How to Get Rid of Shin Splints

Just about anybody who has ever been in the military, run for fitness or competition, or danced for fun or as a profession, has probably experienced the bane of foot strikers everywhere: shin splints.

From mild discomfort on the front of the lower leg to severe pain with each step, every variety of shin splints is annoying, inconvenient, and in some cases, even debilitating.

What are shin splints?

“Shin splints” is a catch-all term to refer to pain on the front lower leg. The fancy medical term for the most common cause of shin splints is “medial tibial stress syndrome” which simply means there is an inflammation or sometimes separation of the muscles, tendons, and bone tissue around your tibia (shin bone). Pain typically occurs along the inner border of the tibia, where muscles attach to the bone.

This syndrome can occur when the leg is repetitively exposed to impact-based stress, which can fatigue the muscles on the back of the leg, and create excessive bending of the tibia bone of the lower leg. When the tibia bends and moves, the tendons and soft tissue along the front of the leg that connects to the tibia can become overused and inflamed, resulting in you grimacing with each step.

This syndrome can also occur when your calf muscle is so tight that you must exert extra force to flex your foot as you walk or run. You can think of it like your foot’s natural and relaxed position has become slightly pointed, all the time, due to the tightness in your calf. So in order to not trip every time you take a step, you have to engage your shin muscles to flex your foot. This poops out those muscles and this constant tension in the muscle causes it to pull away from the bone. Yikes!

This poops out those muscles and this constant tension in the muscle causes it to pull away from the bone. Yikes!

A couple of other less common conditions that can cause shin splints are stress fractures (small breaks in the bone caused by muscles tugging on them), and compartment syndrome (pressure that builds up in the muscle compartments).

What causes shin splints?

The most common cause is wearing shoes with positive heels (and I don't just mean stilletos). Having our heels constantly elevated off the ground, and above our toes, shortens our calves and hamstrings, which creates tension down the back of the leg which puts us in that semi-permanent toe pointed scenario I described earlier. For more information about that, check out my article called How to build strong and pain-free feet. 

Having our heels constantly elevated off the ground, and above our toes,...

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Test Gods: Virgin Galactic and the Making of a Modern Astronaut

The Ask Science podcast is on hiatus, but we still want to share science stories we think you'll love. Today, we're sharing a special excerpt from the audiobook Test Gods by Nicholas Schmidle, from our friends at Macmillan Audio.

Test Gods tells the remarkable story of the test pilots, engineers, and visionaries behind Virgin Galactic’s campaign to build a space tourism company. It's an epic story about extreme bravery and sacrifice, and the thin line between lunacy and genius. Most of all, it is a story about the pursuit of meaning in our lives—and the fulfillment of our dreams.

In this audiobook, you'll follow a handful of characters like Mark Stucky, Virgin’s lead test pilot; Richard Branson, the eccentric billionaire funding the venture; Mike Moses, the grounded, unflappable president; and Mike Alsbury, the test pilot killed in a fatal crash. All characters share a common goal: to make space tourism a reality.

Click the red audio player above to listen to the excerpt. If you enjoy it and want to hear more, you can get your copy today here or wherever books or audiobooks are sold.

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How to Design a Life You Love

In the earliest days of my business, I wasn’t so much running toward a passion or purpose but running away from my disengaging full-time job. And that absence of purpose scared me. This was the next phase of my life, and I wanted it to be infused with intention.

And also… I had no idea how to achieve this.

Then one day, browsing aimlessly in a bookstore (a tactic I recommend anytime you’re struggling with literally anything) I stumbled on a book called Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life, by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans.

At first glance it sounded a little squishy. But I noticed the book is based on a course of the same name, authored by two professors who famously teach at Stanford University – an institution not known for its squishiness. So, I grabbed it.

Its purpose is to help you answer this question: Can we apply design thinking to the “wicked problem” of designing your job, your career, and even your life? Evans and Burnett believe we can.

Design thinking is a means of user-centered design. It’s about designing not the best outcome, but rather the best path for a particular user. In the case of this book, the user is you. Today I’ll introduce you to the five phases of the design thinking process, and how Burnett and Evans might encourage you to harness it in designing your ideal life.

