You might want to skip the adductor machine after reading this.
 • Go ahead and scratch the following machines off your gym-rotation list: leg-curl, overhead shoulder press, ab crunch. A conditioning expert says they’re among 10 machines at the gym that are pretty much useless. [Yahoo! Shine]
• Ah, so this explains the whole Governator thing: Strong men—like, dudes who are actually physically strong—tend to have right-wing political views, according to a new study. [Daily Mail]
• Okay, so while physically revolting to me (I’ve never been a Doritos gal), Taco Bell’s Doritos Locos Tacos at least made some culinary sense. But the Bell’s newest creation, a waffle taco? That just seems like an utter misfire (not to mention, calorie bomb). [TIME]
• In case you’ve ever wondered, here are the crazy (read: scary) diets models put their bodies through for their jobs. [Huff Post Women]
• Useful! The 22 best cookbooks of 2013 (so far, I presume). [Greatist]
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Plus: why sodium guidelines are whack, a new way to lower your diabetes risk (hint: think stoners), and how to hydrate for better running performance.
• Well, this isn’t good. Bikram Choudhury, founder of the patented 26-pose hot-yoga regimen, is headed to court after former students filed two lawsuits alleging rape, sexual assault and human trafficking. Yikes. Listen to this: “During weeks of gruelling training Choudhury singled out Jane Doe 2 [one of the women who filed the lawsuit] claiming she was ‘a piece of gold in a roomful of brass.’ His approaches became more sexual and were rebuffed. The suit alleges the exhausted student was raped when she was ‘too weak and overwrought to fight him off.’” [The Guardian]
• Cool new gadget alert: Someone invented a heart monitor that’s thinner than a dollar bill and the size of a postage stamp. [Futurity.org]
• Drink more water, people! A new study shows how rehydrating today (or not) can impact fitness performance tomorrow—in very real, very precise measurements. [Runner's World]
• It might be time to rethink everything you think you know about salt and blood pressure. New recommendations from a group of experts say that maintaining the super-low, government-recommended daily-sodium-intake levels—1,500 milligrams of salt per day if you’re at risk for cardiac problems and 2,300 milligrams for everyone else—isn’t really doing anybody any good. To wit: “Evidence is too weak to determine whether limiting sodium intake to under 2,300 per day increases or decreases the risk of heart disease or stroke. …Similarly, the report suggests that, as of now, there isn’t enough evidence supporting the 1,500 milligram recommendation for at-risk people. [U.S. News and World Report]
• Go ahead and light up a joint—a little pot may just lower your diabetes risk, according to a new study. [Blisstree]
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But on the bright side, it's edible (in theory), and maybe even a bit healthier.
 • Yes, yes, the culinary prospect of meat grown in a test tube seems rather gross, but the proof-of-concept experiment happening in the Netherlands right now could show not only that cultured meat—made of muscle tissue grown in a lab—is not only possible, but more eco-friendly and maybe even healthier, too, since unlike traditional burgers, these don’t have any fat. [New York Times]
• Don’t be surprised if your doctor starts probing your drinking behavior. New guidelines U.S. Preventive Services Task Force encourage docs to fish for “risky” drinking behavior. Question is, will patients be honest about this sort of thing? [HealthDay]
• No need to get your Om on at the studio—here are tips for starting (and sustaining) a home yoga practice. [Mind Body Green]
• In the category of Things I Find Ironic, a new brain-wave-measuring headband purports to show you how well you’re focusing on a task in real time. But, like, if you look at the readout when you’re supposed to be focusing, isn’t that a tad, er, distracting? [Greatist]
• All hail black tea! New research shows it’s good for your blood pressure. [Prevention]
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I talked to Einstein Montgomery's breast-surgery chief to find out more about BRCA testing and preventative mastectomies.
 I’m sure by now you’ve read Angelina Jolie’s op-ed , which appeared in the New York Times this morning, about her decision to undergo a preventative double mastectomy. To recap: The actress’s mother, Marcheline Bertrand, died of ovarian cancer back in 2007, so Jolie decided to get tested to see if she carries a gene mutation that would increase her risk for both breast and ovarian cancer. Turns out, she does.
Jolie learned that since she carries the BRCA1 mutation, she has a 50 percent risk of developing ovarian cancer and an 87 percent risk (!) for developing breast cancer. That’s why back in February, she began the process of undergoing preventative double mastectomy, which included a nipple-sparing procedure, mastectomy and reconstruction—all of which she was able to keep private.
But she decided to speak out about it now, she writes, “because I hope that other women can benefit from my experience. Cancer is still a word that strikes fear into people’s hearts, producing a deep sense of powerlessness. But today it is possible to find out through a blood test whether you are highly susceptible to breast and ovarian cancer, and then take action.”
This morning, I spoke with Jennifer Simmons, chief of breast surgery and director of the Women’s Center at Einstein Medical Center Montgomery, about who should get tested for BRCA mutations, what the medical treatment entails, and what Angelina Jolie and others can expect post-op.
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Plus: A whole new format for your morning health-and-fitness reads! More links, fewer words.
