Clicking into my phone this morning one hour after waking up, in line with my new practice to reduce screen time and protect my headspace as I prepared to launch into the day, I was greeted with multiple posters and salutations from different quarters/people commemorating "INTERNATIONAL MEN'S DAY" 2023. 

Although the thought of men being celebrated felt good at first glance, I could have sworn that it was a prank. International men's day? What is this all about? I whispered to myself. Then I did a little search and only this morning did I realise that, International Men's Day is observed annually on November 19th to focus on men's health, promote gender equality, and celebrate the positive contributions men make to society. It provides an opportunity to address issues such as men's mental health, toxic masculinity, and the challenges faced by men in various areas of life. This year the central theme is "ZERO MALE SUICIDE", as illustrated in one of the official International men's day home page poster below.

If I had my way I would focus on celebrating the positive contributions men make to society all day, everyday, alongside our women-folk. From the relentless hard work to ensure a baseline level of comfort and safety on the nuclear family front, to various amazing contributions in different quarters, including professionally and otherwise, at different levels. It is however pertinent to recognise the fact that, of the approximately 700,000 people who die due to suicide every year, men are more likely to make a large percentage of this sad statistic, with rates quoted to be three times higher compared to women. If you ask for my opinion I'll say it doesn't do the world any good if the reverse was the case, as every single case of suicide is one too many. The theme today however got me reflecting on the various challenges that men could possibly encounter in their journey through life and I stumbled on the below statistics poster that made the rounds 5 years ago.

Although the practice of comparing male to female outcomes (and coming up with indices like the ones noted above) might be an age long phenomenon, I will urge readers to keep an open mind and take a more positive/holistic approach to these and related issues. International men's day should be a day to reflect on how to contribute our quotas both individually, as men living by example, and as a group, to not only appreciate the flavour men should ideally bring to everywhere we find ourselves but to also work on reducing the statistics to zero percent (0 %) for every single challenge. It would have been amazing if we could all possess magic wands 💫 to wave at these issues and make them go away. Unfortunately even against all odds, as the case may be in several regions of the world we live in today, we all have to persistently make concerted efforts to pull our weights and tackle the challenges one day at a time, until we can pat our chests to say that we have made significant progress and beyond. For those who are struggling with any form of anxiety and depression, the major precursor to suicide, please seek professional help as soon as possible and do not leave your family in the dark or put them through a lifetime of emotional pain, as Lori Prichard described in the TEDx Ogden YouTube footage below. 

                              What I learned from my husband's suicide | Lori Prichard | TEDx Ogden

👀: thesun.co.uk

We may be overemphasizing happiness.

Yesterday on Twitter, Dallas Cowboys offensive lineman Travis Frederick revealed that he’s been diagnosed with the autoimmune disease Guillain-Barré syndrome. The 27-year-old NFL player shared a statement detailing a weeks-long “examination and discovery process.” In the previous 48 hours, he wrote, he had undergone two treatments for the condition.

An update on what’s going on with me: pic.twitter.com/KSkMUvyCWk

— Travis Frederick (@tfrederick72) August 22, 2018

Frederick hasn’t missed a football game in the past five years, according to ESPN, but now he's facing some time off the gridiron. “My doctors have told me that it is not possible to determine a time table for a return to the field right now, but I am hopeful that I will be able to play as soon as possible,” he tweeted.

So what exactly is Guillain-Barré syndrome?

Guillain-Barré syndrome or GBS, occurs when the body mistakenly attacks its own nerves, specifically in the peripheral nervous system, which connects the brain and spinal cord to the rest of the body. This can result in a wide range of nerve-related symptoms, including tingling, pricking, or pins and needles sensations; muscle weakness; difficulty walking, speaking, chewing, or swallowing; pain; and, in severe cases, paralysis, which can become life-threatening if breathing is affected.

The worst GBS symptoms are likely to emerge within the first few days and up to four weeks after a person notices that something is wrong, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). After that, symptoms usually stabilize, but recovery can progress slowly over a few weeks or even a few years.

Earlier this month, Frederick sought medical care for “stingers” in his neck. “I have been told that the illness was detected at a fairly early stage,” he tweeted. In general, most people don’t seek out medical attention until they’re already experiencing weakness on both sides of their body, according to the NINDS.

