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At what age do babies start teething?

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There are a lot of exciting milestones in your baby’s growth and development. There’s when they roll over for the first time. Then crawling, their first step, their first word, and on and on. And one of the biggest events is when your baby’s smile starts to turn into a toothy grin.

But when do babies get their first tooth? Do teeth come in a certain order? How do you soothe a baby’s sore gums?

Below, we answer these questions, explain other teething symptoms and answer common questions about cleaning baby teeth.

At what age do babies start teething?

The average age for a baby’s first tooth to come in is around 6 months old, but every child is different. Girls’ teeth usually come in a little earlier than boys’ do. But by 3 years old, most kids have all of their primary or “baby” teeth.

How many baby teeth do kids have?

Children have a total of 20 primary teeth.

What order do baby teeth come in?

Baby teeth don’t always come in the same order for each kiddo. There are typical ranges for when certain teeth come in or “erupt,” but those ranges overlap. For example, many babies get their bottom central incisors sometime between 6 months old and 10 months old, and their top central incisors between 8 months old and 12 months old.

Baby teeth chart

Again, the exact timing and order that babies’ teeth come in can vary. But here’s when they generally tend to come in:

Bottom central incisors: 6-10 months
Top central incisors: 8-12 months
Bottom lateral incisors: 10-16 months
Top lateral incisors: 9-13 months
Bottom canines: 17-23 months
Top canines: 16-22 months
Bottom first molars: 14-18 months
Top first molars: 13-19 months
Bottom second molars: 23-31 months
Top second molars: 25-33 months

How do I know if my baby is teething? Watch for these baby teething symptoms

Not all babies show signs of teething. But common teething symptoms can include:

Increased fussiness
Increased drooling, which can cause coughing and lead to a rash on baby’s face, chin or chest
Chewing or gnawing on objects
Rubbing their cheek or ear
A low-grade fever (less than 101 degrees Fahrenheit)

Usually, signs of teething will start a few days before a new tooth comes in, and go away once it has.

Is teething painful for babies?

Some babies will experience discomfort or pain while teething, which helps explain some of the teething symptoms you’ll notice. Gum soreness and swelling can lead to fussiness, or cause your little one to rub their cheeks or chew on anything they can get their hands on. The good news is that most discomfort will pass quickly.

Which are the most painful teeth for babies as they come in?

Typically, the first teeth to come in are the most uncomfortable for babies, as the feeling of a tooth coming in is new and unfamiliar. The molars can also be painful because they’re larger than other teeth.

When to talk to a doctor about teething concerns

Again, teething symptoms are usually mild and improve in a couple of days. But talk to your child’s doctor if:

Symptoms are prolonged or get more severe (such as constant irritability or especially aggressive chewing)
Your child has a fever higher than 101 degrees Fahrenheit
Your child gets diarrhea alongside teething symptoms

How to soothe baby’s gums during teething

If your baby is showing signs of discomfort when they’ve got a tooth coming in, there are a few different things you can do to make them more comfortable.

Wipe away drool from their chin regularly – This can help prevent skin irritation and rashes.
Massage your baby’s gums – You can simply use a clean finger or chilled teething ring.
Give your baby a cold washcloth or chilled teething toy to chew on – If your baby has already been introduced to solid foods that can be chilled, you can also use those. Only use a fridge to chill things (rather than the freezer), and don’t use toys that have liquid in them.
Talk with your child’s doctor about over-the-counter pain relievers – Medications like acetaminophen or ibuprofen can help relieve pain and inflammation. Just make sure you’re using one that is meant for babies, and you follow all the instructions on the label.

Don’t try to relieve your baby’s symptoms with teething gels or teething tablets, as they may contain harmful ingredients. If you have questions about a method or teething product that isn’t listed above, talk to your child’s doctor.

Baby oral care: Answers to frequently asked questions

With the arrival of teeth comes the need to keep them clean. Here’s what to know to get your baby’s dental health off to a good start.

When should I start brushing my child’s teeth?

Start brushing as soon as the first tooth has come in.

How do I brush my baby’s teeth?

Use a small, soft toothbrush or washcloth twice a day. Start with water or a fluoride-free training toothpaste. Once your child is around 3 years old, you can start using small amounts of fluoride toothpaste.

Flossing should start when your child has teeth that have come in next to each other. If regular floss is too tricky, try using a floss pick.

Why do I need to brush my baby’s teeth?

Even though baby teeth will fall out, they’re still important. Healthy baby teeth support the health, spacing and alignment of the permanent teeth that come in after them. And getting your child used to regular brushing early on will help them form good oral hygiene habits.

Plus, tooth decay can start at a very young age. Children with tooth decay are more likely to have ear and sinus infections, and develop conditions like obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Healthy teeth help children speak quickly and clearly, too, which can give them more confidence as they grow up.

What else can I do to keep my baby’s teeth healthy?

If your child is still nursing or drinking a bottle at bedtime or overnight, talk with their doctor about when it makes sense to wean them from these feedings. This is because the sugars in your own milk or formula can sit on your baby’s teeth for prolonged periods of time overnight.

Most babies are able to sleep through the night without needing to eat sometime between 4 and 6 months old. And once they’re around 12 months old, nighttime bottles before bed can usually be stopped as well.

You can also take steps to reduce or discourage pacifier use or thumb sucking. Pacifiers specifically can be helpful early in your child’s development. They can provide comfort and have even been shown to reduce the risk of SIDs. But as your child gets older, pacifiers – and aggressive thumb sucking – can cause issues with tooth alignment.

