Simple Strategies for Coping with Childhood Allergies

I will never forget the night my 12 year old woke me at midnight after waking with a swollen lip. At first glance I thought perhaps she had hit herself in the face and hadn’t noticed. Yet within an hour it had near doubled in size. I pulled out the liquid Benadryl and starting making calls.

What I didn’t know then was that night was the beginning of a long haul in allergy diagnostics. Two days later she woke yet again with another swollen lip, only the second time her entire body was covered in a mysterious red spotted rash.

The rash led to hives and the hives led to painful red skin. In fact at any given moment any one, or combination of these symptoms would randomly appear.

What began as a seemingly harmless swollen lip led …

Breeze Comfort Will Donate 10% of Proceeds to My Hope Chest During October

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Breeze Comfort, the makers of the most breathable padded bras and sports bras out there (which we reviewed back in March), are doing their part to help bring awareness and much-needed donations to help breast cancer survivors.

Starting today and throughout the month of October, Breeze Comfort will donate 10% of their proceeds to My Hope Chest, an organization that funds breast reconstruction for breast cancer survivors. The organization was founded in 2003 by Alisa Savoretti who is a Las Vegas showgirl and breast cancer survivor herself. Not having insurance at the time of her diagnosis, Savoretti underwent a mastectomy and returned to Las Vegas just five months after chemotherapy, taking the stage as the “Lop-Sided Showgirl.”

Through her own life experience, Alisa Savoretti …

Nine West Fights Breast Cancer with Runway Relief Collection

For the second consecutive year, Nine West has released a mini collection under their Runway Relief Program which aims to combine the forces of the fashion and modeling industries in order to raise funds to aid in breast cancer awareness and prevention.

Three items make up the collection–a military-inspired boot containing a Runway Relief dog tag, a rockin’ black tank top and an amazing, road warrior-inspired messenger bag–with 100% of the proceeds being donated to Fashion Targets Breast Cancer, the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s charitable organization.

All of the items in the mini collection are available for pre-order now. The tank and military-inspired boot will ship on August 9 and the messenger bag will ship on September 6 just in time for fall collections.

The Absence and a Little Story About One of the Most Unproductive Hospitals Ever

There has been barely any blogging action going on here over the past week. My apologies for that. While slow days are certainly an occurrence around these parts, a week of pretty much nothing new is highly unusual. It wasn’t planned. I’ve been doing my best to adapt to some lifestyle changes that have proven to be difficult and pretty damn exhausting. For one, caffeine withdrawal. Take someone who has been drinking two pots of coffee a day for the past several years and tell them that from this day forward, caffeine does not exist in their lives and while we’re at it, neither does any type of stimulant in any form. You’ll see a whole new side of that person. More than likely, you will be seeing a lot of their angry side, but …

Coffee Lovers Rejoice! Coffee Linked to Reduced Risk of Certain Breast and Prostate Cancers

Friends and acquaintances frequently take it upon themselves to inform me that the amount of coffee I intake daily is bad for my health. After I completely debunk their theory that my copious quantities will make me jittery and keep me up all night by drinking a pot of coffee and blissfully falling fast asleep night after night, I am informed that my dearly beloved coffee will cause me to come crashing down due to a heart attack. Well, now I have something to throw back at these naysayers.

Two separate medical studies have emerged that credit the biological effects of coffee as playing a role in lowering the risk of a certain aggressive type of breast cancer, as well as fatal prostate cancer.

The Karolinksa Institutet study in Stockholm found that amongst nearly …

Help Raise Breast Cancer Awareness with BeeWell for Life and You Could Win an iPad2

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of BeeWell for Life. All opinions are 100% mine.

Current research and medical studies reveal that 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime. Each time one woman is diagnosed with breast cancer, she brings a league of family, friends and loved ones with her to join in the fight against it. The fight against breast cancer is never just the fight of the one diagnosed with it; it is the fight of everyone who has ever known someone who has been diagnosed.

It’s true that countless people have committed themselves wholly to fighting breast cancer, but what every person who has donated their time, resources and finances to this fight will tell you, is that the fight …