Health

Prime tick season is approaching, and those creepy little arachnids are carrying all sorts of diseases, including a rare one that’s becoming more prominent: Annual reported cases of babesiosis—a tick-borne disease that can trigger flu-like symptoms, and lead to life-threatening complications in vulnerable people—doubled in the United States between 2011 and 2019, and the true number of infections is probably much higher, according to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Babesiosis is now endemic—meaning it occurs regularly but is contained to specific regions—in at least 10 states in the Northeast and Midwest, but the disease has been detected in many others. Babesiosis is not nearly as common as Lyme disease, the most common tick-borne disease in the country; 16,456 cases of babesiosis were reported to the CDC between 2011 and 2019, while roughly 30,000 cases of Lyme are reported to the CDC each year. Both diseases are likely underdiagnosed and underreported: Lyme is believed to affect up to 476,000 people in the U.S. each year, and the true burden of babesiosis remains unclear, as it’s not required to be reported in all states.While it’s still somewhat rare, it’s not exactly great news that babesiosis is gaining traction. Lyme disease is caused by Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria, which are “loosely related to syphilis,” Thomas Russo, MD, an infectious disease expert at the University of Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, tells SELF. The pathogen that causes babesiosis, Babesia, “is a parasite that invades red blood cells. It’s a completely different beast.”Curious about what that means? Here’s what you should know about babesiosis, including where it’s stirring up the most trouble so far, the symptoms it can set off, and how to protect yourself from tick bites as you enjoy the warmer weather.Where is babesiosis spreading?Babesiosis is mainly transmitted through the bite of an infected blacklegged tick (aka a deer tick), which is also known to carry Lyme-causing bacteria, among other harmful pathogens. Most human Babesia infections are caused by the microscopic parasite Babesia microti.Because these parasites infect red blood cells, babesiosis can also spread via blood transfusions, during organ transplants from infected donors, or from an infected pregnant person to a fetus. “The expansion of babesiosis risk could have implications for the blood supply,” the CDC report notes. “[People] who acquire babesiosis through contaminated blood have been shown to have significantly worse health outcomes and a higher risk for death than do those who acquire the disease from a tick bite.” (Note: the Food and Drug Administration recommends blood donation screening for babesiosis in 14 states and D.C.)Babesiosis is considered endemic in the following states: Connecticut; Massachusetts; Minnesota; New Jersey; New York; Rhode Island; Wisconsin; Maine; New Hampshire; and Vermont.Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire are recent additions to this list due to “significantly increasing incidences” of the disease in these states, the CDC notes. Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island also saw significant increases.

Ask and you shall receive. On March 23, Christina Applegate took Candace Owens up on her call to be educated about inclusivity. In her latest show of faux outrage, conservative talking head Candace Owens went on a rant about a Skims ad campaign that featured a model in a wheelchair. “I don’t really understand how far we’re going to take this inclusivity thing,” Owens said on her namesake podcast of the ad for Skims’s disability-inclusive Adaptive Collection, per Newsweek. The line in question features a range of undergarments with added hook-and-eye closures for accessibility.Seemingly bothered by people with disabilities having access to underwear and bras, Owens continued, “If I’m wrong again, educate me; today, I just want to be educated in the comments. I don’t know why this needs to be done. I’m getting tired of this all-inclusivity thing. It seems ridiculous.” Applegate, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2021, took to Twitter in the early hours of March 23 to respond to these “fucking gross” comments. “Yes late tweet. But woke to see the most horrifying thing,” Applegate began. “This Candace person making comments about companies who see we need help. It’s fucking gross.” She ended the initial tweet with the hashtag “you should know better” but offered to educate Owens anyway in a follow-up post. Twitter contentThis content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.“I thought my last tweet was enough. But then my heart said something else,” Applegate added. “No rage. If Candace wants to get on the phone with me and be educated on being disabled I will not come with anger. I will come with love. Because she needs to hear that. I pray for her tonight. Sincerely.”Twitter contentThis content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.

