This New Health App Allows Doctors to Post Pics of Patients' Gross Medical Problems (NSFW)

Is it an awesome advancement in medical care or huge invasion of privacy?

The next time you head into the doctor’s office with a weird “I have no idea what this could possibly be” health issue, get ready—your M.D. could very well whip out her cell phone, take a photo, and upload it for the world to see.

A new smartphone health app called Figure 1 allows doctors, nurses, and other health professionals to snap, upload, and share photos with others. Basically, it’s set up like an Instagram for M.D.s. Users can browse images based on body part (eye, nose, stomach, upper limb, back, etc.), mark photos to review later, and comment on them.

The photos, which are as gnarly as you might imagine, are sure to churn most people’s stomachs. But for health care professionals, especially those who are new to their field or in an area with limited support, they could be vital to helping them make accurate diagnoses and treatment decisions.

Figure 1 / jskenndy

RELATED: 7 Things You Should Never Feel Embarrassed About at the Gyno

“Medicine is a profession in which we are all constantly learning, says Sachin H. Jain, M.D., chief medical officer of CareMore Health System. “One way we learn is by consulting other physicians and medical professionals. Tools like Figure 1 that help facilitate conversations with other clinicians about clinical care will help us take better care of patients and augment our learning and understanding of medical conditions and their treatments.”

But is sharing patients’ images (there’s even an entire image feed for reproductive organs), even if it’s for the patient’s good, above board? Federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy regulations, which are intended to prohibit doctors from sharing personal information about their patients, don’t extend to photos in which the patients are not identifiable. For that reason, Figure 1’s website states that users must remove any identifying details related to the patient (like faces or tattoos) prior to uploading. The app even contains an automatic face-blocking tool and manual block tool for any other features a doctor needs to hide from view. And before an image goes live on the app, moderators check to make sure the patient is in no way identifiable.

RELATED: The Internet Just Got More Fun for Hypochondriacs

Figure 1 / Brad369

But is that enough? “While the photos themselves may fall outside of the HIPAA privacy regulations, the subsequent discussion between physicians about the particulars of a patient’s malady may inadvertently disclose personal health information,” says N. Hausfeld, M.D., a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and founder of The Society of Physician Entrepreneurs. “I would therefore make it mandatory to receive the patient’s permission to disclose their photographs and other pertinent information about their history on a platform like this.”

Figure 1 does contain an in-app consent form for those users who want to get their patients’ consent as well as those that have to due to jurisdiction or medical facility requirements. “Patient privacy must always remain at the forefront of our considerations and it will be up to apps like Figure 1 to build in appropriate safeguards to ensure that patient privacy is always protected—and it will be up to healthcare professionals to continually exercise common sense when using these tools,” says Jain.

Figure 1 / jhiland317RN

The one safeguard it doesn’t have, though, is a way to verify that everyone commenting on photos and giving diagnoses are actually doctors. And even if the commenter is a physician, users need to know that he or she has the appropriate background and expertise to offer up opinions, says Hausfeld.

RELATED: Your Tongue Is Trying to Tell You Something Important About Your Health

Currently, anyone can join the app, look at images, and even comment on them. (Seriously, you’ve got to take a look!) However, only medical staff can become “verified.” Just like Twitter’s blue tick verifies a user is legit, the app puts a check mark by users’ names if Figure 1 staff members have verified that the users are, in fact, who they say they are. They do this by contacting the user’s medical facility or searching authoritative databases. Fellow users have no information about the health care professional apart from their username and specialty.

It’s an iffy area, and getting a second, third, or thousandth opinion—especially online—has both serious pros and cons. In the end, it’s up to the doctor and patient to figure out what’s best for them...right?

Will Doing Workouts That Are Twice as Long Double Your Weight-Loss Results?

The official answer

Summer is almost here, offering up the double-whammy of constant beach trips and weddings every other weekend. You know what that means: a renewed commitment to the gym because you want to look good and feel even better. In the interest of shaping up fast, should you lengthen your workouts for the best results? Actually, you should do the exact opposite and shorten them, says Debi Silber, M.S., R.D., W.H.C., F.D.N.

“We know so much more about fitness now," she says. "We used to think long, drawn-out cardio sessions were the best way to blast fat. Now we know the shorter bursts in high-intensity interval training burn so much more fat in a fraction of the time." Science backs her up in a major way: Not only does high-intensity interval training (HIIT) amp up your calorie burn, it strengthens your heart, helps regulate your blood sugar, and keeps your metabolism chugging along at a higher rate after the workout’s done.

RELATED: Will Working Out Twice a Day Actually Help You Lose More Weight?

It seems logical that a longer workout would help you drop pounds faster, but there are a few reasons quick sweat sessions are the way to go. First of all, even though exercising pays off with feel-good endorphins, extended workouts can actually boost your levels of the stress hormone cortisol. “Your body perceives long workouts as a stressor, so your adrenal glands respond as if your body’s in crisis and flood you with cortisol,” says Silber. When your body interprets those stress signals, it doesn’t properly convert food into glycogen, or energy. Instead, it sends those calories straight to your middle, where they park themselves as fat, says SIlber.

Beyond that, longer workouts can promote an injury that sidelines you from the fitness game completely, especially if you’re jumping into them all of a sudden. “If you’re doing the same kind of exercise for a long time, you’re putting way too much stress and tension on your muscles, joints, and ligaments,” says Silber. HIIT workouts don’t leave you as injury-prone, and they give your muscles a chance to bounce back in their newer, sleeker forms.

