8/30
frutas or balut?
Tonight the weather was hot and humid. After dinner, Bien invited me to buy a balut(duck egg). So we went outside to go to where the balut vendor is. We did not invited the children because they were busy playing computer games.
Before we came to the balut vendor, we came across a fruit shake stand at the car wash station.
And now Bien is asking me if I want a balut or a fruit shake. I would love to have both, but our money can only accommodate one item. I choose the fruit shake, it's healthier, though. We bought an avocado shake, they make a tasty shake.
After we paid for our shake, we went back home. Not exactly inside the house, But we stayed a little bit longer just outside our gate. Bien got a bench, and we sat on it. There we spend maybe almost thirty minutes, while finishing the shake.
We talk about lots of things like our plans, the kids, ourselves.
It was a nice time spend together.
It was a great bonding time.
Concert?
Bien and Angel did a lot of singing last night.
It was a revelation for our kids.
They have the talent for singing, just like Bien.
It was a revelation for our kids.
They have the talent for singing, just like Bien.
 |
| bien and angel concert aug 26, 2008 |
I didn't marry you because you were perfect. I didn't even marry you because I loved you.
I married you because you gave me a promise. That promise made up for your faults.
And the promise I gave you made up for mine. Two imperfect people got married and it was the promise that made the marriage.
And when our children were growing up, it wasn't a house that
protected them; and it wasn't our love that protected them - it was that
promise.
Thornton Wilder, The Skin of Our Teeth
I married you because you gave me a promise. That promise made up for your faults.
And the promise I gave you made up for mine. Two imperfect people got married and it was the promise that made the marriage.
And when our children were growing up, it wasn't a house that
protected them; and it wasn't our love that protected them - it was that
promise.
Thornton Wilder, The Skin of Our Teeth
crochet doll for my girl
The first two pictures are amigurumi dolls I got from the internet. I showed it to my little girl, and yes she wanted to have something like that.
And below is the picture of the first amigurumi doll I made for my little girl. Now I'm working on my second amigurumi dolls.
I am just glad that she loved this doll.
Eyeing Those Dark Circles
Lack of sleep isn’t the only contributor to this common under-the-eyes condition.
By Dr. Rob for MSN Health & Fitness
Q: My 43-year-old daughter has constant dark, bluish circles under her eyes. What are some causes of this other than lack of sleep?
A: Dark circles under the eyes are pretty common, and the answer to your question may be as simple as looking at yourself in the mirror. Skin texture, tone and tint are passed on by genetics, just like hair and eye color.
So if you or her father has regularly appearing dark circles, chances are your daughter will too. However, heredity isn’t the only cause; allergies, illness, and even too much sunlight can add their mark. Fortunately, most times this cosmetic concern can be hidden or even reversed by cover-ups, treatments or lifestyle adjustments (skin masks, antihistamines, decreased sun exposure).
The skin under our eyelids is extremely thin. That is an important thing to remember in trying to soften those dark circles. The extremely thin skin has the potential to reflect the dark blue color of the circulating blood in the soft tissues below its surface. While the length of time and the degree of tint has a lot to do with the genetics and structure of the skin and veins in that area, there are other factors that play an important role. These various factors include (but aren’t limited to):
Fair skin.
Sun exposure, which triggers the skin pigment melanin to increase, resulting in a darker appearance.
Allergies that may cause itching or rubbing around the eyes or lids. This causes the fragile blood vessels to dilate or bruise, leading to that dark appearance under the eyes known as “allergic shiners.” This is especially noticeable in those with seasonal allergies, such as hay fever.
Colds or sinus infections, which can lead to an increased pressure on the blood vessels under the eyes, leading to a temporary dark circle appearance.
Heavy or improperly fitted eyeglasses can put added pressure on the veins and capillaries under the eyes, leading to a bruising or dilation of the blood vessels, resulting in a dark blue appearance.
Dehydration.
Bone structure. Deep set eyes and a prominent forehead may create a shadowing effect and the illusion of dark circles.
Menstruation and pregnancy. The hormonal changes may cause the facial skin to appear pale, leaving the darker pigments of the circulating blood in the veins under the eyes to stand out.
Poor nutrition and sudden weight loss can lead to sagging and thinning of the skin under the eyes, causing that “sunken” and darkened look.
Increased fluid retention from too much salt, or from medical conditions such as liver or kidney disease or heart failure.
Even sleeping on your stomach can lead to a puffiness and fluid accumulation under the bottom eyelids, causing a temporary appearance of dark circles.
Certain medicines, particularly blood pressure medications, can cause the blood vessels to expand and dilate. While this increased blood flow usually is not apparent in other areas, it can cause a visible tint below the very thin skin under the eyes.
Lack of sleep can lead to a pale appearance of the facial skin, thus highlighting the darker area under the eyes.
Aging. As we get older, the skin gets thinner and the muscles that hold the upper and lower eyelids and their surrounding fat pads in place tend to lose tone. This may result in a sagging and darker appearance around the eyes.
The treatment of the dark circles depends upon the suspected cause. For instance, if they seem to appear upon awakening and last through part of the day, it may be due to sleep position. In this case laying on the back with the head elevated may keep the fluid from accumulating under the eyes. If the cause is from constant rubbing due to the itching caused by allergies, an antihistamine may decrease the problem. And, if the dark circles are due to heredity or age, creams or make-up may be needed to mask the area. There are many home remedies (cucumbers, almond paste, used and refrigerated tea bags) that have shown various levels of success in relieving the appearance of these circles.
While the cause more often is due to cosmetic rather than medical concerns, your daughter should get a full exam by her health care professional. She may be referred to a skin-care specialist. These professionals can do wonders in reversing the tired, sickly and aging look of those dark circles.
Find More on MSN Health & Fitness:
What Your Fingernails Say About Your Health
6 Surprising Ways to Look Younger
Ease Your Itch
Strategies to Look Young
Find all articles by Dr. Rob.
Do you have a health question you'd like to ask Dr. Rob?
Send e-mail to experts@microsoft.com. Please include Ask Dr. Rob in the subject line.
Each of our experts responds to one question each week and the responses are posted on Mondays on MSN Health. We regret that we cannot provide a personalized response to every submission.
Robert Danoff, D.O., M.S., is a family physician and program director of The Family Practice Residency, as well as the combined Family Practice/Emergency Medicine Residency programs at Frankford Hospitals, Jefferson Health System, Philadelphia, Pa. He is the medical correspondent for CN8, The Comcast Network, a regular contributor to Discovery Health Online and a contributing writer to The New York Times Special Features. (Read his full bio.)
By Dr. Rob for MSN Health & Fitness
Q: My 43-year-old daughter has constant dark, bluish circles under her eyes. What are some causes of this other than lack of sleep?
A: Dark circles under the eyes are pretty common, and the answer to your question may be as simple as looking at yourself in the mirror. Skin texture, tone and tint are passed on by genetics, just like hair and eye color.
