Blog Posts by The Editors at Sharecare

The couple in THIS city are living younger. Find out why.

By Michael Roizen, MD, Sharecare Expert

Is your city making you old? Or is it helping you stay young-no matter what the calendar says?

Our 2013 Youngest & Oldest Cities in America report is out, with a list of the places where people are so healthy and fit it's like residents have erased the year on their birth certificate and penciled in a later one. The report also lists areas where you'd swear the inhabitants are older than their driver's license would lead you to believe, thanks to day-to-day choices that speed their decline.

Sharecare analyzed health data generated by its patented RealAge Test to determine the Top 10 Youngest & Oldest Cities in America. Results from more than 250,000 people went into the calculations as we did the math on America's 50 largest metropolitan areas. The analysis included not just dietary and exercise habits but also cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar levels, and sleep patterns and anger-management skills-28 factors in

Chocolate Fudge Pops by Daphne Oz

By: Lisa Davis

Daphne Oz believes in indulgence. Yesterday, as her book, Relish: An Adventure in Food, Style, and Everyday Fun, hit store shelves, the TV host and Sharecare expert shared with us her number one rule for healthy living: "I don't have rules," she told us. "If there's a rule I'm going to break it. And if it's a ruled-out thing, chances are it becomes taboo for me and I crave it even more."

Find out Daphne Oz's Number One Health Rule

Instead of following health commandments, the educator (and daughter of Sharecare founder Mehmet Oz, MD) makes sure her choices add value to her life. A dried-out cookie or fake-cream-filled pastry? Not worth the calories it'll add to her day or the damage its unhealthy ingredients might do to her body. A deliciously decadent dessert shared with a friend or loved one? That's nourishing, she says-a real investment in pleasure.

Healthy Eating Made Easy

Oz gave us a favorite recipe for a home-made fudge pop that's a great

Find out your true age by taking the RealAge test.By Lisa Davis

Here's a riddle: How can you be older than your parents were when they were your age?

Answer: By packing on the pounds. A recent study from the Netherlands found that because of the way obesity rates have risen, today's 40-year-olds are just as old, metabolically speaking, as their parents were at age 55.

Details: In the late 1980s, 40 percent of men in their thirties were overweight, while by the late 90s, 52 percent of men of the same age carried excess pounds. And today's 20-something woman is twice as likely to be obese as a twentyish woman of a decade earlier.

Simple Tricks to Lose Weight

This is not good. As you'd expect, the extra weight has given the younger generation a head-start on older people's diseases, like high blood pressure and diabetes. And we're seeing the same pattern in the U.S, says Sharecare expert Michael Roizen, MD, chief wellness officer for Cleveland Clinic. "The whole world is getting more obese," he says. "We're just

This skin-saving trick is no longer a secret!

By Genevieve Stack

I remember first learning to shave. Crouching over the running tub in a bathing suit, shimmery, raspberry-scented Skintimate splattered everywhere, trying to steady my quivering hand while grimacing at the gaping wounds (read: tiny nicks) on my ankle. I practiced and practiced because I knew it was worth it: I was going to have smoother, softer legs.

It makes sense; shaving is the perfect exfoliation technique. So why do most women consider shaving their faces taboo? In a YouBeauty poll, 33% of women admitted that they regularly shave their faces, but in secret!

The 411 on Microdermabrasion

Now, some of the country's most exclusive dermatologists and aestheticians are breaking these shaving "rules" and sharing an unorthodox secret to a smooth, fresh face: dermaplaning.

During a dermaplaning session, a licensed aesthetician pulls skin taut and gently strokes a surgical blade over your face. The blade removes the layer of dead skin that's

Find out what you can do to stay young.

By Giselle Domdom

I'm not quite 30, and people often tell me I look younger than my age. And why not? I'm a road-running regular who laces up four times a week. I try to eat right - quinoa instead of white rice, not much red meat - and I juice like crazy. I wear sunscreen and moisturize daily…and did I mention that I'm not yet 30? But I recently took the Mistakes That Age You quiz, and now I realize that I'm on a fast track to crow's feet, sagging skin and other dismal changes unless I straighten up. Here are some of the bad moves I've been making - and what I'm going to do to stay younger longer.

Quiz! Mistakes That Age You

Mistake #1: Texting too much
I may not spend hours a day texting like my teenage sister and her latest crush, but I do communicate with my thumbs every day. Texting is a quick and easy way to connect, but all that time spent leaning forward and looking down is turning me into the next hunchback of Notre Dame. It's not just a matter of bad

Chocolate may be the right prescription for a healthy heart.

By Marc Gillinov, MD and Steven Nissen, MD

Heart-shaped boxes of chocolate are everywhere on Valentine's Day. The intriguing question, debated by scientists for decades: Does the candy inside help your heart?

Popular mythology holds that chocolate is good for your heart, and that dark chocolate is better than milk chocolate. If chocolate does turn out to be an effective heart medicine, this is one prescription most people will be happy to fill. In fact, the average American already consumes 14 pounds of chocolate per year.

How It Helps
When it comes to chocolate and the heart, the focus is on the dark stuff. Small, short-term studies suggest dark chocolate has some potential heart health benefits, including decreased blood pressure and blood clotting, increased blood vessel health, and improved LDL cholesterol.

Dark Chocolate Fights Sun Damage

Of these, chocolate's effect on blood pressure has gotten the most attention. In most studies, short-term use of dark

Are you drinking flame retardants? Get the scoop from Dr. Katz.

By Sharecare Expert David L. Katz, MD

We have a long history of doing questionable things to vegetable oils -- and putting them in odd places in the food supply.

The best known and deservedly most notorious example to date is partial hydrogenation. Partially hydrogenated vegetable oils are formed when normally unsaturated oils are bombarded with hydrogen so that some but not all of those available bonds are "saturated" with it. The result is trans fat, which we now know to be, in essence, a slow poison, contributing to the risk of heart disease in particular. Partially hydrogenated oils became widespread in the food supply because they are inexpensive to make and act much like saturated fats, providing stability and heat tolerance. With time, we have come to learn that partially hydrogenated oils lengthen the shelf life of foods but are apt to shorten the shelf lives of people eating the food. They are still out there, but have gone from nearly ubiquitous to increasingly

The flu is officially an epidemic. Here's how you can fight the flu and recover faster.

By Rachael Anderson

The flu has officially reached epidemic proportions in the U.S., pushing many of our nation's hospitals to the brink. Health experts say this year's strain -- the H3N2 virus -- is exceptionally easy to catch and spread. And in a perfect storm of contagion, there's a highly infectious stomach bug going around and the worst outbreak of whooping cough in 60 years.

What can you do if you come down with the flu? Mehmet Oz, MD, reveals his top flu essentials to stop the spread of the virus and help you recover faster.

How to Stay Healthy All Year

Essentials #1 and #2: Ibuprofen and acetaminophen
Dr. Oz recommends you alternate between the two. "This combination of drugs targets different receptors and delivers a one-two punch to fevers," says Oz. "And by alternating them, you actually protect against overloading your kidneys or your liver." Oz recommends you take acetaminophen first. Four to six hours later, take two ibuprofen. Four to six hours