RELATED: How Interval Training Is Different for Women

Longer workouts, on the other hand, might exhaust your muscles to the point where they can’t change as easily. “With the right kind of exercise, you’re breaking down the muscle in order to build it back up," says Silber. "When you over-exercise, you’re not giving your muscles a chance to repair." Ditching marathon workouts in favor of the HIIT variety helps promote muscle confusion, which protects your muscles from getting used to one kind of workout and not changing.

RELATED: 7 High-Intensity Workouts that Take 20 Minutes or LESS

Then there’s one of the biggest benefits of HIIT: It just takes less time. “The biggest excuse people make for not exercising is that they don’t have time," says Silber. "If you try to lengthen your workout, you just won’t want to do it." But you’ll be hard pressed to convince yourself you don’t have 20 minutes to squeeze in a workout, especially when you know it’s one that’s proven to deliver results.

Would You Let Your Friend Breastfeed Your Baby?

...Or would you breastfeed hers?

You share everything with your girlfriends, so you might as well breastfeed their babies too, right? Err...

That’s one of the concepts explored in new research from The Ohio State University. In the study, researchers surveyed 500 new mothers about their knowledge of breast milk sharing as well as if they had used donated milk or donated milk themselves.

Here’s what the researchers discovered: Women who were educated and had higher incomes were more likely to be aware of the concept of breast milk sharing. They were also more likely to consider using another woman’s breast milk and to donate their own milk for another baby. Four percent of the women surveyed had either used donated milk or provided milk to another child, and nearly half of them did it with friends and relatives.

Yup, they either breastfed a friend’s or relative’s baby or had a friend or relative nurse theirs. That’s not shocking to Diane L. Spatz, Ph.D., a professor of perinatal nursing at the University of Pennsylvania and nurse researcher at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Spatz hosts a regular panel of breastfeeding moms and says several of the participants in the last panel mentioned that they cross-nursed. “Cross-nursing has always happened in certain communities, but it’s definitely increasing,” she says.

Why is it happening? Most women do it to help a friend or family member who is sick or has a lowered milk supply. “For women who are very informed about the benefits of human milk and the risks of infant formula, they feel like cross-nursing is a better-informed choice,” says Spatz.

But while 25 percent of the new moms who participated in the recent research were game to swap milk, 27 percent of the women surveyed said they hadn’t thought about safety when it came to using breast milk from another woman. That’s pretty risky—even if you’re getting milk from a friend, says women’s health expert Jennifer Wider, M.D.

“Human milk is a bodily fluid, and cross-nursing can spread diseases,” she says—those include hepatitis, HIV, and other STDs. Certain medications, caffeine, and alcohol can also be transmitted through the milk and affect your baby. “While you may pay close attention to what you put in your body, other women may not,” points out Wider.

And even just a difference in diet can make an impact. For example, if your friend has one more cup of coffee than you a day, the caffeine in it could affect your baby, keeping him awake and making him jittery.

Cross-nursing can also confuse or frustrate a baby who has bonded with his mother, says Wider, which can make it difficult for him to nurse on either one of you afterward.

There’s the psychological aspect of it, too, says Kristi Watterberg, M.D., a neonatalist and professor of pediatrics at the University of New Mexico. While Watterberg says the reaction really depends on the mother, she points out that if a mom has a friend or relative nurse her baby and then discovers something that upsets her about that person’s medical history or diet, there’s no going back. “Both outcomes might be stressful,” she says.

Watterberg also cites a 2012 study published in the Asian Journal of Transfusion Science that looked at people who received blood transfusions from relatives and friends instead of going to a blood bank, thinking it was safer. As it turns out, it wasn’t, and it put a lot of pressure on the friends or relatives who may have had something in their background they didn’t want to talk about. Meaning, it’s totally possible that your friend or sister has an STD that you’ll never know about because she’s embarrassed—but it could be transferred to your baby if she cross-nurses your child.

While the FDA doesn’t say that women shouldn’t cross-nurse, it does warn that feeding a baby with milk from a source that isn’t its mother is risky. It also says it’s best to talk to your doctor first.

Despite the risks, Wider notes that there are some potential benefits to cross-nursing. If a mom can’t breastfeed temporarily due to an illness and knows her friend’s medical history, the baby can get the benefits of breast milk in a situation where he or she might not otherwise have the opportunity. Wider also points out that you’re more likely to know your friend’s medical history and what she puts into her body, making her “probably safer” than a stranger.

But while experts stress that breast milk is the best way to feed an infant, Watterberg says we don’t really know how the actual milk from another source can impact your baby and whether it carries the same benefits as nursing your own child, like improved neurodevelopment.

So should you have your BFF cross-nurse your baby? Maybe. Just talk to your doctor first—and make sure you know everything about your friend’s medical history.

Clutch Life Pancake Recipes

Start your morning with some Clutch Life protein pancakes! These 4 recipes are easy and fun to make.

These 5 Moves Can Strengthen, Tighten, and Transform Your Body

Here's a brand-new routine using the same #Gimme5Challenge exercises!

If you’ve been following along with the #Gimme5Challenge, you know that we're about to be one month down! Congrats to all participants! You ladies have been so committed, and the results are showing.

I’ve been checking you out on Instagram and noticing two things: 1) Several of you have made solid improvements in your strength. You’ve increased your weight load for many of the moves, and that’s amazing. 2) Your technique has improved on the more complicated moves like the front squat and deadlift. This, too, is a sign that you're getting stronger.

