Yes, Some People Can Hear Colors, See Sounds, and Taste Words—Here’s Why

Yes, you read that right. Some people can hear colors, see sounds, and taste words—and that’s not even all of the incredible sensations that people with synesthesia experience.

Synesthesia is a type of wiring in the brain that results in one sense co-activating another—for example, hearing certain noises and, as a result, seeing certain colors. This condition is not to be confused with a disorder, however. Rather, “it is the result of enhanced neuronal connections,” according to synesthesia.com. (Did you know that there’s a name for people who see faces in everyday things as well?)

“The brain misfires one sense, [which] activates another sense concurrently. A primary sense might activate a secondary sense with it,” Bruce Cameron, a licensed professional counselor in Dallas, told Reader’s Digest. “Research has noted nearly 60 types or variations of synesthesia.”

According to Laura Linebarger, PsyD, a clinical psychologist and consultant, “A whole dissertation could be written on just one type but here are some of the more common ones: grapheme-color synesthesia (letters and numbers with color), chromesthesia (sounds with color), spatial sequence synesthesia (numbers in space), number form (a mental map of numbers), auditory-tactile synesthesia (sounds and bodily sensations), ordinal linguistic personification (numbers, letters, or sequences and words with personality), mirror-touch synesthesia (sensing something after seeing it done to another, i.e., feeling a touch on your arm when you see another’s arm touched), lexical-gustatory synesthesia (tastes or unusual sensations with words, ex: when I each shrimp, it tastes ‘bouncy’).”

A common type of synesthesia is the aforementioned ordinal linguistic personification synesthesia—associating numbers and letters with personality. “If I see a license plate on a car, I don’t just see the plate, I see each individual personality for each letter and number,” Teena Maddox, senior writer for TechRepublic, told Reader’s Digest.

“They dance through my head, in the background, without me fully realizing it. It’s the same thing when I see words. It’s the first letter that stands out the most, and I see that personality come to life before my eyes. It doesn’t distract me, however, it is simply how my brain is wired and I process it along with everything else,” says Maddox.

A rarer variation of synesthesia is mirror-touch synesthesia, occurring in approximately two in 100 people. Joel Salinas, MD, a neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and author of Mirror Touch: Notes From a Doctor Who Can Feel Your Pain, tells Reader’s Digest what it’s like being a doctor with mirror-touch.

“As you can imagine, in the hospital, having mirror touch can be a bit of a challenge sometimes, but it also helps me help others,” Salinas says. “Recently, during one of my rounds, I was consulted to see a young woman who started acting combative. As I go ahead with the standard exam maneuvers to test her level of arousal and attention, my body mirrors her movements—her beads of sweat, her furrowed brow and grimace.”

“This is a normal experience for me, but I notice an unusual feeling in my chest that I can’t shake,” Salinas continues. “I recommend a special CT scan of her chest to get a closer look. Not long after, her study results come back. They reveal blood clots in her lungs. Without my mirror touch, I would have likely missed it.” Here are the signs of blood clots you don’t want to ignore.

Are you as amazed as we are at these stories of synesthesia? The brain is a fascinating part of the human body—learn more mind-blowing facts about the brain you likely didn’t know.

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Yes, Some People Can Hear Colors, See Sounds, and Taste Words—Here’s Why Health – Reader's Digest

Yes, You Should Go to Bed Angry—Here’s Why

Everyone has heard the age-old admonition: “Don’t go to bed angry.” But is there any merit to it? You might want to think twice before hashing things out with your partner prior to sleep; a scientific study has now disproved the credence to this time-worn adage.

The saying comes from the concept that slipping into slumber while holding onto a negative memory engraves it in the brain, making it even harder to shake off in the long run. (These couples married 50+ years seem to know a thing or two about a long and happy marriage.)

However, according to a new study published in The Official Journal of International Society of Psychoneuroendocrinology, fighting with your partner while struggling with sleep deprivation equates to an increase in stress-related inflammatory responses—which in turn have been linked to higher risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and arthritis. The researchers studied 43 married couples who provided blood samples and reported on how many hours of sleep they had for the last two nights. After instructing the couples to discuss topics that tend to incite discord in their perspective relationships, they took more blood samples after the heated discussion.

