Lifestyle Choices

If I had an instant solution, and this would be much longer and full of stories about famous people — with glossy pictures where they are pictured as being as thin as a rake, wearing designer outfits and speaking about the joys of being almost invisible.

However, if I am of some use in helping you to see what is happening to you and what not to do, you will hopefully be able to help yourself. Insight remains the most important component of any slimming plan. (more…)

Chemical sunscreens

There are more than 20 different compounds that the American FDA recognizes as safe and effective ingredients of chemical sunscreens. The most common are: 1) para-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) and PABA derivatives (known as esters, such as padimate-O and padimate-A); 2) cinnamates; 3) salicylates (all three types absorb only UVB); 4) benzophenones (such as oxybenzone which absorbs primarily UVA); and 5) anthranilides, which absorb UVA as well as UVB. (more…)

It should reassure you to know that sunscreens are classified as over-the-counter drugs, not merely cosmetics. That means that all ingredients in each preparation have undergone testing to demonstrate their safety and effectiveness. Each particular sunscreen formulation must also be checked prior to sale to demonstrate its sun protection factor (SPF).

Interestingly, the sunscreen ingredients accepted as effective by regulatory bodies differ a little from country to country. (more…)

When I was a child growing up in Portsmouth, the naval town on the south coast, and we saw someone who was grossly obese, my mother would say pityingly, in a knowing stage whisper, ‘Trouble with their glands, dear.’ In those days Portsmouth was full of sailors of all nationalities and anyone who was very fat was unusual. Now, when I go back to my home town forty years later, the sailors have all gone and people who are very overweight are so common as to be unremarkable. The attitude to these heavyweights has also changed. They are no longer the subject of pity, but of a kind of loathing. Fat today says greedy, slothful and self-indulgent. As I will show you, hormones and obesity and intimately bound together. Trouble with your glands is indeed part of the obesity equation, including a gland that has only in the last decade been discovered to be secreting hormones — fat itself. (more…)

Acne can very often be effectively treated by special cleansers and topically applied formulations. There are four main non-prescription acne medications which alone or in combination with prescription medications are the mainstay for acne treatment. All of these are also available in stronger prescription form.

Salicylic acid .is one of the most effective topical medications. This is a beta-hydroxy acid that is a peeling agent, because it is “keratolytic” and loosens dead surface cells that stick within pores, thereby curing clogged pores at the very onset. Sulfur and resorcinol are not only keratolytic, but also anti-bacterial. They are often mixed as flesh-tinted lotions to cover blemishes (Longevite Concealer). (more…)

Almost everything can cause an allergy in someone, somewhere! The medical literature is full of reports of strange skin allergies: clarinet players with lip blisters from an allergy to the bamboo reed; drivers with allergic reactions to steering wheels; chefs with allergies to pineapple juice, corn and other moist foods. (more…)

In a few of the less densely populated countries including Norway, Sweden and Finland there is no law against camping for a short time in the publicly- owned countryside, apart from in certain restricted areas. In other countries, subject to local byelaws, farmers can give permission for you to put up a tent on their private land. But for the most part, ordinary holidaymakers prefer to stay at organised campsites. The advantage of doing so is that a number of important facilities are always provided: a drinking water supply, clean toilets and washrooms, proper garbage disposal and electricity for such things as shavers. Often too there are additional amenities such as a shop, a restaurant_; a children’s playground and a public callbox. (more…)

The use of chemicals to “peel away” unwanted or dead skin is a practice with a past. Chemical face peeling can be traced back to ancient Egypt, where creams of alabaster particles suspended in milk and honey were applied to the face for “tightening”. The Egyptians also used animal oils mixed with salt and natural minerals, and plant substances to “exfoliate” their faces. Later, poultices containing mustard, sulfur and limestone were used. (more…)

Diseases Carried by Rats and Other Rodents

Of all the enemies that man must contend with in the animal kingdom, the worst is the rat. Not only do these animals carry harmful germs, but if given a chance, they will also destroy our food supply. Rats invade stores, destroying fruits, vegetables, meats, grains, carpets, clothing, and innumerable other things.

Rats destroy ten times more by pollution than by what they eat. They burrow under houses and buildings, weakening foundations. On the farm they destroy more eggs and chickens than all the wild animals combined. (more…)

Although money can’t buy it, anyone intelligent can learn to have good taste. You can spend like a drunken film star, but you risk an expensive clutter that hasn’t quite come off. If you pay someone else to design your home you risk something pretty expensive, lifeless and unlived in, or alternatively, an exuberantly camped-up setting with mouldings picked out in white and in which you feel uneasy.

So the first rule is Do it yourself. Because otherwise you’ll never learn.

