Cold and cough medicines take up whole aisles in grocery stores and drug stores, and the array of products can be dizzying (which is no fun if you’re there because you already feel dizzy). Picking the right package becomes easier, though, when you realize a lot of the options probably aren’t worth it. Know Which Ones Are Actually Medicines Cold and cough medicines rub boxes with supplements and homeopathic products. These are not at all the same thing, although the labels can look confusingly similar. Drugs are approved by the FDA if their makers can produce studies showing that they … Continue reading How to Find the Cold Medicines That Actually Work

Taking time away from work when you’ve got the flu or a sprained ankle is not only expected, but encouraged. But mental health issues sometimes require time off, too. Employers don’t always treat mental and physical health the same way, but taking care of yourself should be a priority for both you and your boss. Whether you’re in customer-service, communications, business, or teaching, your work quality is totally tied to your mental state. And while physical jobs like restaurant work, modeling, nursing, and agriculture are more explicitly dependent on manual labor, they also require plenty of mental work too. In … Continue reading How to Take a Mental Health Day From Your Job

Over-the-counter spot treatments seem downright miraculous, claiming to zap zits in a matter of hours. As it turns out, that’s not how anything works—and if you break out all over your face, selectively treating a few spots is, at best a pretty inefficient strategy. The spot treatment pitch seems credible enough: get a zit, apply an overnight spot treatment, and wake up the next morning zit-free and ready to party. In reality, of course, it’s way more complicated. Acne is influenced by everything from genetics to hormones to the types of skincare products you use, so I talked to some … Continue reading You Can’t Spot Treat Acne

We all need protein, but meat isn’t the only place to find it. People who swap out animal protein for plant-based alternatives often end up eating healthier diets, but there are a few things you need to know before assuming that plant protein is always healthier. The word “protein” means two different things. Protein is a macronutrient, a family of molecules made of amino acids. Protein, in this sense, is present in many different food items. Meat has a ton of it. Legumes, like beans, have some. Grains and leafy vegetables have a little. But colloquially we also use the … Continue reading Is Plant Protein Better For You Than Animal Protein?

LDL used to be the “bad cholesterol” and HDL the “good cholesterol.” That’s the tidy story I learned in my grad school lipids class 13 years ago, but the science has evolved since then. High HDL is no longer automatically good, for example. Let’s take a look at what your cholesterol numbers really mean. The most common way you’ll get these numbers, called a lipid panel, gives you a report of your total cholesterol, LDL, HDL, and triglycerides. The results might lead to a high five from your doctor or a serious sit-down to talk about “lifestyle changes” and even … Continue reading What Your Cholesterol Numbers Really Mean