Lifestyle Choices

With intrinsic biological aging, the skin’s outer layer is thinned (over time by about 20 percent). The surface of the skin remains smooth. The border between the epidermis and the dermis becomes flattened, making the skin less resistant to friction (you get more blisters in snug shoes!). In contrast, extrinsic photoaging causes a thickening of the outer skin layer, with up to 50 percent more cells being accumulated onto the skin’s surface, making it feel rough and dry. Think of the grainy, thickened skin on the backs of the hands of a gardener, for example. With photoaging, accumulation of pigment in the basal cells is more markedly irregular than in intrinsic aging, causing the so-called “liver spots” or “age spots” (medically called solar lentigos), the unattractive dark spots especially prevalent on the hands, arms, face and chest. (more…)

Most men lose some of their hair and a fair number lose almost all of it, at some stage in their lives. Although balding is considered a common sign of ageing in men, very many suffer significant hair loss before their 30s or may even be almost entirely bald by then. Hair loss is hereditary and, if your father lost his hair young, it is quite likely to happen to you.

Despite much female approbation of big screen personalities, whose most immediately obvious feature is their lack of head hair, the first signs of hair loss are usually greeted with dismay by men. Some resign themselves to the inevitable but others resort to artistry with their remaining hair, growing it longer where possible and brushing it sideways to cover prominent gaps (a technique that doesn’t stand up to strong winds or vigorous exercise). Still others are prepared to go to great lengths in an effort to restore their hair. (more…)

Most of the time we take little notice of our hair and nails. During adolescence there may be times we would wish to have different colored or textured hair or curse that our nails break too easily, but after that we pretty well accept our lot. That is until some change occurs. When hair starts to be lost there is not only an immediate cosmetic problem but the scalp may be damaged by sunlight or low doorways. Equally, when finger nails fail to develop properly this problem is both cosmetic and functional: it may become impossible to pick up small objects.

Too little Hair

Male-pattern baldness

This term is used because it is so much more marked in men than in women. The typical changes of receding hair and thinning on top are well known and often run in families: the process may even start before the age of thirty years. Women are much less severely affected and anyway tend to keep the front hair line. However, with increasing age many women notice some thinning on their scalp. The hair loss, in both sexes, is due to the effect of hormones but not an excess of them. The fault lies in the hair roots which become over-sensitive to existing hormone levels. (more…)

The only way to lose weight is to change your eating habits permanently so you follow a life regimen of eating moderate quantities of good, wholesome food, which provides a full complement of nutrition for lasting health and beauty. This means reeducating both your palate (to expect different tasting, lighter foods) and your appetite so that you lose weight gradually. This way you also do not have any of the diet shock that leads to going off a regimen and defeats its purpose. Two pounds a week weight loss should be your goal, not more. Then you can keep it off. (more…)

Your skin is constantly giving up moisture, not just through the sweat ducts but through a process of transpiration in which water in the cells on its surface evaporates directly into the atmosphere. This is quite different from perspiring, which only happens to any marked degree when the body is warm. Transpiration occurs constantly. The lower the humidity in your environment, the more rapid will be the water loss and the greater the need to protect against it. And what most women don’t realize is that the humidity of the average centrally heated home or office is comparable to that of the Sahara Desert. Similarly, chemical pollutants, soaps, makeup, and anything that affects the hydrolipidic film decreases its effectiveness and leads to further dehydration.

I learned the truth of this for myself when I spent a month in a Buddhist monastery in the Himalayas. There was no water to wash with, no air pollution, and no stress, for I was spending most of my days and nights in meditation. Neither was there a mirror. (more…)

What is the Cause of Hair Loss?

There are many causes. The most simple is that of poor circulation in the scalp, hair breakage from poor treatment or overprocessing, and temporary illness or stress. Other reasons include hormonal imbalance, underactive thyroid, drugs, and poor diet (specifically too little B vitamins, vitamin C, zinc, sulfur, and iron). If you find you are losing your hair at a rapid rate, don’t panic. There is a strong link between anxiety and hair loss, and a temporary excess shedding of hair at the telogen stage can be made much worse by worry about it. Instead, go through the process of elimination to discover possible causes and then seek whatever treatment is necessary to help correct the excess shedding. Start by asking yourself the following questions.

