Lifestyle Choices

4 Gravity and Wrinkles Causes

The whole universe is held together by gravity. The movements of the earth around the sun (determining the seasons) and of the moon around the earth (regulating the tides) are all according to the invisible force of gravity. Although gravity makes life possible (and helps people walk rather than float!), we are not often conscious of gravity’s effect on our appearance. (more…)

When you take the time to ask “Why?” science will always answer “How”. In the case of wrinkles, as you learn why they appear, you can also learn how to prevent or postpone their appearance, plus how to eliminate many of the wrinkles you already have. It’s never too late to care for your skin, to prevent more wrinkles from appearing, and to soften those already present. It’s never too late to look and feel younger! (more…)

Has it ever occurred to you that you have too much fat on your body and too little fat on your face? However, today surgeons are actually taking fat from the stomach or thighs and moving it to the face. The transplantation of fat, or lipotransplantation, is an old and until recently neglected method of treating deep wrinkles, which was revived about ten years ago by the French plastic surgeon, Dr Pierre Fournier. (more…)

GoreTex is a synthetic material composed of interconnected fibrils of expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). You may recognize Gore- Tex as the lightweight fabric used to make insulating ski jackets, but GoreTex fibers are even more interesting as surgical implants. They have been used for almost 30 years as surgical vascular grafts and more recently for implants in the skin.

GoreTex patches can be placed just under the skin of the nose to give a smooth profile to previously unaesthetic indentations, and can be threaded under the deep folds between the nose and the mouth to smooth the grooves. (more…)

“Skin Bleaching” Medical Surgery Basic Procedure

Before a chemical peel, the doctor may recommend that the face be “pre-treated” with a special exfoliating cleanser, with retinoic acid, or with alpha-hydroxy acids so that the peel procedure can be performed on a more even skin surface. Just before the peel, the doctor may ask the patient to wash his or her face thoroughly. Then he or she will clean the patient’s face extensively with alcohol oracetone, rubbing the superficial oil from the skin. (more…)

It’s estimated that around half of clothes sold in the UK are imported from overseas from countries such as Bangladesh, China, Fiji, India, Pakistan, Madagascar, Mexico, and Turkey. Some of these items are made by people who are poorly paid and working in poor conditions. Some are made with the help of child labour. These practices keep the manufacturing prices down and makes the clothes cheaper in UK shops. (more…)

Every season the shops fill up with new clothes. Winter coats, short and swinging last year, are long and dragging along the pavements this year. Wedges and platform soles are so last year — this year’s shoes are flat and bright. As the trends change, last season’s must-have items look so unappealing and dowdy. The magazines are full of the latest, hottest, most up-to-date fashions and consumers feel obliged to keep up if at all possible. (more…)

Acne usually starts as a few blackheads on the nose and forehead and a few inflamed papules also appear often on a greasy skin. Often the spots come in crops so that there are times in between without any spots. Many girls have a bout of acne around the time of their period.

Cosmetics

Very greasy or oily cosmetics are best avoided because they can block up the follicles and make acne worse. This may happen under a fringe when the hair may prevent the grease escaping. Disagreement about the best advice partly stems from the fact that in America they used to have a lot of trouble with greasy make-up causing acne. In Britain most doctors are happy to allow the use of noncomedogenic foundation, moisturizers etc. Some people gain much confidence if they can hide their spots. (more…)

It is difficult to understand why one person may have bad acne covering most of the back or chest but none on the face whilst another individual may have severe facial acne but little elsewhere. We presume that it is only the sebaceous glands and follicles in the affected areas that are responding to the hormone changes in the blood. Whichever area is affected, the changes are of larger papules and pustules which last longer and some of them may leave small scars. Blackheads will almost certainly be seen as well and they can be very extensive. When a flare-up occurs it may be very uncomfortable and an occasional cyst may appear. (more…)

Pigment

The pigment in our skin is called melanin and this same substance gives color to our hair and eyes. Fair -skinned people have only a little melanin while those with dark skins have a lot. The main function of melanin is to protect the skin from ultraviolet in the sun’s rays.

Vitiligo

Intensive research, around the world, has so far failed to reveal the trigger for vitiligo or the mechanism. We know that antibodies against the melanocyte are found in the blood, that antibodies against the thyroid gland are also present but that they seem to do no harm. (more…)

Birthmarks

It would be logical if all birthmarks were present at birth. This is not always the case. Some marks appear in the first few days of life but others can be delayed by months or years. In these cases it is thought that the fault resides in the skin from birth but only reveals itself when some other factor acts as a trigger. An example of this is the unusual problem called Becker’s nevus. It has the appearance, usually on the shoulder, of a large light brown patch, often with some coarse dark hair in it. It is first seen at puberty and is triggered by rising hormone levels. Salmon patches or stork bites derive their name from the old fable about babies being delivered down the chimney by a friendly stork whose beak has clasped the human bundle by the nape of the neck. These marks are seen in about a quarter of the population. Sometimes they are thought to have appeared in adult life but it is only that some new hair style or hair disease has revealed a patch that has really been present since birth. (more…)

