This Everyday Habit Gave Me Cancer—And Nearly Ruined My Face

When Janet, 42, suddenly noticed a bump on the side of her nose while looking in the mirror, she assumed it was a harmless pimple. Two days later, things got weird, the iHeartRadio host in Oklahoma City tells Reader’s Digest: “It just sort of self-exploded, and then it began bleeding excessively,” she recalls.

For the next three weeks, Janet watched as the spot on her face scabbed over and bled repeatedly. Finally, her husband convinced her to go to the doctor. “He’s a firefighter, so he’s seen everything. I really thought the doctor was going to laugh that I came in for a zit,” she explains. To her disbelief, her doctor referred her to a dermatologist. “My primary care doctor said he was willing to bet I had basal cell carcinoma. The dermatologist confirmed it with a biopsy. I was shocked,” she says. Make sure you know the different skin cancer symptoms when you’re checking your own body.

A tanning bed aficionado since her teens and an avid runner who disregarded sunscreen, Janet was especially susceptible to skin cancer—which happens to be the most common type of cancer. “I begged my mom to sign permission slips for tanning beds when I was 16, and I tanned before every vacation. Looking back, I’m not surprised I got it,” she explains. Tanning and not using sunscreen are just two common cancer risks—don’t ignore these surprising skin cancer risks either.

After undergoing a separate surgery to remove a dime-sized chunk of her nose, Janet’s next stop was a plastic surgeon to restore her appearance. Her options were limited: “A skin graft isn’t desirable on the face because the color never matches,” she says. “My doctor said I wouldn’t be satisfied with it, and recommended the flap surgery instead.” For this procedure, the surgeon would transfer skin from a discrete spot on her forehead to patch her nose and then—prepare yourself—route a vein from her forehead to supply the patch until the skin can survive on its own. And that vein is left hanging from the forehead and connected to the nose in a sort of loop in front of her face. Janet asked her surgeon what the recovery was like. “He said that I could return [to work] after a few days, but most people take three weeks off to heal because they don’t want to leave the house looking that way,” she recalls.

Janet chose the flap surgery and immediately afterward understood why most people take the three weeks at home. “I cried almost every day, it was such a painful open wound—and emotionally it was just a very dark time,” she recalls. “I tried to go shopping at Target, and people would just stare—or worse—leave the aisle entirely,” she says. Tired of the curious stares from strangers, and even those of friends, Janet went “live” on Facebook to explain her new look. “After the video, I received so many notes from others undergoing the same treatment who felt comforted that they weren’t alone,” she recalls. It was exactly the push she needed to become more vocal about her diagnosis. “It’s heartbreaking to me to think that others going through this feel like they need to hide,” she explains.

After Janet had her final stitches and the vein removed, she says, “I remember leaving the doctor’s office and feeling like I made it.” Today, Janet is cancer-free and visits her dermatologist twice a year. She has partnered with the Miles Against Melanoma Foundation and has found educating others to be rewarding. Her words of encouragement to those facing a skin cancer diagnosis are simple, yet memorable: “You will feel the sunshine on your face again—just wear your sunscreen.” That being said, make sure you know these 51 things dermatologists need you to know about skin cancer.

 

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8 Times You Should Call 911—And 7 Times You Shouldn’t

Call: You or someone else is experiencing a severe allergic reaction

If anyone begins showing signs of a severe allergic reaction—increased heart rate, difficulty breathing, swelling tongue—call 911. Severe allergic reactions can lead to death quickly—in under an hour—so you may not have enough time to get to the emergency department. Emergency responders can give immediate treatment with epinephrine.

“Parents and caregivers are not trained medical professionals, so making a medical decision as to whether an allergic reaction is 911-worthy can be challenging,” says Gerald Lavandosky, MD a pediatric critical care doctor at Pediatric Critical Care of South Florida. “Factors that need to be considered when calling 911 include distance to the nearest emergency department, traffic, weather conditions, and transportation capabilities of the family.” Dr. Lavandosky says mild allergic reactions can be brought to a doctor’s office or emergency department by a family member, but when respiratory symptoms, swelling of the mouth, drooling, or difficulty breathing show up, it’s time to call 911.