So if you or her father has regularly appearing dark circles, chances are your daughter will too. However, heredity isn’t the only cause; allergies, illness, and even too much sunlight can add their mark. Fortunately, most times this cosmetic concern can be hidden or even reversed by cover-ups, treatments or lifestyle adjustments (skin masks, antihistamines, decreased sun exposure).
The skin under our eyelids is extremely thin. That is an important thing to remember in trying to soften those dark circles. The extremely thin skin has the potential to reflect the dark blue color of the circulating blood in the soft tissues below its surface. While the length of time and the degree of tint has a lot to do with the genetics and structure of the skin and veins in that area, there are other factors that play an important role. These various factors include (but aren’t limited to):
Fair skin.
Sun exposure, which triggers the skin pigment melanin to increase, resulting in a darker appearance.
Allergies that may cause itching or rubbing around the eyes or lids. This causes the fragile blood vessels to dilate or bruise, leading to that dark appearance under the eyes known as “allergic shiners.” This is especially noticeable in those with seasonal allergies, such as hay fever.
Colds or sinus infections, which can lead to an increased pressure on the blood vessels under the eyes, leading to a temporary dark circle appearance.
Heavy or improperly fitted eyeglasses can put added pressure on the veins and capillaries under the eyes, leading to a bruising or dilation of the blood vessels, resulting in a dark blue appearance.
Dehydration.
Bone structure. Deep set eyes and a prominent forehead may create a shadowing effect and the illusion of dark circles.
Menstruation and pregnancy. The hormonal changes may cause the facial skin to appear pale, leaving the darker pigments of the circulating blood in the veins under the eyes to stand out.
Poor nutrition and sudden weight loss can lead to sagging and thinning of the skin under the eyes, causing that “sunken” and darkened look.
Increased fluid retention from too much salt, or from medical conditions such as liver or kidney disease or heart failure.
Even sleeping on your stomach can lead to a puffiness and fluid accumulation under the bottom eyelids, causing a temporary appearance of dark circles.
Certain medicines, particularly blood pressure medications, can cause the blood vessels to expand and dilate. While this increased blood flow usually is not apparent in other areas, it can cause a visible tint below the very thin skin under the eyes.
Lack of sleep can lead to a pale appearance of the facial skin, thus highlighting the darker area under the eyes.
Aging. As we get older, the skin gets thinner and the muscles that hold the upper and lower eyelids and their surrounding fat pads in place tend to lose tone. This may result in a sagging and darker appearance around the eyes.
The treatment of the dark circles depends upon the suspected cause. For instance, if they seem to appear upon awakening and last through part of the day, it may be due to sleep position. In this case laying on the back with the head elevated may keep the fluid from accumulating under the eyes. If the cause is from constant rubbing due to the itching caused by allergies, an antihistamine may decrease the problem. And, if the dark circles are due to heredity or age, creams or make-up may be needed to mask the area. There are many home remedies (cucumbers, almond paste, used and refrigerated tea bags) that have shown various levels of success in relieving the appearance of these circles.
While the cause more often is due to cosmetic rather than medical concerns, your daughter should get a full exam by her health care professional. She may be referred to a skin-care specialist. These professionals can do wonders in reversing the tired, sickly and aging look of those dark circles.
Find More on MSN Health & Fitness:
What Your Fingernails Say About Your Health
6 Surprising Ways to Look Younger
Ease Your Itch
Strategies to Look Young
Find all articles by Dr. Rob.
Do you have a health question you'd like to ask Dr. Rob?
Send e-mail to experts@microsoft.com. Please include Ask Dr. Rob in the subject line.
Each of our experts responds to one question each week and the responses are posted on Mondays on MSN Health. We regret that we cannot provide a personalized response to every submission.
Robert Danoff, D.O., M.S., is a family physician and program director of The Family Practice Residency, as well as the combined Family Practice/Emergency Medicine Residency programs at Frankford Hospitals, Jefferson Health System, Philadelphia, Pa. He is the medical correspondent for CN8, The Comcast Network, a regular contributor to Discovery Health Online and a contributing writer to The New York Times Special Features. (Read his full bio.)
who do you say i am?
Jesus ask Peter, "Who do you say I am?"
It is important that the divinity of Jesus is clear to his disciples.
Let Jesus be known thru you.
Random act of kindness.
Some people wants to remain anonymous when they donate to charities.
It is important that the divinity of Jesus is clear to his disciples.
Let Jesus be known thru you.
Random act of kindness.
Some people wants to remain anonymous when they donate to charities.
Dating 101: Do Opposites Attract?
Relationship therapist helps several 'opposite' couples and advises daters drawn to their opposites
By Tina B. Tessina, Ph.D. Special to Yahoo! Personals Updated: Aug 21, 2008
It seems logical that like would attract like, but in my private practice as a marriage counselor and psychotherapist, I often see people drawn to their opposite.
For "opposite" couples, your relationship feels great at first, because it's new and exciting. But if there isn't a certain degree of similarity between you and your partner, it will be too stressful to last.
For "opposite" couples, your relationship feels great at first, because it's new and exciting. But if there isn't a certain degree of similarity between you and your partner, it will be too stressful to last. The excitement and challenge of your relationship comes from your differences; the security and ease of your relationship comes from your similarities.
Dating subjects you should understand to overcome challenging differences between you and your partner:
Different Genders
To begin with, unless you're in a same-sex couple, you're dealing with different genders. Part of figuring out if you'll make a good couple is working out the differences in your social expectations. It's no wonder people are nervous, social mores are changing rapidly, and no one is too sure how to act. The best thing you can do is react slowly, and give your date a chance to telegraph what he or she is going to do.
For single women: Don't rush to get out of the car. Fiddle a bit with your handbag until you see if he makes a move to come around and open your door. Don't just yank a door open and walk through. Walk a little slowly to give him a chance to open it. If he does neither of these things, no harm done -- just do it yourself and now you know. When the bill comes for the first date, if he asked you out and selected the restaurant, it's safe to assume he's paying. Don't take it for granted -- definitely thank him.
If you have his address, it's charming to send a little thank you note, and it doesn't seem as forward as a call. Or use email, or call his home phone and leave a little thank you message when you know he's at work.
Men value competency and problem solving. Women value intimacy and emotional connection. The truth is that learning successful problem solving ends fighting and power struggles, and therefore leads to more intimacy. Women, you may think he's focused entirely on time, power, or money, but what he's really trying to do is create enough security that he can feel safe to let his guard down. Men, you might think she's illogical or irrational, but she's responding to emotional cues you haven't been trained to see.
Different Families and/or Cultures
It's not just that "Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus" -- it's that all of us have grown up on different planets. Whatever your family did seems "normal" and "right" to you, and
couples can get caught up in arguing about who's right rather than focusing on what will work.
couples can get caught up in arguing about who's right rather than focusing on what will work. This is especially difficult in mixed-culture families. Blended couples have blended children, who need both cultures. Learning to combine traditions, cuisines, and family celebrations can really create a brand new culture that celebrates everyone. I have helped many couples accomplish this, and the result is joyful.
