Plastic surgery is no longer the sole domain of women, and men now have even more incentive to try a little nip-and-tuck on their faces: New research suggests they look more attractive and trustworthy to others.
The study included 24 men, average age 49 years, who had one or more of the following procedures: upper eyelid lift, reduction of lower eyelids, face-lift, brow-lift, neck-lift, nose reshaping, and/or a chin implant.
Reaction rooted in evolution
More than 150 people were asked to look at photos of the men before and after their surgery and rate them on personality (aggressiveness, extroversion, likeability, risk-seeking, sociability, trustworthiness), attractiveness and masculinity.
The photos of the men after their procedures scored significantly higher in perceptions of attractiveness, likeability, social skills and trustworthiness. There was no significant change in perceptions of masculinity, the investigators found.
The study, conducted by plastic surgeons at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C., was published online recently in the journal JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery.
“The tendency to judge facial appearance is likely rooted in evolution, as studies suggest evaluating a person based on appearance is linked to survival – our animal instinct tells us to avoid those who are ill-willed and we know from previous research that personality traits are drawn from an individual’s neutral expressions,” said study senior investigator Dr Michael Reilly. He is an associate professor of otolaryngology and a facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon.
‘Mirror of the soul”
“Taken together, our findings suggest that both men and women undergoing facial cosmetic surgery can experience not only improved perception of attractiveness, but other positive changes in society’s perception of their persona,” he said in a Georgetown news release.
In recent years, American men have changed their attitudes about “appearance maintenance”, from it bordering on narcissism to a part of well-being, according to Reilly.
Men now account for 15% to 20% of the cosmetic surgery market, he noted.
“Cicero described the face as the ‘mirror of the soul’, meaning that a person’s physical appearance is the personal characteristic most obvious and accessible to others in social interaction – so it’s not surprising that subtle changes in neutral facial appearances are powerful enough to alter judgments of personality,” Reilly said.
Heartfelt talks between parent and child are essential to help kids overcome tough times and do their best at school, a new study says.
Traumatic events in a kid’s life can cause the child to neglect school work and increase the odds that they’ll wind up repeating a grade, researchers found.
A sympathetic parent
But having even one parent lend a kind and caring ear appears to help kids work past the toxic stress caused by those events, resulting in better performance at school, according to the study.
A sympathetic parent has a stronger impact on a troubled child’s educational performance than whether they eat regular family meals or live in a safe and well-kept neighbourhood, said lead researcher Dr Angelica Robles. She’s a paediatrician with Novant Health Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“The parent really had the biggest influence,” Robles said. “Kids were six times more likely to complete homework and six times more likely to care about school” if they had a parent who could share ideas or talk about things that matter.
For their study, Robles and her colleagues analysed data drawn from a 2011–2012 federal survey of more than 65 000 children ages six to 17.
They found that adverse childhood events could seriously affect a child’s interest in school – among them domestic or neighbourhood violence, economic hardship, substance abuse or mental illness in the home, the death or incarceration of a caregiver, and divorce or separation of parents.
Worse, the negative effect on school performance increases with each additional adverse event. Kids with four or more adverse events in their lives were nearly three times more likely to repeat a grade, three times more likely to not care about school and four times more likely to shrug off homework.
Resolving trauma
However, researchers found that positive engagement with a caring parent could go a long way in offsetting the damage caused by life.
A caring parent increased by sixfold a child’s likelihood of completing homework and being engaged in school, and nearly doubled the odds that the kid would never have to repeat a grade.
The findings were published online in the journal Pediatrics.
“A child who had experienced trauma in their life was able to do so much better in school if they said their parent cared about them and that they could talk about things together,” said Dr Rebecca Dudovitz, an assistant professor of paediatrics with UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine. She wrote an editorial that accompanied the study.
A caring parent mattered much more than any other factor in either the home or the neighbourhood, researchers found.
For example, having five or more family meals a week only made it about a third more likely that a child would do their homework and care about school, results showed.
“We thought regular family meals would be protective, and they were slightly, but what is more important is if during that meal do you have a conversation or do you have the TV on?” Robles said.
Any caring adult
A safe neighbourhood that is well-kept also had some protective effect for kids, as did supportive neighbours and nearby amenities like parks and community centres, researchers found. None came anywhere near the benefit from having a parent who listens, however.
