“I became a better doctor, a better parent, a better commander, probably a better person.”

When Army surgeon Rhonda Cornum regained consciousness after her helicopter crashed, she looked up to see five Iraqi soldiers pointing rifles at her. It was 1991, and her Black Hawk had been shot down over the Iraqi desert. Dazed from blood loss, with a busted knee, two broken arms, and a bullet in her shoulder, the then-36-year-old medic was subjected to a mock execution by her captors, sexually assaulted, and held prisoner for a week.

Her crisis included textbook causes for post-traumatic stress: a near-death experience, sexual assault, utter helplessness. And yet, after her release and medical rehabilitation, she surprised psychiatrists by focusing on ways she’d improved. “I became a better doctor, a better parent, a better commander, probably a better person,” she says.

Cornum’s experience is far from unique. The term post-traumatic growth, coined by psychologists Richard Tedeschi and Lawrence Calhoun of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, describes the surprising benefits many survivors discover in the process of healing from a traumatic event. After counseling cancer survivors, the bereaved, the severely injured, veterans, and prisoners, the researchers found growth in five main areas: personal strength, relationships with others, perspective on life, appreciation of life, and spirituality.

Tedeschi doesn’t believe trauma is a good thing. But, he says, “in the wake of trauma, people become more aware of the fragility in life, and that unsettles some while it focuses others. This is the paradox: People become more vulnerable yet stronger.”

Cornum is convinced that resilience is like a muscle; it strengthens when exercised and atrophies when neglected. In 2009, she became the director of the Comprehensive Soldier Fitness program, a training regimen that now falls under the umbrella of the Army’s Ready and Resilient (R2) initiative.

Today, every U.S. Army soldier takes part in resilience training, which has been shown to significantly decrease substance abuse and increase good coping skills, adaptability, and character strength. The training is so successful that psychologists believe it can help people from all walks of life.

The program is something of a dichotomy. The military thrives on teamwork, yet during resilience training, soldiers concentrate on self-awareness. They learn how to focus on the present moment.

Practicing a rhythmic breathing exercise, participants inhale deeply and exhale fully in a slow cadence. Focusing on their breathing helps them unlock muscle tension. Harvard University neurobiologist Sara Lazar has shown that “meditation can literally change your brain.” It can actually shrink the amygdala, the “fear centre” in the brain that might be enlarged after a trauma and trigger flashbacks of anxiety and panic.

Because being thankful may help lower anxiety levels, the Army instructs soldiers to “hunt the good stuff” by keeping gratitude journals. Studies at the University of California, Davis, show that grateful people not only report being more content with their lives but also have fewer medical symptoms and more energy. Just as important to the Army, cultivating gratitude tends to make people more social and willing to help and work with others. So every day, soldiers jot down three things they were grateful for in the previous day.

To help them learn from their good fortune, they write about each event using the following prompts: Why has this good thing happened? What does this good thing mean to me? What can I do tomorrow to enable more of this good thing? How did I or others contribute to this good thing?

If pen and paper aren’t handy, GIs are encouraged to blot out feelings of self-blame with a tactic known as detecting “icebergs”—beliefs and values that fuel out-of-proportion reactions.

For instance, if an action causes a soldier to feel shame, he or she is instructed to work through it by asking these questions: What is the most upsetting part of the situation to me? What thoughts are triggering the emotions and reaction that I’m having? Identifying our own precepts as icebergs allows us to recognize whether they’re true obstacles to helping ourselves or relating to others, and learn how to steer around them.

One of the most important findings about resiliency is also one of the most basic. Resilient people have one trait in common: a sense of optimism, says Cornum, who retired from the service as a brigadier general in 2012. As she told medium.com, “They believe a problem is in a time frame and not forever, and that there is something you can do about it.”

For more than 20 years, retired general Roméo Dallaire has grappled with post-traumatic stress disorder. But there’s hope in speaking of horror.

YES! Magazine (September 3, 2018), Copyright © by YES! Media, reprinted with permission, yesmagazine.org.