Coming Together
When your differences are grating against each other, you need to stop insisting you're right or your partner is wrong, and seek to re-establish your connection. To reconnect, be sure you are listening to each other and understanding your mutual needs and wants. The most powerful thing you can do to keep a marriage strong is form a partnership, a team, where both parties feel respected, cared about, and needed. If you really want to revive your relationship, begin not by complaining about your needs that aren't being met, but by focusing on understanding your partner's needs, and communicating what you want. Once you make the connection, you can begin to work out the issues.
Intimacy Breaks Barriers
Intimacy is the art of making your partner feel understood and accepted. When this feeling is created, barriers fall. Gentle touch, eye contact, a gentle sense of humor, and the right words all create an intimate atmosphere. Commenting positively on your partner's looks or the day's activities will also help. Partners often disconnect when they don't feel interested in each other anymore. When there's a problem with intimacy, a partner who's sympathetic and doesn't make demands can be very healing and appealing.
Four simple steps to create a successful relationship despite your differences:
1. Talk frequently and honestly to each other about your frustrations, about intimacy, about anger, about disappointment, about your appreciation of each other, about the meaning of life, about everything.
2. Strive to work together to solve anything that comes up. Learn to be a team, a partnership. Don't get stuck on who's right or wrong. Instead, focus on what will solve the problem.
3. Keep your connection going through communication, affection, understanding, and mutual concern for one another.
4. Have a sense of humor, give the benefit of the doubt, and lighten up. Try not to react so dramatically, and let small things roll off your back.
When you follow these four steps, your differences won't separate you -- they'll excite you.
More Dating Tips by Tina B. Tessina, Ph.D.
By Tina B. Tessina, Ph.D. Special to Yahoo! Personals Updated: Aug 21, 2008
It seems logical that like would attract like, but in my private practice as a marriage counselor and psychotherapist, I often see people drawn to their opposite.
For "opposite" couples, your relationship feels great at first, because it's new and exciting. But if there isn't a certain degree of similarity between you and your partner, it will be too stressful to last.
For "opposite" couples, your relationship feels great at first, because it's new and exciting. But if there isn't a certain degree of similarity between you and your partner, it will be too stressful to last. The excitement and challenge of your relationship comes from your differences; the security and ease of your relationship comes from your similarities.
Dating subjects you should understand to overcome challenging differences between you and your partner:
Different Genders
To begin with, unless you're in a same-sex couple, you're dealing with different genders. Part of figuring out if you'll make a good couple is working out the differences in your social expectations. It's no wonder people are nervous, social mores are changing rapidly, and no one is too sure how to act. The best thing you can do is react slowly, and give your date a chance to telegraph what he or she is going to do.
For single women: Don't rush to get out of the car. Fiddle a bit with your handbag until you see if he makes a move to come around and open your door. Don't just yank a door open and walk through. Walk a little slowly to give him a chance to open it. If he does neither of these things, no harm done -- just do it yourself and now you know. When the bill comes for the first date, if he asked you out and selected the restaurant, it's safe to assume he's paying. Don't take it for granted -- definitely thank him.
If you have his address, it's charming to send a little thank you note, and it doesn't seem as forward as a call. Or use email, or call his home phone and leave a little thank you message when you know he's at work.
Men value competency and problem solving. Women value intimacy and emotional connection. The truth is that learning successful problem solving ends fighting and power struggles, and therefore leads to more intimacy. Women, you may think he's focused entirely on time, power, or money, but what he's really trying to do is create enough security that he can feel safe to let his guard down. Men, you might think she's illogical or irrational, but she's responding to emotional cues you haven't been trained to see.
Different Families and/or Cultures
It's not just that "Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus" -- it's that all of us have grown up on different planets. Whatever your family did seems "normal" and "right" to you, and
couples can get caught up in arguing about who's right rather than focusing on what will work.
couples can get caught up in arguing about who's right rather than focusing on what will work. This is especially difficult in mixed-culture families. Blended couples have blended children, who need both cultures. Learning to combine traditions, cuisines, and family celebrations can really create a brand new culture that celebrates everyone. I have helped many couples accomplish this, and the result is joyful.
Coming Together
When your differences are grating against each other, you need to stop insisting you're right or your partner is wrong, and seek to re-establish your connection. To reconnect, be sure you are listening to each other and understanding your mutual needs and wants. The most powerful thing you can do to keep a marriage strong is form a partnership, a team, where both parties feel respected, cared about, and needed. If you really want to revive your relationship, begin not by complaining about your needs that aren't being met, but by focusing on understanding your partner's needs, and communicating what you want. Once you make the connection, you can begin to work out the issues.
Intimacy Breaks Barriers
Intimacy is the art of making your partner feel understood and accepted. When this feeling is created, barriers fall. Gentle touch, eye contact, a gentle sense of humor, and the right words all create an intimate atmosphere. Commenting positively on your partner's looks or the day's activities will also help. Partners often disconnect when they don't feel interested in each other anymore. When there's a problem with intimacy, a partner who's sympathetic and doesn't make demands can be very healing and appealing.
Four simple steps to create a successful relationship despite your differences:
1. Talk frequently and honestly to each other about your frustrations, about intimacy, about anger, about disappointment, about your appreciation of each other, about the meaning of life, about everything.
2. Strive to work together to solve anything that comes up. Learn to be a team, a partnership. Don't get stuck on who's right or wrong. Instead, focus on what will solve the problem.
3. Keep your connection going through communication, affection, understanding, and mutual concern for one another.
4. Have a sense of humor, give the benefit of the doubt, and lighten up. Try not to react so dramatically, and let small things roll off your back.
When you follow these four steps, your differences won't separate you -- they'll excite you.
More Dating Tips by Tina B. Tessina, Ph.D.
Yoga for Scoliosis
With regular practice, you can ease the pain of a crooked back and turn it into a powerful teacher.
By Elise Browning Miller
The dull aching on the right side of my mid-back was familiar. Sitting at my desk all day working on income taxes was not only dulling my mind, it was creating a pain in my body that I could no longer ignore. So I got up and headed for the kitchen. Stuffing my face was always a quick solution for the pains and problems of life.
As I grabbed for the food, it occurred to me, "Not only am I in pain, I'm downright depressed! "Though I knew taxes were not always an enlightening task, I hadn't realized that my whole psyche was besieged by negativity. Was my negative attitude affecting my already vulnerable back or was it the other way around? Either way, eating was not going to solve the problem.
I knew of only one solution for my spasmed back and negative attitude. For years, only yoga had helped me cope with the pain I had lived with almost all my life. At 16 months, I had fallen down a steep flight of basement stairs. Initially, the family physician thought I had only broken my nose. Years later, I found out that my ribs had been knocked out of position from the accident, which gradually created a lateral curvature of the spine called a scoliosis.
What is Scoliosis?
