Don Ryan / AP

Bicyclists travel with traffic down Broadway Street in Portland, Ore., which Bike Score, a new site from Walk Score, just named the second most bike-friendly city in the nation. (Pay no mind to the helmet-less daredevil on the right.)

Biking across your city can be a great way to sneak in a workout while getting from Place A to Place B -- not to mention, you'll avoid traffic jams and you never have to fight for parking. If you've been wanting to try a two-wheel commute, now might be the perfect time, as we happen to be approaching National Bike to Work Day (Friday), which comes at the end of National Bike to Work Week (this week), which is all part of National Bike Month (May). What, you didn't know that already? 

And Walk Score, the site that rates neighborhoods for their "walkability," just released a list of the top 10 most bike-friendly cities. Each city in this initial top 10 list is scored based on the number and quality of bike lanes and trails, destinations and road connectivity, number of bike commuters and hills. (Speaking of hills, San Francisco nabbed the third spot on the list. San Fran cyclists, we'd love to hear your strategies for handling those hills!)

A score of 90 to 100 means the city is a "Biker's Paradise"; scoring 70 to 89 means the area is "Very Bikeable," while 50 to 69 means the city is merely "Bikeable." Any lower than that, and the city is deemed only "Somewhat Bikeable." A trio of public health professors at the University of British Columbia helped develop Bike Score. 

Check below to see if your home made the list. If your city is left out, Bike Score invites you to tweet your annoyance at the oversight -- scores for the top 10 most-tweeted-about cities will be added next.

Bike Score's most "bikeable" cities:

1.  Minneapolis (Bike Score: 79) 
2.  Portland (Bike Score: 70) 
3.  San Francisco (Bike Score: 70) 
4.  Boston (Bike Score: 68) 
5.  Madison  (Bike Score: 67) 
6.  Washington, D.C. (Bike Score: 65) 
7.  Seattle (Bike Score: 64) 
8.  Tucson (Bike Score: 64)  
9.  New York (Bike Score: 62) 
10.  Chicago (Bike Score: 62) 

Related:

• What's the best way to lose belly fat?
• In a fitness funk? How to make a comeback
• Think your way thin with these 3 tips

Wake up, folks: There is no health risk in rousing a sleepwalker from their somnambulistic stroll. Well, no risk to them, anyway. You, on the other hand, might suffer a swift, roundhouse kick to the dome.

Long-repeated medical myths have held that if you forcibly snap a sleepwalker back to a wakeful state it will A) induce a state of shock or possibly even insanity, B) give them “lockjaw,” and, C), our personal favorite, cause their soul to become trapped outside their body. The truth matters now more than ever: On Monday, the Stanford University School of Medicine released new research estimating that 8.5 million U.S. adults (3.6 percent of the grownup population) went sleepwalking during the past year -- a far higher rate of nocturnal wanderers than previously thought by doctors. 

“It’s not dangerous for the sleepwalker to wake him up,” said Dr. Mark R. Pressman, a psychologist and sleep specialist at Lankenau Hospital in Wynnewood, Pa. “You’re not going to do them any harm.”

But there are two potential pitfalls in attempting to yank them back to the conscious world. First, sleepwalkers take their short journeys with eyes open yet without turning on a key part of their brain -- the frontal lobe, a portion that controls social interaction. They are momentarily trapped in an altered, gray state that falls between alertness and full sleep, making them quite difficult to bring back to the real world, Pressman said.

“You just can’t talk to them and say ‘Hey!” and have them wake up,” Pressman said. “I’m not even sure where that myth began that you shouldn’t wake them. But the more you dig back (to try research that legend), the more you’ll find that sleepwalking once was thought to be mixed in with spirits and demonic possessions.”

Most sleepwalking episodes last only seconds or a few minutes, ending with the person either sitting or lying on the floor and returning sleep or eventually trudging back to bed.

“It’s very likely to go away on its own while the family is watching,” Pressman said.

You can try to verbally redirect a sleepwalker -- especially a child -- by standing a short distance away and speaking to them in short, easy commands: “Stop, turn around, go back to bed.” But don’t expect them to answer or even to recognize you, Pressman said. Those particular neurons are still snoozing. “Hopefully they turn around and go the other way.

“There’s really no reason to dive in and stop it unless the sleepwalker is about to climb out a window or fall down some stairs. If that’s the case, the family member doesn’t really have much choice,” he added.

If you do approach a sleepwalker -- especially if you physically block or grab one -- they may flash some "defensive aggressiveness,” Pressman said. “This is a very primitive response to what they see as a potential attacker. They may become violent.

“The first thing, obviously, is you have to protect them anyway you can. That’s the bottom line: safety. So you may have to be prepared to take a punch or kick.”

Just don’t expect your zombified loved one or housemate to offer an apology. 

Related:

• Sleepwalking more rampant than thought, study shows
• Suicide while sleepwalking is a real nightmare
• Why do our eyelids get heavy when we're sleepy?

By April Hussar
SELF.com

Happy National Women's Health Week, ladies! This week is all about YOU -- and we have all the advice you need to make the most of it and end the work week healthier than when you started.

National Women's Health Week, now in its 13th year, is a week-long health observance coordinated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office on Women's Health. Dedicated to empowering women to make health a top priority, this year's theme is, "It's Your Time."  

"Healthy, strong women are essential to having healthy strong children and communities, but too often women place the needs of others before their own needs," says U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

Here are 5 ways to put YOURSELF first this week by improving your physical and mental health and lowering your risks of certain diseases:

1. Visit a health care professional to receive regular checkups and preventive screenings. Monday, May 14 was National Women's Checkup Day. Now, you already know you should be getting a yearly checkup from your general practitioner, and keeping your annual gyn appointment (right?), but don't forget about your teeth, your skin and your eyes! Most health care insurance plans cover a dermatologist checkup, something to take advantage of, considering that between 1970 and 2009, melanoma increased eightfold among young women and fourfold among young men ages 18 to 39, according to a new study from the Mayo Clinic. And if you need to get your teeth cleaned but are worried about the costs, here are SELF's three ways to lower your dental bills.

2. Get active. You might say "no duh" to this one, but remember that getting active doesn't have to mean working out at the gym or going for a run (though those are super healthy ideas, of course!). The American Council on Exercise (ACE) has a great idea for a fun way to burn 100 calories in 20 minutes -- wash your car by hand! You'll get some fresh air and save some money, and it's a fun excuse to put on some cut-offs and splash your cute neighbor with some suds! For 58 (yes, 58) more fun ways to burn 100 calories, check out SELF's slideshow of fun suggestions.

3. Eat healthy. Another no-brainer, but sometimes it just seems "easier" to grab a slice of pizza on the go or swing through a drive-through on your way to work. We've got you covered! Here are 8 "no-excuses" grab-and-go breakfast ideas, and for tasty, easy and healthy dinner recipes, check out SELF's 14 Quick Weeknight Meals.

4. Pay attention to your mental health, including getting enough sleep and managing stress. Fitness doesn't stop at the banishment of your muffin top. One surefire way of improving your beauty sleep is to banish technology from your bedroom. Desktop computers, iPhones, BlackBerries ... Joseph M. Ojile, MD, board member of the National Sleep Foundation and founder and CEO of Clayton Sleep Institute in St Louis, MO, says they're all "extremely disruptive" -- from the bright light of the screen to the cognitive distraction of wanting to reply to emails or texts. Getting a truly good night's sleep goes a long way to helping you feel good -- in body and mind. 

And if you need more ways to combat stress, SELF has 19 of them here (from dining by candlelight to brightening up your desk).

5. Avoid unhealthy behaviors, such as smoking and not wearing a seatbelt or bicycle helmet. What if for one week, you treated yourself with the care you'd give to your own kid? Buckle up, don't give in to a "social smoke," wear your sunscreen and make all those smart decisions you'd want your own daughter or best friend to make.

For more about National Women's Health week, visit womenshealth.gov/whw

Related Links:

The Healthy Way to Lose 2 Pounds in 7 Days

How to Undo Your Past Health Mistakes (Smoking and Tanning Included!)

Sign Up for SELF's Free 60 Days to Healthier Ways Plan!

Getty Images stock

"I have a very serious question for you," Kathie Lee asked Hoda. "Are you happy with your sex life?"