As with many autoimmune diseases, experts don’t fully understand what causes GBS, but it’s thought to be triggered by an infection or surgery. Campylobacter infections (a common cause of food poisoning) are thought to be the most common trigger of Guillain-Barré, according to the Mayo Clinic. The flu, Epstein-Barr virus (best known as the cause of mono), and even Zika have also been linked to GBS.

While many autoimmune conditions are more likely to strike women, men are more likely to have GBS, states the Mayo Clinic, although it can affect anyone.

Building abs and sculpting muscles starts long before you ever hit the gym. Muscle growth requires a formula based on drinking plenty of fluids and eating the right energy-rich foods along with lifting weights. The right formula will fuel workouts, repair muscle tissue, and help you sculpt your physique.

Nutrition Game Plan

1. Fruit and vegetables are the foundation of all healthy diets, providing fiber, vitamins, minerals, and fluids. Vegetables contain small amounts of protein.
2. Low-fat dairy provides high-quality protein, carbs, and essential vitamins such as vitamin D, potassium, and calcium. Sports nutritionists Christine Rosenbloom, PhD, RD, and Nancy Clark, RD, recommend chocolate milk as a good workout recovery beverage. If you are lactose intolerant, you can try yogurt with active cultures.
3. Lean meat is a great source of protein, iron for oxygen transport to muscles, and amino acids including leucine, which, Rosenbloom says, is thought to be a trigger for muscle growth.
4. Dark-meat chicken, compared to white meat, provides 25% more iron and three times the zinc for a healthy immune system.
5. Eggs "contain all of the essential amino acids," Rosenbloom says. One a day is fine according to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines, but don’t throw out the yolk. According to Rosenbloom, "Half the protein is in the yolk along with other import nutrients like lutein for eye health.”
6. Nuts -- unsalted and either raw or roasted -- are a good source of protein. They also contain vitamins, antioxidants, fiber, and healthy fats.
7. Beans and whole grains are quality carbs that contain small amounts of protein for energy and muscle repair along with fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants.

Senator John McCain's long battle with brain cancer ended on Saturday, with his office announcing he passed away at 4:28 pm at his home in Arizona.

His family had announced Friday that McCain was no longer receiving treatment for glioblastoma, one of the most aggressive of brain tumors.

The 81-year-old Republican Arizona senator and hero of the Vietnam War had been undergoing treatment for the glioblastoma since July of 2017, The New York Times reported.

"Last summer, Senator John McCain shared with Americans the news our family already knew: He had been diagnosed with an aggressive glioblastoma, and the prognosis was serious," his family said in a statement on Friday. "In the year since, John has surpassed expectations for his survival. But the progress of disease and the inexorable advance of age render their verdict. With his usual strength of will, he has now chosen to discontinue medical treatment."

One brain cancer expert who's not involved in McCain's care outlined the senator's likely condition in his last days.

"If there is any silver lining in this cloud, it is that patients who die from [glioblastoma] rarely have severe pain," said Dr. Michael Schulder, who helps direct neurosurgery at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y. "They gradually become less alert and most often die from pneumonia or sometimes from the direct effect of increased pressure on the brain. Palliative care can alleviate any discomfort that patients do feel."

McCain had been largely absent from Congress and Washington, D.C., since December, and sources told the Times that his family had gathered in Arizona, anticipating that death might be near.

His illness had't stopped McCain from being a political force, however. Earlier this year he criticized President Donald Trump after a summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, for example.

McCain is the son and grandson of four-star Navy admirals and as a soldier spent five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Over the past few decades he charted a swift rise in politics, both as Arizona senator and as the 2008 Republican nominee for the Presidency against Barack Obama.

According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), glioblastomas "are the fastest growing" of a subcategory of brain tumor known as gliomas. "These tumors make up more than half of all gliomas and are the most common malignant brain tumors in adults."

Each year, almost 24,000 Americans will be diagnosed with a brain or spinal cord tumor, and nearly 17,000 die from these tumors each year, the ACS said.

Schulder explained that "the course of glioblastoma progression is very different from patient to patient. Based on the tumor biology, some patients succumb to the disease within months, most live between one and two years, and some live for many years in good condition after diagnosis and treatment."

More information

There's more on brain tumors at the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

As the U.S. opioid addiction epidemic widened, the federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) placed the prescription painkillers in a tougher-to-refill category.

Many states also mandated monitoring programs to spot overprescribing by doctors.

But two new studies suggest these steps, while well-intentioned, may have led to more opioids -- not fewer -- being given to patients by surgeons after routine operations.