There’s a lot to love about pasta. Whether you’re cooking it fresh or reheating leftovers, pasta is a filling and fulfilling meal. But have you ever thought about cooking pasta with something other than plain old tap water? Maybe with something like red wine? Sounds too good to be true, but it actually makes for a delicious meal, according to Jim Mumford, a recipe writer. “Cooking pasta with red wine is a centuries-old tradition,” he says. “The wine imparts a subtle wine flavour, but the acid also helps cook the pasta, giving a more pleasant texture. ”

Firoz Thanawalla, chef and owner of Chef’s Satchel, offers this recipe for cooking pasta with red wine. “Cooking with wine helps release a lot of flavours from the different components added to the dish that fats are unable to,” Thanawalla says. “Boiling pasta in red wine not only helps infuse flavour, but also has an added bonus of reserving some of the red wine liquid towards making the sauce.” But first, find out the right way to break pasta.

What you’ll need:

• 3 1/2 cups Pinot Noir
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 lb spaghetti
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 5 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1/2 tsp red chili flakes
• 1/2 cup chopped parsley
• 1/4 cup fresh parmesan
• Salt to taste
• Freshly cracked pepper to taste

What to do:

1.  Combine red wine and water in a pot. Add salt and bring it to a boil
2.  Add the spaghetti and cook till just done. Reserve 1/4 cup of pasta water
3. Heat oil and add the sliced garlic along with the chili flakes. Deglaze with the reserved liquid
4. Add the pasta and let it simmer for a couple of minutes
5.  Add freshly chopped parsley as well as the parmesan
6.  Serve hot

Hopefully you’ve found a delicious new way to enjoy pasta! No matter how you prefer to cook your pasta, make sure you’re not making these common pasta mistakes.

The 90-minute long game involves two goals, black and white checkered balls, goalies, and no hand use. This sport, of course, is soccer—or football, as the majority of the rest of the world says. It’s confusing that some countries call this sport “football” while Americans and Canadians say “soccer,” but apparently the British are mostly to blame. (Every Canadian should know these British words and phrases.)

The name confusion is actually thanks to British universities in the early 1800s who tried standardizing various sports games that had different rules and regulations to differentiate between them, according to a paper by Stefan Szymanski, a professor of sports economics at the University of Michigan.

Rugby, formerly known as “rugby football” or “rugger,” is a version of “football” where you can use your hands. Soccer, originally “association football” or “asoccer,” is the traditional version of “football” where people don’t use their hands. People in England started shortening the names by dropping the “association” part of the phrase as well as the “a” in “asoccer,” per Szymanski’s paper. If your head hurts from thinking about this, prepare to have your mind blown by these things you probably never thought about—until just now.

Now comes the complication: in 1869, Rutgers and Princeton colleges held the first traditional, recorded, football game using a unique combination of rules from both rugby and soccer, creating what we know as “American football” and what other countries refer to as “gridiron.” Thanks to the popularity of American football, soccer players in America clung to “soccer” to help differentiate themselves, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica.

If the nickname “soccer” stuck in Britain, and if Americans came up with a better nickname for American football, there would be much less confusion. So why did the “football” short version of “association football” become more popular than “soccer” in England anyway? Originally, American influence on Britain during World War II made “soccer” the popular term in England before the 1980s, the Atlantic reports. Once the sport became more popular in the United States around that time, the British stopped using “soccer.” (Possibly because of the American connotations, although it’s still not entirely clear.) Szymanski’s paper claims it could be thanks to American and British news outlets pushing either term in each country.

Next, check out these 20 things most of us think are the same—but aren’t.

According to the Alzheimer Society of Canada, there are 25,000 new cases of Alzheimer’s—a progressive brain disease marked by problems with memory and thinking that interfere with daily life—diagnosed every year. Now new research suggests some of these people—especially those aged 85 and older—may actually have a newly coined form of dementia known as LATE: limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy. The acronym is apt since the condition tends to strike people later in life than Alzheimer’s.

“Approximately one in three of all persons over age 85 diagnosed with Alzheimer’s may actually have LATE,” says study author Peter Nelson, MD, PhD, a professor at the University of Kentucky in Lexington.

The new report, which appears in the journal Brain, is based on a National Institute on Aging (NIA) project on LATE, and it included researchers from more than 20 institutions in six countries.

Alzheimer’s versus LATE

While Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia, it’s far from the only type. LATE seems to be the most similar to Alzheimer’s in terms of symptoms, namely memory loss and confusion, but there are some important distinctions. (If you have these types of dreams, you could be at risk for dementia.)

For starters, LATE tends to hit people aged 85 and older, while Alzheimer’s often starts around age 65 and up. What’s more, LATE tends to progress at a slower pace than Alzheimer’s—unless the two diseases travel together, in which case there is a more rapid decline.