She wasn't being nosy — it was purely for science purposes. A new survey from Yahoo! Shine and Fitness magazine asked women if they were as satisfied as they could be, in the bedroom area.

Hoda said she was "very happy" and KLG said she was "thrilled to pieces." The majority of the 1,000 survey respondents said they were getting down with their significant other between 1 and 3 times a week. And what gets the average lady in the mood? Dinner, a sexy movie, and wine.

"Just the wine for me," twinkled Hoda.

KLG tried to bring up the effects of Mexican food on intimacy again, but Hoda swiftly cut her off and shouted, "Stop talking about that!" That's probably for another kind of sex survey entirely.

Julieanne Smolinski is a TODAY.com contributor. She thinks there's nothing sexier than a good survey.

More: When's your best sex time? Survey says Saturday night
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12 percent of younger moms use cellphone during sex: study
Oversharing on Facebook as satisfying as sex?
Are you happy with your sex life? Take our poll

Have your healthiest summer yet! Ease into the dreaded "swimsuit season" with healthy tips from TODAY experts. All throughout May, we'll offer smart do-it-yourself ways to look, eat and feel better. So stop stressing about that swimsuit, and read on.

Who isn’t always looking for ways to boost the results of a summer weight-loss plan? Your best efforts can be undermined by “diet mistakes” that often sound like good advice, but can sabotage the efforts of even the most well-intentioned dieters, new evidence shows.

Eating too often.  While skipping meals will sabotage a diet effort, eating three times a day is sufficient for healthy people. No need to “fuel” constantly, as eating more often frequently leads to eating more calories.  And grazing often prevents the biological development of strong hunger and fullness signals, which help keep your food intake under control.

Skimping on protein. A diet rich in colorful fruits and vegetables is a major plus for weight-loss success. But don’t swap out protein. Protein enhances your sense of fullness and is also essential to fuel muscles - a plus when bumping up your exercise effort. Stick with animal proteins like lean cuts of beef, skinless poultry, fish, whole eggs or egg whites, and low or non-fat dairy. Vegetable proteins like soy (as tofu or burger/chicken substitutes) and beans are other sources.

Confusing healthy and low-calorie. It’s hard enough to swap out artery-clogging fats for heart-healthy ones, but the calories are the same for butter and olive oil. Avocados and nuts are tasty and satisfying because they contain a lot of heart-healthy fat -- but the calories add up quickly. For best control, choose single serving packs of nuts (100-150 calories), or the new 100-calorie guacamole packets. Measure out the portions and avoid “eyeballing” serving sizes of your high-fat favorites.

Overestimating calorie output from exercise.  Exercise is a major boost for mind and body, but when it comes to weight loss, don’t be fooled. Just like we don’t accurately estimate food intake, we’re all just as unreliable in our estimates of calorie use. It’s not just duration, but intensity of your exercise matters. Covering one mile burns about 100 calories, roughly 15-20 minutes if you walk, and 10 minutes running.  Sweating is also not an indication of calorie burn. Get an electronic monitor or go online for more precise estimates. Be wary of exercise equipment calculators; they are just a ballpark number as well.  To boost weight loss, view your activity calories as  “saved” --  not a reason to overindulge with food later.

More from Madelyn Fernstrom:

• Watch for hidden calories with every sip

Check out more of TODAY Health's Summer Shape Up:

• Jenna Wolfe: What's on my summer playlist
• This yummy protein breakfast speeds summer weight-loss
• 4 summer skin tips you should know

Jenna Wolfe is a TODAY anchor and reporter, of course -- but she's also a personal trainer and a total fitness fanatic.

Have your healthiest summer yet! Ease into the dreaded "swimsuit season" with healthy tips from TODAY experts. All throughout May, we'll offer smart do-it-yourself ways to look, eat and feel better. So stop stressing about that swimsuit, and read on.

Q: What is the best way to lose belly fat? I eat a high protein diet with fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds as my only carbs, and I've lost a lot of weight doing that, but I also need to add exercise to my daily regimen too. I walk, but that doesn't seem to be doing much. Thanks, Jenna! – Laura Crozier 

A: Hi Laura: Good news, you've done the hard part already and that's the diet. Once you've locked in a healthy, protein-packed, low-carb diet, all you have to worry about is maintaining that with a calorie-blasting workout.

I'd recommend starting a strength training program to go along with your walking. Weight lifting should always be included in a weight loss plan. It will help spike your metabolic rate for hours after you're done. In fact, some studies suggest you actually can burn more calories lifting weights for 30 minutes than hopping on a cardio machine (treadmill, elliptical, stationary bike) for the same amount of time. Try it!

More by Jenna Wolfe:

• What's on my workout playlist
• In a fitness funk? How to make a comeback
• Girls should be encourage to pursue athletics

More from TODAY Health's Summer Shape Up series:

• Common diet busters -- and how to avoid them
• Don't get burned! Know these 3 sunscreen myths
• To speed weight loss, try this yummy protein breakfast

Updated Tuesday, May 15:
A blood drive is planned Tuesday at the University of West Georgia for Aimee Copeland, the young woman fighting a life-threatening, flesh-eating infection. The blood drive is expected to be held from 2 pm ET to 7 pm ET in the school gym.

Late Monday, Andy Copeland, the 24-year-old patient's father, wrote that the family has been overwhelmed with well-wishers visiting the hospital where Aimee continues to recover from the infection. Her left leg has been amputated and her parents say she is likely to lose her fingers as well.  Although Aimee is improving, she remains in critical condition, with a breathing tube. 

"We saw Aimee laugh and smile. She told us some things she wanted, we played games with her and she was very stimulated," Copeland wrote in the blog where her family has been recording her progress since contracting the rare infection, called necrotizing fasciitis.

Original report:
The parents of Aimee Copeland, the 24-year-old Georgia woman whose leg was amputated after contracting flesh-eating bacteria, told TODAY Monday they are optimistic about their daughter’s recovery. They have been communicating with her and she has begun to rely less on her respirator.

“We were able communicate with her through lip reading, which we’re becoming quite proficient at at this point.,” her father Andy Copeland told Ann Curry Monday.

Their daughter has a breathing tube down her throat, but is looking forward to being able to eat again, especially her favorite food: ice cream, her father told TODAY.

The flesh-eating infection that led to the amputation of one of the young Georgia woman’s legs was caused by a bacteria found in freshwater lakes and rivers. Even a wound as minor as a tiny scratch or cut can serve as the starting point of the bacterial infection called necrotizing fasciitis, according to the National Necrotizing Fasciitis Foundation. On its website, the Wisconsin Division of Public Health says an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 cases occur in the United States each year, resulting in 2,000 to 3,000 deaths.

Aimee will lose her fingers on both hands but doctors hope to save the palms of her hands, which would make it easier for her to use prosthetics, according to TODAY. She may also lose her right foot. She remains in critical condition in the Joseph M. Still Burn Center at Doctors Hospital in Augusta, hospital spokeswoman Stacey Snyder said.

Dad Andy Copeland, who lives with his wife, Donna, in Spartanburg, S.C., has been sharing her roller-coaster progress on blog posts and Facebook.

Almost two weeks ago, the University of West Georgia psychology grad student was kayaking with friends in the Little Tallapoosa River when she stopped to try a homemade zip line. She fell from the line and suffered a deep gash to her left leg, which required 22 staples to close.

Story: Woman fights for life after losing leg to flesh-eating bacteria

Over the following days, her pain increased and she was given antibiotics and an MRI. On May 4, a friend carried her to the ER and she was finally was diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis, a bacterial infection that breaks down muscle and fat and can lead to organ failure. The bacteria that infected Copeland is a bug called Aeromonas hydrophila.

Copeland reportedly was recently diagnosed with lupus, an autoimmune disease, which might help explain why she became critically ill with an infection most would shrug off, says Dr. Chaim Putterman, chief of rheumatology at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. “It’s not only the bug,” Putterman told TODAY.com, but the interaction between the bug and the host, or patient.

In 2008, he coauthored a report about eight lupus patients hospitalized with necrotizing fasciitis at his hospital. Two of them died. Putterman says both lupus itself and the treatment for it could increase patients’ risk of necrotizing fasciitis.

