If you're in the habit of checking your phone regularly, take note: It could actually improve your health, if you start using the right apps.

A new review of research on technology, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, found that people who take advantage of support and programs on smartphones or the internet are more likely to eat better, exercise more, and engage in other behaviors linked to health and longevity.

"Here we have the convenience of all these apps so you can exercise or you can eat healthier or quit smoking," says Martha Daviglus, MD, PhD, a spokesperson for the American Heart Association, who was not involved in the study. And even if the change isn't pronounced, "it's better to lose a few pounds than to lose none or to even increase your weight," Dr. Daviglus adds.

The authors of the new review paper evaluated more than 200 studies that had looked at the effect of different technologies on diet, exercise, weight, and tobacco and alcohol consumption. All of these factors play an enormous role in our risk for many diseases, including heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, conditions which are almost as widespread today as cell phones. 

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In the new review study, the most common types of technology were apps, text, or voice messages and automated voice response systems. The review included research done over the past 23 years (so many of these technologies are now outdated). Overall, technology—new or old—had a positive effect on behaviors that influence health.

The quality of the studies varied, however, as did the magnitude of the effects. For instance, tech interventions could add as little as 1.5 minutes to your weekly exercise routine, or as much as 153 minutes. Only two of seven studies looking at quitting smoking found benefits. 

Programs that proved most effective were those that incorporated goal setting and self-monitoring (such as recording how much you ate or weighed), and those that involved multiple forms of communication (like personal counseling and texts) and which carried individualized messages. The program which increased weekly physical activity by 153 minutes a week, for instance, sent customized motivational messages. 

The technology was also more effective when paired with good old patient-doctor or patient-healthcare provider communication. 

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Most of the studies were very short-term, making it hard to know if they would be effective over the long time periods usually needed to make serious lifestyle changes. "They couldn't demonstrate if this really could work more than one year or only because it's the novelty, that people decide to try it and they get bored," says Dr. Daviglus, who is also a professor of medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago…

Drinking alcohol at or above recommended levels has been linked to an increased likelihood of disease and early death—but a new study says that getting regular exercise may offset some of these risks. The paper, published online yesterday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, is the first to examine the opposite influences that physical activity and alcohol intake seem to have on mortality due to cancer, heart disease, and other causes.

Alcohol consumption is an “integral part” of western culture, the study authors write. In 2013, 88% of American adults said they’d had alcohol at some point in their lifetime, while 56% had imbibed in the past month. That’s true despite some troublesome statistics. While low to moderate levels of drinking may provide some health benefits, it has also been shown to raise the risk of certain cancers.

The consequences of heavy drinking are clearer, still: Many studies have shown that drinking in higher-than-moderate amounts (in the United States, that’s considered more than 7 servings a week for women and more than 14 for men) increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, several types of cancer, and death from all causes.

Exercise, on the other hand, is known to help people stay healthy and live longer. In fact, the study authors write, physical activity and alcohol consumption “may be linked to chronic disease through shared pathways but acting in the opposite directions.” 

RELATED: How Much Exercise Do You Really Need to Protect Against Disease?

So they set out to see whether staying active might help cancel out the harmful effects of alcohol consumption over the years. To test their hypothesis, they looked at survey responses about health and drinking from more than 36,000 adults in England and Scotland, recorded between 1994 and 2006.

Over the next several years, nearly 6,000 of those adults died. After accounting for other factors that could potentially influence their results, the researchers found that drinking any amounts (compared to lifelong abstinence) was associated with a heightened risk of death from cancer—and the more people drank, the higher that risk was.

Heavy drinking (defined in this study as more than 14 servings a week for women and more than 21 a week for men, a now-outdated British guideline) was also associated with increased risk of death from all causes.

But when they factored in physical activity, they saw a more nuanced picture. The links between drinking and death—from all causes as well as from cancer—remained for people who got less than the recommended 7.5 MET hours, which is equal to 150 minutes of moderate physical activity, a week. For those who moved at least that much, however, those risks were lessened or canceled out.

In fact, people who were physically active and drank occasionally (not every week) seemed to have lower risk for cardiovascular death than those who were complete teetotalers…

It's officially pumpkin spice season, so you know what that means. Pumpkin spice… highlighter?

Yup, now you can sip on that sweet and satisfying PSL with your boots and scarf while also wearing a sheer coat of pumpkin spice highlighter atop your cheek. According to PopSugar, the product is sold by Etsy user FeatherRiverBody, who specializes in mineral makeup and pigmented eyeshadows. "Pumpkin Spice Latte" is a perfectly subtle shade of pale orange and costs $5 for 10 grams. It's sold as both an eyeshadow and a highlighter, so it offers some flexibility in terms of usage. Based on reviews, it makes a seriously gorgeous highlighter.

While we're on the subject of beauty and skin-care products scented like pumpkin spice, let's talk about a few more options that may satisfying your PSL cravings. For starters, you could always try a pumpkin spice bath bomb, like this option by Etsy user CountryMarketCrafts, or this one made by MagickAndMacabre and shaped like an actual pumpkin. It doesn't get any more autumn-inspired than that, tbh.

RELATED: Here's the Deal With Honey in Your Skin Care

You could also treat yourself to some pumpkin spice soap, like this gorgeous, cold-pressed bar from ModBathandBody and BareBasicCo's pumpkin spice scented foaming bath butter. You could even try some pumpkin spice-inspired nail polish, like GemCityTiffany's "Pumpkin Space Latte" holographic polish.

Is our fall excitement showing? #noshame

 

This article originally appeared on InStyle.com/MIMI.