For example, a supportive neighbour could make a kid 85% more likely to finish homework, 60% more likely to care about school and 40% more likely to never repeat a grade.
Other studies also have shown that having any caring adult in their lives will improve a child’s chances of success, even if it’s just a neighbour, Dudovitz said.
“There’s a lot of studies to suggest that even relationships with people who are not the parents make a huge difference,” Dudovitz said. “Just being able to cite that you have a caring older adult in your life is associated with a whole host of positive health outcomes for kids.”
For example, studies have shown that a positive relationship with a teacher or coach can reduce a kid’s risk of substance abuse, she said.
“Kids are constantly paying attention to adults in their lives, even teenagers who don’t seem to care at all about what we have to say,” Dudovitz said. “They really are watching us and want to be seen as whole individuals.”
High cholesterol is a risk factor for heart disease, but not all forms of it are the same. An underdiagnosed genetic condition called familial hypercholesterolaemia can cause dangerously high levels of cholesterol at an early age.
While scientists have determined FH is caused by genetic mutations that affect the body’s ability to remove LDL, or “bad” cholesterol, they haven’t pinned down all the genes involved for nearly one in three people who have FH.
But that may be beginning to change.
Cholesterol is vital
Scientists presented preliminary research at the American Heart Association’s Vascular Discovery conference in Boston showing more clues to the genetic roots of FH. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute researchers screened 19 114 genes and identified transgelin (TAGLN) as one of the genes of interest. Previous studies have found this gene could be associated in LDL metabolism.
When researchers disabled the TAGLN gene in cells, some cells tried to compensate.
“The cell tries to make more cholesterol because cholesterol is vital for the cell to survive,” said Diego Lucero, the study’s lead author and a postdoctoral fellow at the NHLBI. “Understanding this is important because it might have impacts on the magnitude of the clinical presentation of the disease.”
People with FH are exposed to chronically high levels of LDL from an early age, and their risk for premature heart disease is 20 times greater than the general population, according to the FH Foundation. Over time, the condition can lead to atherosclerosis, the build-up of plaque and narrowing of artery walls. As a result, signs of heart disease can show up decades earlier in people with FH compared to the general population.
The condition affects approximately one in 250 US adults. Yet, it remains largely underdiagnosed and undertreated.
Diagnosed with a blood test
“Less than 10% of those who have (FH) have actually been diagnosed, which leads to a lot of premature morbidity and mortality,” said Dr Samuel Gidding, chief medical officer for the FH Foundation. Someone who carries the altered gene has a 50% chance of passing it on to their children.
Yet, the challenge is diagnosing FH. Health care providers may not understand the difference between general high cholesterol and FH and may not screen high-risk people, said Gidding, who was not involved in the new study.
FH can be diagnosed with a simple blood test and a reported family history of cardiovascular disease. Doctors look for LDL levels over 190 in adults and over 160 in children, and onset of heart disease before age 60 in men and before 50 in women. Genetic testing can confirm the diagnosis.
Once identified, there are effective ways to treat the condition, Gidding said. Early treatment with medications, as well as maintaining a heart-healthy lifestyle, can lower the risk of premature heart attacks and strokes.
The new research and further work identifying new genes involved in the development of FH could lead to better diagnosis and treatment, Gidding said. “Anytime an individual gene like this could help explain variations in lipid level, it could be a drug target.”
When it comes to blood pressure readings, the “top” number seems to grab all the attention.
But a large, new study confirms that both numbers are, in fact, critical in determining the risk of heart attack and stroke.
Treatment based on both readings
Blood pressure measurements are given as a “top” and “bottom” number. The first reflects systolic blood pressure, the amount of pressure in the arteries as the heart contracts. The second reflects diastolic blood pressure, the pressure in the arteries between heart muscle contractions.
For years, systolic blood pressure has been seen as the one that really matters. That’s based on studies – including the famous Framingham Heart Study – showing that high systolic blood pressure is a stronger predictor of heart disease and stroke.
At the same time, though, doctors measure both systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and treatment guidelines are based on both. So just how important is that diastolic number?
“The idea behind this new study was to address the confusion,” said lead researcher Dr Alexander Flint, an investigator with Kaiser Permanente Northern California’s division of research.