“Many of the medications that we use to treat lupus patients are what we call immunosuppressants,” says Putterman, who is not involved in Copeland’s case. “Increased infection is one of the known prices we pay for those medications.”

In addition, in autoimmune diseases such as lupus, “the immune system is out of whack,” Putterman says. So even without taking drugs to suppress their immune systems, people with autoimmune diseases are more susceptible to infections.

“Necrotizing fasciitis didn’t start when she fell in the water. It didn’t start with the stapling. It started later,” he says. “But in these cases, minutes and hours do make a difference. It’s a rapidly progressing infection, so minutes count.”

The fact that Copeland has survived this long and that, according to her father, her lung function is improving, are both positive signs, Putterman says.

“What definitely is very, very much in her favor is that she’s 24 years-old,” he says. “Young adults are definitely much more resilient than individuals at the extremes of ages.”

While Aimee’s condition is improving, doctors say she has a long recovery ahead of her. 

"It will be very difficult, in fact, her recovery will continue for the rest of her life," Dr. Walter Ingram, Grady Memorial Hospital Burn Center, Atlanta, told TODAY.

Meanwhile, the Copelands told TODAY they are staying focused on her recovery, rather than how hurting her leg could have caused the life-threatening infection.

“Our focus is on trying to stay positive, look at the present and the future,” Andy told TODAY. We believe that future is going to be bright for Aimee.”

Related:

Encouraging news for victim of flesh-eating bacteria

Stronger: Patient's cancer fight video goes viral

'Miracle mom' survives massive blood loss to deliver healthy baby

How the world's oldest yoga teacher keeps me young

Flesh-eating bacteria case spurs study, treatment

The Associated Press contributed to this report

Courtesy of Joyce Pines

Tao Porchon-Lynch in an elevated lotus position at the Taj Mahal.

It’s official: I have the world’s oldest yoga teacher. Guinness World Records has awarded that certification to 93-year-old Tao Porchon-Lynch, whose class I attend.

The funny thing is, Tao’s age is just about the least remarkable thing about her. Over the dozen or so years I’ve known her, enough incidents to fill several colorful lives have trickled out:

• She marched with Gandhi — twice — in her native India.
• She fought in the French Resistance and underwent an emergency appendectomy during the Blitz after escaping France to London.
• She was a model for fashion house Lanvin and a contract player for MGM, appearing in such films as “Show Boat” (1951).
• When her friend Leslie Caron injured her foot, threatening to delay production of “An American in Paris,” Tao fixed it with a Coke bottle.
• To get a part in a western, she pretended to know how to ride a horse (after she took off the saddle and rode bareback, Tao told me, “the horse and I got along fine”).

Albert Parker / Park West Photography

Tao Porchon-Lynch dancing with Vard Margaryan.

After adventures like that, many people might be content in their 90s to sit in a rocker and reflect on a life well-lived. But not Tao: She travels the world and racks up ribbons in ballroom dancing with a 24-year-old partner (whenever she’s about to compete, she asks her students to say a prayer for her; I pray for the other dancers). She joined the Dalai Lama at the Newark Peace Education Summit last year. And lest you think all yogis are austere ascetics, know that Tao is a wine expert.

But foremost Tao is a yoga master. Her physical strength and stamina are amazing, her grace and form are unequaled, but more important, she is a living embodiment of yoga’s ideals: serenity, gentleness, compassion, the joy of being alive.

Courtesy of Joyce Pines

Yoga puts a spring in my step, banishes my aches and pains, sharpens my mental focus. All that keeps me coming back. But what keeps me coming back to Tao is the privilege of basking in her psychic radiance.

It’s been a long time since I wandered into my first yoga class on a whim back in college, and a cobra pose doesn’t come as easily as it once did. Similarly, serenity sometimes eludes me, and resentments and regrets return like the nagging pain of old injuries.

But not when I’m in Tao’s class. When I’m with Tao, I feel as young as she does.

TODAY.com editor Rick Schindler can still get into a full lotus on a good day, though he may need help getting back out of it.

Related links:

Video: Trudie Styler, Sting's wife, shows off age-defying yoga moves

'Broga' caters to guys wary of yoga

What's on Jenna Wolfe's workout playlist

'Stronger' viral video inspires thousands

Ten-year-old Marshall Reid was tired of being bulled about his weight. He was tired of not being able to keep up with the other kids at recess and of having to constantly pull his shirts down to keep his stomach covered.

“One of my classmates actually told me, ‘You know, you don’t look very good. You’re fat,’” Reid told TODAY.

But with the Reid family eating out most nights, it was impossible for the frustrated tween to do much about his weight.

Then Marshall saw the documentary, “Supersize Me,” and he got an idea: Maybe he could do the opposite of what he saw in the movie and eat healthy for 30 days. However, he knew that wouldn’t work without his family’s help.

Marshall went to his mom, Alexandra, and told her things had to change. “I’m done,” he told her. “I’m not doing this anymore. I’m not putting up with this. I’m going to change myself.”

The conversation hit Alexandra Reid hard.

“I knew it came from his heart,” Alexandra told TODAY’S Ann Curry. “It was a sad moment for me because I knew he was hurting and any mother doesn’t want their child hurting.

“I felt like somebody had thrown a brick at me because the amount of parental responsibility that all of a sudden came washing down on me was alarming,” she told TODAY.   

Alexandra’s turnaround was stunningly quick.

“It really didn’t take much convincing,” Marshall told TODAY’s Ann Curry. “My mom jumped right aboard. She’s been a really big help. Everybody’s just been so happy to join along and help me. And once I brought it to their attention, I think they noticed, ‘Wow, we do have this problem.’”

It’s not only the Reid’s problem. An estimated one-third of children ages 2 to 19 are obese or overweight, according to U.S. government statistics. A recent report from the influential Institute of Medicine said fighting America’s weight problem, especially among kids, will require big changes at all levels of society.

 For Marshall and Alexandra, the change started with a project they named “Portion Size Me.” They made a commitment to eat healthier and to exercise more for the next 31 days. They used YouTube to share their progress with Marshall’s dad, an Army lieutenant colonel stationed in Iraq, making videos of the family cooking and eating healthy.

The project paid off. In total, the family has dropped over 70 pounds, 36 of those came from Marshall himself.

“I had a kid come up to me in the hall, and the first thing he says to me is ‘Wow, you look a lot better,’” Marshall told TODAY. “And I’m like, ‘Thanks, Dude,’”

The Reids were so happy with their results they decided to share their project with the rest of the world in a book called, “Portion Size Me: A Kid Driven Plan to a Healthier Family.”

Marshall’s dad wasn’t surprised that his son took the lead in getting his family healthier.

“You know, he’s always been a very good communicator,” Dan Reid told Ann Curry. “He’s very thoughtful about everything that he does. He looked at where he wanted to be and what he was doing and decided what he wanted out of it.”

Related:               
Report: Schools key to fighting America's obesity

More from TODAY Health:
Bottles, binkies, sippy cups can hurt kids
ER visits double from kids swallowing button batteries

Jason Redmond / AP file

Sarah Hyland at Nickelodeon's 25th Annual Kids' Choice Awards on March 31.

“Modern Family” beauty Sarah Hyland is usually known for bringing the laughs. But now, the 21-year-old actress is making a very serious revelation -- she underwent a kidney transplant in April.

VIEW THE PHOTOS: ‘Modern Family’ Beauty Sarah Hyland

In a new interview with Seventeen magazine, Hyland revealed she has been battling kidney dysplasia for many years, and it was her father who donated the kidney to save her life.

“You know that family is going to be there for you no matter what. My dad gave me a freakin’ kidney!” the actress told Seventeen. “But it’s also the families that you create outside of your family. And you really find out what kind of people you’re friends with.”

VIEW THE PHOTOS: ‘Modern Family’s’ Beautiful Brunette Sofia Vergara

Following the operation, the star -- who plays the bubbly Hayley Dunphy on the hit ABC sitcom -- is well on the road to recovery, and she admitted the whole ordeal has given her a sense of who her loved ones really are.

“It was just amazing, and it really opened my eyes to see who’s there for me and who’s not,” she continued. “There are people who came out of the woodwork, not because it was, ‘Oh hey, congratulations on your show winning an Emmy.’ No, it was, ‘Hey, I’m here for you.’”