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What to Do When You Find a Tick in Your House

An innocent walk through the woods with your pup can result in ticks entering your home. While many varieties of ticks aren’t prone to making a home indoors (deer ticks typically die within 24 hours, and can only survive short periods in places where moisture content is less than around 90 percent, and many species of ticks prefer to lay eggs on the soil surface and don’t reproduce indoors), brown dog ticks, for example, do. Ticks are detrimental, sure, but these 12 most dangerous bugs that you need to look out for this summer wreak their own havoc. So, if you find a tick in your house, of course you should get rid of it but be sure to then keep these things in mind.

1. Check yourself and your family.

A long walk in the woods with Fido and the family on a beautiful fall day can result in ticks hitchhiking their way into your home via your clothing and the dog’s fur. Be sure everyone wears clothing that covers their skin. Also, be sure to carefully check your hair and your pet’s fur! Comb through your dog’s fur, and check for any bumps. Also, check your pet’s feet (including between the toes), inside their ears, and around the face and neck. Have an outdoor cat? You’ll want to check them every time they come in! Your pets and ticks can’t talk, but here are 13 things a tick wouldn’t tell you to avoid its bite.

2. Repair and seal any crevices or gaps.

Most ticks have no interest in coming indoors. However, brown dog ticks can be enticed indoors through small cracks and crevices in homes that aren’t well maintained. If this happens and ticks start laying eggs, you could have a full-blown infestation on your hands. So, this is one more reason to be diligent with your efforts to seal up any and all cracks and openings in your home’s exterior.

3. Use tick treatments.

For an extra dose of safety, be sure to prevent ticks from clinging to your animals in the first place by using tick collars and spot-on treatments.

4. Modify your landscape.

To keep ticks out of your home, you’ll want to keep them out of your yard. The Verona (NJ) Environmental Commission suggests keeping your lawn mowed to a height of 3 inches, getting rid of brush, weeds, leaf litter and other debris, raking up leaf litter and cutting down underbrush for several feet into the woods, if your yard ends at a woods. Also, eliminate densely planted beds near your house. The commission also suggests using wood chips or gravel to create a barrier between wooded areas where ticks are common and your lawn and moving woodpiles, bird feeders and birdbaths far from your home to keep mice and chipmunks, which are hosts for ticks, away.

5. Vacuum like you mean it!

Suck up any ticks in your home with a vacuum. The device will not only pick up the ones you see, but ticks in all life stages. Use it especially in places frequented by your outdoor animals, as well as your carpets, rugs and furniture.

6. Scatter diatomaceous earth.

According to the Verona Environmental Commission, diatomaceous earth (DE) is a safe alternative to boric acid, which, if ingested, is toxic! If you want to go the natural route, here are 10 chemical-free ways to get rid of household pests. Rake DE into the carpet, and get the dust into the corners of any uncarpeted floors. Remove after a week. DE is made up of tiny fossilized aquatic organisms that pierce the tick’s outer layer as it crawls over the fine powder, dehydrating the tick without using toxic pesticides.

7. Dry clothes, then wash them.

According to the AARP, after coming indoors after spending time outside, immediately take off your clothes and throw them in the dryer first. This will dry them out and kill any ticks that are on the clothes, in addition, try these 9 ways to avoid a tick bite this summer. Leave the clothes in the dryer on high for 15 minutes, and then wash them.

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24 Things You Didn’t Know You Could Do with Baby Shampoo

Wash your face

If it’s gentle enough for your baby’s skin, then it stands to reason it would be gentle enough for your own. That’s how Heidi Klum came to include baby shampoo as part of her go-to beauty routine. She calls it “gentle” and “thorough,” according to Hello Giggles.

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This is What Happens to Your Body When You Hold Your Breath

How long could you comfortably stay underwater without coming up for air? Thirty seconds? Maybe a couple of minutes? How about 24? That is the current world record for breath-holding held by Alex Segura Vendrell of Spain. Before you get any ideas for your next party trick, it’s important to note that Segura Vendrell is a professional freediver and trained extensively for those 24 minutes and 3.45 seconds.

How is it possible to hold your breath that long?