Officially bumped up to 10 pounders for the @womenshealthmag #Gimme5Challenge! I won't lie, the end of the workout was not pretty but I'm actually kind of excited to be sore tomorrow #WhoAmI? How's the form on my chest press @hollyperkins? Thanks! - Kara B

A video posted by @whgimme5challenge on Apr 21, 2015 at 5:37pm PDT

If you haven’t been taking part and just stumbled across this challenge, stay with me for a minute. I’ll show you how you can join us this month!

Now begins the next stage of fun! In order to keep making improvements in your strength and fitness, it’s essential to keep asking your body to do new work. So for the next 30 days, I’m going to shake things up and give you brand new programming with the same five moves. Yep—same moves, but you’ll execute the workouts differently.

I’ve designed the program so that you can join us even if you haven’t been following along since April 1. This month’s program is different from last month's, but it is also designed for all fitness levels.

its friday. so how about a mid-week selfie shot since my black skinnies are fitting better and better as the #gimme5challenge continues @hollyperkins @womenshealthmag #friYAY #ootd -Kara S.

A photo posted by @whgimme5challenge on Apr 24, 2015 at 4:18pm PDT

The key is this: In order to inspire change and strength improvements in your muscles, you must demand that they work harder than they are currently able to. That sounds like a conundrum, but it’s really pretty simple. This month, I’ll ask you to perform 10 repetitions of each exercise. Choose a weight load at which you can complete the first eight repetitions with excellent technique. Not sure what that looks like? Check out the guided tutorials on each move below! The weight that you choose should be heavy enough that the last two repetitions (numbers nine and 10) should be very, very hard—your perfect technique should begin to break down a bit.

RELATED: This 15-Minute Workout Lets You Torch Fat While Strength Training

Dinner it's been a salad week for me with Red Wine Vinegarette @womenshealthmag @hollyperkins making better food choices as well as #Gimmie5 T.Martin

A photo posted by @whgimme5challenge on Apr 16, 2015 at 5:54pm PDT

Before I introduce this month’s new programming, I’d like to review some of the tools that will help you to make the most of this challenge.

1. Be sure to take pictures of yourself at the start to serve as your "before" photos, and take progress photos every two weeks throughout the challenge. (Here are some tips on snapping those pics.)
2. Take your circumference measurements at the start and every two weeks. (Check out our handy instructional infographic here.)
3. Follow us at @whgimme5challenge and @hollyperkins on Instagram.
4. Post photos and videos of your workouts on Instagram and Twitter with the hashtag #Gimme5Challenge. I’ll answer questions and provide feedback on your video if you’d like!

RELATED: Take Prevention's 21-Day Transformation Challenge

So let’s get to the good stuff! This month you’ll be performing the same five awesome moves:

This month will look similar to last month, but I’ve changed the order and pairing of exercises and increased the number of reps. This is going to give your body the perfect amount of new stimulus to inspire new progress and changes.

#GIMME5CHALLENGE, PART 2: MAY 1 TO MAY 30
You’ll be following a straight set system again this month. This means that you will complete one set of an exercise for the noted reps and then rest for the designated time. Then you’ll complete all five sets of the same exercise before moving on to the next move. For this month, you’ll complete five sets of 10 reps with 30 seconds of rest in between all sets.

Suggested weekly schedule:
Monday: Workout A
Wednesday: Workout B
Friday: Workout C

Here are videos demos of me performing each of the five moves:

Dumbbell Front Squat

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Dumbbell Deadlift

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Bent-Over Row

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Dumbbell Chest Press

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Dumbbell Overhead Press

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Remember: Technique trumps everything! Make sure you spend some time reviewing the moves here and watching the video tutorials. If your technique is right, all you have to do is select the weight loads that make the last two repetitions hard. And that’s it! So simple, right? When you are smart about exercise selection and programming, it doesn’t take tons of fancy moves to see results.

I can’t wait to follow along with you ladies this month! Let’s get STRONG!

Nothing is more motivating than having a friend work out with you! -Lindsey @hollyperkins @womenshealthmag #gimme5challenge

A photo posted by @whgimme5challenge on Apr 8, 2015 at 3:45pm PDT

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Holly Perkins is a certified strength and conditioning specialist, founder of Women’s Strength Nation, and author of Lift to Get Lean.

This Video About What Type of Makeup Guys REALLY Like Will Crack You Up

You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll probably makeup-free selfie, too.

Last night on Inside Amy Schumer, the comedian debuted an epic music video that's stinking hilarious (her faux music video game has been so on-point lately!).

The boy band-inspired song, called "Girl, You Don't Need Makeup," shows Amy with her face on getting ready to leave for the day. That's when a dude stops her in her tracks and tells her, "You don't need lipstick, you don't need blush, 'cause you've got that inner-natural glow." So she proceeds to wipe the gunk from her face and emerge from the bathroom looking totally natural—and the guys are not impressed. They sing, "We kind of changed our mind on the no makeup thing."

Check out the video in its full glory:

Get More: Comedy Central,Funny Videos,Funny TV Shows

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While the ending is the half-funny, half-sad reality check you'd expect from Amy, the funny lady took the message a step further and asked fans to share their makeup-free mugs using #girlyoudontneedmakeup.

