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The environmental benefits of eating plant-based have been well-documented. Food production and agriculture account for a quarter of all global greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions, with meat and dairy products accounting for more than half of that. Food production, particularly beef and lamb, is so carbon-intensive because of land use—27 percent of the world’s total forest loss between 2001 and 2015 was due to large-scale farming and ranching.

Cutting back on your meat consumption can offer some great health benefits as well: the Mediterranean diet (which recommends eating red meat rarely), for example, has been shown to lower the risk of coronary heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes.

Luckily, with the ever-expanding availability of various meat substitutes like tofu, seitan and tempeh, it’s simple to make plant-based swaps. There are easy-to-source dairy alternatives too, everything from oat milk to cashew cheese to good ol’ “I can’t believe it’s not butter” margarine.

But what about eggs? Sure, vegans have long been whipping up flax eggs (a mixture of water and flaxseeds that serves as a binding agent in egg-free baking) and serving tofu scrambles for breakfast. But is there a way to better simulate egg’s texture and its ability to be scrambled, fried and baked?

Enter: Just Egg, a pourable liquid egg substitute that works (and tastes) like the real thing. It’s made primarily from mung bean proteins and gets its yellow hue from turmeric. The product first launched in the United States in 2019, but the faux egg made its way north of the border this past year, first with Just Egg Folded, an omelette-like product meant for sandwiches, and then with its signature liquid product, which you can use in place of a beaten egg.

While eggs are a more sustainable choice than beef (eggs produce about 4.67 kg of GHGs per kilogram of food, compared to beef which produces 99.48 kg of GHGs per kilogram of food), farming eggs uses up another precious resource: water. To make a dozen eggs, you need more than 2400 litres of water, meaning that each egg requires an average of 200 litres of water to produce. Just Egg, meanwhile, uses about 98 percent less water and 86 percent less land, according to its website, and produces 93 percent fewer carbon emissions than chicken eggs.

The health benefits of switching out chicken for Just Egg are also worth cracking into. “The two are very similar when you look at the macronutrients—the calories, fat and protein,” says Caroline Doucet, a registered dietitian in Kelowna, B.C., and owner of Nourished by Caroline. The main difference is that Just Egg has both poly- and mono-unsaturated fats, “healthy fats which we should be incorporating into our diet,” she says, but no saturated fats. One thing to keep in mind, however, is that chicken eggs have more nutrients like vitamins D and B12. But Doucet notes that as long as you’re eating a balanced diet, you’ll get those nutrients elsewhere, though vegans should consult a dietitian to be sure they’re meeting B12 needs.

Mung bean, the primary ingredient in Just Egg, is a great source of plant-based protein, says Doucet. However, she cautions that people who are totally plant-based will need to incorporate a variety of different protein sources (like beans, nuts and seeds) into their diet to access all the necessary amino acids. “But, as a part of a balanced diet, [Just Egg] is a great replacement.”

I am a veritable egg lover. I’ll toss a soft-boiled egg onto just about anything, so I was a bit skeptical at first. But I was pleasantly surprised by the fluffy egg-like texture of Just Egg Folded. I loved using it in my breakfast sandwiches in place of a fried egg, especially on mornings when I couldn’t handle anything more complicated than a piece of toast (you can heat it up from frozen in your toaster).

I was even more skeptical when I tried the goopy yellow liquid product. I made a spinach and feta frittata with it, using an entire bottle of Just Egg to substitute about six eggs (according to the company’s website, 3-4 tablespoons is equal to one chicken egg). My frittata turned out amazingly—the “egg” had set nicely, making the frittata jiggly and soft but not liquid-y in the centre.

While I am going to continue buying chicken eggs (I just can’t do without a runny yolk!), I plan to occasionally swap in Just Egg to help lower my personal carbon footprint. If you’re a vegan or someone looking to incorporate more plant-based protein in your life, it’s a great option.

Just Egg, $6, available at most major grocery stores.

Next, How to Incorporate More Beans and Plant-Based Proteins into Your Diet

I love a posset because it literally could not be any simpler: fresh lemons, cream, sugar. Ingredients that are incredibly accessible year-round.

In this recipe, I serve it with roasted strawberries, but you can use any in-season fruit. Serve it on its own, or with a fruit compote, poached fruit, a crumble, a coulis—it’s the perfect accompaniment. Not only that, but the science/magic of watching the cream thicken with the addition of lemon juice is pretty fun too.

Aside from the magical properties, it’s just so good! Refreshing, and light on your palate. It’s the perfect make-ahead dessert for a spring day. Plus, it’s wheat-free and low in sugar.

Lemon Posset with Roasted Strawberries

Lemon Posset

Yield: ~4 bowls
Serving: 4
Make-Ahead: Yes

Ingredients

2 lemons, zested and juiced
337g heavy cream
100g sugar, divided

Instructions

Place the zest and lemon juice in a pot with half of the sugar. Bring to a boil. Set aside.
Heat cream with remaining sugar slowly until it boils.
Remove from heat, add lemon mixture, and whisk together. Strain half of the mixture (to remove some zest), recombine, and distribute evenly between your ramekins/bowls.
Refrigerate overnight or at least 6 hours until set.

Roasted Strawberries

Ingredients

1 pint strawberries, washed and sliced in half
2 tbsp maple syrup
2 sprigs fresh thyme (optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F. Combine all ingredients in a bowl.
Spread in an even layer on a parchment-lined baking tray. Bake for 15-20 minutes, stirring once.
Once cool, store in an airtight container in the fridge until ready to be used for garnish.

Tip: Macerating and roasting any fruit that hasn’t quite reached its peak is a great way to really pull out those natural sugars and help the fruit shine.

Wall of Bakers premieres on Monday, March 28th at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

Next: A Sugar-Free, Gluten-Free Spiced Pear Polenta Cake for Afternoon Tea Time

Unless you’re experiencing problems, chances are you’re not paying too much attention to your ears. But from communication to mental health, and even as a conduit of news between other parts of our bodies, ear health is extremely important for our overall well-being.

While both men and women can experience hearing loss, men are more often affected, likely because they tend to work in noisier environments (think construction, for example) and may not always wear proper ear protection. And though fewer women lose their hearing, one study found even those who do fare better than men because they tend to focus on how to improve communication, rather than on the loss itself. Women may also use more facial expressions, body language and gestures, making it easier for others with hearing loss to understand them.

