The skin is our largest organ, so it makes sense that skin cancer is by far the most common type of cancer. The American Cancer Society estimates that 96,480 new melanomas will be diagnosed (about 57,220 in men and 39,260 in women) in 2019. If you are looking forward to spending lots of time outdoors in the next few months, it is important that you take the proper steps to protect your skin. According to Dr. Leah Jacob, a board-certified dermatologist at Tulane Dermatology & Multispecialty Clinic, skin cancer can be prevented by working skin safety into your daily routine. Here are her sug ..read more

Healthy pregnancies begin with prenatal care.   Every pregnant woman’s desire is to have a healthy pregnancy and baby. This is the purpose of prenatal care, to work along with your physician to optimize the health of the pregnant woman and fetus. This can be done by preconception counseling, taking necessary supplements, and having routine screenings and regularly scheduled visits.  “Prenatal care is important in diagnosing and creating a treatment plan to have the best outcome possible,” says Dr. Brianne Anderson, who specializes in OB-GYN at Crescent City Physicians, Inc., a ..read more

Set out this weekend to experience cuisine at one of our city’s newest restaurants or one that’s simply new to you.   Friday Lunch at: Sip margaritas and munch on crisp tortilla chips at NOLA Cantina, a taco bar that recently opened on the corner of Frenchmen Street and Esplanade Avenue. Featuring a large, outdoor patio and brilliant Ecuadorian Chef Octavio Ycaza, this cozy cantina is what the Marigny has been waiting for. Dig into a wide range of tacos from the Gringas (American cheese-stuffed flour tortillas topped with al pastor braised pork and charred pineapple) or the Passionately ..read more

With lots of help from local design firm Farouki Farouki, chef and restaurateur Justin Devillier and his wife and partner, Mia, launch their third restaurant Justine on Chartres Street in the Vieux Carré.   On the ground floor of the mixed-use May & Ellis apartment building (formerly the Hurwitz Mintz building) behind a row of French doors, one can get a glimpse of hot pink neon and cane-bottom dining chairs, an unusual combination for a Parisian brasserie. But in the historic French Quarter, it’s a perfect fit. Justine is the third restaurant from James Beard award-winning chef Just ..read more

Spirit of Singani   Considered one of the founding pioneers of the independent cinema movement, film director, screenwriter and producer Steven Soderbergh is among the most acclaimed and prolific filmmakers of his generation. While he currently lives in New York, he grew up in Baton Rouge and enrolled in LSU’s film animation class when he was still in high school. At that time, he began making short 16-millimeter films with second-hand equipment, and he later went on to shoot Yes: 9012 Live, which earned him a Grammy nomination, and the award-winning film Sex, Lies, and Videotape. Other ..read more

Thematic Cuisine   Neal Swidler recently joined the NOPSI Hotel as the new Executive Chef. In this role, Swidler is responsible for overseeing the hotel’s entire culinary operation, including all food and beverage outlets, in-room dining, catering and banquet offerings. Swidler, who used to wear a chef’s coat in high school for fun, loves how people in New Orleans dresses up in costumes. He also loves the fact that New Orleans is one of the main food meccas in the United States — along with New York and San Francisco, he says. Swidler started cooking when he was 15 years old, and he cred ..read more

World of Wine   Serving as the Wine Guy (yes, that’s a real title) at Commander’s Palace since 2008, Dan Davis was introduced to wine while working at restaurants during college. He was a history major, and it turns out that a love of history and wine go hand in hand – as do great food and wine. Davis is a self-proclaimed history nerd, and he enjoys learning about the history of wines, wine regions and winemakers. “If you want to delight people in restaurants, you had better learn about wine,” he says. “And it’s such a joyous and interesting thing to study. You can never know it all.” Da ..read more

Discover community-driven martial arts at New Orleans Shotokan Academy.   New Orleans native Dimitri Papadopoulos, martial arts instructor and owner at New Orleans Shotokan Academy, is fortunate to have parents from Europe. As a result, he grew up spending a lot of time overseas, and he trained extensively in martial arts programs in the United States, Italy and Greece. He was drawn to athletics at a young age, and he played soccer for fun. “My father, Kyriakos Papadopoulos, was so involved in the martial arts, so I was exposed to martial arts classes from a very young age,” he says. “I ..read more

OBGYN Visits Are Important At Each Stage Of Life   From teenagers to seniors, women of all ages schedule their annual visit with their obstetrician and gynecologist (OBGYN), for different reasons. Throughout the course of a woman’s life, a woman’s OBGYN may treat her for a variety of medical issues, deliver her children and discuss a variety of topics from contraception to menopause. A woman’s OBGYN becomes her physician, her friend and confidant. Although it is not unusual for a woman in her 20s to visit her OBGYN for the first time, ideally annual OBGYN visits should begin at age 13 to ..read more

Enchanting actress Brittany Curran relishes her character Fen’s transformation on Season 4 of Syfy’s The Magicians.   Actress Brittany Curran is on one heck of a magical ride. The witty beauty stars as Fen, the acting High King of Fillory, on Syfy’s fiercely popular fantasy TV series The Magicians. The show revolves around a secret institution called Brakebills University, which offers its students a curriculum in magic and where they learn that the magical fantasy world they read about as kids is actually very real and poses a dangerous threat to humanity. The Magicians, based on The Ne ..read more