When does my baby need to visit the dentist?

Along with brushing and flossing, regular dental visits are key to your baby’s dental health. The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry recommends that kids see a dentist by their first birthday, or within 6 months of their first tooth coming in.

During these visits, the dentist will examine your child’s soft tissues, gums and jaws. The earlier your child sees a dentist, the more likely they are to have good oral health in the future.

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The Unique Dangers of Hurricane Ian During COVID-19

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In August 2021, as the Delta variant surged and the threat of hurricanes loomed, President Biden urged people to get their COVID-19 vaccines in case they had to evacuate to a crowded shelter or stay with others indoors. This week, as Hurricane Ian barreled towards Florida as a Category 4 storm, Biden’s remarks resurfaced, mischaracterized as advice for how to literally protect oneself from a hurricane.

But even though a vaccine (obviously) won’t prevent hurricane-related injuries, it’s still smart to take preventive health measures against COVID-19 in the face of a natural disaster like a hurricane. Preemptively protecting health allows people to focus on dealing with the more immediate impacts of the storm. If large numbers of people have to shelter together, vaccines will help slow the spread of infections. Vaccines and boosters also help keep people out of the hospital, freeing up capacity for health care services to take care of anyone hurt during a storm.

Only time will make clear the health impacts in Florida post-Ian. But ahead of the storm, few people in the state had received the latest bivalent booster. And as of noon Thursday, more than 1,200 patients were being evacuated from hospitals across the Fort Myers region, reports the Weather Channel.

Some research already exists about how recent hurricanes worsened people’s health during the pandemic. Power outages during a storm have been shown to be deadly for patients. When Hurricane Ida hit Louisiana and Mississippi last year, medical centers there were filled with people hospitalized due to COVID-19, many of whom were in intensive care units. Damage from the storm and power outages forced evacuations from health care facilities in both states—a “precarious” task, given that COVID-19 patients rely on mechanical ventilation or oxygen, wrote the authors of one 2022 study published in the Lancet Regional Health—Americas. The desire to limit further spread of the virus added yet another layer of difficulties.

According to the same study, both Louisiana and Mississippi had among the lowest vaccination rates in the nation when Ida hit. Poor uptake of public-health measures, like low COVID-19 vaccination rates, can make it challenging to determine the best safety guidelines; gathering in shelters protects people from storms but increases the risk of contracting COVID-19, for example. In the past, many people were apprehensive about seeking shelter for fear of getting the virus, thereby putting them at greater risk from the storm. Before COVID-19 vaccines were available, a June 2020 survey of more than 7,000 Florida residents found that 73% of respondents believed that the risks of contracting COVID-19 at a shelter were greater than those posed by a hurricane. Just over half strongly agreed they’d prefer to shelter in place.

Neither the 2020 or 2021 hurricane seasons, however, saw large COVID-19 spikes after storms hit, according to the Lancet report. This could be in part because there was less routine testing of affected areas following storms. Both major hurricanes—Laura in 2020 and Ida in 2021—also made landfall at a time when case numbers were declining. Mask mandates and social distancing were also in place at the time; they’re not now.

Beyond the immediate impacts, living through a pandemic and a natural disaster at the same time can have long-term effects—and marginalized communities experience these disproportionately. A multi-year survey in Texas led by the Children’s Environmental Health Initiative, in collaboration with Rice University and the Environmental Defense Fund, found that people who suffered the worst economic and mental-health impacts after Hurricane Harvey hit in 2017 were four times more likely to experience income loss during the pandemic, and five times more likely to suffer severe anxiety because of the pandemic, than people who weren’t as badly hit by the storm.

People affected by pandemic-era hurricanes—including Ian—are already starting from an unlucky baseline. The Lancet study notes that people’s physical and mental health were already worsened by the pandemic when Ida hit and were “likely exacerbated by the devastating shock of Hurricane Ida.” Higher rates of mental health disorders, plus the potential for COVID-19 illness and life-altering hurricane destruction, make it obvious why shoring up preventive health measures during hurricane season is a good idea.

How to Stop Stress Eating (3 Strategies)

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This LEGO looks worried, probably because he doesn't know what to eat.

All of us have plenty of stress in our lives.

In the modern world, it’s almost a given.

If you find yourself responding by “stress eating,” know that you are not alone.

One of the top issues faced by clients in our 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program is emotional or stress eating. It actually seems to increase in occurrence year over year.

Today, we’re going to show you exactly how we address emotional eating with our clients, including when it’s – GASP – actually okay to stress eat.

Here’s what we’ll cover in today’s guide:

Let’s jump right in.

What Is Stress Eating? (A Video from NF Kitchen)

The above video from Coach Justin comes from the Nerd Fitness Prime “Mindset” video series.

Justin covers three important lessons I want to highlight, but before we do that, we should ask ourselves a question:

“What exactly is stress eating?”

Stress eating is consuming food in response to negative emotions like fear, anger, or sadness.

When we stress eat, food is being used to solve a problem. Now, unless we’re actually hungry, it’s likely a problem that food itself isn’t meant to solve.

That’s stress or emotional eating.

Here’s what compounds the whole problem: stress eating itself can make us feel guilty. We often feel terrible once our spoon hits the bottom of the pint of ice cream.

This can drive more negative emotions, which can trigger even MORE stress eating.

And the pattern continues.