One person especially close to Hyland who helped her through it all was her boyfriend -- actor Matt Prokop.

VIEW THE PHOTOS: The Cast Of ‘Modern Family’

“He helps me with my medication and takes me to doctor appointments and all the stuff that I need to do to take care of myself. Any other 21-year-old guy would not be there, I guarantee it. I am one of the luckiest people in the world to have him be there for me,” she gushed over Prokop.

While Hyland is approaching life with positivity and a refreshed outlook, she understands that things could have gone very differently had the operation not been a success.

“I have a second chance at life -- not a lot of people get that,” she said.

VIEW THE PHOTOS: Stars Who Have Gone Under The Knife

Susan and Mark Sadauskas thought they had made their home safe for their new baby with covers on all the electrical outlets and child proof latches on all the kitchen cabinets. But they didn’t realize that there was another danger lurking in the house – the tiny lithium battery powering the remote control.

When he was 15 months-old Max somehow managed to pry open the remote, dig out the battery and swallow it. The Sadauskas rushed him to the emergency room when he started vomiting. And doctors soon had him in an X-ray machine where the battery could be seen clearly; it was lodged in little Max’s throat.

“The image is burned into my brain forever,” Max's father Mark told TODAY. “We just looked at each other and started crying… like.. this isn’t happening.”

Mark and Susan were scared. When Max went in to surgery to have the battery removed doctors couldn’t tell them whether the little boy would ever be able to talk -- or even if he would survive.

“He came out of the surgery screaming for us,” Susan remembers. “So that was a very good sign.”

Max is now a healthy 2 year-old. But his parents will never forget the lesson they got on the dangers of button batteries.

Unfortunately Max isn’t an isolated case.

Dr. Nancy Snyderman's safety tips for parents with young children

Every three hours a child shows up in a U.S.  emergency room with a battery that’s been swallowed or placed in the mouth, ears or nose,  a new study shows.

That number is almost double what it was 20 years ago, according to the report published in Pediatrics Monday.

The main culprits are “button batteries,” which account for almost 85 percent of the ER visits, researchers found. These coin-shaped batteries seem to be ubiquitous nowadays, turning up in a wide variety of electronic devices, from toys, to remote controls, to watches.

Although most kids seen by ER doctors are pronounced healthy and sent home, some of the newer batteries can cause serious damage if they lodge in the throat, says the study’s lead author Dr. Gary Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

When kids get 3-volt 20 mm lithium batteries lodged in their esophagus, the moisture there can spark a microcurrent, Smith explains.

“That will lead to cell death and eventually burn a hole right through the esophagus,” Smith says. “And that will lead to long term scarring and stricture. Even worse, there are some cases where it eroded right into the aorta and the child bled to death. These are horrific, horrific outcomes that need to be prevented.”

What’s especially scary is that this can all happen quickly.

“Serious damage can occur in less than two hours,” Smith says. “If parents have any suspicion that their child has swallowed a button battery – even if they’re not sure – they need to take the child immediately to the emergency room to get an X-ray to see if the button battery is stuck in the esophagus... This can’t wait till the next morning,” says Smith.

The new study is based on nationally representative data collected over a 20 year period (1990 to 2009) from approximately 100 U.S. hospitals. When the researchers extrapolated the results to include all U.S. hospitals, they determined that there were nearly 66,000 emergency department visits by children under age 18 for issues involving a battery.

While some children were brought to the emergency room for batteries that had been placed in the mouth, ear or nose, the vast majority came in because batteries had been swallowed. In most of those cases were in children who were 5 or younger.

Button batteries accounted for a full 84 percent of all battery-related ingestions in children younger than 18.

“The real high risk age group peaks around the second year of life,” Smith says. “They put things in their mouths as part of exploration and these batteries are easy to swallow.

While almost a third of the ingested batteries came from toys and games, the majority came from devices such as hearing aids, watches, calculators, remote controls and flashlights. That’s why Smith and his colleagues would like to see manufacturers designing battery compartments with child safety in mind. In the meantime, he says, parents should consider taping battery compartments closed so children can’t get to the batteries inside.

“We can do better,” Smith says. “And it’s not that difficult.”

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Joe Raedle / Getty Images file

By SELF Magazine staff

Have your healthiest summer yet! Ease into the dreaded "swimsuit season" with healthy tips from TODAY experts. All throughout May, we'll offer smart do-it-yourself ways to look, eat and feel better. So stop stressing about that swimsuit, and read on.

1. Is it possible to pop a sun protection pill? 
Sort of. Heliocare's sun protection pill ($50 for 60 pills) is an antioxidant-rich supplement that helps fight sun-induced inflammation. "But it can't take the place of sunscreen," says Ellen Marmur, M.D., chief of dermatology and cosmetic surgery at the Mount Sinai Medical Center. 

2. Can sunscreen cause cancer?
No—it prevents it. Despite findings that suggest some sunscreen ingredients spurred cancer growth in lab animals, sunscreens are safe, "based on critical analyses of the animal study, data in humans and all the evidence we have," says Henry W. Lim, M.D., chairman of the department of dermatology at Henry Ford Hospital.

3. Are "natural" sunscreens truly free of chemicals?
Sunscreens with physical blockers—like zinc oxide—are generally thought of as natural because they come from minerals; those made with avobenzone are officially classified as "chemical." The truth: Zinc oxide and titanium dioxide are put through a chemical process before they end up in the bottle, so they aren't totally natural, either.

Three reasons you could be sun-vulnerable

1. You're on oral or topical medications. Even if you wear sunscreen, certain antibiotics for treating acne and urinary tract infections, as well as isotretinoin (aka Accutane), some blood pressure meds and sulfur creams can all leave you fried. That's because "some drugs break into tiny particles when they penetrate skin or enter the bloodstream; these can react with UV rays and cause a burn," Dr. Marmur says. Vacationing in the sun? Ask your doctor if you could temporarily stop taking your Rx about two weeks before you go, to minimize your chances of getting scorched.

2. You're on hormones or you're pregnant (or trying to be). The Pill and some hormone regimens (e.g., those for infertility treatments) can cause melasma, a type of sun-induced pigmentation.

3. You have a health condition. Certain autoimmune diseases (such as lupus) can increase vulnerability to sun rashes. Some folks also have a sun allergy, aka polymorphous light eruption, in which a rash arises after even intermittent UV exposure. Stay in the shade!

More from SELF:

• Your Sunscreen Protection Guide
• SELF Healthy Beauty Awards: Best Sun Protection
• How Three Women Gave Up The Tanning Bed
• How They Lost Over 195 Pounds!
• 20 Slimming Superfoods
• Are You Wearing The Wrong Sneakers?

More from TODAY Health's Summer Shape Up series:

• Jenna Wolfe: What's on my workout playlist
• To speed weight loss, try this yummy protein breakfast
• 4 summer skin tips you should know

Sure, you’ve seen TODAY’s Jenna Wolfe breaking news stories with Lester Holt on the weekends from Studio 1A, but did you know that she’s also a personal trainer? Passionate about fitness despite her hectic schedule, she often does what's called a "pyramid workout" when she travels for work in order to keep in shape while she is on the road.

The Pyramid Workout does not use any equipment or weights, meaning that she (or you!) can do it at home, in a hotel room, or anywhere else.  You just have to be able to count!  It is a series of ten moves done for a certain number of reps. The first move (jumping jacks) is a hundred reps, then for each subsequent move the reps are decreased by 10, until the final one (kick-drops), is executed for only 10 reps. 

Jenna says that doing this once is the perfect warm-up before you go for a run or, done four times, can be a complete full-body workout for the day.

Her fellow TODAY journalist, Natalie Morales, was up for the challenge of learning Jenna’s workout routine. (Natalie herself is no newbie to workouts -- she’s a marathon runner!) The two go through each of the movements in an easy-to-follow way so that you, too, can learn the workout! 

See the video, above, to hop in the gym with these two sporty TODAY anchors.