“Day-to-day communication is the most important reason why our ear health matters,” says Dr. Janet Chung, division chief for otolaryngology at Trillium Health Partners in Mississauga, Ont., and lecturer at the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine. She says healthy ears allow us to “maintain relationships, create relationships and experience life.”

So, what can we do to protect, maintain and learn to value our ear health?

Turn down the volume

If you’re going to use loud equipment, like a lawnmower or blender, or work in a really noisy environment, like in an ambulance or at a loud bar, Chung says it’s important to wear ear protection, because loud noise exposure—especially when it’s repetitive—can lead to hearing loss. Ear plugs are a great option for everyday loud noises, like an earsplitting spin class. They help by dampening sound and essentially decreasing the decibel level that enters your ears.

This goes for the headphones you use to listen to music, too. Chung recommends you set your volume bar to 70 percent or lower.

Wondering how loud is too loud? The Canada Occupational Health and Safety Regulations state workers shouldn’t be exposed to sounds over 87 decibels for eight hours in any 24-hour period. A typical concert can reach 120 to 129 decibels.

Forget about cleaning

When it comes to so-called “tools” to remove earwax, such as Q-tips and Q-Grips, you can ditch both, because “the ear is actually a self-cleaning organ,” says Chung. (Studies show that when a dot of ink is placed on the eardrum, you can see it migrate out in a few weeks.) Earwax is created by your body for protection—it’s lubricating and has antimicrobial properties. Cleaning your ears takes that away. “You can introduce bacteria by microabrasion or little cuts into the ear skin if you’re using something rough,” she says, or “you can cause a perforation of the actual eardrum if you go too deep.”

If you’re still confused about what can go in your ear, take this piece of advice that Chung learned in residency: “Anything narrower than your elbow should not be put inside your ear.” If you really want that wax out of there and your doctor okays it, she says you can put a few drops of clean olive oil or mineral oil into your ear, which will make the wax slippery and more likely to come out on its own.

Hearing and the brain

“There has been a lot of research in literature in terms of looking at what happens to patients who start losing their hearing,” says Chung. Many of these studies point to effects on mental health, such as depression, which results from the social isolation that people who lose their hearing often experience. Studies have also shown that hearing loss can contribute to a faster rate of brain cell death—potentially because the cells associated with hearing aren’t being used as much. This, combined with social isolation, can also contribute to dementia.

Hearing and the body

Researchers have found that your ears help you pick up cues while you move, and the loss of these signals can impact your balance. Chung adds that patients who have profound hearing loss might need to ensure that they have the right accommodations in place—for example, common devices like fire alarms or egg timers should have flashing lights for safety reasons.

When to see a doctor

You use your ears for listening, but sometimes they’re trying to tell you something. When you go to the doctor with ear pain, you’re usually told it’s an ear infection, says Chung. But there are “so many nerves that end in the ear [that the pain] can actually be due to many other conditions.” For example, you could have a dental infection, jaw pain or a tonsil infection, she says.

Another time to see your doctor is if you experience sudden hearing loss, which in some cases could be caused by an unknown virus. Chung says this can potentially be treated by giving a dose of anti-inflammatories within a certain time frame. “Which is as soon as possible, essentially.”

Next: Why I Needed Hearing Aids Before Age 50—And You Might Too

A few years ago, Sharlene Rutherford, president and CEO of the Alberta Women’s Health Foundation, watched her mom with worry. Her mother was struggling with pain, heart irregularities and anxiety—things that would come up out of the blue. During a doctor’s visit, her mother gave a rundown of what she was going through. “He looked at her, pointed to his head and said, ‘I think it’s all up here,’” Rutherford recalls. But the family knew he was wrong. They pushed for more testing. And blood tests showed her mom was suffering from metal poisoning.

The clue had been in her medical records all along. The problem was in her hip, where a joint replacement device implanted more than a decade earlier was wearing down, releasing cobalt into her bloodstream. It’s a severe and well-known complication from a kind of metal-on-metal hip implant.

“This took way longer than it should have [to figure out],” says Rutherford. Her mother underwent a hip replacement to change the faulty device, but two years later, she’s still recovering.

Her mother’s story is one example of a problem Rutherford hears about frequently in her work: a woman dismissed by health-care providers only to suffer lasting harm.

She wants a revolution in the way women’s health is valued, researched and funded in Canada. She wants the focus extended beyond what’s known as bikini medicine—breasts and reproduction—and more attention placed on improving a woman’s overall health across her lifespan.

“If we look at my mom as an example [of why we need change], there was the patriarchal attitude toward her, the fact there was not much research done on how that hip replacement would impact women and her own lack of a voice to [question] her doctor,” Rutherford says.

In January 2021, Rutherford—along with Jennifer Bernard, president and CEO of Women’s College Hospital Foundation in Toronto, and Genesa Greening, president and CEO of BC Women’s Health Foundation—launched Women’s Health Collective Canada (WHCC), the first alliance of women’s health foundations in the country. Their goal is to eliminate inequities by raising awareness about the specific health needs of women throughout their lives and increasing the fundraising dollars directed specifically to women’s health and research.

“Women can lead corporations and fly fighter jets, but they continue to be misdiagnosed, neglected, dismissed as complainers or told their symptoms are all in their heads,” Rutherford says. “We’re punching through glass ceilings everywhere, but the fact of the matter is there’s still a glass wall through which women are not being heard.”

If you assess women’s health based on longevity alone, women in Canada are doing great—life expectancy at birth for a woman in Canada today is 84 years compared with 80 for men. But being alive isn’t the same thing as thriving. Women struggle with conditions like endometriosis, thyroid disease and heart disease, which dramatically affect their quality of life. Yet, historically, women’s health has been underfunded and underappreciated. Outside reproduction, women and men are often lumped together in health research. This harms women of all ages.

“Who gets funded, what gets funded, who gets included and who makes the decisions—it’s still predominantly men,” says Greening. “And that is showing up in women’s health outcomes.”

As part of its launch, the WHCC surveyed Canadian adults about their knowledge of women’s health. They found that women and men underestimate many health problems endured by women. Only one in 10 respondents knew that women have adverse reactions from prescription medications more often than men do. Even fewer knew that as many as one-third of women suffer from sexual dysfunction. Only about 20 percent of respondents believe women experience lower rates of heart disease than men, despite ongoing and well-publicized campaigns to raise awareness about this condition in women—it’s our number one killer.

