By Paula Spencer, Caring.com senior editorIf skin were merely a sausage casing for the rest of you, it wouldnt be nearly so useful. An organ itself (your bodys largest in terms of both weight and surface area), skin protects against invasive bacteria, regulates body temperature, and picks up information from the stimulation of touch, pressure, pain, heat, and cold. Little wonder, then, that when theres something wrong with you on the inside, your skin sometimes sends up the first warning flare.Diabetes, for example, is generally a silent disease, but it can lead to distinct changes to the skin. So the skin may in fact be the first indicator of whats happening, notes dermatologist Amy Newburger, MD, of Scarsdale, New York, a spokesperson for the American Academy of Dermatology.Heres the skinny on ten dermatologic oddities worth watching for in yourself or someone you love. 1. Red flag: Yellowish skin, orange palms and soles What it means: The cartoonish skin hues of carotenemia can be t...
Yesterday, a friend messaged me to say that shed given someone information about my work as a Life Coach: I gave your info to one of my dearest friends. She is married and has two kids. She just this morning wrote the words for the first timeI am gayand I am terrified.And just like that I was naked again, folded up on the elegant tile floor of a walk-in shower that I had designed myself just months before. The remodel was needed, mostly, I think to save our marriage, the way some people have a baby because that will make them something that they suspect they are supposed to be. Remodeling the outdated space also gave the downstairs a half-bath, evicting the four children and their slew of friends from the bathroom that led directly into our bedroom. It was a major renovation, which turned the biggest bedroom in the house into a true master suite and when I left, the Master let the children use that bathroom anyway. He had a broken heart and filled it with whoever was around. First, that was me and in my absence, filling that damned shower with the children was a move necessary for his survival. I understand him because that shower nearly killed me, too. At least, I begged it to on the night in question.Id been out with a friend and came home with the truth, MY TRUTH, pulsing through my veins. It wasnt about her, it was me the real me. I kept the real me locked up in a secret room in my mind and Id in time, Id told the friend about my truth, showed her where the real me was being held. She wasnt the first person I showed. In fact, Id revealed my truth to many and yes, even my husband. He thought it was novel, I believe, and containable because of that nice room I kept her in, but this friend... 