Jenna Wolfe's pyramid workout:

1. Jumping jacks, 100 reps

2. Butt kickers, 90 reps

3. High knees, 80 reps

4. Kicks, 70 reps

5. Mountain climber, 60 reps

6. Toy soldiers, 50 reps

7. Should side to side, 40 reps

8. Inner heels, 30 reps

9. Basketball jump shots, 20 reps

10. Kick drops, 10 reps

Read more from our Summer Shape Up series:

• Find out what's on Jenna Wolfe's workout playlist
• Need a little 'fitspiration'? Try these tips from TODAY readers
• To speed weight loss, try this yummy protein breakfast

Try to think back: What you were doing at 11 PM last Saturday? If you're a lady, you may have been enjoying the weekly peak of your sex drive.

A new study by Women's Health magazine suggests that that's when gals are at their most amorous. The researchers believe that Saturday night is all right for naked fighting because of hectic work schedules.

But Kathie Lee and Hoda disagreed with the findings. Hoda can't remember the last time she was up at 11 on a Saturday, and besides, "I like it in the morning," she said.

KLG worried that the biggest impediment to getting frisky at that hour is too many tacos.

"After a big meal, isn't the last thing you're interested in?" she said, painting a rather vivid erotic picture. "You've had beens, and burritos, and cheese enchiladas, tostadas, a few margaritas…" Then she made a couple of flatulent noises.

What if you do most of your burrito binges on Saturday night? There's a quandary for you.

Julieanne Smolinski is a TODAY.com contributor. 'Til now, she though tacos were an aphrodisiac.

More: Kathie Lee, Hoda reveal how many times they have been in love
6-year-old gets suspended for singing 'sexy' song

Courtesy of Jenna Wolfe

On top of her gig as a TODAY anchor and reporter, Jenna Wolfe is also a personal trainer -- not to mention, a regular TODAY Health blogger!

Have your healthiest summer yet! Ease into the dreaded "swimsuit season" with healthy tips from TODAY experts. All throughout May, we'll offer smart do-it-yourself ways to look, eat and feel better. So stop stressing about that swimsuit, and read on.

My favorite workout partner is not my best friend, or my yoga instructor or my spin teacher. My favorite workout partner is music.

Music meets me at the gym everyday (and is never late).  Music gives me energy when I'm lagging. Music motivates me, inspires me, pushes me and stimulates me. A customized, unpredictable workout mix, with a good balance of high energy music, along with steady, sometimes slower-paced rhythms can turn a sluggish 30-minute routine into a 60-minute experience. In fact, a growing body of research lends scientific credence to music's motivational powers. 

I have 12 different workout mixes that I change every month to keep everything fresh. I use certain mixes for strength training, others for cardio, and others still for yoga and meditative exercises. Whatever music you respond to, just make sure it's customized before you get to the gym so as to avoid constantly switching songs and distracting you from your workout.

My favorite workout songs change all the time. This week's picks will undoubtedly be different than next week's, but I'll share mine with you if you share yours with me. 

1) "Wild Ones" by Flo Rida, featuring Sia

2) "Ageless Beauty" by Stars

3) "Tonight is the Night," by Outasight

What are your current favorite workout tunes? Join the conversation and get inspired by other TODAY Health fans on Facebook. 

More stories by Jenna Wolfe: 

• Encourage girls to pursue athletics
• Are you man (or woman) enough for a strongman workout?
• When personal training doubles as therapy

More from TODAY Health's Summer Shape Up series:

• To speed weight loss, try this yummy protein breakfast
• 4 summer skin tips you should know
• Need a little 'fitspiration'? Try these tips from TODAY readers

Have your healthiest summer yet! Ease into the dreaded "swimsuit season" with healthy tips from TODAY experts. All throughout May, we'll offer smart do-it-yourself ways to look, eat and feel better. So stop stressing about that swimsuit, and read on.

Research shows that starting your day with a high-protein breakfast curbs appetite and boosts weight loss. Unlike standard, carby flapjacks, this Protein Pancake is full of high-quality protein from egg whites — a smart choice if you're looking to slim down or rev your system with an energizing meal. You also get a nice dose of filling fiber from whole-grain oats.

This is just one of the 75+ delicious, low-cal recipes featured in my new weight loss book, The Joy Fit Club: Cookbook, Diet Plan & Inspiration.

Protein Pancake with Strawberries

Oil spray

1/2 cup quick-cooking oats

4 egg whites

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup sliced strawberries (or half of a banana, sliced)

• Generously coat a skillet with oil spray and heat over medium heat.
• In a medium bowl whisk together the oats, egg whites, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon.
• Pour mixture into skillet and cook until golden brown, about 2 to 3 minutes on each side. (For a moister pancake, cover the skillet while the pancake is cooking.) Top with strawberries or banana slices.

Makes 1 serving. 

For more weight loss advice and healthy recipes, visit joybauer.com and follow Joy on Facebook and Twitter.

More from TODAY Health's Summer Shape Up:

• Jenna Wolfe: What's on my summer playlist
• A yummy protein breakfast to speed summer weight-loss
• Ask Jenna: How can I lift weights without bulking up?
• 4 summer skin tips you should know

Women's Health

When it comes to stomach pain, finding the cause of your tummy trouble can be harder than solving an advanced Sudoku. Use this symptom decoder to help decipher what's up with your gut.

1. Acid Reflux
What it is: Acid flowing backward from the stomach up into the throat. It affects 20 percent of adults at least once a week.

What it feels like: Pain or burning below your breastbone that's usually worse after you eat or when you lie down, says David Peura, M.D., former chairman of the National Heartburn Alliance.

Fix it: If you feel the burn only a few times a year, treat it with antacids like Tums. If you get it a couple of times a week, you could have gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). A doctor can determine whether a medication to reduce acid production will help you.

Related: Stomach Pain Cures From Top Docs

2. Appendicitis
What it is: Inflammation of the appendix, a narrow fingerlike pouch attached to the colon. About 10 percent of people will have trouble with it sometime in their lives.

What it feels like: A dull discomfort around your belly button that moves to your lower right abdomen. It becomes extremely painful as time passes—and walking makes the pain worse.

Fix it: Go to the emergency room immediately! You need surgery to yank your appendix. If you wait too long, it can rupture, spewing bacteria all over your innards—disgusting and life threatening.

3. Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
What it is: A malfunction of the nerves that control the intestines, experienced by 20 percent of adults.

What it feels like: Nausea, bloating, diarrhea, or constipation and cramps in the lower part of your abdomen. These symptoms tend to lessen when you move your bowels, says Lauren Gerson, M.D., assistant professor of medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine.

Fix it: Visit the doctor, who will probably prescribe an antispasmodic drug to regulate your impulse to go and relieve the general discomfort as well.

Related: 5 Moves to Cure Indigestion

4. Gallstones
What they are: Pea- to golf ball-size nuggets in the gallbladder, a sac connected to the liver and small intestine. Made of hardened cholesterol and bile (a fluid that helps digest fat), they're caused by a high-fat diet or a gallbladder that doesn't empty properly. Women are more likely than men to develop them—up to 20 percent of women have them at some time.

What they feel like: A sharp pain in your upper middle abdomen that moves to your right side, under your rib cage. The pain can worsen after eating.

Fix it: If the pain doesn't go away in a few hours or you're running a fever or vomiting, go to the doctor. She can diagnose gallstones via CT scan or ultrasound. You may need surgery to remove the gallbladder.

5. Ulcer
What it is: A sore on the stomach lining. Ten percent of the population will have one at some point in their lives.

What it feels like: Burning pain in your stomach that comes and goes but feels worse when you're hungry.

Fix it: If you're taking nonsteroidal drugs such as aspirin or ibuprofen, stop immediately, Peura says—these medications eat away at the stomach lining. See your doctor; you may need antibiotics to kill ulcer-causing bacteria, or even surgery.

Related: 8 Easy Ways to De-Stress

6. Lactose Intolerance
What it is: Discomfort after consuming milk products due to a deficit in the enzyme that digests lactose, the sugar found in dairy products.

What if feels like: Nausea, cramps, bloating, gas, and/or diarrhea 30 minutes to two hours after eating or drinking foods containing lactose.

Fix it: Drink less milk, or have it with other foods to slow the digestion process. Try experimenting with an assortment of dairy products. Hard cheeses such as Swiss or cheddar have small amounts of lactose and generally don’t cause symptoms. Important note for the lactose intolerant: because dairy products are some of the most common sources of calcium, make sure you’re getting enough of that essential mineral elsewhere in your diet.