Using medical records from 1.3 million patients, his team confirmed that, yes, high systolic blood pressure was a stronger risk factor for heart attack and stroke. But those risks also climbed in tandem with diastolic pressure; and people with normal systolic readings were still at risk if their diastolic pressure was high.
“There’s been a common belief that systolic blood pressure is the only one that matters,” Flint said. “But diastolic definitely matters.”
A revamp in recent years
He and his colleagues reported the findings in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The definition of high blood pressure has gotten a revamp in recent years. Guidelines issued in 2017 by the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and other heart groups lowered the threshold for diagnosing the condition – from the traditional 140/90 mm Hg to 130/80.
The fact that treatment guidelines include a diastolic pressure threshold implies that it’s important. And indeed it is, said Dr Karol Watson, a member of the ACC’s prevention section and leadership council.
In fact, she said, doctors once thought that diastolic blood pressure was the more important one – based on research at the time. Then came the studies showing that systolic pressure was generally a better predictor of people’s risk of heart disease and stroke.
In addition, Watson said, high systolic blood pressure is more prevalent, because of natural changes in blood pressure as people age.
“As we get older, systolic blood pressure keeps marching up,” she explained. Diastolic blood pressure, on the other hand, generally peaks when people are in their 40s to 60s – and then it declines.
But it’s clear, Watson said, that while systolic and diastolic blood pressure are different, they both deserve attention.
Never ignore diastolic number
In the latest study, cardiovascular risks rose with each “unit increase” in systolic pressure above 140, by about 18% on average. Meanwhile, each increase in diastolic blood pressure above 90 was tied to a 6% increase in heart disease and stroke risk.
The researchers saw a similar pattern when they looked at blood pressure increases above the 130/80 threshold. That, Flint said, supports the 2017 guideline shift.
The findings are based on over 1.3 million patients in the Kaiser Permanente health system who had roughly 36.8 million blood pressure readings taken from 2007 through 2016. Over eight years, more than 44 000 patients had a heart attack or stroke.
According to Flint, it’s the largest study of its kind to date.
The bottom line for patients, Watson said, is that they should care about both blood pressure numbers. In her experience, she noted, patients often point to the number that’s in the normal range and say, “But look how good this is.”
Flint agreed, saying that no one should “ignore” the diastolic number. “It’s important not only in blood pressure treatment, but on the side of diagnosis, too,” he said.
The cold and flu season isn’t over just yet, and sometimes, no matter how much care we take to remain healthy, a dreaded bug can still take us down.
And among all the coughing and sneezing, we might wonder what exactly is causing our misery. Could it be one of the many strains of the common cold virus, or is it the flu? Or could it be both?
As much as you might put up a fight, there are times you can get a strain of a cold and the flu at the same time. As Dr Kevin Bonham explains on Science Blogs in 2013, this state is called a “superinfection”, and that when this happens, your immune system reacts in a certain way.
How the cold and flu can overlap
When you’re infected with one virus, your immune response makes it inhospitable for any other virus to attack, which means it is less likely that a second infection will take hold while your body is fighting the first, explains Science Focus. However, although it is rare for anyone to catch a cold and the flu at the same time, it is possible.
The common cold and the flu are caused by different families of viruses. Although there are no published studies looking at the concurrence of both, there is still a slim chance of it happening, said Dr Schaffner to Health.com.
A cold remains up in the nose and sinus area, whereas the flu can enter deep into the lungs and cause complications, especially for those with weaker immune systems. Cold symptoms are also milder and more common, which is why it is known as the “common cold”. The most common cause of colds is the rhinovirus. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), adults have an average of two to three colds per year.
The flu, on the other hand, is more severe than a cold and may cause symptoms of fever, headache, sore throat, body aches and even some gastrointestinal symptoms – and can even be fatal. The World Health Organization reports that flu epidemics result in three to five million cases of severe illness and about 290 000 to 659999 deaths each year.
Although symptoms differ, the bottom line is that both viruses attack your respiratory tract, and there’s no reason they couldn’t infect you at the same time, added Schaffner. Dr Bonham also explains that if the two viruses you contract are very similar, like colds and flu, the first stage of your immune system’s response would kick into high gear and the body would go into an “antiviral state” and fight off the two viruses in identical ways, whereas the second stage would target the two viruses individually.