Conversations around menopause have often been swept under the rug or discussed in hushed tones—which is why a number of celebrities are now speaking about what, specifically, menopause looked like for them. CBS This Morning host Gayle King and actor Drew Barrymore talked about their experiences with perimenopause by sharing the first symptoms they noticed in a new segment aired on Wednesday.A little refresher: Perimenopause (which translates to “around menopause”) simply refers to the time menopause starts, and it can strike at different ages. It can start during a person’s 30s, but most people experience it from ages 40 to 44, according to the Mount Sinai Health System.Barrymore, now 48, said this transition changed the frequency of her periods. “I realized that I was in perimenopause when I started having my period every two weeks,” she said. When King, now 68, asked if she was having a heavy flow, Barrymore said, “Yes, like a teenager.”This was the telltale sign for King. “I went to the doctor because—not to get too graphic—but it looked like a crime scene,” she said. She also said she experienced hot flashes. As King explained, “It feels like you’re burning inside. It just feels hot, for me it was just a physical heat. Then you can sometimes have dripping, drenching sweats.” She joked that you can’t control when and where a hot flash will strike. “It can happen at the most inopportune times,” King said. “I’ve been on the red carpet where a photographer will say, ‘Gayle, are you okay?’ I go, ‘It’s just a hot flash,’ and they say, ‘Sorry, sorry, sorry.’ It’s like they’ve said something very bad about you.”This is part of the reason King and Barrymore are trying to start more discussions about what menopause actually feels like. “I’m just glad we’re having this conversation because I didn’t even know the phrase perimenopause [when it started for me],” King said.The pair also talked about the importance of educating all children—not just little girls—about natural bodily processes. “I don’t want little boys going, ‘Ew,’ [when they hear about menopause],” King said. “I don’t want that because it is something we go through. And it’s just male and female—there are differences, and those differences are okay.”Related:

Ed Sheeran revealed he struggles with disordered eating in a new interview from Rolling Stone published Tuesday. The 32-year-old singer and songwriter also denounced the stigma associated with eating disorders among men.“I have a real eating problem,” he told Rolling Stone. Sheeran explained that, like his mentor Elton John, he’s had issues with binge eating and purging, and added that it’s been difficult to speak about these problems because of the shame associated with them. “There’s certain things that, as a man talking about them, I feel mad uncomfortable,” Sheeran said. But this is one of the reasons he’s choosing to share his story, he added: “It’s good to be honest…because so many [men] do the same thing and hide it.”This stigma is fueled by outdated ideas about who can—and can’t—have an eating disorder, Kimberly Dennis, MD, a member of the Clinical Advisory Council at the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), tells SELF. “It’s been a pretty persistent, long-held myth that [eating disorders] are diseases that impact skinny white girls,” Dr. Dennis says. “That harms large portions of the population, [including] men.” According to data from NEDA, about one-third of all people with eating disorders are men.Because most of the messaging around eating disorder warning signs has traditionally been focused on women, many men don’t understand that they’re susceptible to these diseases, Dr. Dennis adds. Often, when they start to experience symptoms, “The men themselves don’t know it’s a disorder,” she explains. “They often feel shame about it because they think, This is a women’s disease. Why am I experiencing this?”Even men who know they have a problem may be less likely to try to get help, she adds. “Because of the concepts of toxic masculinity, the cultural norms of what a man is—a lot of that messaging and the psychosocial aspects of being a man in our culture can interfere with a man seeking eating disorder treatment,” Dr. Dennis says. Research has shown men are less likely than women to receive a mental health–related diagnosis, and traditionally masculine social expectations may be to blame.  