In the case of the DEA's 2014 action to move opioid painkillers to a more restricted class, this "may inadvertently motivate surgeons to prescribe greater amounts to ensure adequate pain treatment," said Dr. Jennifer Waljee, lead author of one of the studies. She codirects the Michigan Opioid Prescribing Engagement Network.

Her team believes that once prescription refills became tougher under the new DEA rules, surgeons who worried about a patient's longer-term pain control simply ordered a larger number of pills so the patient had a "stockpile" of opioids to use at home.

Opioid use for postoperative pain control is thought to be a major "gateway" to addiction, experts note.

The findings made sense to one physician.

While more prescribing after a tightening of rules seems "counterintuitive," Dr. Joseph Conigliaro said he "agrees with the findings.

"In the case of someone having surgery, they are in acute pain, meaning it shouldn't last long," said Conigliaro, who is chief of internal medicine at Northwell Health in Lake Success, N.Y.

"But because there are limits on prescriptions postsurgery, sometimes physicians can prescribe someone twice to four times as much to ensure they will ultimately have what they need," explained Conigliaro, who wasn't involved in the new study.

In their research, Waljee and her colleagues tracked opioid prescription patterns before and after the DEA's new rule, which moved the opioid hydrocodone (Vicodin) from schedule III to the more restrictive schedule II.

The change meant that doctors could now only prescribe a 90-day supply, and couldn't prescribe over the telephone or by fax.

Data on nearly 22,000 privately insured patients in Michigan -- all of whom underwent common elective surgeries -- found that far from hydrocodone prescription rates dropping, the number of prescriptions actually rose after the new rule.

Although there was a reduction in the prescription refill rate, there was an overall average 7-tablet-per-patient rise in hydrocodone prescribing after the DEA change, Waljee's group noted.

Why the unexpected trend?

"Our main thought was that since surgeons were more limited in their ability to prescribe extra pain medications after the patient left the hospital, they prescribed more up front to avoid the risk of patients running out," said study co-author Dr. Joe Habbouche. He's a surgery resident at Michigan Medicine, the academic medical center at the University of Michigan.

In a second study, researchers at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., looked at changes in opioid prescribing after New Hampshire mandated "prescription drug monitoring programs." These programs exist in many states and track doctors' opioid prescribing patterns.

The New Hampshire program went into effect Jan. 1, 2017, and the Dartmouth team looked at opioid prescription patterns for more than 1,000 patients who'd undergone an elective surgery in the six months before or after the change.

Researchers led by the hospital's Dr. Richard Barth found that "the percentage of patients prescribed opioids after surgery did not decrease significantly" after the monitoring program came into effect.

In fact, the average number of opioid pills dispensed after surgery was already decreasing before the implementation of the new program, but that decline actually slowed "in the six months after the legislation," Barth's group reported.

Dr. Harshal Kirane directs addiction services at Staten Island University Hospital in New York City. Reading over both studies, he said they point out the hazards of well-intentioned policies implemented "in the absence of adequate physician and patient engagement."

There's no "one-size-fits-all" method to curbing excess opioid use, Kirane said.

"Physician prescribing practices are a major contributor to the ongoing opioid crisis," he said. "Yet, even the most well-intentioned prescriber is confronted by an increasingly complex calculus, in which the goals of pain management and patient satisfaction must be balanced with eliminating the risks of opioid misuse."

The real solution may lie in a more nuanced, "evidence-based" approach to opioid prescribing, and better education of doctors and patients alike, Kirane said.

Habbouche agreed.

"Different types of physicians and health professionals should be involved in the policymaking surrounding opioid prescribing -- especially for prescribing in different settings," he said. "Our work suggests patient and physician education about opioids is critical."

Both studies were published online Aug. 22 in JAMA Surgery.

More information

For more about opioids, visit the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Researchers have found that alternative enactment techniques -- such as acting -- can improve patients' perspective memory. Academics involved in the study claim the new method is particularly beneficial for people with mild cognitive impairment (which could suggest early stages of Alzheimer's disease) and can provide a cost-effective alternative that can support independent living.

Have you ever been shopping and returned home to find that you have forgotten to buy the very item you went shopping for? Have you known it was going to rain yet left your umbrella at home? Have you gone out and left the television on?

All these instances are examples where prospective memory has failed -- you have not remembered to take the action you had planned. While these examples are comparatively trivial, poor prospective memory can have serious consequences -- forgetting to take medication, or leaving the stove on, for example.

