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Do you know which cancer that kills the most women? It isn’t breast cancer. In 1987, lung cancer surpassed breast cancer as the number one cause of cancer deaths in women.(5) Lung cancer is ...

Women More Likely to Develop Lung Cancer From Smoking

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“Dad's sick. Aortic aneurysm. Unlikely to survive surgery.” Within hours I was on an airplane to Indiana, and my brother was on another airplane coming from the East. “He has a 10-percent ...

How to Cope When Your Loved One Is Terminally Ill

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I drink Coca-Cola if my stomach feels funny, sleep with peeled garlic in my ears when I have earaches and drink cranberry juice when I have a frequent urge to “go.” Doesn’t ...

Is Cranberry Juice for UTIs a Myth?

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In the early days of mental health care, psychiatric patients were handcuffed and shackled in large, underfunded institutions.(3)(5) Prior to World War II, mental health care was not covered ...

A Timeline for the Long Road to Mental Health Parity

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Have you changed the light bulbs in your house to fluorescents and LEDs? Do you take your own grocery bags to the store? Do you keep your car tuned up and tires inflated? This can increase fuel ...

Reducing Climate Change: More Plants, Less Animal Agriculture

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“Basket case” is kind of a catchy phrase — fun to say, rolls off the tongue nicely. The movie “Breakfast Club” referred to the quirky, shy girl as the basket case, a character I’ve identified with ...

Labels Like 'Basket Case' and 'Crazy' Stigmatize the Mentally Ill

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How authentic are you? Authenticity, or being true to oneself, is a moral state according to researchers from Northwestern University.(1) Are you comfortable with yourself, comfortable ...

Whatever Is True and Noble: 8 Steps to Find Your Authentic Self

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You have a cancer diagnosis — Check. You’ve been prescribed a course of chemo — Check. Nausea ensues — Check. Your concentration is gone, along with your memory and word retrieval. ...

This is Your Brain on Chemo

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How you feel about access to health care probably says a lot about your politics. When the Affordable Care Act was being debated, 61 percent of Democrats favored the law versus only 12 percent of ...

Your Life May Depend on the Quality of Your Health Insurance

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In June I attended my twenty-fifth college reunion. Preparing for the drive down, I joked on Facebook, “I hope I can publish a book, get a facelift and lose 30 pounds in the next 3 hours.” ...

We Asked 10 Women About Aging: This Is How They Feel About It

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Bipolar disorder is a genetic medical condition. People with it experience cycles ranging from being depressed with low energy to hyperactive or manic. According to TheMighty.com, “about 5.7 ...

Misty Jacobs commented on Stacy Lloyd's post 12 Things You Should Never Say to Someone with Bipolar Disorder

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Gratitude is among the first social graces we teach our children. For every cookie, every birthday gift and every kind word, we incessantly remind them, “Say thank you.” Gratitude is among ...

How to Be Happy and Healthy: Count Your Blessings

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Would you know if you were having a heart attack? More importantly, would your doctor correctly diagnose you? Possibly not, according to a recent study by the University of Leeds. Using their ...

Misty Jacobs commented on Misty Jacobs' post Women 50 Percent More Likely to Receive Heart Attack Misdiagnosis

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Would you know if you were having a heart attack? More importantly, would your doctor correctly diagnose you? Possibly not, according to a recent study by the University of Leeds. Using their ...

Women 50 Percent More Likely to Receive Heart Attack Misdiagnosis

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I’m a forty-something, never-thin woman who started playing tennis about four years ago. After a few years of playing two to five times a week, I started paying the piper for my enthusiasm — knee ...

When It Hurts Like Hell: What a Sore Knee Taught Me About Pain

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Our culture is rife with suggestions on how to inoculate our brains against dementia: learn a language, eat olive oil, and drink coffee. We can exercise (I know a lot of bright old people ...

Train Your Brain to Reduce Risk of Dementia and Improve Cognition

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Depression has been my companion since at least the age of 10. My father suffered from it. Probably one of his parents did, but as a child of immigrants in an era where mental illness was ...

It's Not All in Your Head: Depression Found in the Genes

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Quick! Where’s your body? Are you folding up compact and snug like origami, or is your body dominating your space, arms akimbo and feet spread? Like it or not, your body is projecting ...

