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Even if you can easily complete the daily crossword puzzle and regularly trounce your pals in Words With Friends—classic ways to keep your mind sharp—there may be other everyday habits chipping away at your intellect, sabotaging your precious neurons in surprising ways. Here are 6 things that top experts say could be harming your true brainpower. You’re stressed out.Fretting about finances, worrying over work projects, and trying to maintain a semblance of a social life can create a potent stew of stress hormones....

Choose 4 of the 6 following plank intensifications, and hold each one for 1 minute with a 20 second rest in between. But first, if you need a refresher on how to do a perfect standard plank: Place your forearms on the ground, shoulder-width apart, parallel to one another. Create a fist with your hands, dig your toes into the ground to get a grip, and then lift your butt to where your shoulders line up with your hips and ankles....

“Typically you’re buying a bag of refined flour, sugar, salt—all the things that make food taste good,” says Christy Brissette, RD, president of 80 Twenty Nutrition. “But from a nutrition standpoint, aren’t the greatest.” The artificial colors, emulsifiers, and artery-clogging partially hydrogenated oils don’t help things, either. Suddenly, those cupcakes don’t sound quite so tempting, do they? (Pick up some healthier habits, weight loss tips, clean recipes and more by signing up for Prevention’s FREE newsletters!...

Weight-loss goals can be fueled by a variety of factors—New Year’s ambition, a looming wedding, the simple desire to feel and look your best—but no matter your motivation, the stats are stacked against you when it comes to slimming down: Research shows that only about 1 out of 6 dieters successfully loses weight and keeps it off. But despite that depressing data, it is possible to overhaul your lifestyle for good, and one way to ensure success is to follow a sensible diet that works for you, says Dawna Stone, health and wellness expert and author of The Healthy You Diet....

MORE: The Remarkable Story Of Ernestine Shepherd At 90 years old, Rigney is the oldest working registered nurse in the United States. A feat her fellow nurses, and Washington’s Governor Jay Inslee, thought deserved special recognition. The day before she turned 90, they threw Rigney a surprise birthday bash—complete with a personal letter from the governor. The surprise left her speechless. “I have lots to say other days, but today I can’t,” she said in the video....

PaleoSugardoodle’sdoughnutsdoughnut “Home of the No-Junk Junk Food.” That’s the tagline at Portland, OR–based bakery , which serves pillowy Paleo made from yucca root and sweet potato. Flavor offerings include The Garden Monkey, a topped with sunflower-seed butter, chocolate ganache, and fresh banana slices. Can’t make a pilgrimage to PDX? Try this from blogger The Paleo Newbie. Paleo maple bacon doughnut recipe Gluten-Freedoughnutsintroduced but quickly scrappeddoughnutglazed lemon poppy seed confections The gluten-free industry has taken off, but have been left in the dust (see: the great Dunkin Donuts GF tease of 2014, when the chain plans for a nationwide release of wheat-free pastries)....

When it comes to toning up trouble spots, some body parts can be as stubborn as that zipper on your old pair of skinny jeans. And for many of us, that includes the upper arms and abs. “These are two areas that you tend to notice changes in first,” says fitness expert Chris Freytag. “As we age, fat starts to shift from our hips to our middles, and gravity’s effects start to show up on on triceps if we’re not actively training....

That may sound silly, because everyone should know better, right? But researchers find that self-reports of social competence are poor predictors of actual behavior. So to act as a baseline, researchers measured social competence in over 90 male and female college students by having them rate the effectiveness of a behavior in social contexts, like the workplace, and matched their answers to the general consensus. The first study was similar to this in that it had participants choose four plausible courses of action to 30 work-related scenarios, e....

This week’s exercise gives the traditional ballet moves, the plié and relevé, a cardio-toning fitness twist. Tacking on a shoulder press with light dumbbells adds resistance to the entire exercise while also engaging more muscles, two simple tweaks that help you burn more calories in less time. “Women tend to have weak inner thighs and let their knees get lazy, caving towards the center,” explains Prevention’s fitness expert Chris Freytag....

Here’s how to blast calories and boost your mood in joint-friendly ways: Go low impact To burn fat without jarring joints, choose cardio that keeps one foot on the ground at all times, like walking. For severe pain, try swimming or water aerobics, since the water eliminates impact and helps soothe joints. Cycling is another excellent option that can burn about 500 calories an hour. Opt for a recumbent bicycle if you have a sore back....

Cobra Pose Lie face-down with your forehead resting on the floor. 2. Place your hands on either side, at the middle of your ribcage. 3. Draw your legs together, pressing the tops of your feet into the floor. 4. Reach back through your toes, lengthening your legs. 5. Press evenly through your hands as you draw your elbows close to your ribcage. 6. Using the strength of your back (not your arms), lift your head and chest, sliding your shoulder blades down your back....

MORE: 10 Things Podiatrists Wish Everyone Knew About Their Feet Blister Treatment Here’s how experts recommend you handle the discomfort of blisters. Make A Decision Once you develop a blister, you either have to protect it and leave it alone, or pop it and drain the fluid. “I think it depends on the size of the blister,” says Suzanne Tanner, MD. “A purist will probably tell you not to prick it, because then you don’t run any risk of infection....

Whether or not you can believe it, cold and flu season are already in full swing—even though cold season typically peaks in January, while flu season is not until February. This year, however, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is reporting that this is the earliest start to flu season since 2003. Other medical websites mapping cold and flu activity are showing moderate to severe activity in most states....