A failing prospective memory can be an early sign of Alzheimer's disease, according to University of Chichester psychologists, and new therapeutic methods are being used to utilise levels of prospective memory as a means to accurately diagnose diseases of cognitive impairment. Such methods can be effective non-invasive alternatives to traditional clinical methods such as the extraction of cerebral spinal fluid.

In research published in the journal "Neuropsychology," a team led by the University of Chichester has studied prospective memory performance of 96 participants including patients with mild cognitive impairment aged 64 to 87 years, healthy older adults aged 62 to 84 years and younger adults aged 18 to 22 years.

The study, which also included members from Radboud University Nijmegen, Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Lisbon, looked at prospective memory performance before the introduction of an enhancement technique and compared it with performance after the enhancement technique. The technique used was encoded enactment, where subjects were encouraged to act through the activity they must remember to do.

All age groups reported improvement in prospective memory, but it was particularly marked in those older subjects with mild cognitive impairment, that is, potentially in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. The study suggests that encouraging people in this category to adopt enactment as a means to enhance prospective memory could result in them leading independent, autonomous lives for longer

Leading the study was Dr Antonina Pereira from the University of Chichester. She said: "Poor prospective memory can range from the vaguely annoying to life threatening, depending on the circumstances. We wanted to confirm two things -- that prospective memory deteriorates with age and that enactment techniques might support those with a poor prospective memory."

She added: "We did indeed find that prospective memory erodes as we get older, and our early findings in this little researched area would suggest that enactment techniques are effective in improving prospective memory. We were heartened to see that there was improvement in our group with mild cognitive impairment. Enactment techniques offer the potential for a cost-effective and widely applicable method that can support independent living. This contributes to an individual's health, well-being and social relationships while reducing the burden of care."

Antonina's tip for overcoming poor prospective memory

"The next time you would like to remember to pick up a pint of milk from the store on your way home, do not wait until you have got home to realise you have forgotten to do it. Instead, recreate the action you would like to remember, pretending that you are actually doing it, in as much vivid detail as possible. This might feel awkward to begin with, but it has been identified as an optimal technique to enhance prospective memory. It can have very long lasting effects and work even for people with cognitive impairment. Acting is the key."

Story Source:

Materials provided by University of Chichester. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Running injuries can be caused by a traumatic event, but are most often happen over time due to repetitive movement.

If you're an elite runner, a weekend warrior, or somewhere in-between, it's generally not a question of if an injury will happen, but when.

Half of runners will be hurt more than once in a given two-year period, according to Stephen Messier, the director of the J.B. Snow Biomechanics Laboratory at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. Women runners are somewhat more likely to be injured than men.

Applying repeated force over a extended period of time or suddenly boosting a training level causes conditions such as runner's knee, Achilles tendinitis, plantar fasciitis, shin splints, iliotibial band syndrome, patellar tendinitis (also spelled tendonitis), ankle sprain, pulled muscles, blisters, chafing, and side stitches.

In fact, the late runner-philosopher Dr. George Sheehan called running injuries “diseases of excellence.” While heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and hypertension are often seen as maladies of the sedentary, athletic individuals are not immune to health issues such as shin splints, stress fractures, and pulled groins.

But let’s face it, most runners—myself included—aren't comforted by that badge of honor and don’t tolerate injuries well. Instead, we bemoan the fact that we can’t participate in something that keeps us physically and mentally healthy.

When injured, we fret over the loss of fitness, the possibility of weight gain, and the anxiety that we won't return to our previous level of physical intensity. Runners who are injured can become depressed. Their friends and family can find them difficult to deal with.

Here are three coping skills runners can use to manage being sidelined:

• Have a second physical activity

Christy Victor, an ultra-marathoner, advises having an auxiliary physical activity already in place before an injury occurs.
“When I broke my ankle last fall, I threw all my energy into the strength training that had just been a secondary activity," explains the busy veterinarian, wife, and mother. "It helped in so many ways. It gave me a physical outlet, helped keep me from falling into the self-pity trap, and I worked really hard to correct some chronic imbalances that needed to be remedied.”
Having a physical outlet independent of running can ease concerns about losing fitness and helps you continue to enjoy many of the mental benefits seen from running. A secondary physical activity also helps individuals keep structure and routine in their lives, two things that help prevent or reduce depression. Additionally, a secondary physical activity helps maintain fitness, something that eases the emotional burden of being injured.