A gif of Tina saying "I'm out of control."

We’ll talk about ways to break this cycle in a moment, but before we do, we need to create some tools to identify it in the first place.

What Causes Stress Eating? (Lesson #1: Playing Detective)

You may have been surprised in our video above when Coach Justin gives permission to stress eat.

Counterintuitive and seemingly counterproductive, I know. But this is going to be important for two reasons.

How to Approach Stress Eating:

Step #1: we need to curb the guilty feelings about stress or emotional eating.

I started this guide off by highlighting the frequency of stress eating amongst our Online Coaching clients.

You are not the only one struggling with this.

Most humans do.

And robots with human-like emotions and taste buds

A gif of Eva, who might be craving some food because of stress.

We’ll come back to this idea again, because ending the shame of emotional eating will be critical for moving forward.

Step #2: allowing ourselves to stress eat will help us learn why we do it.

We’re going to be playing detective here, to see if we can piece apart your actions and routines.

This man's book says "how to be a detective" so you know it's legit

At the end of the day, our lives are a cumulation of habits. Stress eating is one such habit.

So let’s learn about it!

To do so, we’re gonna record some Emotional Eating Notes.

During an episode of stress eating, it’s important to ask:

What am I doing?
What am I feeling? (Both physically and emotionally)
What am I thinking about?
What time is it?
Where am I?
Who am I with?

Also, gauging these at different times can be helpful too.

How is your stress looking:

An hour or two before the eating episode?
Right before it?
During it?
Right after it?

The purpose of these Emotional Eating Notes?

Look for patterns!

Detective Pikachu is holding up a magnifying glass in this gif.

Perhaps you’ll notice some of the following:

“After my recent Tuesday morning conference call, when I got grilled by my company’s leadership, I grabbed some chocolate chip cookies. This happened the week before too.”
“Around 2pm, when I get the ‘afternoon slumps,’ I normally grab a Coca-Cola. This little boost gets me through the end of the day. This is almost a daily practice.”
“Last Sunday evening, when thinking about the start of the work week, I had a couple of glasses of wine. When looking back at my notes, this takes place at the end of most weekends.”

We’re looking for patterns to help us understand what drives our stress eating.

The most important thing about this process: withholding judgment.

We’re looking at our notes for clues into our psyche. Whatever we captured is okay.

If you order pizza every Thursday after talking with your overbearing mom (of course, she means well), step one is to recognize it.

Oftentimes, this awareness step alone can help shift behavior. “Oh, I’m reaching for a beer like I normally do after ending my workday. Typical Me.”

After creating some notes on what spurs our emotional eating, it’s time to think about some alternatives for coping with stress.

How Do I Stop Mindless Eating? (Lesson #2: The Stress Response Menu)

After documenting what sets off our stress eating, we need to formulate a plan on what to do when our anxiety rises.

That means it’s time to build…a Stress Response Menu!

Our Stress Response Menu will be a list of actions or activities you can do to de-stress outside of eating.

Ideally, you’ll do them before an eating episode, but they can be done during or after the fact too.

In other words, if you only realized you were stress eating when your hand reaches the bottom of the Doritos bag, no problem, you can do your stress response activity right then.

The purpose of the Stress Response Menu is to reward yourself with a small moment of self-love, whenever your anxiety levels are too much.

Examples for a Stress Response Menu:

Close your eyes and take five deep breaths (Coach Justin’s go-to move)

Drink a large glass of water

Take a short walk
Go listen to one of your favorite songs
Do a quick stretching routine
Write in your journal
Play with your dog
Shout at the sky

A gif of Grandpa Simpson shouting at a cloud.

The more the activity from your Stress Response Menu can match your personal goals, the better.

In other words, if you’re trying to build muscle, some push-ups might be the perfect de-stressor.

Just make sure it’s something you won’t dread doing.

A combination of a “de-stressor” and a “reward.”

This is important, as Coach Justin mentions that many of his clients only reward themselves with food. The self-love they practice only takes place in the kitchen.

Our menu above will help us develop some more options, not solely based on food.

To make the most of your Stress Response Menu:

#1) Make the activities short and easy.

You should feel confident that you can do every item on your list. So avoid activities that will take longer than 10 minutes to complete.

Also, set yourself up for success by hacking your Batcave:

If you’re going to journal when stressed, keep your diary open on your work desk.
If you’re going to drink water before any emotional eating, keep your full glass near you.
If you’re going to take a short walk, keep your kicks near the door.

Don’t set yourself up for failure by picking overly complicated or burdensome activities.

#2) Place your Stress Response Menu somewhere visible.

Once you make your list, print it out and place it in your kitchen or pantry (or wherever you typically stress eat).

You could also write out a couple of your favorite activities and attach them to your refrigerator.

If it’s right in front of you, it’ll be harder to ignore (however, it’s okay to ignore it from time to time, as we aren’t striving for perfection).

Just please don’t write it and then stick the list in the junk drawer that opens to another dimension.

Yeah, don't put your stress response menu in a portal like this.

You never can find anything in that drawer.

#3)Track your usage of the Stress Response Menu.

This will help us in two ways:

First, by tracking your usage, you’ll start to feel better about using the SRM. You’ll see an accumulation of all the times you successfully deployed a stress response, helping you visualize the momentum you’re building.
Second, the data will help you understand your patterns of emotional eating. Maybe five deep breaths steered you away from ice cream but the large glass of water did not. You can then use this information to update and revise your response plan.