Infographic: Power Poses: A Two Minute Life Hack for Empowerment

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All of sudden, the waste bins in dorms seem to fill instantaneously with tampon wrappers and tissue-wrapped pads. The mantra of every woman caught unprepared echoes through the halls, “Do you have ...

Misty Jacobs commented on Misty Jacobs' post Do Our Periods Sync Up? The Science Behind Menstrual Synchrony

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How have you navigated the losses in your life — layoffs, divorce, a cancer diagnosis? Anxiety and depression are normal responses to adversity. But how long did it take to reset your course? ...

Emotional Resilience: Navigating Stress, Anxiety and Adversity

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As addressed in Religion and Medicine on the Right to Die, with the exception of Unitarianism, the world’s major religions reject euthanasia: God alone decides the length of our days. But when ...

Misty Jacobs commented on Misty Jacobs' post Is the Right to Die the Gateway to Legal Murder?

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As addressed in Religion and Medicine on the Right to Die, with the exception of Unitarianism, the world’s major religions reject euthanasia: God alone decides the length of our days. But when ...

Is the Right to Die the Gateway to Legal Murder?

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How do you experience being female? Do you equate your worth with your sexual attractiveness? Do you enjoy the attention you garner with a pretty face, or large breasts, or high heels and a short ...

Misty Jacobs commented on Misty Jacobs' post So Sexy It Hurts: Sexual Objectification Has Emotional Fallout

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How rude are you? Manners are on the decline, as discussed in my first article on the subject, “How Rude Are You? Manners for Millennials.” Good manners aren’t English country-home secrets ...

How to Stop Offending Everyone: Get Off Your Stupid Phone

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In 2005, John Rehm, husband of radio producer and NPR host Diane Rehm, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. In 2012, John entered assisted living. After two years of continuous decline, ...

Misty Jacobs commented on Misty Jacobs' post Religion and Medicine on the Right to Die

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Despite what health writers like me tell you about balance and self-care, caregiving is rife with stress, including self-denial, self-sacrifice, exhaustion and grief. A Google search of “Stress ...

The Hidden Blessings of Being a Stressed-out Caregiver

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In 2005, John Rehm, husband of radio producer and NPR host Diane Rehm, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. In 2012, John entered assisted living. After two years of continuous decline, ...

Religion and Medicine on the Right to Die

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Newsflash: If you aren’t trying to be polite, chances are people find you rude. But who defines polite? The dinner table, once a school of social-emotional health, where many children learned ...

How Rude Are You? Manners for Millennials

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A lifelong sufferer of depression, I want depressed people to get well however they can. I am not anti-med. But being on meds requires managing the side effects of those meds. There is no ...

Life and Death Habits: What Your Depression Needs You to Do Today

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First off, let’s address the hocus pocus of the “detox” trend. No randomized, controlled scientific trials have been performed to prove detox diets work.(1) Your kidneys and liver are ...

Misty Jacobs commented on Misty Jacobs' post Science-based Detox for Your Life and Home This Summer

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Sponsored by: HFACTOR How well are you hydrating? Remember, good hydration is more than just the eradication of thirst. Water covers 71 percent of the earth’s surface and comprises about 60 ...

H2O Optimized: HFACTOR Water

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First off, let’s address the hocus pocus of the “detox” trend. No randomized, controlled scientific trials have been performed to prove detox diets work.(1) Your kidneys and liver are ...

Science-based Detox for Your Life and Home This Summer

6 comments

How do you experience being female? Do you equate your worth with your sexual attractiveness? Do you enjoy the attention you garner with a pretty face, or large breasts, or high heels and a short ...

Misty Jacobs commented on Misty Jacobs' post So Sexy It Hurts: Sexual Objectification Has Emotional Fallout

6 comments

How do you experience being female? Do you equate your worth with your sexual attractiveness? Do you enjoy the attention you garner with a pretty face, or large breasts, or high heels and a short ...

So Sexy It Hurts: Sexual Objectification Has Emotional Fallout

4 comments

All of sudden, the waste bins in dorms seem to fill instantaneously with tampon wrappers and tissue-wrapped pads. The mantra of every woman caught unprepared echoes through the halls, “Do you have ...

