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Daily Edition • Monday, April 27

Your Home Bathroom Is Grosser Than You Think

Men's restroom sign on wooden wall with a green plant in the foreground.

Rafael Atantya/Unsplash

Gross-Out: It's pretty common to avoid public restrooms or do elaborate hovering routines to avoid touching anything when forced to use them. A new study published in Hygiene, however, indicates that this germaphobia may be misdirected.

The Study: Researchers at the University of Arizona sampled surfaces across four household and four public office restrooms and tested them for bacteria. Overall, the levels were 10 to 100 times higher in home bathrooms than in public ones, likely because home toilets are cleaned far less frequently. The countertop was the most contaminated surface in both settings, and the biggest culprit is something called a toilet plume, the invisible aerosol released from the bowl with each flush. Those microscopic particles settle on nearby surfaces and objects.

The Takeaway: Toilet seats from both environments actually showed similar results. So the next time you're stress-hovering in an airport stall, know that what you should actually be focusing your energy on is your bathroom counter at home.

Keep in Mind: If that idea still makes you uncomfortable, you can wipe a toilet seat with an alcohol wipe or use a toilet-seat cover. And watch out for public toilet handles – those are also a vector for germs.

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When Is the Right Time to Retire?

Smiling woman with long blonde hair, wearing a pink blouse, sitting comfortably in a cozy living space.

Courtesy: Fisher Investments

Determining when to retire is one of life’s biggest decisions, and the right time depends on your personal vision for the future. Have you considered what your retirement will look like, how long your money needs to last and what your expenses will be? Answering these questions is the first step toward building a successful retirement plan.

Our guide, When to Retire: A Quick and Easy Planning Guide, walks you through these critical steps. Learn ways to define your goals and align your investment strategy to meet them. If you have $1,000,000 or more saved, download your free guide to start planning for the retirement you’ve worked for.

Get Your Guide

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Personal Development

How To Be Playful (As an Adult)

Two people doing handstands in a grassy field surrounded by mountains and trees.

Spencer Plouzek/Unsplash

Lighten Up: Kids are innately playful. They can turn anything into a game or opportunity for fun. The older we get, the further we get from our once playful selves. Being grown-up entails lots of work and responsibilities, and fun either gets the short shrift altogether or becomes more structured, with our weekly pickleball games or monthly book club meetings. In her book Playful: How Play Shifts Our Thinking, Inspires Connection, and Sparks Creativity, educator, toy designer, and “play expert” Cas Holman explores why adult playfulness is a necessity for feeling happier and healthier and treating others better.

How to Do It: Holman shares how to cultivate a playful mindset. First, be open to the possibility of play and joy, and step away from rigid ways of thinking. Remove judgment, expectations, and worry about doing things “right.” Reframe the concept of success by placing emphasis on curiosity and creativity, not perfectionism.

The Benefits: Being more playful can chip away at our fear of failure and help us embrace new, innovative ways of thinking and being. Play can strengthen social bonds and build empathy for others. It can also sharpen mental acuity, improve mental health, and strengthen resilience.

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Vitamins & Supplements

Are Herbs and Acupuncture Enough for Menopause Relief?

A thoughtful older woman in a yellow coat stands beside various glass jars filled with plants and flowers against a green background.

Midjourney

You Should Know: Menopause symptoms are notoriously under-treated, and many women turn to acupuncture, herbal remedies, supplements, or other complementary therapies for relief. A recent large review analyzed 158 clinical trials across 86 different alternative approaches to sort out what actually works.

Going Deeper: There’s not strong enough data to recommend regular acupuncture for hot flashes, but electro-acupuncture (which runs a light current between needles) does appear to help. Acupuncture combined with Chinese herbal medicine may improve sleep in perimenopausal women with insomnia. Soy isoflavones, vitamin D, black cohosh, and some Chinese herbal formulas might also ease some symptoms, but most studies had small samples and missing placebo controls.

Takeaway: Some of these therapies likely help with menopause symptoms, particularly sleep. But ditching evidence-backed hormone replacement therapy — which has strong data for many menopause symptoms — for these alternatives alone is the real risk.

Bottom Line: Consider the complementary therapies as just that — complementary. Talk to your doctor to see if hormone therapy is right for you, and check with them before adding herbs as they can interact with common medications.

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Quick Picks

Recipe for Disaster — This viral coffee trend may pose serious health risks.

Long In the Tooth — Is your diet aging you?

It Sounds Made Up — Women who use this lose ~11 lbs in 8 weeks.*

Out Like a Light — Is falling asleep instantly a bad sign for your sleep quality?

Find Your Balance — This type of exercise could help prevent falls.

^*Indicates a brand partnership

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This, Not That

Stretch the Screen Break

A person with a bun hairstyle stands by a large window, looking out at an urban landscape with buildings and trees.

THIS

A person sitting at a wooden table uses a laptop and smartphone, wearing a beige sweater and black pants.

NOT THAT

A.C./Unsplash, Natalia Blauth/Unsplash

This: Eye Break + Distance Focus
Not That: Switching From Laptop to Phone

Looking away from your laptop only to stare at your phone doesn’t give your eyes much relief. Instead, focus on something farther away — out a window or across the room — for about 20 seconds. That brief reset relaxes eye muscles and reduces digital strain.

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What We're Cooking

Sheet Pan Garlic Butter Steak Bites with Veggies

Roasted beef cubes, potatoes, and green beans arranged on a baking sheet with chopped herbs and red onion.

Courtesy: Allrecipes

Serves: 4 | Cook Time: 30 minutes

There’s an art to making the perfect steak, but this recipe skips the finesse in favor of simplicity — while still delivering the flavor. In this quick-and-easy sheet pan dinner, beef sirloin bites are marinated in Worcestershire sauce to help tenderize the meat before going into the oven alongside potatoes, red onion, and green beans. At the end, everything is broiled for a bit of extra char and finished with an irresistible garlic butter–rosemary drizzle.

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Ready to Plan Your Retirement?

Knowing when to retire starts with understanding your goals. When to Retire: A Quick and Easy Planning Guide can help you define your objectives, how long you’ll need your money to last and your financial needs. If you have $1 million or more, download it now.

Download Your Guide

Thank you for supporting our sponsors! They help us keep All Healthy free.

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HEALTHY HABIT

Music Mood Reset

When stress spikes, play one song you genuinely enjoy — and listen all the way through. Music can rapidly shift emotional state and reduce stress hormones. Treat it like a reset button, not background noise.

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Final Thought

A Joshua tree silhouetted against a colorful sunset sky in a desert landscape.

Our peace of mind and the joy we get out of living depends not on where we are, or what we have, or who we are, but solely upon our mental attitude.”

– Dale Carnegie, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

Shiyuan Zhang/Unsplash