Their data indicated that the combination of short sleep and marital conflict lead to heightened inflammation, a risk that partners’ emotion regulation strategies may counteract. If both partners collectively had less than seven hours of sleep throughout the previous two nights, the couple was more likely to argue and become increasingly hostile. Every hour of sleep lent itself to the argument greatly; for every hour of sleep lost, levels of two specific inflammatory markers rose by 6 percent. In essence, their results “highlighted the role of short sleep in more negative or punishing marital behavior.”

Another thing they noticed is how couples chose to fought greatly mattered. While couples who used unhealthy tactics in their disagreement had greater inflammatory responses (about a 10 percent increase with each hour less sleep), couples who used calmer and expressive emotions recorded lower levels of inflammation. (These are the ground rules to follow in your next relationship fight).

Ultimately, your best bet is getting more shut-eye to avoid long-term conflict. We’re not saying that one heated discussion at night will make you wake up with heart disease and diabetes the next morning, but continuously elevated levels of inflammation could put you at higher risk for a wide range of diseases.

And it’s not just your physical health that will take a toll. The longer you stay awake, the less efficient your brain becomes at burning energy needed to think rationally, and in turn, argue efficiently. Sleep’s primary function is to give your body time to replenish a molecule called adenosine triphosphate (ATP) in your cells. Dr. Charles Czeisler, chairman of the board of the National Sleep Foundation and chief of sleep medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, told BuzzFeed Life, “adenosine triphosphate is a molecule that researchers often call the energy currency for life. It’s in all cells, and it’s where your energy to do things comes from.”

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This means that the less sleep you receive and the longer you stay awake, the less ATP you will have available to you. As your capacity to burn energy decreases, different parts of your brain such as the prefrontal cortex, the area responsible for judgment and self-control, work below their maximum abilities—meaning that you’re far more likely to blurt out something you’ll later regret. (In case you’re wondering, this is what happens to your body when you don’t get enough sleep).

He also points out that in deep sleep (REM cycle), the body stores memories. Although some use this notion to discourage going to sleep angry, doing so can actually have a positive effect. During REM sleep, your mind will integrate those memories with other memories that you had previously learned. Insight seems to be an important element of what happens during REM sleep, says Czeisler. That means that when you finally get some shut-eye and pause the argument, your brain will make sense of things while you sleep, giving yourself a subconscious way to solve whatever issue is at the heart of your fight in the first place.

Ultimately, science shows that there’s a likely chance that going to bed angry will give you the mental capacity to wake up with a clearer grasp of the situation—and how to resolve it. Sleep-deprived arguments can rapidly multiply into more fights in the future, so don’t stay up into the darkest hours to grapple with an issue. A resolution you reach at 3 a.m. (when your brain is not at its maximum capacity) will most likely be temporary, in which case, you aren’t really resolving anything anyway.

If you do find yourself stewing over something past midnight, just call it a night and give your brain some time to regenerate. It will give yourself a better chance to tackle it rationally, and even mitigate your likelihood of catching chronic diseases and conditions down the line. (If you’re worried you’ve caught one already, here are the signs of disease that are written all over your face).

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Yes, You Should Go to Bed Angry—Here’s Why Health – Reader's Digest

Yes, You Can Still Have a Healthy Sex Life with Diabetes—Here’s What You Need to Know.

When you think about enjoying life and all its pleasures, great sex may be one of the first things to pop into your mind. The good news is that there’s no reason you can’t have a full and satisfying sex life if you have diabetes. But you need to understand how your disease can affect different aspects of your sexuality and sexual function. Here’s what people who have diabetes have to say about how to live your best life.

First, bear in mind that sexual intimacy can be physically vigorous, burning calories. That means that, like exercise, it may put you at risk of hypoglycemia—inconvenient when making love, to say the least. (Here’s what you need to know about hypoglycemia.) To keep blood sugar stable, it’s wise to take glucose readings before and after sex to get an idea of how your body responds. Try having a sugary drink or a small snack beforehand or, with your doctor’s approval, adjusting your insulin if you know that sexual intimacy is in the offing.