It turns out that holding one’s breath for an extended period of time, also known as voluntary apnea, is somewhat of an extreme sport in and of itself. Professional divers and competitors train by taking deep breaths before submerging themselves. By holding a big breath before going underwater, a diver is able to push the carbon dioxide out of his or her body, which takes away the body’s natural reaction to come up for air.

Sounds dangerous, right?

How long is it safe to hold your breath?

According to the Canadian Red Cross, most healthy adults can comfortably hold their breath for about one to two minutes. Anything beyond this is dangerous and should be avoided and can put you at risk for drowning, even in shallow water. Breath-holding underwater is just one of the things lifeguards wish you wouldn’t do. Here are just a few of the processes going on in the body when you hold your breath.

Your oxygen levels go down

Without fresh oxygen coming into our bodies, the oxygen saturation level of our blood goes down. This means that our brain and organs do not receive the oxygen they need to function. When our brains begin to become hypoxic, the first symptoms are a feeling of confusion, altered decision making, and loss of coordination.

Your carbon dioxide levels (should) go up

If you were to hold your breath right now, your blood’s oxygen level would start to decrease and its carbon dioxide level would go up. Our bodies release carbon dioxide when we exhale, so as we hold our breath, it builds up and causes us to feel the urge to take another breath. However, this increase in carbon dioxide doesn’t always happen underwater.

A study in the European Journal of Applied Physiology found that when divers intentionally hyperventilate or exercise before going underwater, their carbon dioxide levels are slower to go up. This can put the diver at risk of passing out before feeling the need to come up for air.

You could be at risk for brain damage

A study in the Journal of Applied Physiology found that when divers held their breath for extended periods of time, they had higher levels of the protein S100B in their bloodstream. This protein is a marker for brain damage; fortunately, the increased level was temporary and went back to normal once they started breathing again.

“The results indicate that prolonged, voluntary apnea affects the integrity of the central nervous system, and may have cumulative effects,” explained the researchers. It’s unclear if people who regularly hold their breath, such as divers, are at risk for long term damage.

You could lose coordination

The study in the Journal of Applied Physiology also found that divers had higher levels of lactate in their blood while holding their breath. Lactic acid is what builds up in your muscles during a long run or intense workout and can lead to cramping, soreness, and loss of coordination. Seeing this increase in the bloodstream means that the muscles are not receiving enough oxygen. Learn more obscure body facts you didn’t know.

Your blood sugar goes up

Holding your breath for too long can cause your blood sugar to jump. Researchers found that blood glucose levels were higher in divers when holding their breath. It’s unclear why blood sugar rises when the body is deprived of oxygen, but it may be related to our body’s inability to secrete insulin during that time.

Your heart rate slows down

When our bodies are deprived of oxygen, the heart can’t pump fresh, oxygenated blood out to the body. Studies show that about 30 seconds of breath-holding can lead to a lowered heart rate and lower cardiac output.

Your blood pressure goes up

Once your body’s heart rate goes down during breath-holding, it tries to compensate by raising your blood pressure to get blood pumped to the body. This happens as our blood vessels constrict. This blood pressure increase usually happens after three minutes of breath-holding, once the oxygen level in our blood starts dropping.

You could pass out

The dangerous risk of holding your breath underwater is the chance of passing out in the water. According to experts at Emory, when children hold their breath underwater, the pressure in their chests causes their blood vessels to cut off blood flow to the right side of the heart. When this happens, the heart can’t pump blood, which leads to the reflex to faint. Adults who hold their breath for extended periods underwater are also at risk of passing out.

Stay safe around water

Because of accidental drownings related to healthy children and adults holding their breath underwater, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend never practicing voluntary apnea. Be sure to teach your kids to stay safe when swimming and never play breath-holding games with friends.

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10 Best Pillows for Every Type of Sleeper

For heavy snorers and beauty lovers alike

It turns out the best pillows for heavy snorers and sleeping beauties have something in common—their shape. “I always tell patients to find a supportive, curved pillow that props the back of the head up from behind the neck if they’re waking up with puffy eyes and facial skin,” explains Doris Day, MD and clinical associate professor of dermatology at NYU Langone Health. “Skin around the eyes is thinner than other areas, so when blood pools there over several horizontal hours it’s especially noticeable. Pillows that elevate the head, even if they’re designed for snoring, help alleviate this beauty problem, and I use Tempur-Neck Pillows in my practice.” Here’s what else sleep doctors wish you knew about snoring.

