Once the buzziest of B-words with “real” housewives and celebrities, Botox is now becoming a regular part of beauty routines for women of all ages. In fact, according to a report from the American Academy of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, 64 percent of doctors reported an increase in patients ages 30 and under requesting cosmetic or injectable treatments.

“It’s important to start a relationship with a surgeon early,” says Daniel Westawski, M.D., who specializes in plastic and reconstructive surgery at Einstein Healthcare Network. “It [Botox] can be a tremendous transformation if you chose to do it in one step and make you look like a totally different person.”

Instead, Westawski advises patients to take “a more European approach” to maintaining youthful skin by scheduling treatments a little at a time. The result, he says, is a more subtle look that cues people to say ‘oh you look great’ versus ‘what have you had done?’

Valentine's Day means romance, but romance often translates into large, heart-shaped boxes of chocolate. We like chocolate as much as anybody else does, but when you think about it, your gift from the heart goes right to the hips.

Would you know if you were having a heart attack? Many symptoms mimic a heart attack such as gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), chest muscle pain or anxiety. It can be difficult to know when your symptoms are heart related. Knowing the symptoms of a heart attack can help you decide what to do.

In a study of more than 2,000 heart attack patients, those who recognized heart attack symptoms early and received medical attention within 90 minutes did far better than those who waited for treatment.

No two heart attacks are alike. Heart attacks may cause sudden, intense pain or pressure in the center of the chest. They may also come on more slowly with little or no pain, but cause vague symptoms such as weakness or indigestion. These are the symptoms that people may ignore. Additionally, a woman’s symptoms may differ from a man’s, advises the American Heart Association (AHA).

Lifting weights does more than build strong bones. Strength training can also contribute to heart health by building lean muscle mass, which helps to burn extra calories, keep blood sugar in check and improve cholesterol levels.

Strength training, especially for older adults, can also make it easier to perform everyday activities such as lifting a bag of groceries. Resistance exercises are also important for bone health and can help prevent osteoporosis.

Many fitness centers offer low impact strength-training classes. But if you cannot get to a gym and feel uncomfortable working with weights at home, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests trying some of the following activities for strength training:

February is American Heart Month. One way to help take the strain off our hearts—specifically, our blood pressure—is to reduce the amount of sodium in our diets. We do need some sodium to regulate blood pressure, but too much is unhealthy.

Unfortunately, we tend to ingest a lot of sodium through the foods we eat.

Courtesy of the American Heart Association, here are six popular foods that are loaded with sodium.

High blood pressure affects millions of people, but is it possible to have hypertension without even knowing it? According to a new study, this is the case for one in eight Americans.

The condition, known as masked hypertension, occurs when a patient’s blood pressure is normal when measured in a doctor’s office or clinic but high outside of the office. This undiagnosed condition puts the patient at an increased risk for heart disease because patients are unaware that they even have hypertension.

The study, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, measured the blood pressure of patients who were monitored for 24 hours a day and found 14 percent of participants to have masked hypertension. This is unlike “white-coat hypertension,” which does not put patients at higher risk for heart disease. That’s when patients have higher blood pressure measurements when they are in the doctor’s office but normal rates outside of the office.

For a thin-crust pizza that can be ready in minutes, try this Buffalo chicken pizza. Whole grain flat breads make an easy crust. For a less spicy Buffalo chicken, hold off on the hot sauce.

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp trans fat free margarine
• 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2–3 Tbsp hot sauce, medium to spicy heat
• 1/2 cup reduced-sodium tomato sauce
• 1 cup shredded cooked chicken breast
• 4 whole grain flat breads (about 7 inches each)
• 2 Tbsp shredded part-skim mozzarella or Monterey Jack cheese
• 2 Tbsp reduced-fat blue cheese crumbles
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced