Archive for May, 2011

Mouth Breathing and Dental Health

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011 No Commented
Under: Dental care

Breathing is something that we do automatically to stay alive and so most of us do not think twice about it. It is perfectly natural to breathe through the mouth at certain terms such as when running or lifting heavy objects, however if breathing occurs through the mouth habitually then it can lead to many health problems. These problems can be particularly severe for children as mouth breathing can affect the long term development of the face and jaw.

So Why Breathe Through the Mouth?

Normal breathing is when we breathe through the nose with the mouth closed. The most obvious reason for someone to be a mouth breather is that they cannot get enough air through the nose. Common reasons for blocked nasal passages include:

  • Allergies – which can cause polyps or swelling of the nasal lining
  • Enlarged tonsils or adenoids
  • Deviated nasal septum
  • Respiratory infections – cold or flu

Signs that may indicate nasal breathing problems or airway obstruction are:

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  • Snoring, sleep apnoea
  • Frequent upper airway infections
  • Sounding ‘stuffy’ during the day/night
  • Dark circles under the eyes

Effects on Teeth, Jaw and Posture

As mentioned before, mouth breathing can lead to many health problems, in particular dental health problems.

  • When we breathe through the mouth, there is loss of saliva and dryness of the mouth and this can increase the risk of tooth decay and inflammation of the gums.
  • Also, mouth breathing can lead to alterations in the jaw and facial growth. The normal resting position of the tongue is up against the roof of the mouth to compensate the forces of the cheeks, however when a person breathes through the mouth, the tongue drops. This leads to the narrowing of the upper jaw and elongation of the lower jaw, resulting in the long, narrow face shape, typically known as ‘long face syndrome’. Due to the narrowing of the jaws, crowding of the teeth, overbite problems and malocclusion can be seen.
  • Adjustment in head posture is another effect that can result. Chronic mouth breathers tend to tilt the head backwards and lean the head forward in front of the shoulders to keep the airway open. This enables them to breathe better, however can have lead to long term problems of the neck and back.

Treatment

Treatment of mouth breathing depends upon the underlying cause. This requires a multidisciplinary approach where your dentist, GP, ear-nose-throat specialist (ENT) and sleep physician may be involved in determining the treatment needed. Treatment may include prescription of certain medicines, surgery and myofunctional therapy and breathing exercises.

Airway obstruction is a common cause of mouth breathing and sometimes a full assessment by an ENT is needed to decide the treatment of the obstruction. Often certain medicines can be prescribed to increase nasal airflow and reduce obstructions like swelling of the nasal lining and polyps. For more complicated blockages such as enlarged tonsils or adenoids, surgery may be necessary to remove them.

Sometimes even after removal of the airway obstruction, mouth breathing is still present as it has become habitual. If this is the case, myofuntional therapy along with specific breathing and muscle exercises can help in establishing nasal breathing. Exercises that aim at strengthening the facial muscles along with specific oral appliances encourage nasal breathing and therefore can aid in the proper growth and facial development. This is imperative in young children as they are still in their growing stages.

Waking Up With a Headache

Friday, May 27th, 2011 No Commented
Under: Headaches

No matter when or where it occurs headaches are one of the most common ailments around. You will be in the middle of something and your head starts to ache. Maybe it’s just a little pain in your forehead or maybe it feels like someone dropped a hammer on the top of your head, either way it is annoying if it is happening to you. Of course one of the worst times to have a headache is when you first wakeup in the morning.

What causes headaches?

A headache is a pain that is found in the head or the neck. There are three basic types of headaches, primary, secondary and facial pain.

  • Primary headaches are caused by tension. Migraine is considered a primary headache.
  • Secondary headaches are caused by such things as bleeding in the brain and tumors,
  • Facial pain headaches occur in the neck or due to nerves in the brain.

There are many reasons why they occur. One of the most familiar reasons is stress. If you are in a particularly difficult situation that you aren’t quite sure on how it is going to turn out, stress will usually set in and so will the headache. In fact any stressful situation can cause a headache.