In 30 mins #InsideAmy airs. Post your #girlyoudontneedmakeup photos (no makeup and tag me and #InsideAmy and I'll RT! pic.twitter.com/7d5zWWIWwm

— Amy Schumer (@amyschumer) April 29, 2015

Then the Internet exploded with makeup-less selfies. Check some of them out:

A photo posted by megs (@lilmiss_awkward) on Apr 28, 2015 at 7:37pm PDT

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A photo posted by Marina (@damnitshardtogetausername) on Apr 28, 2015 at 10:07pm PDT

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A photo posted by Gina (@o10gina) on Apr 28, 2015 at 7:58pm PDT

A photo posted by Jessica Hupp (@jessicaudrey7) on Apr 28, 2015 at 8:30pm PDT

The 11 Most Gut-Wrenching Quotes from the Cleveland Kidnapping Victims' Interview

We can't believe the horrors they had to endure.

“I’ve been kidnapped and been missing for 10 years. I’m here. I’m free now,” Amanda Berry told the 911 operator.

It was May 6, 2013. Amanda, now 29, had spent the last decade chained, starved, and tortured by Ariel Castro—all just four miles away from her home. Ariel had kidnapped her, as well as Gina DeJesus, now 25, and Michelle Knight, between 2002 and 2004.

Now, almost two years after their escape, Amanda and Gina are sharing their story—the kidnapping, the abuse, the birth of Amanda and Ariel's daughter, Jocelyn, and their life after the nightmare—with the world. Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland was released yesterday, and tonight, Amanda and Gina joined ABC’s Robin Roberts in an exclusive interview to discuss the unimaginable. Below, the hour’s most memorable words.

“It was really hard, going to sleep at night, you know. If you wanted to toss on to your back, you couldn’t do that—you would have to take the whole chain and move it to the front of your stomach so that you're not laying on the big lock on your back.” —Amanda

“He tried to act nice, but he’s like, ‘Well, maybe you need to go take a shower,’ and I had to take a shower with him. He thought that, 'Well, I gave her that, I deserve this.'” —Amanda

“I thought about putting rat poison in his beans. And then spraying, like, Pine-Sol in his eyes. But he was always a step ahead of what I was doing.” —Gina

Courtesy of the authors of Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland

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“After a while, you just get used to it. Like you, like, just numb yourself to it. You, like, put your mind somewhere else so that you’re not there. You know, you’re not in that room with him.” —Amanda

“There was plenty of times when I just never knew, if, why is he keeping me here. Is it, you know, one day when he’s done with me, you know, he kill me and get rid of me?” —Amanda

“I think that [not being with my mother when she passed] was the hardest part of being in there. She was always fighting, and she was never going to give up on me. And for her to get sick, and I couldn’t be there with her. I couldn’t help her when she was sick. … So he came in the room, and I was just really sad and I started talking to him. He’s like, ‘Everything’s going to be okay, everything’s going to turn out all right.’ And so I asked him for a hug, and we hugged. There was [a part of me that was like, ‘What in the world?’], but then there was another part of me like, 'I needed that.' I needed, like, a human, caring touch.” —Amanda

“[Jocelyn] is his kid, you know. How do I feel about that? And she resembled him a lot, and I would look at her, and I just felt like, she’s mine. She’s mine.” —Amanda

“We [Jocelyn and I] would pretend to leave our house. All of us in the same room, of course. I would tell her, ‘Okay, we’re at a street now, so you got to stop, then you look both ways for cars, and then we can go across the street.’ ‘Okay, we’re at school now.' So then I’d sit her at her little desk and tell her, ‘You have a good day at school now, mommy will be back later for you.’” —Amanda

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“You never know until you’re in that situation, what you’re going to do, how you’re going to react.” —Amanda

“I think you have to forgive in order to move on with your life.” —Gina

Courtesy of the authors of Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland

“One day, I was going to get home, and they [my family] were going to read this [thank-you letter]. ‘Thank you for not giving up on me. It is because of your help that you’re reading this because that means I’m home.’” —Amanda

7 Reasons a Guy Will Break Things Off—Even When He’s Actually Into You

One man explains that when he says, "It's not you, it's me," he's not ALWAYS lying.

Perhaps the most tired trope in breakups is “He’s just not that into you.” It’s so clichéd that it was made into a movie about… Baltimore’s inner harbor, I think. I don’t really remember because I saw it with a totally nice and reasonable girl who I broke up with shortly thereafter. The reason? That other worn-out excuse: “It’s not you, it’s me.”

Very often, a guy isn’t lying when he pulls out that one. Why do guys do this sort of thing? Specifically, why would a guy dump a girl he actually likes? So many reasons. So many dumb, dumb reasons. Get ready for an ugly look into the male psyche: Here are seven reasons a guy will break up with you, even if he legitimately likes you.

Sometimes, this is a mutual feeling. Two people get along great—laughing and doing all the couple stuff you see in commercials for prescription medications—and then get to the bedroom, and it’s just a big ol’ zero. Everyone realizes it, they agree to part ways, and they maybe even stay friends post-breakup.

Sometimes, though, only one person feels this way. For many guys, it’s easier to just cut and run than try to actually work on bedroom stuff. Sure, everything else might be perfect, but some guys are totally focused on the one thing that isn’t. But wait, it gets worse.

What if the sex is outstanding? Maybe your guy is 100 percent pleased and loves sleeping with you. But maybe he thinks he can do better. Or different. Or anyone. That may be grounds for a breakup.

Why do guys think this? No one knows. According to romantic comedies, scientific studies about apes, and your bitter great aunt, men are biologically wired to seek out as many sexual partners as possible—even when he is otherwise interested in you.