7. Crohn's Disease
What it is: The most common of a group of diseases called inflammatory bowel disease. Crohn’s usually affects the end of the small intestine and the colon.

What it feels like: Persistent abdominal pain, diarrhea, weight loss, sometimes fever. You might find blood in your stools.

Fix it: Crohn’s is most common in people under age 30. Though treatable, there is no cure. Treatments include anti-inflammatory medicines and steroids, which you might have to take for a few years or for a lifetime.

Related: 12 Ways to Reduce Your Disease Risk Now

8. Colitis
What it is: A common type of inflammatory bowel disease that affects only the colon and rectum. A young person’s disease, most cases are diagnosed by age 30.

What it feels like: Belly pain or cramps, bloody diarrhea, an urgent need to have a bowel movement, weight loss, nausea, and sometimes vomiting.

Fix it: If mild, treat the symptoms with over-the-counter medications. In severe cases, you might have to take anti-inflammatory medicines or steroids.

9. Celiac Disease
What it is: A digestive disease that damages the small intestine due to an intolerance to gluten, the protein found in wheat, rye, and barley. Often misdiagnosed as IBS, celiac disease is now considered one of the most common gastrointestinal disorders.

What it feels like: Cramping, bloating, and diarrhea. More serious symptoms include anemia, osteoporosis, and even infertility.

Fix it: Avoid that pizza—the remedy for celiac disease is a gluten-free diet. Fortunately, there are plenty of great gluten-free products available these days.

Related:The Truth About Gluten

10. Thyroid Disease
What it is: A deficit or an overabundance of the hormones secreted by the thyroid gland. Too much can kick your metabolism into high gear; too little can make it sluggish.

What it feels like: A hyperactive thyroid can cause diarrhea; a sluggish thyroid can cause constipation. Other symptoms vary widely for both hyper- and hypothyroidism, but can include weight loss or weight gain, a racing heartbeat or low energy, nervousness or depression, hair loss, and more.

Fix it: Your doctor will probably prescribe a hormonal drug to regulate your thyroid. Occasionally surgery is necessary in severe cases.

More from Women’s Health

• 101 Best Things To Do for Your Body – Right Now
• Guide to More Yucky Bodily Functions
• DIY Health Checks You Should Do Every Day
• The Health Threat That’s Often Missed

Karen Rowan
MyHealthNewsDaily

Women who are considering getting their fallopian tubes tied should instead have them removed altogether, some doctors say. And, they add, perhaps even women undergoing any type of abdominal surgery should also have their tubes removed, as long as they don't want any more children.

That's because recent research suggests a woman's fallopian tubes are the true source of some of the deadliest ovarian cancers, and removing them could lower her risk of developing the disease.

"The research supports the possibility that the fallopian tube could be thought of as a target for prevention," especially in women who are having surgery anyway for other reasons, said Dr. Robert Burger of Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, where he is the associate director of gynecologic cancer research.

In fact, doctors in British Columbia now routinely discuss removing the tubes with all women who've completed child-bearing and are having pelvic or abdominal surgery, such as a hysterectomy, said Dr. Jessica McAlpine, a gynecologic oncologist at Vancouver General Hospital and the British Columbia Cancer Agency. Statements issued from the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists of Canada indicate such discussion takes place across Canada.

Video: 'No Mother's Day' focuses on maternal health

"It’s a much more conservative approach here" in the United States, Burger said, "and we pay for it. When this type of cancer develops, the mortality rate is so high, it's second only to pancreatic cancer."

There are genes, such as BRCA1 and BRCA2, that raise a woman's risk of developing what are known as high-grade serous ovarian tumors, but 90 percent of the cases show no clear genetic link to the disease. 

"To add a minimal-risk surgery to an operation that’s already being performed — to me, it’s a no-brainer," Burger said. "And most women have no idea about this."   

Out of tubes, into the ovaries
The National Cancer Institute estimates 22,280 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year, and 15,500 women will die of the disease. "Over 75 percent of ovarian cancers are high-grade serous cancers," the deadliest ovarian cancers, Burger said. 

Research in the 1990s led to the discovery that some of these cancers begin in tube cells a short distance from the ovaries. Shortly after it was learned that women with mutations in the BRCA genes were at increased risk of ovarian cancer, these women were offered prophylactic surgery to remove their fallopian tubes and ovaries. 

By the mid-2000s, pathologists studying the removed tissues began to report cases in which early cancers were visible in the very ends of the fallopian tubes but not in the ovaries. 

"We thought maybe this is the source," Burger said. 

Then in 2007, a major paper published in the Journal of Pathology took a close look at the genes of ovarian cancer cells — from women with and without BRCA mutations — and determined that the fallopian tubes were the true site of origin for many ovarian cancers. Research showed how normal fallopian tube cells evolved into early cancers and then into invasive cancers — a process that had eluded researchers focused on the ovary itself. 

Studies since then have suggested that 50 percent to 84 percent of high-grade serous tumors arise from the tubes, said Dr. Ronny Drapkin, an assistant professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School, and one of the authors of that study. 

Different risk levels
The findings have different implications for women depending on how high a risk they are at for ovarian cancer. 

Women in the general population, who are not at a high risk of ovarian cancer or who don't know their risk, "should seriously consider having their tubes removed" if they have completed childbearing and are having any abdominal surgery, Burger said. And post-menopausal women in this group should consider having both their ovaries and tubes removed, he said. 

Drapkin and McAlpine agreed, and Drapkin said he recently recommended to his sister, who was planning to have a hysterectomy, that she have her fallopian tubes removed during the operation. (She did.) 

There are risks that come with removing the fallopian tubes, a procedure called a salpingectomy. The main worry is that the blood supply to the ovaries will be cut off, Drapkin said. During an operation, surgeons cauterize blood vessels, and the anatomy in that part of the body is complicated. An operation aimed at removing only the tubes "could compromise the viability of an ovary," he said. And of course, there are risks anytime a person is put under general anesthesia, Drapkin added. 

For women at high risk for the disease, the situation is quite different, as they are currently offered surgery to remove both the ovaries and the fallopian tubes once they complete childbearing, Drapkin said. But these operations send women into early menopause, which brings its own health risks, such as an increased risk of cardiovascular problems and bone disease, he said. 

"The question has become, should we just be removing the tubes instead?" Drapkin said. The idea that's floating around among experts is that high-risk women could have their tubes removed once they're done having children. Then, after natural menopause, the ovaries could be removed as well. 

But leaving in the ovaries is a scary proposition for some. While the evidence shows that a majority of the cancers arise from the tubes, there isn't evidence that all do, Drapkin said. "The worry is, what if we miss one? It's not like breast cancer or colon cancer — there's no screening tool, and it’s a potentially lethal disease." 

Other unknowns include whether high-risk women who opt to retain their ovaries are depriving themselves of the protective benefit against breast cancer that comes from ovary removal, McAlpine said. 

Until more studies are done, the decision is highly individual and can depend on the age at which other women in the family developed ovarian cancer, as well as a woman's own age, she said. It may make more sense for a 30-year-old than for a 45-year-old to leave her ovaries in. 

Will tube removal become common?
Among researchers and physicians, there has been "more widespread acceptance, and general awareness, over the last one to two years" of the evidence that these ovarian cancers arise in the fallopian tubes, McAlpine said. 

But what's being done about it "varies from nothing to tentative" action, she said. 

McAlpine recently examined a database of ovarian cancer cases in British Columbia, looking at the numbers of women who had undergone a hysterectomy or tubal ligation (tube-tying) prior to developing cancer, and at the rate of referral to genetic counselors and surgeons for women at high risk of the cancer. 

She estimated that 40 percent of ovarian cancer cases in British Columbia could be prevented if the fallopian tubes were removed from every woman with BRCA mutations or were undergoing a hysterectomy or tubal ligation. A similar result would be likely in the U.S., where the rate of women undergoing tubal ligation is about the same and the hysterectomy rate is slightly higher, she said. 

What needs to be done, all of the experts said, is a clinical trial. 