Misty Jacobs commented on Misty Jacobs' post Do Our Periods Sync Up? The Science Behind Menstrual Synchrony

4 comments

All of sudden, the waste bins in dorms seem to fill instantaneously with tampon wrappers and tissue-wrapped pads. The mantra of every woman caught unprepared echoes through the halls, “Do you have ...

Do Our Periods Sync Up? The Science Behind Menstrual Synchrony

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Are they big enough? Too big? Perky? Drooping? Breasts are a powerful symbol of femininity, and their idealization represents an impossible standard for most women. Think of Marilyn Monroe, ...

10 Facts You May Not Know About Breasts

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As women, our physiology and our place in society affect how much stress we encounter and how well we manage that stress. The chemical reaction in the brain called the “fight or flight response”, ...

Infographic: Stress and a Woman's Body

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Kate had been happily married for 23 years. Her husband, John, was a stockbroker on Wall Street. They had two children, a home in New Jersey with a housekeeper, gardener, and pool man, and a ...

Misty Jacobs commented on Misty Jacobs' post What You Don’t Know Will Hurt You: Divorce's Financial Fallout

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The World Health Organization classifies migraine as one of the top 20 most disabling illnesses on the planet. This illness of the brain is now linked to diseases of the heart. One-fifth of the ...

Migraines May Signal Higher Risk of Cardiovascular Disease

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Kate had been happily married for 23 years. Her husband, John, was a stockbroker on Wall Street. They had two children, a home in New Jersey with a housekeeper, gardener, and pool man, and a ...

What You Don’t Know Will Hurt You: Divorce's Financial Fallout

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White middle-aged Americans are experiencing a dramatic decline in life expectancy, according to a study released in 2015. Death rates for white Americans between the ages of 45 and 54 increased ...

Middle-Aged, White Americans Dying at Alarming Rates

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In April 2011, Pamela Chanko’s parents, Mark and Anita, returned from a trip to an empty fridge. Her father ran to the store for bananas and milk. While crossing a Manhattan street, he was hit by ...

Grieving Family in Shock as Husband and Father’s Death Seen on TV

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Depressed people are isolated people. Loneliness is a self-selecting symptom of the illness. And like their brothers-in-arms, the pessimists, we more accurately assess our total lack of control ...

Accompany with Mercy: Words for Depression, Help for the Journey

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In 2008, Fred Holliday went to the doctor with fatigue and hypertension. He had lost a lot of weight and intermittently had blood in his urine. By January 2009, he had developed rib pain and a ...

Misty Jacobs commented on Misty Jacobs' post No One Talks to Us: A Widow's Living Monument to Patients' Rights

3 comments

In 2008, Fred Holliday went to the doctor with fatigue and hypertension. He had lost a lot of weight and intermittently had blood in his urine. By January 2009, he had developed rib pain and a ...

No One Talks to Us: A Widow's Living Monument to Patients' Rights

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EmpowHER Guest

He met this woman when she was a girl. He is a master manipulator with almost every woman he meets. I am sure there have been others but this woman is the most important to him. He is quite ill ...

Misty Jacobs commented on Anonymous' post I'm asking about depression. My husband and I married at 21 and are now 76. About 15 years ago I found out he had been having an affair for years today I found out he still is. He is ill and I spend my life caring for him. I don't know which way to turn.

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Years ago, my cousin in San Diego invited us for a beach weekend. Who says no to that? My husband and I set out with the kids on a road trip to spend time with extended family and acquaint our ...

Judge Not: The Genetic Inheritance of Hoarding

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My father had hypoxic dementia due to a cardiac surgery gone amiss. When I sat with him in the garden at his rehabilitation center, he repeatedly asked to see his parents. My father was 75. ...

Misty Jacobs commented on Misty Jacobs' post When the Truth Hurts: The Ethics of Therapeutic Lying

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My father had hypoxic dementia due to a cardiac surgery gone amiss. When I sat with him in the garden at his rehabilitation center, he repeatedly asked to see his parents. My father was 75. ...

When the Truth Hurts: The Ethics of Therapeutic Lying