• Stay connected

Team athletes can remain involved in athletics even when injured, but running tends to be a solitary activity. Social media, though, can help runners who do not belong to their local clubs or teams boost feelings of connectedness and reassurance. Facebook, message boards, and running apps allow runners to forge friendships, share milestones, and most importantly, offer encouragement and support when injured. Social media also helps runners remain accountable for getting back to running when healed from their injury.

Greg Medwid, a master-class runner who has a personal best of 79 minutes in the half marathon, knows what it's like.

“When you are injured, you suddenly feel like an outsider. You watch your friends speed off, chatting and laughing while you wallow in a collection of pity and resentment. However, staying in touch can make all the difference. We need to at least be able to talk about running, and running friends provide that opportunity. Friends can give you that chance to keep up to date, to think about goals when you do come back. Good friends will even lie about how bad their runs were so you don’t feel too jealous.”

• Challenge catastrophic thinking

It’s no secret that runners pride themselves on their passion and spend a lot of time thinking about the sport. When injured, it's easy for thoughts to turn dark and catastrophic.

Psychologist Albert Ellis, the pioneer of Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy, would suggest that when injured, a runner employ his “ABC method.” For Ellis, the Activating Event (A) would be the external fact of being injured, something that for the time being cannot be changed. This event in itself is not the cause of suffering. Rather, the Belief (B), that follows is what leads to a negative emotion or, in other words, a Consequence (C). Ellis argued that, over time, as you alter your aberrant beliefs (B), your negative emotions diminish.

For example, a recent patient of mine effectively managed depression with running and was excitedly preparing for her first marathon. She was fit mentally and physically. As the marathon approached, though, a severe case of plantar fasciitis compelled her to withdraw from the race.

The injury (A) triggered a series of catastrophic thoughts (B) that at first she was hardly aware of, including ideas that she would never finish a marathon. She also believed that the running she did was diminished by her injury. Even worse, she thought her depression would return at a level more severe than before. Lastly, this patient was very concerned about being embarrassed and humiliated because she spoke often to her family and friends about participating in her first marathon. At her core, she believed that she was a “loser” for getting injured.

When she was able to identify her dysfunctional thoughts and look at them more closely, she was able to make small, positive changes in her beliefs. Her mood did not improve overnight, and she later observed that she was still not happy about being injured. After all, who would be? But when she put her negative thinking to the test, she was able to view her injury as part of the marathon challenge.

In time, she felt less helpless. Overall, she changed the mind-movie in her head of not achieving her goal and the sadness went away.

No runner likes the idea of getting injured while exercising. But having a variety of coping skills including a backup physical activity, staying connected with social media, and thinking clearly about the issue will be of benefit until you can literally and figuratively get back on your feet.

The clavicle, also known as the collarbone, is a long thin bone that runs horizontally between the neck and shoulder. The hollow at the base of your throat is the gap between your two clavicle bones.

Because these bones are thin and close to the surface, they are prone to being broken. Fractures of the clavicle are common—they account for 40 to 60% of all shoulder fractures.

Young men, children, teens, and older adults are at risk for clavicle fractures

How Clavicle Fractures Occur

Clavicle fractures almost always occur as a traumatic injury from one of two causes:

1. A fall, either directly onto the shoulder or an outstretched hand. For younger people, the fall is typically a forceful high-impact fall while doing activities like biking, skateboarding, or skiing.
2. A direct hit to the clavicle during a contact sport, such as hockey or football, or from a car accident.

Young Men Are at the Greatest Risk

Large newborn babies are also at risk for a clavicle fracture, which can occur during vaginal births. It’s one of the most common birth injuries, occurring in about 1 to 3% of newborns.

What to Do if You Suspect a Clavicle Fracture

Clavicle (collarbone) fractures typically cause severe pain, limited or no arm movement, and a bump over the fracture site or shoulder droop.
If you suspect a clavicle fracture has occurred, seek medical care. It is important to have the injury formally diagnosed by a physician. The diagnosis can determine how the fractured clavicle is treated: with nonsurgical or surgical treatment.

Will brushing your teeth with activated charcoal toothpaste really help whiten them and lift stains? We asked dentists to weigh in on the increasingly popular trend.

Activated charcoal is the buzzy health ingredient of the moment, showing up in everything from supplements to pressed juices to beauty products. And now, it's also made its way to the oral care aisle, with brands like Curaprox and Twin Lotus marketing versions of activated charcoal toothpaste that claim to clean and whiten teeth and eliminate bad breath.