Alzheimer’s can have a genetic link, but LATE is not hereditary, says Howard Fillit, MD, founding Executive Director and Chief Science Officer of the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation.

Like Alzheimer’s, LATE can only be definitively diagnosed after death during an autopsy of the brain, but the brains of people with LATE look a whole lot different than those of people with Alzheimer’s. “With LATE, the brain can look quite devastated in the region that serves to consolidate short-term memory called the hippocampus,” Dr. Nelson says. There’s also an abundance of a toxic protein called TDP-43 in the brains of people with LATE, which suggests a different cause than Alzheimer’s.

The tell-tale signs of Alzheimer’s in the brain include tangles of a protein called tau along with plaques of amyloid-beta, explains Julie A. Schneider, MD, MS, The Deborah R. And Edgar D. Jannotta Presidential Professor of Pathology and Neurological Sciences Associate Director, Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center, Rush University Medical Center. Alzheimer’s damage starts in the hippocampus but eventually attacks other areas of the brain.

LATE: What’s in a name?

“Recent research and clinical trials in Alzheimer’s disease have taught us two things: First, not all of the people we thought had Alzheimer’s have it; second, it is very important to understand the other contributors to dementia,” says Nina Silverberg, PhD, director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Centers Program at the NIA, in a news release. (Learn the 50 habits that reduce your dementia risk.)

Dr. Nelson agrees: “A growing awareness of non-Alzheimer’s diseases that underlie the clinical syndrome of dementia will assist in both clinical trials for Alzheimer’s, and also for the non-Alzheimer’s dementias such as LATE,” he says. “I hope that we can now get on to better tailoring the right therapeutic strategies to the right groups of individuals.”

Time is of the essence, Dr. Fillit adds. “The old-old or individuals aged 85 and older are the fastest growing segment of our population.”

Can LATE be treated?

Like Alzheimer’s the disease is incurable. Doctors can and do use some of the same drugs to ease symptoms of LATE as they do for Alzheimer’s, but in the future, there may be targeted drugs that work better for each type of dementia.

When doctors treat cancer today, they analyze a tumour’s genetic makeup and pair it with therapies that are more likely to be effective. Such “precision medicine” may one day play a role in treating dementia. “We hope to identify subtypes of dementia with cheap and non-invasive blood tests and then have tailored treatments,” Dr. Fillit says. Because of the new report, “we can now say, it’s probably LATE, and we know about TDP-43, which ultimately gives us a drug target.”

Next, check out the early signs of Alzheimer’s every adult should know.

Orillia, Ontario: My Hometown

Welcome to my hometown of Orillia, Ontario, where enjoying the great outdoors can easily become a year-round pastime. But spring and summer are truly special here. (Don’t miss this cute gallery of kids enjoying the great outdoors.)

The warmth of the sun can be felt gently on your skin as you listen to the waves roll in against the shore. There’s a nice warm breeze as you gaze into the distance and see a horizon that seems to go on for miles. Peaceful. Beautiful. Calming. As the sun is setting, the sky looks like someone has just swept a paint brush across it in an array of colours, so simple yet so mesmerizing. The most relaxing moment, the most beautiful sunset is yours to enjoy right in your own backyard.

For visitors and locals alike, spending a few hours at the nearby Bass Lake Conservation Area can be a memorable experience. So much beauty to admire all in one place! You can walk the many winding trails, your body energizing itself with adrenaline, or watch in fascination as the swans raise their new family—just born! You get to enjoy nature, and all the peace and quiet you can fathom, allowing you to escape reality, even if it’s just for a little while.

Maybe your long summer day spent swimming at the beach will stretch into a quiet, relaxing evening. (Check out more of the best beaches in Canada.) And then, as nighttime sets in, you’ll find yourself sitting in the sand gazing at the most amazing sunset ever.

I can’t think of anywhere I would rather be than right here in my own backyard. Orillia is a historic town with so much to offer. There’s a wealth of “favourite spots” to explore, including the docks, the conservation area and our quaint little stretch of downtown, full of beautiful shops. From a night out on the town at your favourite pub, drinking a beer with friends while enjoying local live music, to savouring some downtime and reconnecting with nature—Orillia has a little something for everyone.

It seems that once you have a taste of Orillia’s beauty, you’ll always end up coming back for more.

Check out 10 more places in Canada every Canadian needs to visit.

