|
|
KIDS AND CHEMICALS, A SPECIAL PBS REPORT
BILL MOYERS TRACKS THE SCIENTIFIC SEARCH FOR
ANSWERS ABOUT HOW ENVIRONMENTAL TOXINS AFFECT AMERICA’S CHILDREN
Resource: PBS Television
It is a medical mystery marked “urgent.” Across America growing numbers of children are suffering from asthma, childhood cancers like leukemia, as well as learning and behavioral disabilities. Scientists are searching for clues to the causes of these illnesses, and a growing body of research suggests that everyday environmental toxins-what kids eat, drink, and breathe-may put them at risk. Equipped with new technology and more sophisticated analysis, these scientists are asking compelling questions about the health risks to children growing up exposed to an ever-increasing number of untested chemicals in our environment.
Kids and Chemicals, a special edition of NOW with Bill Moyers to be broadcast on PBS, Friday, May 10 at 9 p.m. (ET), features medical investigators and health officials engaged in the latest research on links between childhood illness and environmental contamination. The program looks at families around the country who are coping with the consequences to their children of potentially toxic exposures.
“The disturbing increases in childhood illness in America cannot be ignored,” says Bill Moyers. “How does the exposure affect children’s health? The new research is studying how chemicals enter the human body, and posing questions that they could never ask before: Do chemicals affect children, babies and unborn fetuses more than adults? What factors increase toxicity, and how can we protect children from harm?” Kids and Chemicals’ producers Gail Ablow and Greg Henry go to Fallon, Nevada, a small desert town that has had 15 recorded cases of childhood leukemia in just five years. A l armed, Dr. Mary Guinan, who was one of Nevada’s top health officials, called in
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to investigate the potential links between this childhood cancer and the environment. Could toxic substances in water, food, air, schools, homes or the ground in Fallon be responsible for this “cancer cluster”? If so, which chemicals? Without clear evidence of a specific cause, everything-from jet fuel
emissions to pesticides to naturally occuring arsenic in the water-is suspect.
As Moyers and his team learn in Fallon, research on cancer clusters once focused mainly on gathering environmental samples because investigators simply didn’t have tools sensitive enough to measure which toxins had been absorbed into people. Dr. Richard Jackson, the director of the National Center for Environmental Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, explains how his laboratories are using the latest instruments. His research scientists are using sophisticated blood and urine analysis to test for minute traces of toxins in the bodies of the sick children and their families in Fallon.
This work is part of a larger movement in children’s environmental health unfolding nationwide. Dr. Phillip Landrigan of
the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City works with scientists around the country to understand how kids are affected by exposure to chemicals. “Of the 3000 high production volume chemicals in use in this country today, only 43% have been even minimally tested,” he tells Moyers. “Only about 10% have been thoroughly tested to examine their potential effects on children’s health and development.”
Speaking with Landrigan, Moyers learns that children are potentially more vulnerable to chemicals than adults. “First of all they’re more heavily exposed pound for pound,” says Landrigan. “They eat more food, they drink more water, they breathe more air. Then, of course, kids play on the ground. They live low, they put their hands in their mouth and so they transfer more toxic chemicals into their body than we do.”
Traveling to Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, Moyers meets Dr. Linda Sheldon of the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Exposure Research Lab. Sheldon demonstrates how her team of scientists is gathering evidence of exposure to everyday chemicals in nursery schools, homes and daycare centers.
In New York City, a groundbreaking study led by Dr. Frederica Perera at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, follows more than 500 expectant mothers. These women are wearing air quality monitors in backpacks to trap the environmental toxins they breathe. As their children are born and as they grow, Dr. Perera and her team will look for links between the chemicals that the mothers were exposed to while their babies were developing in the womb and asthma, cancer risk, and learning disabilities.