Is it dangerous to have both viruses at the same time?
While having both a cold and the flu concurrently would make you feel downright miserable, the good news is that your body can fight two infections at once. Interestingly, Schaffner explains that you likely wouldn’t be able to tell that you have both at once, but that you would certainly feel much worse than if you only had one.
The more important concern is that, according to a 2017 review published in Frontiers in Microbiology, there is actually a higher ability for a bacterial infection, such as pneumonia, to piggyback onto an existing influenza infection. To safeguard yourself from this it is strongly advised that you get the flu vaccine, to reduce your risk of catching the flu as it is the best method to protect yourself against the flu virus. Other measures include among others regular hand washing, cleaning surfaces with disinfectant soap, and avoiding touching objects in public spaces.
And when you can’t distinguish whether you’re suffering from a cold or the flu, here are 7 warning signs that it’s more than “just a cold”.
It’s not only women who may agonise over their excess kilograms. Stigma about being overweight can cause physical and emotional harm to men, too.
“It’s often assumed that conversations about weight loss, poor body image, and dieting are more salient for women. Men are frequently overlooked, but that does not necessarily mean that men are less affected by weight stigma or less likely to internalise negative biases,” said Mary Himmelstein, lead author of a new study from the University of Connecticut, in Hartford.
As many as 40% of men report weight-related stigma, meaning they’re discriminated against or stereotyped because of their size. But there’s been less research on how it affects their health compared to women, according to the researchers.
For the study, the investigators surveyed more than 1 750 men across the United States. The researchers found that weight-related stigma (both internalised and from other people) was associated with higher rates of depressive symptoms and dieting.
Men who experienced weight stigma were more likely to binge eat, and men who internalised weight stigma had lower self-rated health, the findings showed.
The study was published online July 31 in the journal Obesity.
The findings show the need for researchers and health care providers to pay more attention to weight stigma and health in men, Himmelstein and colleagues said in a university news release.
For example, asking men about weight stigma may help doctors identify those who may be at risk for depression or eating disorders – conditions that are underdiagnosed in men.
“Our study shows that weight stigma is not a gendered issue. It can affect men’s health in the same damaging ways in which we already know that it harms women’s health, and neglecting these issues in men, either in research or clinical practice, may put them at a serious disadvantage in treatment,” Himmelstein explained.
Supportive interventions should be available for men, women, and people whose gender is not male or female to help them cope with weight stigma in less harmful ways, she concluded.
Here’s a win-win for all those bath lovers who struggle with poor sleep: New research suggests a soak in the tub before bedtime may shorten the time it takes to fall asleep.
A well-timed warm bath, or even a warm shower, also appears to prolong how long someone stays asleep, investigators found. And indications are that overall sleep quality improves as well.
Why? In large part, it has to do with lowering a person’s body temperature.
Body temperature “starts to naturally decline as part of its natural [24-hour] cycle about one to two hours before the usual time of going to sleep,” explained study author Shahab Haghayegh.
And a warm bath or shower can give that process a shove in the right direction, he explained, by boosting blood circulation from the inner body to the outer body. The result is a “very efficient removal of heat from the body, which causes a decline in body temperature,” he said.
The trick is to both time and heat that bath to perfection.
“Yes, the temperature matters,” stressed Haghayegh, a doctoral candidate in sleep research and bio-med engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.
“It should be warm. Not too hot or cold,” he noted. “Actually, a too cold or too hot bath can have an effect opposite than that desired, causing an increase, rather than a decrease, in core body temperature, and disturbed sleep.”
Timing is also important. “The optimal timing of bathing for cooling down of core body temperature in order to improve sleep quality and help with falling asleep faster is approximately one to two hours prior to going to bed,” he said. Taking it outside that window can actually disrupt the natural body temperature cycle, he warned, and not in a good way.
But after analysing the findings of 17 previous investigations, Haghayegh and his colleagues found that a properly heated bath or shower taken at the right time for as little as 10 minutes can have a positive impact on sleep.
The review was published in the August issue of Sleep Medicine Reviews.
The studies in the review included all sorts of participants, including young, healthy soccer players, middle-aged patients struggling with traumatic brain injury, and older patients diagnosed with sleep apnea. Some even focused on cancer patients and those coping with heart disease.