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10 Scary Things That Can Happen If You Have Sleep Paralysis

You can’t move

Just like the name suggests, sleep paralysis—one of the sleep disorders you should definitely know about—literally paralyzes you. No matter how hard you want to move your arms and legs or sit straight up in bed to break the moment, you just can’t. This happens when you experience REM sleep (the deepest stage of sleep where dreams occur) while you’re awake. REM sleep, like each stage of sleep, matters. “There’s a disconnect between the body and mind, so your mind is awake but your body hasn’t caught up and is paralyzed. This can be very scary,” says Raj Dasgupta, MD, a fellow of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and assistant professor of clinical medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. The good news is, it’s temporary, and within a few seconds to minutes you’ll be able to move again.

You feel like you can’t breathe

Part of what makes sleep paralysis so panic-inducing is that in addition to being immobile, many people feel like they can’t catch their breath or are choking. “In your mind, you’re still stuck in REM sleep when your breathing is shallowest, but you’re awake and want to take that deep breath…and can’t,” says Dr. Dasgupta. Patients also describe a sensation of someone sitting heavily on their chest compressing their air supply, a phenomenon dubbed the Incubus by researchers of sleep paralysis (named after the classic painting, “The Nightmare” by Swiss artist Henry Fuseli). If this happens, try to stay calm and remember the moment will quickly pass.

You have hallucinations

As if being temporarily paralyzed wasn’t freaky enough, many sleep paralysis patients also experience hallucinations of snakes or giant insects crawling all over their body while they lie in bed helpless. Find out what your sleep issues reveal about your health.

It can be triggered by exhaustion or stress

“One of the biggest causes of sleep paralysis is sleep deprivation, especially from jet lag,” says Dr. Dasgupta.  “When you finally get to sleep, your body rebounds to the stage you need most, which is REM. The more time you spend in REM the more chance you have to experience sleep paralysis.” Stress and anxiety can also increase your chances of an episode, as well as suddenly halting antidepressant medication.

You think someone’s in the room

One of the most common sleep paralysis experiences is to sense or see an intruder in the room, doorway, or right outside the window. “Your mind is awake and hyper vigilant so it goes into protection mode, which can cause hallucinations of someone being in the room,” says Dr. Dasgupta. Other intruders his patients have described over and over include a demon, an old hag, a creepy child with a poorly defined face, and an overall evil presence.

It can happen while you’re falling asleep

Most people think of sleep paralysis as waking up in the middle of the night with a terrifying inability to move. But some people, particularly those who suffer from narcolepsy, actually experience it while they’re falling asleep. “People with narcolepsy fall into REM sleep right away, so that’s why it strikes right away,” says Dr. Dasgupta. Usually, REM sleep doesn’t occur until between 90 and 120 minutes after you nod off. So if you have sleep paralysis, you should know these things sleep doctors want you to know about narcolepsy, too.

You can have an out-of-body experience

One study that explored the most common sleep paralysis hallucinations discovered that some people have “unusual bodily experiences” where they have a feeling of floating or flying, feelings of bliss, or other out-of-body experiences.

It can cause you to panic

Suddenly waking up without being able to move or breathe well can get your heart racing and leave you gasping for air. But try to relax. “The most important thing for people to know is that it happens to a lot of people and it will pass. You just need to let your body catch up to your brain,” says Dr. Dasgupta.

It can strike in a strange place

Falling asleep in a strange bed can be unsettling for anyone, but in sleep paralysis patients it can trigger an episode. “When you sleep in a new place your mind is a little more vigilant whether you realize it or not. So when you wake up and your mind realizes you can’t move your body, plus you’re in a strange place, it goes into stress mode and makes you think you’re seeing things that could harm you,” says Dr. Dasgupta.

It can be hard to snap out of it

Some people say that focusing on wiggling a toe or trying to scream out can help them break out of a sleep paralysis episode. “If something works for you, go for it. But the best option is usually to wait for it to pass,” says Dr. Dasgupta. For more tips, check out what sleep doctors recommend for better sleep.

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