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You probably have a mental picture of yourself that’s been in place for years: “I’m the short brunette with the curly hair,” for example. But at some point, what’s actually on your head no longer matches the image you carry in your head. “Most people know that hair color changes, but not many realize that texture does too,” says Heather Woolery-Lloyd, MD, a dermatologist in Miami.“Recent research shows that individual fiber thickness, or diameter, actually increases in your early 30s before peaking and declining from the late 30s or early 40s and onward,” says Pantene principal scientist Jeni Thomas, PhD....

As for the different grades of syrup: Yes, they all taste different. The nature of maple sap—and the syrup made from it—changes throughout the season, starting out light and deepening in color (see photo below). The USDA changed its grading system earlier this year to correspond with the syrup’s seasonal shifts. In general, the darker the grade, the more intense the flavor and the higher the syrup is in vitamin B2 and manganese, as well as calcium, potassium, and zinc....

It turns out that mosquitoes, along with many biting insects, are attracted to certain odors in human skin. They’re especially attracted to your body odor and other secretions, meaning that if you’re spending a lot of time running around and sweating, you can expect to have more mosquitos following you around. Alternately certain strong—or unpleasant to the bug—smells can both hide your scent and dissuade them from getting close enough to bite you....

Researchers from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management gave study participants candy bars and told them they could eat as much as they wanted. Afterward, participants answered questions to determine where they fell on a self-control scale. The results? People with low self-control ate 69% of the candy bar, whereas high self-control people ate only 58% of it. “The difference might not seem like much, but take the amount of calories in 10% of a candy bar, and it’s actually quite a bit if they’re doing that regularly,” says lead study author Joseph Redden, assistant professor of marketing at the Carlson School....

One-Leg Bridge Lie on your back with your left leg extended, right leg bent, and right foot flat on the floor. Rest your arms, palms down, at your sides. Keeping your hips and knees level, contract your glutes and raise your hips toward the ceiling until your body forms a straight line from left foot to upper back. Hold for 3 seconds, then slowly lower your hips to the floor....

In a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers from Washington University in St. Louis tested the impulse control of 43 people—the longer study participants waited, the more juice they received. The results? As impulsive people got closer to receiving their juice by making a decision, they had a distinct spike in their ventral striatum activity, one of the brain’s reward centers. Patient people, on the other hand, had a more consistent level of brain activity in that area....

Antibiotics have been the drugs of choice when battling this bug and others like it; however, the ever-evolving microorganisms are dodging the antibiotics. Now more than ever is it important for science to develop different strategies to defend against bacteria. Enter an idea so crazy it just might work—giving bacteria speed superpowers. By tweaking a specific gene in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, researchers at New York’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center discovered that they could turn it into a souped-up version of the original....

“We could call in sick,” I tell the husband. He looks at me all adultlike. No, we cannot call in sick. There is the matter of civic duty, and guilt, and scoring brownie points with the principal. That’s when he evokes the rule. “When in doubt, do the positive,” he says. “Remember?” The positive is the active thing, never the inactive. Can’t decide whether you’re qualified for that new job?...

“When you eat a very low-carb diet, do a period of prolonged exercise, or go for a long period of time without eating, there is some increase in the level of ketones in the body, but it’s not necessarily dangerous because the ketones are at a low to moderate level,” explains Rekha Kumar, MD, endocrinologist at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. “But people with type 1 diabetes who don’t make enough insulin can reach very high levels of ketones, which can cause the blood to have acid in it....

Photo by Jonathan Pozniak Your knees have carried you through years of walking, dancing, stair climbing, and more. The downside to all that action? You may have worn down the cartilage needed for smooth, painless movement. Nearly a quarter of women over age 60 say they frequently have knee pain, according to a survey by the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. But you can protect your knees and help prevent discomfort by developing muscle strength, stability, and range of motion....

There’s a lot you can do to keep your BP within a healthy range, including yoga. In fact, Baxter Bell, MD, a medical acupuncturist and yoga instructor in Oakland, CA, says many of his students have reduced their blood pressure by starting a regular yoga practice. Stress management and staying active are the keys. In class, Bell offers special modifications for students with high BP. He recommends they do standing positions but avoid inversions like Downward-Facing Dog and Headstand....

Over the past 3 years, Harrington has nobly investigated the supremely strange eating regimes of the rich and famous. She’s pored over magazine profiles and long-outdated celebrity cookbooks to tease out the particulars of each diet—whether it’s a weight loss plan, clean-eating manifesto, or merely a collection of foods that happen to be consumed by one excessively beautiful person. The resulting series of essays, originally published on New York Magazine’s The Cut, do not chronicle a quest for weight loss or nutritional supremacy (Harrington has no formal nutrition education)....

Robert Madigan, a retired psychology professor at the University of Alaska in Anchorage, has spent his career studying memory and understands the where-did-I-leave-my-keys dilemma all too well. In the course of his 4-decade career, Madigan has learned not just how we can remember things better, but also many common false beliefs about memory. One of the most misunderstood aspects of memory, Madigan explains in his forthcoming book How Memory Works—and How to Make It Work for You, is that our memory skills are fixed....

Researchers analyzed data from the California Teachers Study, a cohort study of 133,479 female public school teachers and administrators, to see how exercise affected women’s risk for stroke. Participants who reported doing moderate physical activity in the three years before they enrolled in the study had a 20% lower risk compared to women who reported no activity. Moderate physical activity could range from a half an hour of activity a week to greater than five hours a week....

1. ACL tears The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of the four ligaments that holds your knee together, and women are eight times more likely than men to tear it. Any activity that requires sudden side-to-side movement, like playing tennis or dancing, can lead to a tear. Decrease your risk by strengthening your hamstrings, stretching, and doing agility exercises, says Dr. Templeton. Try these simple exercises to help save your knees....