So what would cause a headache in the morning?

When most folks think about a headache in the morning they think about a hangover or drinking way too much the night before and that would certainly make your head ache. But there are also other reasons. Surprisingly enough you may be dehydrated. Your body needs lots of water each day and unfortunately a good number of folks don’t drink very much water. Water is good for you not only for headaches with other things as well. Another related problem is drinking too much caffeine in the night which causes you to make too many trips to the bathroom when you are supposed to be sleeping. Another bad thing about caffeine is that it will keep you up when you should be sleeping and in the morning you will probably need another fix of it to drive away the headaches.

Have you ever had any problems sleeping, because that do can cause headaches in the morning? Lack of sleep and being unable to fall asleep can be very stressful which in turn will bring on the headaches when you wake.

A sleep disorder that isn’t too common but is quite a problem to those that have it is bruxism or teeth grinding. By grinding your teeth you tense up the muscles in your face while you are trying to sleep and as you probably guessed this could bring on quite a headache in the morning.

There are quite a few things that can cause headaches when you wake up the morning if this becomes a recurring trend for you then seek help from your doctor.

7 Tremendous Foods to Lower Cholesterol Level

Thursday, May 26th, 2011 No Commented
Under: Nutrition

People who have high cholesterol are very concerned about this fact. Today’s lifestyle is very different from the lifestyle from before. At present, people prefer to consume foods that are readily available even though the foods are not nutritious. The foods are high in fat and salt content and this could lead to increased cholesterol levels.

You must reduce the consumption of foods high in saturated fat and exercise on a daily basis. If you would like to improve your state of health, consume foods that lower cholesterol. Here is a list of various foods that you can mix and match that will help to lower your cholesterol.

1. SALMON
Salmon contains proteins and Omega 3 fatty acids that are beneficial for individuals who have cardiovascular problems. Experts say people should have at least two servings per week of fatty fish like mackerel, salmon, tuna, anchovies, sardines and herring.

2. BROWN RICE
Brown rice contains an oil that will help with reducing the cholesterol level. Because it is made up of whole grain, it supplies Vitamin B, magnesium and most importantly, fiber to lower cholesterol. If you would like a high protein meal that is low in saturated fat, simply add beans to it.

3. GRAPES
Grapes have a high level of antioxidants that will prevent damage caused by free radicals. It also aids in the blood clotting process because it reduces platelet clumping. Grapes contain flavonoids that help to reduce the cholesterol in the body.

4. GARLIC
Garlic helps to fight fungi and bacteria because it contains a substance called Allicin. It also aids in improving the digestive process but the most beneficial effect of garlic is to lower the cholesterol level in the body especially when it is consumed uncooked.

5. OATS
Oats are rich in soluble fiber that facilitates the elimination of LDL or bad cholesterol. Increasing your daily intake of foods that lower cholesterol like oatmeal will trim down your cholesterol.

6. WALNUTS
Walnuts are rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids that significantly decrease serum cholesterol. They also help make blood vessels healthy and resilient to damage. Consuming a handful of walnuts daily could reduce your cholesterol level up to 12 percent.

7. TOMATOES
Very few people know that tomatoes can reduce your cholesterol level. Tomatoes increase good cholesterol and reduce bad cholesterol. They contain lycopene that is beneficial for the body.

Aside from these foods that lower your cholesterol level, supplements are also recommended. Supplements may help you to decrease your cholesterol level at an early stage before it leads to other health problems. You can resume your healthy life if you eat healthy food, exercise and add supplements to your daily lifestyle. This information will guide you in reducing cholesterol levels and becoming healthy again.

How To Get Rid Of Acne For Real

Wednesday, May 25th, 2011 No Commented
Under: Acne

In this article I want to share how to get rid of acne for real. After many years of suffering from severe acne I tried lots of different treatments from Accutane and antibiotics, to dozens of topical cleansers and creams. To be honest none of these had any long lasting effect on my skin in terms of clearing up my acne for longer than a few weeks.

