I resisted coffee for a long time. I used to hate the taste, and I didn’t want to depend on caffeine to get me through my days. I made it through all of high school and my first two years of college as a tea-only person. But then something happened. The long nights of college. My summer job that required me to be at work by 7 a.m. Adulthood maybe? And now, after my junior year of college, I am a full-on coffee addict. I love the taste. And it’s gotten very, very difficult for me to get my day started without a cup.

Luckily for me, my newfound love of coffee might be great for my health. A new study, conducted by the National Institutes of Health, showed that older coffee drinkers have a lower risk of death than those who don’t drink coffee. This lower risk of death was seen in decaf drinkers as well.

The participants in the study ranged in age from 50 to 71. They filled out a questionnaire about their coffee drinking habits when the study began in 1995-1996, and then were followed either until their death or until the study’s conclusion in 2008. Overall, people who drank three or more cups of coffee per day had a 10% lower risk of death than those who did not. And women who drank six or more cups per day had a 15% lower risk of death than women who drank no coffee.

Six cups? That’s a lot of coffee. Some of the old ladies in this study made my own coffee habits look really tame! And of course, since most college students aren’t in their 50s or 60s, it’s difficult to tell whether our age group may see the same health benefits from coffee. More research also needs to be done in order to determine whether or not coffee drinkers might have something else in common that leads to a lower risk of death.

Still, it’s interesting to think about. Wouldn’t it be great if your coffee habit led to awesome health benefits? For now, I’m just going to tell myself that my morning cup is doing wonders for my longevity.

What do YOU think? Is coffee your healthy secret weapon?

Garnet is a student at Columbia University in New York City. She is “that person” who starts dancing at a party when everyone else is standing around, and if there were a Facebook stalking Olympics, she would be a gold medalist. She also loves cheesy 90s music, and almost died of happiness when Vanilla Ice retweeted her. Once. Follow her on Twitter @garnethenderson.

You wake up early to the sound of an alarm for class or work on weekdays. But you follow a totally different sleep schedule on the weekends, sleeping in and going to bed later. Does this sound like you? Sounds like almost every college student I know, myself included!

But it turns out that this habit might have some seriously negative effects on your health, beyond just the rude awakening on Monday morning. Scientists call this condition “social jet lag” – the practice of following a different sleep schedule on the weekdays than on the weekends. Essentially, social jet lag means that your body’s clock, or your circadian rhythm, is out of sync with your weekday sleep schedule. Which is why, when you have the chance, you sleep in later on days off. In some cases, it’s the equivalent of changing time zones for the weekend, and switching back on Monday. That’s what led researchers to compare it to jet lag. Read More »

We all know the importance of taking care of our health, but let’s be honest — we usually don’t make it as much of a priority as we probably should. The good news is there are small steps you can make every day to improve your health in the long run… but if you’re anything like me, you have a hard time remembering to do those things.

Budge can help with that.

Budge helps you build healthy habits by sending you daily reminders. Beyond simply writing it on a Post-it note or setting a reminder on your phone, Budge will text, email or tweet you every day (at whatever time you choose) to remind you to take small steps toward a larger goal.

Simply sign up and log onto Budge to get started. Choose a program to “play,” (such as flossing, stretching, or doing push-ups), set up when and how you want to be reminded and that’s it! Just remember to check in to Budge (either via their website, text or Twitter) so that it knows (and everyone else on Budge knows) that you’re making progress.

Sometimes, all you need is a little reminder. Thanks to Budge, I’ve remembered to floss three days in a row! Sign up, and you’ll soon be on your way to better health.

And so it is, just like we knew it would be. The end of the road for this 30 day exploration and experiment to accomplish a great feat of discipline for one as undisciplined as myself: 100 push ups per day. Did I make it? You damn skippy I did!

Week 4 presented all new challenges in the form of temptation. My schedule’s actually beginning to have slower moments in it, and that’s provided some flexibility in terms of when I’ve been choosing to do my reps of 35-40. I’d have thought more time would provide more opportunity, but the real opportunity was the opportunity to procrastinate.

When my schedule was more rigid, I knew I had a set window of time to do this in, so I didn’t f*ck around. However, with the wiggle room to negotiate with myself, “I’ll do it after re-watching the season finale of ‘Justified’” or whatever other awesome (or not so interesting) things I occupy my time with, I found myself getting down to the wire a couple of nights this week.

But I persevered. I kept up the clapping and the 3-point stances. I continued to vary the wideness of my arms positioning. I’m doing an average now of 105 push ups per day. More than the goal I’d set for myself! That’s a pretty fantastic feeling. Now the real question, do I look and feel any different? Well, you can check out my “After” pic and video below to judge for yourself.

The pecks are coming back! There’s more definition as well as tone as well. I’ve been pleasantly surprised to notice a stronger core and even the lightest of outlines of a budding 4-pack (if I keep this up and add some crunches, a 6-pack might just be in the cards!).

All in all, this challenge was incredibly inspiring for me. I didn’t know how much could be gotten out of 1 simple exercise. It goes to show that the only thing that stands in our path of finding ways to maintain and improve our health, is our own mindset. Once you know it’s possible and see the benefits, the motivation becomes stronger. You see the rewards of the work and the motivation becomes stronger. And you know what? I don’t care if my 30 days are up. I’m going to keep doing this, every day, because I know that I can, and I know I feel better for doing it.

Challenge Completed!