Organizers of the WHCC want to raise funds for research into women’s health—much like the Children’s Miracle Network does for kids, says Rutherford. The WHCC has not identified specific research projects but wants to increase the overall dollars put toward women’s health in Canada. They also want data collected and analyzed by sex in broader research programs.

The WHCC is being driven by a new urgency, as the pandemic takes a heavy toll on women both at home and on the front lines. “Research studies on previous epidemics and pandemics have shown that women are disproportionately affected, and we know that when women are unhealthy, our economy and communities both suffer,” says Greening.

Rutherford and her colleagues at the WHCC have set their sights on addressing the gender gaps in health in Canada. Here’s a look at the enormous task ahead.

The Gap: Clinical Trials and Research

For decades, scientists excluded women from clinical trials because they believed male subjects were better for research. Even female animals and female cell lines were disproportionately unused. Most men don’t have the hormonal fluctuations that accompany menstrual cycles. Scientists worried female hormones would distort the results, making their findings less applicable for humans in the real world. “[Using only men] is a simpler model to work with if you’re looking at a basic science perspective,” says Sandra Davidge, executive director of the Women and Children’s Health Research Institute at the University of Alberta, where she was a Canada Research Chair in maternal and perinatal cardiovascular health for many years.

Making matters worse, in 1977, the Food and Drug Administration in the United States recommended that women of child-bearing potential be excluded from early-stage drug trials. The policy reflected concerns about unknown drug effects on pregnant women and their fetuses—a valid concern, given the thousands of babies born with limb deformities after their mothers received the sedative thalidomide. But this meant women were left out of trials of pharmaceutical drugs, even if women relied on those drugs to manage medical issues. It wasn’t until 1993—two years after the first woman was appointed director of the National Institutes of Health in the U.S.—that Congress passed a law requiring the inclusion of women and minorities in clinical research.

But these long-standing policies led to drugs being widely used despite little knowledge about their effects on women. Many of these products are still used today. Greening, of BC Women’s Health Foundation, says the under-representation of women in clinical trials may explain why women experience 75 percent of adverse drug reactions in Canada. “We live with a legacy that there are therapies on the market and there are clinical approaches to care that were never really tested on women,” she says.

Biological sex can affect the way a body responds to a drug. For one, women tend to have a higher percentage of body fat, so some drugs can linger longer in the body. Enzymes in the liver affect the way drugs are metabolized. Hormones alter our response to drugs. And gender matters too: Women are prescribed more medications than men, often inappropriately. A 2016 study published in Age and Ageing found that one in three women in British Columbia over 65 received inappropriate prescription medications compared to one in four men.

This has real-life consequences. Take the case of Ambien, first approved in the U.S. in 1992. Twenty-one years later, however, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration called on the drug’s manufacturers to lower the recommended doses of this widely used sleeping medication for women, after a series of clinical trials and driving simulation studies showed that women struggled with alertness after waking up. Today, the manufacturer has set one dose for women and another for men.

The experience with Ambien demonstrates that “if you don’t look, you won’t see the issue,” says Paula Rochon, a geriatrician and health services researcher, and the Retired Teachers of Ontario chair in geriatric medicine at the University of Toronto. When researchers collect data on sex and ask questions about sex and gender in their investigations, they can pick up different responses from men and women. “Then, you can do things differently by tailoring therapies or practices to those differences,” Rochon says.

She and other experts in women’s health want health data to be collected and analyzed separately for men and women, in what’s known as sex-disaggregated data. The COVID-19 vaccines are a current example of why this kind of data is important. It’s unclear as yet whether women face significantly higher risks of blood clots from vaccines than men do. Without collecting the data, that question will never be answered.

The Gap: Funding for Women’s Health Research

Only seven percent of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research New Investigator Awards were for women’s health researchers, according to a 2020 study in B.C. Women’s health researchers received less overall funding and their grants were funded for a shorter duration. Nationally, only 1.2 percent of Canada’s research chairs are in women’s health.

Women’s health funding addresses conditions like endometriosis, urinary incontinence and menopausal discomfort—which dramatically affect a woman’s quality of life but are not life-threatening. That said, these conditions lead to mental health issues like severe depression, which do lead to deaths. “Quality of life is so critically important and yet completely underfunded,” Davidge says.

About one million people in Canada are affected by endometriosis, according to estimates from EndoAct Canada, an independent collaboration of patients, clinicians and researchers. But endometriosis-related research projects received only $7.3 million in funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research over the past two decades—which works out to about $7.30 per person with this condition. Meanwhile, women are struggling with the painful consequences of the illness and are often unable to reach health-care providers who can help. According to a study published in 2020 in the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Canada, it took 5.4 years, on average, for a woman to receive a diagnosis of endometriosis in this country. And when they are diagnosed, they end up waiting for specialist care. EndoAct Canada estimates that women wait somewhere between three and nine months for an initial appointment at a specialized endometriosis centre. After that, they wait another year for surgery or pain care, depending on where they live.

Heart disease too is under-researched, underdiagnosed, undersupported and undertreated, even though it kills more Canadian women than any other condition. In recent years, science has shown that women often present with different symptoms than men do when they’re having a heart attack, and they can experience different types of heart attacks. Women, especially those in their 40s and 50s, are far more likely to have a spontaneous coronary artery dissection, which is a tear in a blood vessel in the heart. Women account for more than 90 percent of these cases. Post-menopausal women, on the other hand, make up about 90 percent of cases of takotsubo cardiomyopathy, known as broken heart syndrome. “The point is that heart disease is more complicated in women than in men, and we haven’t recognized that,” says Sharon Mulvagh, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at Dalhousie University.

She attributes the lag in women’s heart research, in part, to a lack of female physicians and researchers in the field. Only about 22 percent of cardiologists in Canada today are women, even though women have been at parity in medical schools for more than two decades in Canada, she says. In cardiology and in medicine more broadly, women are less likely to be in leadership roles, including working as primary investigators on major studies. “This contributes to the lack of awareness of cardiovascular health and disease issues in women,” Mulvagh says. “As the saying goes, if you’re not at the table, then you’re on the menu.”

Evidence has emerged over the past year that the COVID-19 pandemic is disproportionately harming female researchers. In an analysis published in March 2021 by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, women in academic STEM positions said the pandemic has negatively affected their mental well-being, productivity, work-life boundaries and networking. Women published fewer papers and received fewer citations of their work between March and December 2020. This could affect their job stability and ability to attract funding—and, ultimately, the state of women’s health research.