But regardless of the type of person at hand, the review indicated that those who took a timely warm bath or shower effectively set in motion a process known as “water-based passive body heating”.
And doing so reduced the time it took to fall asleep, also called “sleep onset latency.”
The total time patients were able to spend asleep also went up. And warm baths appeared to serve as a booster of “sleep efficiency,” meaning the amount of time a person spent in bed sleeping, relative to the amount of time spent in bed trying to sleep.
Sleep researcher Adam Krause, who was not involved in the study, said the sleep-promoting power of a warm bath or shower “has long been believed. And it’s nice to see the literature provide support for it.”
Krause is a doctoral candidate in psychology with the Center for Human Sleep Science at the University of California, Berkeley.
It may seem a bit counterintuitive, he acknowledged, given that it essentially involves exposing the skin to a certain amount of heat to trigger a drop in body temperature.
“[But] the net effect of this is a cooling of the core body and brain temperature, which is the necessary sleep-initiating cue the brain is waiting for,” Krause explained.
“I think this is such a nice, simple and subtle technique to help with sleep,” he added. “And it’s always one of my main recommendations for people having trouble initiating sleep.”
While we tend to associate ADHD with young children, the condition is also quite prevalent in adults.
According to research published in the South African Medical Journal, up to 65% of children with ADHD will carry on displaying symptoms into adulthood.
And although the condition can be successfully managed through a variety of methods, such as medication, lifestyle factors and therapy, it can still be difficult to cope with ADHD in a work environment.
Poor organisational and productivity skills are often associated with adult ADHD and can have a negative impact on one’s career. Because adult ADHD is often misdiagnosed and the symptoms may differ from childhood ADHD, it will show up in a way that others might view as laziness or an inability to do one’s work properly.
Besides seeing a psychiatrist with experience in the field and taking the correct medication, here are a number of coping strategies that may help at work:
1. Minimise your main distractions
Open-plan offices can be a challenge to productivity for everyone, not only those with adult ADHD.
Unfortunately, large, noisy environments are the reality for many employees. Minimise distractions by asking if you could be moved to a quieter section of the floor, de-clutter your desk regularly and turn off all email and social media alerts while you focus on the task in front of you.
Allocate yourself a certain amount of time for a task – and when the time is up, take a couple of minutes to check emails or social media. Invest in a good pair of headphones to drown out the noise around you.
2. Learn how to plan and organise
Nowadays, email software and mobile phones have all the functions necessary to help you organise your day. Make lists; set up a daily planner; send yourself reminders; make notes on your phone; and set an alarm if you need to remember commitments.
3.Make lifestyle changes
Healthy eating habits and exercise are a vital part of ADHD management. A low-GI diet as well as omega-3 supplements are recommended. Half the battle is won once you’re informed about your condition.
“There’s no reason why a person with ADHD shouldn’t lead a normal life,” sufferer Kim Coppen said in a previous Health24 article. “But you must understand the condition. Then you’ll also understand the patterns, recognise the symptoms and manage them on the spot.”
You can incorporate healthy lifestyle choices at work with a little bit of planning. Pack healthy meals and snacks to stay energised and enhance your concentration – avoid highly processed meals and snacks full of saturated fat and sugar.
You can also make the most of lunch breaks by going for a walk around the block and getting away from your desk.
4. Be mindful of your interpersonal skills
Learning skills such as conflict management, anger management and organisation may be helpful in an office environment where you need to cope with a variety of conflicts and difficult scenarios.
Therapy may help you deal better with stress and anxiety. Your self-image may also need rehabilitation as many people with ADHD blame themselves instead of their condition for failures.
It is also helpful to learn coping techniques when dealing with a difficult situation at work – learn how to breathe and meditate before confronting someone, and allow yourself to leave your desk and first go somewhere where you can clear your head.
If you are diagnosed with ADHD, it may also help to disclose your condition to colleagues. Explain the situation and educate them so that they can be better equipped to understand you.
5. Do what you can, one day at a time
Those with ADHD tend to aim for perfection and may want to do everything all at once. But psychologist Peter Collins says it’s fine to aim for second best and to scale down perfectionism.
Make big tasks less daunting by breaking them into smaller pieces and by focusing on one segment at a time. Ticking smaller tasks off a list can also be mentally rewarding and help you to focus on what’s in front of you, instead of constantly worrying about the bigger picture.