It wasn’t until I started to look into natural causes of acne and natural cures that I began to get some stable long term results in clearing up my skin. But even then there was a lot of wasted time, effort and money trying things that didn’t work.

An example of this is a program quite well known on the internet called Acne Free in 3 Days. In this program it teaches how the cause of acne is due to toxins in the colon. It further teaches that by doing a cleanse called the 3 day apple diet, consisting of eating nothing but apples for 3 days, you will clean out the colon and your skin clears up with it.

I tried this and while the results were great and my skin did clear up for a few days, my acne came back. The program taught that you had to do the 3 day diet regularly to stay clear. This wasn’t an option for me due to losing weight on it and being slim naturally, as I was concerned I would lose too much weight and be too thin to keep doing this program. It’s also pretty tiring doing a 3 day apple fast as it gives you no energy to live normally or actively during the fast.

So I went on to finding out more about acne and discovered there was a secret root cause of acne which turned out to be a specific kind of hormonal imbalance. By balancing these hormones naturally I saw my acne go from severe to completely clear in just a matter of days.

One of the things suggested was to avoid certain foods that cause hormonal imbalance. One of these is vegetable oil. These are used as cooking oils sometimes and as an ingredient in some foods like junk foods (think cookies and potato chips), as well as pre-made meals.

By using butter to cook with instead of vegetable oils like sunflower oil, and by being careful to avoid choosing foods with lots of vegetable oil in it as an ingredient by checking the ingredients label, I saw a dramatic clearing up of my skin like nothing before. You too can experience clear skin by using this information and other ways to balance hormones leaving your acne with zero chance of surviving.

Diabetes Type Two Symptoms and Signs

Tuesday, May 24th, 2011 No Commented
Under: Diabetes

Diabetes is more prevalent than ever today and most cases connected with diagnoses are type two diabetes. Below are some important signs that you should look out for if you are worried that you might have any diabetes type two symptoms.

For many this development connected with diabetes is usually inevitable, maybe this is down to family history and other factors, for the great majority of people the illness can hopefully be halted by means of taking these simple steps…

Before diabetes type two becomes fully developed you go through some sort of stage known seeing that pre-diabetes. This is usually where people start to help show some on the symptoms, which in the event ignored, can lead to help full supplied diabetes.

Make these points part of your daily life and you maybe might be able to halt this disease happening to help you:

  • If you are overweight or obese you may be developing diabetes. Cut down the amount of food on your plate so you gradually eat less and start to lose weight.
  • Drink water or some sort of sugar -free drink before your meal to help take off the edge connected with any hunger pains.
  • People are eating to much fat; grill or maybe bake foods instead; use low fat butters and margarine to help reduce weight meals.
  • Look at the Glycemic Index on the food you are eating — knowing what each food contains helps maintain your blood-sugar levels, which in time can halt the onset connected with diabetes type two symptoms.
  • Ingest several glasses of water each and every day. If you have bottled water with you sip frequently and possibly you may be surprised at how much you do drink you can consume throughout the day.
  • If you are feeling hungry pick a healthy snack bar instead, compared to a chocolate bar.
  • Use skimmed or semi-skimmed milk instead of full -fat milk with hot drinks or even why not try no milk at all.

Working out gently combined with diet is excellent for healthy living. But for anyone who has not worked out regularly should then start their exercise slowly and then build up once you feel fitter. Gradual walking each day will ease people into a daily exercising rhythm.

If you recognise that some of these points are associated with you then you could be one of the ones that is suffering from diabetes type two symptoms. These points are here to aid and help you. IF you take the steps now you just might possibly prevent type two diabetes and stop the damage to your health.

Finest of All Hair Loss Products

Sunday, May 22nd, 2011 No Commented
Under: Hair Loss

Many people have a fear of losing hair and many a times, their fear comes true. One of the reasons of this is they stress too much about the problem and this stress makes the problem even worse. The reasons for hair loss are not limited to just stress, there are a number of other factors too. Let’s take a look at the factors that cause this problem first and then jump on to the available hair loss products.