Dr. Sandra Steingraber, a biologist at Cornell University, joins Dr. Landrigan in asserting that exposure during pregnancy doesn’t, by itself, mean a child will get ill. What matters is the intensity of the exposure and when it occurs during fetal development. A chemical exposure occurring early in pregnancy might cause a miscarriage, argue the researchers. If it occurs later on, it might cause physical birth defects. Later still, it might damage brain cells. Scientists are trying to precisely identify these “windows of vulnerability.” Says Dr. Steingraber: “Maybe certain problems that we understand . . . as attention deficit disorders, hyperactivity, the inability to pay attention, aggressive and violent behaviors, might have their origins during those windows of vulnerability during pregnancy and these questions are just being asked. Data is just beginning to come in.” Dr. Perera’s team at Columbia is also studying the way that chemicals can actually bind to human DNA in the womb and cause a mu t ation called an “adduct.” Work by Dr. Perera has shown that the greater the number of adducts, the greater the risk for cancer. “And that’s the missing link in all of this,” says Dr. Steingraber. “That’s the link we’re beginning to fill in.”
To place the current studies in a public health policy context, Moyers revisits the firestorm over lead research; recalling the revolutionary work of Dr. Herbert Needleman, who correlated low-level lead exposure to lower IQ’s in children in 1979. Twelve years later, Needleman’s work was attacked by the lead industry as it tried to protect its economic stake in lead products. Ultimately, the validity of Dr. Needleman’s work was fully vindicated, and new public policy required unleaded gasoline and restrictions on lead paint. And many scientists believe that, as a result, children’s IQ scores have risen, on average, three points. Yet, as Moyers points out, lead remains the number one environmental threat to children’s health; many old houses and even many school buildings are still testing positive for lead today.
In Herculaneum, Missouri, lead contamination is a very current issue. The community is up in arms about the astonishingly high levels of lead to which their families have been exposed because the town’s primary industry, the Doe Run lead smelter, failed to comply with EPA standards. “Doe Run played a really good game,” Robyn Warden, a
mother, tells Moyers. “They told people everything was under control and we were safe. And people weren’t educated enough to know any different. It took people actually investigating lead to figure out that we were being lied to.”
Dr. Steingraber knows the importance of informed parenting. Even in a seemingly pristine environment in rural New York, she knows there are possibilities of risk. “Just because there are no smoke stacks visible around us, just because you live a long way from the source of these chemicals, doesn’t mean that natu r e won’t bring them to you in some way,” she says. A mother who breast feeds her infant son, Dr. Steingraber also realizes that she passes toxins directly to her baby every time she nurses. “No woman has uncontaminated breast milk on this planet,” she states. Dr. Steingraber tries to reduce her children’s exposure at home by using non-toxic products. “But we can’t shop our way out of our current situation,” she warns. “We still need to take action. It’s time that our public policy takes action to get our kids out of harm’s way.”
There are unknown answers to many questions. Moyers reports on a proposed new project called “The National Children’s Study,” which will track 100,000 children from the womb to age 18 if it receives full funding from Congress. This long-term study may provide the definitive answers necessary for new regulations and laws protecting children from exposure to toxins. “Without conclusive science,” Moyers says, “it is a constant fight to protect children’s health.”
Find out more about how scientists are studying environmental toxins and join the ongoing discussion about the critical issues covered in NOW online at http://www.PBS.org/now
Click here to learn how you can help children get sick less often.
Both vegetarian and non-vegetarian diets have advantages. Vegetarian diets tend to be rich in antioxidants, certain
vitamins, and healthy fats. Non-vegetarian diets, by contrast, tend to contain more protein, iron, zinc, calcium, and vitamin B-12.
 If you already decided to adopt a vegetarian diet, it is essential you learn how to increase your intake and absorption of these nutrients to avoid short-term and long-term health complications.
In the next few paragraphs, I will explain how you can regularly assimilate larger portions of these nutrients into your regular diet:
1. Protein. Different types of protein are made up of different permutations of amino acid chains. In order to create a “complete protein” or a protein that can be assimilated into the human body as tissue, you must consume foods that contain complementary chains of amino acids.
Wheat, nuts, and beans are three types of vegan-friendly incomplete proteins; however, wheat is hard to digest and up to 50% of its protein is lost during the process.