Perhaps the most dramatic of spinal aberrations, scoliosis appears in cave paintings of prehistoric man and was first treated with braces by the Creek physician Hippocrates in the fourth century B.C, Not only does it create spinal deformity and rib displacement, it twists the shoulders and hips and shifts the body's center of gravity. Its most obvious symptoms are cosmetic, but pain and cardiopulmonary complications (due to compression of the heart and lungs) are also common. The word "scoliosis" is derived from the Greek word skol, which means twists and turns. In scoliosis, the spine forms an S curve (or reversed S) from side to side down the back, and at the same time the back of the spine rotates toward the concave side of the S, twisting the rib cage and making the sides of the back uneven. (To observe this effect, bend a hose into an S shape and observe how it rotates at the same time.) Particularly when this curvature occurs in the mid-back region, the ribs compress on the concave side of the spine and spread apart on the convex side. On the concave side, the attached ribs are pushed sideways and forward, while on the convex side, they collapse toward the spine and move back, thus forming the characteristic rotation of the rib cage. The ribs on the convex side often protrude posteriorly, and over this protrusion there frequently develops a tense, painful mass of muscle tissue.
Four Major Scoliosis Curves
Curvature can take place anywhere in the spinal column but generally follows four common patterns. In a right thoracic scoliosis, the major scoliosis is concentrated in the thoracic (mid-back) region, and the spine curves to the right. (There may also be a counter curve to the left in the lumbar region, but this curve is less severe.) In a left lumbar scoliosis, the major curve is to the left and is concentrated in the lumbar (lower back) region, though, as shown in the diagram, there may be a less extreme counter curve to the right in the thoracic region. A third type of scoliosis is the right thoraco-lumbar, where the major curve is to the right in the thoracic and lumbar region. The last type of curvature is the right thoracic-left lumbar combined curve, where the major curve is to the right in the thoracic region, with an equal counter curve to the left in the lumbar region. For unknown reasons, 90 percent of thoracic and double curves are right convexity (curve to the right); 80 percent of the thoraco-lumbar curves also are right convexity; and 70 percent of the lumbar curves are left convexity. Seven times as many women as men have scoliosis.
Structural and Functional Scoliosis
Scoliosis can be either structural or functional. The structural variety is much more serious and develops as a result of unequal growth of the two sides of the vertebral bodies. It usually appears during adolescence, and its causes are not well understood--approximately 70 percent of all structural scoliosis are idiopathic, meaning doctors do not know why they develop. Functional scoliosis only affects the back muscles and does not structurally alter the body. It can result from such things as poor posture or repeated unbalanced activity, such as always carrying books on one side. It is much more common than structural scoliosis, usually much less noticeable since the degree of curvature is less, and almost always reversible.
To determine whether a scoliosis is functional or structural, bend forward from the hips. If a lateral (side to side) curve visible in standing disappears in this position, the scoliosis is functional; if the curve remains, it is built into the ribs and spine, and the scoliosis is structural.
Yoga or Surgery?
When I was 15, my family physician informed me that I had a severe structural right thoracic scoliosis. He recommended a brace and threatened me with a possible fusion of the spine, an operation in which metal rods are inserted next to the spinal column to prevent the curvature from growing worse. Appalled, I consulted a top orthopedic surgeon, who suggested that instead I try a regimen of exercise and stretching.
I exercised regularly throughout high school and college, but although 1 experienced little discomfort, I noticed that my posture was becoming worse. I was rounding my shoulders, particularly on the right side; and when I wore a bathing suit, I noticed that the right side of my back protruded more than the left. After graduation, while working with the Peace Corps in Brazil, I began to experience spasms and acute pain in my back. Guided by a fellow Peace Corps volunteer, I turned to hatha yoga.
When I stretched in the yoga poses, the numbness on the right side of my, back went away, and the pain started to dissolve. To explore this path further, I returned to the United States, where I studied at the Integral Yoga Institute with Swami Satchidananda and learned about the importance of love, service, and balance in life and yoga practice. Then I turned to the Iyengar system to explore in depth the way the therapeutic use of yoga postures could help my scoliosis.
Since that time, I have been exploring and healing my body through the practice of yoga. By teaching students with scoliosis, I have learned how to assist others with their own explorations. I have found that although every scoliosis is different, there are certain philosophical guidelines and practical yoga postures that can be helpful to yoga students with scoliosis.
The decision to do yoga to remediate a scoliosis entails a lifetime commitment to a process of self-discovery and growth. For many people, this kind of commitment is intimidating. It's tempting to turn instead to an orthopedic surgeon, who will "fix" a back by fusing it and get rid of the pain forever. Unfortunately, this operation results in a virtually immobile spine and frequently fails to alleviate the pain. I taught one teenage student with an extreme scoliosis who, weary of struggling with her yoga practice, gave up and had her back fused. To her dismay, her pain persisted, and she had even less mobility than before. When the rod in her back broke, she had it removed rather than replaced, and she returned to her yoga practice with a renewed and deeper commitment.
Choosing the path of self-discovery rather than surgery requires not only commitment but inner awareness. Guidance from a competent teacher is helpful, but awareness of our own bodies is crucial--no famous guru can fix our backs for us, any more than an orthopedic surgeon can. Only through our own constant awareness and loving attention can we transform our discomfort into a guide that helps us to get in touch with our bodies.
The goal of yoga practice should not be to straighten our backs; we must learn to accept them as they are, not deny them or judge them. Instead, we must work to understand our backs and to relate to them with sensitivity and awareness. Healing is much more than straightening a scoliosis, or curing a disease. It is learning to love and nurture ourselves and trust our inner knowing to guide us to a vibrant state of being.
Yoga for Scoliosis
When the body is balanced and aligned with gravity, a yoga posture will be almost effortless. Before doing yoga, my body did not know what "balanced" felt like. Through yoga, I have learned that I can have a curved spine and still be balanced and graceful.
There are six major areas of the body to focus on while doing the yoga poses for scoliosis. These areas are very important in creating proper alignment, decreasing pain. and minimizing further curvature of the spine.
1. Feet and Iegs. When standing and walking, it is very important to place equal weight on both feet and to be aware of any imbalances. Strengthening the legs creates a solid foundation from which the spine can stretch and become freer, and it enables the legs, rather than the spine, to carry the weight of the body.
2. Spine. Since this is where the scoliosis is located, it is important to focus on lengthening the spine, which tends to reduce the S curve.
3. Psoas (Major and Minor). These two muscles (a pair on each side of the body) are the principal flexors of the thigh. They arise from the iliacus muscle and along the vertebral column and join to insert on the lesser trochanter of the femur. Together with the iliacus, they form a structural and functional unit called the iliopsoas. Besides flexing the thigh, the iliopsoas is an important postural muscle. During sit ting it balances the torso; in standing it counteracts the tendency of the torso to fall behind the line of gravity, which passes just in back of the hip joints. Keeping this muscle well toned aligns the lower limbs with the torso and frees the spine.
4. Scapula. To prevent the upper back from rounding (a common problem in people with scoliosis) , it is important to drop the shoulder blades down from the ears and draw them in toward the front of the body. To facilitate this movement, we must develop increased flexibility of the muscles surrounding the shoulder blades.
5. Abdominal Muscles. To strengthen the abdominal muscles is very important with a scoliosis. If the abdominals are weak, then it causes the back muscles to overwork and therefore tighten. In extreme cases, it may cause lordosis or an extreme curve of the lower back particularly on the concave side of the lower back.