Hair loss causes

One of the main causes for hair loss is the excess production of DHT (dihydrotestosterone), which is a hormone produced by testosterone, again a hormone responsible for male reproductive growth. When your body starts producing excessive amounts of DHT, the hair follicles start reacting with DHT, which makes them weak. This can lead to the breakage or the thinning of the hair.

Another factor is genetics. Yes, it is hereditary, which means that if your parents suffer from hair problems, chances are high that you might also suffer from hair loss. A weak immune system is also accountable for loss of hair. This is because when your immune system is weak, you are prone to be infected by viruses and bacteria. These microorganisms can also damage the hair follicles, making them weak.

Apart from these common reasons, there are also some other factors that cause baldness. These include certain medical conditions like cancer, certain treatments such as chemotherapy and some other problems such as diabetes, vitiligo, Down’s syndrome, anaemia, stress, depression, fungal infections and thyroid problems.

Treatment options available

Medical science has done a lot of progress and thanks to this progress, there are a number of hair loss products available on the market today. Let’s take a look at some of the most popular ones.

HairMax Lasercomb Advanced 7

This is an advanced laser comb that uses the low-level light technology to treat male and female pattern baldness and help you regain healthy hair growth. This HairMax comb is a sleek and smart design that gives you utmost ease and convenience to treat hair loss discreetly, within the comfort of your home. The laser beams emitted from this hand-held comb (7 beams at a time), target and stimulate your hair follicles to promote natural and healthy growth.

HairMax Lasercomb Professional 12

This HairMax comb is amongst the best-selling hair loss treatments available on the market. This FDA approved laser comb has won many awards since its launch. It boasts of a success rate of about 93% and is known to be durable for about 10 years. This laser comb emits 12 laser beams at a time and so, it is able to treat hair problems even faster than other devices. It works by stimulating your hair follicles and providing them with energy through laser light emission (12 beams at once). This encourages new hair to grow fast and they replace the old hair when the old ones shed away.

Also, there are many other hair loss products available on the market but the aforementioned ones are the best-selling and are known to be amongst the best that the market has to offer. Use it, without worrying about any side effects, and witness remarkable benefits soon.

The Aging Lens and Classification of Cataracts

Friday, May 20th, 2011 No Commented
Under: Vision

The primary functions of the crystalline lens are to transmit incident light and to focus it on the retina. This requires that the lens is transparent, a condition dependent on the highly regular organization of the cells of the lens and the high degree of order of the proteins in the lens cytoplasm. The protein concentration in lens fibre cells is extremely high, resulting in an index of refraction significantly greater than that of the surrounding fluids, and so enabling the lens to refract incident light. Cataract occurs when the lens loses its transparency by either scattering or absorbing light such that visual acuity is compromised. Cataracts can result from genetic, metabolic, nutritional or environmental insults, or they may be secondary to other ocular or systemic diseases such as diabetes or retinal degenerative diseases (see box). By far the most important risk factor is age; aging-related cataract constitutes the great majority of all cataracts and is a major public health problem worldwide. In developing countries, where the availability of surgical facilities is limited, aging-related cataract is the leading cause of blindness. Because at present there is no efficacious non-surgical therapy for cataract, the problem is expected to increase in magnitude in coming decades as the world population becomes progressively older.

Causes of cataracts

  • Aging
  • Inheritance
  • Metabolic disorders, e.g. Lowe’s syndrome, hypocalcaemia
  • Diabetes
  • Toxicity, e.g. drug-induced (steroids, amiodarone), chemical, metal ions
  • Nutrition
  • Physical dehydration
  • Trauma
  • Radiation
  • Eye disease, e.g. glaucoma, uveitis, post-vitrectomy
  • Systemic disease, e.g. atopy, renal failure