Even some men who turn to their doctors for help may not get the care they need, she adds: “This a myth that pervades most medical specialties, and primary care doctors get very little training in eating disorder [protocols], so unless it’s more of an extreme case, they often miss the diagnosis.”This is especially troubling, given the huge toll an untreated eating disorder can take on a person’s overall health and well-being, says Alissa Rumsey, MS, RD, founder of Alissa Rumsey Nutrition and Wellness and the author of Unapologetic Eating. She adds that among all mental illnesses, eating disorders are the second deadliest, second only to opioid use disorder. “Untreated eating disorders can go on for years, if not decades, and contribute to physical and mental health issues,” she tells SELF.It’s crucial to change the narrative and make sure men know they, too, can experience eating disorders, Dr. Dennis says. All institutions that provide information on these conditions need to take this into account, she adds: “The messaging that starts very early on in most school settings needs to center that men have eating disorders, too, and treatment settings need to intentionally address the unique needs of men” with eating disorders. This means identifying that many men grow up hearing that they shouldn’t—or can’t—struggle with an eating disorder, acknowledging that this is incorrect, and helping them find a treatment option that works best for them, she adds. According to the Mayo Clinic, useful interventions could include taking medication, working with a therapist, or working with a registered dietitian.It’s also important for men who have firsthand experience to share their stories—like Sheeran did—when they feel comfortable doing so, Dr. Dennis adds. “It’s always helpful when men speak about having an eating disorder or having recovered from an eating disorder. When we don’t [highlight these stories], men internalize the idea that I shouldn’t have this,” she explains. “That propels shame and interferes with people getting help. And help works.”If you’re struggling with an eating disorder, you can find support and resources from the National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA). If you are in a crisis, you can text “NEDA” to 741741 to be connected with a trained volunteer at the Crisis Text Line for immediate support.Related:

During cold and flu season, it can be difficult to figure out what’s wrong if you start to feel sick. There’s a lot of overlap among the warning signs of illnesses that spike during fall, winter, and even early spring, like the common cold, COVID-19, influenza, and strep throat.If you or someone you’re caring for has strep, chances are the throat pain will be more intense than that of common viral illnesses—even including COVID-19, Cory Fisher, DO, a family medicine physician at the Cleveland Clinic, tells SELF. Though it’s very pronounced, a sore throat isn’t the only symptom that strep can cause: The infection, which occurs when bacteria known as group A Streptococcus infect the throat and tonsils, can also cause fever; pain when swallowing; red and swollen tonsils; white patches or streaks of pus on the tonsils; swollen lymph nodes in the front of the neck; and tiny, red spots on the roof of the mouth, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).All of this is to say: You’re likely going to feel pretty run down for a few days if you have strep throat, which spreads through the respiratory droplets of, or direct contact with, an infected person. While leaving your house to trek to the doctor’s office might be the last thing you feel like doing, it’s really important to seek medical care if you think you have strep throat.Not everyone needs to take medication for strep throat, per the CDC. Specifically, “carriers” of the bacteria—or people who test positive, but don’t have any symptoms—usually won’t need treatment. But if you’re symptomatic and you test positive for strep, your doctor is probably going to recommend a treatment plan that includes antibiotics.A recent warning from the CDC about an uptick in invasive group A strep (iGAS) cases in children means you should also monitor any kids in your life for strep throat symptoms if they’re sick. Act quickly if you think they’ve been infected, since iGAS can be life-threatening for children in some cases, as SELF previously reported.Below, experts answer questions about strep throat treatment options, and why it’s truly a bad idea to try to “ride it out” without seeing a doctor.How to get rid of strep throatIf you think you have strep throat, you should make an appointment with a primary care provider so they can test you for the infection ASAP, Waleed Javaid, MD, epidemiologist and director of Infection Prevention and Control at Mount Sinai Downtown in New York, tells SELF. If you don’t have a go-to primary care provider or have trouble making a last-minute appointment, you should go to a local urgent care center to be tested.The gold standard for treating strep throat is a course of oral antibiotics, Dr. Javaid says. This will help control the infection and minimize the risks of potential complications, which aren’t anything you want to mess with: An untreated strep infection can lead to scarlet fever; inflammation of the kidney; rheumatic fever; a condition called poststreptococcal reactive arthritis, which causes inflammation of the joints; sinus or ear infections; as well as the development of abscesses (pockets of pus) around the tonsils or neck. In severe cases—when the infection causes invasive disease (iGAS)—the bacteria can spread to the skin or bloodstream. However, these complications are rare: Out of millions of strep infections each year, only 14,000 to 25,000 are classified as iGAS cases, per the CDC.