The Gap: Quality of Life in Older Age

Five years from now, more than one-fifth of the population of Canada will be 65 years and older. The majority will be women. They will increasingly outnumber men as they age. By the time they reach 100, they will outnumber men four to one.

The pandemic unmasked systemic problems in the way elders are treated in Canada. Reports from multiple provinces revealed chronic neglect and underfunding in long-term care and a lack of support available for those at home. Older women bore the effects disproportionately. Most deaths from COVID-19 have been in people 80 years and older, with more women dying than men, according to the federal government’s summary of COVID-19 cases.

But older women have been neglected when it comes to health funding and research, Rochon, the geriatrician, says. When most people think about women’s health, they focus on younger women, particularly those in the reproductive years. “We need to recognize that older women are a very big group in Canada, and there are important differences between older women and men that impact women’s health,” Rochon says.

Older women are more likely to live alone in the community and be widowed, she explains. At the same time, they make up the majority of long-term-care residents, and many of them have dementia. They’re also more likely to have conditions like urinary tract infections and arthritis. And yet they’re often grouped in with men in studies of older adults.

Rochon wants researchers to collect and analyze data by sex, as well as age. When they fail to do so, or can’t because of a lack of data, they lose the opportunity to pick up patterns that could lead to better, more individualized treatments for both women and men, she says. “[And when we can’t] tailor our therapy accordingly, it can lead to things like heart disease being missed and not treated appropriately, or women getting drug doses that are too high for them and having side effects.”

The Gap: Social Determinants of Health

Gender doesn’t act in isolation. It intersects with identity, race, rurality, social supports, housing, income, education, environment, ability, sexual diversity and social connections. “When there’s even just one of these additional factors, like a woman living in a rural area, her health issues are not just doubled—they’re catapulted,” says Lori Brotto, executive director of the Women’s Health Research Institute and a professor in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of British Columbia.

The Project for an Ontario Women’s Health Evidence-Based Report (or POWER), one of the largest Canadian studies to explore gender and social determinants of health, found women were more likely to live in lower-income households than men. They headed 85 percent of single-parent households, which have lower incomes than those headed by men. Lower-income adults were more than three times more likely to to have fair or poor health, and three to five times more likely to report fair or poor mental health. They were two and a half times more likely to report that they couldn’t carry out activities because of pain or discomfort, and twice as likely to report limitations in the activities of daily living.

We need research to look more closely at intersectionalities, Greening says. The majority of people living in poverty in Canada are women and girls. Racialized women, especially, face high levels of poverty: One in five racialized families lives in poverty, as does one in four Indigenous people. That compares to one in 20 non-racialized families. Fifteen percent of people with disabilities live in poverty—nearly two-thirds of whom are women. Poverty, race and other factors like education affect access to good health care, Greening says. “All of these things play into understanding how women navigate the health-care system and how the system interacts with them.”

The Gap: COVID-19 May Make Things Worse for Women

The pandemic has had a devastating toll on many women. In Canada, they took on the bulk of unpaid care. They were more likely to live in long-term-care homes and more likely to work in them. They were more likely to be laid off or have their hours cut, especially if they earned low wages. In a survey from BC Women’s Health Foundation, women reported higher rates of depression and anxiety during the pandemic. They claimed 2.4 times more prescription-related mental health needs than men from April to December 2020. Their housing and food insecurity shot up. They said, in greater numbers than men, that they could not cope. “Across the board, it didn’t matter which variable we were looking at: Women bore the brunt of the unintended consequences of COVID,” says Brotto.

It’s unclear what will happen in the year ahead. But this much is certain: Right now, the pandemic has reversed gains made in women’s health. And that is a matter of life and death.

“We know how absolutely essential women’s health is to the health of our community and our economy,” says Greening. “[We have to] advocate that women’s health is prioritized as a response to COVID. This is the time for the conversation.”

This feature was part of a larger package looking at women’s health gaps in Canada from our June/July 2021 print issue. Read more:

“For All Those Years, No One Told Me Anything”

“The Uncertainty Was a Big Piece. And I Couldn’t Get Answers”

“One Ob-Gyn Diagnosed Me with PCOS. Another Ob-Gyn Said I Didn’t Have It”

Get more great stories delivered straight to your inbox by signing up for the Best Health Must-Reads newsletter. Subscribe here.

Three years into a pandemic-induced cycle of on-again, off-again relationships with our hairdressers (and a mostly always-on relationship with capital S-stress), and our hair is probably in need of some serious help. While the pan certainly didn’t start the “skinification of hair” trend—where classic skincare ingredients like hyaluronic acid and niacinamide started appearing in hair and scalp products—it definitely accelerated people’s interest in taking extra good care of their heads.

Now scalp serums, which are super concentrated, easily absorbable formulations designed to treat the skin on your scalp, are seemingly everywhere. Some are leave-in, some you rinse out. Some you can use every day, and some are intense, short-term treatments.

“Scalp health and hair are inextricably linked because your hair follicles are in your scalp,” says cosmetic dermatologist Sonya Abdulla from DLK on Avenue in Toronto. “The health of your scalp skin dictates the health of your hair.”

Abdulla says the main complaints dermatologists see are excessively dry and itchy scalps, overly oily—sometimes pimply—scalps and unexplained bald patches. All of the above can be triggered by stress, pollution, genetics, hormonal changes like pregnancy and perimenopause. Over-washing your hair can dry out your scalp and disrupt the skin barrier, but under-washing your hair can lead to product buildup that plugs up your follicles. (Abdulla says how much you should shampoo depends on your hair type and how much you work out or sweat each day—but a good rule of thumb is if it seems greasy or you get debris under your fingernails when you run your fingers across your scalp, it’s time for a wash). We’ve all probably tried serums for our hair, but do you need a serum just for your scalp, too?

“The same way that some people have a very basic skincare routine for the face, it’s not unreasonable to take the same approach to the scalp,” says Abdulla. “But if you’re wanting to go a few steps further in maintaining your scalp health or to address targeted concerns, that’s where a serum can be beneficial.”

Abdulla says you should consult a doctor if you’re experiencing open sores or your scalp is super inflamed—do not try to Dr. Sephora that sh*t! If not, the kind of serum you should look for is one with ingredients that target your particular issue, like ginseng for stimulating growth or AHAs, BHAs and salicylic acid for getting rid of flakes.

Conclusion? I half suspect a scalp serum is just a good way to trick people into massaging their scalps more regularly—which can improve scalp health on its own by stimulating blood flow—but a serum makes it more fun. So if you’re reasonably happy with your hair and don’t have any scalp issues that are bugging you, you probably don’t need a serum. But if you have a specific concern, they can definitely help. Now please excuse me while I go cover my bald spots with a root spray.

