Health Clips

Living with lupus

Chronic Conditions

As a child, Sandra Bettinger, now 55, was never allowed to use her lupus as an excuse for anything.

On school mornings, if Bettinger was feeling fatigued or simply didn’t want to deal with bullying classmates mocking her swollen body, she would desperately devise a plan to stay home. Standing in front of the air conditioner, shivering, she would hope for little white polyps to form on her tonsils or some other physical signs of her illness to appear.

“Look Ma,” Bettinger would say in their absence, hopeful she could pull off the ruse. “I’m sick.”

But before her mother could answer, her father’s deep voice would boom from her parent’s bedroom: “You are going to school.”

You can Catch “stress” Through a tv screen

Psychology

Your heart rate speeds up, your breathing quickens. Your muscles tighten. Your stomach ties itself in knots. All of these changes are symptoms of the condition called stress.

When animals, including humans, are under acute stress, their bodies respond with a powerful neurochemical chain reaction. Glucose, the fuel for our cells, is released into the blood from storage sites in our body, notably the liver. The elevated heart rate increases circulation of the energy-enriched blood to the muscles. Any long-term body processes not immediately necessary, such as digestion, growth, and reproduction, are slowed down. Immune defenses are enhanced, ready to respond to bodily injury, and our senses are sharpened.

When his daughter got sick, he made a vaccine and saved millions of lives in the process

Vaccines

On March 21, 1963, Maurice R. Hilleman’s daughter woke him up. She had a sore throat.

When he examined her, he realized that she had swelling beneath her jaw.

He knew immediately that this was no ordinary sore throat. She had mumps.

Mumps is a contagious viral disease that typically starts with a fever, headache, aches and pains, fatigue, and a loss of appetite. It is then followed by swollen salivary glands. It used to be the most common cause of acquired hearing loss, and there was no treatment.

All Hilleman could do was tuck his daughter back into bed and hope she would be OK.

It’s easy to forget today that those severe childhood diseases like mumps were once a relatively common occurrence.

‘Toxic Positivity’ Is Real — and It’s a Big Problem During the Pandemic

Mental Health

When I was laid off from my staff job a little less than a month ago, many well-meaning friends and family rushed to tell me that I needed to “stay positive.”

I’d be back on feet if I just stayed focused, they said.

Plus, they reminded me, “It could be worse.” At least I was getting a severance. At least my husband was still employed. At least I still had my good health.

The undertone was clear: I should be grateful for what I did have. I shouldn’t dwell on what I had just lost.

No one meant to hurt me with these comments. They were trying to make me feel better. And of course, I was grateful for what I did have. I knew I was still in a pretty privileged position.

But that didn’t mean the situation still didn’t suck.

A New Treatment Program for the Grief That Won’t End

Mental Health

It was over a year ago when Sarah first heard a one-minute radio advertisement in the car that caught her attention.

“Have you lost someone you love?” the woman’s voice in the ad asked. “Does the pain feel almost as strong today as it did in the beginning?”

The ad went on to describe a syndrome that Sarah hadn’t known about, but felt described what was happening to her after losing several family members over the past ten years.

“It was just one after the other,” she said, “but when my Mom died, I think that’s kind of what threw me over the edge. I was very angry and sad. I pretty much stuck to myself and shut people out.”

By that evening, Sarah was calling to see if she was eligible to participate in the Columbia University research treatment project described in the ad. Sarah, whose name is changed in this article to protect her privacy, suffered from a condition called complicated grief.

What Are the Symptoms of Major Depression?

Mental Health

We all feel sad sometimes. But if you’ve been feeling very low for more than two weeks, you may be experiencing depression.

Sadness, anger, and tiredness are all natural human emotions. We’re usually able to manage these feelings, and they don’t tend to get in the way of our lives too much.

Depression, on the other hand, is a serious condition that affects your mental and physical health. It affects your mood, how you see yourself, and even your eating and sleeping habits.

Tools and Tricks to Calm Your Anxiety and (Finally) Get Some Sleep

Mental Health

Anxiety always seems to be worse at night.

I can be dead tired, and yet the moment the lights go out, my brain will shift gears instantly. A simple noise down the hall or stray thought about something that happened in my day can send my mind reeling down a relentless rabbit hole of intrusive thoughts.

I’ll start beating myself up for choices I’ve made or I’ll agonize over decisions I have to make tomorrow.

I’ll replay events in my head and start asking “what if” over and over again.

I’ll start worrying about my son or my dog and before long, I’ll be convinced that they’re sick or start imagining ways they could get hurt overnight.