Whether you’re on a quest for joy, change, or a fresh start, welcome to your new beginning.

Design thinking ... is about designing not the best outcome, but rather the best path for a particular user - in this case, the user is you.

Step #1: Empathize

Design thinking begins with empathy because you can only design for a user you understand. And since you are the user, this phase is about self-awareness. So how can you get to know you a little bit better? There’s a process Burnett and Evans describe called wayfinding, which is a simple method of self-discovery that puts you in the direction of where you need to go.

Through wayfinding, you’ll discover which activities engage you (leaving you feeling inspired and “in the zone”) and which sap your energy. The process is simple: keep a journal (here's a good example of one). For the next few weeks, keep track of your work and home activities throughout each day. Whether it's writing a sales pitch, reorganizing your sock drawer, or anything else. For each activity, grab your journal and log how high...

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5 Tips to Help Your Child Transition to Adulthood

One goal that many parents share is the desire to raise self-sufficient, productive children who will positively contribute to society. That's definitely been high on my parenting list for all of my eight kids. As each one approaches that time when they must leave the nest, I feel a bittersweet pang of victory.

However, in today's society, many young adults aren't as anxious to fly the coop as in years past. In July of 2020, 52% of young adults resided with one or both of their parents, up from 47% in February, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of monthly Census Bureau data. The number living with parents grew to 26.6 million, an increase of 2.6 million from February.

If you have a chickadee that doesn't want to leave your family's safe and comfy environment, here are five ways you can help them take flight:

Know your child's capabilities

If you're a movie buff, you may recall the popular romantic comedy Failure to Launch, starring Matthew McConaughey. It's a hilarious take on how far parents will go to get an adult child out of the house. Although its intent was entertainment, it struck a chord with thousands of families who are in similar circumstances.

Just because your child graduates from college, celebrates a milestone 21st birthday, or is considering post-high school options, it doesn't guarantee their transition into adulthood.

There are dozens of reasons our adult children may not be in any rush to leave their comfy childhood homes. These include:

• Convenience - Everything is taken care of at home (meals, laundry, room service). Even the dog is attentive.
• Finances - It's a financial burden for a child to live on their own.
• Employment - They're in between jobs, or still haven't found one. Relocating or finding a new position might be taking longer than expected. Or their present job can't pay the bills.
• ...

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Blond or Blonde?

It sounds like a joke, but it's actually a legitimate question: How do you spell “blond"?

‘Blond’ Versus ‘Blonde’

The word originally came into English from Old French, where it has masculine and feminine forms. As an English noun, it kept those two forms; thus, a blond is a fair-haired male, and a blonde is a fair-haired female.

When you're using the word as an adjective, "blond" is the more common spelling and can be used for men or women, especially in the United States; however, "blonde" can also be used to describe a woman with fair hair, as in “Go ask the blonde woman at table 2 if she wants pepper on her salad.”

A blond is a fair-haired male, and a blonde is a fair-haired female.

Is ‘Blonde’ Sexist?

Some people think it is sexist to use “blonde” to refer to women, but the AP Stylebook currently says to maintain the distinction between the two gendered forms of the word if you use it, and The Chicago Manual of Style also seems to uphold the difference. It doesn’t say so explicitly, but it uses the "blonde" form for women in some example sentences. 

Still, it may be perceived as especially sexist when you refer to a woman simply as “a blonde” or “the blonde,” as in “The blonde got in line to check out a book.” Garner’s Modern English Usage says that for this reason, it’s usually best to avoid using “blonde” (and “blond”) as a stand-alone noun.

Inanimate Objects

Most of the time, inanimate objects are treated as male. For example, if you have a blond wooden dresser, “blond” is spelled without the E. A recent exception though is that Starbucks uses the feminine form for its blonde roast coffee. Maybe the marketing people believe we’ll love it more if we think of it as a woman or as female.

How to Use ‘Blond’ and ‘Blonde’...

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COVIDsomnia: How to Sleep Better During the Pandemic

The days blur into one. The nights are restless. The uncertainty and burnout and isolation build up during the day, and we toss and turn, trying to let it go at night so we can get some sleep.