The Inkey List Hair Salicylic Acid Bottle 2

The Inkey List Salicylic Acid Exfoliating Scalp Treatment

This lightweight, fragrance-free serum helps get rid of flakes and itchiness with salicylic acid, which gently exfoliates the scalp and balances out oi levels, while a mix of hydrating ingredients moisturizes it at the same time. But just like with your face, Abdulla warns that when it comes to exfoliating, less is more—over-exfoliating can make things worse. “There will always be exceptions, particularly if we’re dealing with diagnoses that are more advanced,” she says. “But typically, once to twice a week is the sweet spot.”

$19, ca.theinkeylist.com

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Kérastase Specifique Serum Potentialiste

The hydrating serum is loaded with a healthy prebiotic and a vitamin C derivative to protect the scalp’s microbiome from the damaging effects of pollution and help hair adhere more strongly at the roots.

$80, kerastase.ca

Aveda Invati Advanced Scalp Revitalizer

Here’s something I learned from Abdulla that I never wanted to know: With every decade your hair follicles get a little sadder smaller, leading to ever-thinner hair. This formula tries to stave off the inevitable by using tangerine peel, Japanese knotweed, ginseng and turmeric to support hair’s natural keratin and amla leaves to make hair look more pumped up at the roots. It’s a leave-on formula that you’re meant to massage in daily, but it’s not greasy and can be used on wet or dry hair.

$90, aveda.ca

Clients|moroccanoil

Moroccanoil Dry Scalp Treatment

This delicious-smelling rinse-out formula—geranium and lavender blend for the win!—is also formulated with salicylic acid to gently exfoliate the scalp. Vitamin E and argan oil are added to the mix for a moisturizing punch.

$48, sephora.com

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JVN Complete Pre-Wash Scalp Oil

This nutrient-packed pre-wash oil from my personal bestie Queer Eye’s Jonathan Van Ness’s line uses sugarcane-derived hemi-squalane to strengthen hair, basil root extract to minimize breakage and neem extract and bisabolol to soothe itchy scalps. A yummy scent blend of amber and cashmere musk with lemon and mandarin doesn’t hurt either.

$38, sephora.com

Revitalizing Fortifying Serum

Hair Rituel by Sisley Paris

Ok, this baby isn’t cheap, but at least it’s a time-limited program—kind of like a luxurious visit to French hair rehab. You use a few pipettes every other day for a month and then twice-a-week for maintenance to juice up your follicles with this super-light mix. The formula includes vitamins and minerals like vitamin H, known for treating hair loss, arginine (an amino acid that is part of the proteins found in hair keratin), and soothing alpha-bisabolol (a component of chamomile) to calm irritated scalps.

$265, sisley-paris.com

Next: The Root Cause of Thinning Hair and Hair Loss for Women

For decades, the birth control pill has been prescribed for more than just preventing pregnancy. “The pill” is widely used in Canada for a myriad of reasons including to make periods lighter and more regular, easing menstrual cramps and clearing acne. But in an unwelcome twist, could birth control cause acne?

According to the Canadian Dermatology Association, three-quarters of adult acne occurs in women and there are several factors, ranging from genes to stress, that can cause or trigger whiteheads, blackheads and pimples.

Birth control is a common hormonal agent prescribed for the treatment of acne. And when it comes to the question of whether birth control can cause acne, Dr. Constance Nasello, an ob-gyn in Chatham, Ontario, says the answer depends on the type of pill.

The type of birth control pill matters

Sex hormones, such as testosterone, are known as androgens and play a crucial role in the development of acne. Some birth control pills can stimulate the production of androgens and Nasello explains that excess can be linked to acne. That’s why, though the birth control pill can help most people with acne, Nasello says “it really depends on which pill.”

Dr. Marjorie Dixon, CEO and medical director at Toronto’s Anova Fertility and Reproductive Health, agrees. “[Androgens] increase oil production in the skin, which can block pores and cause acne,” Dixon says. “A combination pill, which contains both estrogen and progestin, is the most effective against acne because it decreases androgens in the body.”

In contrast, the progestin-only pill contains only one kind of hormone (progestin). This kind of pill has been known to stimulate the production of androgens, which may worsen or exacerbate acne.

Give it time

If you start the birth control pill and notice your skin is the same or—ugh—even worse, don’t fret. Dixon warns it can take time for your body to adjust to the hormones.

“It typically takes about three months for birth control to begin exerting its acne-fighting effects, so make sure to give your prescription time to work,” she says.

Nasello gives the same advice and cautions that you could experience temporary acne flare-ups throughout your birth control journey if you aren’t dosing consistently. If this sounds like you, Nasello advises that you take the pill at the exact same time every day. For someone who just started taking the pill, it might take some time to settle into a consistent schedule, and this could contribute to hormone fluctuations and acne flare-ups during the first couple of months on the medication.

In fact, if you’re prescribed a progestin-only pill, it’s actually critical to take your pill at the same time every day—not only for your skin, but to prevent pregnancy. In addition to causing acne flare-ups, Nasello says inconsistent dosing can make the pill a less effective form of birth control, even causing other issues like breakthrough bleeding.

Reminder: Birth control isn’t really meant to treat acne

According to Dr. Jerilynn Prior, a professor of endocrinology and metabolism at University of British Columbia, users of the pill should know that it is designed, first and foremost, to prevent pregnancy.

“Although many doctors talk about (the pill) as though it’s standard to prescribe it for other things…these medicines are made for control first, not for treatment,” Prior says. If you are using the pill purely for acne flare-ups and breakouts, Prior recommends that you see a dermatologist to explore your options.

Next: A Decade-by-Decade Guide to Changing Up Your Skin Care Routine

Maybe you’re tempted to pull out the grey hairs (especially your first few) you find, but is that really a good idea?

“OMG! I need to know about this!” a colleague emailed me when she heard I was looking into this question. She has gorgeous long brown hair, which she colours. She tells me she pulls out greys between dye jobs, but had heard that those hairs won’t grow back, or that plucking one would cause more to take its place.

“I see women all the time in my salon who have this habit,” says Montreal-based hairdresser Alain Larivée, Canadian creative consultant for John Frieda. That includes women who have never coloured their hair and are starting to see grey, and those who see greys grow in between colouring jobs.

Keep this in mind the next time you go to pull out grey hairs

The hair will generally grow back, but it will still be grey, says Toronto dermatologist Dr. Martie Gidon. “Grey hair already has a coarser texture than naturally pigmented hair, and it will grow back as coarse as before it was pulled.”

Hairdresser Marc Anthony, whose eponymous line of hair care products is sold in drugstores worldwide, says if you see a white bulb at the plucked hair’s root, that’s normal. However, “if you pull a hair out and its root tip is red, you’ve probably pulled out a hair from the blood supply, in which case it will most likely not grow back.”

Gidon says it’s also possible a new “replacement” hair can become ingrown before it grows out, which could lead to the possibility of infection, then scarring.

If I pull out grey hairs, will more grow in their place?

“That won’t happen, but it is better to leave it be,” says Anthony. “There are so many options for grey hair these days—including just leaving it grey.”

Why not leave your grey strands alone?

If you do that, focus on giving hair shine, and consider a clear gloss salon treatment, suggests Anthony.

Also, a shampoo that’s blue-based (for grey hair) or violet-based (for blonde, white or grey) will help keep your hair looking brilliant versus dull and yellowish, he says.

“Tobacco smoke, sunlight and wax-based hair products can give grey hair a yellow tinge, so try to avoid them.” If you want to cover the first signs of grey, he suggests a semi-permanent rinse, or highlights: “A few highlights that complement your natural colour can work to camouflage grey.”

Don’t want to embrace the grey hair? Load on some colour

“Book your colour service on a regular interval that you are able to live with,” says Larivée, who owns the CAJH Maîtres Coiffeurs salon in Montreal. “I usually say every four to six weeks.”

For those who colour their hair at home, Larivée recommends permanent dye John Frieda Precision Foam Colour. “It’s easy to use and covers pesky grey hairs. The non-drip foam formula gives full coverage and helps avoid a mess.”

Next: 38 Secrets Your Hair Stylist Won’t Tell You

This wonderful healthy dessert is one of my go-to cakes for entertaining. Gluten-free, dairy-free and sugar-free, this cake surprises the palette as the almond flour and polenta lends to its nutty texture and works in contrast to the silky smooth poached pears, while the aroma of spices add a depth of flavour and a hint of zing from the ginger.

Sweetened with a touch of honey, it is the perfect, light after-dinner dessert, and can be made ahead. Enjoy on its own or with a cup of hot tea. You can also drizzle the top of each slice with a little syrup for added natural sweetness.

Spiced Pear Polenta Cake

Yield: 1 x 9” cake
Serving: 8 to 10
Prep Time: ½ hour
Poaching Time: 1 hour
Baking Time: 1 hour 30 min
Make-Ahead: Yes

Ginger Saffron Poached Pears

Ingredients

5 bartlett or anjou pears, peeled, stems intact
6 cups apple juice
8 slices fresh ginger root
1 pinch saffron
1 vanilla bean, split

Instructions

In a saucepan big enough to hold the pears in a single layer, bring all ingredients except the pears, to a gentle boil, then turn down to a simmer. Be sure to scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean and place it in the liquid, along with the bean.
Place the pears gently in the poaching liquid. Cover the surface of the liquid with a piece of parchment to prevent the pears from discolouring while poaching.
Poach for about 45 minutes to an hour, depending on the ripeness of the pears. Test by piercing through the thickest part of the pear with a knife, it should have just a slight resistance.
Carefully remove the pears once they are ready, placing them on a clean plate to cool.
Once they are cool, level the bottoms with a knife, taking off about ¼ of an inch so they remain upright in the cake pan later.
Remove the ginger slices from the poaching liquid. Turn up the heat until the liquid starts to boil again. Reduce the liquid until it thickens, resembling a light syrup. Set aside.

Spiced Polenta Cake

Ingredients

195 g extra virgin olive oil
200 g honey
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
60 ml pineapple juice, room temperature
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon kosher salt 270 g almond flour
130 g polenta (medium grain cornmeal)
½ cup pinenuts

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 325F. Grease a 9” springform pan with olive oil, and line the bottom and sides with parchment paper. If your oven runs hot, you can double the parchment paper on the sides, or use cake pan baking strips.
Whisk all spices, salt, almond flour and polenta together in a bowl and set aside. Add the vanilla to the pineapple juice and set aside.
In a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, mix the oil and honey starting at medium speed, turning it up to high once it is emulsified, for 2 minutes.
Add the eggs, 1 at a time. Once all the eggs have been added, continue mixing on high for 4 minutes. This step is to add as much air as we can to the batter.
Gently fold the dry ingredients by hand into the egg mixture, using a spatula, in 3 additions, being careful to retain as much air as possible in the batter.
Add the juice at the end, and fold gently to incorporate.
Place the batter into the prepared pan, and arrange the poached pears in a circle, making sure they are about 1 inch away from the sides of the pan, and there is some room between each pear. Sprinkle the pinenuts all over the top for some added crunch.
Cut out a square piece of aluminum foil. Place it very loosely on top of the cake pan. Place the pan on a baking tray, and bake for 50 minutes, covered with the foil. Remove the foil and continue baking for another 30 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Cool for 30 minutes in the pan, before removing the ring, leaving the parchment intact until the cake is completely cool. The centre will be moister, but will hold its shape once it cools. Lift the cake gently from the bottom and place it on a serving platter. Decorate with fresh raspberries and serve with the syrup reduction on the side.

Note: This cake keeps for 2 days, in an airtight container, at room temperature. Warm slightly to enjoy the day after.

Wall of Bakers premieres on Monday, March 28th at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

Next: 5 Delicious Almond Flour Recipes to Try

The birdsong starts just as the sun breaks over the horizon. You stretch your arms over your head, crack a huge smile and swing your feet down to the floor.

Or, maybe that’s not quite how it goes. Cold, dark winter mornings are unwelcoming. The stress and anxiety of the pandemic may be making it harder to get a good night’s sleep. (A 2021 survey from the DNA testing company 23andMe reported that 23 percent of respondents were waking up at night more than usual.) And being underslept makes those initial waking hours all the more difficult to get through.

For many of us, kick-starting the morning isn’t as easy as it used to be. So we’ve uncovered five underrated, science-backed rituals that could help. While they might not transform you into an early bird, these tweaks to your routine will put a little more spring in your step.

