Blog Posts by Tips on Healthy Living

From natural births to co-sleeping, Mayim Bialik, Ph.D. defines this growing style of parenting in her book, Beyond the Sling: A Real-Life Guide to Raising Confident, Loving Children the Attachment Parenting Way.

So what is attachment parenting really about? Attachment Parenting International (API) identifies AP as guided by eight principles. The practical application varies greatly but it often looks something like this:

1. Birth: Prepare for birth and become educated about natural birth options and their benefits for baby and mother.

2. Breastfeeding/breast milk: A human mother's milk is the optimal food for human babies, and bottle feeding should mimic as many aspects of breastfeeding as possible.

3. Be sensitive: Respond sensitively to your children.

4. Bonding through touch: Use physical contact such as baby wearing, breastfeeding, and massage to convey tenderness, love, and affection.

5. Bedding: Parent your children at night as well as in the day,

By Kristin Sidorov
The do-it-yourself movement is in full swing, and homemade decorations, foods, and fashions are all the rage. Getting crafty is a great way to find a little "me time"-and it just so happens to be a top-notch stress reliever that can actually help you relieve pain, control blood pressure, beat back depression and anxiety, and aid in sleep.

Recent trends (home pickling, Etsy shops, flea markets) have breathed new life into the pursuit of crafty interests. Today, it's a broadly chic category that can contain pretty much anything that gets your creative wheelhouse working. The key is finding the right project for you. From photography to knitting, DIY carpentry projects, and cooking, you can turn it into your personal diversion from the stress of everyday life.

VIDEO: "We Can Pickle That" (from IFC's Portlandia)

It works, too. Doctors and therapists have suggested creative outlets to help cope with and relieve stress for years. Our lives demand a lot

By A.J. Jacobs
Author of Drop Dead Healthy
My kids and I recently watched the movie Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. This is the one where giant steaks, ice cream scoops, pancakes and, of course, meatballs plummet from the sky and terrorize a town. It was funny. But it with a few tweaks, it could be turned into a terrifying documentary. OK, a lot of tweaks. Food isn't falling from the sky. But food is getting bigger and bigger and terrorizing America.

In recent years, portions have experienced a puberty-like growth spurt. Consider: In 1916, a bottle of Coca-cola was 6.5 ounces. Today, it's 20 ounces. A hamburger used to be about 300 calories. Now you can enjoy Hardees's Monster Thickburger with 1,420 calories. (The average man should eat about 2,500 calories a day).

This portion inflation is why nutritionists offer the following sage counsel to Americans: Stop eating so much damn food. Below are the five best ways I found to tame the portion while writing Drop

What is the cost of Jenny McCarthy appearing on Oprah to blame her son's autism on vaccinations? Or notable pediatricians such as Dr. Jay Gordon and Dr. Bob Sears downplaying the risks of vaccine-preventable diseases? Unfortunately, when one family decides not to vaccinate, other families can pay the price-even those who've chosen to vaccinate their kids, explains author Seth Mnookin in The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear.

The notion that people should base medical decisions on what is "right for them" is particularly problematic in a public health context, where individual choices cannot be cordoned off from each other. Consider the case of Julieanna Metcalf, a fifteen-month-old fully vaccinated girl who was taken to the hospital on January 23, 2008, with what her mother thought was a particularly bad case of the flu. It was only after extensive tests that doctors discovered that Julieanna had a compromised immune system that rendered the vaccine for

By Carol Endler Sterbenz
Author of Homemade: The Heart and Science of Handcrafts
Have you been thinking about learning a new craft? If so, I hope you will feel inspired to try whatever it is that has been intriguing you. I have been making pretty things by hand for a long, long time, and yet I am still captivated by crafts I know little about. Learning a new craft is still compelling and possible to me as long as I keep in mind the following tips, which I discovered along the way.

1. Foremost, love what you are going to make, really connect to the design (or to the materials or to the anticipated zen of getting the new methodology). Your enthusiasm will carry you through the unfamiliar steps and motivate you to finish the project to your standards and satisfaction.

2. Invite a friend to join you. It's always more fun learning a new craft when you have company, someone who gets as jazzed about craft stuff as much as you do. Put on the music and the tea kettle,

By Kristin Sidorov
You might be a little perplexed to learn that it's a thing now to attempt to choke down spoonfuls of cinnamon without water. Dubbed "The Cinnamon Challenge," this latest fad's intense and growing popularity seems strange. For one, it seems, well, bizarre and gross, and also, isn't it dangerous?

Yes, actually. And apparently that's the problem. In fact, it's become so popular that the governor of Illinois and a few NBA players have jumped on the Cinnamon Challenge bandwagon, in addition to thousands and thousands of other daring individuals, many of them teens, who have uploaded their challenges to YouTube, which generally depicts the following: An individual holds up giant spoon of cinnamon, eats the cinnamon, and then proceeds to choke and spew cinnamon everywhere while gagging.

Sounds amusing, right? Millions of people think so, and while we all love a good dare, its popularity has health professionals worried. Several people have already been

OnlineShopping_CreditCard_3By Jill Smokler
Author of Confessions of a Scary Mommy
Once I landed my book deal, I had visions of becoming a writer. I would camp out at Starbucks and nurse my cup of coffee while typing furiously on my laptop. I would slave away through the early morning hours, burning the midnight oil because inspiration struck. I would be driven and dedicated and productive. Or, not…

Sadly, my process looked more like this:
Walk the dog, make the lunches, pack the bags, get the kids dressed, drive them to school, and come back home.

Open up the computer and write a sentence.

Suddenly, see an e-mail alert. Know I should ignore it, but what if it's important? It would be irresponsible not to at least check it.

See that it's a Groupon. Maybe not vital, but certainly time sensitive. I debate for five minutes if saving $13 at a restaurant I've never planned on eating at is worth it. I decide that, indeed, it is.

Purchase the Groupon.

Tap nails on the keyboard

Head injuries among athletes big and small, soldiers, and many unfortunate others have created an emerging health crisis. Knowing the symptoms of this invisible injury is key. From The Concussion Crisis: Anatomy of a Silent Epidemic by Linda Carroll and David Rosner.

All head injuries should be taken seriously. A concussion may be an invisible injury, but its symptoms and signs can often be spotted by parents, friends, coaches, athletic trainers, and others who know the head-injured individual. The following symptoms or signs of concussion may occur after a bump, blow, or jolt to the head:

Observed Symptoms
• Appears dazed or stunned
• Vomiting or complaining of nausea
• Confusion
• Memory problems (difficulty learning new information)
• Amnesia (loss of memories from before and/or after the injury)
• Any loss of consciousness
• Difficulty with coordination or balance
• Behavior or personality changes
• Slowed thinking, reaction,