If I fall asleep, will I hear my son if he wakes up and cries? Will he try to crawl out of the crib if I don’t hear him? What if he falls while I’m asleep? What if he hits his head?

What if. What if. What if…

It’s relentless and exhausting.

Is Vaginal Numbness Normal?

Women’s Health

Good sex is supposed to leave you buzzing.

If you’re left feeling tingly, numb, or unable to climax… we’re here to help you figure out what to do next.

There’s tingling numbness and lack-of-feeling numbness. And they’re not the same.

A tingling numbness isn’t that different from the “pins-and-needles” feeling you might get when your arm or leg “goes to sleep.”

This kind of prickly, tingly sensation is almost always nerve-related. Some people feel it during arousal or after rigorous sexual activity. This is very different from a complete lack-of-feeling kind of numbness.

If you don’t feel anything at all during sexual activity, something more serious could be going on that requires clinical treatment.

Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: Why Won’t My Period End?

Periods

Whenever Aunt Flo comes to town, it’s like the worst family visit ever. It requires a lot of extra effort, gets pretty uncomfortable, and by the end you’re just ready for it to be over.

But sometimes, your period just won’t stop. From medication to a medical condition, there’s a broad range of potential reasons that you can’t catch a break. If your period has really overstayed its welcome, it’s probably time to talk with your doctor.

You Aren’t the Only One with Hair on Your Boobs — Here’s Why It Happens

Bodies

Your whole body is covered in hair — including your boobs

“Human beings have hair follicles all over their body,” says Constance Chen, MD, a plastic surgeon who holds clinical assistant professorships at Weill Cornell Medical College and Tulane University School of Medicine. “[And] the purpose of those hair follicles is to grow hair.”

In fact, that’s what those tiny bumps around your nipples are: hair follicles.

This is why our bodies are naturally covered in hair. Some of that hair is thin and almost transparent, kind of like peach fuzz; some of it is thicker, longer, or coarser.

Sometimes wiry hairs pop up alone on different parts of our bodies, like your chin or — you guessed it — your boobs.

Usually boob hair is actually hair on your areolae (that pigmented circles around your nipple), but it’s possible to have hair elsewhere on your chest, too.

Repeat after us: It’s normal

Feeling Light-Headed During Your Period? Here's What's Up

Women’s Health

Cramps, bloating, headaches, irritability… and now dizziness? Aunt Flo can bring unwelcome symptoms that make you feel crummy. Light-headedness during your period isn’t one to ignore.

Here’s how to figure out what’s going on and when you should check in with your doctor about your symptoms.

PCOS and Anxiety Can Often Show Up Together. Here’s Why

PCOS

I’ve always struggled with anxiety.

I remember being in middle school, lying wide awake in my bed listening to the sound of my parents snoring down the hall as my brain raced through a thousand “what ifs” or replayed the events of the day, beating myself up for choices I didn’t make.

At several times in my life, my stress and anxiety would get so bad that it would become debilitating. Sometimes I’d run on 2 to 3 hours of sleep for days on end until I was finally so physically tired that I could ignore intrusive thoughts and actually fall asleep.

But 4 years ago, after I got passed for a promotion at work, something new happened: I stopped getting my period.

Emotionally Abusive Relationships Can Be Hard to Recognize. Here’s Why

Mental Health

Four months into a college relationship and I knew something was wrong: The man I was dating was no longer the romantic person I’d fallen in love with.

There were no more ice cream dates or bouquets of roses or long strolls by the river anymore — just belittling insults, manipulation, and heaps of blame for taking up so much of his time.

He rewrote my papers, ruined relationships with my other friends, and prohibited me from doing anything that he disapproved of.

After one particularly horrendous argument, I found myself unable to think clearly. I felt panic and fear and I couldn’t breathe, so I stormed out onto the balcony.

Feeling dizzy, I slid to the ground, laid my head on the cold balcony railing, and tried to calm myself. Was I overreacting? I asked myself. Was I being too sensitive? Was he right that I was acting crazy?

But under all the doubt and pain, a tiny voice at the back of my head was telling me that this wasn’t OK. I didn’t deserve to be treated this way.

Why People Cope With Life Events So Differently

Psychology

Last June, I lost my full-time job in a large-scale pandemic layoff. I was surprised I didn’t cry while getting the news over a video call. Instead, I had a fierce desire to “do something.”

Once I was off the phone and told my family, I disappeared upstairs to start figuring out my next step. Over the next few months, I took comfort in applying to jobs, writing cover letters, and doing freelance jobs — it made me feel like I was working toward something.

Three months later, my husband got the same kind of call. His reaction was different.