Are you taking any medication? The Pill or estrogen in hormone- replacement therapy is a common cause for thinning hair—thinning that is usually corrected in a few weeks after stopping it. Anti-coagulants, cortisone, and diet pills such as amphetamines are other offenders, as is boric acid, which occurs in many common proprietary products, from ointments for cuts and burns to eye baths. Thyroid medication can also be the culprit. So can simple aspirin, if you take as many as one or two a day. (more…)

How much hair you have, the color of it, the thickness, curl, and length it will grow before a new hair is begun all depend on your genetic inheritance. There is nothing you can do to change that. The diameter of each hair (its fineness) is determined somewhat by its color. Blondes tend to have more than anyone else (about 150,000 hairs), but the hairs tend to be finer. Brown hair is usually second with about 115,000, followed by black with 110,000 and red at about 90,000. How full your head of hair looks depends on both the number of hairs there and the thickness of the shaft itself. You need a lot of fine hairs, for instance, to give the impression of fullness but considerably fewer thick ones to give the same impression. If your hair is fine, you can make it look thicker by increasing the diameter of each strand with protein shampoos and body-building conditioners or by coloring your hair and giving it a permanent to swell out the shaft. (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…)

The behavioural treatment of obesity is based on changing daily habits and behaviours to reach the desired goal. The basic premise of behaviour therapy is to reward beneficial behaviours and discourage detrimental ones. However, state of the art behavioural treatment has a wider perspective and focuses on eating behaviours, social support, exercise, attitudes and nutrition. The aim is to modify the situations which promote eating and to evaluate the consequences of eating behaviour. Behaviour therapy involves specific processes which are aimed at modifying behaviour.

Self-monitoring

The client is asked to monitor when she eats, how much she eats and why she eats. This increases self-awareness so that eating cannot ‘just happen’, and enables her to evaluate her success and whether any changes have occurred. put their eating into context and to learn to say ‘I am not useless, the odd slip is inevitable and I will now return to my diet‘. This eradicates an ‘all or nothing response’ which can often result in the client abandoning the diet. (more…)

The results from this suggest that things are not quite as gloomy as predicted. However, even when women are involved in a strict regime with supervision and support, weight loss and in particular maintaining this weight loss is very difficult. Other studies have also investigated weight loss in the obese and have found similar results. In 1986 Dr Kramer and his colleagues found that 70 per cent of his obese dieters regained all the weight they had lost and a further study suggests that up to 81 per cent of obese dieters may weigh the same as they did before dieting.

This would suggest there is still no hard and fast set of rules for weight loss if you are obese. Dieting may result in initial weight loss but maintaining this loss is problematic. However, this does not mean that the obese and overweight should necessarily give up or stop asking for professional help. (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…)

Dieting changes your mood and mood changes can cause overeating. Dieters often report feeling positive and motivated at the beginning of a diet. It provides a structure and a goal, and a way to confront life’s problems. However, dieting can also cause misery and feelings of inadequacy.

Women set themselves targets. They aim for a specific rate of weight loss and decide that all they have to do is eat less! However, it is not as simple as this and not losing weight or diet-breaking is depressing. Not being able to achieve these goals can make you feel a failure. Diet-breaking is understood in terms of being weak-willed, and this idea is promoted by the dieting industry which suggests that weight loss is a sign of control, thinness is a sign of control, and not sticking to its diet sheets is due to weakness and not the fault of its diet. (more…)

Now that you understand the core principles of low-GL eatingand have decided on your personal goals, it is time to take a closer look at what you can eat, and how much you can eat, on the Alford Low-GL Diet. You won’t need to worry about rigid discipline, hunger pangs, expensive foods or excluding foods. Just focus on eating low-GL foods and the rest will take care of itself.

There are two main stages to the Alford Low-GL Diet:

Stage one The weight-loss diet will take you to your target weight.

Stage two The maintenance diet is a diet for life.

And there are five main rules for the weight-loss diet:

1 Eat no more than 40GL a day (or 55L on the maintenance diet).

2 Have an additional 5GL for drinks and desserts for 10 GL on the maintenance diet). (more…)

3 ELIMINATE ALLERGIES

Weight gain is a common reaction to foods we’re intolerant to. Most of us have intolerances or allergies to certain foods, but few of us are aware of it. Eliminating the food that you are unknowingly allergic to can lead to highly dramatic weight loss.

Water retention, bloating and puffiness are all common allergic reactions, and they make you feel and look fatter. Once you’ve singled out and eliminated the foods that are triggering your allergic response, you are likely to see dramatic changes very fast. It’s not unusual to lose up to 7lb (3.2kg) within three or four days.

