Health Tips Line

It’s hard to forget the day your elementary school class buried a time capsule—the excitement of knowing that someday future students and teachers, or maybe even you and your classmates at your 30-year reunion, would get a glimpse of what your life was like. Maybe you tucked in a fact sheet listing your favorite foods, video games, school subjects and closest friends, or a letter to your future self predicting flying cars . Or maybe you and your best friend stuffed a coffee can with friendship bracelets, the names of your crushes and a mixtape of your favorite songs . These days, it may seem as though a time capsule wouldn’t be worth making when a quick online search can turn up old yearbook photos, newspaper archives and videos of just about anything you ever played with or listened to. But nothing compares to holding the real thing: the soft crease of a handwritten letter, the rough, snaggly hair of a vintage Barbie doll, the crackling of a well-worn single on a reco...

You probably know Joe Manganiello as the werewolf Alcide Herveaux from True Blood or as the formidable villain Deathstroke from the DC universe, to name a few. With a career spanning everything from box-office hits like Magic Mike to binge-worthy TV shows and fantasy films, Manganiello has made a name for himself playing larger-than-life characters, but his personal story is even more powerful. This month, Manganiello released Bloodlines , a memoir about his seven-year battle with a mysterious illness that left him fighting for his life. “It’s a story about survival,” he tells us , describing the book as “a Trojan horse for a spiritual odyssey.” In it, the actor opens up about years of debilitating pain, uncertainty and a medical journey that, at one point, left him unable to walk and required the amputation of his large intestine. But Bloodlines is more than a story of illness. It’s a deeply personal look at transformation and what it means to fi...

Scroll through your social media feed right now, and you might be alarmed by the state of the world. Wars are raging, the midterms are upon us and tragic images of earthquakes and avalanches are filling our feeds. Is it any wonder everyone is talking about “prepping” all of a sudden? Prepping, which is short for preparedness, just means keeping food and supplies on hand in case of emergencies. And it’s always been around. In fact, you could say that anyone who cans food or stores garden veggies in the cellar for the winter is a prepper. In many ways, planning for the future is part of our DNA . But recently, you may have heard that the United States government issued a new advisory to stockpile 90 days’ worth of food and other supplies. Should we all be worried that something big is on the horizon? What’s behind all this talk? Ahead, I’ll break down what’s really going on and what you should do in response. Read on to learn the latest. Get...

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...