Lens growth

Although the lens grows throughout life, none of the cells are cast off. Component cells are added to the lens as time goes by, with those in the centre being as old as the individual. The lens grows by regular addition of fibres to the lens mass. Growth rate is not uniform throughout the human lifespan, and it appears to be maximal in foetal life. Foetal lens mass increases by about 180 mg/year (lens mass is 90 mg at birth), but the growth rate drops significantly after birth and is 1.3 mg/year between 10 and 90 years of age. Estimates of average lens density suggest that protein content remains relatively constant at around 33% of the wet weight over the age span. The dimensions of the lens change in a complex manner as the lens grows. In early foetal life, the lens is almost perfectly spherical, but by birth the sagittal profile is ellipsoidal as equatorial growth outstrips growth in the sagittal plane. At birth, equatorial lens diameter is about 6.5 mm while sagittal width is about 3 mm. By the age of 90 years, this changes to about 10 mm in the equatorial plane and 6 mm in the sagittal plane.

Classification of cataracts

There appears to be three major types of ageing-related cataracts:

  • cortical,
  • nuclear,
  • posterior subcapsular.

Which differ both in the location in which the opacity initially appears and in the pathology underlying the opacification.

Many risk factors may be common to all three types of ageing-related cataracts, and although cataracts often begin as a pure type, as they mature they typically become mixed cataracts. The main types of cataracts seen in clinical practice are summarized in the box below. Objective classification schemes (see box) use photographic standards to subdivide each major type into grades. These grades are based on density and colour (in the case of the nucleus) or according to the anatomical area of the cataract (in the case of the cortical and posterior subcapsular areas). One may directly compare a patient’s lens as seen on the slit lamp with a photographic copy of the various standard grades, as set up in the various classification schemes (clinical grading), or one may take photographs of the lens being studied and later grade the photographs according to the classification scheme used (photographic grading).

Types of cataracts

  • Cortical
  • Nuclear
  • Posterior subcapsular
  • Mixed
  • Mature and hypermature
  • Capsular
  • Anterior subcapsular
  • Retrodots
  • Congenital and juvenile-total or partial
  • Traumatic

Objective classification schemes for cataracts

  • Lens Opacities Classification System II and III (LOCS II and LOCS III)
  • Oxford Cataract Classification System
  • Beaver Dam Eye Study

Fat Burning Tips To Boost Your Metabolism

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011 No Commented
Under: Weight Loss

People that are looking to lose weight today are more confused than ever before as to which is the most effective way they can burn fat and lose weight. With all the hype and chatter on quick weight loss programs they are also confused about which method is the most effective and how to use it so that they can achieve the kind of bodies they desire.

If you’re like many of the countless number of people looking to burn fat and lose weight by hitting the gym or a fitness center several times a week; or if you’re at home putting in your half hour routine on the treadmill, stair-climber or some other exercise equipment in an effort to burn fat and lose weight; or if you’re trying out the latest diet craze that’s all the rage, with those expensive meal plans – the odds are good that you won’t see the results you’re looking for!!!

Why not? Well first you first need to understand the process by which the body uses energy and how that effects how you will burn fat. Too many times you will hear that you need to do a prolonged low intensity workout and that you need to do this several times a week. While this may sound like good advice, in actuality it’s not.

When doing long duration low intensity workouts you body becomes accustomed to this activity level and the initial weight loss and slimming down that you realize comes to a halt as the body adjust itself to efficiently use its energy resource at this low intensity workout state. For some people their bodies will actually increase their fat reserves so that they can be ready for the next low intensity long duration workout. This can also lead to other problems that are not good for your health.

What you need to do is focus on the most efficient way to boost your metabolism so that it burns fat at a much faster and higher rate; this can be done with short high intensity works. For these workouts to be as effective as possible you need to vary the intensity and the type of workout you do so that the body does not get comfortable with any one type of exercise training routine. You need to challenge your body on a continuous basis; your goal is long-term weight loss.

To begin you need to create an effective meal plan that allows you to take in fewer calories than your consuming each day, but that provides you with the nourishment your body needs. We are not looking to starve the body like diets do, instead we’re looking to reduce our caloric intake.

