Behaviors

Create a small pre-designated physical space that represents a safe zone.

Use comforting pets, positive pictures or photographs, pleasant smells, and music as safety signals in the environment to calm stress; keeping a photograph that evokes positive memories with you was noted as especially helpful for alleviating stress and enhancing mood.

Use this self-statement when catching yourself rehearsing, reliving, or worrying about stress.

During moderate stress lasting days or months, notice whether you are acutely coping or whether you can restore; daily restoration is described as very important.

Use for uncontrollable chronic stressors that cannot be changed; includes identifying unwanted unchangeable situations, noticing how much time you spend worrying or problem-solving them, circling the stressors you cannot change, and using cues like 'drop the rope' to stop trying to solve unsolvable problems and reduce chronic stress load.

Before going into a stressor, list your resources, remind yourself of past successes, and recall someone you can call or text for support.

Remind yourself that the outcome will not affect your life in 5 or 10 years.

Use believable coping statements before or during stress, such as 'I got this,' 'I can do it,' 'I can get through it,' or 'I have what it takes.'

Also described as 'surf the urge'; watch the craving pass with time rather than immediately consuming.

Use actions like push-ups or taking a walk to interrupt cravings and help get away from food.

Create safe environments at home and in the workplace where soda is not available.

Use highly processed food as a mindful eating exercise by eating it very slowly and mindfully to reveal that it is often less rewarding than expected; this also teaches eating slowly and enjoying small amounts of rewarding food to reduce bingeing.

Part of the pregnancy intervention, combined with mindful eating and stress reduction.

Use reminder cards, Post-its on the fridge, or phone timers to prompt mindfulness practice.

Close your eyes, feel your body, and label your emotions; described as necessary though not sufficient. In the pregnancy intervention, this was practiced during the week and paired with about 10 minutes per day of mindfulness.

Use practices such as prenatal yoga, Qigong, or even slow walking as mind-body movement; in the pregnancy intervention, participants also increased their walking.

Being in nature described as a strong stimulus and environment that sends safety signals.

For dealing with uncertainty, shift out of an alert predictive posture by leaning back, taking slow breaths, and entering a receptive mode that is curious about what arises.

Studied as a positive stress intervention; described as creating feelings of elation and boosting daily positive emotion over time.

In the study, participants practiced their assigned high- or low-arousal intervention every day for three weeks, leading to dramatic reductions in stress, anxiety, and depression.

Suggested as a way to maintain hair by avoiding reduced scalp blood flow/oxygenation; may help slow hair loss or extend hair growth duration, but will not robustly regrow hair on its own.

Used to transiently increase blood flow to the scalp; may help slow hair loss or extend hair growth duration, but not robustly regrow hair on its own.

If using topical minoxidil, leave the solution on the scalp for 3 to 5 minutes so it can seep into the follicles and access the niche rather than rinsing immediately.

Across hair-loss treatments, start with the lowest possible effective dose and increase slowly only as needed, ideally with medical supervision and blood/cosmetic monitoring. For oral minoxidil, the cited low starting dose is 0.25 mg rather than jumping to 5 mg. For oral finasteride, 0.5-1 mg/day is presented as an effective and fairly safe starting place for most people, and dose increases may be delayed up to about 25 weeks unless side effects require reducing it.

When using microneedling for hair loss, needle lengths of about 1 mm to 2.5 mm appear more effective than shorter needle lengths.

Combination treatment using a mechanical stimulus plus a chemical stimulus is presented as more effective than either alone. Microneedling combined with minoxidil is described as far more effective than either treatment alone and may recover 'dead zones,' with regrowth in those regions taking roughly 30-50 weeks. Microneedling combined with finasteride is described as one of the most effective combinations for robust regrowth, including in people who are quite bald.

If minoxidil works for you, expect to continue it long term, potentially for life, to maintain the hair gained or preserved; stopping usually leads to loss of those gains.

Topical caffeine ointments do not necessarily need to be applied daily; about three times per week is suggested. Drinking more caffeine is not a viable way to offset hair loss because too little reaches scalp follicles at useful concentrations.

If using berberine or metformin, take them with carbohydrates because both can dramatically reduce blood sugar levels and may otherwise cause discomfort.

Recommended because sufficient iron is important for the anagen phase of hair growth; ask for an iron test as part of blood work.