Jen Laskey

For almost a decade now, Selena Gomez has been using her stardom to help educate the public about lupus. Lupus is a sometimes debilitating chronic condition that Selena was diagnosed with in 2013. Later, she disclosed her diagnosis to the public in a 2015 Billboard article...

An eLIT BOOK AWARDS — SILVER MEDAL WINNER, Jen’s Candy Jar is a unique collection of recipes that celebrates the comeback of the artisanal candy-making tradition and embraces its author’s distinctive taste in sweets. Artisanal candy-maker and author Jen Laskey has honed in on her 10 favorite confections and given them a distinctly epicurean upgrade. This 76-page, richly-photographed eBook provides easy-to-follow step-by-step recipe instructions, candy-making tool and tip suggestions...

Let’s cut right to the chase. By all accounts, Nicole Austin is one of the biggest badasses in American distilling today. She’s broken new ground at every career turn — from her early days bucking industry trends at Kings County Distillery, to her adventures co-founding two craft distilling trade organizations, to winning accolades for her first release as general manager and distiller at Cascade Hollow. Now, with the muscle of Diageo behind her and a vision for putting Tennessee whiskey back on the bourbon map, Austin is hitting new strides.

Being healthy isn’t just about making smart choices and behaving in a certain way. Systemic and structural racism can stand between you and good health.

Hernias can be smaller and harder to detect in women, and pregnancy can increase hernia risk. Here’s what you need to know about spotting hernia signs and getting treatment.

Half of all women in the U.S. age 50 or older will break a bone because of osteoporosis, a disease that weakens bones and makes them brittle. Osteoporosis mostly affects older women, since bone loss speeds up as estrogen decreases during menopause.
“After menopause, it’s really crucial to focus on bone health because our hormone levels impact how quickly we build bone, or lose it,” says Stephanie Brode, DO.

Menopause marks the end of the menstrual cycle and it can also be an important turning point in a woman’s heart health. When estrogen levels drop, total cholesterol levels rise, increasing the risk of heart disease, the leading cause of death in women.

“Misconceptions that women have a lower risk of heart disease, as well as concerns about side effects, prevent many women from using statins,” says Haitham Khraishah, MD.

Renewal is the theme of the season. Why not embrace it with a new wine, cocktail or nonalcoholic drink? Whether you need a glass of something to warm you up after a chilly beach walk, to sip while listening to a chorus of spring peepers in your backyard or to tote to your tailgate picnic on Daffodil Day, Nantucket’s drinks purveyors have an array of resplendent sips for you.

Stroll kicks off the last hurrah before we hunker down for the long winter ahead. With it comes the promise of holiday celebrations, followed by some well-earned R&R when we get to catch up with friends and neighbors, indulge in our favorite comfort foods, and relish the cold, quiet, locals-only version of the island. Here are seven wines, cocktails and nonalcoholic drinks to savor with your favorite winter foods between now and spring.

Independence is an important part of growing up and becoming an adult. For Kenan and Tristan, two young men living with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a degenerative neuromuscular disease, it’s essential to their quality of life.
What independence means and the path to getting there is unique to each person living with Duchenne. In addition to typical coming-of-age challenges, Tristan, 18, and Kenan, 19, focus on maintaining function and mobility at each stage of their disease...

The symptoms of bipolar disorder vary from person to person, but could you be doing more to control yours? Take this assessment to find out.

In 2022, Nantucket resident Joshua Malitsky was trying to find a job for his son, Asher. Asher, who has autism, had just graduated from a post-high school program at the Riverview School, a Cape Cod-based educational institution for students with complex language, learning, and cognitive challenges. After seeing an online post from town manager Libby Gibson about the problematic trash situation on the island, Malitsky proposed a solution that would help them both...

It was during her senior year of college that Sabrina Qiao, 27, learned the skin rash she’d been trying to ignore was psoriasis — a chronic condition that can’t be cured. It was a tumultuous time of life for her. Like all people poised on the brink of adulthood, Sabrina was as focused on her future as she was on her grades.
“You’re trying to figure out who you are, where you’re going to work, who you want to be,” she says, adding that the diagnosis was a blow....

One morning, Joni Kazantzis woke up covered in itchy, scaly red spots. “It hurt to put clothing on,” she says. “I was losing skin all over the place.” Diagnosis: psoriasis.
Learning you have a skin condition that can never be cured and that you’ll need to manage for your entire life is tough. For Joni, who was 15, it was devastating. And like any teenager who longs not to stand out so much as fit in, Joni’s physical discomfort was nothing compared with the impact the disease had on her mental...

In his late teens, two significant things happened in Brandon Catapane’s life. He shared with his family that he was gay. And at the same time, the areas of dry skin on his scalp that had caused flakes to snow down onto his shoulders throughout his childhood — which he’d thought was dandruff — spread to his body. Soon enough, a dermatologist diagnosed psoriasis....