Health Tips Line

There’s nothing more frustrating than a slow, sluggish computer. You know what I’m talking about: the lags, the cursor that refuses to cooperate, the loud fan whirring as you wait for it to boot up or open programs. All you want to do is check your email, play a game or finish up a work project, and suddenly your once-speedy computer thinks it’s 1999 again. I’m a big believer in the restart. Taking a cue from the call-center employee whose first suggestion to any technical problem is to “unplug it and plug it back in,” I always restart my computer when it’s slow, and this does occasionally work. But other than that, I’m usually flying blind. I’m not the most technical person in the world, so what else can I do? Well, there is something, and it’s right on my computer—and yours. While it won’t magically fix a lagging laptop (or desktop either), this secret menu can help diagnose problems and arm you with valuable in...

I can usually tell when my anxiety has crossed from “I’m worried about this” into “I can’t seem to let this go” because the logic stops logic’ing. I might know, rationally, that whatever I’m spiraling about probably isn’t as catastrophic as it feels, but I still end up fixating on it until I’m dizzy and hyperaware of every thump in my chest. That disconnect is frustrating … but it’s also potentially useful. The thing is, anxiety isn’t just spinning thoughts or sweaty palms; it’s happening in both your mind and your body at once. And that means you may be able to work on the physical side of the response instead of simply waiting for your brain to magically become reasonable. The vagus nerve is one of the key players in that mind-body connection, helping your brain communicate with organs throughout your body and playing an important role in shifting you out of a stress response . If anxiety can send t...

On a Wednesday evening, a group of women is gathered at Mimi’s Needlepoint in Dallas, their hands moving thread through canvas, their conversations easy and unhurried. Someone’s working on a Christmas ornament. Someone else is stitching a bag charm. A few of them have become so close that they coordinate which weekly Sip & Stitch sessions to attend together and make plans to hang out outside of the store. Madeline Alford, 35, co-owner of Mimi’s Needlepoint, is amazed by it all. A few years ago, she left her career in New York City and moved back to Dallas after spending more than 10 years in what she describes as “ the corporate grind of working 8 to 6, coming home, doomscrolling, watching the news and going to bed, and then doing it all over again,” before she and her cousin ­Amelia Alford, 30, decided to do something different. They started an online canvas design company that has grown into a brick-and-mortar store—and now a community. ...

Someone in my life who shall rename nameless (you know exactly who you are) is a scream sneezer. It is the loudest sneeze you’ve ever heard, and he manages to make it sound like he’s screaming AH SH*T —although he swears he’s not cursing on purpose. It’s so loud that it has woken our deaf dog  out of a deep sleep, made more than one baby cry and set off a car alarm. I am not kidding. At this point, I’m less concerned about his sinuses than I am about whether our homeowners insurance covers sonic weapons.  Thus far, I have not punched him, but every sneeze startles me so badly that I fear the day is coming. I don’t want to be the first person convicted of assaulting someone for having a functioning respiratory system, but I also can’t comfortably rule it out. If you’ve never been around a scream sneezer, I envy your innocence. They are a small but disproportionately terrifying percentage of the population, and once you...