After she told me, I took to the internet to research the disease.

You only get a precious few minutes with the doctor, so doing your own internet research on multiple vetted sites is a helpful way to educate yourself on symptoms and prevention.

I found two really good sources on lupus:

1. The Lupus Foundation of America, Inc.  This nonprofit organization provides research grants, advocates lupus support and awareness, and supports individuals with lupus, their families and caregivers.
2. The Mayo Clinic Website includes background on the disease, including symptoms, when to seek medical advice, risk factors, causes, tests, treatment, alternative medicines, lifestyle tips and home remedies.

Some good news today!  It’s not a cure, or a vaccine, but it is the first lupus treatment approved in 50 years.

Human Genome Sciences Inc. said its experimental lupus treatment passed late-stage clinical trials, and promises to be a breakthrough drug.  The results, announced last night, showed patients who took the drug, Benlysta, demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in the symptoms of their disease compared with those taking a placebo.

Data from the 867-person trial, known as BLISS-52, take the company one step closer to being the first to have a new lupus drug approved in 50 years. Multiple drugs are approved for other indications and used to treat lupus, but none has been approved specifically for the disease in decades.

If you are looking for long, luscious lashes, you do have a few options.  I have done some research comparing results and prices, and here are the three best options for adding significantly to what mother nature gave you in the lash department.

1. The best MASCARA that truly does lengthen: L’Oreal Double Extend. Cost: $10 on sale at CVS. Pros: DIY at home or on the go in 5 seconds.  Doesn’t run, easy to clean off. Cons: cannot create the length and thickness of the next two options.
2. LATISSE: Clear prescription gel applied topically to lash line. Cost: $100/month. Pros: It actually lengthens, thickens, and darkens your real lashes. Cons: Not over-the-counter, and not permanent: it wears off unless you apply daily.
3. LASH EXTENSIONS: Fake but look great! Cheapest in NYC is Ebenezer’s. Cost: $90 for first application, then $35 for maintenance every 2 weeks. So, long-term, this option is actaully be cheaper than Latisse per month. Pros: At Ebenezer’s they give you a little leg/foot/arm massage while the glue dries! Your lashes look thick as fake ones from far away, but up close even my best gal pal couldn’t tell they were extensions. Cons: The appointment can last about an hour on average.  If you don’t maintain them, you have to pay for removal or lashes look uneven as they fall out on their own.

Extra: The secret to long, strong nails —Along with a healthy diet, the secret to nails that grow faster than I can cut them, is Biotin.  I have been taking one Biotin supplement a day for the past year now.  My nails have so much length and strength that when I wear polish, women always think I’m wearing fake nails.  Biotin is only about $10 in the grocery store for a two month supply. I recommend the 5000 mg daily dosage to achieve the undeniable effect I experience.

EXPRESS YOURSELF

Where does a busy executive let loose?  The Internet.  Meet Eden Pontz—Executive Producer of CNN’s New York bureau—and blogging mommy.

On the NYC Moms Blog, women enter the world of Eden as she dishes out humorous anecdotes, sentimental memories, and other motherhood musings. The blog is not only fun for readers, it serves as Eden’s creative outlet. “It’s a good way for me to work things out that I’m doing wrong in my life and realize I’m not perfect, but other women out there relate to me.”

Before you hear the news on television, the reporters’ scripts must pass through Eden. “I remember being nervous, worried that the reporters wouldn’t like my suggestions and changes.” Now she’s comfortable with the authority of her job, realizing that holding back criticism means the best possible work won’t be produced in the long run.

Eden seems to have mastered authority, wisely choosing her battles both at work and at home.  Writing about squabbling with her daughter to brush her teeth, she concluded the blog titled “Love and Toothpaste” with an unforgettable truth: “When you love someone, sometimes you have to retreat, in order to advance.” Beautiful words remind us that even mothers must surrender a battle or two to successfully parent a child.

In times of heavy breaking news, Eden may work 16-hour days, six days a week. “I get about 600 emails a day,” she laughs. This extremely demanding schedule might scare off some women, but it does not intimidate Eden. “When news breaks there’s an adrenaline rush. You become completely entwined in what you’re doing . . . if you love what you do, your days fly by.”

How does she keep her energy up through it all?  “People are amazed I don’t drink coffee. Instead, I like to carry around a cup of ice.” Eden has genetics to thank for her stamina, as well as caffeine from the occasional chocolate-fix. In her spare time she tries out new recipes from her ever-expanding cookbook collection. Most importantly, she laughs at herself on a regular basis.

Eden’s sense of humor shines through in her blog, and is a quality she’s always used to her advantage. Eden moonlighted as an improvisational comedian for nine years while living in Los Angeles and London. “I even laugh out loud at work. If I don’t take myself too seriously I will stay grounded . . . good improv comedy forces you to give up control, and you can apply this in your job.”

I stood introducing myself to 17 and 18-year-olds decked in baggy jeans, wagging-tongue sneakers, and gold chain-circled necks. The movie Dangerous Minds—Michelle Pfeiffer teaching an inner city high school class—popped into my head. Her character struggles to understand the students and be understood, but in the end, she reaches them.

