Everyone is talking about “free radicals“, the very reactive molecules that form from exposure either to the sun or to certain cancer-causing agents in the environment. Excessive free radicals damage connective tissue, cell membranes, and the basic genetic building block DNA itself. On the skin free-radical damage causes premature aging and skin cancer. (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.
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…)
Most people will need advice from their doctor to help in the treatment of moderate or severe acne. Generally doctors will start with cheap, safe agents which have few side effects and only if these fail will they recommend medication to be taken by mouth.
This has been around for more than thirty years but we do not yet know fully how it works. It loosens blackheads and kills bacteria but has other effects as well. It comes in strengths from two-and-a-half to twenty per cent and may be bought as a cream, gel or a wash. Examples are given in the previous section. (more…)
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.
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…)
There are three kinds of permanent hair colourants: vegetable dyes such as henna, metallic dyes such as those used to gradually cover grey hair, and the aniline dyes or oxidation tints, which include most of the colourants used professionally in salons.
Henna is the best-known, since its use dates back thousands of years. Taken from the Lawsonia plant, which is indigenous to Africa and Asia, henna varies in colour depending on which country it comes from. It can be strong orange in colour, as Moroccan henna, or a deep red, as the henna that comes from Iran — the most sought-after in the world. The plant is harvested, dried in the sun, and then crushed into a greenish powder, which is what one puts on the hair. It coats the hair shaft’s cuticle a reddish colour. (more…)
Although some people use the words eczema and dermatitis to mean different things, most skin doctors now use the words interchangeably and there is no suggestion that one implies an inherited factor rather than an environmental cause. Eczema comes from a Greek word meaning to ‘boil out’ and, as we shall see, this is a good description for one variety of the disease. Dermatitis means inflammation of the skin and this is also accurate.
Eczema is not a single disease but a group of irritating and sore conditions. In severe forms the skin may even weep and blister. There may be an inherited cause, an external trigger or a combination of events leading to the final picture. Eczema affects something like five million people in Britain in degrees from very mild to extremely severe, irregularly or persistently and in ages ranging from the newborn to old age. It is no wonder that a huge amount of money and time is spent on researching the causes and improving the care of sufferers. It is another example of a problem that may not kill people but causes a remarkable amount of suffering. (more…)
The commonest form of this disease is plaque psoriasis and most sufferers have this type alone on and off for much of their lives. A few individuals will develop other varieties but this is usually a temporary occurrence which will then revert back to the plaque type.
About one million people in Britain have psoriasis and the majority have the plaque form. The appearances are quite characteristic and there can be any number of patches, pink or pink-red, stuck onto the skin. They are clearly separated from the normal surrounding skin and come in almost every shape and size but tend not to have rounded edges. The surface is scaly and, on the legs, markedly so. The scale is silvery and is quite easily scraped off with a fingernail: however, new patches, those on the upper body and face, and those undergoing treatment may have little or no scale. (more…)
Do you physically act out your dreams? Injure yourself and/or your bed partner? Fly out of bed and have frightening dreams? People with REM sleep behaviour disorder actually attempt to act out their dreams. They kick, punch, leap and run from bed, often injuring themselves and/or their bed partners.
One case in England resulted in a man shooting his new bride to death while he was dreaming of being pursued by gangsters.
We usually can’t act out our dreams. During REM sleep a part of our brain keeps us from moving our arms and legs, although we can still breathe and move our eyes. REM sleep, in essence, is characterized by a highly active, dreaming, brain in a “paralyzed” body. When the normal movement-inhibiting mechanism fails, some people, usually men over the age of sixty, may develop REM sleep behaviour disorder and be able to act out their dreams. The risk of developing REM sleep behaviour disorder increases with age, and men are more likely than women to develop it. (more…)
Training: If you have had training you can probably find job opportunities through your professional body or through reading or advertising in your professional journal.