A subtle distinction, I know, but hear me out. This is the sexual equivalent of wanderlust, also known as regular lust. He may feel that the grass is greener on the other side and may even want to experience the thrill of the chase by hitting on random girls in bars or in clubs or in coffee shops or (very quietly) in libraries.

This can be a self-esteem issue and is possibly related to him feeling like his flirting muscle has atrophied. This is the type of breakup most closely associated with him calling you at 2 a.m. crying after realizing he’s made a terrible mistake. Savor his tears. He is a dummy.

Not every guy’s friend group is Entourage, but most guys have that one Johnny Drama telling them all sorts of nonsense about their relationship. “Bro, you can totally do better. She doesn’t even let you skip her dad’s funeral to crush beers at a three-day yacht party co-hosted by Justin Bieber’s tattoo artist and the animatronic T-Rex from Jurassic Park!”

But some men are weak and will dump a girl they really like just because their friends made the “woo-PISH” whip noise for two hours.

RELATED: Why Your Guy Can't Stand Your Best Friend

Guy friends are way in your face about not liking your girlfriend. Moms use guile and cunning, like Cersei Lannister on Game of Thrones.

What did you ever do to piss his mom off? Did you not take Psych 101? The first page of the Freud section should cover all the ways in which you screwed up.

RELATED: How to Get Along with Your In-Laws

Some guys are very career-oriented. Some guys write about sex stuff on the Internet (definitely not me). Anyway, if your man is offered a position that will take him to another city or country or a plane of existence requiring him to work 24/7 while hooked up to a machine that harnesses his dreams for profit, he may have to make an honest choice. Every relationship requires sacrifice, and a guy may decide to sacrifice the relationship itself if he decides the job is too good to pass up. He probably works in finance, by the way, and you’ll be better off without him.

This is the saddest of the breakups and the one that usually follows him taking the big job in Tampa while leaving you behind in Tucson. (Side note: You should both move to better places.) He may really, really like you, but the combination of not seeing you enough and blowing through his salary on plane tickets and FedEx packets of love letters may force him into a pragmatic solution.

This type of breakup may not be fatal. You guys should totally reconcile in an airport somewhere while all the other passengers applaud. It turns out they were cheering because they all got upgraded to first class, but still.

4 Guys Share the Mushy Stuff They Would Write in Love Letters to Their Ladies

You know, if anyone wrote love letters anymore

Recently, Tom Brady wrote his wife, Gisele Bundchen, an open letter. He did so shortly after she said she was retiring from modeling, and he wanted to tell her how proud he was of her accomplishments—even though they’re mostly the product of being ridiculously good-looking. Check it out for yourself:

Congratulations Love of my Life. You inspire me every day to be a better person. I am so proud of you and everything you...

Posted by Tom Brady on Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Most of us guys aren’t dating or married to Brazilian supermodels, but we still have pretty amazing things to say about the ones we’re with.

So we asked four guys what they would write to their partners if they were to pen their own love letters. Here's what they sent us:

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The Obituary This Woman Wrote for Herself Before Dying Will Move You to Tears

“Grace and love win, not cancer."

We’ve all known someone who’s died from cancer—and we all know how frustratingly unfair the whole experience is. It’s even more heartbreaking when the person who had cancer was young.

That’s why Beth O’Rourke’s story is making us tear up so much. Beth, a 44-year-old married mom of two from Worcester, Massachusetts, died from bile duct cancer on April 16. She wrote her own obituary before she passed—and while her story is obviously incredibly sad, her words are beautiful. Here's a portion of it (you can read the entire thing at legacy.com):

I LOVED my life. I loved a long run, to sit quietly by the lake, to read and dance and sing and be silly with our children. We loved watching summer storms blow across the water. I loved to chat and laugh with my sisters and friends, until tears ran down our legs! Brendan and I enjoyed many trips together, most enjoyable were those to Ireland, visiting family to share a pint and some good 'craic'. And of course sitting quietly on the porch with Brendan (listening to the Red Sox). I enjoyed working for a cause, among them, the Pancreatic Cancer Alliance, whose members' spirit and dedication amazed me.

Of all the things I did in this life, nothing compared to being with Brendan and our children. I fought every day to stay alive and to be with them. No person could ever ask for a more loving and supportive husband, always my champion, always. I enjoyed every moment we shared; the great ones, the sad ones, the easy and the hard. I pray they have learned to feel the deep sense of faith that I shared. No matter where this journey brings me next, I will forever carry their love with me, as I am sure there is a piece of me that will forever remain with them.

But cancer does not care who it takes, who it hurts, or honor or love. It comes into your life and starts to break the threads that hold you and you are left to see pieces of yourself slip away and dreams fade. We were clung only to each other with pure love and faith binding us, in the end is when the most amazing thing happens, cancer loses its strength and grace appears. We need to see it. We accept it, and go with it. Grace and love win, not cancer.

I hope to be remembered, with laughter, love and a good pint. And for my children to know "No Momma ever did and no Momma ever will….."

RELATED: What to Eat to Reduce Your Risk of Colon Cancer

Beth was an avid marathon runner and fitness lover. Prior to her death, she set up a fund called “A Story About Love” to raise money to help support her husband and children, and it has already raised more than $29,000. (You can donate at gofundme.com.) What a moving story, right? Beth was truly an inspirational woman.

Get Your Upper Body in Crop-Top Shape

Belly-baring season is right around the corner!

