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If you re prone to dark circles, puffiness, or fine lines around your eyes, join the club. While you might credit these zombie-like side effects to lack of sleep, the problem could actually be hereditary, age-related, or caused by sun exposure. Not to mention, the skin around your peepers is especially thin, which allows blood vessels and veins to show through, producing bluish or dark circles, Jeremy Brauer, M.D., a clinical associate professor of dermatology at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York, previously told
Because the thin skin around your eyes is subject to more irritation, you absolutely want to make sure that any products you re using are designed specifically for the delicate area around your eyes. Great news: Gel eye masks and under-eye patches are actually a great way to target under-eye stress, says Morgan Rabach, M.D., co-founder of LM Medical
Emsella is a non-invasive, FDA-approved treatment that uses electromagnetic energy to help you to do thousands of kegels in a single session to help with incontinence. Find out more about the in-office treatment here, and check out our list of affordable kegel devices you can use at home to reap similar benefits.
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If you’ve been experiencing body aches, soreness, or even pain from menstrual cramps, after a quick Google search, you might have decided that purchasing a heating pad is in your best interest.
When it comes to general pain relief, while medicines can help, “very often, a heating pad used the right way can accomplish the same pain-relieving purpose, says Gbolahan Okubadejo, M.D., a New York-based spinal and orthopedic surgeon. Why? Heat therapy has numerous benefits. “It boosts circulation, which enables oxygen and nutrients to reach muscles and joints. The increased circulation serves to repair damaged muscles, improve stiffness, and relieve inflammation, he adds. Not to mention, heating pads work quickly to relieve discomfort, and are also great natural pain-relieving options for those who prefer to not take over-the-counter meds, such as Acetaminophen and Ibuprofen.
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Whether you re currently experiencing neck pain or you ve struggled with it in the past, you know that it s no laughing matter. For athletes and people who have active jobs (or even those staring at a computer screen all day), neck pain can be debilitating.
If you re in that position right now, you re probably looking for anything to ease your discomfort including home neck massager devices. But are they worth it? Here, orthopedic surgeon Brian A. Cole, M.D., of Englewood Spine Associates in New Jersey, discusses the causes of neck pain, and gives his two cents on if investing in an at-home neck massager is the right move for you.
If you re looking to get tested for COVID-19, the draw of taking an at-home test is obvious. You can save time and avoid coming into contact with someone who might be infected. Pretty ideal.
Even better, at-home COVID-19 tests are likely to be highly accurate, says Alexander J. McAdam, M.D., Ph.D., medical director of the Infectious Diseases Diagnostic Division at Boston Children s Hospital and associate professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School.
Most at-home tests that people have been talking about are RT-PCR or molecular tests, which work by using chemical reactions that make many, many copies of the viral genome, and detecting those copies, explains Dr. McAdam. Once a lab technician receives a specimen (usually, mucus from the throat or nose), they use a chemical to extract genetic material from any virus on the swab, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). They then use a machine to detect whether COVID-19 is present; the machine indicates a positive o