Health Tips Line

For two years, every time I opened my closet, I felt it there—an ominous presence lurking in the darkness, waiting, judging. OK, it was just a dress. But it was a really great dress I bought on a killer sale, fully convinced that surely, any day now, someone would invite me to a grand occasion. Want to know how many black-tie occasions I’ve been invited to in my life? Exactly zero. And that number is as true today as it was two years ago. Yet I love that dress in all its glorious layers of poofy chiffon and tulle. It deserves to be worn. So wear it I did. To church. On a completely ordinary Sunday. Was I slightly overdressed? Absolutely. Did multiple women stop me to compliment me? Also yes. Did I feel, for the first time in a long time, like a human being who takes care of herself rather than someone who hoards nice things for a hypothetical future that never quite arrives? Um … more on that below. If you’re honest with yourself, you probably have a version of this same dress in you...

I travel a lot, so it’s always a challenge to keep up on my favorite shows—especially if the Wi-Fi at my destination is a little iffy. (To say nothing of the potentially sketchy public Wi-Fi networks on the way there.) Sure, today’s streaming services give us tons of options for watching on the go, but there’s just one problem: You need a reliable internet connection to stream, and that’s not always an option when you’re away from home. Thankfully, Netflix has a solution to ensure your next work trip or vacation doesn’t get in the way of your must-watch TV . It’s a little-known Netflix trick that you’re probably not taking advantage of, and it lets you binge even without Wi-Fi or a data network. Read on for all the details. Get  Reader’s Digest ’s  Read Up newsletter for more entertainment, tech, humor, travel and fun facts all week long. What little-known trick should you use for your favorite Netflix series? It’s called Smart Downloads, and if you haven’t tried it ye...

Housework isn’t just about what gets done. It’s about who does it, and how often. Between the dishes, the laundry, the dust bunnies and the ever-returning to-do list , the upkeep required to keep a home running isn’t always a clean divide: Across the United States, men and women still spend their time differently at home. Some of that gap has narrowed over the years, but not by as much as you might think, and not in the same ways across every task. New data from the Pew Research Center takes a closer look at how those hours break down, tracking how much time men and women spend on housework each day. And no, it doesn’t all come out in the wash . Get  Reader’s Digest ’s  Read Up newsletter for more cleaning, humor, travel, tech and fun facts all week long. How did Pew researchers determine time spent doing housework? To get a clear picture of daily life, researchers at Pew analyzed data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS), a long-running dataset from the U.S. Bureau ...

Mattresses Here’s a tempting secondhand purchase. The best mattresses are expensive new, and it’s not uncommon to see “barely used” options for sale online or at resale shops. The problem: Mattresses are extremely difficult to clean thoroughly. Maldonado, who is also a chemist and biologist, says old mattresses can harbor everything from allergens to bacteria to pests (I mean, just think of the possibilities!). Dust mites—microscopic creatures linked to allergies, asthma and skin conditions like dermatitis—thrive in mattresses because they provide an ideal habitat: warm temperatures, humidity and a steady supply of their favorite food, human skin cells. Mattresses can also harbor bed bugs, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says can cause severe itching, sleep loss and secondary infections from scratching. And once you have bed bugs, you are in for a massive amount of time and expense getting rid of them. If you absolutely must buy a used mattress, inspect it c...