Ten percent of American adults already dealt with insomnia before the COVID-19 pandemic, and perhaps many more have been showing up in clinics (or on WebMD) with newly developed difficulties with sleep. Some in the sleep healthcare world have called this COVIDsomnia (aka, sleep troubles in the era of COVID).  Why is this happening? Is there any hope? What can we do to help ourselves sleep better?

I talked with Dr. Chuck Crew, a clinical health psychologist at the Baylor College of Medicine and Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center (MEDVAMC). He provides comprehensive Behavioral Sleep Medicine services and conducts research on correlates and consequences of insomnia in chronic medical populations. He provided insights on sleep changes during the COVID-19 pandemic and highlighted his favorite tips for improving sleep. Below is an abbreviated transcript of our conversation:

Jade Wu:
Dr. Crew is an extra special guest today because we actually know each other. We are colleagues at the Society of Behavioral Sleep Medicine, where we try to get the good word out there about non-medication methods for improving sleep. Dr. Crew, welcome to the Savvy Psychologist.

Dr. Crew:
Thanks Jade. Thanks for having me.

Jade Wu:
You're the perfect person to talk to about pandemic sleep because you are actually the lead author on our society's position paper about this. The paper was titled, “The Society of Behavioral Sleep Medicine COVID 19 Task Force: Objectives and Summary Recommendations for Managing Sleep During a Pandemic”… which is a long mouthful. Basically it says—here's what we think would be helpful for pandemic sleep. And you were the lead author on that. So let me just start out by asking you, how has the pandemic affected people's sleep? What have recent studies shown? What have you noticed in the clinic?

The pandemic is just a perpetual Saber Tooth tiger on the horizon, putting us on edge.

Dr. Crew:
It’s a great question. How hasn't sleep been changed by the pandemic? Recent studies have really demonstrated that stress is increased. Sleep kind of goes in the backseat. So it happens less because we're focused on other things. We're supposed to be focused on the thing in front of us, the stressor. We're managing a lot more in terms of responsibilities, filling several roles--we've got parents, we've got jobs, we're trying to work from home. And a lot of people are required to work extra hours....

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Punctuating Questions

Today's topic is how to format questions. You think you already know this, don't you? I wonder if you're right.

Almost everybody knows how to write a plain vanilla question like “What's new?” They're called direct questions, but there are trickier scenarios. What happens when a sentence seems to be half statement, half question? What if you're asking an indirect question, or asking a question that also seems to need an exclamation point, or dealing with a quotation that contains a question, and so on? I'll answer all these questions.

Questions Masquerading as Statements

Sometimes even direct questions can be tricky because they can look like statements, and the only way to tell your reader otherwise is to add a question mark (1). There's a big difference in meaning between “He went to the store.” and “He went to the store?” Yet the only difference between the two sentences is that one ends with a period and one ends with a question mark. The question mark makes it a direct question that shows surprise. What the heck was he doing at the store?

The Chicago Manual of Style also says you can use an exclamation point instead of a question mark in such instances of surprise. (2) 

A Question Flurry

What if you have a bunch of questions and you want to string them all together?

I once saw a funny scene in a movie (I think it was “Cats & Dogs”) where a dog realizes he can talk, and it goes something like this: “You can hear me? Can I have a cookie? Two cookies? Four cookies? Twenty cookies?”

Those add-on questions at the end aren't complete sentences, but they each get a question mark anyway. It reads “Can I have a cookie? Two cookies? Four cookies?” and so on. 

They aren't complete sentences, and the rules about capitalization are vague. The AP Stylebook says to capitalize the first letter of each add-on question, (3) but some books say to capitalize the first letter if the questions are “nearly a sentence” (4) or have “sentence-like status,” (5) so you have to use your own judgment. I would capitalize them.

Statements with Tag Questions

Now, what about those little questions that come at the end of a statement? You didn't forget my birthday, did you? It's fun to play maracas, isn't it?

Bits like “did you” and “isn't it” are called tag questions, and they turn the whole sentence into a question, so use a question mark at the end. (6, 7)

Indirect Questions...

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