A study of women who aren't at high risk is likely to come first, Drapkin said. For example, researchers could look at women having hysterectomies, and compare the rates of ovarian cancer between those who also had their tubes removed and those who didn't. 

Burger added that the new understanding of ovarian cancer could lend itself to a renewed search for ways to screen for the disease. Pelvic exams, transvaginal ultrasounds, and blood tests that look for a molecule called CA-125 have all been tried, but none has proven effective in catching cancer cases early. 

"We really need to study the fallopian tubes to pick up the abnormalities," Burger said. Researchers should look for ways to examine the tubes "almost like colonoscopies." 

Related stories 

• 5 Things Women Should Know About Ovarian Cancer
• The 10 Deadliest Cancers and Why There's No Cure
• 10 Do's and Don'ts to Reduce Your Risk of Cancer 

A 22-year-old leukemia patient with a talent for video has turned the fight against cancer into an online anthem celebrating strength -- and recovery.

Chris Rumble of Kent, Wash., spent Saturday filming fellow patients, doctors and nurses on the hematology/oncology unit at Seattle Children’s Hospital.

Dancing, singing and holding signs that read “Hope” and “Fighter,” they put together a moving makeshift video set to the tune “Stronger” by Kelly Clarkson.

“It was kind of like a party,” said Rumble, who filmed the video during the day, stayed up late Saturday night and posted it on YouTube early Sunday.“It wasn’t a typical day at all.”

He was hoping to make a video to repay his teammates on the Wenatchee Wild hockey team, who had sent him a video when they learned of his illness. He appears in the video bald, singing and wearing an orange T-shirt.

Rumble spent 35 days on the pediatric and adolescent cancer ward because he was 21 when he was admitted, just on the line between adolescent and adult care. During his treatment, he says he became kind of big brother and role model to children coping with cancer.

“For me, personally, I try not to let anyone see my pain,” he said. “A lot of the kids are much younger and don’t understand what they’re going through.”

Simply making the video lifted the spirits of many of the children on the floor, said Brittany Skinner, 26, a pediatric hematology oncology nurse who is shown dancing and singing.

"It gave them something to shine through, I guess," she said. "Like the song said, 'What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.'"

Rumble’s video surprised the public relations staff at the hospital, who woke up Sunday morning to a viral sensation. By early today, the video already had more than 64,000 hits.

“It’s pretty amazing,” said Alyse Bernal, spokeswoman for Seattle Children’s. “It’s just taken off.”

Singer Kelly Clarkson got word of the Seattle Children's video and tweeted her approval: "Oh my goodness y'all have to see this! It's beautiful! I can't wait to visit these kids and nurses!" read a post on her account @Kelly_Clarkson. It wasn't immediately clear whether Clarkson actually plans to visit the hospital. 

As for Rumble, he was back at the hospital this morning for an appointment. On Friday, he'll learn whether his cancer is in remission.

Do you find this video inspiring? Tell us about it on Facebook.

More on TODAY Health

• Ask Jenna: How can I lift weights without bulking up?
• Oversharing on Facebook as satisfying as sex?
• Teen gets lung transplant in time to attend her prom

Carl Court / AFP - Getty Images

Claire Lomas, who is paralyzed and walks with the aid of a "bionic" suit, finishes the London Marathon on May 8, 16 days after the event began. The former chiropractor was in tears as she became the first person to complete any marathon using a bionic ReWalk suit.

Kerim Okten / EPA

Claire Lomas of Britain celebrates after finishing the London Marathon, 16 days after the race began, in London, Britain, on May 8. Lomas, who is paralyzed from the waist down following a horse riding accident, is the first person to complete a marathon in a bionic ReWalk suit.

Carl Court / AFP - Getty Images

Claire Lomas, right, who is paralyzed and walks with the aid of a "bionic" suit, kisses her daughter Maisie after she finishes the London Marathon on May 8, 16 days after the event began. The former chiropractor was in tears as she became the first person to complete any marathon using a bionic ReWalk suit.

 From MSN:

A paralysed woman has become the first person to complete a marathon in a bionic suit.

Claire Lomas finished the London Marathon, crossing the finishing line 16 days after the race began.

The 32-year-old said she was "over the moon" as she completed the 26.2-mile route, which she started on April 22 with 36,000 other participants.  Read more here.

Related stories:

• New bionic retinas show promising results in test
• Bionic legs may help ex-basketball player walk again
• Bionic heart keeps bride alive

Follow @msnbc_pictures

Corbis stock

Have your healthiest summer yet! Ease into the dreaded "swimsuit season" with healthy tips from TODAY experts. All throughout May, we'll offer smart do-it-yourself ways to look, eat and feel better. So stop stressing about that swimsuit, and read on.

TODAY anchor Jenna Wolfe isn't just a fitness buff who loves to work out (and has the muscles to show for it). She's also a personal trainer in her spare time. And now, she's your trainer — on Facebook, at least. Got a fitness query? Head over to our Facebook page and ask away.

Q: How can you work your shoulders without bulking up? — Connie Mell

A: This is the most common question I get regarding weight lifting. Women are worried about building big, bulky muscles and they shy away from the weights as a result.

The truth is quite the opposite. Lifting weights will both burn calories and speed up your metabolism. Women would have to lift extremely heavy weights to bulk up. What you want to do is lift heavy enough weights to max out at 10-12 repetitions. If your weights are too light, you won't see enough of a difference. The goal is to tone your body, not inflate it.

And always keep in mind that muscle weighs more than fat, so don't completely rely on the scale as you start to tone up that body. -- Jenna Wolfe

More from TODAY Health's Summer Shape Up:

• 4 summer skin tips you should know
• Need a little 'fitspiration'? Try these tips from TODAY.com readers
• Madelyn Fernstrom: Watch for hidden calories with every sip

More by Jenna Wolfe:

• In a fitness funk? How to make a comeback
• Girls should be encouraged to pursue athletics
• Are you man (or woman) enough for a strongman workout?

Stephanie Pappas
LiveScience

Can men and women be "just friends?" A new study suggests the answer is yes — but guys may be more attracted to their gal friends than vice versa.

Men report more sexual interest in their female friends than their female friends do in them, and men are also more likely than women to overestimate how romantically interested their friends are in them. In most cases, sexual attraction within a friendship is seen as more of a burden than a benefit, the study finds.

"I think men and women do want to be friends, they do want to engage in platonic friendships," said study researcher April Bleske-Rechek, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire. "But the data I've been collecting suggests that attractions can get in the way."

Friends without benefits
Friendship is an interesting area to study because it doesn't have obvious reproductive advantages, Bleske-Rechek told LiveScience. Evolutionary psychologists often focus on sexual relationships and familial relationships, under the assumption that humans evolved to pass on their own genes to the next generation. But friends don't share genetic ties or offspring, and yet they still help each other out.

Related:  Scientific Tips for a Successful Relationship

Bleske-Rechek and her colleagues were interested in how heterosexual, opposite-sex friends dealt with issues of sexual attraction that might come up in their friendships. First, they recruited 88 pairs of opposite-sex, college-age friends to fill out questionnaires about their friendship. The researchers had pairs of friends come in so they could be sure that each member of the pair agreed that they were in a friendship, preventing one-sided relationships from muddying the waters. 

The participants separately answered questions about their friendship, including their levels of attraction to one another. To discourage pressure to share the answers later, the researchers instructed the friends to keep their answers confidential, even after the study.

The results revealed that men are more attracted to their female friends than their female friends are to them. Such overestimating of women's interest is not unusual for men, Bleske-Rechek said.

"Men over-infer women's sexual interest in a variety of contexts, and I definitely see that extending into the domain of cross-sex friendships as well," Bleske-Rechek said.

Attraction to friends
Men who were romantically involved were no less likely than single guys to say they found their female friend attractive or to say they'd like to go on a date with her. Women who were romantically involved were also equally as likely as single gals to be attracted to their male friends, but they drew the line at dating, with fewer women in relationships saying they'd date their guy friend.

Video: Here's what gets women in the mood for love

The researchers next wanted to expand their findings outside the college student realm, so they sent questionnaires 107 young adults ages 18 to 23 and 322 adults between the ages of 27 and 55. In these questionnaires, participants were asked about their cross-sex friendships and were given the opportunity to list their own reasons why those friendships were both beneficial and burdensome.