6. Breath. Awareness of the breath is perhaps the most important thing to focus on while doing the yoga poses. Usually very little air enters the lung on the concave side of the spine. Sending the breath into the collapsed rib cage on this side can actually stretch the intercostal muscles and create more lung capacity. This creates more openness and evenness on both sides of the chest, from the inside out.
Read more about this article in Sequences for Scoliosis here.
Elise Miller, M.A. in Therapeutic Recreation from the University of North Carolina, is a Senior Certified Iyengar Yoga teacher from Palo Alto who has been teaching yoga throughout the United States and internationally since 1976. As a founding director of the California Yoga Center in Mountain View, CA, Elise teaches classes and workshops specializing in back care and sports-related injuries and is a faculty member at the Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco. For more detailed information on Yoga for Scoliosis, including Elise's video, please visit her website at http://www.yogaforscoliosis.com.
Return to http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/1060
By Elise Browning Miller
The dull aching on the right side of my mid-back was familiar. Sitting at my desk all day working on income taxes was not only dulling my mind, it was creating a pain in my body that I could no longer ignore. So I got up and headed for the kitchen. Stuffing my face was always a quick solution for the pains and problems of life.
As I grabbed for the food, it occurred to me, "Not only am I in pain, I'm downright depressed! "Though I knew taxes were not always an enlightening task, I hadn't realized that my whole psyche was besieged by negativity. Was my negative attitude affecting my already vulnerable back or was it the other way around? Either way, eating was not going to solve the problem.
I knew of only one solution for my spasmed back and negative attitude. For years, only yoga had helped me cope with the pain I had lived with almost all my life. At 16 months, I had fallen down a steep flight of basement stairs. Initially, the family physician thought I had only broken my nose. Years later, I found out that my ribs had been knocked out of position from the accident, which gradually created a lateral curvature of the spine called a scoliosis.
What is Scoliosis?
Perhaps the most dramatic of spinal aberrations, scoliosis appears in cave paintings of prehistoric man and was first treated with braces by the Creek physician Hippocrates in the fourth century B.C, Not only does it create spinal deformity and rib displacement, it twists the shoulders and hips and shifts the body's center of gravity. Its most obvious symptoms are cosmetic, but pain and cardiopulmonary complications (due to compression of the heart and lungs) are also common. The word "scoliosis" is derived from the Greek word skol, which means twists and turns. In scoliosis, the spine forms an S curve (or reversed S) from side to side down the back, and at the same time the back of the spine rotates toward the concave side of the S, twisting the rib cage and making the sides of the back uneven. (To observe this effect, bend a hose into an S shape and observe how it rotates at the same time.) Particularly when this curvature occurs in the mid-back region, the ribs compress on the concave side of the spine and spread apart on the convex side. On the concave side, the attached ribs are pushed sideways and forward, while on the convex side, they collapse toward the spine and move back, thus forming the characteristic rotation of the rib cage. The ribs on the convex side often protrude posteriorly, and over this protrusion there frequently develops a tense, painful mass of muscle tissue.
Four Major Scoliosis Curves
Curvature can take place anywhere in the spinal column but generally follows four common patterns. In a right thoracic scoliosis, the major scoliosis is concentrated in the thoracic (mid-back) region, and the spine curves to the right. (There may also be a counter curve to the left in the lumbar region, but this curve is less severe.) In a left lumbar scoliosis, the major curve is to the left and is concentrated in the lumbar (lower back) region, though, as shown in the diagram, there may be a less extreme counter curve to the right in the thoracic region. A third type of scoliosis is the right thoraco-lumbar, where the major curve is to the right in the thoracic and lumbar region. The last type of curvature is the right thoracic-left lumbar combined curve, where the major curve is to the right in the thoracic region, with an equal counter curve to the left in the lumbar region. For unknown reasons, 90 percent of thoracic and double curves are right convexity (curve to the right); 80 percent of the thoraco-lumbar curves also are right convexity; and 70 percent of the lumbar curves are left convexity. Seven times as many women as men have scoliosis.
Structural and Functional Scoliosis
Scoliosis can be either structural or functional. The structural variety is much more serious and develops as a result of unequal growth of the two sides of the vertebral bodies. It usually appears during adolescence, and its causes are not well understood--approximately 70 percent of all structural scoliosis are idiopathic, meaning doctors do not know why they develop. Functional scoliosis only affects the back muscles and does not structurally alter the body. It can result from such things as poor posture or repeated unbalanced activity, such as always carrying books on one side. It is much more common than structural scoliosis, usually much less noticeable since the degree of curvature is less, and almost always reversible.
To determine whether a scoliosis is functional or structural, bend forward from the hips. If a lateral (side to side) curve visible in standing disappears in this position, the scoliosis is functional; if the curve remains, it is built into the ribs and spine, and the scoliosis is structural.
Yoga or Surgery?
When I was 15, my family physician informed me that I had a severe structural right thoracic scoliosis. He recommended a brace and threatened me with a possible fusion of the spine, an operation in which metal rods are inserted next to the spinal column to prevent the curvature from growing worse. Appalled, I consulted a top orthopedic surgeon, who suggested that instead I try a regimen of exercise and stretching.
I exercised regularly throughout high school and college, but although 1 experienced little discomfort, I noticed that my posture was becoming worse. I was rounding my shoulders, particularly on the right side; and when I wore a bathing suit, I noticed that the right side of my back protruded more than the left. After graduation, while working with the Peace Corps in Brazil, I began to experience spasms and acute pain in my back. Guided by a fellow Peace Corps volunteer, I turned to hatha yoga.
When I stretched in the yoga poses, the numbness on the right side of my, back went away, and the pain started to dissolve. To explore this path further, I returned to the United States, where I studied at the Integral Yoga Institute with Swami Satchidananda and learned about the importance of love, service, and balance in life and yoga practice. Then I turned to the Iyengar system to explore in depth the way the therapeutic use of yoga postures could help my scoliosis.
Since that time, I have been exploring and healing my body through the practice of yoga. By teaching students with scoliosis, I have learned how to assist others with their own explorations. I have found that although every scoliosis is different, there are certain philosophical guidelines and practical yoga postures that can be helpful to yoga students with scoliosis.
The decision to do yoga to remediate a scoliosis entails a lifetime commitment to a process of self-discovery and growth. For many people, this kind of commitment is intimidating. It's tempting to turn instead to an orthopedic surgeon, who will "fix" a back by fusing it and get rid of the pain forever. Unfortunately, this operation results in a virtually immobile spine and frequently fails to alleviate the pain. I taught one teenage student with an extreme scoliosis who, weary of struggling with her yoga practice, gave up and had her back fused. To her dismay, her pain persisted, and she had even less mobility than before. When the rod in her back broke, she had it removed rather than replaced, and she returned to her yoga practice with a renewed and deeper commitment.
Choosing the path of self-discovery rather than surgery requires not only commitment but inner awareness. Guidance from a competent teacher is helpful, but awareness of our own bodies is crucial--no famous guru can fix our backs for us, any more than an orthopedic surgeon can. Only through our own constant awareness and loving attention can we transform our discomfort into a guide that helps us to get in touch with our bodies.