 Yum! • Eat more bugs! That’s the UN’s new strategy to combat world hunger. But hey, at least those little buggers have a lot of protein, right? [Associated Press]
• Gyms specifically designed for the over-50 crowd are a rising trend. Who knew? They’re apparently equipped with low-impact cardio machines and include seated fitness classes. [Reuters]
• Those 100-calorie snack packs work, if you’re trying to lose weight. A new study found that people who ate pre-portioned food lost more weight than those who tackled portion control on their own. [Runner's World]
• Someone tested the now-Internet-famous 7-Minute Workout that appeared in the New York Times last week. (For the record, I tried it, too, and really, really liked it!). [Greatist]
• Useful: three easy stretches for tight hip flexors. [POPSugar Fitness]
• I’m LOLin’ over this: what not to say to someone who’s gluten-free. [via HuffPost Healthy Living]
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Scientists have identified the region of the brain that controls aging—and they may have figured out how to turn it off.
 • All the anti-aging creams in the world have nothing on new research, published this month in the journal Nature, which shows that it might one day be possible to extend human life by 20 years and stave off the body’s physical signs of aging (i.e. wrinkled skin, brittle bones, even dementia). The study used lab mice to figure out which brain region is responsible for aging (the hypothalamus), and within that region, which chemical prompts and speeds up the aging process (something called NF-kB). Researchers hypothesized that if they could block the chemical, they might be able to thwart the aging process—and that’s exactly what happened. The lab mice that received the NFKB inhibitor lived 20 percent longer than the controls (the equivalent of about two extra decades in human years) and their bodies maintained their youth, too, with muscle tone, bone density and skin remaining unchanged. “If the research translates to humans (a big if), scientists think the elderly among us should go first, particularly patients with brain-related illnesses such as Alzheimer’s,” reports Mashable. Watch a video about the research here.
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Despite recent reports claiming otherwise, a strain of antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea is not yet a reality for Americans. Let's keep it that way.
As NBC News reports, drug-resistant gonorrhea, HO41—the so-called sex superbug “confirmed” to have been found in Hawaii, and said to have traveled to California and Norway—is not the killer that the press made it out to be; in fact, HO41 has not made it beyond Japan, public officials say. Phew.
So how did the panic begin? It seems the media was quick to exploit the superbug, with the Associated Press, CNBC and the Daily Mail all reporting on the rare strain of gonorrhea and quoting a neuropathic doctor who suggested the new gonorrhea could be “a lot worse than AIDS in the short run because the bacteria is more aggressive and will affect people more quickly.” A lot worse than AIDS?! Yeah, that’s quite the juicy (read: terrifying) soundbite.
Luckily, it was not to be. As NBC News confirms, the Hawaii cases, first discovered in May 2011, were actually H11S8, a different strain, resistant to a different drug; HO41 hasn’t been detected anywhere since 2009 in Japan, where it was found in a Japanese sex worker. Say it with me: phew.
Still, public health experts ware taking the opportunity to emphasize the threat of untreated gonorrhea, the germ is “wily and easily mutable,” says the NBC report, and lately there have been “signs that the bug is starting to outsmart [cephalosporins, the current treatment for gonorrhea], too.” Now there’s a new recommended treatment and the National Coalition of STD Directors, led by William Smith, has asked Congress for $54 million to bolster the U.S. public health infrastructure that monitors, diagnoses and treats gonorrhea.
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A woman collapsed near Jefferson Hospital recently—and it ended up being her lucky day.
A word to the wise: If you’re going to suffer a cardiac episode ever, anywhere, try to make sure it happens in front of a hospital. (You know, to the extent to which you’re able to plan such a thing.) That’s just what happened to a woman recently, who collapsed on the sidewalk on Chestnut Street near Jefferson Hospital. A post on the hospitals’ blog this morning details how several of its doctors happened to be in the right place at the right time, ultimately saving her life.
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Results of a new study show how exercise may protect against breast cancer.
• Time to hit the elliptical, ladies—a new study may have finally figured out how exercise reduces your breast-cancer risk. But let me back up for a second: Previous studies already pointed to the cancer-risk-decreasing effect of exercise, but until now, no one had any clue how it happened. Ready for this? It appears to have something to do with estrogen. For the study, 400 healthy, inactive women were divided into two groups. The women in one group did absolutely nothing and continued their inactive lifestyle; those in the other, however, did 30 minutes of moderate-to-intense cardio exercise (on an elliptical, treadmill or stair stepper) five times a week for 16 weeks. All the subjects submitted urine samples at the beginning and end of the study. Researchers found that the women who exercised had higher levels of estrogen metabolites in their urine at the study’s end—molecules known to reduce breast cancer risk. So researchers think that exercise changes the way the body metabolizes estrogen, and that process may help shore you up against breast cancer. Fascinating, yes? Read more here.
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Go without shaving for ten days and bask in the glory of your stubbly self, men.
 Bradley Cooper knows stubble. Let it be known, guys: women like it rough. Your face, I mean. Geez.
According to a new study conducted by two University of New South Wales professors, Barnaby J. Dixson and Rob C. Brooks, women prefer men with heavy stubble over clean-shaven guys, guys with light stubble or full beards. So get your beard on, but … you know… not too much. (Note: 10 days of beard growth is considered “heavy stubble” in this study.) On the other hand, heterosexual dudes, when looking at other dudes, thought that a full beard or a heavy stubble looked best.
For the study, published in the May issue of the journal Evolution & Human Behavior, researchers showed photos of 10 smiling men to 177 heterosexual men and 351 women, who were then asked to rate the men by their looks. Each man’s facial hair was shown in four ways: clean-shaven, light stubble, heavy stubble, and full beard.
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