Health Tips Line

Ten years ago, at the height of blogging, I had a charming little corner of the internet where I documented my life with photos, anecdotes and way too many overshares. I met so many incredible people that way, and it felt warm and community-y and good—until it wasn’t. I got a stalker . A real one. He turned out to be a convicted felon who sent me hundreds of pages of creepy notes along with a photo of my children’s school. I’d like to say I handled it with grace and equanimity. I did not. I handled it with a lot of panic-deleting at 2 a.m. while stress-eating cereal directly from the box. Police got involved, and I lost my entire cheerful little digital scrapbook, along with my internet innocence. Since then, I post maybe a handful of family photos a year and keep a careful eye on what information about me is floating around out there. I still post a lot online about myself professionally. But I rarely post anything personal, don’t post where I am spec...

As someone who loves the beach but is so fair-skinned that I need to bathe in sunscreen and layer on the sun protective clothing before I even set foot on the sand, I’m as high-maintenance a beachgoer as they come. I like to have a beach hat, rash guard, four different types of sunblock (it’s necessary, trust me), hair clips, my Kindle, a thermos of ice water, a snack or two, a towel and dry clothes to change into at the end of the day. And that’s just for me—never mind the gear I have to lug along for my two tweens! When you’re packing this much in your beach bag, you need to be strategic about what goes where or you’ll spend your day digging through it or frantically tossing everything in the sand to find that one SPF lip balm you’re searching for. “A disorganized beach bag usually creates a chain reaction,” says Lucy Pfinu, the butler manager at Beaches Turks & Caicos. “Your sunscreen leaks because it isn’t sealed...

I don’t know about you, but when I get a mosquito bite , I can’t help but immediately scratch. It feels so good … until it doesn’t. Am I imagining things—or does scratching end up prolonging the misery? “Scratching is a bad idea,” says Daniel Kaplan, MD, PhD, a professor of dermatology and immunology at the University of Pittsburgh. He should know: His research team published a 2025 study in Science that uncovered the unexpected reason why scratching itchy skin can make things worse. (I knew it!) Read on to learn why it’s a mistake to scratch, the wild science behind why scratching sometimes feels kind of great, and how to make your bites way less itchy and uncomfortable. It’s easier than you think—if you use the right tactic. Get  Reader’s Digest ’s  Read Up newsletter for more fun facts, life hacks, humor, cleaning, travel and tech all week long. Why do bug bites make us so itchy? When a mosquito bite...

As I was writing this story, a storm rolled through my neighborhood, and memories flooded back of summer afternoons spent reading by the window as the thunder rumbled after I’d rushed home from the pool before the skies opened up. Summer as a kid encompassed so many memories , from family vacations and swimming at the beach to riding bikes until dusk, catching fireflies and staying up late to watch movies. It all seemed like endless fun until September. As an adult, summers seem to go by so fast that we barely have a chance to enjoy them before we’re back-to-school shopping. And it’s not our imagination: There are scientific reasons why summer really did seem longer when you were a kid. Now that we’re grown-ups, is it possible to recapture that sense of an “endless” summer before the leaves start falling? I asked time-perception expert Martin Wiener, PhD, an assistant professor of psychology at George Mason University and the principal investigator of...

Marvel fans, assemble! The first Avengers: Doomsday trailer is finally here, and it somehow lived up to all the hype. After months of cryptic teases and way too much overanalyzing every little Marvel post, we got our first real look at what could be one of the biggest superhero movies ever. As a lifelong X-Men fan, this trailer had me grinning from start to finish. Wolverine and Storm have always been two of my all-time favorite Marvel heroes , so seeing the X-Men finally sharing the spotlight with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes feels like something I’ve been waiting forever to see. (I may or may not have immediately replayed the trailer … more than once.) And if you’re anything like me, you probably finished watching with one thought: Wait … what did I just miss? Marvel loves hiding clues in plain sight, and this trailer is packed with blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moments. Whether you spotted a few clues or missed them all, read on for a breakdown of the...

When you think of the people currently serving in public office, at least nationally, “youthful” is not exactly what comes to mind. The average age of our current senators is 64; representatives clock in at a slightly more spry 57. And at 80, our current president is the oldest ever . So it’s fun when Washington welcomes a new baby to the mix—an event that’s as rare as it is exciting. This weekend, Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance welcomed their fourth child, a son named Alec Neel Vance. And it made us think: How many “White House babies” have we seen in our nation’s history? And how many of these babies were actually born in the White House? I’m telling you right now it’s fewer than you think. Any guesses? Our nation is now 250 years old , yet we can practically count the number of West Wing babies on our two hands and feet (give or take a few digits). Read on to discover just how many times our nation has li...