For instance if you’re consuming 3500 calories per day and your physical activity is only consuming 2000 calories per day that means in a given week you’ve added 10,500 calories to your body. This means you’ve added 3 pounds of fat in just one week. Now this is an extreme example but it easily illustrates why a sensible meal plan is needed if you’re looking to lose weight. It’s not just about the exercise.

Aerobic Workout
Next you need to integrate an aerobics workout into your fat burning weight loss program.
A treadmill is good for this, it is low impact and you can vary the workout you get on the machine. Additionally you can exercise on a treadmill irrespective of the weather conditions outside. For your tread mill workout to be effective you need to do what is called interval training.

Interval Training
After you’ve warmed up for about 10 minutes with a light jog on the treadmill you then go into a 30-30 high-low intensity run.
This means for the next 5 to 10 minutes you’ll increase the speed of the treadmill so that you’re running for 30 seconds then reduce that pace so that you’re jogging for 30 seconds. You’ll repeat this process for 5 or 10 minutes depending on your fitness level and time you have available.
Once you’ve with the 30-30 high intensity interval training reduce the treadmill speed so that your body can come down gradually from that physically activity.

Resistance Training
To this you need to add some resistance training; yes this means adding weights to the mix. Weight lifting is an important and needed exercise if your going to burn fat and keep the fat off. Weight lifting strengthens the bones and builds muscle, and muscles burn fat. The more muscle you have the more fat you’re going to burn.

Weight lifting also boost your cardiovascular fitness that you’ve achieved with your aerobic workout. You can get good results with a 20 or 30 minute workout about 3 times a week. Do your strength training every other day. This gives your body time to recover and for your muscle to grow.

Some Final Thoughts.
When ever you’re working out in a fitness training routine make sure you stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water a quality sports drink that adds need minerals to you body. Forget the coffee, soda and drink mixes since they provide little nutritional value and are full of sugar (think calories folks).

Get plenty of rest, those 8 hours of snooze time help the body to recover and to work more efficiently when you’re doing your fat burning workouts.

The Dangers of Diabetic Drugs

Saturday, May 14th, 2011 No Commented
Under: Diabetes

Diabetes Drugs Associated with Heart Disease

One common debate is whether diabetes medications increase the risk of heart disease. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires oral diabetes medicines to carry a warning regarding increased risk of heart attack.

Several studies have associated a diabetes drug, Rosiglitazone, with cardiovascular mortality and morbidity. Rosiglitazone belongs to a class of anti-diabetic drugs knows as thiazolidinediones. The generic name of Rosiglitazone is Avandia. It is often referred to as an insulin sensitizer and used to treat people suffering from type 2 diabetes.

Studies Suggest Avandia Poses a Higher Risk of Heart Ailments

According to two extensive studies published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, patients who consume Avandia face a higher risk of developing fatal heart ailments.

The study conducted by Dr. David Graham, the associate director of the FDA, examined the data collected from over 220,000 elderly diabetics in a Medicare health insurance program who were either on Avandia or other diabetes treatment. The study found that patients on Avandia face an increased risk of stroke, heart failure and death, as compared to those not consuming the drug.

The other study headed by Dr. Steven Nissen, chairman of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic in 2007 raised public concern about the adverse cardiovascular outcomes of Avandia. The researchers performed a meta-analysis of the data collected from 56 different studies. They compared data from 35,000 patients on diabetes treatment. It was found that patients consuming Avandia faced 33 percent more risk of having a heart attack as compared to patients on other treatments. Also, Avandia was associated with increased risk of myocardial infarction and death from cardiovascular ailments.

Some of the other side effects of Avandia are upper respiratory tract infection, back pain, headache, fatigue, sinusitis, hypoglycemia, diarrhea and edema.

Do Diabetes Drugs Increase Risk of Cancer?

Conventional drug treatment for diabetes does not have a good track record. Prescription drugs have various side effects and are associated with severe health complications. Several researches have revealed that long-term use of some common diabetes drugs can increase the risk of cancer.