For the first point, Coach Justin has his clients keep a “Jar of Awesome.”

Every time they have a small win in the day, like taking five deep breaths instead of chugging soda, they place a marble or small token in a jar. After a while, the jar will have a decent amount of marbles or “small wins” in it.

This will then stand as a visual reminder of all the progress being made, proof of their ongoing wins.

How Common Is Stress Eating? (Lesson #3: Learning Self-Compassion)

This photo shows a sad clown on a psychiatrist couch.

The American Psychological Association has found that about a third of Americans respond to stress with food.^[1]

This research was done BEFORE the global pandemic.

If you find yourself binging in response to stress, know that you are not alone here.

Heck, both clients and NF Coaches turn to food and alcohol for comfort every now and again.

Personally, somewhat recently I mindlessly devoured an entire tub of Animal Crackers after a stressful week. It was only when the bag was gone did I understand what just happened.

A gif of "the next day" from the film the Hangover

So yep, many of us (even fitness “experts”) are prone to stress eating.

Now, don’t take this as a free pass to stress eat.

If the behavior goes against your goals, it’s something we want to work towards improving.

But there’s a reason they call it “comfort food.” Food can often be used to make us happier.

At the end of the day, we’re all emotional bags of meat on this floating hunk of space rock, and we’re doing the best we can.

Give yourself a bit of a break, my friend.

You’re here, you’re reading, and you’re trying. That’s great!

This will bring me to my last point with our handy guide:

Is It Okay to Stress Eat? (Next Steps)

There are times when food is the perfect response to stress.

It’s something Coach Justin mentions in his video.

“Stress eating” might be appropriate if:

After a long workday, a glass of wine with cheese helps you unwind.
To celebrate the coming of the weekend, you have an ice cream party on Friday night.
The week already seems long, and it just started, “Taco Tuesday” might help you survive until Friday.

The important thing here?

“We are making a choice.”

We are choosing to deal with stress or anxiety with food. By making it an intentional activity, we can remove the guilt around emotional eating.

Food can be fine as a reward, as long as it’s us controlling the behavior, and not the food itself.

In addition, if we can recognize the action (or plan for it), we can then adjust our calories before and after and not go off the rails.

(You can calculate your recommended total daily calorie intake here, by the way!)

If it seems like you aren’t quite there yet, start with your Emotional Eating Notes and your Stress Response Menu.

Even just the process of taking notes on specific episodes of stress eating may be enough to slow down the behavior.

Remember, no matter what happens:

You are not a bad person if you stress eat.
You are not a bad person if you forget to take notes.
You are not a bad person if you ignore your Stress Response Menu.

You are not a bad person (unless you’re a Death Eater, but come on, you know what side you’re on).

A gif of Voldermort looking mad and evil like

If you need any help along the way, we are here for you.

We have three specific paths to continue with Nerd Fitness:

#1) Our Online Coaching program: a coaching program for busy people to help them make better food choices, stay accountable, and get healthier, permanently.

As I said before, “stress eating” is the number one issue faced by our coaching clients, so we know exactly how to help recognize and address the habit.

You can schedule a free call with our team so we can get to know you and see if our coaching program is right for you:

#2) If you want an exact blueprint for leveling up your nutrition, check out Nerd Fitness Journey! Our fun habit-building app helps you exercise more frequently, eat healthier, and level up your life (literally).

If you follow our Mindset missions, you’ll learn to de-stress while earning XP! Sah-weeeet.

Try your free trial right here:

#3) Join the Rebellion! We need good people like you in our community, the Nerd Fitness Rebellion.

Sign up in the box below to enlist and get our Rebel Starter Kit, which includes all of our “work out at home” guides, the Nerd Fitness Diet Cheat Sheet, and much more!

Alright, I want to hear from you:

Have you been stress eating more over the last year?

Do you have any tips or tricks to interrupt the pattern?

What’s your favorite way to de-stress?

Let me know in the comments!

-Steve

P.S. Make sure you check out A Nerd’s Introduction to Mental Health for more.

###

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An Alternative to Plastic Surgery

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Curious about wrinkle fillers, which hold the promise of smoother skin and a younger look without surgery?

Don’t confuse fillers with Botox, Dysport, and Xeomin. These are injectables that help smooth so-called dynamic lines — such as forehead furrows and crow’s feet caused by frowning and smiling — by blocking muscle contractions under the skin. Instead, FDA-approved cosmetic (or dermal) fillers on the market help restore the contours of the face by padding folds and wrinkles and replacing lost volume. They work on any skin tone.

Fillers don’t replace a facelift because they won’t lift skin that has a lot of sagging, says plastic surgeon Hatem Abou-Sayed, MD, FACS, who practices in West Palm Beach, FL. “But if there’s not a lot of skin laxity, fillers can replace lost volume, and that will contribute to a younger, more well-rested appearance.” Here’s a look at some of the most popular types.

Hyaluronic acid fillers are made of a sugar that occurs naturally in the body. Popular brands include Belotero Balance, Elevess, Juvederm, Perland, Prevelle Silk, and Restylane . These gel formulations come in thin and slightly thicker consistencies. They can fill both shallow areas, such as fine lines above the lips, and deeper folds, like those around the nose and the so-called marionette lines, creases that run downward from the corners of the mouth.

