October 2008 - Health And Beauty

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Health and Beauty - October 2008

Acupuncture for Beauty's sake

October 29th 2008 01:50

Many people turn to acupuncture to treat ailments such as arthritis, back pain and even insomnia but now, more and more people are shunning Western medicine in favour of needles for weight loss, skin problems and hair loss.

With weight loss, obesity problems are apparently due to a ‘malfunctioning of the spleen and liver systems’. To treat this, acupuncturists stimulate certain points in the body, unblocking the passage of blood to enhance digestion and increase metabolism. This treatment will suppress the appetite (think Eddie Murphy in the Nutty Professor) without causing diarrhoea or involving any crash/starvation diets.

As for treating skin problems such as acne, acupuncture helps improve blood circulation to stimulate collagen. Causes of acne are often due to the accumulation of ‘damp heat’ rising from organs and causing blockages, leading to acne eruptions so acupuncture is used to target the causes of the heat accumulation. People who suffer from acne apparently have ‘hot body constitutions’ and, on top of acupuncture, are also told to stay away from fried, spicy and fatty foods that accumulate heat and to drink cool herbal beverages on hot days.

When one experiences hair loss, there is apparently a deficiency in the spleen-stomach, kidney and liver and, as with skin problems, an accumulation of damp heat in the body. The treatment will involve needles on the bald patch and neck, accompanied by prescribed herbal medicine. But this treatment does involve some pain and is not for the faint-hearted.

Click here for the full article.

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Posted By: Aimzster - Category: Body Care

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Pregnancy massage

October 21st 2008 01:39

I’m sure many pregnant women will agree with me when I say there is no better or more crucial time to get massages than when you’re in the later stages of pregnancy, when you feel like you’re lugging a baby elephant around (who’s squirming on many occasions). Not to mention the sleepless nights alternating between tossing and turning, trying to find a comfortable position and flailing up out of bed only to stumble to the toilet in the dark.

Benefits of a pregnancy massage include reduction in swelling and anxiety, a relief of muscle cramps and back pain, a decrease in depression symptoms, soothing the nervous system as well as helping to prevent insomnia. Many pregnancy massage specialists recommend regular massages during pregnancy – once a week during the second trimester and twice a week or more in the third trimester, as massages can help shorten labour time and make it easier for you to return to your pre-pregnancy form.

Swedish massage is the recommended massage therapy for pregnant women, according to American Pregnancy. This method of massage addresses the discomforts associated with the skeletal and circulatory changes brought on by hormone shifts during pregnancy and aims to relax muscle tension and improve blood circulation via mild pressure applied to the muscles. The deep tissue massage method (my favoured method) which has slower but deeper movements is not recommended for pregnant women, especially after the first trimester. Neither is reflexology, a deep and concentrated massage of the feet – something I still can’t quite accept, especially when I’ve been walking around on swollen feet for an hour or so. I don’t know how many times I’ve tried to sneak into Chinese massage places, hoping that someone would at least rub my feet, only to be rejected time and time again.

Many therapists will have you lying on your side during the massage, supported by pillows underneath your head, your side and another pillow in between your knees. Some therapists use tables with a hole in the middle to accommodate your stomach so you are still lying face-down on the table. However, many therapists believe that this may cause a strain on your back, as you’re practically dangling. But I’ve used this table before and, although it was a concern at first as I thought the hole was too big and the middle part of my body would sink in, it actually felt quite comfortable and I felt no discomfort in my back at all during the massage. I actually prefer this over the side-lying position as it allows me to relax more.

It’s important to seek a certified pregnancy massage specialist as they would have received training beyond the national standards for massage therapists and know which specific areas of the body to concentrate on or which ones to avoid (as some areas may actually induce labour!). It is also essential to let the therapist know at the time of booking how far you are into the pregnancy – some facilities may not treat you during your first trimester just in case of a miscarriage.

Personally, I find that pregnancy massages are just a little too mild for my liking, especially since I’m used to deep-tissue massage that really digs into those painful areas. And it’s frustrating to find that the parts of my body I need massaged the most (my feet) are off-limits. But hell, it beats getting a ‘feet rub’ by hubby who seems to think massage is imagining his fingers like nails and hammering them into the arches of my feet. And if one benefit is to help lessen labour time, it can’t be all that bad.

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Posted By: Aimzster - Category: Body Care

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History of Cosmetics

October 14th 2008 02:15

‘A woman is like food without salt’, Roman philosopher Platus (254-184BC) once said. The use of cosmetics has been around for centuries, from the ancient Egyptians who used cosmetics for spiritual purposes, through the middle ages, renaissance and regency periods where pale skin was so sought-after, it was fashionable to look as if you were suffering from tuberculosis, to today when literally hundreds of thousands of cosmetics cater to our youth-obsessed society.

A look at cosmetics through the years shows the lengths women (and some men) had to go through for the sake of beauty.