His anger, disappointment, and grief over the loss came immediately. He found it difficult to start strategizing about what to do next. Over the next few months, he found it stressful to put together job applications or plan for the future when the present was already so uncertain.

Instead, he found comfort in cleaning and organizing our home.

During crises or stressful life events, it’s common for people to react in very different ways. This is true even if they’re experiencing something similar, like a pandemic.

The Psychology Behind Why Politics Can Get So Heated — and How to Show Up Differently

Psychology

Last month, my brother and I had an argument about politics. It wasn’t a very long conversation, but it devolved quickly into hurtful, personal statements and ended when he blocked me on all social media.

We haven’t spoken since, aside from a quick text I sent him wishing him a happy birthday.

I’m not proud of this argument or how it went. I’ve never been one to cut off communication with someone, let alone a family member.

But there was something about how quickly this argument became hurtful that has left me unsure of how to even start a conversation with him again. I’m not sure when we’ll talk again — especially since we live on opposite sides of the country.

But this is the problem with arguing politics: It’s not hard for us to get defensive, or for arguments to break out that quickly become personal or mean.

You don’t even have to be from different political parties. My father and I are both members of the same political party, and yet, during the primaries, we had more emotional “discussions” than my husband and his father — both from different parties — ever have when talking politics.

So, why is discussing — or arguing — politics so emotional?

Politics represent our personal beliefs, morals, and ideals — meaning that we tend to see our ideology as a part of our identity.

He spent his life studying mosquitoes and then it became personal

Zika

On Aug. 30, 2008, Brian Foy had just gotten home from a research trip in Senegal, a country in West Africa, when he began to feel sick.

Foy is a biologist specializing in insect-transmitted diseases and an associate professor at Colorado State University. He had been in rural Senegal with a graduate student researching malaria and noticed that when he got back, he felt not quite right.

"It started out by me just feeling really exhausted," Foy says. "It was hard to really know if this was just jet lag or not ... and then that exhaustion just progressed into a vague headache. I really needed to cover my eyes and kind of shy away from the light."

He developed a rash across his torso and joint pain. He later got prostatitis as well.

Foy immediately called the graduate student who had been working with him in Senegal. He had many of the same symptoms.

In Brazil, mothers are confronting prejudice by raising awareness about microcephaly.

Zika

When Germana Soares was three months pregnant, she went to see her doctor.

She was worried, as any expectant mother would be, because she had an itchy rash across her body. But since itchiness was her only symptom, her doctor simply treated her for allergies and sent her home with some medication.

It seemed to work.

Four days later, her rash had cleared up, and she stopped worrying. The rest of her pregnancy progressed relatively normally.

But when her son was born, the doctor noticed something wasn’t quite right.

Her son's head was slightly smaller than it should be, and it was a little asymmetrical, with the left side somewhat smaller than the right. Remembering her rash from months prior, her doctor ordered a series of tests.

Her son was diagnosed with microcephaly.

5 of the Worst Flu Outbreaks In Recent History

Cold & Flu

The current 2019-2020 flu season is on track to be one of the worst in a decade. According to the CDC, between 19-26 million people have caught the flu since October and between 10,000-25,000 people have died. But as bad as the seasonal flu is this year, it pales in comparison to some of the biggest flu pandemics in history.

This is largely because we have a much better scientific understanding of flu viruses, improved hygiene standards and flu vaccines, which, while never 100% effective, are powerful defenses to help protect people from getting sick.

However, even after the invention of the vaccine, pandemics still happen because flu viruses evolve very quickly. Here are five of the largest epidemics in recent history:

Are You a Workaholic? Here’s How to Tell If You’re Addicted to Work

Mental Health

Growing up, my father was always working.

Many nights, he’d leave before I would wake up for school and he’d return at 7:30 p.m. at night — or later. Other times, he’d be away working for weeks at a time.

He often brought work home with him at night and on family trips, and he talked about it all of the time. Most of his friends were colleagues, and he struggled to unplug from work, even around family.

When he retired, it didn’t take long for him to try to work again. He became a consultant for a while. Then he started turning daily chores into work.

He didn’t know what to do with himself when he no longer had something to do every day. He still spends hours in front of his computer every day, “working.”

As a child, I thought this work ethic was normal. It was what successful people did: They worked all the time. Long hours and little work-life balance were just the price of getting ahead and earning a good salary.

‘Do Vulva Owners Like Sex?’ Is the Wrong Question — Here’s What You Should Ask Instead

Sex

What’s the short answer?

It depends on the person.

Some do like sex and some don’t. Just like some penis owners like sex and some don’t.