Join the Women's Health Weekend Challenge to help you meet your fitness goals fast and make your weekend workouts count. Thousands of women already have. Join them, and achieve your fitness goals faster!

Front Raise: We know you're ready for warmer weather, and with this move, your body will be totally prepared to bust out of hibernation, too. The simple yet effective exercise works your shoulders, arms, and core. Rest assured, it's deceivingly challenging!

SO…ARE YOU IN?!

What Doctors Discovered Wedged Inside This Woman's Brain Will Make You Shudder

Let’s just say it had teeth.

Last week, Hrayr Shahinian, M.D., a neurosurgeon at the Skull Base Institute in Los Angeles, performed a first-of-its-kind surgery to remove a tumor deep inside the brain of a 26-year-old Ph.D. student from Indiana. When it was completely extracted from her patient's head, Shahinian was surprised to find that the the tumor was embryonic—and get this—it had hair, bones, and teeth. What?!

We spoke with Shahinian to find out more about what the heck that thing was and how it got in his patient's brain to begin with.

What the Eff Is That Thing?
The tumor turned out to be a teratoma tumor, which means "monster tumor" in Greek, says Shahinian. Apparently, it picked up this name because it usually contains random body parts like limbs, eyes, hair, teeth, bones, and can even take a fetus-like structure, he says. These suckers are very rare. Shahinian says the probability of one occurring is somewhere around one in the tens of millions. But when they do occur, they typically pop up near a person's tailbone, in the ovaries, or in the testicles. Having a teratoma in your brain is extremely rare, he says.

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How Did It Get All Up in Her?
When you're just a wee little embryo, these tumors can form as your cells begin dividing to form a fetus. Sometimes, a genetic mutation can force some of the germ cells—the cells that create your hair, nails, bones, and other parts of your body—to form a tumor. That tumor is formed before you're even born and continues to grow with you, he says. "It's not like one embryo absorbed the other one—it was there all along," says Shahinian. And fun fact—the tumor can start out with baby teeth that grow into fully-developed adult teeth.

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So Was That Ball of Body Parts Her Twin?
Teratomas have been called twins because they sometimes take the form of a fetus, and they share the same DNA as the person carrying them. However, technically, it's not a twin. Plus, since this is a tumor we're talking about, the mass can be cancerous. Luckily, this young woman's wasn't. Today, she's back at home and will make a full recovery, says Shahinian.

This Woman Was Viciously Harassed Online for 5 Years Straight—and Her Tormenter Was Another Woman

Read her terrifying story and get the scary stats on Internet bullying.

I am single-minded enough to find you...and slit your throat from ear to ear.

It arrived out of nowhere. Everything else in Melissa Anelli's e-mail inbox was perfectly innocent: a thank-you note from her sister, updates from colleagues at The Leaky Cauldron, the Harry Potter fan site she moderated. Everything else about July 21, 2008, had been totally unremarkable. Until Jessica Parker appeared on Melissa's screen.

You'll hear from me again soon, wrote Jessica. And Melissa did—thousands of times, over what would become a waking nightmare. Melissa recognized Jessica as an offensive commenter she'd banned from The Leaky Cauldron. "I thought if I just blocked her e-mail address and refused to respond, it would all go away," says Melissa, now 35. But Jessica invented countless new aliases and flooded Melissa's e-mail, message boards, and social media accounts with death threats, love letters, rape threats, and pleas for attention. I beg you, give me the time of day... I'll throttle your neck... Don't leave me hanging... You are a dead woman walking...

Melissa knew cyber harassment existed; as a site moderator and self-employed writer, she practically lived online. But she'd never realized just how vulnerable she was: very. Forty percent of Internet users experience online harassment, a recent Pew Research Center study revealed. (A new survey of Women's Health readers puts that number closer to 55 percent.) Worse, as ever more people use the Internet to work, chat, shop, and play, and as the lines between online and off further blur, the virtual abuse is spilling over into real life. And no one—not lawyers, not cops, not even the government—is prepared to stop it.

Melissa, as she soon found out, was on her own.

Cunt. Bitch. Slut. Whore. Nearly two-thirds of women have been slapped with one of these or similar insults online. Most often in retaliation for...nothing. The old "she was asking for it" explainer? Total BS, per a startling study from the University of Maryland. Researchers created a bunch of fake chat room accounts and, without posting a single thing, watched what happened. Feminine usernames racked up an average of 100 sexual or threatening messages a day; masculine usernames, on the other hand, got fewer than four each day.

It's a modern catch-22: Our often-useful, share-driven online accounts are open targets for harassers looking to insult, frighten, or harm without repercussion, says Jac SM Kee, creator of Take Back the Tech, a global campaign against gender-based violence. And it's easier to fling vitriol when there's no face-to-face contact. To wit, most women—nearly 70 percent in our WH survey—already know their harassers.

The abuse can take myriad forms—everything from name-calling to illicit messaging to revenge porn to death threats. All chilling in the moment, but even more so in the long-term. Studies show that female victims suffer deep emotional turmoil, including paralyzing stress, anxiety, and depression. Many lose their jobs or fail to find new ones, since about 80 percent of employers use the Internet to screen potential hires and might stumble upon reputation-trashing content.

These attacks are "designed to make women unemployable and undateable," says lawyer Danielle Citron, author of Hate Crimes in Cyberspace. "Harassers feel more powerful when women are silenced."