Because it's so porous, activated charcoal is sometimes used in emergency rooms to treat certain kinds of poisoning and overdose—by "soaking up" the poison, charcoal prevents it from being absorbed into the stomach. By this logic, some people believe activated charcoal can also be used to soak up toxins in the body (or in this case, stains on the teeth).

But is it a good idea to use toothpastes that contain activated charcoal? And will the ingredient really whiten and "detox" teeth? We asked dentists for their take.

Should you use an activated charcoal toothpaste?

"Activated charcoal has been used on the body for thousands of years," says Bruce L. Cassis, DDS, a dentist from Fayetteville, WV. "And from a dentist standpoint, I do have patients that use these products and claim to get some benefits."

That said, he cautions that there aren't any long-term studies on activated charcoal as an ingredient in toothpaste.

"The science of charcoal 'attracting' particles has been well-studied in hospital toxicology departments and air filtering systems, but I would wait for more research to determine its true safety, especially when used in the mouth," says Trey Wilson, DDS, a New York City-based dentist. "For example, how does charcoal interact with medicines if swallowed? And how does it affect healthy oral bacteria?"

If your main concern is whiter teeth, Dr. Wilson says home whitening kits or an in-office dental exam will get you the noticeably brighter results you're after. Or for a more natural approach, he suggests swiping the inside of an orange peel over teeth: "It works subtly, but safely."

What to know before you try charcoal toothpaste
If you do decide to use activated charcoal toothpaste, dentists agree that you should do so cautiously and sparingly. Brush with it no more than once every other week, and not for an extended period of time, even if your teeth feel normal.

"It's an abrasive ingredient," Dr. Cassis says, and frequent use could wear down the enamel on your teeth. (That's why certain people should avoid activated charcoal toothpaste altogether: "If you have a lot of recession of gum tissue, the roots of the teeth may become sensitive as a result of the abrasive quality to charcoal toothpastes," says Dr. Wilson.)

Dr. Cassis recommends trying a charcoal toothpaste from a reputable brand and taking note of any unusual symptoms, like raw or bleeding gums and an increase in sensitivity. If you experience any of these symptoms, stop using charcoal toothpaste right away and make an appointment with your dentist.

Travel can be stressful, exasperating, and yes, downright enraging. In the past week or so, three planes have been diverted thanks to passenger scuffles—one caused by a woman who demanded her Delta flight land after a passenger's reclining seat struck her head, and another the result of the Knee Defender, a plastic bracket one man used to prevent the seat in front of him from reclining. Yes, "recliner rage" is now a thing.

A conflict with a fellow passenger doesn't have to lead to a total travel meltdown. To keep your calm while getting out of town for work or play, try these top tips from Gail Saltz, MD, Health‘s contributing psychology editor and author of Anatomy of a Secret Life.

Don't be a control freak

When you're on the road, you’re often at the mercy of external factors—the weather, that guy who stole the last parking space. “When something goes wrong, people tend to look for solutions, thinking if they do X, they will solve Y. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case during vacations, when much less is under your control,” says Saltz. Her suggestion? Acknowledge that you can’t control everything. “You can’t do anything about the airline losing your luggage or you missing your plane, but you can channel your thoughts into the enjoyable aspects of your trip,” she says. Yes, snafus suck, but accepting that you’ve done all you can do (and thinking about your planned kayak adventure) can be a therapeutic fix.

Be a mindful traveler

Even the most meticulously planned trip can cause some apprehension, discomfort, and stress. “The more stress you feel, the more your adrenal glands produce cortisol, and once you’re down the cascade of fight-or-flight reactions, it’s hard to turn back,” says Saltz, who recently led a Health Twitter chat on stress. If you feel flushed, angry, and irritated—some of the common signs of anxiety—stop what you’re doing, take a moment to acknowledge the stressful trigger, and focus on something calm in the present, like your child’s green eyes or a passing cloud. Being mindful of the here-and-now will help slow your spiraling anxiety about "what ifs?".

Let it go

When things don't go our way, we often cope with the stress by playing the blame game. “People tend to direct their anger at the pilot, the driver, the guy reclining in his seat and smashing your knees, but pointing to one person won’t fix your problems,” notes Saltz. Instead, she says, acknowledge that the system isn’t working and accept that things go wrong. Your luggage got lost? Pick up a t-shirt and focus on the vacation you’re having, rather than the dress you could have been wearing. In other words, don’t let one incident ruin the great memories you’ll have for years to come.