Doctors generally advise women against vaginal douching, warning that this practice can upset the delicate balance of vaginal flora and increase the risk of infection. Now, a new study also shows that douching has associations with a higher blood concentration of harmful chemicals. A new study adds to the evidence that vaginal douches may be…
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In their day jobs, research psychologists don’t typically need safety goggles, much less pith helmets or Indiana Jones bullwhips. There’s no rappelling into caves to uncover buried scrolls, no prowling the ocean floor in spherical subs, no tuning of immense, underground magnets in the hunt for ghostly subatomic particles. Still, psychologists do occasionally excavate the…
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It seemed a daunting challenge to follow in the footsteps of a secretive artist who destroyed all her correspondence more than a decade before her death in 1944. Someone who, between 1906 and 1915, had created an astonishing cache of nearly 200 novel paintings — bold abstract compositions as large as 10 by 8 feet…
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Times Insider explains who we are and what we do, and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together. For nearly a decade, Brian Rea, an illustrator for The New York Times, has drawn the images that appear alongside the weekly Modern Love column — now also a television show — which is dedicated…
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Of all the light sources in a bathroom, the sconces over the sink are the most important. “Whether you’re plucking your eyebrows, applying makeup or shaving, you need really good lighting in order to see what the heck is going on with that face of yours,” said Madeline Stuart, an interior designer in Los Angeles.…
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It’s a pretty safe bet that most of our children, in high school and in college, will be in social situations in which people drink in unwise and sometimes downright dangerous ways. Even if they don’t drink, they will at least be exposed to friends and classmates and roommates who do. What makes alcohol more…
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ImageA study found that participants who were more physically active also had more social contact and engaged in more cognitive activities.CreditJacqueline Dormer/Republican-Herald, via Associated Press To ward off age-related cognitive decline, you may be tempted to turn to brain training apps. Last year, consumers spent nearly $2 billion on them, some of which claim to…
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When my Aunt Gert suffered a heart attack in her mid-70s, the examining doctor told her that it was not her first. Tests done to assess the damage to her heart revealed a section of dead muscle from a previous unrecognized heart attack. Sometime in the past, she had had what doctors call a “silent…
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SAN FRANCISCO — For years, a divisive debate has raged in the United States over the health consequences of nicotine e-cigarettes. During the same time, vaping of a more contentious substance has been swiftly growing, with scant notice from public health officials. Millions of people now inhale marijuana not from joints or pipes filled with…
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A friend recently approached me in distress saying she wasn’t sure if she should dump her boyfriend or not. With wide, wet eyes, she asked what I think she should do. It gave me pause. Of course, I thought she should get rid of the guy, but I didn’t want to put our relationship at…
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