GIST ME JOOR

Attention, all red wine lovers: It turns out that glass of Merlot might not be as beneficial to your health as previously thought. A new study released Monday found that low doses of resveratrol found in red wine and dark chocolate don’t lead to added health benefits. Resveratrol is a chemical with antioxidant properties found in a number of foods, including red wine, dark chocolate and berries. In the past, a number of studies have shown that consumption of these foods may reduce inflammation, leading researchers to speculate that their common chemical must have explained the phenomenon.

But the study finds otherwise. A team of researchers tracked the health of nearly 800 villagers from Tuscany, the region in Italy where the wine Chianty is made, to see if their drinking habits had any discernible impact on their well-being. They concluded that resveratrol concentration was not linked with cardiovascular disease or cancer rates.

It’s not all bad news, though. While you may have to cut down your wine consumption, you can still hold on to that bar of chocolate: There’s still pretty strong evidence that it may be good for your heart.
Source: TIME

Pay attention, hipsters: Wearing extra-tight pants can compress the nerves that run along the tops of your thighs, cutting off blood flow to your legs and leading to a condition called meralgia paresthetica.

Symptoms are numbness anywhere in your feet or legs and a "terrible burning sensation" in your outer thigh, according to a report from Johns Hopkins University. Buy some roomier pants, at least in the thigh region, the report advises.

Back and neck doctors have a technical name for it: wallet neuropathy. If you have a George Costanza-sized billfold jammed into your back pocket, sitting on that behemoth day in and day out twists your spine and pinches the sciatic nerves that run through your butt, resulting in painful conditions like sciatica and herniated disks.

Apart from ditching--or at least slimming down--your wallet, lower back stretches can help counteract the damage, research suggests.

Freeing your feet is one of the principal joys of summer. But if you wear flimsy rubber flip-flops--the arch-less kind you pick up at the drug store for $5--your toes have to curl down in order to grip the sandals as you walk. That could lead to painful tendonitis in your feet, says a report from the American Podiatric Medical Association.

The way flip-flops change your natural walking gait can also cause knee and hip problems, according to an Auburn University study. Buy a sandal with a tight strap and some arch support to avoid those issues. (Recurring aches and pains could signal a more severe problem lurking within your body

Although water is the source and sustainer of all life--and comprises 66 percent of your body--drinking excess H2O dilutes the sodium, iron, and other essential minerals and nutrients in your blood. Dilute them too much, and you could develop a toxic condition called hyponatremia, which causes headaches, vomiting, confusion, or even death.

The condition is fairly rare, although it tends to turn up among water-chugging endurance athletes who are sweating out--but not replacing--lots of nutrients. According to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine, 13 percent of all Boston Marathon runners suffer from some stage of hyponatremia. Recovery drinks and most foods should help you avoid this condition, the NEJM study says.

A few years ago, a bunch of Iowa Hawkeye football players were hospitalized after a tough midwinter workout session. Most were suffering from a condition called rhabdomyolysis--brought about by severely overtaxing the muscles. Put simply, you can work your muscles so hard that the tissue breaks down and leaks protein into your bloodstream, which messes up your kidneys.

A university report on the Iowa incident pointed to excessive squat exercises just after winter break as the cause of the "rhabdo" outbreak. If your muscles feel like they're going to explode during a workout--and especially if you're out of shape or haven't trained much lately--listen to your body and take a break when your guns feel sapped, the Iowa report suggests.

Okay, one more sneezing story: A 38-year-old man fractured his larynx one night when he pinched his nose and closed his mouth while sneezing, according to a case report from Boston University.

This "closed-airway sneeze" created so much pressure in his throat that the man essentially blew a hole in his voice box--a life-threatening emergency, the study authors say. To avoid the same fate, keep at least one airway--mouth or nose--clear when you sneeze, the authors advise.

