Blog Posts by Lylah M. Alphonse, Senior Editor, Yahoo! Shine

A new study finds a link between depression and stroke risk. (Photo: Getty Images)Middle-aged women battling depression may be twice as likely to have a stroke as women in the same age group who are not depressed, a new study finds.

Also on Shine: Recipe for Preventing a Stroke? 1 Coffee, 4 Green Teas a Day

"Although the absolute risk of stroke is low in mid-aged women, depression does appear to have a large adverse effect on stroke risk in this age group," lead researcher Caroline Jackson, an epidemiologist in the School of Population Health at the University of Queensland in Australia, said in a statement. "Our findings, however, suggest that depression may be a stronger risk factor for stroke in mid-aged women than was previously thought." The study focused on women aged 47 to 52.

Also on Shine: 9 Ways to Help Avoid a Stroke

A stroke occurs when damage to an artery deprives the brain of oxygenated blood, causing brain cells to die and allowing toxic chemicals to build up. Approximately 795,000 people in the United States suffer a stroke each year (75 percent of

Read More »from Depression: A Warning Sign of Stroke for Women

Gordon Ramsay, right, with Samy and Amy Bouzaglo during last week's episode of Kitchen Nightmares. (Photo: YouTube)It was a  "Kitchen Nightmares" first. In the latest episode, celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay got so fed up he refused to help a pair of restaurant owners, Amy and Samy Bouzaglo, of Amy's Baking Company in Scottsdale, Arizona, salvage their business.

Also on Shine: 15 Secrets Your Waiter Won't Tell You

In spite of the episode's predictable "trainwreck" outcome, the couple proudly promoted it on their company's Facebook page in April before it was shown on television. When the episode aired on Friday, a storm of social media criticism ensued—and the feisty Bouzaglos fought back.

Also on Shine: Employees Dish on the Restaurant Items You Should Never Order

After finding a freezer filled with packaged ravioli and a bakery case displaying "homemade desserts" that were actually bought elsewhere, Ramsay struggled to stop the combative couple from cursing out the customers and taking away their servers' tips. Finally, he got up and walked away, saying, "I can't help people who can't help themselves."

Read More »from Kitchen Nightmare Comes True for Arizona Restaurant Owners

Believe your eyes: Oscar Mayer is now offering a bacon hot dog. (Photo: Kraft Foods)It's as if they read the minds of bacon lovers everywhere: Oscar Mayer on Monday introduced five new hot dogs, one of which has bacon cooked right into it.

Also on Shine: What's in a Hot Dog?

"No one knows bacon like Oscar Mayer," Jared Baker, director of Oscar Mayer hot dogs, said in a statement. "We know Americans love bacon, and we know they love hot dogs, so it seemed like the perfect time for us to introduce our first hot dog made with bacon."

Also on Shine: America's 10 Best Hot Dogs

"It is hitting store shelves this week in time for Memorial Day," Sydney S. Lindner, associate director of corporate affairs at Kraft Foods, told Yahoo! Shine on Tuesday. They will be available throughout the United States.

Bacon lovers were overjoyed.

"Most everything is better with bacon on it!!" exclaimed David Ware on the company's Facebook page. "Sounds yummy need to go look for it."

"Oh noes! I'm trying to avoid processed meats and they invent this!?" Jennifer Bourne commented. "Well played, Oscar

Read More »from Bacon Dogs Are Here! Thanks, Oscar Mayer

Do you know where your clothes really come from? (Photo: Getty Images)Thanks to the organic movement, we've become more focused on where our food comes from. But what about our clothes?

Also on Shine: Why Cheap Clothes are Harmful

After 1,127 workers died when a building at the Rana Plaza garment factory in Bangladesh collapsed in April, fashion lovers started to take a closer look at what they were wearing. With 5,000 factories and more than 3.6 million garment workers, Bangladesh is the third-largest exporter of clothing in the world (after China and Italy), but while consumers are happy to snap up plenty of bargain-priced outfits, most of the people who produce those clothes work in slave-like or sweatshop conditions.

Also on Shine: Letter from Chinese Laborer Pleading for Help Found in Halloween Decorations

Sweatshops are often thought of as belonging to another era, one from way before child labor laws and unions. But they still exist all around the world, even in the United States. Sweatshop workers, many of whom are underage, are forced to work long

Read More »from Do You Know Where Your Clothes Really Come From?

