upworthy

heart disease

Internet

Watch the emotional evolution of someone's face after 1, 2, and 3 alcoholic beverages

Giggling might be induced just by seeing the transformation.

Curtesy of Marcos Alberti

Watch the emotional evolution of people after 1, 2 and, 3 glasses of wine

Having a glass of wine or two isn't uncommon for adults. Casual drinking in social situations acts as a social lubricant or just a tool to help some relax. Many people who partake in a glass of wine socially may not realize the physical changes that happen since it's generally not enough alcohol to cause intoxication. However, Brazilian photographer Marco Alberti begs to differ with his newly updated photography project, which photographs people before drinking and after consuming one, two, and then three glasses of wine.

The results of his "3 Glasses Down" project, which initially started as a joke between his friends, involved the photographer taking the same four sets of photos. The before-and-after pictures, along with the story of "three glasses," went viral, reaching over one million views on Imgur in the first week. That's what inspired Alberti to start taking photos of others.

The "3 Glasses Down" project, now known as "The Wine Project," has brought the photographer success, with his photos appearing across digital and traditional media outlets. Recently, he repeated the photography projects with all new subjects, and the images are just as convincing. One glass of wine does a little more than someone may think, and three glasses of wine cause the subject of the photo and viewers to break out in a smile.

Alberti tells the BBC that when he started the original project with his friends as the subjects, he had only recently discovered wine. "I just started drinking wine a month before this project," he explains to the outlet. "I was not used to drinking wine, so I thought of this project like a tribute. I need to do a tribute to wine because I just discovered how good it is, and the first idea that I have is to take pictures of my friends drinking, so, of course, it was funny to do. It was very nice to do it."

Since his initial catapulting into the spotlight with his photos of friends, he has refined the project and travels the world to capture the effects on others. His most recent project took place in New York.

On his website, he explains the process, saying, "The first picture was taken right away when our guests have just arrived at the studio to capture the stress and the fatigue after a full day after working all day long and from also facing rush hour traffic to get here. Only then fun time and my project could begin. At the end of every glass of wine, a snapshot, nothing fancy, a face and a wall, 3 times. People from all walks of life, music, art, fashion, dance, architecture, and advertising got together for a couple of nights, and by the end of the third glass, several smiles emerged, and many stories were told."

Once people start drinking, they become a little more chatty, so it's no surprise that Alberti heard some tales from his photography subjects. However, just like anything else, drinking should be done in moderation. While some studies suggest drinking red wine in moderation may have heart and other health benefits, the Mayo Clinic reminds people that more research is needed.

"But there might be other reasons for the lower risk of heart disease in people who drink red wine in moderation. For instance, they might eat a healthier diet and be more active than those who don't drink red wine. And they might have higher incomes and better access to health care as well," says the Mayo Clinic.

They also note that it's believed that the antioxidants in red wine are the main contributing factor to the wine having health benefits. The skin on the grapes contains those antioxidants, so the Mayo Clinic suggests eating grapes in place of wine if you're not a drinker.

From Your Site Articles
the wine project
InternetPop Culture
Family

She felt like a rock star in her 20s — until she had 2 strokes at 27.

This is why preventive health matters.

True
Cigna 2017

Mom and veteran Tamika Quinn thought she was untouchable in her 20s — until she had two strokes back-to-back.

The first occurred on the right side of her brain, initially paralyzing the left side of her body. The second hit her frontal lobe. As a result, Tamika spent three and a half weeks recovering in intensive care. While she did regain her motor functions, the experience was a huge wake-up call for her.

"And to think it could've been prevented," Tamika recounts in the video below.

Tamika Quinn. All images via Cigna.

Earlier in life, Tamika had been diagnosed with high blood pressure but had brushed it off as a relatively unimportant statistic; it ran in her family. But it wasn't just genetics. Her family had limited access to things like fresh produce. As a result, less healthy and more convenient meals often became the norm in her house.

After she recovered, Tamika started walking more and eating healthier, home-cooked meals.

She encouraged her two daughters, Sequoia and Kashra, to do the same — especially Kashra, who was diagnosed with high cholesterol as a child.

Sequoia and Kashra.

"The switch for us was not eating as much fast food and going on a lot of walks," Sequoia recounts in the video.

Today, Tamika's an advocate for the American Heart Association’s You’re the Cure network and actively spreads the preventive health message.  

"Any health issue that can be prevented should be," she wrote for You're the Cure. "Since we know that nutrition plays such a key role in later health, it’s well worth our passionate focus now."

Tamika also shares her health strategies through GLAM Girl Enterprises, the company she started to empower young women to better themselves.

Treating your body with care often starts with knowing what to pay attention to — such as your health numbers.

Tamika and her daughters.

