Jennifer Morrison moves from reality to fantasy. On-screen, she's Emma Swan, the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming on ABC's "Once Upon a Time." Off-screen, Morrison, 36, is a mentor and advocate for teenage girls. A short film she directed, "Warning Labels," debuted at the Tribeca Film...
Nobody walks in L.A.? Ridiculous! This is a series of articles exploring the many opportunities for walking in (and around) a city of 3.8 million.
"Look — it's Bruno!" shouted our guide. All heads turned left. Sprawled on an isolated rock in the water below the shoreline cliffs, his reputation as massive as his size, was a true American hero and the rock star of La Jolla Cove: Bruno the sea lion. There's a lot to see in a 90-minute kayaking...
All sorts of fitness buffs have taken to using foam rollers on backs and arms and legs, but it's often a no-pain, no-gain venture. That made no sense to the developer of a gentler way to self-massage muscles and other troublesome areas of the body. "If you are in pain, why would you cause pain...
Shay Kostabi was a dancer and choreographer who found fitness. Her boyfriend, Jesse DeYoung, was a trainer who became a photographer. And an idea was born. Why not meld fitness and art? They founded the Local Skill, an "artistic fitness collective" that enables them to tap their creative roots...
When Dr. Renee Dua's son was 7 months old, she and her husband had to take him to a hospital emergency room for what ended up being a non-threatening condition. Still, it took eight hours of waiting around to be told that. "I wondered why two reasonably intelligent people would have to go through...
If you can't find a doctor who makes house calls, telehealth might be an appealing option. Telehealth — using electronic information and telecommunications to support long-distance healthcare — was once primarily used by people in remote areas who might have to travel for hours to see a doctor....
For 14 years now, sometimes three times a week, Robin Russell has gotten up around 3 a.m. and driven his maroon van from Pasadena to the same spot in Griffith Park, not far from the zoo. In the dark, he rakes out a small clearing under an oak tree, unpacks a six-piece drum kit and sets up, everything...
Fitness trainers say they are putting more dance moves in their routines, and high-profile trainer Shaun T has a dance workout called Cize for streaming or on DVD and at gyms including Bay Club in Santa Monica. Dancing is naturally social, and experts say that in dance fitness classes, students...
New York City psychologist Linda Hamilton theorizes that the reason some of us love horror movies is that it takes us out of our normal life. "Halloween and scary movies, scaring people and being scared, is not boring," said Hamilton. "We are attracted to doing things that are unusual. How many...
Oscar winners Julianne Moore, who portrayed a woman battling early-onset Alzheimer's disease, and Eddie Redmayne, who played Stephen Hawking, a theoretical physicist with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), have helped shine a light on debilitating brain diseases that affect millions of people...
I never took a single ballet class as a girl, despite my whining, and while I got over that, I still can't ignore the allure of long graceful muscles and good posture -- which is the sweet promise behind barre workouts. Barre teachers say the workout's combination of dance exercises, yoga and Pilates...
Head lice have long been a source of distress for parents. And with recent news of burgeoning resistance to over-the-counter treatments, those worries are escalating. "Please help!!!" read one recent post on Babycenter.com from a mother concerned about an infestation in the waist-length hair of...
We are Getting Out — and we hope you'll join us. Late-night group runs or early-morning surfing. Mountains or beaches, trails or tracks. On foot or on bikes. Could we live in a more alluring place for going outside? I've run on icy Moscow sidewalks, through smog-thickened Beijing air and while...
It’s not even 6 a.m., it’s still dark and scores of people are about to utterly exhaust themselves. And yet they’re so darned happy. An offer to shake hands is met with: “Oh, we hug here.” All those people. They cheer and clap and, good Lord, they even skip. All of that before they chug up and...
A group of pioneering teachers of meditation in the United States are coming together to celebrate the explosion of interest in what they've been heralding as a fruitful way of life for decades. They will take part on Nov. 15 in "Living With a Joyful Spirit and a Wise Heart," an event at the Broad...
Mary Olson, a 59-year-old IT executive from Falls Church, Va., scaled to the top of a 40-foot high pole and perched there for 10 minutes, trembling, summoning the courage to make the next move. Below, clusters of women shouted encouragement. Finally, Olson began slowly shimmying 40 feet across...
There is no doubt in many consumers' minds that mercury is an environmental hazard; many avoid eating fish, such as tuna, known to be high in the neurotoxin. While numerous studies have linked fetal and infant mercury exposure to impaired brain and nervous system development, recent Environmental...
When was the last time your dentist recommended meditation and eating kale as a way to a healthier mouth? Suggested a daily probiotic? Or had a cranial sacral therapist give you a treatment in the chair? We didn't think so. But these are exactly the services you might find at the office of a holistic...
With plenty of classes priced at $25 to $30 each, Spinning has become something of an elusive — and elitist — trend. Studio owner Ruben Martinez is trying to change that at his affordable new Sunset Bike House in East Hollywood. "I wanted to open a studio from a different perspective," he says....
Focused thinking, better memory, deeper sleep, relief from depression, reduced stress: There is, if you believe what you read on the Internet, virtually no end to the benefits of electronic stimulation for the mind and brain. In particular, a technique called transcranial direct current stimulation...
The low point of my kiteboarding education came in hour four. I was floating in San Francisco Bay, struggling to summon an 18-square-yard kite into the seemingly windless sky while waves engulfed my face. My salty sinuses were already becoming cured meat. Petr Kokes, my instructor at KGB Kiteboarding,...
After playing Las Vegas forensic scientist Sara Sidle on "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" for 15 seasons, Jorja Fox is preparing to face — even welcoming — uncertainty. "I think you kind of have to embrace the unknown if you're an actor," she says. The show that launched the colossal franchise...
Is it a workout — or a sport? The CrossFit debate raged for years. After all, CrossFit became a sensation by turning barbell lifts, rope climbs, pull-ups and medicine ball throws into timed workouts, which led to people competing over the Internet; in 2007 the best met in person at the CrossFit...
Michelle Conn took up surfing to stay connected to her teenage sons. She figured — mistakenly — she would soon master this new sport. "The ocean is different every day," said Conn, who lives in the Mar Vista neighborhood of L.A. "You can't learn it.... It's, like, two years and I'm still struggling."
Roni Eshel rose before dawn and automatically checked Surfline.com for the surf report. No matter where the Israeli surf champion, now 31, was in the world, she could find out the size of the swells, the weather, and general conditions of any surf spot. But there was a problem. "It wasn't real-time....
On the cusp of 82, Larry King has no desire to slow down. With broadcasting jobs dating to the 1950s, including his time from 1985 to 2010 as host of CNN's "Larry King Live" and his current show "Larry King Now" on Hulu and his Ora TV network, King thrives on keeping busy and connecting with friends...
With 17-year-old "Modern Family" star Ariel Winter about to walk the Emmy red carpet for her first major public appearance since reducing her breast size in June, the media are abuzz with stories about such surgery: celebrities who've done it, teens who are doing it and the number of women "coming...