Florida lawmakers are considering a bill that would outlaw certain conversations about health and wellness for children in fifth grade and below, including discussions about periods. Constituents recently found out just how alarmingly restrictive it could be.A viral video of Florida state representatives discussing House Bill 1069—which would limit all instruction around sex to grades 6 through 12—was taken last Wednesday and shows Representative Ashley Gantt asking Representative Stan McClain, a proponent of the bill, about what it would mean, realistically, for teachers and students.“Does the bill prohibit conversations about menstrual cycles? Because we know that typically [menstruation begins] between 10 and 15. So if little girls experience their menstrual cycle in fifth grade or fourth grade, will that prohibit conversations for them, since they are in a grade lower than sixth grade?” Gantt asks. McClain replies, “It would.”Restricting conversations around menstruation, a normal bodily process, would be incredibly damaging, especially now: Post-Roe, parents, educators, health care workers, and others who work with children and young adults should be overcommunicating about the function of menstruation, Taraneh Shirazian, MD, a board-certified ob-gyn at NYU Langone, tells SELF. “Menstruation is a normal biologic change, and girls and boys should understand it,” she says. “[If you censor conversations around it], you’re going to set up a big problem for young [people] around the issues of pregnancy and family planning.”As Gantt pointed out, simplifying menstruation to a process that’s supposed to start during or after sixth grade will automatically isolate people for whom it starts earlier. “The nine-year-old [who gets their first period] is going to feel stigmatized and alone going to school,” Dr. Shirazian says. And many people start menstruating before sixth grade (at which point students are usually 11 to 12 years old). According to data from the Centers for Disease and Prevention (CDC), up to 10% of girls in the US begin to get their periods by age 10.Regardless of age, implementing this law would send the message that girls’ bodies are unspeakable—which will likely have long-term consequences, Jennifer Lincoln, MD, a board-certified ob-gyn and executive director of Mayday Health, a health education nonprofit, tells SELF. “Banning educators from discussing normal and physiological processes like menstruation enrages me as an ob-gyn. We are basically telling menstruators that we can’t talk about what’s happening to their bodies, which implies that it is shameful, dirty, and unnatural,” Dr. Lincoln says. “This sets the stage for a lot of misunderstanding and psychological trauma that will need to be undone. How these legislators sleep at night is incomprehensible to me.”House Bill 1069 would indirectly teach school-age girls that their bodies are somehow controversial when compared with boys’ bodies, Dr. Shirazian explains: “Once you start to set up that dichotomy, we can’t empower girls.” In some parts of the world, this stigmatization comes at a huge cost, she adds: “Globally, some girls are not going to school” because of societal shame attached to starting their periods.

It’s pretty common to have dense breasts, which means that you have more of certain kinds of tissue in your boobs than other kinds. For around 40% of people with breasts, the majority of their breast tissue is dense.Doctors can tell if a person has dense breasts by looking at their mammogram results—and this is important information to have, since people with dense breasts may need additional breast cancer screenings other than mammograms.Until last week, facilities that offer mammograms, like hospitals or ob-gyn practices, weren’t all required to let people know if they have dense breasts. Some—but not all—states had laws that providers needed to be able to let people know about this, but the actual notification process from facilities that perform mammograms to doctors and/or patients has looked different across the country.Now the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is changing that: It’s giving all mammography-providing facilities 18 months to comply with a new requirement to notify people if their mammogram shows they have dense breasts. “This is intended to help ensure important information that could affect decisions about patient care, such as the potential need for further evaluation or a repeat mammogram, is communicated as completely as possible,” the agency said in a statement released March 9.This change will hopefully lead to more breast cancer detection and early intervention in states that haven’t had to let people know about their dense breasts, Elisa Port, MD, a surgical oncologist at the Dubin Breast Center at Mount Sinai in New York, tells SELF. It may also improve the notification process in some states.“There’s no consistency from state to state,” Dr. Port says. In some states, she adds, only the provider is notified when a person’s mammogram shows dense breast tissue—which leaves the patient out of the conversation about what to do next, if anything.In terms of what this will look like in practice, Dr. Port says, “a paragraph included in the [mammogram] report will state that your breasts are not dense or that your breasts are dense, and you can talk to your provider about what this means.”Since the new requirement won’t take effect overnight, if you have a mammogram during the FDA’s proposed 18-month time frame and your provider doesn’t mention anything about whether your breasts are dense, you should bring it up yourself. Dr. Port says that a good way to start this conversation is to simply ask, “What does my report say about my breast density?”Not everyone with dense breast tissue will need extra breast cancer screenings, but they will be recommended for some, Dr. Port says. For example, a doctor may order follow-up tests if their patient has very dense breasts (we’ll get into this below!) and a history of breast cancer in their family. Regardless of what the information leads to, knowing that you have dense breast tissue is “one more data point” on your health that you can factor into future decisions about which breast cancer screenings are right for you and how often you should get them, Dr. Port says.