Hyaluronic fillers can also plump up thinning lips, restore volume to cheeks, fill under-eye hollows, and add definition to a slackening jawline. The effects remain visible anywhere from four months to a year, depending on the area treated. Results vary from person to person. If you don’t like the result, hyaluronic acid fillers can be reversed with an injection of the enzyme hyaluronidase.

Calcium hydroxylapatite microspheres, a compound similar to minerals found in the body, make up the main ingredient in Radiesse. Thicker than hyaluronic acid, it’s most effective where more volume is needed — for instance, to build up a weak chin, strengthen a jawline, pad sunken cheeks, or fill deep wrinkles. Results last a year or longer.

Poly L-lactic acid, known by the brand name Sculptra, is a biodegradable synthetic material also used in stitches. It doesn’t provide the kind of instant plumping that other fillers do. Instead, it gradually stimulates the body to regenerate its own collagen. You’ll need a series of 3 to 6 injection sessions, about a month apart, for results lasting up to two years.

Collagen fillers often comes from cows (bovine) or human cells. The body slowly absorbs the collage over time so regular injections may be needed to maintain results. Hyaluronic fillers are now more commonly used than collagen.

The Facts onFillers

Considering wrinkle fillers? Here’s what you need to know.

Choosing a Doctor. Your best bet: a board-certified plastic surgeon, dermatologist, or otolaryngologist who injects fillers daily.

Cost. Generally, the longer a filler lasts, the more expensive it is. Prices vary widely by location and by how much training the person doing the injecting has undergone. Hyaluronic acid fillers cost, on average, $684 per syringe, Radiesse about $717 per syringe, and Sculptra $853. Many people need more than one syringe.

Ouch Factor. Fillers are often mixed with lidocaine to minimize discomfort. A numbing cream applied before the injections will also help reduce pain.

Side Effects.You may have redness, swelling, or bruising that can last up to a few weeks. Don’t schedule your filler appointment less than two weeks before a big event. Allergic and other reactions, though rare, can occur.

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Weekly Health Quiz: Covid, Brown Noise and U.T.I.s

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Test your knowledge of this week’s health news.

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Survey: Consumers prefer telehealth over in-person visits for routine, mental healthcare

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The J.D. Power 2022 U.S. Telehealth Satisfaction Study released today shows a stark increase in consumers preferring telehealth visits over in-person appointments for a broad range of routine care.

The study finds that 67% of survey respondents relayed they have accessed video telehealth services during the past year. Before the pandemic in 2019, that number was 37%.

Among those who used telehealth in the past year, 80% stated they prefer using telehealth for prescription refills, 72% for reviewing medication options, 71% for discussing test results and 57% for regular mental health visits.

Additionally, 94% of telehealth users said they “definitely will” or “probably will” utilize telehealth to obtain medical services in the future.

The top reasons for telehealth use were convenience (61%), the ability to receive care quickly (49%) and ease of access to health information (28%).

“Telehealth and digital technologies are transforming how patients seek and receive healthcare,” Christopher Lis, managing director of global healthcare intelligence at J.D. Power, said in a statement. “Telehealth has the potential to increase access, convenience, care coordination and continuity, improve outcomes and fill in gaps in provider coverage, particularly in underserved areas. As technology adoption and consumer demand continue to increase, it will be important to keep evaluating what’s working well and which areas need improvement, with the aim being to improve equitable access, quality of care and patient outcomes that complement in-person care.”

THE LARGER TREND

Telemedicine surged during the pandemic and allowed patients to visit healthcare providers when social distancing was necessary. Now that the pandemic has slowed, telemedicine has remained a part of patients’ experiences, especially compared to pre-pandemic times.

Still, some studies have shown some downsides to telehealth use. According to a study published in JMIR in July, telehealth may increase after-hours EHR-based clinical and administrative work. Still, many clinicians relay that treating patients in virtual-only or hybrid care settings best fits their lifestyle.

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Bodybuilding Legend Lou Ferrigno Keeps His Abs Ripped at 70-Years-Old

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At a certain point, it might not be easy to maintain one’s fitness past a certain age. That goal doesn’t appear to be so rigorous for bodybuilding legend and Hollywood and television icon Lou Ferrigno.

On Sept. 28, 2022, Ferrigno shared a post on his Instagram where he’s holding his shirt up in a selfie to showcase his tight abs at the age of 70. As he writes in the caption of his post, Ferrigno is “proud” to be able to stay “dedicated” and in shape after “58 years” of training and competition.

[Related: The Best Dumbbell Ab Workouts for a Stronger, Better-Looking Core]

As a bodybuilder, Ferrigno competed in some intermittent capacity over the course of two decades.

The first tentpole victory of his career was a breakout win in the 1973 International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness (IFBB) Mr. America. That same year would see Ferrigno win the first of two straight IFBB Mr. Universe titles (1973-1974). He would later capture the 1974 IFBB Mr. International contest. Ferrigno made his Olympia debut at the 1974 Mr. Olympia, where he would finish in second to Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The following year, 1975, saw Ferrigno take home a third-place result behind Serge Nubret and the defending champion Schwarzenegger, respectively. From there, Ferrigno would not pose on an official bodybuilding stage again until he was in his early 40s during a 12th-place result at the 1992 Mr. Olympia. He would cap his career with a second-place finish in the Master’s division at the 1994 Olympia. That would be Ferrigno’s final bodybuilding competition before a formal retirement at the age of 43.

