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

Fitness fanatics, beware: A new Japanese study suggests that women who exercise a lot and eat a heart-smart diet high in so-called "good fats" may reach menopause more quickly, putting them at risk for a host of health problems.

The researchers tracked 3,115 women for 10 years, collecting data on their exercise and eating habits. They found that the women who spent eight to 10 hours a week exercising were 17 percent more likely to start menopause early, compared to women in the study who weren't exercising. Those who ate plenty of polyunsaturated fats (found in fish and vegetable oils) were 15 percent more likely to hit menopause early, compared to women who consumed less of those oils. "Total fat, other types of fat, dietary fiber, soy isoflavones, and alcohol were not associated with the onset of menopause," Dr. Chisato Nagata of Gifu University and his colleagues wrote in the study.

There are pros and cons to early menopause, doctors say. On the one hand, women who are in

Amber Miller holds her newborn daughter, June, on Monday. She gave birth after finishing the Chicago marathon. (AP photo)Avid runner Amber Miller, 27, participated in the Chicago marathon last weekend, crossing the finish line with her husband, grabbing a bite to eat, and then heading over to the hospital to give birth to a baby girl.

"It was very interesting hearing people's reaction," Miller told ABC News, describing the crowds watching an extremely pregnant woman running the route. "I've been running up to this point anyway, so I'm used to it."

She's run in seven other marathons, two of them while pregnant, but this was the first time she clocked 26.2 miles while carrying an almost full-term baby. It took her about 6 hours and 26 minutes-nearly twice as long as her usual time-but since she was 38 weeks and five days pregnant, she cut herself a little slack.

"I was having a conversation with my parents and said, 'You know what? I have no plans of actually finishing,'" she told reporters. "I was planning on running half, skipping to the end, then walking across the finish line."

Instead, she ran

A Columbia University economist has crunched the numbers and come up with a formula for making overweight men and women seem more attractive-without hitting the gym.

According to Pierre-Andre Chiappori's research, published in the paper "Fatter Attraction: Anthropometric and Socioeconomic Matching on the Marriage Market," a 10 percent gain in a man's Body Mass Index (BMI) can be offset by a 3 percent (or more) increase in his income level.

"People with a larger BMI will have a larger income," Chiappori told the New York Post. "It's in the data in a significant way." You can also see the truth of it in the celebrity wedding announcements: How do you think over-the-hill multimillionaires manage to snag those young, pretty trophy wives?

For women, the fix is a little trickier: You need an extra year of education for every 3 percentage point increase in your BMI. Why more education instead of more income? Chiappori doesn't say, but it's possible that women with more education are more

Starting January 1, California kids will have to look to sprays and bottles if they want a last-minute golden glow: On Sunday, Governor Jerry Brown officially banned anyone younger than 18 from using tanning beds.

"I believe it will help save lives and prevent unnecessary suffering," California state Senator Ted Lieu, who wrote the bill and has been trying to get it passed since 2007, told CNN.

Previously, kids age 15 to 18 could tan at a salon as long as they had a note from their parents. Now, though, parents are in the strange position of urging their teens to follow Snooki's lead. "I know that Snooki on the 'Jersey Shore' has changed to spray tanning," Lieu said. "Spray tanning has no known harmful effects, and you can get tans from lotions or cream. There are safe ways to get that brown look."

Texas has already banned the use of tanning beds by children younger than 16, and 30 other states have some kind of age restriction in place, Reuters reported. California's is the

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Photos: Getty ImagesTechnically, no one threw the first punch. But now Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown and his likely Democratic rival, financial reform watchdog Elizabeth Warren, are dodging the blows.

In 1982, as a college student, Brown posed nude for a photo spread in Cosmopolitan magazine, a decision he said he has never regretted since it helped pay for college, helped him meet his wife, and helped him mend his relationship with his father. In a Democratic primary debate on Tuesday at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, a student panelist asked Warren: "To help pay for his law school education, Scott Brown posed for Cosmo. How did you pay for your college education?"

Warren replied, "I kept my clothes on."

Brown's response came the next day, when he was on a WZLX-FM radio show. After chatting on air about hot tub hopping, Sarah Palin, and unemployment, radio host Kevin Karlson asked: "Have you officially responded to Elizabeth Warren's comment about how she didn't take her clothes off?"

This $39,000 backpack is sold out! (Photo: TheRow.com)When Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen announced their newly designed $39,000 alligator-skin backpack in July, we were kind of sad. Even if backpacks were going to make a fashion comeback (and, to be honest, we were hoping they weren't) it seemed like one that cost as much as a year's college tuition might be a hard sell during a recession.

Apparently, we were wrong.

"It was the first thing that sold off the shelf," Ashley Olsen told Women's Wear Daily during a Paris cocktail party to celebrate the launch of their new handbag collection for their brand, The Row. In fact, they're struggling to keep up with demand, CNN reports.

But what about the price tag? The wealthy waifs point out that "extreme luxury" tends to sell well when economic times are tough. "During our last economic crisis in the U.S., the only thing that went up was Hermès," Ashley said. Indeed, financial experts have said that the high-end designer seems "almost immune to the financial crisis-at least in handbags."

Demand

Police arrest demonstrators affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement after they attempted to cross the Brooklyn Bridge on October 1, 2011. (Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images) The Occupy Wall Street Movement took on new significance on Saturday, when more than 700 people were arrested for blocking traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge.

About 1,500 protesters were marching across the bridge as part of a peaceful demonstration to call attention to economic inequities in the U.S. Three buses had to be called in to haul the demonstrators away.

"Protesters who used the Brooklyn Bridge walkway were not arrested," Paul J. Browne, the chief spokesman for the New York Police Department, told The New York Times. "Those who took over the Brooklyn-bound roadway, and impeded vehicle traffic, were arrested."

Etan Ben-Ami, 56, told the New York Times that the police seemed to make a conscious decision to allow the protesters onto the roadway. "They weren't pushed back," he said. "It seemed completely permitted. There wasn't a single policeman saying 'don't do this'." Brown says that people were warned not to leave the walkway, and those in the back of the march who may not