ArcaMax

The mask that covers the facial deformities on Erik, the Phantom of the Opera, have ranged from Lon Chaney's 1925 total-face covering (including a strange fabric flap over his mouth) to Claude Rains' 1943 blue-white covering over three-quarters of his face and Andrew Lloyd Weber's version, in which Erik wore a white half mask.

The changes in ...Read more

You'd be surprised who's contended with gestational diabetes -- a type of diabetes that usually appears around weeks 24 to 28 of pregnancy, although it can come on earlier: Salma Hayek developed it in 2007, Angelina Jolie in 2008 and Mariah Carey in 2011.

The rise in blood-sugar levels that signals GD, along with the increased predisposition it...Read more

The lead guitarist for Pearl Jam, Mike McCready, was diagnosed with Crohn's disease at age 21. And although it did cause multiple onstage emergencies (exit stage left), these days he is much better able to deal with the disease. "I've learned solutions to living, whether it be working out when I feel better, to eating a certain way ... there is...Read more

When "Star Trek's" 7 declared, "Resistance is futile," she was telling the Borg's adversaries there was no way to escape the collective hive mind. That's nonsense. It just takes the right band of resistance-fighters, say, from the Starship Enterprise, to find a way to preserve an individual's health and well-being.

Here on planet Earth, ...Read more

In "Sleeping Beauty," a princess is cursed to sleep for 100 years, until she is awakened by a handsome prince. If you have insomnia, you may think you'd enjoy getting knocked out like that, but opting for a diet that helps promote a good night's rest is a smarter option.

Quality sleep tamps down inflammation, promotes heart health and better ...Read more

The boar's bristle toothbrush was invented in China in 1498. Stiff coarse hairs from a hog's neck were used to clean teeth until 1938, when nylon bristles were introduced as Doctor West's Miracle Toothbrush. Floss was mass marketed much earlier -- Johnson & Johnson first sold dental floss in 1896.

Despite a long history of teeth- and gum-saving...Read more

An American Psychological Association survey reported that 42% of U.S. adults gained around 29 pounds in the first year of the pandemic. So it's not surprising that the percentage of obese children and teens jumped from 19% to 22% percent over the same time period, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That cannot become ...Read more

In 2014, Deepak Chopra achieved a Guinness World Record for the largest online meditation event -- 33,061 people participated for 30 minutes of om-m-m-my-goodness serenity. The benefits of meditation are well-documented in terms of stress reduction, improved mood, better sleep and lower blood pressure. But Chopra probably didn't know how ...Read more

Norseman Leif Eriksson spotted North America 500 years before Columbus -- and, unlike earlier sailors who had looked at the rocky terrain from the safety of their sailing vessels, he and his crew set foot on Baffin Island, Labrador and Newfoundland, where they wintered. Those Nordic walks through uncharted territory provided the adventurers with...Read more

When Antonio Banderas starred in the 1998 film "The Mask of Zorro," audiences were glad to go along with the fantasy that covering the mysterious hero's upper face and nose with a small black mask made it impossible to figure out who he was. But we now know that his identity -- and his safety -- would have been better protected if he had worn ...Read more

You may think the cannabis craze is a recent phenomenon now that recreational marijuana has been legalized in 18 states plus Washington, D.C., and Guam. But Gertrude Stein's partner published a recipe for "Haschich Fudge" in her self-titled "The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book" in 1954.

In the intervening 68 years, folks haven't gotten smarter about ...Read more

In the No. 1 country-pop single "A Country Song," Kelsea Ballerini croons, "When I need to feel good in my skin, I drop everything and run to him." A sweet sentiment, but she knows it takes more than that to have good skin. In fact, she's declared, "I used to really not care about my skincare routine, and then I turned 25 and realized I should ...Read more

Did you know that for every 10 F the air temperature outside goes up, the pressure in your car tires goes up by a pound per square inch? Since tires are only inflated to around 30 to 35 pounds per square inch, that added pressure can cause excess wear and tear or a blowout.

Rising blood pressure is even more risky -- and it's a problem for ...Read more

When Ed Sheeran sings "You make me shiver with the fire you got ... You know you make me shiver-er-er," he's describing the goose-bumpy feeling you can get from intense emotions -- triggered by everything from fear to desire. But most of the time, shivers are your body's way of raising your core temperature by relaxing and contracting your ...Read more

Michael Douglas praised the "little blue pill" back in 2005 for its ability to help him overcome the 25-year age difference with his wife Catherine Zeta-Jones. But he probably didn't ever think the benefits would extend to his brain.

That's the discovery made by researchers at the Cleveland Clinic that has the potential to revolutionize ...Read more

In 1995's "French Kiss," Kevin Kline as French conman Luc Teyssier tells Meg Ryan's Kate, "I love the sea. So beautiful, so mysterious ... so full of fish." Clearly an analogy for his life -- after all, he loved to snare unsuspecting people, like Kate, as they floated through his life.

For the rest of you who are on the up and up -- well, it ...Read more

At age 74, late-bloomer Edwina Brocklesby became the oldest women in the U.K. to complete an Ironman triathlon. "I didn't do any exercise at all until I was 50," says Edwina, who was born in 1943. "One day, I went to see an old friend ... who was running a marathon. I thought that would be fun to do, at least a half marathon, anyway." And so she...Read more

If you're a migraine headache sufferer, there's no relief in knowing you share your misery with Ben Affleck, Serena Williams and Kristen Chenoweth. These headaches can shut you down for many hours at a time and cause severe pain, nausea and emotional distress.

While there are new medications that work some of the time for some folks (and that's...Read more

The recognition of five basic human senses -- vision, hearing, touch, smell and taste -- is often traced back to 350 B.C. when Aristotle wrote "De Anima." The senses intrigued him because they're what fuel our interaction with the outside world and with our inner voices, with external objects and the tender sensation of compassion (that healing ...Read more

All the peace-and-harmony mythology that surrounds smoking marijuana is better off in the movies than in real life. It was pretty funny watching Jack Nicholson as George in "Easy Rider" trying pot for the first time and stammering, "You -- you mean marijuana?!" But new research shows it's not really a laughing matter.

A lab study in ...Read more