Oral Diabetes Medication May Raise Cancer Risk

An analysis of five-year data collected from an ongoing 10-year study, conducted by Takeda Pharmaceuticals, showed a link between the common anti-diabetes drug Actos and increased risk of bladder cancer. Actos is an oral prescription medication that is used for treating type 2 diabetes mellitus. The generic name of the drug is pioglitazone. It belongs to the class of drug called peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) agonists.

The observational cohort study was conducted on 193,000 diabetics associated with the Kaiser Permanente Northern California health plan. The data was collected between January 1, 1997 and April 20, 2008. Higher incidents of bladder cancer were observed among patients who received pioglitazone for at least 2 years, as compared to those on other medication. Also, the diabetics with longest exposure to the drug and those with the highest cumulative dose experienced higher risk of bladder cancer.

Another study, conducted by Larry L. Hillblom Islet Research Centre at UCLA, associated a diabetes drug, sitagliptin with increased risk of pancreatic cancer and pancreatitis. Sitagliptin is used to treat type 2 diabetes. The study was conducted on 40 human IAPP transgenic (HIP) rats. Both sitagliptin and metformin were given to the rats for 12 weeks. The researchers found that some rats had exceptionally high rates of cell production in the pancreatic ducts. Few rats developed a condition known as ductal metaplasia and pancreatitis.

A few other studies conducted on animals have linked Victoza, another anti-diabetic drug, with increased risk of thyroid cancer.

10 Facts About Acne

Friday, May 13th, 2011 No Commented
Under: Acne

If you are someone who has been unaffected by acne, you are definitely one of the lucky few. With 85 percent of teenagers getting them and quite a few adults struggling with this problem, acne remedy is something which is sought after by most. Who won’t give anything to have clear skin? Especially in this day and age when looks are actually everything.

So here is 10 facts about acne which will help you understand and deal with acne prone skin better.

During adolescence, the body produces excess sebum in the skin. Sebum attracts growth of acne causing bacterium called propionibacterium.

Which brings us to the next point, frequent washing. If you frequently wash your face, chances are that you will be removing sebum from the skin, not giving room for acne causing bacteria to grow.

However, most teenagers cannot be washing their faces between classes and most adults cannot keep cleaning their faces in between work hours. Which is why there are so many solutions out there to help you deal with acne prone skin.

Most adults on the other hand suffer from acne due to improper diet. Excessive intake of fatty substances also stimulates the liver into producing increased levels of androgen which in turn elevates the sebum levels in the skin, resulting in acne.

Adult acne often reduces with proper weight control. However, as weight control is easier said than done, dietary supplements are used to help burn fat in the intestines which in turn reduce acne from forming.

One needs to choose their acne remedy based on the type of acne they have. While adolescents can treat their acne externally, most adults need to treat their acne from inside out.

In both cases treating acne as soon as it occurs is best. As leaving it too late may result in acne related scars which need to be removed by more drastic methods such as microdermabrasion, chemical peeling, laser, injections as well as punch techniques.

While there are tons of remedies out there, each one works differently on each person. While products may be considered wonder drugs, others don’t seem to have any effect at all on some people.

The best way to choose a product that is good for you is to try it out, make sure it does not have any side effects and you may just find the acne miracle drug that works wonders on your skin.

One last thing, an acne product which has a money back guarantee is highly recommended because it will ensure that even if the product does not work for you, you will get your money back at least.

Acne: What Causes It and What Treatments Are Available?

Wednesday, May 11th, 2011 No Commented
Under: Acne

Waking up with little mysterious friends on your face and not know where they came from? Acne can appear at any point, more commonly it frequents the faces of young teens undergoing puberty. However, adult onset acne is just as common.

There are some common causes and actually some myths about these causes which we can clear up.

Overproduction of sebum or oil (Fact) – oil can at some points become overabundant due to some factors such as hormones. Oil typically travels up hair follicles and when these hair follicles become clogged the oil has nowhere to excrete

Dead skin cells that shed abnormally and result in the hair follicles on your skin to become irritated (Fact) – when skin cells shed abnormally they can fall back into the actual pore of the hair follicle causing it to become clogged which causes oil and bacteria buildup.