Nowadays, it seems that many are becoming more and more focused on eating a plant-based diet and leaving out animal products. But indulging in a daily burger or steak can’t be that bad for you, right? Unfortunately for meat lovers, a new study has found a link between how much meat a person eats and an increased risk of premature death. (This is the percent of vegetarians and vegans that go back to meat.)

According to research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, people who ate more red meat, processed meat, or simply got more animal protein than plant-based protein in their diet had a higher chance of dying from a chronic disease. The new research looked at data from the Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study, an ongoing study that’s tracking risk factors for cardiovascular disease among middle-aged men from eastern Finland—a population that ranks among the highest rates of heart disease in Europe. The study population was made up of 2,641 Finnish men who were between the ages of 42 and 60 when the study began between 1984 and 1989.

Researchers followed up with the men after 20 years—1,225 of them had died. Those who ate seven ounces or more of red or processed meat daily—or got the majority of their protein from meat—had a 23 per cent higher risk of premature death, according to ScienceDaily. However, not all animal protein was linked to the mortality risk: men who got their protein via eggs, fish, or dairy avoided the risk; of course, men who ate more plant protein than meat tended to outlive meat eaters. (These are the superfoods you need to add to your diet.)

While this study can only reveal a link between meat consumption and early death, most research is pretty clear that eating more plant protein and cutting back on red and processed meat will be easier on your heart and your waistline.

You might want to try these heart-healthy foods that lower cholesterol.

The title for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s royal baby boy

The world is buzzing now that Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s baby boy was born on May 6, 2019. But even as seventh in line for the British throne, the new baby won’t be a prince, thanks to a hundred-year-old rule.

In 1917, King George V issued a statement that “the grandchildren of the sons of any such Sovereign in the direct male line (save only the eldest living son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales) shall have and enjoy in all occasions the style and title enjoyed by the children of Dukes of these Our Realms.” Queen Elizabeth II is the current sovereign, so her children and grandchildren get royal titles. But her great-grandchildren—like Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s son—would be Lord or Lady Mountbatten-Windsor, rather than a prince or princess, and they don’t get the HRH title of a “royal highness.” (Find out the difference between a princess and a duchess.)

So why are Prince William and Kate Middleton’s kids lucky enough to get those royal titles? Because the Queen said so, of course. (Check out more rules Queen Elizabeth II has broken during her reign.)

As a direct heir to the throne, Prince George would have been a prince no matter what—but Charlotte and Louis wouldn’t have. (Don’t miss the cutest photos of Prince Louis’s first year.) When Kate was pregnant, Queen Elizabeth issued a letter giving the Prince or Princess title to any of William’s children. And that means there’s still hope for Meghan and Harry! If they want to give their kids titles, that is.

Some of the Queen’s grandchildren, such as Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn, could have been given royal titles when they were born, but their parents asked the Queen not to so that they could live more “normal” lives. So if Queen Elizabeth decides not to extend the HRH title, it might not be a bad thing after all.

Next, here’s the real story of how Prince Harry and Meghan Markle met.

You won’t believe what the police found when they responded to this 911 call

Imagine this: You’re home alone and you hear strange noises coming from behind your closed bathroom door. From underneath the door, you see a shadow moving around. It’s a burglar, right? What else could it be?

That exact scenario recently happened to an Oregon woman. She called 911 and when police arrived, they had their guns drawn and their canine unit ready to go.

Police demanded the “suspect” come out of the bathroom, and when the “suspect” failed to comply with orders, police forcibly entered the bathroom.

The suspect was a Roomba.

The Roomba got trapped in the bathroom, making the homeowner think it was a burglar, according to The Daily Beast. Imagine the embarrassment!

The Washington County Sheriff’s Office even recounted the call on their Facebook page with a play-by-play description of the incident.

“As we entered the home we could hear ‘rustling’ in the bathroom,” according to the Facebook post. “We made several announcements and the ‘rustling’ became more frequent. We breached the bathroom door and encountered a very thorough vacuuming job being done by a Roomba Robotic Vacuum cleaner.”

The sheriff’s department gave the all-clear and later posted the Roomba’s “mugshot” with the caption, “Most Wanted Captured.”

It may not have been an intruder, but at least the woman’s bathroom floor was clean!

Check out these real life stories of the world’s dumbest criminals.

Top tips for baking chicken thighs

Poor chicken thighs. While skinless, boneless chicken breast gets all the love, those thighs sit in the refrigerator untouched. It’s true that chicken breast is quick and cheap, but it’s also missing the wow factor of chicken thighs: flavour!