Although older adults reported fewer opposite-sex friends than the younger group did, everyone was very positive about these friendships, ranking them as overwhelmingly beneficial. But when people listed attraction on the "costs and benefits" list, it almost always fell under a "cost." Almost half of the young adults in the study spontaneously mentioned attraction as a problem in their friendships, the researchers reported April 25 in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.

There was a slight sex difference to this finding, such that men were less likely to call sexual attraction to a friend a cost than women were, although they were still unlikely to see it as a positive.

Related: 5 Ways Relationships Are Good for You

"When it does come up as a benefit, it's more likely to be a guy saying it," Bleske-Rechek said.

The finding shouldn't be interpreted to mean that men and women can't be friends, Bleske-Rechek said, just that we may have to overcome our evolutionary history to do so.

"It's very likely that the modern environment has changed so quickly that we've got these novel opportunities to engage in a variety of types of relationship with the opposite sex that we probably didn't, historically," she said. "It's going to take us a while to adjust."

Can men and women be just friends? Tell us about it on Facebook.

Related

• 10 Surprising Sex Statistics
• Busted! 6 Gender Myths in the Bedroom & Beyond
• The Sex Quiz: Myths, Taboos and Bizarre Facts 

From bad breakups to bathroom updates to the amount of bacon your best friend can eat in a single sitting, we've all grown used to oversharers spilling their guts both online and off.

"I share pretty much everything," says Laura Keesee, a 25-year-old public relations account coordinator from Orlando, Fla. "From my random ADD thoughts to when some food has upset my stomach to details about my relationship. I think oversharing is part of my personality."

It's also intrinsically rewarding, according to new research out of Harvard University that used fMRI scans to show how our brains react to sharing information about ourselves with others.

"The Internet has drastically expanded the number of mediums through which we can talk about ourselves to other people," says Diana Tamir, a graduate student in the Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Lab at Harvard and lead author of a study published today in the journal PNAS. "We were interested in why people engage in self-disclosure so seemingly excessively. The hypothesis we wanted to test was whether or not this behavior provided people with intrinsic or subjective value -- did it feel good to do it."

As it turns out, it feels so good, our brains responds to self-disclosure the same way they respond to pleasure triggers like food, money or sex.

Tamir and her colleagues conducted five studies involving nearly 300 people, most of them from the Harvard and Cambridge community. In some studies, participants were asked to disclose their own opinions while being scanned using fMRI, or functional magnetic resonance imaging, a technique that directly measures the blood flow in the brain, thereby providing information on brain activity.

In others, participants were asked to complete certain behavioral tasks in exchange for varying amounts of money. Study subjects, as it turns out, were willing to go without 17 to 25 percent of their potential earnings if they could reveal info about themselves to others.

"We called this the 'penny for your thoughts study,'" says Tamir. "We wanted to know if people would pay money to engage in this behavior -- to share information about themselves with other people -- and it turns out they will."

Brain scans of participants revealed even more about the rewards of self-disclosure.

"When you look at the neural regions generally associated with rewards like money or sex or food, those same regions seemed to respond more robustly when people were engaging in self disclosure than when they were not," says Tamir. "From the evidence we see, there are a couple of different metrics of value -- both monetary and neural -- that show that self-disclosure is subjectively rewarding to people. It's valuable. It goes towards explaining why people do it so often."

Lawrence Winnerman, a 42-year-old project manager from Seattle, says he definitely finds oversharing rewarding.

"If I post something on Facebook or say something that I think is going to be really funny and also particularly revealing about myself, I'm looking for a reaction and a laugh," he says. "And I get really disappointed if I don't get one. I know I'm absolutely doing it for the value of the rewards."

According to Tamir, both shy and TMI types feel rewarded when they can talk about themselves.

"You might think that gregarious people are more highly rewarded but shy people also like to share their thoughts," she says. "My hunch is that everybody can find some kind of value reward in having an audience or a sympathetic ear, regardless whether you do that behavior a lot or a little. It provides you with some sort of reward."

Unfortunately, oversharing can also provide the occasional admonition. 

"My new boyfriend posted a picture of me on Facebook in a Viking helmet that was taken in a sex shop," says Winnerman, who also posted on the social networking site that he and his beau were at the shop to buy, ah, supplies. "I thought it was funny even knowing my mother would read it."

Her response?

"She immediately posted, 'TMI,'" he says.

Related:

• Beware the overshare in everyday conversation
• Should we call it quits? A new kind of couples counseling
• Trying on swimsuits really is the worst, study confirms

Getty Images stock

woman, sick, allergies, nose, sneeze, tissue, cold, flu, allergen, pollen, msnbc stock photography

By Joyce Ho
NBC News

Spring's early arrival brought a welcome respite from winter, but for allergy sufferers the warm weather also brings a new round of sniffling and sneezing. New research suggests pollen counts are not only higher this year, but also more potent. 

Taking medication is an option, but there are other ways to cope with the allergen onslaught without simply resorting to pills and prescriptions. So if you're one of the 31 million Americans with seasonal allergies, check out the tips below to help minimize the effects of hay fever.  

1) Keep pollen out of the house: Close windows and doors to prevent the pollen from coming in. Change vents on air conditioners and vents and wash bedding and rugs every week in hot water.  Vacuum two times a week and don’t forget to wear a mask while cleaning or dusting. If you are still experiencing allergies in your house, use a dehumidifier or an air filter indoors.

2) Prevent pollen accumulation on your body: Shower before going to bed because pollen can stick on your clothes and hair, and don't forget to clean your eyeglasses and sunglasses frequently. 

3) Plan your time outdoors: Pollen counts are highest between 5 a.m. and 10 a.m. and tend to be lower in the late evening. Pollen also accumulates in the air during warm breezy days as opposed to cool rainy ones. Check the weather and pollen count forecast to schedule your exercise routine and other time outdoors.

4) Cover your eyes and mouth: Some people choose to wear a bandanna and/or goggles while exercising outdoors.

5) Clean your pets: Pets can track in pollen from outdoors, so be sure to groom your pets regularly.

Read more from msnbc.com: 

• Miserable spring allergies? Why that's a good sign
• Need spring allergy relief? Avoid these top 5 mistakes
• 5 Allergy Fighters You May Not Have Heard Of
• 10 Food and Herb Fixes for Spring Allergies

By Anna Maltby
SELF

If you're like us, you had a blast frolicking in the spring sun this weekend -- but you didn't love coming home with your first ever-so-mild sunburn of the year. Oops! 

Perhaps it's no coincidence then that the first Monday in May is known as Melanoma Monday (and the month of May is Melanoma Awareness Month).

Melanoma Awareness Month is an an effort by the American Academy of Dermatology to raise awareness about the deadliest form of skin cancer -- and remind us that early detection is crucial.

Read on for a few more melanoma prevention tips:

Detect and reflect: Grab this cute, awareness-raising bracelet for only $5, and make sure to wear it frequently -- the light pink band turns to dark pink/purple when exposed to harmful UV rays. Safe and stylish! 

Screen regularly: Visit your derm for a full-body screening at least once a year and follow her advice carefully, whether she suggests you have photos taken of suspicious moles or asks you to come back in just a few months. Better safe than sorry!

Slather it on: Use sunscreen every day, cloudy or bright, with at least SPF 30. If you'll be in direct sunlight, apply and reapply a broad-spectrum SPF that blocks both UVA and UVB rays, every 3-4 hours (even more frequently if you're in the water!).

Check yourself: Scan your own moles and freckles every 1-2 months. "If a mole has been changing in size, shape or color, it needs to be checked right away," says dermatologist and melanoma survivor Dr. Elizabeth Tanzi. "Skin cancer detection is best done as a team between you and your dermatologist."

For a whole month's worth of great tips and information, check out melanomamonday.org.

All throughout May, we'll offer smart do-it-yourself ways to look, eat and feel better. So stop stressing about that swimsuit and follow our Summer Shape Up series:

More from TODAY Health's Summer Shape Up:

• Need a little 'fitspiration'? Try these tips from TODAY readers
• Watch for hidden calories in every sip
• Boost your natural defenses with the 'SPF diet'
• In a fitness funk? How to make a comeback
• Click here to read the entire series