Let’s not label what a yogi looks like. I have taught yoga to young children for about two years, surprising parents with the hidden poise of their eight-year old. When I volunteered my afternoon to teach yoga to big kids, I found yogis hiding in a Chinatown public high school.

As my first of three classes entered the library their size and number intimidated me. So I made sure to not intimidate them, giving a choice: remove shoes and take a mat (I had covered the floor with colorful yoga mats), or observe from a chair. Their greatest reluctance—they didn’t want to take off their “kicks”—was an unforeseen obstacle; I am not shy about my feet. Experiencing an instant recollection of my own adolescent awkwardness, I realized teenagers perceive their own body as taboo.

Yoga is a positive, healthy, and safe way for teens explore their changing physiques. Small children move in their own skins with that beautiful freedom from self-consciousness, but in a matter of years their body becomes strange to them, as they become aware of its adult potentials. One young man observing remarked, “Wow, your boyfriend must love you.” I resisted blushing, smiled instead and shot back, “He does. And I love him for taking yoga classes with me.” What’s not to love about a guy doing yoga?

Yoga is cool. I proved it to the toughest kid in school. Any teacher wins her students’ attention upside-down. The youngest class was so receptive I led them lotus-seated through a guided meditation, but the oldest teens were boisterous, skeptical; I felt pressured to impress them…amazingly I did. The first asana I bent over to demonstrate, kids in chairs snickered. I focused on the students on mats, and after we moved through a sun salutation, I skipped to my planned finale: crow pose and headstand. Kids in the chairs, who were jeering, began cheering, actually clapping for me. I told them to applaud their brave classmates, not me, and some observers got bolder and joined in the fun. Each time the bell rang to end a session several kids asked how they might find a yoga class.

Yoga is fun. And when teens are depressed, they can do yoga. When they get angry, stressed-out, punked-out, and feel all the emotions on the teenage roller coaster, they can stop, breath, and do yoga. Why not make yoga, a physical and mental exercise with no losers, as available to our teens as other activities, like after-school competitive sports? I am not the only adult harboring painful memories as last-one-picked when teams were chosen. Gym teachers agree on the importance of stretching, so why not have whole gym periods devoted to soothing yoga? Parents: especially if you take yoga classes, why not give yoga to your children, too? If you can’t find a studio that offers kids yoga, bring it home: offer yoga practice as a family activity.

When I moved to NYC after undergrad, looking to get certified as a yoga instructor, I wasn’t surprised to find a children’s yoga teacher training in the city that has everything for everyone. My yoga training with kid’s yoga guru Jodi Komitor was super-fun, and the very week I was certified, auspiciously I met a founder of a yoga studio opening the following month in Manhattan. I was aboard from their start-up as the Kid’s Yoga teacher. My students were 8 years old.

I began with a class of 2 girls, but when we had 5 girls coming regularly at the end of the year, I wanted to celebrate our class and keep the bunch of 9-year old girls interested. I brought in a cd of music and for a month, they choreographed their own moves to their chosen song. Thus, the world’s first-EVER yoga recital.  Here is our recital:

The next year, as a treat, when I returned from a month of travel in India, I montaged photographs I took of the Himalayas with photos I took of the children’s lotus pose. Their parents loved them!

In a time of tight budgets, are organics worth the cost?

What’s better, shopping at chain grocery stores or farmer’s markets?

Car companies have been turning to a “smaller is better” theory lately, since gas prices drove down sales of large ‘gas guzzlers.’ Before buying into the cuteness of these new, tiny ‘toy’ models, check out the impact these crash tests will have on your decision.

Madonna must be kicking herself for not waiting. The Queen of Pop  supposedly bought a 26-room mansion on the Upper East Side yesterday. Madge paid $40 million for her four-story, Georgian-style townhouse on East 81st Street. She sort of got a deal, grabbing it for $5 million less than the original asking price. But if she had waited, she might have got her new digs for $6 million less. But what’s a mil to her?

Bloomberg reports that home prices in the New York City metropolitan area will fall as much as 15 percent as Wall Street firms cut jobs and slash bonuses, according to Kenneth Rosen, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley.

What I DO know is that my opinion about guyliner has grown more open-minded lately. HELLO JOHNNY DEPP! Yeah, we’ve always loved him. Pete Wentz is just too mainstream for me to base an opinion on. But then along came Adam Lambert. I dare you to look at these photos and tell me men should not wear eyeliner, to deny Johnny Depp’s pirate appeal and Adam Lambert’s hotness… Adam Lambert is who he is, and he is hot for being himself.

Cheers men in makeup! You wear eyeliner better than I ever could anyway.

Joining the reality television star ranks of Paris Hilton and Flavor Flav, Rod Blagojevich is moving on from his corruption news headlines and stepping into another prime time limelight. How do you consummate your celebrity status in 2009? Appearing as yourself on a reality TV show, of course. We can’t wait to count how many of his words get “bleeped” out per hour.

Blagojevich, recently removed from office as governor of Illinois, has made a deal to star in NBC’s upcoming summer reality show “I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here,” the network confirmed Tuesday.