Change up your wake up

It’s a luxury that isn’t available to everyone, especially those on a strict 9-to-5 work schedule, but turning off your alarm to wake up naturally could be beneficial to your health, according to the Munich-based researcher Till Roenneberg. For some of us, morning alarms end our sleep cycles too soon. That’s because we each have a chronotype, which is a natural desire to sleep at a certain time. Morning types find it easy to go to bed early and get up in the morning while evening types usually don’t feel sleepy until after 1 a.m. That means night owls might be depriving themselves of necessary shut-eye when they have to log on early for work. Chronic sleep deprivation contributes to an increased risk of obesity, hypertension, diabetes, depression, heart attack and stroke. Ditching the alarm, however, lets our bodies get the amount of sleep we need.

How we wake up and go to sleep is governed by two different processes, explains Dr. Elizabeth B. Klerman, a professor of neurology at the division of sleep medicine at Harvard Medical School and a research investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital. The homeostatic process is how long you’ve been awake or asleep. “If you’ve been asleep for a long period of time, you’re more likely to wake up,” says Klerman. The second cycle is our circadian rhythm, controlled by a part of the brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus. It’s like an internal clock or pacemaker. “It governs when you feel awake and alert, when you fall asleep and when you wake up.”

Different parts of our brains wake up at different times, according to Klerman. If an alarm wakes us up prematurely, we might still be in deep sleep, which leaves us with sleep inertia—that uncomfortable feeling of grogginess. “If you’ve woken up spontaneously, you might have a little bit of sleep inertia,” she says. “You’re not ready to do physics, but part of your brain is awake to turn off the alarm clock, get out of bed and start working. [However], part of the brain is still waking up. And so you feel like you’re groggy.”

With new remote work policies eliminating many morning commutes and making flextime perks more common, more of us have the option to sleep in and retire our alarm clocks. A July 2020 study from the Journal of Public Health Research surveyed 1,511 adults and found that their average wake-up time had been delayed by about 51 minutes during the initial COVID lockdown in March 2020, compared to before lockdown.

When I quit my 9-to-5 job to become a freelance journalist in 2013, I had the joy of regularly waking up without an alarm clock for the first time in my adult life. True, the liberating career change might have contributed to me feeling fresher, more alert and happier. But I now naturally wake up between 8 and 9 a.m. every day, and most days I feel great when I get up. A 2021 survey conducted by the sleep health website Each Night found that respondents who woke up without an alarm were 10 percent more likely to feel well-rested than those who woke up with an alarm. Respondents who didn’t use an alarm were also more likely to report being in a positive mood and not feeling rushed during the day.

My mom is a naturally early riser, getting up at 6 a.m. or earlier. So I always felt guilty for sleeping past the crack of dawn, as if that made me lazy or unmotivated. But ever since I found my own rhythm as a freelancer and ditched my morning alarm, I’m so much more productive and happy.

An illustration of a woman pouring a cup of coffee from a coffee pot, Morning Routine Checklist Stretch

Follow the light

As tempting as it is to lie in bed and scroll on your phone before getting up, Dr. Raed Hawa, a sleep medicine specialist at Toronto Western Hospital, advises against it. Instead, we should expose ourselves to sunlight as soon as possible after waking.

“Light exposure during the day helps to regulate your sleep-wake cycle,” Hawa explains. Early-morning daylight exposure helps us feel alert during the day while also encouraging sleepiness at night when we need to get to bed.

Natural light is the best option, according to Hawa. Fewer of us may be fetching the newspaper from our front porch in slippers and a bathrobe, but it’s not a bad idea to bundle up and step outside first thing in the morning. “By going out, you are being behaviourally activated by the natural light, the air, smells, nature,” says Hawa. “Therefore, you’re going to be more alert. There’s the physical activity as well that you’re doing by going outside.”

So does the light from your phone screen or simply turning on a lamp count, too? Not quite. For shift workers or early risers who get up before sunrise, Hawa recommends a light therapy box to mimic the correct type and quantity of exposure. “It is very specific how much intensity you get with a light box,” he explains. Most emit light at 10,000 lux—a measurement of light brightness—that best regulates our sleep-wake cycles. “You should put it within an arm’s length of you when you wake up in the morning.”

And as tempting as it is to pair this early-morning light exposure with a cup of coffee, it might be better to delay that first hit of caffeine until an hour or two after you get up. That’s because our body’s cortisol levels are higher when we first wake up, giving us a natural boost of energy and focus. A caffeine kick at this time won’t be as effective, so holding off helps give you a more sustained boost of energy throughout your morning.

Illustration of someone wearing a full winter snowsuit in a shower, Morning Routine Checklist Cold Showers

Douse yourself in chilly water

Yes, yes, a cold shower is a tough sell. But Katy Poon, a user experience design consultant from Vancouver, swears by this frigid yet effective morning ritual, and science backs her up. “I try to be under the cold for at least a minute,” Poon explains. She’ll then transition to warmer water for the rest of her shower.

Poon says that she feels “shock” at first, then a rush of adrenaline. “Honestly, it is quite addictive. The secret is to not hesitate and just jump in.” Poon first started the habit in 2013 when she began riding her bike to the office. “The building was at the top of a hill and I would always sprint up,” she says. “I had to find a way to cool down before the morning meetings.”

Acute cold exposure has immuno-stimulating effects, especially after physical exercise, according to a 1999 study in the Journal of Applied Psychology. This means that cold water could help increase immune system activity to help your body fight infections and diseases. A 2015 study from Amsterdam found that people who, for 30 days, had a hot shower followed by up to 90 seconds of a cold shower had a 29 percent reduction in absences from work due to sickness. And a 2008 paper from a journal called Medical Hypotheses proposed cold showers as a treatment for depression. “Due to the high density of cold receptors in the skin, a cold shower is expected to send an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain, which could result in an anti-depressive effect,” the paper’s author, Nikolai A. Shevchuk, wrote. That means a cold shower could be a natural way to give your body a boost of feel-good hormones.

An illustration of a woman looking tired and walking covered in a blanket covered in things,Morning Routine Checklist Get Up

Get a (tiny, little) move on

As glorious as sleep is, it can cause problems for our joints and muscles. Lack of movement, or sleeping on body parts (most commonly the hands or arms), limits blood flow, causing muscle tightness and stiffness. A 2005 study in the Korean Journal of Adult Nursing found that morning stretching lowered levels of depression and promoted feelings of motivation among stroke patients in rehabilitation.