This question, in and of itself, isn’t great, though. It makes some broad generalizations and assumptions about people and sex in general.

So instead of asking whether vulva owners like sex, you should really be focusing on the person you want to have sex with, and ask them how they feel, what they want, and what they need.

With that in mind, here are some of the questions you should be asking instead.

Abuse Survivors Can Be Revictimized — Here’s What You Should Know

Abuse

Ashley-Lauren Elrod was only 6 years old when she was sexually abused by a family member. The abuse continued until she was 10 years old.

The only reason anyone found out about the abuse, she says, was because when she was in high school, another survivor also came forward.

From there, Elrod says, the Chicago Children’s Advocacy Center and the police were called, charges were filed, and her abuser was arrested and prosecuted.

During this time, Elrod struggled with her mental health, but “it’s not a norm for my culture to seek a therapist or someone,” she says.

So, she went to college and focused on trying to build a career in the entertainment industry.

“It all, in a way, got swept under the rug,” Elrod says, “and buried under my perfectionism, which was this mask that I wore for so long.”

Read This If You’re Asking Yourself, ‘Why Is My Private Area Dark?’

Sexual Health

Lots of things in our body change with age. But one thing you might not have expected to change is the color of your skin around your genitals.

Like anything, this change usually doesn’t happen overnight. Instead it’s gradual — so gradual, in fact, that you might not notice it right away.

But then one day you do, and you find yourself wondering: Is everything OK?

Quarantining Has Changed My Long-Term Relationship—But Are the Changes Long-Term?

Relationships

My husband and I made it about a month into quarantine before having a blowout argument, complete with door-slamming, cruel comments, and no apologies made for several hours. It shouldn’t have happened that way, though, considering that the whole thing started over something relatively trivial: whose turn it was to cook.

Pre-pandemic, such a thing wouldn’t have gotten a rise from either of us, but by keeping us cooped up at home, trying to balance working from home, and watching our 10-month-old baby, quarantine was changing our relationship. Neither of us had been sleeping well, and it seemed like we never had a minute to ourselves. We were always trying to work, always trying to entertain our son, and always trying to get to the never-ending “to-do” list of chores. We weren’t spending time together so much as tagging the other one in for “baby duty.” And by the end of the day, one of us usually fell asleep on the couch and the other would begrudgingly cook, clean up, or tend to middle-of-the-night baby cries. We were cranky and resentful, and felt more like childcare colleagues than romantic partners.

Her sick baby brother was treated cruelly — here’s what the experience taught her

Disabilities

When my mom, Sandra Haggberg, was 8 years old, she was told that she was going to have a baby brother. The news was exciting — she already had two little sisters, so a little brother was bound to be different. She couldn't wait to meet him.

But when Mark was born on Sept. 17, 1957, the doctors knew right away that something was wrong. His ear was folded over onto itself and his head was out of proportion with the rest of his body.

A specialist was called in to examine him, X-rays were performed, and it was revealed that Mark was born with only one kidney, and it was abnormally small — about the size of peanut. His pituitary gland was also barely functioning and he had congenital hydrocephalus…

6 Ways to Combat Pandemic Compassion Fatigue

Psychology

When my husband and I received emails from our employers telling us they were shutting down our offices, the pandemic suddenly felt very real and very scary.

I was flooded with a desire to help friends, family, and coworkers. Not knowing what I could do, I pledged to myself that I’d be extra compassionate to others.

After all, we were all going through something incredibly stressful and unprecedented. Being kind and patient was the least I could do.

And it seemed like we were all a little extra compassionate with each other.

Managers were understanding of my crying baby in the background of virtual meetings, I was extra sensitive to my son’s tears, and my husband and I were good at checking in with each other to see how we were handling all the stress.

But over time, that started to wear off.

Meet the Therapists Offering Free Mental Health Services During COVID-19

Mental Health

When the stay-at-home order was issued for California in mid-March 2020, The Maple Counseling Center in Los Angeles, an organization that provides low-cost mental health services, shut down for a week. They needed the time to move their services online so they could keep supporting their clients.

But as they reopened, they felt a need to take things one step further. 

The Maple Counseling Center has always sought to remove the cost barriers to accessing mental healthcare for their clients and offering a sliding scale of fees based on the ability to pay. (Their average fee is only about $25 a session.)

But in the middle of the pandemic, it seemed important to offer something free so that there were no barriers at all.

Depression After Sex Is Normal — Here’s How to Handle It

Sex

First, know that you’re not alone

Sex is supposed to leave you feeling satisfied — but if you’ve ever felt sad afterward, you’re not alone.