Perhaps most troubling of all: Online harassment can morph into physical aggression, says Michael Kaiser, executive director of the National Cyber Security Alliance. In one horrifying case, a woman's ex-boyfriend impersonated her on Craigslist, inventing violent fantasies and posting her address—prompting a man to come to her house and rape her.

Melissa is not alone. In a recent Women's Health survey, 55 percent of readers said they had experienced online harassment. For more staggering statistics, watch the video below.

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Melissa could feel her sanity unraveling. Jessica was everywhere. In her inbox; all over her Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr accounts; in The Leaky Cauldron community posts; on her cell phone's missed-calls log; and, eventually, in her and her family's nonvirtual mailboxes. That fall, shortly after buying a Brooklyn apartment, Melissa opened her laptop to find an e-mail from Jessica. Attached was a satellite image of Melissa's neighborhood, her building circled in ink.

One night soon after, Melissa heard strange noises outside her front door. She panicked and called the cops. They found nothing, but Melissa filed a police report with the NYPD, listing Jessica's full name (unlike many online harassers, Jessica didn't bother concealing her identity). She asked the officers for help with getting a restraining order. But they told her that since Jessica's IP address showed she most likely lived in New Zealand, way out of their jurisdiction, there was little they could do. Their best advice? Just stay off-line.

"If I didn't go online, I wouldn't be able to work," says Melissa. "They didn't seem to get that." It's a familiar frustration: Many police don't recognize just how integral online communication has become to people's careers, and victims are often told to come back when a "real" crime has been committed, says digital forensics expert A.J. Fardella. "Cops have no idea what to do when someone is being harassed online. They need training in how to respond to cyber crimes."

Problem is, they have scant tools at their disposal. While all 50 states have enacted laws against online harassment, enforcing them can be a befuddling, Herculean task. The line between abusive comments and free speech remains malleable, and proving that something is illegal is so difficult that many women begrudgingly suck it up, telling themselves it just comes with the territory of being online.

Those who choose to fight are in for a long, slow battle. "These incidents take lots and lots of time to investigate, especially when a suspect is anonymous or in another county, state, or country," says Chris MacNeil, a North Carolina-based detective who has worked on numerous cyber-stalking cases. Prosecution is even more complex and time-consuming and requires a staggering amount of documentation.

None of which helped Melissa. Jessica plagued her relentlessly, promising rape, murder, and dismemberment. One day, Jessica posted a photo of a new tattoo on one of her Twitter accounts; it was identical to one of Melissa's. Consumed by concern for her own and her family's safety, Melissa started to dread going online or appearing at work events. She quit producing her podcasts and videos and started seeing a therapist. Her life as she'd known it was over.

Considering the legal quagmire—which, by the way, exists for online and off-line stalking—it's not surprising that fewer than 40 people are charged under federal laws each year. Victims and activists are fed up and pressuring legislators to act, stat. "Online abuse prevents women from being full digital citizens, from living their lives," says Citron. "It's a major discrimination we have to address."

Progress has been glacial but hopeful: In 2013, Congress added cyber stalking to existing laws in the Violence Against Women Act. That same year, Charlotte Laws, a member of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, helped California become the first state to ban revenge porn after anonymous hackers posted topless photos of her daughter online. And in December, the Supreme Court heard arguments in U.S. v. Elonis; its decision could determine the legal future of online harassment. (Anthony Elonis was arrested after he posted on Facebook that he would murder his ex. His attorneys argue he's protected by free speech laws. Obviously, the prosecution disagrees.)

For now, harassment watchers say women's best defense needs to stem from social media itself. "When users report abuse to companies like Twitter, it's only the first step in holding the perpetrator accountable," says Carla Franklin, a cyber-stalking survivor turned digital activist. Under sharp criticism for lax responses, Twitter and Facebook have recently revised their harassment policies. Facebook has a zero-tolerance rule (harassers' accounts are eventually deactivated). And Twitter has banned revenge porn and started preventing blocked users from seeing a person's profile; it also now allows bystanders to report any abuse they come across, increasing the likelihood that harassers will be kicked off.

In the summer of 2009, Melissa's sister—now herself a victim of Jessica's harassment—called the FBI. Miraculously, an agent immediately agreed to take their case. "She was the first person I talked to who said this should not be happening, and that she would help us do something about it," says Melissa.

The triumph was sweet but short-lived. As Melissa's team gathered evidence, Jessica kept up her online bombardment for the next four years. She was briefly arrested in New Zealand in 2011 for harassing Melissa and others, but after a three-month "no Internet" sentence, she resumed stalking Melissa. By that time, however, Melissa was packing a new determination—and some muscle.

If Jessica sent Melissa a specific time-and-place death threat, the FBI sent Melissa backup. Other times, Melissa hired her own bodyguards to trail her at domestic and international Harry Potter conventions. "There were some seriously famous people at these conferences," she says, "and there was little old me, with this big, burly ex-marine guarding my door."

In 2013, the FBI finally had enough evidence to issue a warrant for Jessica's arrest. She would be taken into custody the second she ever stepped on American soil. Melissa felt safer at home, but Jessica still infected every corner of her online life (and, more and more often, her family's snail mail). As a last resort, Melissa reached out to a newspaper and a detective in New Zealand; the former published her story, while the latter started building a local case. In June 2014, almost six years after that first e-mail, Jessica was rearrested for stalking Melissa.

These days, Melissa's life—cyber and physical—is blissfully Jessica-free. Her harasser was sentenced to undergo extensive counseling and cannot have contact of any kind with Melissa. Perhaps most crucially, she's not allowed to own any device that connects to the Internet for one year.

