A stereotype exists of a woman possessed by premenstrual syndrome. The PMS beast apparently takes over a woman’s body and mind during the days leading up to her monthly period that makes her act irrational, emotional, and, so the story goes, crazy for carbs and sweet treats.

I know that I have felt that “PMS pull” toward unhealthy indulgences now and again. My cravings lean toward the salty, starchy potato type goodies rather than chocolate or sugar-packed snacks.

Is the PMS munchies-monster a myth? Do we women use “that time of the month” as an excuse for a salty-or-sweet splurge? Or is there something else affecting our pre-period appetite?

[Read more →]

Tickle torture. That’s what I kept reminiscing about after watching the recently-released film version of the children’s book classic “Where the Wild Things Are”.

The movie, like the book, features young Max and reflects on that scary precipice of mid-childhood - that point between being a wild little beast who throws a fit to try to get what you want and realizing the repercussions of your emotional outbursts and how your needs coexist with your parents’, your siblings’, your family’s needs. The film managed to be a lovely, touching portrait of one boy’s empathy epiphany and how much we can learn from our own internal “wild things”.

When Max suddenly bites his mother’s arm in a confused emotional moment (anger mixed with fear of being ignored or abandoned as family dynamics change), I remembered the way I used to torture my little sister with tickles when we were kids.

We were good-natured kids, my sister and me, rarely fighting and never hitting each other or anything like that. But tickling would start really innocently. We’d just be playing and I’d poke at her, a small tickle and then we’d both fall into a fit of giggles. Sometimes I’d stop after a few giggles, but there were other times when I’d push it a little too far, and what started as a tickle would become torturous to her. “Stop! Stop!” she’d shout between pained laughs. At least once I remember it all ending in tears.

Reliving those times as an adult watching a movie, I realized how quickly we can slip from being playful to being hurtful. But how can something as simple and innocent as tickling become violent? And is it possible to tickle ourselves? [Read more →]

In a vain attempt to prevent hat hair, I am guilty of going outside on cold days with my head bared to the elements. And there have been mornings when I’ve been running late and couldn’t even be bothered to dry my hair completely. In my mind, I always hear my grandma grumbling at me, “Cover that fool head of yours or you’ll catch your death of cold.”

But is this old wives’ (or old grannies’) tale true? Can you catch a cold if you leave your head out in the cold?

According to research from Cardiff University in Wales, it’s not your head you should be as worried about as much as another part of your body … [Read more →]

I don’t get that sick very often during cold and flu season, usually sniffles and a couple of mild colds. Flu - not so much.

Oh, I had one mega-flu during a trip to northern Italy right after university that I’ll never, ever forget. I don’t know if I’ve ever been sicker than I was then. But I could probably count my bad bouts of flu on one hand and thus haven’t made it a regular practice to get an annual flu shot.

A few years ago, I had a job working with young children, so my co-workers urged me to get vaccinated. I gave in, got the shot, and came down with what felt like the flu. It didn’t feel like a cold - I had fever, chills, body aches that seemed like the usual flu symptoms.

Now, I’d heard some say that they feared getting flu shots because they worried it would give them the flu. Given the persistence of this rumour, I wondered … nah, couldn’t be, right? Can the flu shot give you the flu? [Read more →]

When I was a kid, I apparently cost my family many hours of peaceful sleep, and I’m still hearing about it all these years later.

My dad tells me - and I do sort of remember - that I kept him up many a night with multiple bouts of croup. Croup is a virus common in young children that causes swelling in the windpipe and voice box. The word sounded funny to me, and I thought it was just some special type of cold: I’d get a runny nose, my temperature would be taken, and I would cough.

Oh, would I cough! And not just any cough. This was the croup cough - wheezing accompanied by a lovely, mellifluous, and CONSTANT cough that sounds a lot like a barking seal.

My dad’s remedy was to crank up the humidifier and plop it in the middle of my bedroom. I recall the soft hum and the puffs of warm, misty air emanating from it. But did it help soothe my symptoms? Could I breathe easier? Maybe, but all I remember is that I liked how the humidifier made my room feel a little like a garden greenhouse.

Still, if my dad said it would help, it must have, right? Well, I recently read a study that made me wonder if my father really does know best! [Read more →]

Canadian Thanksgiving is just a week away. Even though I grew up in the US and ours is still a month off, turkey is on my mind and memories flash before my eyes of Thanksgivings past. One of the first memories to pop up is of my grandpa (AKA Papa) stretched out in his recliner in the den.

We’ve just eaten, and Papa’s eyes are heavy, though he still keeps watch on two different “bowl” football games airing on two different television sets - one the old wooden console TV, the other the small, rabbit-eared black-and-white from the kitchen (yes, those were the days before picture-in-picture and games streamed on your laptop).

Even as a kid, I remember a heavy feeling setting in after the big feast and my hyper-kid energy winding down for a few hours after. Lucky for Papa, it kept the kids quiet so he could listen to the games. But why were we all so sleepy? I didn’t feel that way after other meals.

As I got older, I heard all the stuff about tryptophan, which to me sounded like some illicit drug. Apparently abundant in turkey, it’s always suspect #1 to blame for the whole post-meal haze. Is there any truth to this? Does Tom Turkey conspire with the Sandman to send us off to the Land of Nod? [Read more →]