By Linda Childers, Special to Lifescript Padma Lakshmi is best known as the host of Bravo’s hit reality show “Top Chef,” but for years she suffered silently with endometriosis, a painful gynecological condition that affects more than 10 million American women and girls. In this Lifescript exclusive, the star discusses her experience with the disorder, plus the scoop on “Top Chef” and more… While she’s graced dozens of magazine covers, Padma Lakshmi harbored a painful secret: She suffered from endometriosis, a female reproductive disorder in which the endometrium, which normally lines a woman’s uterus, grows in other places as well, typically on the fallopian tubes, ovaries or the tissue lining a woman’s pelvis. Left untreated, endometriosis can cause pelvic pain, excessive bleeding, fertility problems, back pain and painful monthly periods.Many women with endometriosis struggle with infertility. However, Lakshmi defied the odds when she announced her pregnancy last year. She gave birth to daughter Krishna in February.Prior to her diagnosis, Lakshmi’s menstrual cramps left her bedridden for days. While friends tamed period pain with heating pads and over-the-counter medicines, the “Top Chef” host relied on the prescription narcotic Vicodin for relief. At times, Lakshmi’s pain was so intense that she canceled modeling jobs. “I hid a lot of my pain because I felt people would think I was exaggerating,” Lakshmi says.[...]

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Padma Lakshmi’s Endometriosis Struggle

London Entertainment/Splash News Online Amy Adams covers her growing baby bump in a plaid day dress on Thursday while visiting Newsroom Cafe with a friend in Beverly Hills, Calif. The comfortably casual look was a departure from the glamorous gown Amy, 35, was wearing the last time we spotted her — at the Oscars! The Julie & Julia star expects her first child with fiancé Darren Le Gallo this spring. Filed under: Main, Moms-to-be…[...]

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BumpWatch: Amy Adams Is Perfectly Plaid

Liquid Smoke was the running joke at my Loscar party. Most of the guests had never heard of this magic seasoning, and one said it “sounds like it should be a drug.” So of course it was what we thought so many of the people on the teevee all night had done or should be doing. But no one seemed to be laughing about what I made with half a bottle of the stuff, especially not the birthday boy, who looked as if he was going to retch when I said it was brisket. (Who knew he had such terrible memories of his mom’s ropy/dry/underseasoned meat, sliced wrong?) He took seconds once he realized it was like pulled pork, but with beef, a very economical cut of beef at that. I discovered the trick eons ago in a food festivals cookbook that included a chapter on the Beefiesta in Kansas. You mix Liquid Smoke, crushed garlic and salt and pepper, rub it all over a 4 1/2- to 5-pound slab of brisket and marinate it overnight (the recipe also calls for celery seeds, but that’s not my favorite taste). Next day, you cover the pan tightly and bake the meat at 350 degrees for about four hours, until most of the fat has cooked away and the beef is almost falling apart. And then you cool it, drain it, slice it and reheat it in barbecue sauce. It’s the only way I would serve brisket to company, and it’s always a hit. You get amazing natural smoky flavor and really tender meat. Leftovers freeze so well it’s worth making the full recipe. The best part is that you can easily buy good, safe brisket now even…[...]

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Liquid Asset for Smoky-Tasting Brisket

The Food and Drug Administration said Friday that it will require a new black-box warning on the label of the popular anti-clotting drug Plavix to indicate that some patients do not metabolize the drug properly and may receive little benefit from it. The warning indicates that the drug is dangerous only in the sense that it doesn't work in those patients and thus may leave them unprotected against heart attacks and strokes. Plavix, known generically as clopidogrel, is one of the most popular drugs in the world, with U.S. sales of $3.8 billion in 2008 and worldwide sales of $6.6 billion in 2009, according to IMS Health. It is used to prevent clotting of blood in patients who have stents or other prostheses or conditions that predispose them to clotting, and thus strokes and heart attacks. Technically, clopidogrel is a pro-drug that must be converted into its active form in the body by enzymes in the liver, particularly one called CYP2C19. As much as 14% of the population have an inactive or a less-active form of this enzyme, so the active form is not produced or produced only in limited quantities in the body. Very limited studies have hinted that giving higher doses of clopidogrel might yield higher blood levels of the active form, but the FDA cautioned that no clinical trial has verified this. There is a genetic test to identify patients with the aberrant form of the enzyme, and the agency recommends that physicians order the test if there are any doubts about usin…[...]

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The FDA requires a black-box warning on anti-clotting drug Plavix

Lady Gaga and Beyonce Knowles’s long-awaited video for “Telephone” came out last night, and it’s filled with all the wacky costumes, interesting makeup styles, and dancing we’ve come to expect. We got a sneak peek at some stills a few weeks ago, but tell us what you think of the almost ten minute end product - bring it on or little too long? Lady Gaga and Beyonce's Almost 10 Minute-Long "Telephone" Video - Bring It on or Little Too Long? Bring It on – The more Gaga and Beyonce, the better! Little Too Long - Cool video, but it’s a lot for one sitting.[...]

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Lady Gaga and Beyonce’s Almost 10 Minute-Long "Telephone" Video - Bring It on or Little Too Long?