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(You can sculpt your arms and tighten your tummy with the energizing—and fun—routines from Prevention’s Flat Belly Barre!) Once women are in their 40s, they typically lose up to 8% of their muscle mass (back muscles included) per decade. That decline only worsens when you factor in how much daily strain we put on our back. Everything from hunching over a computer screen at work to carrying around DDs can seriously compromise back strength and function....

“Just as nails have a protective cuticle barrier, so does your hair, and the key to a healthy sheen is keeping the cuticle smooth,” says Michele Armstrong, regional salon educator for Ulta salons. Under a microscope, a smooth cuticle looks like a roof with all the shingles lying flat, but day-to-day styling, heat processing, and coloring cause those shingles to lift. “Light reflects best off a smooth surface, so a roughed-up cuticle means dull hair,” says Robert Hallowell, who styles celebrities’ hair in South Pasadena, CA....

The research: Researchers at the University of British Columbia conducted MRIs on 39 women ages 70 to 80. All of the subjects had signs of mild cognitive impairment (MCI)—memory problems that are worse than normal age-related memory loss but not severe enough to be considered dementia. The women were randomly assigned to one of three 6-month, twice-weekly exercise programs: aerobic training, full-body resistance training, or gentle balance and range of motion training....

The research: Researchers from the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles measured heart rate, blood pressure, and the time between beats after creating emotional stress in 16 women with CMD and eight healthy women of similar age and weight. Both groups responded the same except when anger was triggered. In the women with CMD, anger increased the fight-or-flight mechanism that quickens heart rate, while also decreasing the nerve activity that calms....

HCG is used as a fertility treatment, but since I’m blessed with three beautiful children already, I’m in no need of a sperm booster. Rather, this shot is meant to jump-start my testes to produce more testosterone, because as it turns out, my T tank is nearing E. See, about a month ago, I decided to get my T levels checked. This isn’t a routine screening for men my age—I’m 52—but a growing chorus of doctors thinks it should be....

Q: It takes me longer to remember things than it used to. Is there a way to improve recall? —Melissa Roberson, 58, HOBQKEN, NJ A it’s normal for your memory to slow down a bit as you age. There are neural pathways that connect the part of your brain where memories are stored (the hippocampus) with the part where you’re consciously thinking (the prefrontal cortex). As you age, those pathways naturally get a little bumpier and harder to travel, meaning it can take a little longer to call up a specific fact or name....

But just as important are the questions you have for her, says Lynda M. Cristiano, MD, a specialist in women’s lung health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and coauthor of The Harvard Medical School Guide to Taking Control of Asthma. “Appointment times are limited and asthma care is often about fine-tuning, so it’s crucial that you bring the right questions—and the appropriate information—to the exam table,” she says....

Serves 2 as side dish. Ingredients: 1 ripe Hass avocado, halved, peeled and cubed1 medium-sized ripe tomato, cubed2 small cucumbers, cubed2 tablespoons olive oil2 tablespoons lime juice1 teaspoon smoked sweet paprika (or sweet paprika)2 tablespoons minced scallionsSalt and pepper to taste What to do: Prepare 2 scallions for mincing by trimming off the woody base tip along with the attached roots and discard. Cut off all but about 1 to 3 inches of the green leaves....

In your fight for clear skin, you rinse, scrub, and soak your face—all to get rid of acne-causing bacteria. So you’ll be surprised to learn that the key to flawless skin might actually be—yup—bacteria. According to a new study published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, one particular strain of bacteria appears to be associated with clear skin. To reach that conclusion, researchers used pore strips to lift bacteria from participants’ noses, and then analyzed the bacteria and looked for associations between bacterial types and skin clarity—which led them to one particular bugger....

A recent study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology found that combined with a reduced calorie diet, the type of exercise might not be an important factor when it comes to weight loss. MORE: Getting to the Goal Weight, More or Less The researchers selected 96 obese men and women to enroll in a supervised 22-week program. The participants were randomized into four different exercise groups: a strength training group did an eight-exercise circuit routine; an endurance training group did cardio exercises; a combined strength and endurance training group did a combination of cardio and circuits; and a control group was told to exercise at least 200 to 300 minutes each week, as recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine (this could include a variety of activities, such as walking and gardening)....

Those are the results of an intriguing study, whose results will be presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology. Researchers tracked 774 elderly people, 610 of whom had high blood pressure or were being treated for the condition. No matter the medication they took, study participants using blood pressure drugs showed fewer brain abnormalities associated with dementia when compared to participants who suffered from high blood pressure but weren’t taking the meds....

“When you open a menu you want to focus on what you need,” says Beller. “You’re looking for vegetables, protein, healthy fat and complex carbs. Focus on what you need and eliminate the rest.” If she has one major tip for dining out and keeping unnecessary calories at bay, it’s to always have your salad dressing on the side. “You have to own the power of how many calories go in there,” she says....

Individuals who’ve spent several years speaking two languages on a daily basis are speedier when switching between tasks than their monolingual peers, finds new research published in The Journal of Neuroscience. As part of a series of experiments, investigators at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine used fMRI scans to reach that conclusion: They compared the brain activity of healthy study participants (aged 60-68) who were asked to complete a task evaluating cognitive flexibility....