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Andreas Sappok was at his office last February when he was walloped by an unexpected fever. An athletic 48-year-old, Sappok ran regularly and had just returned from kayaking in Florida. He was not accustomed to sudden fatigue and unexplained sweats. But it had been a wet, cold winter in New York, and he figured maybe it was his turn to get the flu. He had no idea that he was at the edge of a catastrophic health crisis....

Why focus on cleaning a room where you’ll spend most of time with your eyes closed? “Because, the master bedroom is the room that sets the emotional tone of your household,” says clutter expert Peter Walsh, author of Cut The Clutter, Drop the Pounds. It is the central place where you build and maintain a healthy, strong relationship with your spouse or partner, which has a huge impact on your overall happiness....

The agency released a statement yesterday asking healthcare professionals to stop dispensing these types of higher-dose acetaminophen drugs, hoping to reduce the risk of severe liver injury from accidental acetaminophen overdose, which can lead to liver failure, liver transplant, and even death. The agency says half of manufacturers have voluntarily complied with a year-old FDA request to limit prescription combination drugs to contain a max of 325 mg. The agency says it will move to make these higher-dose drugs illegal, but in the meantime is urging doctors and nurses to stop prescribing them and asking pharmacists to call healthcare providers that do prescribe them to ask that they consider a lower-dose acetaminophen option....

KaleHOW: Sauté with a bit of olive oil.WHY: Kale is rife with polyphenols that are water soluble, so if you steam or boil it, they’ll escape into the water. Cooking it dry with an oil helps you absorb the fat-soluble carotenoids, too. (Make the most of this superfood with these 11 recipes that’ll make kale exciting again.) Purple PotatoesHOW: Season with turmeric or curry powder and bake.WHY: Boiling purple potatoes releases hard-won anthocyanins into the water; baking retains them....

“Emotional contagion is deeply rooted in our evolutionary past,” says study co-author Nicholas A. Christakis, MD, PhD, MPH, a physician and sociologist at Yale University (previously of Harvard). “One can think of emotions as a primitive form of communication: it is of use to me to notice, and copy, your fear, disgust, anger, or happiness.” MORE: How Failure Leads To Happiness (Seriously) A study published last year in PLoS ONE showed that you can pick up someone’s joy just by watching someone else watching the happy person (like a happiness middleman!...

There may be some truth behind the notion that stress can turn your hair gray: People experiencing chronic or long-term stress, as well as recurring depression, can actually age faster, according to a new study. Research in the upcoming issue of Biological Psychiatry shows that people who are severely stressed have shorter telomeres — the outermost part of the chromosome that gets shorter as we grow older. While short-term stress—such as the kind of heart-racing, sweaty palm anxiety you may experience before giving a big speech—has been linked to health benefits such as boosting immunity, long-term stress has been pegged as a culprit in everything from weight gain to heart attack to hair loss....

10 Silent Signals You’re Stressed It’s no secret that feeling anxious isn’t exactly enjoyable, but Michigan State University researchers wanted to find out exactly what goes on inside an anxious brain. They asked 149 men and women who suffer from anxiety to complete a series of puzzles, while tracking the electrical activity in their brains. The results: Although men and women performed equally well on the simple puzzles, women’s brains were much more active....

That number is likely to be even higher in our own relaxation-averse American culture, says Elizabeth Lombardo, a Chicago-area psychologist and author of Better Than Perfect: 7 Strategies To Crush Your Inner Critic and Create A Life You Love. Sound familiar? To find out if you’re a workaholic, ask yourself how often you identify with these statements: You think of how you can free up more time to work. You spend much more time working than initially intended....

Grilled Corn with Scallion-Thyme Butter PREP TIME: 10 MINUTES / TOTAL TIME: 20 MINUTES / SERVINGS: 42 Tbsp butter, softened1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil4 tsp finely chopped scallion greens1 tsp finely chopped fresh thyme½ tsp fresh lemon juice4 ears corn, husked1. PREPARE lightly oiled grill for medium heat. 2. COMBINE first 5 ingredients, ¼ tsp salt, and 1/8 tsp black pepper (by hand or mini food processor). Place butter mixture onto plastic wrap and roll into a small log....

If you’re a brown eyed gal who’s always envied deep blue peepers, you might be intrigued to hear of a surgical procedure that promises to swap a patient’s existing eye color for another. Called an iris implant, the operation actually sews hardened silicon onto a person’s eyeball…yielding a brand new hue. What could go wrong, right? At least, that’s what Anita Adams figured. Adams, born with one green eye and one brown eye, hopped a plane to Panama to have a fake iris implanted over her own, according to a recent story from The New York Times....