Cycling classes feel pretty dang intense most of the time. They’re typically fast-paced and interval-based. You come out *dripping* in sweat and riding an endorphin high from the heart-pumping beats and ball-of-energy instructor on the mic. So you’d think that cycling is a perfect workout for weight loss, right?
The answer is both yes and no. Indoor biking classes (or cycling outdoors or on your own in the gym) can certainly be a part of your overall weight-loss plan, but they shouldn’t be the only thing you care about if you’re looking to get stronger and shift the scale number. There are a ton of factors that play a role in successful weight loss, and we’ll get into those.
But there are some major pros when it comes to choosing cycling as your cardio method of choice for weight loss — if you peddle wisely. And alllll of the answers you’ve been dying to know about how to cycle for total weight-loss success are ahead.
Just tell me straight up: Can you lose weight by cycling?
Cycling is basically just as effective as running when it comes to its cardio benefits, says Dr Charlie Seltzer, an obesity medicine physician and exercise specialist. Regular cycling may help lower your blood pressure, insulin levels, and your resting heart rate if you do it frequently enough (as can running), Dr Seltzer explains.
Where cycling gives you a leg up on other forms of cardio? It’s an *awesome* lower-body workout. Your hamstrings, calves, and glutes will all feel the burn during a cycling class, especially during portions where you have the resistance turned up. Your leg muscles are some of the biggest in your body; so the more lower-body muscle mass (and muscle in general) you have means the more calories you’ll burn during your workouts and at rest, Dr Seltzer says.
So if you push yourself during those sprints and hill climbs and turn that knob to the right, you may develop stronger legs by cycling than by running, Dr Seltzer notes. Let’s be honest, though, it can be easy to coast through cycling classes when you’re just not in the mood to crank up the resistance. But if you don’t touch the resistance knob and push yourself, you probably won’t achieve the lower-body strength benefits.
Bonus alert: Cycling is much easier on your joints than running. “Cycling is a great way to get your cardio if you’re looking for a low-impact workout,” says Tatiana Lampa, a personal trainer and corrective exercise specialist. “If you have low back pain but are still looking to lose weight, cycling will be your best bet…and in comparison to other forms of cardio, it has a low risk of injury.”
Okay, I have to ask…is cycling worthwhile if I want to lose belly fat?
If you’re hoping to lose belly fat specifically, don’t get your hopes up. You can’t spot reduce fat, the American Council on Exercise confirms — no matter what kind of physical activity you’re doing, cycling included.
It’s not all bad news, though. Cycling burns calories, and that calorie deficit can help lead to weight loss if you are supplementing your physical activity with a nutritious diet. With consistency, you’ll lose weight gradually all over, just not in one specific body part at a time (but you know this).
Cycling also kicks your metabolism into high gear, which is helpful for weight loss. “Some people will adapt to cycling in a way that makes them continue burning calories throughout the day,” says Dr Seltzer, “but you have to make sure you don’t use your morning cycling class as an excuse to do less during the rest of your day instead of staying active.”
The takeaway: Don’t take cycling classes with the expectation of shrinking your waistline. Use them as one component in your healthy lifestyle to help create a calorie deficit, boost your cardiovascular ability, and motivate you to practice other healthy habits outside of class, too.
How many calories are we talking here, realistically?
The number of calories you’ll burn is pretty individualized to you, the class you take, and the effort you put in. “Cycling burns between 400 and 1,000 calories an hour, depending on the intensity of the ride and how much the rider weighs,” says Lampa.
Both Lampa and Dr Seltzer agree that an ideal workout routine for indoor cycling class aficionados would include three or four classes per week. So, in theory, you could burn anywhere from 1,200 to 4,000 calories per week by taking cycling classes. That means you *could* burn half a kilogram per week if you maintain the calorie deficit you create through Spin classes by eating healthy on top of ’em. This won’t work if you *only* do cycling classes but don’t think about any other weight-loss factors (i.e. nutrition).
But it’s better to focus on doing what you reasonably can during the week as opposed to requiring yourself to take that many classes if it’s not realistic, Dr Seltzer says. Because, hey, Spinning once a week is better than not Spinning at all.
