Health Tips Line

Is it just me, or does the weather seem like it keeps getting worse? “It wasn’t this bad when I was a kid” is a refrain I hear from locals, no matter where I am, and it’s a phrase I’ve been guilty of using myself when dealing with the melting summertime humidity of the small Appalachian town where I grew up. In my adopted home of Seattle , I’m told all the time that the rain didn’t come down so hard in the past; instead, it was a gentler mist that gradually abated over the course of most days. The thing is, it’s not just me, and it’s not just shared childhood nostalgia that makes the weather seem worse now. According to the Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5) from the United States Global Change Research Program, “the severity, extent [and] frequency of multiple types of extreme events” really have increased. We’re seeing more rainfall and flooding , as well as worse heat waves, hurricanes, wildfires and drought risks. In other words, wet places are getting wetter, dry places ar...

It was another giant leap for mankind as NASA’s Artemis II became the first crewed mission to the moon in 54 years. The four astronauts—Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen—blasted off aboard the Orion spacecraft on April 1 from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, completed a lunar flyby and safely splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego on the evening of April 10. The spacecraft flew 252,756 miles from Earth, breaking Apollo 13’s 1970 record for the farthest distance humans have ever traveled into space. The mission also marks the first time that humans have been able to see the entire far side of the moon with their own eyes. (Fortunately for us, the crew took plenty of photos .) It’s a stepping stone to an even greater lunar goal. “At NASA, we dare to reach higher, explore farther and achieve the impossible,” said Lori Glaze , PhD, NASA’s acting associate administrator for Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate. “[The astro...

At any given moment, my digital life exists in a state I would describe as functioning but concerning. My inbox is manageable until I look too closely. My desktop is covered in screenshots I meant to sort last week (or possibly last year). And my browser tabs have long since crossed the line from helpful to … aspirational. The reality is that most of us live inside our devices all day. We work, plan, pay bills, text, take photos—and then keep all 19 blurry versions of those photos for reasons known only to our egos. So clutter builds up quietly, spreading across a dozen different corners of our digital lives, and the thought of cleaning it all out can feel kind of oppressive. But a proper cleanse is possible, and it doesn’t have to turn into a punishing project. To figure out how to actually tackle a digital detox, I spoke with experts Yulia Tekin, founder of Digital Declutter Cafe, and Amanda Jefferson, a tech and productivity coach who owns Indigo Organizing. Both of them help peop...

Pulling into the gas station to fill up your tank is a painful experience these days, now that a gallon of regular gasoline has soared to around $4. (If you live in California—like me!—that moment hits even harder. At $5-plus, gas prices hover well above the national average.) And it’s not just inflation at play. Global instability, including ongoing geopolitical tensions and disruptions in oil supply chains, has kept fuel prices unpredictable and often elevated. The result? Gassing up can feel like a strategic financial decision. The good news is that you don’t have to accept whatever price you find at the nearest station. There are smartphone apps designed specifically to help you track down the cheapest gas near you —or even along your route—saving you real money over time. Below, we break down five of the best options. Get  Reader’s Digest ’s  Read Up newsletter for more tech, cleaning, humor, travel and fun facts all week long. What are the best gas apps for finding...