treatment of breast cancer and still are the preferred regimens, especially in younger, fit women with aggressive breast cancer such as triple-negative cancer,” explained Dr. Nina D’Abreo. She is an oncologist at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, N.Y.

“It is encouraging to know that women who are felt to be most likely to benefit from these regimens have one less side effect to consider,” she said.

In the study, researchers led by Dr. Patricia Ganz, of the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center in Los Angeles, assessed certain mental skills — memory, processing speed and executive function — in breast cancer survivors. Investigators checked in with the women at three months, six months, one year and an average of 4.8 years after the survivors had finished their primary treatment.

According to Ganz’s team, the women’s mental skills were similar whether or not they had received anthracycline as part of their chemotherapy. This remained true for up to seven years after treatment, the findings showed.

The findings contradict previous study results, the researchers said.

“In this study, we could not find evidence to support the claim that anthracycline treatment confers greater risk of cognitive [mental] decline for breast cancer survivors,” Ganz and colleagues wrote.

Dr. Stephanie Bernik is chief of surgical oncology at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. She called the study “well-formulated,” but said the fact that its findings contradict those of prior studies is puzzling.

“It is obvious that more study needs to be carried out to investigate whether or not chemotherapy has long-term cognitive consequences,” she said.

The report was published online April 21 in the journal JAMA Oncology.

More information

The U.S National Cancer Institute has more on breast cancer treatment.

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