| Editing wellness articles gives me lots of ideas I've never considered, such as hiring someone to inspect my treadmill for wear and tear, or getting my lipoprotein(a) level checked, or wrapping my feet in plastic film. But I was very chagrined when I learned from a story that I have been doing something wrong since I was 14. The story by Andrea Sachs is about stretched-out ear piercings. It could have been written about me -- except I haven't had an earring slip completely through "like a tiny slot canyon climber," as Andrea puts it. I had assumed this problem was an unavoidable aspect of getting older. Then I learned I had unwittingly helped age and gravity enlarge the holes in my earlobes: I sleep with my earrings in. I've never removed my earrings before bed, unless they were heavy or uncomfortable. And during the pandemic, I've made it worse by deliberately buying a pair of small gold go-with-anything hoop earrings precisely because a reviewer said they were comfortable to sleep in. I figured I would just wear them 24/7. And I have. But, Andrea warns, wearers should never, ever sleep in earrings, even small studs. "The stud squashes the natural tissue," said Ashley Amalfi, a plastic surgeon in Rochester, N.Y., "especially if you are a side sleeper." (I am!) How did I ever miss the guidance to take out your earrings nightly? Throughout my youth, people warned me that if I kept making that face it would freeze that way, or to not cross my legs because I'd get varicose veins. But no one said, "If you sleep with your earrings in you will wind up with unsightly holes in your earlobes." Neither the doctor who pierced my ears all those years ago nor the workers at the retail chain I took my daughters to mentioned it. While this isn't the most urgent wellness issue, I have to wonder whether my earlobes would look better now if I hadn't had that habit. Maybe I wouldn't be facing a $500 surgery per ear to permanently fix the problem. So I'm going to try to ensure nobody makes the same mistake. Read Andrea's article. Forward it to people you know who have pierced ears. After all, they could be as clueless as I was. | 
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