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Distance Between Seat And HandlebarsSit close enough so that your hands rest comfortably on handlebars without forcing your torso forward more than 45 degrees. Seat HeightWhen you stand next to the bike, the seat should hit at hip-bone height. Handlebar HeightThe recommended height is at least 2 to 3 inches above the post (where the handlebars attach to the bike). Your spine should be elongated, elbows slightly bent, and shoulders relaxed....

[sidebar] 1. EdamameThese easy-to-pop soybeans are loaded with more than 100% of your RDA of folate, which is essential for making red blood cells and may prevent DNA damage that could lead to cancer. Toss cooked, shelled edamame into your next salad. 2. Bok ChoyCooked bok choy contains 13% of your RDA of calcium and has a light, sweet flavor. Finely chop the leaves and saute with onions, garlic, and ginger in a little oil....

You’ve probably said those words yourself, dozens of times. You’re doing great, eating right, working out regularly, and something happens. You hurt your back and find it difficult to train. Maybe life just gets crazy and suddenly you’re missing workouts and turning to food for comfort. The hell with minimeals and lean protein. What you need is a pile of cookies. I sympathize—I’ve had my share of those days. But life happens....

Yeah, yeah, you say a food’s nutritional value is important, but only 75% of people “glance at” or “rarely ever look at” nutrition labels on food, according to a new survey by Prevention and supplement company Centrum. Among those of us who do spend time studying it, calories and fat get the lion’s share of the attention, which—news flash, shoppers!—are not the two most important criterion to consider. If this sounds like your shopping style, then your cart probably contains stuff you think is good for you but really isn’t, like diet soda, low-fat crackers or cookies, and pretzels....

“It’s been known for a while that neurons in the brain can improve, that you can increase the number of synapses even in old age,” says lead study author G. John Andersen, PhD, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside. “What’s unique here is that until now, there hasn’t been much one can do behaviorally to improve how the brain processes information.” MORE: 6 Foods For Seriously Sharp Eyesight Andersen and his team took older and younger subjects—college students and seniors in their early 70s—and put them through a series of visual training sessions....

Can the month in which you were born determine the rest of your life? As odd as it sounds, the evidence mounts up. Every day, we pour through endless medical studies, and we repeatedly come across fascinating research that links your birth season with your health later in life. Scientists aren’t sure why these connections exist, but hypothesize that some environmental factors—say, vitamin D levels or temperature fluctuations—may be responsible....

MORE: Out-Of-Whack Hormones Were Exhausting Me, Thinning My Hair, And Making Me Gain Weight—Here’s How I Got Them Under Control I was shocked at how wrong I was about the diet. The diet—which involves eliminating all foods except protein shakes, vegetables, and fruits for 2 weeks, and then adding foods back slowly to see if there is a reaction—really forced me to pay attention to what I’m eating and to how the food affects me....

Illustration by David Saracino MORE: 25 Salad Combos That’ll Make You Love Lunch Again

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All this (and more!) comes from a turmeric spice and supplement analysis conducted by ConsumerLab.com, an independent company that tests the quality and safety of health products. First, the grim details: Two of the nine turmeric/curcumin supplements tested contained a lot less of the healthy curcuminoid compound than was listed on the label. In one case, a product contained just 33% of the labeled curcuminoids. The other mislabeled sample was also contaminated with slight amounts of lead and cadmium....

The researchers looked at so-called powerhouse fruits and vegetables, defining them as foods that “provide, on average, 10% or more daily value per 100 kcal of 17 qualifying nutrients”—including potassium, fiber, protein, calcium, iron, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folate, zinc, and vitamins A, B6, B12, C, D, E, and K. For the sake of analysis, the scientists set a cap of 100% of the Daily Value on individual nutrients so that one piece of produce that had an excess of, say, vitamin C didn’t tip the scales too far in the nutrient-dense direction....

These chronic inflammatory skin conditions can be very similar in appearance, so in the past, dermatologists had to make judgment calls based on a combination of instincts and tissue samples. The researchers, from Helmholtz Zentrum München and the Technical University of Munich, decided that just wasn’t good enough. “A precise diagnosis is very important, as many specific therapies on the market only improve one of the two diseases,” says Kilian Eyerich, PhD, study author and professor at Helmholtz Zentrum München....

Sure, Groupon discounts at your local salon are tempting, but laser hair removal needs to be conducted by a physician, says a new study published in JAMA Dermatology, finding that 86% of lawsuits involving laser hair removal between 2008 and 2012 were conducted by non-physicians. So what’s wrong with getting the laser hair removal offered by your nail salon? “The qualifications to conduct the procedure vary by state, and even then, there’s very minimal enforcement,” says Ranella Hirsch, MD, past president of the American Society of Cosmetic Dermatology and Aesthetic Surgery and dermatologist in Boston....

Sorry, sugar-lovers. In the admittedly delicious-sounding experiment, researchers fed 106 lean adolescents chocolate milkshakes with varying fat/sugar ratios. Brain imaging revealed that fat and sugar affect different parts of the brain. High-fat milkshakes lit up the regions linked to associative learning and somatosensory regions. But high-sugar shakes caused a frenzy in the regions associated with reward, motivation, and taste. That helps explain why sugar can be so addictive—and why sugar is associated with signs of withdrawal, but fat isn’t....

This new research, done by biology students at Aston University in the UK, found that there’s less bacterial transfer if you pick the food up right away, as long as the food isn’t moist or sticky, or dropped on a carpet. But here’s the thing: the research wasn’t published in a peer-reviewed journal and they only ran the test three times. “Three replicates is okay for many types of sciences, but when you’re dealing with bacterial transfer from one surface to another, you need to do 20 to 30 replicates,” says Don Schaffner, a food science professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey....

But wearing lip and eye products, on the other hand, is probably fine. Your lips don’t have any hair follicles, so there’s nothing for lip color to clog, Benabio says. And though it is possible to get a pimple around your eyes, it’s unlikely to happen, he adds. Ultimately, the best thing you can do for your skin is remove the makeup you’ve been wearing all day with a wipe or wash before getting sweaty (these 5 new cleansers get the job done)....

Now there’s exciting research backing up hibiscus tea’s medicinal benefits, especially for heart health. Scientists have confirmed that the deep red flowers gently lower blood pressure, thanks to their diuretic properties (they help the body eliminate excess water) and the fact that their anthocyanins block angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE), the compound that causes blood vessels to constrict—exactly what the prescription combo of lisinopril and hydrochlorothiazide does, but to a milder degree and without side effects....