The goal of yoga practice should not be to straighten our backs; we must learn to accept them as they are, not deny them or judge them. Instead, we must work to understand our backs and to relate to them with sensitivity and awareness. Healing is much more than straightening a scoliosis, or curing a disease. It is learning to love and nurture ourselves and trust our inner knowing to guide us to a vibrant state of being.
Yoga for Scoliosis
When the body is balanced and aligned with gravity, a yoga posture will be almost effortless. Before doing yoga, my body did not know what "balanced" felt like. Through yoga, I have learned that I can have a curved spine and still be balanced and graceful.
There are six major areas of the body to focus on while doing the yoga poses for scoliosis. These areas are very important in creating proper alignment, decreasing pain. and minimizing further curvature of the spine.
1. Feet and Iegs. When standing and walking, it is very important to place equal weight on both feet and to be aware of any imbalances. Strengthening the legs creates a solid foundation from which the spine can stretch and become freer, and it enables the legs, rather than the spine, to carry the weight of the body.
2. Spine. Since this is where the scoliosis is located, it is important to focus on lengthening the spine, which tends to reduce the S curve.
3. Psoas (Major and Minor). These two muscles (a pair on each side of the body) are the principal flexors of the thigh. They arise from the iliacus muscle and along the vertebral column and join to insert on the lesser trochanter of the femur. Together with the iliacus, they form a structural and functional unit called the iliopsoas. Besides flexing the thigh, the iliopsoas is an important postural muscle. During sit ting it balances the torso; in standing it counteracts the tendency of the torso to fall behind the line of gravity, which passes just in back of the hip joints. Keeping this muscle well toned aligns the lower limbs with the torso and frees the spine.
4. Scapula. To prevent the upper back from rounding (a common problem in people with scoliosis) , it is important to drop the shoulder blades down from the ears and draw them in toward the front of the body. To facilitate this movement, we must develop increased flexibility of the muscles surrounding the shoulder blades.
5. Abdominal Muscles. To strengthen the abdominal muscles is very important with a scoliosis. If the abdominals are weak, then it causes the back muscles to overwork and therefore tighten. In extreme cases, it may cause lordosis or an extreme curve of the lower back particularly on the concave side of the lower back.
6. Breath. Awareness of the breath is perhaps the most important thing to focus on while doing the yoga poses. Usually very little air enters the lung on the concave side of the spine. Sending the breath into the collapsed rib cage on this side can actually stretch the intercostal muscles and create more lung capacity. This creates more openness and evenness on both sides of the chest, from the inside out.
Read more about this article in Sequences for Scoliosis here.
Elise Miller, M.A. in Therapeutic Recreation from the University of North Carolina, is a Senior Certified Iyengar Yoga teacher from Palo Alto who has been teaching yoga throughout the United States and internationally since 1976. As a founding director of the California Yoga Center in Mountain View, CA, Elise teaches classes and workshops specializing in back care and sports-related injuries and is a faculty member at the Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco. For more detailed information on Yoga for Scoliosis, including Elise's video, please visit her website at http://www.yogaforscoliosis.com.
Return to http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/1060
What are you willing to do to be happy?
Story Highlights
Three examples of changes people make to be happy
How a woman benefits from revving up her sex life
Another woman abandons Wall Street for the trapeze
Man close to Oprah Winfrey learns to laugh to drop stress
(Oprah.com) -- Are you truly happy?
Where you live, what you do and how much sex you have just might be the answer! The biggest complainer Oprah knows is her makeup artist Reggie Wells. After a recent "Oprah Show," he agreed to take Pastor Will Bowen's complaint-free challenge. Reggie wears a purple wristband, and every time he utters a complaint, he has to change the wrist he wears it on.
Oprah Winfrey and her makeup artist Reggie Wells share some laughter.
How did he do? Oprah says Reggie "complained so much that he was getting whiplash from changing [wrists]." For some extra help in looking on the bright side, Oprah sent him to a class in "laughing yoga."
First developed in India, Laughter Yoga is now practiced in 53 countries around the world. Reggie's instructor, Jeffrey Briar -- one of 48 certified Laughter Yoga instructors in the United States -- says Laughter Yoga's positive effects are no joke. "Laughter relieves all the negative effects of stress," he says. "It strengthens the abdominal organs and help you get those six-pack abs we're all looking for. It oxygenates the bloodstream. It releases endorphins, the body's natural painkiller."
The class starts cold, and Reggie remains cynical. "We're going to start with nothing and laugh for no reason, and you'll feel better," Jeffrey says. But as they move on to more advanced moves -- like lion laughter, naughty naughty and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde -- Reggie really starts to catch the laughing bug.
Reggie works up a sweat, but can he change his complaining ways? Reggie says that before his Laughter Yoga class, he was depressed. It was the Saturday before Easter, he was lonely and he doubted the class would do much to change that. "It was very goofy in the beginning ... but you can't fake a laugh," he says. "Once you get into it ... the stress lifted from my soul, it lifted from my body."
Dr. Robert Holden, author of "Happiness Now" says chronic complainers like Reggie actually live in fear of happiness. Their condition -- which he dubs "happy-chondria" -- is based on a belief that any happiness carries an eventual fall and price.
"Rather than have everything be perfect and full, I'll have it be quite good and complain," he says. "Reggie's got to dare to let life be great and trust that happiness can happen and that it can last."
One woman's courageous decision to live the life of her dreams.
By the time she was 29, Liz was a successful banking executive on Wall Street. She made vice president in her division and earned a healthy salary. She says she had "a traditional definition of success that had a lot to do with material things," but after eight grueling years in business, Liz says she knew she was not on the road to happiness. "I felt proud, but the work was not inspiring me. I didn't have passion for that work. I felt like I had to stifle parts of myself in order to be what Wall Street wanted from me. I felt like I was playing a corporate character, like it wasn't coming from inside of me, who I really am," she says.
Liz knew that making a big change meant taking an even bigger risk. "I was about to turn 30, and I realized it was time for me to live the life I wanted for myself, not the life that other people wanted for me," she says. "It's not making me happy to sit here at this desk anymore. I cannot blame anyone else for my unhappiness. I completely believe life is short. You do not get a second chance. I was standing at an edge, and for me it was time to jump."
Liz took a 90 percent pay cut and traded the high-wire act of finance for a career as a trapeze artist!
Following her dream is "like laughter in my heart," she says. "It's hard to quantify that fulfillment that comes with it, but it greatly exceeds the compensation that I sacrificed."
Dr. Holden says the key to being happy is overcoming "destination addiction," which he defines as "living in the not-now."
"It's always about tomorrow, so you're chasing 'more,' 'next' and 'there,'" he says. "You promise yourself that when you get there, you'll be happy. And I promise you, you won't, because you'll always set another destination to go for."
Instead, Dr. Holden says if you are unhappy with your life or looking to improve your score on the satisfaction test, there are two things you can do. "We have to learn to let go of our past, we have to give up all hopes for a perfect past. Let the past go, it's gone." After that, he says, "Take a vow of kindness. Be kinder to yourself and to others.