[Related: Bodybuilding Legend Flex Wheeler Will Receive 2023 Arnold Classic Lifetime Achievement Award]

Outside of the bodybuilding and fitness sphere, some might recognize Ferrigno for his long-time famous role as Dr. Bruce Banner in CBS’s The Incredible Hulk from 1977-1982. The actor has since reprised his time as the Hulk in modern cameos in Marvel’s cinematic universe. In a further nod to his physique, Ferrigno also played the ripped Roman god Hercules in a 1983 live-action interpretation of the mythological figure. Ferrigno would play himself in a recurring part on the CBS sitcom The King of Queens and in the 2009 comedy I Love You Man alongside actors Jason Segel and Paul Rudd.

According to IMDB, Ferrigno is still staying active in Hollywood and has 70 acting credits to his name at the time of this writing. He is currently filming the movie Hermit, where he plays the eponymous character.

For a bodybuilding and Hollywood legend like Ferrigno, it seems life never stops moving at warp speed.

Featured image: @theofficiallouferrigno on Instagram

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The TV Sex Scene That Made Me Applaud

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The other day, I was watching Everything I Know About Love, the great comedy series that weirdly no one is talking about! (Have you seen it?) In episode three, the character Amara is sleeping with a guy for the first time. “Slow down,” she says during sex, then confidently asks him to hand her the vibrator under her pillow. His reply? “That’s hot.”

It was a quick moment, but I loved the scene and felt like applauding. A woman knows what she wants and her partner celebrates that, versus getting offended — the exchange felt quietly revolutionary? Growing up, I watched female characters on TV endlessly trying to please men (the male gaze is real) and flipped through soooooo many magazine articles about what men want/are thinking/crave in bed. It’s hard not to internalize the message that your goal is to satisfy men. But what about women’s pleasure?

Thankfully, TV creators these days are spotlighting female desire more and more. “We’re telling the show through the female lens, the female gaze,” said Issa Rae about Insecure. “There’s this male gaze we’ve always been subjected to, and this is an opportunity to reverse that.” Vibrators make cameos in Insecure, as well as other great series, including Broad City, Grace & Frankie, and Mad Men (go, Peggy). Shows and movies also highlight more female orgasms, foreplay, consent, contraception, and a balance between male and female desire (think: Normal People, Bridgerton and Don’t Worry Darling).

My college best friend first told me what a vibrator was — a magical little toy that feels amazing and helps you orgasm — and I’ve used them happily ever since. Because have you heard of the pleasure gap? In studies, 91% of cis-men say they “usually” or “always” orgasm during sex, compared with only 29% of cis-women. Vibrators can help close this gap! You can use one on your own, of course; and during partnered sex, you can hold the vibrator, or your partner can hold it, or you can wear one on your fingertip, or go hands-free with this little guy.

For finding a good vibrator, we’re long-time fans of Dame, the company founded by two women who want to revolutionize sex toys through ingenious design and plenty of empathy. We love their mission and highly recommend them — especially their silky-not-sticky lube and their simple vibrator with five intensities. These days, I’m also into their suction toy with thrilling pulses of air — which would make an a-maaa-zing first vibrator or very sexy upgrade.

Finally, maybe the most compelling part of seeing female pleasure in media is that it gives you permission to own yours. At 43, I still (still!) get in my head when the focus is on me in bed. But this is changing. One vibrator, one sex scene at a time.

Thoughts? Do you have a vibrator? Are you curious to try one?

GOOD NEWS: Dame is offering 15% for new customers with code CUPOFJO15 — see all their products here. xoxo

P.S. Initiating sex, 9 couples with the best on-screen chemistry, and sex-positive parenting for prudes.

(This post is sponsored by Dame, a women-owned company we love and trust. Thank you for supporting the brands that support Cup of Jo.)

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Kahun raises $8M for AI enabled clinical reasoning chatbot

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Israeli startup Kahun, which has developed AI-backed clinical reasoning tools for physicians, raised $8 million in seed funding.

The round was led by LocalGlobe, with participation from the European Innovation Council Fund as part of the EIC Accelerator program and the Founders Kitchen. The seed brings the company’s total raise to $13 million.

WHAT IT DOES

Kahun’s first product is a clinical assessment chatbot. It asks patients questions about their symptoms and background, using medical literature to rule out rare diseases and urgent problems. The tool then provides a summary for the physician, noting areas of potential concern that may need further evaluation.

The startup also has a partnership with the New England Journal of Medicine, where it gives illness scripts based on specific clinical presentations to be used in the journal’s NEJM Healer tool. The application is used to teach and assess clinical reasoning skills for medical students and residents.

“The technology behind our AI solution follows the same building blocks that trained physicians rely on,” Kahun CEO and cofounder Eitan Ron said in a statement. “By using peer-reviewed texts and trusted academic literature from every area of medicine, we built a digital medical advisor that is trained to think like a physician and relieves the burden they face by integrating tools that they can trust into their workflows.”

Kahun plans to use the seed capital to add new specialties beyond primary care and expand its go-to-market efforts with telehealth companies.

MARKET SNAPSHOT

Another company that aims to help providers sift through clinical information is Regard, formerly known as HealthTensor. The startup is developing a tool that uses AI to go through patient history, surface relevant information and suggest potential diagnoses. Regard recently raised $15.3 million in Series A funding.

Abridge, a medical documentation startup, recently raised $12.5 million in a Series A round. Its system records and transcribes conversations between providers and patients, then organizes the information it pulled from the visit.