Eating greasy foods (Fiction) – Unless you are constantly rubbing french fries on your face, eating greasy foods isn’t going to give you acne. Although there are ongoing studies that show that super starchy foods which increase blood sugar could potentially cause an increase of acne.

Only people that don’t wash their face get acne (Fiction) – Having a dirty face really doesn’t have much to do with having acne. In fact, over cleaning may actually cause your skin to produce even more oil. However, being able to keep dead skin cells clear from your face might help the cause a little.

Buildup of bacteria (Fact) – When bacteria are built up in your hair follicles with nowhere to go it in turn clogs the pore which causes acne irritation.

What Type of Acne Treatments Are Available?

There are a plethora of acne treatments available either over the counter or by prescription. Depending on the severity and the actual cause of your problem you and your doctor should discuss which type of acne treatment may be right for you.

  • Over the counter treatments over the counter acne treatments typically come in the form of lotions. These lotions actually have the job of drying up any excess oil that may be being produced. These lotions can also kill bacteria and help the process of taking off dead skin cells. This topical acne treatment has very mild side effects such as mild skin irritation along with drying and flaking. These side effects typically dissipate after the first month of use.
  • Prescription strength treatments if you have tried over the counter acne treatments and they don’t seem to work the next step could be getting a prescription from your doctor. These are basically the same as the over the counter treatments just kicked up a notch. Sometimes more than one topical ointment will need to be used to get the optimal results. These typically promote cell turnover and help the actual hair follicle from getting clogged up. Yet another topical acne treatment method actually has antibiotic features in it. These antibiotic topical creams kill whatever bacteria may be lurking on your skin. Oral antibiotics are one other way your doctor may try to treat your acne. These oral acne treatments keep the bacteria from accumulating on your skin. Doctors may recommend tapering off of these oral antibiotics gradually after severe systems seem to pass because the body actually builds up a very fast resistance to them.

Get Rid of Your Panic Attacks Forever

Saturday, May 7th, 2011 No Commented
Under: Anxiety

Something happens that should not have bothered you. You see a car accident, hear a loud noise, or even possibly nothing at all occurs other than you just finished a cup of coffee. However, your body is reacting as if you have received a threat to your life. Your heart is racing, you breathing quickens, and you feel that you are just about to have a heart attack. Yet, you absolutely know that your reaction is illogical and should have never happened. You are having a panic attack.

Experts tend to agree that panic attacks generally occur because deep in your brain you have been programmed to react to threats – real or imagined. Medical scientists have explored the process that normally creates short-term memory, but in these cases the process installs a rather permanent reaction, which quickly leads to a perception of the existence of a threat. Surprisingly, this can be triggered quite suddenly – even with absolutely no awareness of what caused it. Panic attacks are a learned reaction, which most likely was etched into your brain as a result of one or more incidents that occurred prior to certain coping abilities being developed. Essentially, your brain reacted the only way that it knew how. And, now you are suffering for it.

My experience in dealing with such learned patterns is that their programming can be reversed.

  1. You must realize that you are not at fault and no amount of rationalizing and explaining will ever resolve your panic attacks.
  2. You must have faith that you are capable of overcoming them.
  3. You must know how to reverse the programming.

Mental health professionals know how to program your mind to create a different reaction to events that trigger stress in your life. Essentially, this is a form of what I call a pattern interrupt. Once a panic attack is triggered in your mind, the alternate reaction will lead you to a different result. Meanwhile, until this is accomplished, you still need to know how to cope.

Qualified hypnotherapists and others who are adequately trained in the use of hypnosis are uniquely qualified to reprogram your reaction to panic attack triggers and to strengthen your ability to control your reaction and quickly recover for each incident. By using hypnosis to train and fortify your mind, you will begin to develop healthier responses and observe your response with detached curiosity.

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