The basics for skin care are the easiest way to start. Naturally, a good diet, exercise and adequate sleep are the basic building blocks for healthy-looking skin.
But beyond those key factors, the best thing you can do for your skin is to protect it, which means combating the effects of your environment with a proper cleanser, moisturizer and sunscreen.
We're often deterred from taking these obvious steps because we don't experience instant success. But there is no magic cream that produces immediate effects: you can't anticipate that a cosmetic product will work faster than a medical therapy. You can expect to use a new skin care product or regime for six to eight weeks before you really see the results.
When you're young, your skin can recuperate from almost any insult you throw at it. As you age, however, your skin loses its elasticity and ability to recover from damage. The earlier you take action to care for your skin, the more damage you will be able to prevent. You may even be able to reverse what has already occurred.
That's why it's important to understand the state your skin is in now, anticipate where it is going and have a five-year goal.
The skin, like any organ of the body, changes with age, so you'll need to alter the skin care routine and products you choose now to maintain the results you want to achieve in the future--but the fundamentals remain the same. As you strive to make your skin look its best, remember there is no one product that does it all. Product choices have to be tailored to each skin type, determined by whether your skin is tolerant or sensitive, oily or dry.
Cleanser
Your skin is your interface with the world, and your barrier to outside influences. It acts as a protective film that keeps the outside out, and the inside in. Because you are exposed to so many factors in your environment, a cleanser is an important and very simple part of daily care.
These synthetic detergents are designed for short contact with the skin, and to be well rinsed off to avoid irritation. You don't want to leave any residual soap on your skin. For those with sensitive skin, a foaming wash may be a good choice, just as a cleanser with salicylic acid may help someone with blackheads as a major part of their acne.
Moisturizer
A good moisturizer is the force-field that protects your skin from common environmental and topical irritants. As your skin's invisible shield, it reduces the evaporation of water by including occlusive barriers like petrolatum, mineral oil or lanolin.
A moisturizer also has factors that attract water to the outer layer of the skin. These humectants include glycerine, urea, propylene glycol and gelatin.
The final component of a moisturizer is an emollient that fills in the tiny crevices between the outer flakes of skin to give a nice, smooth, soft texture. Your moisturizer should spread well, stay in place and not evaporate to leave you unprotected.
Sunscreen
Sunscreens, which are an entire topic in themselves, should be a part of your daily routine for those times when you just can't avoid that dash outside in the light of day. The big thing about sun is that it bites you as soon as you go outside. There is no "five-second rule." Put on your broad-spectrum sunscreen, with an SPF of at least 30, every morning.
In General
Look for products that make you feel comfortable and produce the desired effect. As for price, use common sense. You should judge how much the price difference is validated by the results you get. While you often get what you pay for, there may be a price point beyond which you do not get a significant benefit.
Finally, if you are having trouble with anything you are putting on your skin, stop using it! Swelling or redness around the eyes is often the first big tip-off. If you are concerned, do a use-test first, by applying a product behind your ears for a couple of days.
For everyone who wants to look great, the only route is consistency and attention to skin management. "Wash-and-wear" eventually looks worn. You can ignore your skin, but time won't.
The Worst Things You Can Do For Your Skin
Two words: smoking and tanning. These activities will not only age you, but will cause irreparable damage.
If you are still smoking, just stop. Your skin will lose that sallow, thickened and unhealthy appearance faster than many topical therapies could help you.
It's even worse to ignore changes that are happening on your skin: benign neglect is not an acceptable approach to healthy skin. Pay attention to spots that change. A simple guideline is to see your doctor if you have a spot that doesn't heal within two to three months.
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service
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Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
How Diet Affects Fertility
Every new life starts with two seemingly simple events. First, an active sperm burrows into a perfectly mature egg. Then the resulting fertilized egg nestles into the specially prepared lining of the uterus and begins to grow. The key phrase in that description is "seemingly simple." Dozens of steps influenced by a cascade of carefully timed hormones are needed to make and mature eggs and sperm. Their union is both a mad dash and a complex dance, choreographed by hormones, physiology and environmental cues.
A constellation of other factors can come into play. Many couples delay having a baby until they are financially ready or have established themselves in their professions. Waiting, though, decreases the odds of conceiving and increases the chances of having a miscarriage. Fewer than 10 percent of women in their early 20s have issues with infertility, compared with nearly 30 percent of those in their early 40s. Sexually transmitted diseases such as chlamydia and gonorrhea, which are on the upswing, can cause or contribute to infertility. The linked epidemics of obesity and diabetes sweeping the country have reproductive repercussions. Environmental contaminants known as endocrine disruptors, such as some pesticides and emissions from burning plastics, appear to affect fertility in women and men. Stress and anxiety, both in general and about fertility, can also interfere with getting pregnant. Add all these to the complexity of conception and it's no wonder that infertility is a common problem, besetting an estimated 6 million American couples.
It's almost become a cliché that diet, exercise and lifestyle choices affect how long you'll live, the health of your heart, the odds you'll develop cancer and a host of other health-related issues. Is fertility on this list? The answer to that question has long been a qualified "maybe," based on old wives' tales, conventional wisdom—and almost no science. Farmers, ranchers and animal scientists know more about how nutrition affects fertility in cows, pigs and other commercially important animals than fertility experts know about how it affects reproduction in humans. There are small hints scattered across medical journals, but few systematic studies of this crucial connection in people.