"It's never too late to be happy," he says.
Can more sex make you happy? Find out what one woman did to rev up her sex life!
Lawreen and Randy were the average suburban couple raising two kids. But after just two years of marriage, something was missing. "After we had our kids, our sex life just kind of vanished. It wasn't a priority anymore, and if my husband wanted it, I thought it was up to him to initiate it," Lawreen says. "The lack of sex was creating unhappiness in the rest of our life. We were snapping at each other. We weren't very patient and understanding."
After seeing an "Oprah Show" about how important sex was to a marriage, Lawreen realized she needed to spice things up in a big way.
"I said, 'This is what we're going to do. We're going to have sex every night. I'm not going to tell him. I'm going to get babysitters. I'm going to make a date,'" she says. Lawreen also started dressing up, wearing more makeup, learned how to strip from DVDs and took belly dancing courses. She also took sex out of the bedroom and brought it into other places in her home.
How did Randy react? "In my mind I thought, 'I know women hit their sexual peak later,'" he says. "I did not question it at all."
Three years after Lawreen thought up this plan, their sex life is still going strong. Lawreen says she and Randy still have sex almost every night. "If we don't, it's because we're extremely exhausted or Randy's away on a business trip," Lawreen says. "Not because we don't want to."
In fact, having sex every night has brought Lawreen and Randy closer as a couple. "We're better parents. We're happier people," Lawreen says. "The more sex we have, the more touchy and more affectionate we are with one another. & So we're better parents and our kids. Oh, they pick up on this. They feel happy because Mom and Dad are happy."
Happiness expert Dr. Holden says Lawreen and Randy have the right idea. "I think the big thing, guys, which I really appreciate about you, is I think you understand that sex is communication. & So there's intimacy here," he says.
"One of the big mistakes I think we make in relationships is that we don't give our best energy to the people that matter most. And I think what you're doing is you're making that time to be able to give some of your best energy to each other." E-mail to a friend
Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now!
TM & © 2007 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Three examples of changes people make to be happy
How a woman benefits from revving up her sex life
Another woman abandons Wall Street for the trapeze
Man close to Oprah Winfrey learns to laugh to drop stress
(Oprah.com) -- Are you truly happy?
Where you live, what you do and how much sex you have just might be the answer! The biggest complainer Oprah knows is her makeup artist Reggie Wells. After a recent "Oprah Show," he agreed to take Pastor Will Bowen's complaint-free challenge. Reggie wears a purple wristband, and every time he utters a complaint, he has to change the wrist he wears it on.
Oprah Winfrey and her makeup artist Reggie Wells share some laughter.
How did he do? Oprah says Reggie "complained so much that he was getting whiplash from changing [wrists]." For some extra help in looking on the bright side, Oprah sent him to a class in "laughing yoga."
First developed in India, Laughter Yoga is now practiced in 53 countries around the world. Reggie's instructor, Jeffrey Briar -- one of 48 certified Laughter Yoga instructors in the United States -- says Laughter Yoga's positive effects are no joke. "Laughter relieves all the negative effects of stress," he says. "It strengthens the abdominal organs and help you get those six-pack abs we're all looking for. It oxygenates the bloodstream. It releases endorphins, the body's natural painkiller."
The class starts cold, and Reggie remains cynical. "We're going to start with nothing and laugh for no reason, and you'll feel better," Jeffrey says. But as they move on to more advanced moves -- like lion laughter, naughty naughty and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde -- Reggie really starts to catch the laughing bug.
Reggie works up a sweat, but can he change his complaining ways? Reggie says that before his Laughter Yoga class, he was depressed. It was the Saturday before Easter, he was lonely and he doubted the class would do much to change that. "It was very goofy in the beginning ... but you can't fake a laugh," he says. "Once you get into it ... the stress lifted from my soul, it lifted from my body."
Dr. Robert Holden, author of "Happiness Now" says chronic complainers like Reggie actually live in fear of happiness. Their condition -- which he dubs "happy-chondria" -- is based on a belief that any happiness carries an eventual fall and price.
"Rather than have everything be perfect and full, I'll have it be quite good and complain," he says. "Reggie's got to dare to let life be great and trust that happiness can happen and that it can last."
One woman's courageous decision to live the life of her dreams.
By the time she was 29, Liz was a successful banking executive on Wall Street. She made vice president in her division and earned a healthy salary. She says she had "a traditional definition of success that had a lot to do with material things," but after eight grueling years in business, Liz says she knew she was not on the road to happiness. "I felt proud, but the work was not inspiring me. I didn't have passion for that work. I felt like I had to stifle parts of myself in order to be what Wall Street wanted from me. I felt like I was playing a corporate character, like it wasn't coming from inside of me, who I really am," she says.
Liz knew that making a big change meant taking an even bigger risk. "I was about to turn 30, and I realized it was time for me to live the life I wanted for myself, not the life that other people wanted for me," she says. "It's not making me happy to sit here at this desk anymore. I cannot blame anyone else for my unhappiness. I completely believe life is short. You do not get a second chance. I was standing at an edge, and for me it was time to jump."
Liz took a 90 percent pay cut and traded the high-wire act of finance for a career as a trapeze artist!
Following her dream is "like laughter in my heart," she says. "It's hard to quantify that fulfillment that comes with it, but it greatly exceeds the compensation that I sacrificed."
Dr. Holden says the key to being happy is overcoming "destination addiction," which he defines as "living in the not-now."
"It's always about tomorrow, so you're chasing 'more,' 'next' and 'there,'" he says. "You promise yourself that when you get there, you'll be happy. And I promise you, you won't, because you'll always set another destination to go for."
Instead, Dr. Holden says if you are unhappy with your life or looking to improve your score on the satisfaction test, there are two things you can do. "We have to learn to let go of our past, we have to give up all hopes for a perfect past. Let the past go, it's gone." After that, he says, "Take a vow of kindness. Be kinder to yourself and to others.
"It's never too late to be happy," he says.
Can more sex make you happy? Find out what one woman did to rev up her sex life!
Lawreen and Randy were the average suburban couple raising two kids. But after just two years of marriage, something was missing. "After we had our kids, our sex life just kind of vanished. It wasn't a priority anymore, and if my husband wanted it, I thought it was up to him to initiate it," Lawreen says. "The lack of sex was creating unhappiness in the rest of our life. We were snapping at each other. We weren't very patient and understanding."
After seeing an "Oprah Show" about how important sex was to a marriage, Lawreen realized she needed to spice things up in a big way.
"I said, 'This is what we're going to do. We're going to have sex every night. I'm not going to tell him. I'm going to get babysitters. I'm going to make a date,'" she says. Lawreen also started dressing up, wearing more makeup, learned how to strip from DVDs and took belly dancing courses. She also took sex out of the bedroom and brought it into other places in her home.
How did Randy react? "In my mind I thought, 'I know women hit their sexual peak later,'" he says. "I did not question it at all."
