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Yes, it can be as simple as lacing up your sneakers and hitting the pavement. But putting some thought into what your goals are, your pacing, what to wear, and how to schedule other activities and workouts can go a long way when it comes to avoiding injuries and making progress. Here are some top tips from running experts, along with a basic four-week training plan. “One of the biggest parts of sticking to any training plan is knowing why you’re doing it,” says Kourtney Thomas, CSCS, a St....

Sharp pain in your abdomen is the foremost sign of appendicitis, but a pain in your belly doesn’t necessarily mean you have the condition. Almost everyone will experience abdominal pain at one time or another, because there’s a long list of things that can cause this problem. GallstonesOvarian cystsIrritable bowel syndrome (IBS)Urinary tract infection (UTI)Crohn’s diseaseIndigestionGasGastroenteritisPeptic ulcersKidney infectionLactose intolerance and food allergiesConstipationHerniaEctopic pregnancy The severity of the pain doesn’t always correspond to the seriousness of the condition that’s causing the pain....

More than just a physical condition, acne can have enormous long-term psychological effects. For a study published in July 2022 in the journal JAMA Dermatology, researchers undertook a novel approach to finding out just how persistent the emotional toll can be. About 60 participants with active acne or acne scars were asked to write a “Letter to My Disease,” personifying their condition to express their feelings about living with what many subjects called an “intruder....

Then one day she posted about psoriasis on social media, and her confidence grew from there. “When I first started posting,” Ciena says, “I looked up the hashtag ‘psoriasis’ and there were only 100 posts or fewer; I didn’t see anybody out there doing what I was doing.” From the beginning, Ciena’s posts have been honest and show vulnerability. She posts videos of herself in mid-flare, exasperated and crying; she posts pictures of her skin, unfiltered and not hidden by makeup....

Scientific Survey Suggests Childhood Abuse Doubles Risk It is well-known that childhood abuse can lead to changes in the metabolic, immune systems or the body’s systems in various ways. There can be a reason why people who have been abused as children are more likely to develop chronic diseases, says Dr. Badley. “We argued that the more severe or the more frequent the abuse, the more likely these enduring changes would occur....

The good news: If resilience doesn’t come naturally, it’s possible to cultivate it. Whether you’re navigating a global pandemic, addressing racial inequalities, or coping with the loss of a loved one, there are books that can offer support. Our list includes some straightforward self-help options, like Freedom From Anxious Thoughts and Feelings, and memoir-style stories like Between the World and Me. Here are our top picks for books about resilience: RELATED: Resilience Resource Center...

Juicing has become a popular way to add more fruits and vegetables to your diet. But the cost of store-bought juices can quickly add up — one 473-milliliter bottle of Juice Press’ Mother Earth juice will set you back $10.99, for example — which makes at-home juicing a great alternative. Plus, having a juicer means you can customize your own juice blends with your preferred fruits and veggies or what you have in the refrigerator....

MS is a chronic, lifelong condition that affects your nervous system, and it’s usually diagnosed between ages 20 and 50, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. That means some millennials (those born between 1981 and 1996) are in the midst of navigating life with MS. Although MS affects each person somewhat differently, for most people who have it, MS is a source of stress, and it also requires changes and adaptations at home, in the workplace, and in relationships....

The impact can be chronic, says Angela Neal-Barnett, PhD, a professor of psychology and the director of the Program for Research on Anxiety Disorders Among African Americans at Kent State University in Ohio. “Traumatic events related to racism have been unrelenting for Blacks. In good times, racism is a stressor; in bad times, racism is trauma,” she says. As mental health challenges continue to rise in this community, some Black Americans still aren’t receiving the mental health care and treatment they may need....

“The concept of the Eat Right 4 Your Type diet is that blood types have evolved through the evolution of man,” says Chicago-based David Grotto, RD, the owner of David Grotto’s Nutrition Housecall and author of The Best Things You Can Eat. The thinking goes that “most [people] were type O — hunter-gatherers with a predominantly animal-protein-based diet.” Liz Weinandy, RD, at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio, says that lectins can be dangerous to our health if eaten in large amounts, but the way D’Adamo presents their effects may be misleading....