For ancient Egyptians, beauty was intertwined with magic and medicine. To be magically protected, one must be healthy, clean and attractive. An Egyptian woman’s eye makeup was most typically mesdemet, a mixture of copper and lead ore that not only supposedly contained magical uses to ward off the evil eye, but also acted as a disinfectant and insect repellant. Kohl, a mixture of burnt almonds, copper, lead, ash and ochre was applied on and around the eyes in an almond shape with a small stick. A mixture of red clay and water would then be applied to the lips and cheeks with henna to dye nails orange or yellow while they traced their veins in their temples and breasts with blue paint and tipped their nipples in liquid gold. Men weren’t exempt from a daily beauty regime either. Ancient Egyptians recognized that body care and beauty care began with cleanliness and abhorred unpleasant body odours with the belief that good smells held the presence of the sacred. They bathed in the river or in a basin at home, with cleansers made from vegetable or animal oil mixed with powdered lime and perfume. They also used perfumed oils to protect themselves from the hot, arid climate.

By the middle of the 1st century AD, the use of cosmetics by Egyptians were adopted by the Romans who were more interested in looking good for each other than looking good for the gods. They added chalk to whiten their skin and pumice to clean their teeth. Greco-Romans adopted oxen hair to apply fake eyebrows while the Persians began staining their hair and faces with henna.

In the middle ages through to the 18th century, pale skin was a sign of wealth, separating the upper class from the ‘commoners’ who laboured in the sun, and many women sought drastic measures to ensure their skin was as pale as possible. In Europe, women used leeches to bleed themselves. Women of the Italian renaissance used a face powder called Aqua Toffana which was laced with arsenic, Elizabethan England plastered egg whites over their faces to create a pale, ‘glazed’ look while Regency women even went so far as to eat small amounts of arsenic when their parasols and bonnets weren’t enough to shield them from the sun and save their precious pale skin. What was worse was the use of belladonna – drops prepared from the plant were used to make the eyes appear luminous. The frequent use of this toxic plant, along with lead and mercury in cosmetics eventually ruined the skin, caused hair loss, stomach problems and even death, but women were willing to turn a blind eye, sometimes literally.

Fortunately, when the Victorian period began, so did disdain for the use of cosmetics, with many associating make-up with prostitutes. Instead, women prepared their own home-made beauty products containing natural products like oatmeal, honey and egg yolk. Rosewater or scented vinegar was used to cleanse the skin, rouge and lipstick were replaced with simply pinching your cheeks and biting your lips – in privacy, of course.

The minimalist make-up continued on into the early 20th century until the mass make-up marketing campaign in the 1930s, beginning with bold red lipsticks which was a sign of independence for women in America. Hollywood paved the way for the re-birth of cosmetics with actresses from Jean Harlow to Audrey Hepburn inspiring current trends in make-up. And lo and behold, the desperate desire for pale skin was gradually replaced by longing for a more ‘healthy’ tanned look.

Nowadays, with all the cosmetic products being trumpeted on billboards, magazines, TVs and endorsed by overrated celebrities, our desire for beauty and looking young obviously hasn’t waned. As a matter of fact, it has only become worse with an increasing number of both women and men bypassing make-up and opting for something permanent in the form of cosmetic surgery. If history has shown us anything, it’s that we’ll go to great lengths to achieve that ideal beauty, no matter the consequences.

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Posted By: Aimzster - Category: Skin Care

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Why do parents feed their children junk food?

October 7th 2008 02:20

Maybe it’s because I have my first bub on the way and I’ve been reading a plethora of self-help books on how to be a good parent, and because everytime I turn on the news, I’m being reminded that one in four Australian children are overweight or obese, but I’ve noticed an alarming number of children, as small as two years, sitting in their high chairs, being fed burgers and fries in cafes, restaurants and food courts.

Just recently, I was at the doctor’s, teeming with crying, screaming sick children. There was a three-year old girl who otherwise would have been really cute if she wasn’t creating such a ruckus trying to topple the table of magazines over while her mother plaintively pleaded for her to stop and behave from across the room. The only time the little girl succumbed to her mother’s wishes was when a packet of potato chips or a Picnic bar was dangled in front of her, both of which she devoured greedily before resuming her table-avalanche. Then later, I saw an obese man, pushing a stroller carrying an obese little girl who looked to be about six, slurping a slurpee, trailed by an obese woman clutching the hand of an obese ten-year old, in turn clutching a large bag of cheetos and cramming them into his already chocolate-smeared mouth.

Now, I don’t have any kids yet but surely, surely, anyone in their right mind would realise that introducing your children to greasy, junk, sugar-filled, high-kilojoule foods and not disciplining them to eat something more substantial and healthy is a dumb idea. Feeding their bodies junk food is, to me, like filling their heads with swear words, violent images or anything else that requires a PG rating. Or is it just me?

I remember an aunt of mine who fed her daughter nothing but junk food from the time she was four years old and then wailing because her daughter still hadn’t lost all the ‘baby fat’, blaming it on her absent husband for daring to pass on his ‘fat’ genes.

So the question is : Is there a reason why parents introduce junk food to their children? Is it for convenience, lack of knowledge or do they think these ‘studies’ on obesity and children simply an exaggeration?

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Posted By: Aimzster - Category: Body Care

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