Isolated soy protein, can be digested efficiently-enough to match the animal protein yields.
2. Iron. Plant sources contain a significant amount of iron, but in nonheme form, which is more sensitive to inhibitors than iron that comes from animal products. You should do two things to increase your blood-iron levels: 1) consume more plant iron; and 2) avoid absorption inhibitors, such as tea, coffee, and fiber.
3. Zinc. Whereas non-vegetarian diets seem to enhance the absorption of zinc; vegetarian and vegan diets do the exact opposite–they inhibit it.
Nutritionists suggest that you can overcome this by consuming more foods that contain zinc, such as soybeans, cashews, and sunflower seeds while reducing your intake of inhibitors by washing vegetables and grains.
4. Calcium. While vegetarians can easily consume an adequate amount of calcium without any dietary additions, it is important that vegetarians avoid consuming certain foods that are high in oxalates, which inhibit calcium absorption.
Dietitians suggest that vegetarians do not consume spinach, beet greens, and swiss chard as the calcium component of a meal plan. While they are rich in calcium, they also contain high amounts of oxalates.
Rather than consuming those foods for calcium, vegetarians should consider other options, such as soy yogurt, tofu, beans, almonds, and calcium-fortified foods.
5. Vitamin B-12. Many vegetarians lack vitamin B-12 simply because it does not exist naturally in any non-animal forms. vegetarians should seek out vitamin B-12 fortified foods, such as water-washed soy protein supplements, certain soy milks and cereals to supplement what they lack.
As I outlined, there are a number of nutrients vegetarians can lack if they do not research and plan. This is not meant to discourage people from becoming vegetarians, but instead to encourage them to spend time planning a health approach to their vegetarian diet before starting it.
When planned adequately, a vegetarian diet can not only make up for what it lacks from animal products, but it can far exceed the healthfulness of most non-vegetarian diets.
Written by OptiHealth Solutions Staff Writer
Supplement the items lacking in a
Controlling your weight and avoiding weight gain as you get older are important ways to prevent a host of weight-related health problems.
Indeed, if you are more than 20 pounds over your ideal weight, you are at greater risk for a rogues’ gallery of potentially deadly conditions, including diabetes, high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, endometrial cancer, obstructive sleep apnea, and breast cancer.
 What’s more, most people who are overweight tend to avoid exercise, and that avoidance just adds to the toll paid for extra pounds.
If you have a sedentary lifestyle and are overweight, you are at a higher risk of cardiovascular disease and other health problems. And, if you already have a medical condition such as high cholesterol, being overweight puts you at higher risk for complications.
The good news is that even modest amounts of weight loss can improve your health significantly. Loss of 10% of body weight can reduce blood pressure, high cholesterol, triglyceride, and high blood sugar levels.
Today, there are many procedures that can contribute and help people loss weight effectively. One of the known procedure in losing weight is through hypnosis.
However, many misconceptions have come up with regards to the application of hypnosis in losing weight. And because it does not involve drugs or any kinds of medications and surgery, many people tend to think that losing weight through hypnosis seems to be one of the safest weight loss program.
To know more about hypnosis and its effects on losing weight, here is a list of some facts that will give you an insight about what it can do to your body weight.
1. Hypnosis can be an imminently risky if not done properly and not utilize by people who are highly trained with the real concept of hypnosis.
Even if many people tend to think that hypnosis will not pose imminent danger to their health, still, it is important to know that the person who will do the procedure is skilled enough and that he or she knows what factors to consider before doing the procedures.
2. Hypnosis alone cannot eliminate excess fat from the body and, therefore, make somebody lose weight.
Most health experts contend that hypnosis should only be a part of a whole assimilated process. It should never be used as the sole weight loss procedure.
Moreover, one session of hypnosis will only have very minimal results on an individual’s weight. When losing weight, hypnosis matched with psychotherapy will be more effective than hypnosis alone. This is because hypnosis is only a state of deeply relaxing the mind, in which one can still be in control of his or her own body.
