A few years ago, Caroline Myss was sitting in a Ritz-Carlton hotel having Sunday brunch. A student of human nature and the author of seven books about just that, Myss was eavesdropping, naturally. One table over sat a slight hummingbird of a woman celebrating her 89th birthday with her daughter, who was doing all the talking. “I saw So-and-So the other day, and she looked terrible,” Myss recalls the daughter saying....

Roughly a quarter of the probiotic supplements ConsumerLab.com tested contained 56% or less of the healthful organisms listed on their labels, according to the independent laboratory’s results. One product contained just 16% of the probiotic bacteria advertised. “Consumers who don’t do their homework with probiotics might not get what they want or think they’re paying for,” says Tod Cooperman, MD, president of ConsumerLab.com. Probiotics are living organisms collected from strains of bacteria or yeast....

MORE: 11 Surprising Facts About Your Gut The scientists ran several experiments on mice that yielded promising findings. First, they found that mice that drank water with the artificial sweeteners saccharin, aspartame, and sucralose developed glucose intolerance. Glucose intolerance is often a precursor to larger illnesses, such as type 2 diabetes or metabolic syndrome. Unsurprisingly, a group of mice fed just plain water didn’t develop glucose intolerance, but neither did a group of mice fed water with regular sugar—strange, considering that high-sugar diets are at the root of many cases of type 2 diabetes....

Trigger: Christmas trees That’s right—the one and only, the centerpiece of all things Christmas, that perfect fir you found hiding in the lot of freshly-cut trees that’s now twinkling with the lights you spent hours untangling–may be to blame for your stuffy nose, watery eyes and rash-y skin. “Mold is the biggest problem with live Christmas trees,” says Marilyn Li, MD, an asthma and allergy specialist with the Los Angeles County + University of Southern California Medical Center....

Warm-up Twisting Shimmy Single-Leg Stretch Modified Scissors Roll-Ups Hip Circles Sliding Snake Arms Belly Basics

[sidebar]Nutrient: Beta-carotene: You need 36 mg daily How to get it: With breakfast 1 cup cantaloupe (3.2 mg, 54 calories); 1 cup canned apricot halves, in juice (2.5 mg, 117 calories); or a mango (0.9 mg, 135 calories) With lunch Carrot sticks from a medium carrot (5 mg, 25 calories); 1 cup vegetable soup (2.9 mg, 122 calories); or 1 cup raw spinach in salad (1.7 mg, 7 calories) With dinner One baked sweet potato (13....

[sidebar]1. Bob’s Red Mill Chia Seed: Our never-skip sprinkle-in for smoothies and Greek yogurt. ($10; amazon.com) 2. Living Tree Organic Chia, Cranberry, Cherry & Blueberry Butter: Rich and wholesome, this spread is heavenly on toast. ($15; amazon.com) 3. Fearless Chocolate 70% Super Seeds Crunch: This organic dark bar delights with a chia crunch. ($10; amazon.com) More from Prevention: 26 Amazingly Healthy Recipes

Add: Leafy greens. For every additional serving of spinach, kale, or chard you eat, you may lessen your likelihood by as much as 9%. Add: Whole fruit. For every three servings, you may slash your diabetes risk by up to 18%. Avoid: Juice. Consuming one serving a day may raise your odds by nearly 18%. Some varieties are rich in antioxidants, but if you’re at risk of diabetes, consider trading your daily glass of juice for whole fruit....

Sit or lie in a comfortable position and place the tip of your tongue just behind your upper teeth. Exhale through your mouth, making a gentle whoosh sound. Close your mouth and inhale quietly through your nose for a count of 4. Then hold your breath for a count of 7. Finally, exhale through your mouth (making the whoosh sound) for 8 counts. Inhale and repeat the cycle 3 more times....

More from Prevention: What’s Your Breast Cancer IQ?Instead, what’s called for is truly shared responsibility—with essential roles for government, industry, the scientific and medical communities, advocates, patients, and the rest of the American population.Why Have We Made So Little Progress?Since 1990, the death rate from cancer has fallen by about 1% a year, and we have seen reductions in the incidence of lung cancer in men and colorectal cancer in both sexes....

In fact, Italian researchers have found that women who eat chocolate regularly have higher levels of sexual desire than women who don’t indulge. There has been no research that I know of confirming a similar association with Johnny Depp. Add the hots to the list of health benefits that make chocolate the world’s most acceptable addiction. Dark chocolate is great for your cardiovascular health: One of the latest studies found that eating 3....

These beautiful words by Guillermo Peña have been all over Facebook, and are still in my heart. It moved me to tears, and I’ll need to re-read when and if I ever lose patience with my mom and want to run away. Yes, it’s because this is the phase I am in with her as I spin around in this vortex called the “circle of life.”

Times have changed. In 2010, 39% of the 453,663 patients who received hip replacements were under age 65, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. And 42% of that year’s 721,443 knee replacements were performed on patients ages 45 to 64. What’s more, the number of joint-replacement recipients in that age group is expected to increase sixfold by 2030. MORE: How to Prevent Osteoporosis Why are so many people too young for Social Security seeking new joints?...

“Real fruit” beverages That fruit punch drink at the mall was a great way to get in a serving of fruit, right? Wrong. These drinks are only 5% fruit juice, and because they’re full of sugar, a 20-oz bottle packs 300 or more calories—as much as a cream-filled doughnut! Have a box of 100% juice instead. Poultry hot dogs Unfortunately, just like pork and beef hot dogs, poultry dogs often include skin and fat, so they’re no healthier than their “authentic” counterparts....

You may have already put down the diet soda—no loss there; see what diet soda does to you—but before you get on an anti-Splenda soapbox, consider the evidence: “This research is compelling, but it’s far from definitive for humans, as it was done mainly in mice,” says David Katz, director of the Yale University Prevention Research Center. What’s more, the study implicates all three of the artificial sweeteners on the market, which vary greatly in chemical structure, points out Marion Nestle, a professor at the New York University Steinhardt School Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health....