Why Intervals Slim FasterIntroducing short bouts of vigorous activity can speed up weight loss and cut your workout time by up to half or more. Australian researchers found that women who alternated just 8 seconds of high-intensity cardio exercise with 12 seconds of low-intensity activity for 20 minutes, 3 times a week, slimmed down faster than steady-paced exercisers who worked out twice as long. Those who did intervals lost up to 16 pounds, shrunk their bellies by 12% and their thighs by 15%, and gained, on average, 1½ pounds of metabolism-revving muscle in 4 months—without dieting....

If you shed a tear anytime your leg gets nicked by a razor, just imagine going to the emergency room because of a cut on your—yikes—lady parts. According to a new study, that’s actually a realistic concern. When researchers at the University of California, San Francisco analyzed genital-related ER visits from 2002 to 2010, they found that the number of women hospitalized because of vaginal injuries (yes, you read that correctly) increased almost 6-fold over that eight-year study period....

But flavored water’s newfound popularity is encouraging, because water is the single most important nutrient for your body, regulating temperature and filtering out waste, and it makes up 60% of your weight. Ready to take the flavored plunge? Here’s my three-step plan for healthfully navigating the sea of options. Avoid sugar and artificial sweeteners Flavored waters are typically sweetened with natural sugar­cane or fructose (fruit sugar) rather than high fructose corn syrup, the sweetener found in soda that’s linked to obesity and type 2 diabetes....

The report is the culmination of 18 research-packed months conducted by 79 eye experts all talking about those little plastic circles. But beyond the common sense of contact care—like, ehem, not taking them out when you’re supposed to—contact comfort is way more multifaceted than we ever thought. “We still really don’t understand the underlying biological mechanisms associated with contact lens discomfort,” says study author Jason J. Nichols, OD, MPH, PhD, who looked at everything from contact lens materials, to patient behavior, to wearing schedules, to how the contact lens actually interacts with your tear glands....

Definitions differ across the world, and even by generation. Studies show that young Americans equate happiness with excitement, while older generations associate it with soothing, peaceful emotions. To find out just how many variations there are, researchers from the US, UK, and Portugal went on a smile-seeking mission to shed some light on happiness. For the first leg of their journey, they analyzed the dictionary definitions of happiness from 30 nations....

Juleigh Green began seeing strange flashes of light when she was 27 years old. Her friend Allison Allred started experiencing similar symptoms at 31. Both women were diagnosed with ocular melanoma and needed to have an eye removed. After their friend Ashley McCray noticed black spots in her iris, she too received the same diagnosis. All three of them attended Auburn University together. McCrary’s oncologist, Marlana Orloff, MD, of Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center in Philadelphia, was surprised to hear that she had two other friends with the same form of cancer....

In a study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, researchers surveyed people who practiced BDSM (bondage and discipline; sadomasochism), and found that they were more extraverted, open to experience, and conscientious than those who didn’t. They also reported higher overall well-being. While many people might associate wanting to be tied up with some sort of psychological problem, experts say it can be completely healthy—even advantageous. “People who practice BDSM tend to prioritize sex,” says Serena McKenzie, AASECT certified sex counselor....

Here, the 5 things that make Carmindy feel beautiful—inside and out. Turning 40 definitely made me feel beautiful. There is something to be said about the calm confidence that comes with age. The worries and concerns from your teens or 20s are long gone. There comes a level of being comfortable in your own skin that no product or beauty tip can mimic, it’s priceless. Who doesn’t feel amazing after receiving a complement from a stranger?...

Specifically, black tea could lower the rate of blood pressure variation (Greater variation is associated with worse cardiovascular health). This idea builds upon an earlier JAMA study that found black tea can reduce hypertension and risk of cardiovascular disease. (There’s also research that shows black tea can lower prevalence of diabetes.) In the present study, researchers recruited 92 tea drinkers to drink either three cups of powdered black tea or a placebo with the tea’s same caffeine content for six months....

Here, we share 5 common causes of thick ankles—and how to combat them. Weight Gain “As weight goes up, so does the number of fat stores in the legs,” says Cederquist. “More often than not, ‘cankles’ are caused by gravity pulling fat stores down toward the ankle and calf area.“The fix: Getting to a healthy weight through diet and exercise can help, says Cederquist. She recommends infusing your workout with total-body fat blasters that do serious overtime on your calf muscles....