Assuming that you haven’t had any training prior to marriage and aren’t coping with pre-school age children, what is available? Most women are unskilled. Only 6 per cent receive any further training when they leave school. However, there are suitable training courses for `mature students’, the official description of any woman over twenty- three. You can exploit a talent which you already possess and are practising in your home (sewing or cooking) or be trained by a firm who wishes to employ you, or at one of the many courses at a local technical college. Generally what is difficult to acquire isn’t really the training, or even the job, but the determination to forget embarrassment, laziness or shyness — and go out and get it. (more…)
To some extent the angry liberationists are right. We as women have been raised to believe that we are dependent, selfless, sweet and passive creatures. The cultural roles handed down to us from generation to generation demand the needs of others. By learning to conform to these feminine roles, although we may not be consciously aware of it we suppress natural qualities within us that don’t fit into the notion we have of “feminine”—such things as physical strength, independence, pride, and anger. For in our culture these qualities are traditionally labeled “male,” although, in truth, both male and female qualities exist in all of us and need to work together if we are to use our potential and are to express our wholeness and individuality as a human being of whatever sex. (more…)
Instant broth cubes are superb for quelling an appetite and they cost you only about twelve calories a cup. You can also carry them to work with you or, if you don’t have boiling water available, make them up in a thermos to take along. They are also nutritious whereas coffee and tea will do nothing for you in terms of building health and beauty. Herb teas (no calories) are also excellent although they don’t give you the same full feeling that broth does. They can be sweetened with a teaspoon of honey, which is an excellent source of essential trace elements such as zinc, copper, iron, manganese, and chromium—often in scarce supply in ordinary slenderizing regimens. (more…)
The Causes
Although allergies and allergic reactions to particular substances are not inherited, a tendency to them can be. If, for instance, both your mother and your father suffered from allergies, you have a 57 percent chance of them too. Approximately 15 percent of all women are said to be highly prone to allergic reactions, 25-30 percent are less easily sensitized (which means they will react adversely only to some substances, sometimes), and 55-60 percent are relatively allergy-free or only rarely prone to allergic reactions. But, on the whole, allergic complaints are on the increase, and cosmetic dermatitis and skin sensitivities are leading the field. For instance, in one study of skin ailments in the mid-seventies it was found that where, four years before, only 3 percent of the patients in Britain seen by dermatologists were suffering from skin reactions, in the space of a very few years it had risen to 14 percent. (more…)
Makeup products offer you two things: coverage, which to some extent will conceal minor flaws and blemishes in your skin, and most important, color. There are literally hundreds of different makeup products on the market. From the amount of advertising that accompanies the launch of each of them—the new wand-lipstick or foam cheek color or moisture- encapsulated powder—you would assume that to do a good job of making up her face a woman needs all of them. You don’t. In fact you need very few.
Neither do colors change a great deal from season to season, in spite of the fact that each cosmetic house brings out new autumn or spring collections. If you gather together a simple range of shades for eyes, cheeks, and lips that you know look good on you, there is no reason to replace half of them with each new season’s arrivals. Yes, there might be the new shade of fuchsia lipstick which you fancy or a new-formula foundation (foundations seem to get better and better each couple of years), but the quality of a makeup product is not dependent on its price, although the package—including the little compacts, mirrors, and applicators—is usually better the more you pay. (more…)
A survey carried out in Britain suggests that about one in ten members of slimming clubs such as Weight Watchers and Slimming Magazine reach their target weight. However, it is difficult to understand what these figures actually mean. The clubs do not keep any information as to the weights of these women initially so there is no way of knowing how much weight they had to lose to be regarded as successes. In addition, the clubs cannot provide any information as to whether this includes all the women who drop out from lack of weight loss and whether it accounts for those who leave and then return for another try. It is possible that a woman who left and joined several times could be counted as many members.
One of the problems with assessing how successful dieters are at losing weight is evaluating how much these dieters wanted to lose in the first place. (more…)
Dieters become preoccupied with the very substance they are trying to avoid — food. Not all foods, but those which are forbidden and outside the limitations set by the diet. Dieters see these foods as more exciting and pleasurable, and they become increasingly so if they are not eaten for a while.
A well-documented behaviour shown by dieters suggests that if they do actually eat a forbidden food, such as a chocolate bar or a piece of cake, they will then eat more food after it than if they had not eaten that piece of chocolate in the first place. You would expect them to eat less.
Many studies have been carried out both in America and Britain to illustrate this paradoxical behaviour, during which dieters are asked to consume a high calorie food. This is often very hard for the experimenter to do, although not as unethical as it may seem since the dieters always have the choice to say no. (more…)
For a child, a parent is an all-powerful figure. The baby is completely dependent on this huge person for physical care (food, cleaning and physical warmth) and emotional care (stimulation, sensitivity and emotional warmth). As a baby it is often very frustrating to be in such a dependent position, especially when you cannot make yourself understood. Theproblem comes when you express frustration, anger or hostility and your parent cannot handle it. A parent that can handle it reacts with warmth, even if it is a warm anger followed some time later by more gentle warmth. But if a parent has difficulty with the baby’s aggression, the baby knows it. (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…)
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