Google has also been working on similar provider-facing tools. In early 2021, it rolled out Care Studio, which helps organize medical records so clinicians can more easily search for and access important data. The tech giant later added Conditions, an AI-backed tool that creates a summary of a patient’s medical needs, highlighting acute conditions and identifying missing information.

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Will MacAskill Knows Effective Altruism Gets Weird Fast

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Academic philosophers these days do not tend to be the subjects of overwhelming attention in the national media. The Oxford professor William MacAskill is a notable exception. In the month and a half since the publication of his provocative new book, What We Owe the Future, he has been profiled or excerpted or reviewed or interviewed in just about every major American publication.

MacAskill is a leader of the effective-altruism movement, whose adherents use evidence and reason to figure out how to do as much good in the world as possible. His book takes that fairly intuitive-sounding project in a somewhat less intuitive direction, arguing for an idea called “longtermism,” the view that members of future generations—we’re talking unimaginably distant descendants, not just your grandchildren or great-grandchildren—deserve the same moral consideration as people living in the present. The idea is predicated on brute arithmetic: Assuming humanity does not drive itself to premature extinction, future people will vastly outnumber present people, and so, the thinking goes, we ought to be spending a lot more time and energy looking out for their interests than we currently do. In practice, longtermists argue, this means prioritizing a set of existential threats that the average person doesn’t spend all that much time fretting about. At the top of the list: runaway artificial intelligence, bioengineered pandemics, nuclear holocaust.

Whatever you think of longtermism or EA, they are fast gaining currency—both literally and figuratively. A movement once confined to university seminar tables and niche online forums now has tens of billions of dollars behind it. This year, it fielded its first major political candidate in the U.S. Earlier this month, I spoke with MacAskill about the logic of longtermism and EA, and the future of the movement more broadly.

Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Jacob Stern: Effective altruists have been focused on pandemics since long before COVID. Are there ways that EA efforts helped with the COVID pandemic? If not, why not?

William MacAskill: EAs, like many people in public health, were particularly early in terms of warning about the pandemic. There were some things that were helpful early, even if they didn’t change the outcome completely. 1Day Sooner is an EA-funded organization that got set up to advocate for human challenge trials. And if governments had been more flexible and responsive, that could have led to vaccines being rolled out months earlier, I think. It would have meant you could get evidence of efficacy and safety much faster.

Read: How future generations will remember us

There is an organization called microCOVID that quantifies what your risk is of getting COVID from various sorts of activities you might do. You hang out with someone at a bar: What’s your chance of getting COVID? It would actually provide estimates of that, which was great and I think widely used. Our World in Data—which is kind of EA-adjacent—provided a leading source of data over the course of the pandemic. One thing I think I should say, though, is it makes me wish that we’d done way more on pandemics earlier. You know, these are all pretty minor in the grand scheme of things. I think EA did very well at identifying this as a threat, as a major issue we should care about, but I don’t think I can necessarily point to enormous advances.

Stern: What are the lessons EA has taken from the pandemic?

MacAskill: One lesson is that even extremely ambitious public-health plans won’t necessarily suffice, at least for future pandemics, especially if one was a deliberate pandemic, from an engineered virus. Omicron infected roughly a quarter of Americans within 100 days. And there’s just not really a feasible path whereby you design, develop, and produce a vaccine and vaccinate everybody within 100 days. So what should we do for future pandemics?

Early detection becomes absolutely crucial. What you can do is monitor wastewater at many, many sites around the world, and you screen the wastewater for all potential pathogens. We’re particularly worried about engineered pathogens: If we get a COVID-19-scale pandemic once every hundred years or so from natural origins, that chance increases dramatically given advances in bioengineering. You can take viruses and upgrade them in terms of their destructive properties so they can become more infectious or more lethal. It’s known as gain-of-function research. If this is happening all around the world, then you just should expect lab leaks quite regularly. There’s also the even more worrying phenomenon of bioweapons. It’s really a scary thing.

In terms of labs, possibly we want to slow down or not even allow certain sorts of gain-of-function research. Minimally, what we could do is ask labs to have regulations such that there’s third-party liability insurance. So if I buy a car, I have to buy such insurance. If I hit someone, that means I’m insured for their health, because that’s an externality of driving a car. In labs, if you leak, you should have to pay for the costs. There’s no way you actually can insure against billions dead, but you could have some very high cap at least, and it would disincentivize unnecessary and dangerous research, while not disincentivizing necessary research, because then if it’s so important, you should be willing to pay the cost.

Another thing I’m excited about is low-wavelength UV lighting. It’s a form of lighting that basically can sterilize a room safe for humans. It needs more research to confirm safety and efficacy and certainly to get the cost down; we want it at like a dollar a bulb. So then you could install it as part of building codes. Potentially no one ever gets a cold again. You eradicate most respiratory infections as well as the next pandemic.

Stern: Shifting out of pandemic gear, I was wondering whether there are major lobbying efforts under way to persuade billionaires to convert to EA, given that the potential payoff of persuading someone like Jeff Bezos to donate some significant part of his fortune is just massive.

MacAskill: I do a bunch of this. I’ve spoken at the Giving Pledge annual retreat, and I do a bunch of other speaking. It’s been pretty successful overall, insofar as there are other people kind of coming in—not on the size of Sam Bankman-Fried or Dustin Moskovitz and Cari Tuna, but there’s definitely further interest, and it is something I’ll kind of keep trying to do. Another organization is Longview Philanthropy, which has done a lot of advising for new philanthropists to get them more involved and interested in EA ideas.