Dude Stinson

This year, people all over the country are reporting worse allergy symptoms than ever before. Unfortunately, I’m one of those people. I’ve always had allergies, and they’ve been getting worse for a while. But now they’re baaaad.

Usually, my allergies only bother me in the spring and summer. But this year, they never went away when fall came around. That’s due in large part to the unseasonably warm winter we had this year. The higher-than-normal temperatures meant that flu season came months late, and now it means that pollen counts are sky high. Unfortunately, this might not be a one-time occurrence.

Several recent studies have shown that the Earth’s warming temperature has significantly extended the pollen season. Well, sh*t. Because spring is arriving earlier, pollen is making it into the air sooner, in larger quantities, and staying there for longer. This has lead to huge numbers of people reporting cold and flu symptoms to their doctors, only to find out that they’re experiencing allergies. And scientists are predicting that pollen levels will only continue to rise as the Earth warms. Read More »

Guys don’t have a lot of contraceptive options – abstinence, condoms, and vasectomies are about the extent of it. All three of those options have drawbacks ranging from unrealistic (sup, abstinence for life) to mildly annoying to painful, expensive, and permanent. Luckily, the medical community has noticed a need for more options and one in particular has been getting a lot of buzz. While I totally support men having the opportunity to do their part to keep babies from being formed, I am not nearly as gung-ho about male birth control as a lot of people are.

It’s pretty obnoxious that women’s bodies are always preparing to get pregnant. I wish we all had an internal switch that defaulted to the “off” position, and could only be activated through some sort of baby-making chant, therefore notifying our bodies that yes, we are open for business. Unfortunately, that is not the case. So once we start fornicating for fun, the number one priority is keeping our uteri as unoccupied as possible. As women, we bear the majority of the consequences if our birth control fails. It’s not fair – in fact, it completely and utterly sucks, but that’s how it is, and I’ve come to terms with it. This is pretty cynical, but ultimately, I don’t expect anyone else to be nearly as invested in my body as I am. So even if  men had a zillion different birth control options, I would never relinquish an ounce of control in this regard. Read More »

Rumors have been swirling that Miley Cyrus is anorexic. However celebuzz.com reports the singer/actress is denying such rumors, attributing her weight loss to a gluten and lactose allergy. Surprisingly, I believe her. Several studies have shown that cutting out gluten from your diet can lead to weight loss. Gluten is in practically everything, so Miley has had to cut out the majority of foods. Miley has even encouraged cutting out gluten in one of her recent tweets:

“Everyone should try no gluten for a week! The change in your skin, phyisical and mental health is amazing! U won’t go back!”

Read More »

Would you work out in a 105 degree room? How about 110? Hot workouts are all the rage in gyms across the country, especially in New York and Los Angeles, where some gyms are adding heat to just about every class.

You’ve probably heard of Bikram yoga, or some of the other hot yoga styles that have been popping up over the past few decades. But now, you can take classes in Pilates, the Bar Method, cycling, martial arts and more — all while roasting in a room that’s 100 degrees or even hotter.

Devotees of these classes love them because they leave every workout dripping with sweat. They see quick weight loss results, and think that all the sweat is helping them detox. But are they really doing that much good? Or are these benefits outweighed by the possible risks of exercising in extreme heat?

Experts have debated the safety of Bikram and other hot yoga styles for years. Bikram is practiced in a 105 degree room, with at least 40 percent humidity. First of all, doing intense exercise at temperatures that high puts you at risk for severe dehydration, or even heat exhaustion and heat stroke. In order to remain properly hydrated during a Bikram class, you would have to drink 4 ounces of water every 15 minutes. However, hardly any students drink that much water during class. Most of the weight loss experienced by people who work out in the heat is just water weight. And that’s not the kind of weight you want to lose. It isn’t uncommon for students to faint during hot yoga classes – I don’t know about you, but that scares me. Read More »

Like most people, I have a love/hate relationship with the gym. In fact, our flame is so hot and cold that I sometimes I stare at the door the entire time I’m working out, counting down the minutes ’til it’s time to leave. There are, of course, other days where I am so excited to go to the gym its like okay, who put the steroids in my coffee?

I hate going to a packed gym, so I always try and go when it’s inconvenient for me and everyone else. Lunch? No thanks, you guys go munch on delicious flat-breads, I’m gonna go pump some iron and have a protein shake. Sleep? Eh, I think I’ll run six miles instead.

Even though it’s a vicious cycle, I do love the gym. But I always feel like a trip to the gym is like looking through a digital People of Walmart magazine. I just want to say to the guys lifting weights in work boots and the preteen girls reapplying mascara in the locker room…. what are you doing? This is the gym. A place where it’s okay to sweat, pant, and guzzle your water down so quickly it’s like Y2K is a threat all over again.

Read More »

Former Vice President Dick Cheney is recovering from a heart transplant after having five heart attacks in the past twenty-five years. He’s had various medical procedures over the years including a quadruple bypass surgery in 1988. In 2010, he suffered from his fifth heart attack, and doctors placed him on an LVAD (left ventricular assist device) because his heart couldn’t pump strong enough on its own. After being on a waiting list for two years, Dick Cheney finally received a new heart from an unknown donor.

Some are saying that at 71, he’s too old to receive a transplant, but many disagree. Dr. William Zoghbi of Methodist Hospital’s DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center in Houston said ”It is not too old. Age is really not a factor.” According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, 332 people over age 65 had heart transplants last year. Seventy percent of heart transplant recipients live for at least five years, although survival chances are lower over age 65. Read More »