3. Hypnosis is one way of getting into the subliminal state of a person. When a person is on the “hypnotic stage,” the body is more responsive to suggestibility because of its intensified state of concentration.
However, this does not necessarily mean that through hypnosis, one can already “reprogram” the mind of an individual.
In reality, hypnosis can only run the range from trouble-free relaxation condition to proper initiation managed by a professional hypnotists. Hence, it should not be considered paranormal and magical in its upshots.
Boiled down, people should be more aware that hypnosis is not a sole effective process in losing weight. It is more of a facilitator of various treatment techniques.
Therefore, it should be combined with other weight loss management program to be effective in making people lose excess weight. In this manner, people will be able to lose more weight with a more relaxed and refreshed state of mind.
As they say, a healthy mind is a healthy body.
Written by OptiHealth Solutions Staff Writer
A weight loss program that is safe to use with or without hypnosis therapy
The rise in the number of fast foods joints that have a lot of saturated fat in the meals, the use of a lot of refined sugar in sodas and other processed foods and eating food with less fiber have all contributed to the fact that there are more people than before who are classified as either overweight or are obese.
 A lot of other factors cause this to happen such as genetics, overeating and as people age; the metabolism slows down making it harder than before to burn the food that was just consumed.
The rate that a person loses weight is commensurate to how it is gained. Rapid weight is not good advisable since it leaves the person with lose skin and the only way to get rid of that would require surgery.
Weight loss depends on the condition of the person which includes weight, health, calorie-intake, age, gender, lifestyle, stress level and routine.
Being overweight does not necessarily make a person unhealthy. It just makes the person a bit unfashionable. Studies have shown that people who are a bit overweight live longer than those who have normal weight.
There is no quick or overnight solution for quick weight loss.
Nutritionists and other health experts will say that a person’s weight with proper exercise can actually help lose a certain number of pounds per week The best way to do this is with a low calorie diet and an exercise plan.
The first thing a person needs to do is to choose a diet program designed by a dietitian or another health professional. The patient has to be evaluated before any program can be made. The program usually consists of an eating plan and an exercise program that does not require the purchase any expensive fitness equipment.
The best exercise plan should have cardiovascular and weight training exercises. This helps burn calories and increase the muscle to fat ratio that will increase ones metabolism and lose weight.
A good diet should have food from all the food groups.
This is made up by 2 things. The first is carbohydrates. The food that a person consumes should have vitamins, minerals and fiber. A lot of this can come from oats, rice, potatoes and cereals. The best still come from vegetables and fruits since these have phytochemicals, enzymes and micronutrients that are essential for a healthy diet.
The second is fat which can come from mono and poly saturated food sources rather than animal fats. Since fat contains more than double the number of calories in food, this should be taken in small quantities to lose weight.
All diet plans are designed to make the person induce reduced amount of calories into the body. This does not mean that the person has to eat less. It just means that one has to eat smart by choosing the foods that have less calories. This makes it possible for someone to lose weight without the need to eat less.
During the course of the program, the person should still consult with the doctor and other health experts to monitor ones progress. There will be times that it is essential to modify the diet plan to further lose weight.
It is up to the person already to stick to the program to see that it works.
Written by OptiHealth Staff writer.
Safe nutritious weight management programs
There is no dearth of skin care creams and lotions in the market. Name an ailment, and you will find hundreds of skin care creams, lotions and other products for it. As a result of ongoing research and due to ever increasing demand, the number of skin care products seems to be on the increase. Skin care lotions and skin care creams are the most popular forms in which these products are available, and there always seems to be a debate on which form is better?
 Well, there is no definitive answer to this. It seems more like a matter of personal choice. However, greasy creams are surely less popular as compared to the non-greasy (or less greasy) ones. Since the application of skin care creams is easier, they seem to be preferred (over lotions) in cases where the skin care product is not to be removed immediately after application. So, skin care creams seem more popular as moisturisers than as cleansers or toners. For toners, lotions seem to be preferred over skin care creams. There are some skin care creams that acts as toners too, but generally the toners are available in liquid form only. For cleansing, lotions and skin care creams are equally popular; however, the tilt seems more towards lotions.