Discovering your own good taste is an unpeeling process, eliminating the layers which other people have impressed upon you. One of the easiest ways to find out what you like is to get a pinboard and start sticking up anything which takes your fancy — a scrap of lace, photographs, postcards, a colour swatch, a cartoon. (more…)

When there is a serious misalignment in the body, such as a chronic stoop that begins to distort the soft S-shape curve of the spine, heavy, shapeless piano legs, or twists, curves, and bulges in parts of the body, that stays there even after the loss of excess weight, cellulite treatment, and exercise, then you need professional help. There are a number of different disciplines that can be useful. Osteopathy or chiropractic, through manipulation and specific exercises, can realign spines as well as eliminate pressures on nerves or blood vessels in the spinal area. Left unattended, these pressures may result in serious back pain, varicose veins, poor lymphatic drainage to the legs, and bad cellulite. The Alexander technique can help straighten a spine bent by years of discouragement and rehabilitate the personality that carries it in the process. Tai chi and yoga work slowly and gradually, but are capable of restoring most bodies to perfect alignment and balance as well. But I’ve found two other techniques—Rolfing and connective tissue massage—to be especially helpful in treating body problems that, by interfering with perfect form, mar beauty. (more…)

Aromatherapy is the art of using essences of plants to treat the skin, the emotions, and the body as a whole. It is one of the most interesting areas of beauty care. For each plant essence has its own unique qualities, yet like a piece of music or a painting will evoke slightly different responses from different people depending on their personalities, needs, and tastes. Learning about aromatherapy, the essences themselves, and some of the things you can do with them is sheer delight. It is also a wonderful way of looking after your skin, calming your nerves when you are overwrought, and creating interesting atmospheres in your living and working environment. If I were allowed only one luxury I could easily dispense with makeup and trips to the hairdresser, but I would never want to be without the beauty of aromatherapy. Let’s start at the beginning. (more…)

Our sense of smell is still something of a mystery to science in spite of all that is understood about the olfactory organ itself. Current theories postulate that smells enter the nose in the form of tiny droplets of odorous substances that are soluble in both oil and water. Then, either by a chemical reaction on the olfactory area or through some kind of vibratory effect as yet undiscovered, the messages coming from the substance are transferred to the brain. Some scientists even believe that smells, rather like light rays, enter the senses through waves sent out from the odorous substances. And it is also not clearly understood why we have such immediate mental and emotional responses to smells, although there is no doubt that we do. Everyone has at one time or another smelled an odor that instantly brought back a feeling, emotion, or memory from long ago. (more…)

`Male attitudes must change; men expect wives to take on a job, do the school runs, cook and clean etc. and still want sex at night. My ex-husband’s attitude was: “Well, you wanted to go back to work, so you can fit it in with all the other jobs.”‘

Raye, 49, PA

`I think things are getting more difficult for working mothers rather than easier, because there is an office culture now that says it’s not the quality of your work that matters, it’s the hours that you put in that counts. If you leave on time, you’re not seen as being committed to the organization. There is a huge drive within many organizations to reduce costs, so people are made redundant or not replaced and those that remain are expected to work harder and harder. This turns many people against returning to work after the birth of a first child. In many organizations good, skilled labour is in short supply. Where I work we need good, skilled nurses. So, I really feel that we have no choice. We have to be considerate to people’s family needs and value people’s lives outside work or we will continue to lose good people.’

Annie, 42, NHS chief executive

`Our children rely on us to care for them, whether in paid employment or not. No one is perfect, but provided we manage to care for them, and love them, and they know it, I cannot see that it makes one iota of difference whether women work or not. After all, many fathers are loved, needed, and play a part in family life while they work.’

Margaret, 47, senior medical laboratory scientific officer

The Government should do its duty and make available proper childcare facilities. Women are a vital part of our working community and should not have to choose between motherhood

and careers.’

Susan, 27, insurance clerk (more…)

`Male attitudes must change; men expect wives to take on a job, do the school runs, cook and clean etc. and still want sex at night. My ex-husband’s attitude was: “Well, you wanted to go back to work, so you can fit it in with all the other jobs.”‘

Raye, 49, PA

`I think things are getting more difficult for working mothers rather than easier, because there is an office culture now that says it’s not the quality of your work that matters, it’s the hours that you put in that counts. If you leave on time, you’re not seen as being committed to the organization. There is a huge drive within many organizations to reduce costs, so people are made redundant or not replaced and those that remain are expected to work harder and harder. This turns many people against returning to work after the birth of a first child. In many organizations good, skilled labour is in short supply. Where I work we need good, skilled nurses. So, I really feel that we have no choice. We have to be considerate to people’s family needs and value people’s lives outside work or we will continue to lose good people.’

Annie, 42, NHS chief executive (more…)