All of these types of proposals, no matter what age groups they single out, have a chilling effect on virtually any conversation regarding trans or queer identities in K–12 classrooms. Florida’s law and the copycat bills that are being pushed across the US are so vaguely worded that they have created mass confusion among teachers, students, and school districts, with little clarity provided by state leaders.The “Don’t Say Gay” statute in Florida, for instance, required that all instruction on LGBTQ+ subjects be “age-appropriate” without defining what that means, and school districts have interpreted it broadly to avoid potential lawsuits. Some Florida districts have banned trans-inclusive children’s books like Call Me Max and I Am Jazz from school libraries to avoid infringing on Florida’s laws. Others have reportedly ordered teachers to remove all books from their personal classroom collections.Other states are trying to prevent trans students from using campus restrooms and locker rooms that match their identities, as lawmakers simultaneously continue to limit sports participation for trans and non-binary youth. In addition to the 18 trans sports bans already in place, 25 states are attempting to prevent trans students from competing on sports teams that align with their gender, compromising 56 bills in total, an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) spokesperson tells SELF. Passing restrictive drag bans that threaten trans people’s right to exist in publicIn 2023 alone, at least 35 bills have been introduced in 16 states that seek to restrict drag performances, a Human Rights Campaign spokesperson tells SELF.This month, Tennessee became the first state in US history to restrict drag shows, and LGBTQ+ people and allies are concerned that the mandate—and others like it across the country—could have devastating consequences for trans people. Tennessee’s SB3, which was signed into law by Republican Governor Bill Lee on March 3, prohibits “adult cabaret entertainment” from taking place on public property or in any venue where a minor could conceivably be present. Those who violate the statute face a Class A misdemeanor on the first offense and a Class E felony upon subsequent infractions. This means drag entertainers could face a sentence of between one and six years in prison—in addition to a maximum fine of $3,000—for performing at an all-ages drag brunch or reading to children at Drag Story Hour events, both of which have already faced violent threats from far-right and white supremacist groups.While the law specifically takes aim at drag performances, critics have warned that these bills could be used to penalize gender nonconformity. Nebraska’s version of the Tennessee drag ban, LB371, defines drag as any performance in which individuals exhibit a gender presentation “that is different than the performer’s gender assigned at birth using clothing, makeup, or other physical markers,” which could potentially prohibit actors from performing in a local community theater production of Mrs. Doubtfire, make it illegal for trans people to sing karaoke at a bar, and make it virtually impossible for Pride parades as we know them to take place. The Nebraska bill goes so far as to outlaw drag events from being held within 1,000 feet of a “child care facility, park, place of worship, playground, public library, recreational area or facility, residence, school, or walking trail,” making it extremely difficult for LGBTQ+ people to find any community space at all.

