Health

Do painful cramps leave you down for the count once a month? These seven tips give you simple ways to relieve the pain and reduce cramping in the first place.

As techniques, safety and efficacy improve – partially due to higher demand because of the increasingly obesogenic environment we live in – bariatric surgeries for weight loss become more sought after as a last resort to achieve a healthy body weight. But that doesn’t mean you just get the surgery and wait for the pounds to fall off. You’ve got to do your part to maximize effectiveness and be healthy, and this is where exercise comes in.

Wonderful, wonderful salt — which makes everything from french fries and chicken breasts to movie theatre popcorn and asparagus spears taste delicious — is an increasingly well-known impediment to optimum health. And according to U.S. government researchers, salt is particularly problematic when you're deficient in potassium.

I recently had an interesting experience with a naturopath, when she asked me how many alcoholic beverages I consume in the average week. “Five?” I asked. “No, wait. Maybe eight. Or 12?” I paused, trying to count as her pencil hovered above the form. “What is the threshold for binge drinking again? I’m pretty sure I’m just under that.” (Later that day, I found out the threshold for binge drinking – four or more drinks in a single sitting – and told my friend, Jamie. “What, is that from the 50s?” he asked, incredulously.)

We're inundated with tips and systems to lose weight, but advice on keeping it off is harder to find. Perhaps that's because the current recommendation is to basically stay the course: stick with your plan, we're told, and the weight will stay off. But researchers surveyed more than 1,000 people who lost weight, and found the keys to success — no matter what your goal. It turns out that losing weight and keeping it off require separate skills.