Lifestyle Choices

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…)

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…)

When we battle with the night, our sleep is non-refreshing and non-restorative. The daytime consequences range from drowsiness to decreased productivity, increased accident rates, health problems and a reduction in the quality of life. In fact, fatigue is the most common complaint heard by doctors.

Many sleep disorders go unreported because the troubled person is not awake or alert when the symptoms appear. These individuals are chronically exhausted but do not know why, and may be regarded by others as simply lazy. (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 Products

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…)

So far our main concern has been the importance of freshness in some of the foods we eat on a daily basis. But what about other invisible influences and procedures that contribute to the quality of what we select from the supermarket shelves? You may feel that you can soon enough tell if an apple is past its prime just by looking at it; what you can’t tell is whether it still has pesticide residues clinging to it - or whether it’s been irradiated.

With the ‘Green’ revolution meaning as much a change in environmental attitudes as the importance of including more salads in your daily fare, it’s not surprising there is increasing concern about how our fresh foods are produced, the extent to which chemicals (some of them deadly) are used, and the risk to our health these powerful agricultural weapons pose. The other major worry that has been added to the list of consumer concerns in recent years is the question of irradiation - who uses it and why, and how safe is it? (more…)

Depression is about twice as common in women as it is inmen. There are probably many reasons for this, and some of them are connected with marriage. Recent research points out that married women more likely than married men to feel unhappy; to have are feelings of inadequacy; to have difficulty in sleeping; to fee apathetic or inert and to behave in a passive way; to have bouts of depression, and to have symptoms of mental ill- health in general. Unmarried women, on the contrary, tend to have better mental and physical health than both unmarried men and married women.

Men, on the other hand, tend to have better mental health when married than when not married. Unmarried men in the United States have a suicide rate twice as high as married men. Men who lose their wives are usually more prone to depression than women who lose their husbands, and men tend to remarry as soon as possible. Though it may not seem like it on the surface, the man may be more dependent than the woman, even though he may not play an obviously dependent role. He is more likely to get depressed when the marriage is over or when his conventional role as sole or main bread-winner is upturned. He may feel inadequate and helpless if he realizes that his spouse can and does manage well without him. (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…)