And we're not talking about waist and hip measurements. Your four health numbers — blood pressure, cholesterol, body mass index (BMI), and blood sugar — can offer important insight into how your body's doing. They're your doctor's starting point to determine what, if anything, you need to do to get your body's health back on track.

Taking steps toward taking care of ourselves before health issues arrive could have a big impact — on each of us and the country. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that "if everyone in the U.S. received recommended clinical preventive health care, we could save over 100,000 lives a year." That's pretty staggering.

As a result of what she went through, Tamika will never take her health for granted again.

She hopes her experience will inspire others to follow suit and prioritize preventive care. Because if they don't take care of their body, everything can come to a screeching halt.

"People will take their car to get an oil change or a tune up," Tamika explains below. "Your body is way more important than your car."

Watch Tamika's entire health journey here:

Family
Family

Her chronic illness helped her understand just how important preventive care is.

True
Cigna 2017

When Terran Lamp was just three weeks old, she was admitted to the University of Virginia newborn special care unit.

There, doctors discovered that, along with some other health issues, Lamp had been born with two holes in her heart — which would have huge implications throughout her life and inform how she thought about her health and preventive care.

Image by Ted Catanazaro courtesy of Terran Lamp, used with permission.

She stayed in the hospital for three months after the diagnosis. By age 4, she had already had two open heart surgeries, gone into complete heart block, and received an implanted pacemaker.

Just as she was learning to live her life managing one serious illness, she was diagnosed at age 10 with a benign dermoid brain tumor — and then, more recently, with breast cancer.

But while Lamp has had way more than her fair share of hardships, today she does her best to stay as healthy as she can by taking control of her health.

As a child, Lamp says, the constant worrying about her health taught her a valuable lesson about living with a chronic condition (a lesson that can help us all).

It taught her that if she still wanted to do things, like run and travel, she would have to take control of her health and not let being sick completely define her. "I can't not have it, but I can not be restricted by it," she says. "Heart disease doesn't have me. I have heart disease."

So she joined the state champion track team, she went to a college some distance away from her mom, and later, she travelled to Germany and California. Claiming this little bit of independence helped her feel like she was in control of her health and her life.

But to do this meant learning a lot about preventive care.

"I'm at the doctor probably every three months," she says, but these doctors are not just specialists to treat her heart and her cancer.

She also sees a general practitioner for an annual check-up, who helps her monitor her four health numbers: blood pressure (too low, in her case, could signify a problem with her pacemaker), cholesterol, body mass index (BMI), and blood sugar levels.

She also tries to stay active in order to stay healthy.

Image courtesy of Terran Lamp, used with permission.

She works out at the gym four to five times a week and runs half-marathons. "I can't always run [the entire way]," she says. "But I complete them. I'm a finisher, even if I end up walking for most of it. That way, I feel like I've done something."

And now, Lamp is working to help other women stay healthy too.

She got involved with the National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease and became a WomenHeart Champion. She wants to help educate other women about the importance of preventive care and motivate other women with heart disease to keep thriving despite their diagnosis by sharing her story and what she does to try to stay healthy.

"I know what it is like, first and foremost, to be a patient," she says. "That's why I do so much for WomenHeart. That's why I tell my story ... and that's why I encourage women to go out and get checked for heart disease, so it does not go unnoticed."

As a WomenHeart Champion, she can meet other women with heart disease, offer advice and help pass along important information so that no one overlooks a possible symptom.

For example, she says, she recently met a flight attendant through her work as a WomenHeart Champion who volunteered that she was a little worried about her health. "She said, I'm a little concerned because about 25,000 feet, the left side of my face goes numb," Lamp remembers, "and she was all nonchalant about it." But immediately, Lamp felt compelled to push her to see a doctor to figure out what was causing this numbness.

To Lamp, the peer-to-peer advocacy is a very powerful tool because it allows women to look out for each other.

"We have got to make sure that we are paying attention [to our health] and we have to make sure that we are passing along that attention and that awareness," she adds.

That way, she says, maybe we can help more people take control of their health before they ever get sick in the first place.

Learn more about how to take control of your health at Cigna.com/TakeControl.

FamilyMore
Family

A doctor cuts through the conflicting science on cholesterol.

True
Cigna 2017

It’s easy to feel like there’s too much to keep track of when it comes to staying healthy.

Calories, fat, pounds, carbs, miles, steps — it's easy to get overwhelmed with conflicting science and false health fads. So the more complicated things, like cholesterol, often get overlooked.

Cholesterol plays a surprisingly large part in your overall health, and knowing and managing your cholesterol level (plus your other three health numbers — blood glucose, blood pressure, and body mass index) can help prevent health problems down the line. We chatted with Dr. Christina Stasiuk, senior medical director at Cigna, to learn more.

Image via iStock.