“You have to consider your own recovery capacity, because ideally you’d be doing six days of moderate, vigorous exercise a week,” he explains. “If you can do three or four days of spinning as part of that, that’s a good start — but you need to be able to do other kinds of activity, too.”
So, cycling should just be one part of my exercise routine, huh?
Yup. As mentioned, it’s a great form of cardio, but it doesn’t strengthen all your muscles in equal ways necessarily. Incorporating other kinds of physical activity can really crank up your weight-loss efforts, help protect your bones and joints, and even maximize the benefits of cycling.
Dr Seltzer likes the combination of resistance training and cycling, adding that if you enjoy both of those activities, you could aim for doing each one twice per week. Lampa, too, encourages supplementing your cycling with strength training. Why? Strength training will also help you build muscle, and, as you learned, the greater amount of muscle you have can increase the number of calories you burn during strength training *and* while you cycle, Lampa explains.
Yoga can be a valuable compliment to cycling as well, she adds. “After cycling three or four times a week, the body gets stuck in that seated position while hunched over,” she points out. “It’s really important to stretch out the muscles to decrease possible injuries.”
So if strength training isn’t your thing, consider taking a couple of yoga classes per week to offset the strain that may be associated with frequent cycling. Yoga is no slouch when it comes to burning calories, either: A 70kg person can burn about 150 calories for every 30 minutes of yoga, according to Harvard Health.
Should anyone avoid take cycling classes?
Dr Seltzer recommends you get evaluated by your doc before taking a cycling class if you’re at all worried about your health, an injury, or how it might affect a specific condition you have. But if you’re generally healthy you should get a green light no problem. He does add that some people simply find it uncomfortable to sit on a bike seat for an hour, and if it’s really painful you can totally find another activity to do instead.
“If you’re Spinning because you think it’s going to help you burn body fat but you actually hate it, then Spinning is not going to work for you in the long run,” he says. “It’s not like it’s way more effective than other kinds of cardio or your only option for losing weight.”
But if you adore indoor cycling? The low-impact benefits of cycling do make it an attractive option for cardio lovers who struggle with running or jogging.
Unless you’re Nick Jonas circa 2014, jealousy isn’t a good look (and won’t launch your solo career the way you want it to…trust). But hey, it happens—even when you’re in an otherwise happy relationship with an amazing partner. In fact, there are two types of jealousy in relationships, according to Dr Terri Orbuch, author of 5 Simple Steps to Take Your Marriage From Good to Great and professor at Oakland University in Michigan. (Fun!)
The first: “reactive jealousy” — which is basically when you become aware of an actual threat to your relationship. (Read: There’s something to react to.) The second one — “suspicious jealousy” — is the reason you just can’t resist taking a peek at your BF’s phone when he’s in the bathroom.
Suspicious jealousy, Orbuch says, “occurs when a partner hasn’t misbehaved.” Despite there being “no proof that this person has engaged in any behaviour that would significantly and perhaps legitimately threaten the future of the relationship,” your insecurities in the relationship, low self-confidence, or mistrust in your partner fuel your suspicion and eventual jealousy.
“This distinction is important, because almost everyone feels reactive jealousy when they realize their partner has been unfaithful or is doing something that jeopardizes the relationship,” she explains. “However, people vary in their tendencies to feel suspicious jealousy in the absence of any real threat.”
That’s because “some people seem to be more naturally or temperamentally jealous than others,” explains Dr Jill Squyres, a clinical psychologist in Colorado and Texas. Oh, and another super fun thing about relationship jealousy: You can inherit it from your parents (not so upset about getting your mom’s nose now, hmm?).
“Jealous parents will likely convey permissive or even encouraging attitudes about the role of jealousy in committed relationships,” she explains.
And another (sorta obvious) culprit: your past. If you’ve been burned by a cheating partner in the past, you might be more prone to jealousy because you don’t want to get fooled again. (I mean, I get it.)
To keep yourself from going green with envy, here are seven expert-approved tips guaranteed to kick jealousy to the curb:
1. Know yourself (and your little green-eyed monster).
Before you go all Sherlock Holmes on your S.O.’s social media, take stock of your natural inclination toward jealousy, suggests Squyres. Reflect on moments when that annoying feeling reared its ugly head and what events, if any, provoked them.