For Women Only

Sexuality is complex in women even without interference from a chronic condition, so it’s no surprise that they generally experience more sexual side effects related to diabetes than men. But the problems are not insurmountable. They may include:

Blood-sugar fluxes

Though it’s not a universal experience, many women notice their blood sugar rises a few days before their monthly period begins. Researchers suspect (though not all agree) that fluxes in female sex hormones, such as estrogen and progesterone, temporarily make cells more resistant to insulin. If you suspect this is a problem for you:

• For several months, keep a log of when your period begins, then compare it to your daily blood-sugar records. If you find a distinct correlation between your glucose levels and your menstrual cycle, talk to your doctor about adjusting your insulin or doses of medication.
• Consider an alternative cause. Some doctors think the real reason blood sugar rises before your period is that premenstrual syndrome make you eat more—or more erratically—thereby causing unusual peaks and valleys in blood-sugar levels. Try eating at regular intervals to keep blood sugar stable, and avoid alcohol and caffeine, which can affect mood. Here are the best snacks for diabetics.
• If you take oral contraceptives, ask your doctor which pill is best for you. Monophasic oral contraceptives (such as Alesse, Loestrin, and Ortho-Cept), which contain fixed amounts of estrogen and progestin, appear to keep blood-sugar levels more stable than triphasic (such as Triphasil and OrthoTricyclen) and progesterone-only contraceptives (such as Micronor and injected Depo-Provera).

Vaginal dryness

Women with diabetes sometimes find they lack natural lubrication during sexual arousal, though this problem isn’t limited to people with high blood sugar. To deal with it, try using water-based lubricants, available at any pharmacy. If the problem continues, check with your doctor; you may have low estrogen levels that can be boosted with topical estrogen cream or hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Weigh the HRT option carefully, however. Although it may solve the lubrication problem, it may also raise the risk of other health problems.

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Infections

Excess sugar in the blood encourages the growth of fungal organisms and bacteria, making women with diabetes more prone to yeast infections and vaginitis. If you experience vaginal discharge or itching, see your doctor for an antifungal cream or antibiotics. Here are the three things women with great sex lives always do.

For Men Only

Sex can sometimes seem more straightforward for men, but the male sexual response is also a complex melding of mind and body that can be affected by diabetes.

The major difficulty men may face is erectile dysfunction (also called impotence), the inability to achieve or maintain an erection—a problem that often occurs with age and is hardly limited to men with diabetes. In many cases, the cause is purely physical. When you have diabetes, poor circulation can prevent blood from properly engorging chambers in the penis, and nerve damage can interfere with signals involved with sexual response. (Fortunately, the nerves that enable orgasm are seldom impaired.) But depression and anxiety can cause erectile dysfunction as well, and sexual difficulties may involve a combination of factors. Here are some steps you can take:

• Narrow it down: Talk to your doctor about possible causes so you know how to treat the problem. It may be a simple matter of adjusting one of your medications. Many drugs, including some for high blood pressure, can interfere with sexual function. If that’s not the issue, pay attention to patterns: if erectile dysfunction seems to happen on and off, strikes suddenly, or occurs in some circumstances but not others, the problem may have a psychological component. If you gradually and consistently lose function over time, there’s more likely a physical cause. These sex drive boosters are 100 percent natural.
• Ask about Viagra: The drug sildenafil citrate (Viagra) induces erections lasting at least an hour in about 80 percent of patients who take it. If side effects like headache, low blood pressure, and diarrhea bother you, other medications are available, though they tend to be less effective. If you have heart trouble, you may not be able to take Viagra.
• Go to extremes: If oral drugs don’t work, try alprostadil (Caverject). Like Viagra, it relaxes smooth-muscle tissue in the penis to boost blood flow, but it’s injected with a needle. Other injectable drugs (papaverine, phentolamine) are available as well. Non-drug approaches include vacuum devices (which use a hand-pumped tube that fits over the penis to draw blood into the organ) and surgically implanted rods that can be bent or inflated by a man (or his partner) when he wants an erection. Here are some more silent complications of diabetes (and how you can avoid them).