I have not ever successfully spoken with Jeff Bezos, but I would certainly take the opportunity. It has seemed to me like his giving so far is relatively small scale. It’s not clear to me how EA-motivated it is. But it would certainly be worth having a conversation with him.

Stern: Another thing I was wondering about is the issue of abortion. On the surface at least, longtermism seems like it would commit you to—or at least point you in the direction of—an anti-abortion stance. But I know that you don’t see things that way. So I would love to hear how you think through that.

MacAskill: Yes, I’m pro-choice. I don’t think government should interfere in women’s reproductive rights. The key distinction is when pro-life advocates say they are concerned about the unborn, they are saying that, at conception or shortly afterwards, the fetus becomes a person. And so what you’re doing when you have an abortion is morally equivalent or very similar to killing a newborn infant. From my perspective, what you’re doing when having an early-term abortion is much closer to choosing not to conceive. And I certainly don’t think that the government should be going around forcing people to conceive, and then certainly they shouldn’t be forcing people to not have an abortion. There is a second thought of Well, don’t you say it’s good to have more people, at least if they have sufficiently good lives? And there I say yes, but the right way of achieving morally valuable goals is not, again, by restricting people’s rights.

Stern: I think there are at least three separate questions here. The first being this one that you just addressed: Is it right for a government to restrict abortion? The second being, on an individual level, if you’re a person thinking of having an abortion, is that choice ethical? And the third being, are you operating from the premise that unborn fetuses are a constituency in the same way that future people are a constituency?

MacAskill: Yes and no on the last thing. In What We Owe the Future, I do argue for this view that I still find kind of intuitive: It can be good to have a new person in existence if their life is sufficiently good. Instrumentally, I think it’s important for the world to not have this dip in population that standard projections suggest. But then there’s nothing special about the unborn fetus.

On the individual level, having kids and bringing them up well can be a good way to live, a good way of making the world better. I think there are many ways of making the world better. You can also donate. You can also change your career. Obviously, I don’t want to belittle having an abortion, because it’s often a heart-wrenching decision, but from a moral perspective I think it’s much closer to failing to conceive that month, rather than the pro-life view, which is it’s more like killing a child that’s born.

Stern: What you’re saying on some level makes total sense but is also something that I think your average pro-choice American would totally reject.

MacAskill: It’s tough, because I think it’s mainly a matter of rhetoric and association. Because the average pro-choice American is also probably concerned about climate change. That involves concern for how our actions will impact generations of as-yet-unborn people. And so the key difference is the pro-life person wants to extend the franchise just a little bit to the 10 million unborn fetuses that are around at the moment. I want to extend the franchise to all future people! It’s a very different move.

Read: Is colonizing Mars the most important project in human history?

Stern: How do you think about trying to balance the moral rigor or correctness of your philosophy with the goal of actually getting the most people to subscribe and produce the most good in the world? Once you start down the logical path of effective altruism, it’s hard to figure out where to stop, how to justify not going full Peter Singer and giving almost all your money away. So how do you get people to a place where they feel comfortable going halfway or a quarter of the way?

MacAskill: I think it’s tough because I don’t think there’s a privileged stopping point, philosophically. At least not until you’re at the point where you’re really doing almost everything you can. So with Giving What You Can, for example, we chose 10 percent as a target for what portion of people’s income they could give away. In a sense it’s a totally arbitrary number. Why not 9 percent or 11 percent? It does have the benefit of 10 percent being a round number. And it also is the right level, I think, where if you get people to give 1 percent, they’re probably giving that amount anyway. Whereas 10 percent, I think, is achievable yet at the same time really is a difference compared to what they otherwise would have been doing.

That, I think, is just going to be true more generally. We try to have a culture that is accepting and supportive of these kinds of intermediate levels of sacrifice or commitment. It is something that people within EA struggle with, including myself. It’s kind of funny: People will often beat themselves up for not doing enough good, even though other people never beat other people up for not doing enough good. EA is really accepting that this stuff is hard, and we’re all human and we’re not superhuman moral saints.

Stern: Which I guess is what worries or scares people about it. The idea that once I start thinking this way, how do I not end up beating myself up for not doing more? So I think where a lot of people end up, in light of that, is deciding that what’s easiest is just not thinking about any of it so they don’t feel bad.

MacAskill: Yeah. And that’s a real shame. I don’t know. It bugs me a bit. It’s just a general issue of people when confronted with a moral idea. It’s like, Hey, you should become vegetarian. People are like, Oh, I should care about animals? What about if you had to kill an animal in order to live? Would you do that? What about eating sugar that is bleached with bone? You’re a hypocrite! Somehow people feel like unless you’re doing the most extreme version of your views, then it’s not justified. Look, it’s better to be a vegetarian than to not be a vegetarian. Let’s accept that things are on a spectrum.

On the podcast I was just on, I was just like, ‘Look, these are all philosophical issues. This is irrelevant to the practical questions.’ It’s funny that I am finding myself saying that more and more.

Stern: On what grounds, EA-wise, did you justify spending an hour on the phone with me?

MacAskill: I think the media is important! Getting the ideas out there is important. If more people hear about the ideas, some people are inspired, and they get off their seat and start doing stuff, that’s a huge impact. If I spend one hour talking to you, you write an article, and that leads to one person switching their career, well, that’s one hour turned into 80,000 hours—seems like a pretty good trade.

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