tonic articles

I rarely drink to excess these days because when I do, bad things happen. On one memorable-yet-unrememberable occasion in 2013, I took shameless advantage of an open bar at a birthday party. Some nine hours later, I woke up with a raging headache, a sprained ankle, a voicemail from a … Read...

Certain people just need to pee more frequently than others. Ever since high school, I’ve known that I’m one of these people. That means always being vaguely stressed about where the closest bathroom is, and spending a lot of time debating whether or not to have another sip of water … Read...

“Giving up drinking doesn’t make you live longer. It just makes it feel that way.” That’s one of my dad’s favorite quips should his consumption be brought into question. The truth is that however much you enjoy the taste of alcohol or the way it makes you feel, in almost … Read more via Tonic...

Losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time can seem like an impossible task. To lose fat, you need to be in a calorie deficit. To gain muscle, you need to be in a calorie surplus. It’s just not humanly possible for both things to happen at once. Others … Read more via Tonic...

Losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time can seem like an impossible task. To lose fat, you need to be in a calorie deficit. To gain muscle, you need to be in a calorie surplus. It’s just not humanly possible for both things to happen at once. Others … Read more via Tonic...

People can stay in unhappy relationships for many reasons: fear of being alone, the sense that you can’t do better, or reluctance to drop a partner with whom you’ve spent so much time and attention. (Economists would point anyone thinking that way to the sunk cost fallacy.) All of those …...

The morning penile erection—or as it’s medically known, “nocturnal penile tumescence," is not only an interesting physiological phenomenon, it can also tell us a lot about sexual function among men. Morning penile erections affect all men, even men in the womb and male children. It also has a...

Breakfast is the most important meal day. At least that’s what many of us were brought up to believe. But a growing body of research is seriously undermining that idea. Fasting, in one form or another, is all the rage as evidenced by the volume of ripped bros on YouTube … Read more via Tonic...

It’s estimated that 30 percent of men between the ages of 18 and 60 will experience premature ejaculation (PE) at some point in their lives. Characterized by ejaculation which always (or nearly always) occurs prior to or within one minute of penetration, PE can have several causes. Often to...

For the most part, I do a good job of managing stress and anxiety in my daily life. Whenever I have a big trip planned and need to catch a flight, bus, or train, however, my calm facade collapses. I get nervous thinking about all that could go wrong—being caught in a security line, or stuck in a...

For almost a decade before I had sex, I knew that “bad” sex had something to do with a man’s lack of control causing the whole thing to be over too quickly. Through bawdy movies and the sorts of double entendres that flew around on late night chat shows, I … Read more via Tonic...

“The first thing I say when someone tells me their condom broke is: ‘Great, you were using a condom,’” says Christine Brennan, a practicing clinician and associate professor of health policy at LSU’s School of Public Health in New Orleans. She uses a car analogy to describe the situation of …...

It’s a widely held belief that monogamy comes more naturally to women than it does to men. A lot of people subscribe to a narrative that says the sexes are just “wired” differently, with women having evolved to be monogamous and men to be promiscuous. There’s just one problem with … Read...

Unfortunately, too many of us have been there: You’re naked in bed with someone, something feels off, and there are no words that seem exactly right. It’s not uncommon to feel voiceless when faced with any kind of uncomfortable sexual scenario––even one that might feel mostly good. But when it …...

For most guys, it goes without saying that having an orgasm tends to be a pleasurable experience—unless you’re one of the rare men who experiences what’s known as orgasmic anhedonia, in which orgasm and pleasure are completely disconnected. The benefits of orgasms don’t just stop there, though...

My girlfriend loves sex in the shower. She started dropping hints about this on our second date and by the one-month mark in our relationship—after we’d had sex on my roof, in the woods, in a bar, virtually everywhere but the bathroom—she finally voiced the hunch she’d been harboring. “You …...

Lots of people avoid cardio when they’re trying to get fit—partly because they don’t like it, and partly because they’re worried it’ll make their muscles shrink and kill their gains. But are they right? How much cardio should you do—if any—when you’re trying to build muscle? And how much is …...

You’re standing in the checkout line at Forever 21, arms overflowing with crop tops and maxi dresses, taking full advantage of this weekend’s end-of-summer sale. You give yourself props: You cut yourself off after your third pair of high-waisted jeans—or so you thought. A highlighter palette...

On paper, the benefits of intermittent fasting for weight loss sound great: You don’t need to count calories, cut out entire food groups, give up your favorite meals, or stick to a set of complicated diet rules. However, one of the things that puts people off intermittent fasting is the …...

When I received a copy of longtime journalist Karla Starr’s new book Can You Learn to Be Lucky?, my inner cynic had an easy answer for the title’s (presumably) rhetorical question. No, it’s not possible to be lucky. Because luck as a self-help ideology is fucking stupid. I’ve had my … Read...