Some residents of Stuyvesant Town in New York are up in arms over scenes like this. (Photo: Getty Images)Residents of a private New York City housing development are annoyed that bikini-wearing sunbathers have taken over a play area reserved for kids.

Last weekend, security guards kicked sun-loving college students out of Playground 10 in Peter Cooper Village-Stuyvesant Town after a kids' soccer league complained. One New York University student in a leopard-print string bikini watched as guards told people to sit up and stop sunbathing.

PHOTOS: What Guys Really Think of Your Bikini

“This is so ridiculous,” Melissa DeBlasio, 21, told the New York Post. “The sun’s out. It’s summer. People are going to be tanning.”

“There’s just a lot of rules here, and they enforce them randomly,” Marymount Manhattan College student Kaya Gieniusz, 21, agreed. “We pay outrageous money to live here. Let us sunbathe for a few hours.”

The housing complex is made up of 91 buildings on 80 acres on the East side of Manhattan, where one-bedroom units rent for up to $3,555. It has recently started courting college-age

Read More »from N.Y. Apartment Complex Residents Clash Over Bikinis

It's something parents tend not to think about when they opt to post that adorable/awkward/crazy video of their kid on YouTube: What happens years after the clip goes viral?

Sikh Woman Balpreet Jaur Turns Cyber Bullying Incident into Inspiration

For Quebec native Gyslain Raza, also known as "Star Wars Kid," his sudden, unwanted fame led to years of pain and suicidal thoughts.

"No matter how hard I tried to ignore people telling me to commit suicide, I couldn’t help but feel worthless, like my life wasn’t worth living," Raza, now 25, said in his first-ever interview, which appears in L'actualite magazine (in French) and Maclean's (in English).

Could Your Child Be a Cyber-Bully?

Raza recorded the video in his school's TV club studio, where he and a group of students had been practicing a "Star Wars" parody. He was 14 years old. The clip of him wildly fighting an invisible foe is just 1 minute and 48 seconds long. It's been shared nearly 27.5 million times and viewed by over a billion people

Read More »from Star Wars Kid Speak Out: How Viral Videos Lead to Cyber Bullying

After 30 years of combing through databases and Internet search results, a mother and the son she gave up for adoption have been reunited, thanks to a random message posted on the family history record-keeping site Ancestry.com.

Also on Shine: How One N.Y. Couple Found Their Son on the Subway: A Family Made by Fate

Janice Lobaugh, a 48-year-old married mom of two who owns her own real estate company in Wasilla, Alaska, was just 17 when she was forced to give her 5-month-old baby boy, Therman Randall Blair, up for adoption.

Also on Shine: How Hopeful Parents Are Turning to Craigslist to Start Families

"I had a very stressful childhood," Lobaugh told Yahoo! Shine in an interview on Friday. She and her younger sister discovered they were both pregnant on the same day, and their mother — a single mom already struggling to raise three kids — was not supportive. One Friday when Therman was just a few months old, Lobaugh left him with her mother so she could pick up her paycheck. When she called

Read More »from Soldier Reunited With Mom After 30 Years

A Florida Tex-Mex restaurant pulled a lion meat taco off its menu on Thursday after outraged customers lashed out on social media.

Also on Shine: Fast Food Employees Dish About the Menu Items You Should Never Order

"You people are DISGUSTING!" wrote "Plain Jane" on Facebook. "You are EVIL!!! I will share you everywhere and hope to shut you down. Stupid morons!"

South Tampa restaurant Taco Fusion, which opened in February, launched the promotion with an attention-getting statement on Facebook: "Real men eat Lion. The king of the jungle? Not anymore, baby."

On Wednesday, owner Ryan Gougeon told Florida news outlets that he's been receiving online death threats, but didn't really see why serving lion meat was such a big deal.

“In my mind, I don’t think this is a bad thing,” Ryan Gougeon told the Tampa Tribune. “These are animals that are raised for consumption on a farm, not from the wild where they are threatened. I travel to Asia frequently and exotic meats don’t seem to be a problem, but

Read More »from Lion Tacos Are Off the Menu in Florida. Yes, Lion Tacos