“Usually sex uplifts the mood due to dopamine release and serotonin increases, which prevent depression,” says Lea Lis, MD, a psychiatrist who specializes in sex with a practice in Southampton, New York.

And yet, she says, feeling depressed after sex — even consensual, good sex — is something that many people feel at some point in their life.

A 2019 study found that 41 percent of penis-having folks experienced it in their lifetime. Another study found that 46 percent of vulva-owners experienced it at least once in their lifetime.

Dogs are a great source of comfort after a tragedy — here's why

Mental Health

On the Monday after the Orlando mass shooting, 12 specially trained golden retrievers arrived in Florida to do what they do best: provide comfort.

The dogs are part of the K-9 Comfort Dog Team, a program run by the Lutheran Church Charities that now has 130 dogs in 23 states across the country. The dogs — all golden retrievers — deploy as part of the organization's disaster response team.

Each dog was picked as a puppy because of its calm demeanor, and each one was trained to be gentle, comforting, and affectionate. They all do this without barking, jumping, or getting distracted by events and noises around them.

In Orlando last week, the animals visited hospitals and churches, attended vigils and memorial services, and met with the staff of Pulse, the nightclub where the shooting occurred, The New York Times reports. These same dogs were in Boston after the marathon bombing and in Sandy Hook after the elementary school shooting. When there is no national crisis, the dogs work six days a week making the rounds at schools, hospitals, and nursing homes.

Women were dying from childbirth at hospitals. This 19th-century doctor figured out why.

Medical History

Today, we know that washing our hands is one of the most important steps we can take to avoid getting sick and spreading germs.

But how we came to know that is pretty fascinating.

In fact, one of the first doctors to realize how important handwashing could be — Ignaz Semmelweis — didn’t discover this fact until 1847. And even after he did realize it, the battle to convince the rest of the medical community wasn’t easy.

The 19th century has been described by some historians as “a golden age of the physician and scientist” because for the first time, doctors were expected to have scientific training.

Anxiety After Sex Is Normal — Here’s How to Handle It

Sex

First, know that you’re not alone

Maybe you had good, consensual sex, and you felt fine at first. But then, as you lay there afterward, you couldn’t stop worrying about what just happened, what it meant, or what was going to happen next.

Or maybe you felt anxious about something that was in no way related to the sex you just had, but for some reason, that was all your brain wanted to think about.

Then, before you knew it, your anxiety completely took over the moment and your thoughts were racing. Maybe you even had a panic attack.

Sound familiar?

You’re not the only person this has happened to.

Post-sex anxiety is a real thing and is actually pretty common. People of all genders can be affected by it.

Not only that, but it can happen both during and after any form of physical intimacy — not just sex.

Winter Can Be Difficult for People with MS. Here’s What You Need to Know

Chronic Conditions

Chris Anderson is no stranger to bad winters. He lives in Minnesota — a state that gets, on average, between 35–70 inches of snow every year, depending on where you live.

In the winter, the average temperature can get as low as 18 to 8°F (-7 to -13°C).

And as someone living with multiple sclerosis (MS), this cold, frigid weather affects him more than most.

“The colder it gets, the shakier my legs get,” he says. “It makes it very difficult for me to move around in the colder months.”

After losing about 85 percent of his eyesight due to optic neuritis, inflammation of the optic nerve, Anderson was first diagnosed with MS in September 2004. At the time, he was working as a middle school social studies’ teacher.

While his eyesight did more or less recover, he soon developed other symptoms of MS including leg weakness, balance issues, and extreme fatigue.

Why Your Vagina Burns During or After Penetrative Sex

Sex

Sex should be good. Like, really, really good.

It definitely shouldn’t be painful or uncomfortable, and yet, for far too many people, it is.

According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), nearly 3 out of every 4 vulva owners will experience pain during intercourse at some point in their lives. And one of the most common types of pain is a burning sensation.

If this has happened to you, know that it isn’t “normal” and you don’t have to “put up with it.”

“There’s this big stigma that’s associated with sex that it should somehow be painful or that it’s OK if it’s painful,” says pelvic pain specialist Sonia Bahlani, OB-GYN. “That’s not true at all.”

It is possible to figure out what’s going on and to get treatment so that you can enjoy sex again, sans pain.

Why Does My Lower Back Hurt During My Period?

Periods

Bloating? Check. Cramps? Check. Irritability? Don’t even ask. Between the blood and the breakouts, your period can really be a pain in the neck. It can also be a pain in your lower back.

Cramps are one of the most common reasons you might experience lower back pain during your period. But it’s also possible that a medical condition or a strained muscle is causing your pain. Here’s how to deal.