Food allergies also cause other problems, such as aches and pains, headaches, fatigue, mood swings and annoying skin and digestive conditions. These also go when you identify and avoid what you are allergic to. (more…)

When you experience the death of someone close to you, or when you have lost somebody who has gone away or whom you have left, it is natural to grieve. In fact, a process of mourning is necessary in order for you to come to terms with the loss and adjust yourself to a life without the dead person.

GRIEF

Grieving openly is an acutely painful process which is not usually encouraged in western cultures. Even when people believe that grieving and openly demonstrating your feelings are good for you, their fear of the sheer power of the feeling of grief often makes them try to stop you or calm you down. The commonest alternative to grief is the prolonged numbness of depression which, unfortunately, can last years. Although the expression of grief differs in different individuals, there is a pattern to grief that is fairly common, consisting of three basic stages: numbness, despair and detachment. (more…)

Since most people spend a large portion of their lives at work, and since it usually provides a sense of meaning in life, problems related to work are a common cause of depression. The problems mentioned below may also pertain to voluntarywork or work on committees.

When you start a new job, or if you are given more responsibility at work, you may relish the new challenge. As you go on up the ladder, however, there may come a point where the extra responsibility puts too much pressure on you. This ismore likely if you are exceptionally conscientious, finding it hard to delegate to anyone, in which case you are faced with an increasing work-load. You may find that this eventually becomes insurmountable.

If you are over-conscientious, you probably tend to overvalue others‘ opinions of yourself. Your strong ideals to be worthy, superior, good, strong and, most of all, to make no mistakes, are quite impossible to attain. But at the same time there is often an irrational feeling that these impossible goals have to be reached for fear of disapproval by peers or superiors. (more…)

Moving is invariably a time of stress. Whatever the reasons for the move, such as a marital problem or a change of job, which may cause depression in themselves, the upheaval involved may cause physical tiredness and emotional strain. Selling a house may take months, during which you have to put up with strangers traipsing through your private life, and there may be weeks of uncertainty while financial transactions succeed or fail.

A house is almost always a home, invested with feelings and memories. Part of you will always be there. You may even have built it or part of it yourself. However_ much bigger and better or more exciting the new house may be, there is inevitably a feeling of loss about what you are leaving behind. Unless you are moving locally, you will be leaving familiar faces and places, probably good friends, and you will be facing the unknown where you may initially feel isolated and lonely.

(more…)

Many people lose their sense of purpose when they are angry or disappointed with something or somebody. For others the repetition of non-events deadens meaning. At such times it becomes hard to believe that there ever could be any point to life and you lose hope of finding any meaning. As your hope recedes, even the things that used to be important to you seem pointless. Often you cannot know the purpose of your life in the present. The meaning cannot be known in advance, but comes later from “doing it”— from living life fully. The problem sometimes comes when you have completed a stage in life that is important to you and you cannot yet know what the next stage is to be. You may have just completed your life’s work, retired, or your children may have just left home; suddenly you are in limbo, a transition period when you do not know what is coming next or even if there will be something coming next. During both world wars the suicide rate fell in Britain: people were kept busy and given a purpose. As soon as the wars stopped, the suicide rate rose again. (more…)

One of the most important things to a child is parental warmth and continuity. In his studies on children Bowlby, a British child psychiatrist, showed how a stable relationship with the parents created a feeling of security and a stable base from which to explore. A threat of loss of this security caused anger or fear, while actual loss of a parent or main care-giver caused a loss of interest if the child did not believe that the parent was coming back. Studies on institutions where children are kept with inadequate and inconsistent care show a distinct change in the behaviour of children in the second six months of their lives. Continual crying becomes replaced byan eventual indifference to adults, and a baby would “lie or sit with wide open, expressionless eyes, frozen, immobile face and a far away expression as if in a daze”. Such babies did not babble or coo and felt stiff and wooden when picked up. (more…)

Although physical diseases can cause or mimic depression, they are a comparatively rare cause. Most of the specific illnesses mentioned here are uncommon and, with the possible exception of hypothyroidism, they start with depression in only a relatively small number of cases.

Several hormones have an effect on mood. As well as the female sexual hormones, hormones from the pituitary gland, adrenal glands, thyroid glands, parathyroid glands and pancreas may all affect energy and mood. However, such effects occur only when there is a significant disease in therelevant gland, which is fairly rare, and in which case there are usually also physical symptoms. (more…)