Woman with knee brace

Pros and Cons of an Open Patella Knee Brace

Knee injuries are a common hazard in almost every sport. Like other major joints, knees combine several bones, muscles and ligaments in a confined space. However, knees endure more strain than many other joints because they support the body's entire weight.

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Person washing hands

Does Hydrocortisone Work for Cold Sores?

Hydrocortisone is a widely available anti-inflammatory drug, sold over the counter in cream form or available as tablets. It is used topically to treat a variety of skin conditions and has numerous applications as an oral or intravenous medicine.

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Chocolate ganache cake with raspberries and chocolate shavings

How to Thicken a Runny Ganache

Ganache is one of the mainstays of the pastry chef's kitchen. A mixture of cream and high quality chocolate, it can be made thick and fudgy or thin and runny, depending on how it's to be used.

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Hispanic mother smiling at baby

How to Soothe a Sore Butt on a Child

Parenting offers very few certainties. However, one thing you can count on is that your child will at some point experience pain in the buttocks. The causes may range from diaper rash in infants to skateboarding accidents in adolescents.

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Girl posing with dentist

What Can't You Eat After Having Your Dental Sealants Placed?

Dental sealants are a relatively new form of preventive dental treatment, becoming widespread only in the last years of the 20th century. Like fluoridation, they are intended to improve dental health by making cavities less common, even in children who don't adhere to the basic standards of good dental hygiene.

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Torso of pregnant woman on beach

Skin-Colored Bumps Like Pimples on the Chest in Early Pregnancy

Pregnancy brings a host of changes to your body. Some, including morning sickness and your swelling abdomen, are well-known enough to be expected by every new mother-to-be. Others come as an unhappy surprise, such as rapidly-growing facial and body hair or pimple-like growths on the chest.

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Close-up of ice cubes in soda water

Tonic Water & Club Soda for an Upset Stomach

Indigestion is an experience familiar to most people. It can have a variety of causes and symptoms, but overall "indigestion" is a catchall term for gastric discomfort after eating. It can take the form of an uncomfortably full sensation, a sharp cramp or the burning acidic sensation of heartburn.

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Mother makes massage for happy baby

How to Use Vitamin E Lotion on Infants

Vitamin E is a potent antioxidant found in many plant- and animal-based foods. It's a fat-soluble vitamin, making it a natural complement to water-soluble vitamin C, another powerful antioxidant.

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A mother gives her baby girl medicine with a medicine dropper.

How to Avoid Getting Newborn Sick When a Toddler is Sick

For young parents, few things are more distressing than having a sick toddler. However, one of them is having a sick toddler at the same time as you have a newborn. Managing to care for both children, while minimizing the risk to your infant, is a tall order.

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Heart attack

Heartburn & Fat After Fasting

People have used fasting for many centuries as a therapeutic treatment, and some also practice it for religious and spiritual reasons. There are many degrees of fasting, from the meatless days of Catholicism to ascetic, water-only fasts that run for several days.

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Asparagus with poached egg

Is it Okay to Eat Poached Eggs When You're Pregnant?

In the 1980s, previously little-known bacteria such as salmonella suddenly gained prominence, thanks to numerous outbreaks of food poisoning. In the case of salmonella, authorities quickly traced the source of the infection to eggs.

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BBQ ribs with fruit kabobs and rice

How to Freeze Baby Back Ribs After Cooking

A well-prepared rack of ribs is one of the best arguments for long, slow cooking methods. Whether braised in your slow cooker, slow-roasted in your oven or smoke-roasted over low coals in traditional barbecue fashion, ribs cook to a lush, tender richness.

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mixing herb fresh vegetable and chili sauce

How to Reduce the Hotness of a Chili Sauce

Chili sauces are almost infinitely variable in potency. Their heat can vary widely according to the peppers used, the cooking process and ultimately the freshness of your individual bottle. This makes it entirely too easy to accidentally take on more chili heat than you're comfortable with.

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Boiled crawfish

How to Freeze Boiled Crawfish

Louisiana is known as one of America's great culinary capitals, and crawfish are among the most celebrated of Louisiana's cuisine. From December until June -- and especially during the spring when they're most plentiful -- crawfish are a mealtime staple.

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Tomatoes

How to Substitute Fresh Tomatoes for Canned Diced Tomatoes

There is a school of thought that considers canned foods to be a compromise, trading quality for convenience. That's not always true. With tomatoes, for example, the "fresh" tomatoes available for much of the year are hard and flavorless, bred and picked purely for their storage characteristics.

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Beef Brisket

How to Marinate Brisket Overnight

The brisket is one of the most challenging pieces of beef to cook well. A thick slab of muscle from the steer's chest, it's filled with dense muscle fibers and tough connective tissue. Cooked by most methods, it would be as tough as an old shoe.

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Raw ribeye steak

How to Dry Age a Ribeye in the Fridge

The difference between good beef and great beef is sometimes due to the qualities of the animal itself. More often, however, the difference is because of how that beef is handled after slaughter. Most modern beef is wet-aged, an economical and cost-effective process.

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baked potato

Baking a Potato in a Rice Steamer

Rice cookers are a convenient appliance both for those who cook rice regularly and those who seldom cook it. Those who cook rice every day appreciate the set-it-and-forget-it convenience.

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Meatballs and Spaghetti

How to Fix Dry Meatballs

When they're properly made, meatballs are moist, tender and juicy. Unfortunately, even the best of cooks occasionally produce a batch that fall well short of that ideal. If you're in the unfortunate position of making up a batch of meatballs only to find them hard and dry, take heart.

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Madeleines cookie with raspberry on cooling rack

How to Cool Cookies Without a Rack After Baking

When you want to bring the kids running, there are few things more effective than a pan of cookies fresh out of the oven. Ideally, there will always be a wire rack nearby to cool them on. However, that's not always the case. Sometimes you might be baking in an unfamiliar location, where such niceties aren't available.

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