That can help you suss out whether that jealous feeling gnawing at you is based on solid intuition, or if it’s just anxiety or fear of losing your partner masquerading as intuition. “If you are rarely jealous, your gut instinct likely has more justification than if you are chronically jealous,” she explains.
Instead of confronting your partner with guns a’blazing, just tell them how you’re feeling. (Try using “I” statements — like, “I’m feeling like X because of Y” — to take away some of the accusatory vibes.)
“Talking it over with your partner is the best way to determine if you have something to worry about and what to do about it,” says Squyres. Doing so can also help you jumpstart an open dialogue about what might trigger jealousy in you and your partner (it’s bound to happen to them, too), so you can both be sensitive to any reasonable concerns going forward.
If you hash things out and they ensure you that your jealousy is unfounded — and you still feel it — you may want to consider talking to a professional, who can help sort through your emotions.
3. Set healthy boundaries.
“Jealousy often reflects unhealthy boundaries,” Squyres says. (Uh…yikes.)
Yes, you want to feel close and securely attached to your partner, but they shouldn’t **actually** be your ride-or-die. Too-rigid boundaries that don’t allow for reasonable (emphasis on reasonable) closeness with other people outside your relationship is a problem, she explains.
Remember that open dialogue? “This can also be a good time to have an explicit discussion about appropriate boundaries, expectations regarding relationships with coworkers, friends, neighbours, and old flames, and what kind of regular checking in or contact you agree is reasonable,” Squyres notes.
Setting healthy relationship boundaries (think: lunches with your work husband is okay; texting after-hours is not) will help you avoid a future freakout.
Real talk: Jealousy often stems from being too dependent on your relationship and not having a strong sense of your self-worth as an ~individual~, according to Orbuch. She recommends “taking an honest look at yourself, just you, apart from any relationship.”
Then comes the hard question: Do you depend on romantic relationships to determine how you’re feeling about yourself and your self-worth?
If the answer is “yes,” Orbuch encourages you “to spend time with friends and family who think you’re great and care about you” —
regardless of your relationship status.
Because they love you for you (and tbh, have probably been missing you a bit since you hit committed-couple status), they’ll be first in line to remind you exactly why you’re awesome.
5. Do your own thing.
Love makes you do crazy things, but unfortunately, so can your insecurities. (Remember that time you were three years’ deep in the Instagram of your S.O.’s college ex? Yeah, things like that.) “Feelings of inadequacy also lead to more jealousy,” explains Orbuch.
Before you can tackle that little green monster to the ground, it’s important to realize that your jealousy may have absolutely nothing to do with that cute coworker who commented on your partner’s post and everything to do with your own self-confidence (or lack thereof).
To build that up, love from friends and family can only go so far. You need true and total self-love — which starts by owning who you are.
“Branch out so your identity is not solely tied to being a partner,” Orbuch suggests. That can be anything from shaking up your usual routine with a new workout class to mastering a new skill, like learning another language. Whatever makes you feel like a bonafide badass, do it.
“The more your definition of self is tied to your own accomplishments and experiences apart from any romantic relationship, the less jealousy you will feel,” Orbuch says.
“Sometimes, you can become jealous or worried that your partner might be attracted to others because you are comparing yourself to those around you,” explains Orbuch. “When you do this, you can always find something that you don’t like about yourself.”
Instead of having a self-bashing sesh, focus on your strengths, she says. Maybe you kill it in the generosity department, or can always make people laugh.
Take a sec to list five positive things you like about yourself (or more — lean into that self-love, girl). Orbuch even recommends carrying the list around with you, for those times you need a little reminder.
7. Remember: jealousy ≠ love.
Unless you’re role-playing as a couple on a daytime soap, getting jealous won’t show your partner how much you love them, according to both Squyres and Orbuch. And — surprise, surprise, it’s not a recipe for long-term happiness.
“Some couples can create a strange kind of stable instability where jealousy leads to fighting, which then leads to making up,” Squyres explains. “This is an exhausting and destructive pattern.” (I’m already tired just thinking about it.)
On the flipside, Orbuch says, “If you try to make your partner jealous because you want to see how much they love you, it can backfire.” So, like…don’t do that.
Instead, when jealousy starts to creep up, think back to specific moments when you felt loved by your S.O. That will help you remind what love is and — just as important — what it isn’t.