Renata Szado, a physiotherapist at Tenzr Health, a wearable rehab technology company based in Surrey, B.C., recommends light morning stretches to ease muscle strain and get our bodies ready for the day. Before that, though, it’s important to do 30 minutes of movement—such as walking, light exercise or even the regular activity like showering and dressing involved in morning routines—to generate blood flow around your body and allow your muscles to stretch safely. “I suggest keeping movements and stretches so light in the morning that you can barely feel them initially,” Szado explains. “Continually focus on relaxing the muscle and letting the stretch relax to a point where you can’t feel it.”

For neck stiffness, use your left hand to gently bend your neck to the side, left ear to left shoulder, until a stretch is felt. Hold for one minute and repeat three times. Then repeat on the right side.

Experiencing lower back pain? Lie with your back on the floor and bring your knees to your chest while keeping the neck, shoulders and back relaxed. Wiggle from side to side gently, keeping your upper back and shoulders on the floor. As you exhale, consciously relax further, feeling a gentle stretch. Repeat three times.

If you’ll be on your feet for the rest of the day, Szado recommends doing a few back bends. When standing, place your hands on your lower back. Reach the hips forward as you arch the head and upper back gently, keeping the neck long. Hold for the stretch for two seconds, then activate your core and squeeze your glutes as you come back up to standing. Repeat five times.

For those who will be sitting all day, Szado recommends a letter T stretch. Lie on your back with your knees bent, then slide your chin down to lengthen the back of your neck. Gently flatten your lower back to the ground so there’s no arching. Bring your arms up to shoulder height on the ground, palms facing up, making a T shape with your body. Gently press backs of hands, wrists, elbows and shoulders into the ground. Feel the chest and front of the shoulders lengthening but don’t force your arms back. Hold this position for one minute. Repeat three times.

Eat dinner for breakfast

The sweet yogurts, refined cereals and granola bars that we associate with healthy mornings could actually lead to hangry moments soon after eating, according to Dakota Sinasac, a registered dietitian at Six Nations Health Services in Ontario. “Starting off the day with a bunch of sugar can cause spikes and crashes in your energy levels,” she says. “With foods that are higher in sugar, your blood sugar is ramping up really, really fast. Your body recognizes that and it compensates by crashing it back down.”

A better option is to shift your breakfast foods from sweet to salty. By eating savoury breakfasts, says Sinasac, “you’re more likely to have adequate sources of protein with the meal and a little bit more of those nutritious fats that can help you feel full longer.” A 2015 study couldn’t find enough data to determine if eating breakfast is good for you, but did find that protein matters: It showed that a high-protein breakfast reduces hunger later in the day.

Protein and whole grains take longer for your body to digest, resulting in a more sustained source of energy that’ll bring you to lunchtime before you get hungry again. Weekday sweet-to-savoury swaps involve some thinking outside the box. “Instead of a regular blueberry muffin, you could do egg muffins and include a little bit of spinach, peppers and turkey bacon in there,” Sinasac suggests. Instead of instant oatmeal, which tends to have lots of added sugar, make your own with steel-cut oats and top it with steamed spinach, tomatoes and an egg. Or, go savoury with your morning smoothie by swapping fruit for vegetables, like celery, kale and dried seaweed powder or rehydrated kelp for a nutrient-rich kick.

Sinasac recognizes that savoury breakfasts usually require more prep time than pre-packaged sugary options. If you’re already batch-cooking your lunches and dinners, consider adding savoury breakfasts to that routine. “A lot of these foods you can prep ahead of time for the week,” she says. “They last in the fridge or the freezer and they’re easy to pull out.”

Sugary breakfasts may be the norm in North America, but there are many other places and cultures around the world that traditionally serve a savoury dish first thing in the morning. For example, in Hong Kong, macaroni noodle soup with mixed vegetables is topped with a fried egg or spam for breakfast. And in Venezuela, eating arepas—baked corn flour bread filled with eggs, cheese, meat or beans—is a common way to start the day.

Next: Your Phone Might Be Hurting Your Hand

Vitamins, herbs and oils keep fluid retention in check and coax your hormones into a breast-friendly balance (more progesterone, less estrogen). And a few dietary changes will help you get some bothers off your chest.

Massage ‘Em

When you’re in the shower, soap your breasts and gently massage them from the centre of your chest out to your armpits. This improves blood circulation and the drainage of lymph, the clear fluid that carries infection-fighting agents through your body.

Ice ‘Em

Wrap a towel around a bag of ice cubes or frozen vegetables and apply it to each breast for about 10 minutes. The cold-pack treatment reduces swelling and dulls the pain.

Get Support

Consider wearing support bras instead of underwire bras when your breasts are tender. You may want to wear your bra to bed to reduce nighttime jostling. When you try on a new bra, make sure it cups your breasts without pinching. Once you have new, more comfortable bras, throw away the stretched-out old ones that just don’t provide the right support anymore.

Pick Fibre

Consume plenty of fibre, such as fruits, vegetables, legumes (like lentils and black beans) and whole grains. A study at Tufts University School of Medicine found that women on a higher-fibre diet excreted more estrogen, which helps with breast tenderness.

Watch Your Intake of These Foods

Cut back your intake of hydrogenated oils, found in margarine, packaged baked goods and snack products. When you eat these oils, your body loses some of its ability to convert the fatty acids in your diet (essential to your health) into gamma-linolenic acid (GLA)—a necessary link in a chain reaction that prevents breast tissue from becoming painful.
Reduce your consumption of methylxanthine, a component of many common foods, including coffee, cola, tea, wine, beer, bananas, chocolate, cheese, peanut butter, mushrooms and pickles. Most women who endure painful lumps on a cyclical basis will improve if they cut way back on, or eliminate, foods that are high in this compound.
Watch your intake of sodium. Sodium increases water retention, which causes your breasts to swell. Be especially careful to keep a cap on your salt consumption starting about two weeks before your period.

A natural boost for treatment of breast tenderness

Dandelion is a natural diuretic. Take the herb in capsule form, or make a tea using powdered dandelion root. Simmer two to three teaspoons of the powder in a cup of water for 15 minutes. Drink three cups a day.
Try evening primrose oil, a traditional herbal remedy for premenstrual symptoms. It contains an essential fatty acid GLA that may help balance a woman’s hormones and seems to ease cyclical breast tenderness.
Vitamins E and B6 may also work together to help prevent breast tenderness. While you may have to use supplements, you can boost the vitamins in your diet by eating nuts, barley and wheat germ for more vitamin E and avocados, lean meats and spinach for plenty of B6.

Next: Why Examining Your Breasts Is So Important