SkyMall Monday: Head Spa Massager

by Mike Barish on

SkyMall Monday understands that we all have stress. Between our jobs, families and monkey attacks, the world can be an overwhelming place. You need to find ways to relieve the tension that life creates before it puts your health at risk. Sure, you could turn to alcohol or drugs, but that’s expensive. You could call a hooker, but that’s probably expensive, too (and if you keep it cheap, it’s probably going to cause more stress for you later when the itching and burning kick in). So what should you do? Well, that’s simple. You should strap fifty dollars worth of plastic and imported electronics to your head. You should buy the Head Spa Massager.

Now you can continue to go about your business at the office, around the house and at the sci-fi convention with your hands free and your tension alleviated. Are you a person treating his stress, a savvy SkyMall shopper or a galactic warrior from the planet Florgon? If you’re wearing the Head Spa Massager, you’ll look like all three but you won’t care because you’ll feel your tension subsiding with each electronic pulse that courses directly into your skull.

I could praise this outstanding example of design all day but I don’t get paid by the word. So, I’ll let the true poets of our generation, the writers at SkyMall, do it best with their product description:

This patented Italian design incorporates Japanese engineering and utilizes acupressure to relax and soothe your problems away. It’s like thousands of tiny fingers simultaneously massaging your scalp. Simply place our Head Spa Massager on your head and feel the tension miraculously leave your body.

Japanese engineering and Italian design? It’s like the United Nations is massaging your scalp! If a robot was walking the fashion runways of Milan, this is what it would look like! You could be that couture robot! And you’ll be free from all that stress and tension!

So, forget bubble baths, glasses of wine and high-class call girls. Just strap the Head Spa Massager on your dome and let the miracles happen.

Check out all of the previous SkyMall Monday posts HERE.

Airplane noise raises blood pressure

by Martha Edwards on

How do you feel when you hear the noise of a a few airplane engines firing up or flying overhead? For me, the sound is exhilarating–no doubt a result of my life-long love of flying. But for the majority of people, the noise of an airplane induces stress and raises blood pressure. In fact, being constantly exposed to airplane noise can lead to chronic stress and do irreparable damage to the health of your heart, according to this article.

This doesn’t just apply to those who fly frequently, either. People who live near airports and/or consistently have planes buzzing overhead are at an even higher risk for the health problems that airplane noise can lead to.

Live near an airport? According to Dr. Mats Rosenlund of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm: “People who are ‘constantly annoyed’ by airplane noise might want to consider a neighborhood more conducive to their overall happiness.”

Cities That Need a Vacation

by Iva Skoch on

The August 2007 issue of Men’s Health (don’t ask me why I read it being a woman of poor heath) gathered a list of the “most workaholic” U.S. cities. They measured how residents punch the clock and logged their overtime; monitored their commute times, blood pressure and self-reported stress.

Yep, you are all wrong … New York ranked 37 on the list.

Here is the Top 10 list of cities that are all work, no play:

  1. Manchester, NH
  2. San Francisco, CA
  3. Denver, CO
  4. Orlando, FL
  5. Durham, NC
  6. Charlotte, NC
  7. Aurora, CO
  8. Boise, ID
  9. Seattle, WA
  10. Anaheim, CA

Least workaholic? Milwaukee, WI; El Paso, TX; and Rochester, NY. Go figure!

Apparently, survey shows that people could leave work 44 days earlier if they just cut back on Web surfing. Not suggesting, you should log off from Gadling, of course.

Leave the Cell Phone at Home: How disconnecting on your Vacation is the Right and Healthy Thing to do

by Neil Woodburn on

When I recently traveled to Alaska, I made the mistake of bringing my cell phone with me. And thus, my escape from Los Angeles was routinely interrupted with calls that never let me totally disconnect and fully lose myself in my vacation.

It was the first exotic trip I’ve taken with cell phone in tow, but in the last five years I’ve also failed to sever that connection by visiting Internet bars and checking my email. One trip, in fact, was partially ruined when I found out through email that my company had canceled raises for the year –- not something you want to hear while on an expensive vacation!

Leaving your communication gadgets at home and disconnecting from the stress and worries which led you to vacation in the first place is the theme of a recent article by Susan Brink. Not surprisingly, I found it in the Health section of the LA Times instead of the Travel section.

Brink confirms what I’ve known now for the last five years; staying in constant contact with work and home while at the same time trying to escape from this very thing by going on vacation can undermine the very rest and relaxation which motivated you to go on vacation in the first place. In fact, it might even increase your amount of stress.

Brink sums it up nicely; “a large body of research shows that chronic stress is bad, that multi-tasking on interconnected gizmos can increase stress and that vacations are stress relievers.” She then refers to a study that reveals 39% of people on vacation check their work emails.

If you’re one of these unlucky souls, check out the article and discover the disservice you are doing yourself. If, on the other hand, the thought of being disconnected from work and out of the loop strikes job-security fear in your heart, you just might be screwed either way you slice it.

Stress Busters: Global Destinations to Relieve your Stress

by Neil Woodburn on

Stressed out?

The fine folks at Marie Claire have provided four Global Stress-Busters to help you relieve your anxiety and tensions.

I wasn’t too surprised to see that a sauna/spa was on the list, but the other three proved rather unique. Spending the night at the Enoshima Aquarium in Japan surrounded by jelly fish tanks, for example, has been proven to stimulate “the production of a compound in the saliva associated with relaxation.”

Or, on the other end of the spectrum, spend an evening at the Rising Sun Anger Release Bar in Naning, China where patrons pay up to $37 to “yell, scream, break glasses, and even beat 20 muscle-bound staffers.” (I’m pretty sure this service is just limited to women; the article doesn’t specify if men can join in on the fun.)

Lastly, Marie Claire sends us to Mumbai India to participate in yoga. But not just any yoga. Mumbai is home to laughter yoga where participants are encourage to laugh their heads off instead of the more typical Downward Dog grunting noises one normally hears in a yoga studio. (Check out the John Cleese video here).