SOURCE: ABC

Most nights, if you're lucky, sleep is a completely unremarkable event. But every so often you may experience bizarre behaviors that can leave you feeling completely confused--and perhaps slightly freaked out.

Not to worry. We asked sleep docs to decode some of the craziest things that can occur from the moment you close your eyes--and most of them are totally normal

Also known as a hypnagogic jerk, it tends to happen as you're falling asleep.

Typically when you dream, your body is paralyzed, but sometimes you can start dreaming before your body is on "off" mode. With hypnagogic jerks, you might act out a dream like falling off a cliff, falling from the sky, or tripping, says W. Christopher Winter, M.D., Men's Health sleep advisor and medical director of the sleep center at Martha Jefferson Hospital in Virginia.

Why the falling? Researchers aren't sure.

"It's more likely to happen when you're overtired, sleep-deprived, or stressed," Dr. Winter says. "And your brain enters into sleep cycles more aggressively, but your body hasn't caught up."

You start to wake up in the morning and realize you can't move a muscle or speak. It can last from several seconds to several minutes, and it's completely terrifying.

Essentially, it's the opposite of what happens with hypnagogic jerks, where your brain wakes up before the paralysis that accompanies deep sleep goes away, Dr. Winter says. "You may feel like you can't breathe. Many people describe it as an elephant sitting on their chest. That's because all of the muscles that control your breathing except for the diaphragm are still paralyzed."

Most sleep-related behaviors are harmless. But sleepwalking can be a dangerous issue, since you can trip, walk into something, leave your house, and even get behind the wheel.

"With sleepwalking, you're coming out of sleep just enough for your body to move, but not enough for your brain to be awake," says Dr. Winter. That's why you probably have no recollection of your late-night jaunts.

The prescription sleep-aid Ambien has been linked to some of the more bizarre sleepwalking incidents including cooking, binge eating, and driving while zonked out. That's because even if you wake up during the night, the drug keeps your brain sedated so you're still in an unconscious state, Dr. Winter says.

If you experience unusual or dangerous nighttime antics and pop the sleeping pill, talk to your doctor about switching prescriptions.

About 5 percent of adults yap in their sleep, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Most pillow-talk sessions last only about 30 seconds on average.

"It often happens within the first hour or two of sleep when your body is entering into deep stages of sleep, but there's still enough muscle tone to produce sounds or movements that may accompany dreams," says Dr. Winter.

"Dreaming is a way for your brain to sort out things it needs to re-evaluate and process before it can file them away as memories," Dr. Winter says. "Recurring dreams may happen with unresolved psychological issues your brain is trying to sort out."

Often times, recurring dreams are based partly in reality.

"If you were robbed at the grocery store, you might replay that over and over during sleep until you come to grips with it--whereas if you went to the store to get bread and milk, your brain would process it right away and move on," Dr. Winter adds.

You're not the only one who has woken up mid-act. In a study of more than 800 patients at a sleep disorders center, about 8 percent of patients reported incidents of sexsomnia--initiating sex with a partner while asleep, according to researchers at the University Health Network in Toronto.

"In my experience working with patients, the attitudes, behaviors, and things people may say during sleep sex are often very different from what they'd do and say when fully awake," Dr. Winter says.

As a parasomnia, the phenomenon is similar to sleepwalking--you're coming partly out of deep sleep enough that you can move and possibly talk, but your brain isn't awake enough to be fully conscious.

"Many people have a vague recollection of it happening during the night or they wake up during sex," says Dr. Winter. "It's possible you may have been dreaming about sex or perhaps you went to bed with the urge."

It's just as freaky as it sounds: "All of a sudden, the person wakes up having heard a really loud noise, like an explosion, a flash of light, or a sense that their head is exploding," says Dr. Winter. "In reality, nothing has actually happened." It's a type of hypnagogic jerk, similar to feeling like you're falling: You're heading toward deep sleep, but your body hasn't achieved paralysis yet, and your senses are still turned on.

SOURCE: ABC