Still, says Melissa, "I now get terrified when a new online acquaintance tries to get too close, too fast." She has friends prescreen her e-mails and rarely posts updates on Facebook. Mostly she just asks herself, again and again, why she was targeted by Jessica. "I honestly don't know," she says. "This is a crime that can happen to anyone."

For more information about cyber harassment, including what to do when you feel threatened, pick up the May 2015 issue of Women's Health, on newsstands now.

* Excerpts are from actual harassment sent from Jessica to Melissa

7 Protein-Rich Vegetarian Breakfasts

You don't have to eat meat to build muscle, but you do need to get enough protein and essential vitamins and minerals. Here's your guide, in the form of a week's worth of well-rounded vegetarian breakfasts!

Exclusive: Cobie Smulders Opens Up About Her Ovarian Cancer Scare

"If I can create more awareness, I'll do it."

Cobie Smulders is hardworking and crazy talented. She appears in The Avengers: Age of Ultron, out this May; the comedy Results, also out in May; and the drama Unexpected, due July 17. She has a killer bod, too. Fun fact: She shot that topless magazine cover fewer than two months after giving birth. Yep.

Also, Cobie is incredibly strong. In our May issue, the actress reveals that she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer during season three of How I Met Your Mother, when she was only 25 years old—it's something she's never shared publicly before.

RELATED: Angelina Jolie Reveals She's Had Her Ovaries Removed

"I had tumors on both ovaries," she says, "and the cancer had spread into my lymph nodes and surrounding tissues." It took multiple surgeries over the course of two years to remove the cancerous tissue.

"I don't think I'll ever feel like I'm cancer-free," she says. "Now that I'm five years out, I'm trying to think of it as a positive thing and what can I learn from it. And if I can create more awareness, I'll do it."

RELATED: Cobie Smulders on Posing Topless for Women's Health: 'I Wasn't Trying to Appear Sexy'

Ovarian cancer is the most deadly reproductive cancer—it killed about 14,000 women in 2014. Learn more about how you can spot ovarian cancer and what you can do to reduce your risk.

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For more details about Cobie's cancer battle, pick up our May 2015 issue of Women's Health, on newsstands today.

Pot Yoga—a.k.a. "Yoganja"—Is a Thing That Exists

And those who practice it are having a fabulous 420.

It's 420—a.k.a. the unofficial holiday of the weed enthusiast—and whether or not you partake, we're guessing you don't associate "marijuana day" festivities with a healthy lifestyle. But some people have begun mixing their favorite exercises with more, um, recreational activities. Case in point: 420 yoga, or the increasingly popular act of supplementing your poses with pot.

"A growing number of yoga studios, in legal and medicinally legal states, are openly embracing the cannabis-exercise connection by offering 420-friendly classes that encourage students to participate 'under the influence,'" writes Cheri Sicard in Mary Jane: The Complete Marijuana Handbook for Women (Seal Press). It's not a Bring Your Own Bowl situation, though—students are expected to light up before class.

Obviously, we're not endorsing breaking any laws in order to give this adventurous spin on yoga a try. But hey, if you're a yoga enthusiast in a state where indulging is legal, we won't fault you for taking inspiration from these very relaxed-seeming 420 yogis:

RELATED: Can Marijuana Really Boost Your Orgasm?

Find me north of hell #meditate#yoga#atmospehere#420#420yoga#marijuanamaste#canabiss#accidentalshot#ilikedit#glass#yogahands#yogaholic#practice#monday#meditation#northofhelltour#letgo#findpeace#yogaeveryday

A photo posted by Dre Rivers (@filthy_shades_of_dre) on Jan 19, 2015 at 8:18pm PST

In honor of 4/20 Happy Monday everyone!!

A photo posted by Lily Grace Quirk (@lilygracequirk) on Apr 19, 2015 at 11:57pm PDT

Cannabis helps loosen your body and clear your mind. It adds physical endurance and helps reach deepest levels of wisdom. @get_nugg #Repost
・・・
#Cannabis can be a great tool for practicing yoga. Read about @nealpollack's enlightening experience at @ganjayoga in San Francisco over at @cannabistco's website #cannabishelps #thcommunity #ganjayoga #yoga #meditate #yoga #yeswecannabis #420friendly #peace #love #magicwithinus

A photo posted by Magic Within (@magicwithinus) on Apr 15, 2015 at 5:36am PDT

My morning ritual #wakeandbake #getyostretchon

A photo posted by Jazzy (@smokeyjosie) on Apr 11, 2015 at 10:32am PDT

Girl I'm tryna kick it with you Man, I'm tryna kick it with you My feet up, I kick it with you #yonce#yogance#yogaeverydamnday#dabs#420yoga#dabstar#instahigh#maryjanekisses#marijuanamaste#cannabis#yogaholic#headstand#obsession#711#710#weshouldsmoke#westcoastcure#bhomb#dabsidedown#almost#got#headstand#forearmstand#transition#practice#progress#coughing#notthebest#video#pressplay#anyways

A video posted by Dre Rivers (@filthy_shades_of_dre) on Feb 10, 2015 at 10:23pm PST

RELATED: 5 Health Conditions Medical Marijuana Helps

Interested in trying for yourself? "As of now, most 420 yoga classes are offered on the down low," writes Sicard. "Make inquiries and keep an eye out; as acceptance grows, more of these classes will start coming out of the cannabis closet." And you know, keep your state laws in mind.