Lopez quit smoking cold turkey on a family trip. He took up running, participating in races ranging in distance from 5Ks to half marathons. He still sometimes struggled with smoking, occasionally lighting up. Once he threw himself into running more seriously and started training for full marathons, Lopez’s desire to smoke completely disappeared. He hasn’t smoked in nearly a decade.“Running has been a big part of my transformation from a habit standpoint,” he says. “There’s [probably] more I can do to cover every angle of my health, but, at this point, I’m probably at the peak of my self-care when it comes to nutrition, healthy habits, sleep, and striking a work-life balance. My family is my biggest motivation in all I do. They’re my ‘why,’ and I want to be here [for them] for as long as I can, in the best shape possible and taking care of myself.”“I used an app and was motivated by the numbers.”Katie Meeker, 37, started smoking at age 18 shortly after starting college. Although both her parents were smokers, she had no desire to pick it up until she found herself in social situations where everyone else was smoking. Meeker tells SELF that she’s always been driven by milestones, so once she started planning her wedding in 2014, she set the goal to quit that year after almost nine years of smoking. “It wasn’t necessarily that I wanted to quit smoking by the time I got married,” Meeker says, “But it was one of those milestones of, All right, I’m an adult. I’m growing up, getting my life together. This is the year that I quit smoking.”After setting that goal and experiencing a particularly rough case of bronchitis where she wasn’t physically able to smoke, Meeker was committed. “That was definitely the catalyst for quitting, that I got sick and couldn’t smoke. [After that,] I really needed the motivation to keep going and to not start smoking again,” she says.A friend turned Meeker on to the QuitNow app, which she downloaded to stay on track. She found that she was very motivated by the gamification of the app, which generates stats like how long it has been since you smoked, how many cigarettes you’ve avoided, and how much money you’ve saved by not buying cigarettes. It also estimates the potential health benefits you continue to reap the longer you stay smoke-free.“Right now, I’ve quit for eight years, 72 days and 10 hours, I’ve avoided almost 30,000 cigarettes [based on entering that I smoked 20 cigarettes, or a pack a day], I’ve saved $4,400, and I’ve ‘won back’ 124 days of my life, based on World Health Organization data,” Meeker says. “[According to the app], I’m 81% of the way of having my risk of lung cancer fall to about that of half of a smoker, and my risks of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, cervix, and pancreas, as well as coronary heart disease, [are decreasing].”

Every weekday, I try to carve out 30 minutes or so to jog around my neighborhood. Between the hours of 9 to 6, I am essentially tied to the desk in my home office. I consider these daily outings short, very necessary bursts of self-care—opportunities to detach from my laptop, move my body, and breathe in fresh air. While I typically feel more relaxed and focused when I return from running, too often, I stress out about making sure I’m able to squeeze it in—even on days when I’m just not feeling it—and I’m hard on myself when I don’t get around to it. If a particular practice is causing stress or otherwise eroding your well-being, is it really “self-care?” According to Pooja Lakshmin, MD, a board-certified psychiatrist and author of the new book Real Self-Care, the answer is a big NOPE. You may think you’re doing something in the name of wellness but, ultimately, if that so-called self-care doesn’t feel like you’re, well, taking care of yourself, it’s not going to have the effect you want, Dr. Lakshmin tells SELF.That’s not to say the activity in question—whether it be nightly journaling, a meditation or massage session, or, in my case, a daily jog—is inherently bad (and, hey, there very well could be some great benefits). It’s just that, if it’s not connected to your own needs and values in a given moment, you’ll lose the restorative rewards of the practice, Dr. Lakshmin says.Here are a few questions to ask yourself to determine if your self-care routine is actually serving you, or if you’ve fallen into the trap of practicing what Dr. Lakshmin calls “faux self-care.” Is the activity internally or externally motivated?First, take a sec to determine what’s driving you to do your self-care practice: Are you going to yoga because it legitimately gives you the time and space to slow down and connect with your breath and body, for example? Or did you sign up for a studio membership so you can post a cute mirror selfie on IG or secretly compete with the person on the mat next to you? (Nope, never done this. Not me!)Dr. Lakshmin recommends asking yourself: Is my reason for doing X practice coming from the outside or the inside? In other words, are you seeking positive feedback or validation from others, or perhaps trying to live up to diet culture-driven “wellness” ideals? Or do you genuinely want to do a yoga flow or some post-work stretches, say, so you can detach from your day and tend to your body and mind? If your motivation comes from genuine enjoyment of an activity, you’re much more likely to feel refreshed afterward. As Dr. Lakshmin says, when practicing self-care, ideally you want to be totally immersed in the moment, so you can fully absorb the practice.Are you too focused on what you’re achieving?Another common mistake, according to Dr. Lakshmin, is approaching self-care as a form of achievement. For example, maybe you go to a cycling class twice a week, but instead of using the 45 minutes to absorb the positive energy, sweat out some tension, or get lost in the ride, you’re hyper-focused on where you fall on the leaderboard (the stress!) or how many classes you logged that week. Or maybe you make yourself log a certain number of steps or meditation sessions so you can please your smartwatch or get a “Nice work!” notification from an app.