Here are 13 interesting facts about the role cholesterol plays in your body's health.

1. Cholesterol was first discovered in 1784, so scientists and doctors have been studying it for a long time.

There are two major sub-types of cholesterol: good (high-density lipoprotein, or HDL) and bad (low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, and triglycerides). Bad cholesterol is a fatty substance that can stick to the linings of your arteries and veins, whereas good cholesterol acts as a sort of broom that helps scrub away those LDL buildups in your body.

Image via iStock.

2. Your weight isn’t an indicator of your cholesterol level or overall health.

“There are thin people who are at higher risk of heart disease than people who may be overweight but who exercise, don’t smoke, and have normal blood pressure,” says Stasiuk. The only way to know your cholesterol levels for sure is through a blood test.

3. Your body makes all the cholesterol it needs on its own.

The body makes both good and bad cholesterol, as they’re both needed to help perform a lot of the body's necessary functions. It's only when we consume too much LDL and triglycerides that it becomes “bad” by forming harmful buildup in our veins and arteries.

4. Clogged arteries look like they’re coated in butter.

If your body doesn’t have enough good cholesterol to scrub away sticky buildups, your arteries become clogged with yellow plaque-like fat. If you could slice open a clogged artery and look inside, it would look like it was filled with a thick layer of frozen butter. Uh ... yum?

5. You could end up with high cholesterol regardless of your healthy habits — thanks, genetics!

“Familial hypercholesterolemia” is a genetic condition that causes naturally high levels of bad cholesterol. A heart-healthy lifestyle can help, but people with a predisposition for high cholesterol usually also need medication.

Lots of other genetic factors affect heart health too, so the only way to know for sure that your heart is healthy is to consult your doctor.

Image via iStock.

6. Your body can generate good cholesterol with regular exercise.

According to Stasiuk, there are really no foods or drugs that significantly increase good cholesterol levels. Regular exercise, however, can help the body create the good cholesterol it needs.

7. When it comes to eats, the richest foods are usually the worst for you.

"Bad cholesterol is typically animal-source cholesterol," says Stasiuk. "The solid stuff — the bacon fat, the fat around a steak. You're better off having liquid fats, like olive or canola oil or the oily fats you get in fish." Solid fats are the ones most likely to "stick," while liquid fats can be cleaned out of the body more easily.

Image via iStock.

8. Look out for the cholesterol double-whammy: the trans fatty acid.

Two things to look for on nutrition labels are saturated fat and trans fats, both of which raise your LDL levels. But trans fats also lower your HDL, pulling double-duty against your cholesterol health. And both saturated fat and trans fats show up in manufactured foods you might not expect because they help lengthen shelf life. "Think about it this way," says Stasiuk. "The amount of time that food lasts on the shelf is how long those lipids will be in your body." Ack!

9. One surprising source of high cholesterol? Coffee.

Don’t worry. Only when it’s unfiltered, like in Turkish or French press coffee, does your morning joe contain a harmful substance called cafestol, which raises bad cholesterol. If you drink drip coffee, you’re good to go. The filter catches cafestol before it hits your cup.

Photo by Jen/Flickr.

10. Certain foods can help pull bad cholesterol out of the bloodstream and send it out of the body (and it’s not just Cheerios).

Salmon, oatmeal, berries, avocados, beans, nuts, and spinach are all power workers when it comes to scrubbing and flushing out all those sticky cholesterol particles.

11. Women are at a generally lower risk for bad cholesterol levels and heart disease than men — that is, until menopause.

Estrogen helps balance good and bad cholesterol levels in women's bodies. Once menopause occurs and estrogen levels drop, women's cholesterol levels and risk of heart disease rise.

Image via iStock.

12. Cholesterol also plays a big role in keeping your brain healthy. In fact, about 25% of the cholesterol in your body is stored in your brain.

Cholesterol is a structural component of myelin, which is the protective substance that covers the nerve fibers in your brain. Strong myelin sheaths help the brain function, facilitating things like memory and quick thinking.

13. Laughter might be good for your heart.

Research suggests that laughter can trigger a variety of heart healthy reactions in the body. It decreases stress hormones, reduces artery inflammation, and increases good cholesterol. So if you can’t fit in a workout today, make sure you get in a laugh!

The most important part of maintaining good cholesterol health is to be aware of it and, where you can, make lifestyle choices that support it.

It's not about counting milligrams or calculating intake levels — it's about making lifestyle choices that benefit you and your body. "It all comes back to this: go, know, and take control," says Stasiuk. Get your blood tested during annual checkups with your doctor and take the time to make sure you understand your results. Then make small, progressive steps toward better heart health. Nothing drastic and no special secrets — just little changes toward treating your body right!

From Your Site Articles
FamilyMore
Trending Stories