We set out to change this critical information gap with the help of more than 18,000 women taking part in the Nurses' Health Study, a long-term research project looking at the effects of diet and other factors on the development of chronic conditions such as heart disease, cancer and other diseases. Each of these women said she was trying to have a baby. Over eight years of follow-up, most of them did. About one in six women, though, had some trouble getting pregnant, including hundreds who experienced ovulatory infertility—a problem related to the maturation or release of a mature egg each month. When we compared their diets, exercise habits and other lifestyle choices with those of women who readily got pregnant, several key differences emerged. We have translated these differences into fertility-boosting strategies.
At least for now, these recommendations are aimed at preventing and reversing ovulatory infertility, which accounts for one quarter or more of all cases of infertility. They won't work for infertility due to physical impediments like blocked fallopian tubes. They may work for other types of infertility, but we don't yet have enough data to explore connections between nutrition and infertility due to other causes. And since the Nurses' Health Study doesn't include information on the participants' partners, we weren't able to explore how nutrition affects male infertility. From what we have gleaned from the limited research in this area, some of our strategies might improve fertility in men, too. The plan described in The Fertility Diet doesn't guarantee a pregnancy any more than do in vitro fertilization or other forms of assisted reproduction. But it's virtually free, available to everyone, has no side effects, sets the stage for a healthy pregnancy, and forms the foundation of a healthy eating strategy for motherhood and beyond. That's a winning combination no matter how you look at it.
Slow Carbs, Not No Carbs
Once upon a time, and not that long ago, carbohydrates were the go-to gang for taste, comfort, convenience and energy. Bread, pasta, rice, potatoes—these were the highly recommended, base-of-the-food-pyramid foods that supplied us with half or more of our calories. Then in rumbled the Atkins and South Beach diets. In a scene out of George Orwell's "1984," good became bad almost overnight as the two weight-loss juggernauts turned carbohydrates into dietary demons, vilifying them as the source of big bellies and jiggling thighs. Following the no-carb gospel, millions of Americans spurned carbohydrates in hopes of shedding pounds. Then, like all diet fads great and small, the no-carb craze lost its luster and faded from prominence.
Continued to page 2.
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A constellation of other factors can come into play. Many couples delay having a baby until they are financially ready or have established themselves in their professions. Waiting, though, decreases the odds of conceiving and increases the chances of having a miscarriage. Fewer than 10 percent of women in their early 20s have issues with infertility, compared with nearly 30 percent of those in their early 40s. Sexually transmitted diseases such as chlamydia and gonorrhea, which are on the upswing, can cause or contribute to infertility. The linked epidemics of obesity and diabetes sweeping the country have reproductive repercussions. Environmental contaminants known as endocrine disruptors, such as some pesticides and emissions from burning plastics, appear to affect fertility in women and men. Stress and anxiety, both in general and about fertility, can also interfere with getting pregnant. Add all these to the complexity of conception and it's no wonder that infertility is a common problem, besetting an estimated 6 million American couples.
It's almost become a cliché that diet, exercise and lifestyle choices affect how long you'll live, the health of your heart, the odds you'll develop cancer and a host of other health-related issues. Is fertility on this list? The answer to that question has long been a qualified "maybe," based on old wives' tales, conventional wisdom—and almost no science. Farmers, ranchers and animal scientists know more about how nutrition affects fertility in cows, pigs and other commercially important animals than fertility experts know about how it affects reproduction in humans. There are small hints scattered across medical journals, but few systematic studies of this crucial connection in people.
We set out to change this critical information gap with the help of more than 18,000 women taking part in the Nurses' Health Study, a long-term research project looking at the effects of diet and other factors on the development of chronic conditions such as heart disease, cancer and other diseases. Each of these women said she was trying to have a baby. Over eight years of follow-up, most of them did. About one in six women, though, had some trouble getting pregnant, including hundreds who experienced ovulatory infertility—a problem related to the maturation or release of a mature egg each month. When we compared their diets, exercise habits and other lifestyle choices with those of women who readily got pregnant, several key differences emerged. We have translated these differences into fertility-boosting strategies.
At least for now, these recommendations are aimed at preventing and reversing ovulatory infertility, which accounts for one quarter or more of all cases of infertility. They won't work for infertility due to physical impediments like blocked fallopian tubes. They may work for other types of infertility, but we don't yet have enough data to explore connections between nutrition and infertility due to other causes. And since the Nurses' Health Study doesn't include information on the participants' partners, we weren't able to explore how nutrition affects male infertility. From what we have gleaned from the limited research in this area, some of our strategies might improve fertility in men, too. The plan described in The Fertility Diet doesn't guarantee a pregnancy any more than do in vitro fertilization or other forms of assisted reproduction. But it's virtually free, available to everyone, has no side effects, sets the stage for a healthy pregnancy, and forms the foundation of a healthy eating strategy for motherhood and beyond. That's a winning combination no matter how you look at it.
Slow Carbs, Not No Carbs
Once upon a time, and not that long ago, carbohydrates were the go-to gang for taste, comfort, convenience and energy. Bread, pasta, rice, potatoes—these were the highly recommended, base-of-the-food-pyramid foods that supplied us with half or more of our calories. Then in rumbled the Atkins and South Beach diets. In a scene out of George Orwell's "1984," good became bad almost overnight as the two weight-loss juggernauts turned carbohydrates into dietary demons, vilifying them as the source of big bellies and jiggling thighs. Following the no-carb gospel, millions of Americans spurned carbohydrates in hopes of shedding pounds. Then, like all diet fads great and small, the no-carb craze lost its luster and faded from prominence.
Continued to page 2.
Read More..
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