Skin cancers

Skin cancer is already a common disease but we are seeing it more and more. There may be several reasons for this but an important one is that more fair-skinned people are being exposed to sunlight, either on holiday or having emigrated to a hot country. The problem is so great in subtropical Australia that almost every adult has at least one skin cancer in their life. Much more will be said about the damaging effect of sunlight on skin but it is such an important subject that there is no harm in mentioning it twice. (more…)

It’s common for the boy to try again, right away or later. He hopes that the girl was just pretending to be reluctant, so as not to seem too easy. He thinks she is perhaps wanting and expecting him to persist and that she will look down on him as a mouse if he doesn‘t. Her cue is to be as definite at the second try as she was at the first. But she can still be friendly, as if appreciating his attention.

Another common manoeuvre of the male is to begin arguing : ‘But you said you liked me…. What’s the harm?… Don’t you have any feelings? … Isn’t it abnormal not to want to? … All the other girls do…. I don’t want to date a person who doesn‘t like this side of me…. A boy has strong instincts that have to be satisfied….’ There are thousands of arguments that have been used since (more…)

Roughly speaking, there are two kinds of dates, at least from a boy’s point of view. In one he feels drawn to a girl primarily by her physical attractiveness (which includes a certain seductiveness of personality) and will go as far as he has the boldness to try or as the girl will permit. In the other he is attracted by a girl’s whole personality, including her physical appeal, and wants to know her better; somewhere in the front or back of his mind is the thought that this might possibly turn out to be the exciting relationship of his life.

In a girl’s feelings also there are the two kinds of dates. But there is lots of evidence that a girl doesn’t distinguish so sharply and calculatingly as a boy; she tends to hope that any kind of dating relationship will turn into true love. (more…)

Precious stones, the essence of stone, are born of the mother rock after maturing in it. Stone is alive, in its fashion, with its very slow movement, from formation to wearing away.

Celestial activity is exercised on stone, a strong receptive substance. In Masonic symbolism, a cubical stone expresses the idea of stability, balance, and completion, and corresponds to the alchemical salt. A cubical stone surmounted by a point symbolizes the philosopher’s stone: The pyramid above the cube represents the spiritual principle resting on the base of salt and the ground. (more…)

A great many of my patients do not really know what stress actually is. They think that it’s an outside force causing them to feel tense. But that’s not stress — that’s a stressor. Stress is a person’s negative reaction to a stressor.

For the most part, people have a negative reaction to stressors when they feel that their stressors are greater than their ability to deal with them. When they feel like this, they see their stressors as threats. On the other hand, if they think they can handle their stressors, they usually see them as challenges and generally enjoy grappling with them.

If you now feel as if your life is full of threats, instead of challenges, you are experiencing stress. If your degree of stress is severe, it’s going to be quite difficult for you to live a balanced, healthy lifestyle free from compulsion, including the compulsion to overeat. (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…)

Which mattress is best?

Latex foam on a laminated wood base is considered smart among the handwoven set (a disadvantage is that restless sleepers generally hit base). These mattresses are generally 4inches deep and don’t need turning, don’t make fluff, and don’t attract moths or vermin.

Foam plastic mattresses have the same qualities and keep their shape and resilience better than they used to.

Interior sprung mattresses are made of coiled wire springs, well padded with cotton waste, coiled hair and rubber or plastic foam. Beware of those which are over-sprung: one bed almost threw me out every time I turned over. (more…)

THE DRAWER WITH THE ANSWER TO EVERYTHING and what to put in it

Filing is a word that makes most women look mutinous, but it’s not only a good idea, but in home emergencies absolutely essential. Don’t be frightened by the idea of filing. The verb only means putting things in a sensible place where you can find them quickly and easily. Four years of my filing fit into a suitcase.

Know your limitations and don’t plan a filing system that is better than you are, as you won’t stick to it and you will find that even more depressing than doing it.

What follows sounds amazingly neat and tidy, but it isn’t. Most of my key work seems to be on the front of old envelopes (backs already used for key work). If I stopped to type or write them out they would never get done; it’s easier to shove any old scrap of paper into its correct place in the system than to have it lying around. (more…)

A tycoon millionairess once told me that she found a business easier to run than a home. I’m sure she’s right. I’ve never yet been able to make the housekeeping show a profit, but my system is to run it in the same way as I run an office, with a planned budget, purchasing and filing department (all me). This is not nearly as clever or complicated as it sounds. Any sane woman in a perfect world wouldn’t bother, but if like me you’ve lost two vacuum cleaners and £140 worth of laundry in one year you’ll know it’s worthwhile.

The equipment: All you need to get organized is a writing surface, a chair, a kitchen drawer, a large cardboard box or a bit of shelf space on which to store two wire office trays or a couple of shopping bags (IN and OUT), eight double-sided envelope files with which to start a filing system, a duplicate book, two notebooks, envelopes and writing paper, a handbag diary and notebook, an address book — and some pretty postcards. (more…)