Depending on the severity of the condition, people with asthma may experience mild symptoms or a flare-up of symptoms, an “asthma attack." In individuals with milder cases of asthma, symptoms may occur rarely and be easy to manage with treatment — but for others with what’s considered severe asthma, symptoms occur daily or more frequently and are difficult to manage with treatment, according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute....

This latest research contributes to an already well-established body of evidence, per the U.S. Children’s Bureau, demonstrating that childhood maltreatment can lead to a multitude of long-term physical and behavioral consequences. “Sadly, our findings suggest that the traumatic experience of childhood physical abuse can influence both physical and mental health many decades later,” said the lead study author, Anna Buhrmann, a research assistant at the Institute of Life Course & Aging at the University of Toronto in a statement....

Antibodies are produced by the immune system as a way to fight off foreign invaders like viruses. Convalescent plasma uses antibody-rich plasma donated by COVID-19 survivors as a treatment for seriously ill patients who need an antibody boost. More than 70,000 people with COVID-19 have already received convalescent plasma. The current scientific evidence suggests this therapy may be effective in treating COVID-19, with the potential benefits outweighing the risks, according to the FDA’s press release....

“People with hepatitis C have higher rates of mental health disorders compared with people in the general population,” says Andrew J. Muir, MD, MHS, a professor of medicine and chief of the division of gastroenterology at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina. Here are the psychological challenges you might face from having and being treated for hepatitis C — and what you can do to feel better, both mentally and physically....

But what does “better health” health mean, exactly? A new study published on February 8 in PLoS Medicine tries to quantify the benefits by using a formula to calculate how many more years you could live by eating an “optimal” instead of the standard Western diet. According to the model the researchers developed, if a 20-year-old male began eating an optimized diet that emphasized fruits, veggies, and plant-based proteins, he could add as much as 13 extra years to his life, and a female of the same age could tack on an extra 10 years....

This would be the largest single-year decline in at least 40 years, the researchers note. The study, published January 14 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), predicted that white Americans would see a decrease in life expectancy of .68 years, to 77.84 years. The researchers projected more dramatic drops in life expectancy among people of color. For Black Americans, life expectancy would shorten by 2....

One in six women experience at least a mild form of depression during pregnancy, according to research published in Archives of Women’s Health. One in seven experience depression after they give birth, known as postpartum depression, according to the American Psychological Association (APA). Depression both during and after pregnancy is known as perinatal depression. Depression is a mood disorder marked by major changes in emotional experience — including sadness, loss of interest, and hopelessness — that cause considerable distress and may interfere with daily life for a prolonged period....

Researchers now know that depression is one of the most common symptoms of MS. “It’s not just a reaction to the challenges and losses and worries that come with a chronic illness,” says Rosalind Kalb, PhD, the vice president of the professional resource center at the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. “It’s also due to inflammatory changes in the immune system. We have evidence of an association between inflammation and depression....

“You’re upsetting the normal fecal flora [microorganisms], and that can lead to diarrhea,” says Henry Parkman, MD, a gastroenterologist and the vice chair of research in the department of medicine at Temple University’s Lewis Katz School of Medicine in Philadelphia. Antibiotics and Diarrhea: Understand the Reaction Any antibiotic can cause you to have diarrhea, whether you take it orally or by injection, but broad-spectrum antibiotics — antibiotics that kill a wide range of bacteria — are the most likely to affect you....

Fiber and Diverticulitis: What’s the Connection? Diverticulitis is a condition in which small, sac-like pouches form on the top layer of the colon (called diverticulosis) and become infected or inflamed. This condition affects Western and developed nations most, likely because of diet and other lifestyle factors. It’s estimated that 30 percent of Americans between ages 50 and 59 and 70 percent over age 80 have diverticulosis. (1) One study found that diverticulitis is seen in up to 50 percent of the population of Finland due to low fiber intake and an aging population....