Lifestyle Choices

To keep your clothes looking good, working strong, you should know something about what they’re made of and how best to care for them. Here is a miniglossary of fabrics as well as info on proper care and handling.

Cotton.An all-purpose favorite. Comfortable, cool, or cozy and toasty, this is one fiber that really lets your skin breathe, never makes you feel hot or sticky. Can be knit into bulky summer sweaters, comfy Ts, or crisp like poplin summer slacks, starched menswear shirts. Care: Hand or machine wash. It can be dry cleaned, but that’s not necessary unless it’s a lined garment, like a jacket, or one that can lose its shape, like a dress. When washed, press with a hot iron. (more…)

The type, the length of growth, thickness, thinness, straightness, and curl of your hair depend on your inheritance, but the condition of your hair depends on the internal state of your body, which feeds the papillae that produce it. For hair to be beautiful, the cuticle and the cortex have to be strong. It has always amused me when I hear hairdressers arguing about whether or not diet has anything to do with the beauty of hair, because it does, as any farmer knows well. Not only can you change the look of an animal’s hair by altering its diet (and that goes for the human animal too), you can also tell a great deal about its internal condition by examining its hair. If you have a sheep that is poorly, its coat shows it. Horses, dogs, and cats are given special vitamin and mineral supplements to improve their coats for shows. But only recently has this aspect of hair care even begun to be looked at for human beings. (more…)

1. Iron helps form haemoglobin, the oxygen carrying red pigment in your blood. It also aids protein metabolism and is essential for brain development and growth. It is found in meat, seafood, poultry, whole grains, beans, peas and dark-green leafy vegetables like spinach.

Ninety per cent of all iron used is recycled because it is so well conserved in the body. This means that you don’t have to keep replacing it all the time. This, of course, calls into question the widespread use of iron supplementation. Iron overload (hemochromatosis) is the most common inherited disease. When excess iron is present, the body’s immune system becomes severely compromised. Vitamin E helps protect against iron-generated free radical damage. So a high-quality antioxidant would be beneficial for balance if you have excess iron levels. (more…)