 

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Yes, You Can Still Have a Healthy Sex Life with Diabetes—Here’s What You Need to Know. Health – Reader's Digest

Yes, There’s a Miracle Trick to Relieve Eczema—and It’s Unbelievably Simple

I’ve suffered with eczema for over 20 years. From my first year of life, the dry, scaly skin was all too familiar; every night, I would go through a nighttime routine of slathering greasy ointments and creams until the chunky layer of lotion became a whole other skin to me. The idea of short-sleeve shirts sent a shiver down my spine, and I often resorted to sweaters and jackets in 90 degree weather. When I was a kid, I even had to attend school with bandages wrapped around my inner elbows to prevent bleeding. 

The perpetual itch lingering on my skin was like having a series of mosquito bites you can never scratch; do it and it just gets worse. Needless to say, it was not a pleasurable condition and I did all I could do to relieve it.

Fun fact: Pretty much every dermatologist you visit will look you sternly in the eyes and tell you there is no cure for eczema; it’s a chronic condition that you’ll just have to learn to live with. (Learn more about what common diseases you skin can reveal.) This is definitely not what anybody wants to hear because it’s partly true—there is no official “treatment” or magical antibiotic you can swallow to completely eradicate those red patches. But fear not: there are several remedies that can come pretty close.

After speaking with several different doctors, I was told to try the topical steroid hydrocortisone at an early age. Hydrocortisone is no foreign substance to eczema sufferers—the famed medication is commonly used to treat redness, swelling, and itching, so eczema symptoms fit its usage to a T. Unfortunately, relief is oftentimes temporary, and frequent application is highly discouraged for its strong chemicals.

I wanted something that would last longer, work quicker, and treat better. Several fellow eczema sufferers proclaimed the beauty of aloe and its ability to work wonders. At the same time, my doctor informed me that using too many different eczema treatments in conjunction with one another can actually be less effective, so I dropped the army of dermatitis tubes and oatmeal scrubs sitting on my counter and replaced it with just two: aloe and hydrocortisone.

This combination worked wonders for me; using aloe alone was not effective and using hydrocortisone itself was not long-lasting. The mixture of the two, however, was able to not only soothe my nagging itch, but expunge the scaly patches entirely.

Dr. Loretta Ciraldo, a Miami-based board certified dermatologist, offered up some insight as to why this can work. “As a general guideline, itchy eczema skin should be kept cool. Cortisone 10 ointment is usually very helpful as it hydrates skin while delivering 1 percent hydrocortisone which had previously been available by prescription only. Together, the combination of hydrocortisone and aloe vera brings cooling relief to the skin,” says Ciraldo.

Although raw aloe works best, we know it may not be ideal to start growing a garden of aloe plants on your windowsill. If you happen to do so, break open the thick part of the leaf and apply the gel directly onto the affected area. Otherwise, organic aloe from your local drugstore should do the trick just fine.

Keep an eye out for creams that combine the two elements into a single treatment; the one that I use from Equate is my holy grail go-to.

The treatment should only be applied to clean, freshly washed skin; directly after a shower is most ideal as it opens up your pores for easy absorption. From personal experience, applying ointment to dirty skin can aggravate your eczema even more, so keep the application strictly to the bathroom.

“To maximize results, soak skin… think of staying in a room temperature shower until your fingertips get all wrinkled,” says Ciraldo. “At this point your skin has replenished water levels back into the dry, eczema-affected skin. Pat dry and apply the 1 percent cortisone ointment to your skin while it is still damp.”

Keep in mind that everybody’s skin is different, so what worked for me might not work for the next guy—but the combo is definitely worth a try to those yearning for some instant effects.

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Yes, There’s a Miracle Trick to Relieve Eczema—and It’s Unbelievably Simple Health – Reader's Digest

Yes, Windy Weather Can Trigger Rosacea—and So Can These 6 Other Things

Her battle with rosacea

Kristin Chenoweth is a super famous, super talented Grammy- and Tony-award winning actress and singer and her face has graced the covers of magazines, billboards, and everything in between. But what most people don’t know about the bubbly blonde bombshell with the petite stature and powerhouse voice is that she’s spent the better part of her adult years battling a pesky skin condition known as rosacea. “It’s a red, itchy, apparent, slightly embarrassing thing, it’s usually on the face, and people who have it just hate it,” Chenoweth told RD. “It doesn’t matter if you’re on camera or not—who wants to have another ‘thing’ to deal with?”

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Yes, Windy Weather Can Trigger Rosacea—and So Can These 6 Other Things Health – Reader's Digest