Creams are known to be most effective in keeping skin moist; hence, the most popular form of skin care creams is moisturisers. Due to the same reason, a lot of people tend to associate skin care creams with dry and sensitive skin. Though it is true to a certain extent, skin care creams are not used only for dry skin, they are also used for making products for oily skin e.g. vitamin A creams and sulphur creams that help reduce the rate of sebum production.
Skin care creams are also used for products that cater to skin disorders especially for disorders that require the application of product over a small localised area. This is again due to the fact that skin care creams are easier to apply (without wastage) on the affected area. However, in cases where skin needs to be washed using a medicine/product, lotion is a better choice. Mostly, the manufacturers too realize this fact, making it easier for you to choose between a lotion and a skin care cream
Eye-creams and anti-ageing creams are other examples where skin care cream is preferred over its lotion counterpart.
Whatever your choice be (cream or lotion), knowing how to use it effectively, is more important than anything else.
Written by OptiHealth Staff Writer
Natural Eye Creme
Natural Skin Care Creme
To start the discussion on oily skin care, it’s imperative to first understand the cause behind oily skin. Put simply, oily skin is a result of excessive production of sebum (an oily substance that is naturally produced by skin). As is known to everyone, excess of everything is bad; so excessive sebum is bad too. It leads to clogging of skin pores, resulting in accumulation of dead cells and hence formation of pimples/acne. Moreover, oily skin spoils your looks too. So, ‘oily skin care’ is as important as the ‘skin care’ for other types of skin.
 The basic aim of ‘oily skin care’ is the removal of excessive sebum or oil from the skin. However, oily skin care procedures should not lead to complete removal of oil. ‘Oily skin care’ starts with the use of a cleanser. However, not all cleansers will work. You need a cleanser which contains salicylic acid i.e. a beta-hydroxy acid that retards the rate of sebum production. Cleansing should be done twice a day (and even more in hot and humid conditions).
Most of the oily skin care products are oil-free; however, it is always good to check the ingredients of the product, before you actually buy it. This is especially important if a product is marked as ‘suitable for all skin types’, instead of ‘oily skin care product’. ‘Oily skin care’ is also dependent on the degree of oiliness, if you aren’t too oily, so some of these ‘suitable for all’- type of products might work for you too. For extremely oily skin, only oily skin care products are suitable. Your oily skin care routine can include an alcohol based toner (for an extremely oily skin). This can be the second step in your oily skin care routine i.e. just after cleansing. However, excessive toning can harm your skin.
The next step in your oily skin care routine can be a mild moisturiser. Again, the degree of oiliness of your skin will determine whether you need to include this in your oily skin care routine. If you do decide to include a moisturiser, be sure to use one that is oil-free, wax-free and lipid-free.
You could also use a clay mask (say once a week) as an oily skin care measure.
As far as the oily skin care products go, you might need to try out a few before you arrive at the one that is really suitable for your skin.
In case these measures don’t give you the desired result, consult a good dermatologist for advice. He could prescribe stronger oily skin care products like vitamin A creams, retinoids, sulphur creams etc , which can help counter the problems of oily skin.
Written by OptiHealth Staff Writer
What makes the best skin care system?
There are a number of essential vitamins that the body needs to function properly and it is possible to take these in the form of a vitamin supplement. The majority of people do not have a balanced diet and they may be lacking in certain vitamins which means that they require a vitamin supplement to ensure that they do not have a deficiency of an essential vitamin. A health professional or dietary technician is the best person to give advice on any vitamin supplement that a person should take. It is important to seek professional advice before taking any vitamin supplement. This is because there are some vitamins that can be toxic if too much is consumed and a vitamin supplement may not be appropriate if there is enough of the vitamin already in the food a person eats.