Because chicken thighs have more fat from their skin and dark meat, they have loads of flavour. Your chicken thighs should come out of the oven browned, crispy and bursting with juicy goodness. It can be intimidating to know how long to bake chicken thighs, so we’re taking the guesswork out of it.

Pat the skin dry

The first step to preparing your chicken thighs is also the most important. Make sure the outer skin is as dry as possible. Moist skin causes steam, making your cooked thighs mushy. Pat them dry for crispy skin. (Here’s why you should never wash chicken before cooking it.)

Prep the night before

Save time and get more flavour by preparing your chicken thighs the night before you bake them. By allowing them to sit with the vegetables and seasonings overnight, you’ll have nothing to do at dinnertime but pop the sheet pan in the oven.

Know how long to bake chicken thighs

You don’t want to overbake and risk dry thighs, so roast only until a thermometer inserted in the chicken reads 170°-175°. It usually takes about 40 minutes.

To roast chicken thighs, you’ll need:

• 2 pounds red potatoes (about 6 medium), cut into 3/4-inch pieces
• 1 large onion, coarsely chopped
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1-1/4 teaspoons salt, divided
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed, divided
• 3/4 teaspoon pepper, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 6 bone-in chicken thighs (about 2-1/4 pounds), skin removed
• 6 cups fresh baby spinach (about 6 ounces)

1. Prepare the baking pan

Preheat oven to 400°. In a large bowl, combine potatoes, onion, oil, garlic, 3/4 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon rosemary and 1/2 teaspoon pepper; toss to coat.

Transfer to a 15x10x1-in. baking pan coated with cooking spray.

2. Mix the seasonings

In a small bowl, mix paprika and the remaining salt, rosemary and pepper. Sprinkle chicken with paprika mixture; arrange over vegetables.

3. Bake

How long do you bake chicken thighs at 400°? It depends. Roast until a thermometer inserted in chicken reads 170°-175° and vegetables are just tender, 40-45 minutes. Be sure to use a thermometer to make sure your chicken is fully cooked.

The best part of a baked chicken dinner is biting into the crispy skin. Up the flavour and crunch by broiling the chicken thighs for one minute after they are cooked through. Once they are golden brown, remove from the oven.

4. Let the chicken rest

Remove chicken to a serving platter. Cover with a piece of aluminum foil to keep warm. While the chicken is resting, top the vegetables with spinach. Roast until vegetables are tender and spinach is wilted, 8-10 minutes longer. Stir vegetables to combine; serve with chicken.

Whatever you do, just be sure to break out of your chicken breast rut today. Juicy flavour is waiting for you!

Don’t miss these mistakes everyone makes when cooking chicken.

May Day (the first day of May) is as lighthearted as it is serious. For centuries, May 1 has been celebrated as the arrival of spring and as a day of merriment around the world. But since 1886, May Day has also come to be known as International Workers’ Day, which honours the rights of workers. It’s often a day when rallies and protests occur across the world, like these moments that changed women’s history forever. As it happens, France is a country that loves both flowers and protesting.

Storming the Palace of Versailles and bringing down the Bastille prison are two of the French public’s proudest moments in history. The common people taking power for themselves and ridding themselves of tyranny is what the French Revolution of 1789—and essentially the whole French spirit—was about. As The Local: France says, “Surely, there’s nothing more French than protests and demonstrations.” However, it is important to note that International Workers’ Day rose out of Chicago in the United States, when disgruntled workers came together in 1886 to rally for their rights. Three years later, France established International Workers’ Day, also called Labour Day; it became a paid day off in 1941.

But, May Day is also a day for the French to celebrate good luck with the gentle symbol of the lily of the valley flower. The Local: France recounts the story of how King Charles IX was given a muguet for good fortune on the day in 1561. He so loved the idea that he then started giving out the delicate lilies to the members of his court as good luck charms and, hence, La Fête du Muguet was born. Even today, the streets of France are flooded with flower vendors so that the tradition of giving lilies to family and friends can live on. Those looking to celebrate both versions of May Day should pick a sprig tied with a red ribbon, a modern interpretation of the earlier protestors’ symbol, a red triangle that represented the three parts to an ideal day: work, leisure, and sleep. You can celebrate the original spirit of the day by checking out these spectacular photos of the start of spring.