Lifestyle & Wellness

Home – a place where many of us have been spend­ing our time these last few months. With infec­tions spread­ing, many of us will not attend tra­di­tion­al hol­i­day gath­er­ings or bond with extend­ed fam­i­ly or friends. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, with cas­es ris­ing through­out Illi­nois and the coun­try, it’s cru­cial that we lim­it small gath­er­ings as these are a con­trib­u­tor to the rise in COVID-19 cas­es. While cel­e­brat­ing vir­tu­al­ly or with mem­bers of your own house­hold is an option, it may not cov­er the long days after you’ve logged off with your loved ones. 

Haunt­ed hous­es, ghosts and jack‑o’-lanterns are just a few famil­iar scares asso­ci­at­ed with Hal­loween. In 2020, COVID-19 has added a new lev­el of fear to this hol­i­day. What will the spook­i­est day of the year look like dur­ing a glob­al health pan­dem­ic? Dr. Mali­ni Kumar, a pedi­a­tri­cian with DuPage Med­ical Group, explains how COVID-19 will affect Hal­loween and what you can do to make this annu­al hol­i­day ​‘Spook­tac­u­lar’ giv­en the circumstances. 

Your body mass index (BMI) is a broad way to help deter­mine if you are at a healthy weight for your height. Your BMI can be used as a tool to decide if your weight is putting you at addi­tion­al risk for health con­di­tions, such as heart dis­ease and dia­betes. View our info­graph­ic to learn more about your BMI and when to con­sult your physician. 

As you con­tin­ue to wear a face mask in pub­lic to help pre­vent the spread of COVID-19, you may notice some side effects such as break­outs, dry­ness, red­ness or oth­er forms of irri­ta­tion. This is due to the mask cre­at­ing fric­tion against your skin and restrict­ing your air­flow, which caus­es a build-up of humid­i­ty, sweat and bac­te­ria. Our Der­ma­tol­o­gists pro­vide some tips on how to avoid irri­ta­tion from masking.

Essen­tial oils have become a pop­u­lar way to relax and sup­port your emo­tion­al well-being. While many are drawn to essen­tial oils because they’re con­sid­ered to be nat­ur­al prod­ucts, they’re not always risk-free. Incor­rect or over-use of essen­tial oils can cause an aller­gic reac­tion, espe­cial­ly if you have asth­ma or are prone to envi­ron­men­tal aller­gies. They can also pose health risks for preg­nant women, chil­dren and pets. Aller­gist, Amee Maj­mundar, MD, shares tips on how to enjoy essen­tial oils safely.

To effec­tive­ly elim­i­nate as many germs as pos­si­ble and reduce the spread of dis­eases like COVID-19, it’s impor­tant to clean all com­mon­ly used sur­faces through­out your home, car and hand­bag, includ­ing your elec­tron­ic devices. Here are six tips to dis­in­fect your elec­tron­ic devices.

Polyps are often dis­cussed when talk­ing about col­orec­tal can­cer or its screen­ing tests includ­ing a colonoscopy. While you may be famil­iar with the term, you may not know what a polyp is, how it forms and what you can do to pre­vent them. Gas­troen­terol­o­gist, Kaitlin Wan­ta, DO, shares what you should know about polyps and some tips to pre­vent them.

It is rec­om­mend­ed that adults receive sev­en to nine hours of sleep each night. How­ev­er, get­ting the sleep you need to func­tion at your best is not always as easy as it sounds.

For many, breath­ing requires lit­tle effort or thought. For some, how­ev­er, stress and anx­i­ety can lead to short, rapid breath­ing which can wors­en these symp­toms. A great way to avoid feel­ings of stress, anx­i­ety and short­ness of breath is to con­scious­ly focus on the breaths you take each day.

Lifestyle refers to the way you live your life includ­ing your dai­ly habits, activ­i­ties you par­tic­i­pate in and dietary choic­es. Under­stand­ing your food crav­ings can pro­vide valu­able insight and allow you to make changes to improve your over­all health.