 Some categories of people may require more types of vitamin supplement than others. Vegetarians are often deficient in certain vitamins that are only found in animal products, for example, and a vitamin supplement is the ideal solution to this problem. Vegetarians do need to be aware that some vitamin supplement manufacturing processes involve animal products and it is important for them to read the labels. A large number of synthetic vitamin supplement products are available which will enable a vegetarian to take them without contravening their dietary beliefs or needs however the trade-off is that most synthetic vitamins have been shown to be not as effective as “whole-food” derived vitamins. Some studies have shown synthetic vitamins to be un-absorbable in the human body which means they are lacking in the ability to deliver the nutrients they contain into your system. Most vitamin products sold over-the-counter are synthetic versions as they are much cheaper to produce.
Children will often need a vitamin supplement, especially when they are extremely young. This is because a lot of children do not eat a sufficient variety of foods in their early years and a vitamin supplement can help compensate for this natural deficiency. Breast feeding has long been recommended as a source of all the essential nutrients but women who choose not to or are unable to bottle feed may be concerned as to whether their baby needs a vitamin supplement. The large majority of baby milk formulas contain additional vitamins to prevent the need for a vitamin supplement to be given. It is important to discuss any concerns over the need for a baby or child to take a vitamin supplement with a health professional to ensure that the correct solution is found.
Elderly people or those suffering from certain diseases or illnesses are other groups of people that may need to take a vitamin supplement. The body may often need a vitamin supplement to compensate for a person not being able to consume the recommended daily allowance of certain vitamins through their normal diet.
Written by Optihealth Staff writer
The world’s best whole food multi vitamin
The K vitamin is essential for the blood to clot to repair injuries. Whenever a person has a bleeding wound, it is the K vitamin that is present in the blood that stops the bleeding and enables most minor cuts to heal quickly.
 There are three different forms of the K vitamin. The first variant of the K vitamin is vitamin K1, also known as phylloquinone. This is the form of the K vitamin that is found in types of plant foods. Vitamin K found in plant foods. The second form of the K vitamin is the vitamin K2, or menaquinone. This type of the K vitamin is formed by friendly bacteria in the intestines. Thirdly, there is vitamin K3 which is also known as menadione and is actually an artificial form of the K vitamin. All three of these types of K vitamin end up in the liver where it is used to create the blood clotting substances.
The best natural sources of the K vitamin are green leafy vegetables, such as spinach. However, because the friendly bacteria in the intestine makes one of the forms of the K vitamin it is extremely rare for a person to have a deficiency of the K vitamin and so K vitamin supplements are not needed by the majority of people.
Apart from the main function of helping blood to clot, the K vitamin, specifically the Vitamin K1, has an important part to play in the bone building process. This K vitamin is required to retain the calcium in the bones and redistribute it to where it is needed.
Although a K vitamin deficiency is relatively rare there are certain groups of people who may suffer from it. Newborn babies may not have enough of the K vitamin as they have insufficient bacteria in their intestines to produce it. The majority of newborn babies in developed countries are therefore given a K vitamin injection to tide them over until the natural process takes over. That is the only time that a K vitamin supplement will be taken by most people throughout their lives. However, an extended course of antibiotics may lead to a K vitamin deficiency due to the fact that the antibiotics kill the intestinal bacteria as well as the ones that they are being taken to cure. Again, a K vitamin supplement may be given if the course of antibiotics has to continue for a long period of time.
Written by OptiHealth Staff Writer
Good balanced nutrition Plans for adults and children
Many people nowadays are very much conscious about their own health and fitness. In addition to that, these people, and many others as well, are now having that desire to sculpt their bodies to ahieve that magazine-cover look. As a result, gyms, health spas and other fitness centers have proliferated all over to cater to the needs of the fitness buffs and afficionados.
 Even on television exercise machines, weight loss products, and other paraphernalia to improve fitness have more or less gained control over the airwaves and made their way into the households. But exerise is not the only way to build that body beautiful. It also entails certain amount of responsibility on the foods one chooses to eat. Being healthy and fit requires one to observe diet fitness.
Diet fitness is as essential as exercise itself. Diet for fitness provides the essential nutrition one needs to restore worn-out muscles and for healthy growth. Diet fitness should never be taken for granted. With the popularity of keeping fit, many different views, methods, programs and dieting strategies have been formulated by many professionals. Among these are high carb diets and high fat diets. Whih one is more effective and which one should one choose to follow?
First thing to know would be the fundamental differences between these two diet approaches. As the name implies, high carb diets concentrates on taking in carbohydrate-rich foods while high fat diets endorses fat-rich foods. High carb diets are utilized to glycogen stored in the liver and muscles. Glycogen is a glucose complex that provides large amounts of energy ready for use in anaerobic exercises.
Fats, on the other hand, is well-nown for being the richest source of calories. It actually contains 2.5 times more calories than carbohydrates and proteins alike. Studies also show that it takes the body 24 calories to metabolize carbohydrates while it only takes 3 to burn down fat. So which one to follow? A person can follow a high carb and low fat fitness diet or the other way around. It is absolutely not recommended to follow both at the same time; unless of course if you want to gain body fat.
But then diet fitness is not all about losing fat, one must also consider his diet in order to keep fat away. Research shows that sustainable loss of weight can only be achieved on a diet which suits the individual food preferences, lifestyle, medical profile and satiety signals.
Diet programs all over can help you shed off excess pounds, but only one diet can help you stay sexy, and it is the one that satisfies you most. Other important aspects of having a fit diet are moderation, balance and variation. One must be careful not to leave out important nutrients and other substances necessary for healthy body functioning. health organizations are clear about the amounts of nutrients an individual should have in the body.
Low fat high carbs, high carbs low fat; the question is not which diet program will work out but which is it that will work for you. Striving for a sexy and healthy body does not have to burden an individual, diet fitness does not have to mean sticking to the same kind of food for life. One may even try to be adventurous and try out new foods out there. Who knows? one may even discover spinach interesting.
Written by OptiHealth Staff Writer
Fitness products used by US Olympic teams and NASA
‘Serious skin care’ is about maintaining a healthy and glowing skin all through your life. As you grow older, your body’s natural skin care mechanisms become weaker. So, ‘serious skin care’ is about responding to the changing needs of your skin. Thus, ‘serious skin care’ is about constantly evaluating, analysing and changing your skin care routines. Your skin care routine should change based on the environmental conditions, your age and changes in your skin type.
 ‘Serious skin care’ is also about awareness. With the technological advancements and research, more and more facts are being brought to light everyday. Also, the composition and nature of skin care products seems to be changing with time. So trying out the new products is also a part of serious skin care. However, ‘serious skin care’ advises using a new product over a small patch of skin (not facial skin) first, just to see how your skin reacts to it.
‘Serious skin care’ also means knowing how to use your skin care products. Good practices include things like applying the moisturizers while the skin is damp, using upward strokes for better penetration of skin care products, removing the make up before going to bed, cleansing before moisturising or applying make up, using the correct amount of skin care products, etc. Thus, increasing the effectiveness of your skin care products is another focus area of serious skin care.
Some precautions, like avoiding contact with detergents, are also part of serious skin care. ‘Serious skin care’ means being gentle with your skin. Things like over-exfoliation, use of low quality products, and application of strong-chemical based products, are all harmful to your skin. Some people have a wrong notion about serious skin care. For them serious skin care is – using large quantities of products as often as possible. However, this really isn’t serious skin care (and that’s why awareness is so important).
‘Serious skin care’ is also about visiting your dermatologist for treatment of skin disorders. Ignoring the skin disorders can be fatal for your skin and might lead to permanent damage. So, if the things don’t improve with over the counter medication, you should immediately visit a dermatologist. Self-surgery e.g. squeezing of acne/pimples is a big no (it can lead to permanent damage of your skin).
So, seriously serious skin care is more about precautions and preventive measures (than treatment). Serious skin care is about being proactive as well as reactive. In fact, we can say that ‘serious skin care’ is about being proactive about the needs of your skin so that the need for being reactive is reduced to a minimum.
Written by Optihealth Staff Writer
Want the best skin care available?
|
|