Three years after Lawreen thought up this plan, their sex life is still going strong. Lawreen says she and Randy still have sex almost every night. "If we don't, it's because we're extremely exhausted or Randy's away on a business trip," Lawreen says. "Not because we don't want to."
In fact, having sex every night has brought Lawreen and Randy closer as a couple. "We're better parents. We're happier people," Lawreen says. "The more sex we have, the more touchy and more affectionate we are with one another. & So we're better parents and our kids. Oh, they pick up on this. They feel happy because Mom and Dad are happy."
Happiness expert Dr. Holden says Lawreen and Randy have the right idea. "I think the big thing, guys, which I really appreciate about you, is I think you understand that sex is communication. & So there's intimacy here," he says.
"One of the big mistakes I think we make in relationships is that we don't give our best energy to the people that matter most. And I think what you're doing is you're making that time to be able to give some of your best energy to each other." E-mail to a friend
Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now!
TM & © 2007 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Banish Cellulite
By Allison Winn Scotch, Prevention
Prevention
Talk about stubborn fat: Last year, American women spent nearly $100 million on creams, lotions, and other topical treatments in hopes of eradicating cellulite from our thighs and butts. We doubt those products worked. That's because, despite its infamy, cellulite is just plain old fat (albeit dressed up in slightly more offensive attire) and a key to minimizing it is to drop pounds, according to a 2006 study published in the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
But how you drop those pounds matters: Crash dieting can actually make cellulite worse by reducing skin's elasticity, making more of those little puckers noticeable. Gradual weight loss (to better preserve skin's suppleness and reduce fat) accompanied by targeted muscle development, which firms and smoothes underlying tissue, is the most effective cellulite solution, says Glynis Ablon, MD, an assistant clinical professor of dermatology at UCLA.
When Wayne Westcott, PhD, co-author of No More Cellulite, tested such a strategy on 115 women, all of them reported a reduction in cellulite appearance at the end of 8 weeks, and ultrasound measurements confirmed a higher proportion of muscle to fat in their thigh areas.
Now, it's your turn. This comprehensive exercise and eating plan — based on Westcott's findings — will burn fat, build muscle, and shed pounds safely. It's not as easy as applying a cream. But it works.
The Workout
This two-pronged exercise program helps minimize the lumpy, bumpy appearance of cellulite. Aerobic exercise like walking and running burns fat, while lower-body moves such as squats and lunges build muscle. To maximize fat loss, you'll do 200 minutes of cardio a week — the amount found to produce the greatest weight loss — including high-intensity exercise to rev your calorie burn for up to 19 hours after a workout. You should see the slimming, smoothing results in a month!
Your Plan At A Glance
Part 1: Burn off cellulite
5 days a week
Blast fat with two types of cardio routines: Intense Workouts (an interval program that builds from fitness walks to calorie-blasting runs) and Moderate Workouts (any aerobic activity you enjoy).
Part 2: Tone, smooth & firm
3 days a week
Tone your muscles by doing six strengthening moves. (Take a day off between these workouts.)
Weeks 1 & 2
Do 1 set of 12 repetitions of each exercise.
Weeks 3 & 4
Repeat the circuit twice so you're doing 2 sets of each exercise.
Weeks 5-8
Repeat the circuit 3 times, so you're doing 3 sets of each exercise. On the third set, instead of holding the move, pulse for 3 counts by lifting and lowering a few inches before returning to start position.
Part 1: Burn Off Cellulite
Intense Workouts: 3 Days a week
Week 1:
Brisk Walk Interval: 2 minute
Run Interval*: 1 minute
Number of Intervals: 10
Total Workout (5 min warm-up, 5 min cool-down included): 40 minutes
Week 2:
Brisk Walk Interval: 1 minute
Run Interval*: 1 minute
Number of Intervals: 15
Total Workout (5 min warm-up, 5 min cool-down included): 40 minutes
Week 3:
Brisk Walk Interval: 1 minute
Run Interval*: 2 minute
Number of Intervals: 10
Total Workout (5 min warm-up, 5 min cool-down included): 40 minutes
Week 4:
Brisk Walk Interval: 1 minute
Run Interval*: 4 minute
Number of Intervals: 7
Total Workout (5 min warm-up, 5 min cool-down included): 45 minutes
Week 5:
Brisk Walk Interval: 1 minute
Run Interval*: 6 minute
Number of Intervals: 5
Total Workout (5 min warm-up, 5 min cool-down included): 45 minutes
Week 6:
Brisk Walk Interval: 1 minute
Run Interval*: 7 minute
Number of Intervals: 4
Total Workout (5 min warm-up, 5 min cool-down included): 42 minutes
Week 7:
Brisk Walk Interval: 1 minute
Run Interval*: 8 minute
Number of Intervals: 4
Total Workout (5 min warm-up, 5 min cool-down included): 46 minutes
Week 8:
Brisk Walk Interval: 1 minute
Run Interval*: 9 minute
Number of Intervals: 3
Total Workout (5 min warm-up, 5 min cool-down included): 40 minutes
Moderate Workouts: 2 days a week
You choose: walking, swimming, or cycling
Week 1: 40 minutes
Week 2: 40 minutes
Week 3: 40 minutes
Week 4: 40 minutes
Week 5: 40 minutes
Week 6: 40 minutes
Week 7: 40 minutes
Week 8: 40 minutes
*If you have joint problems, you can substitute fast walking for running.
Part 2: Tone, Smooth & Firm
1. Squat kickback
Stand with feet together, toes pointing forward, and arms bent at sides. Bend knees and hips into a squat, as if you were sitting in a chair (A), and hold for 3 counts. As you rise, press right leg back and squeeze glutes (B). Hold for 1 count, then lower. Switch legs after each set.
Make It Easier: Don't squat as deeply, and keep toes on floor when pressing back.
2. Curtsy and kick
Stand with feet together, hands on hips. Step right foot behind left leg and bend knees until left thigh is almost parallel to floor (A). Keep left knee over ankle. Hold for 3 counts. As you stand back up, kick right leg out to side before doing another curtsy (B). Switch legs after each set.
Make It Easier: Skip the kick and bring feet together between each curtsy.
3. Plié sweep
Stand with feet wide apart, toes pointing out, and hands on hips. Keeping back straight and abs tight, tuck tailbone and bend knees, lowering until thighs are almost parallel to floor (A). Hold for 3 counts. As you stand up, sweep left leg across body, as if you're kicking a soccer ball (B). Switch legs after each set.
Make It Easier: Eliminate the leg sweep.
4. Glute squeeze
Lie on floor with knees bent, feet beneath knees and hip-width apart. Keeping hips level and abs tight, press into heels and squeeze glutes, lifting hips to form a bridge. Lower hips halfway to floor for 2 counts, then press back up. (Instead of pulses on your third set, do a Hip Rock: In bridge position, squeeze left buttocks and lift left hip. Repeat on right side. That's 1 rep.)
Make It Easier: Lower hips to floor between reps.
5. Bun burner
Get on all fours, with hands beneath shoulders, knees beneath hips, and abs tight. Extend right leg behind you so it's in line with back, toes pointed and hips square to floor. Pull knee into chest (A), contracting abs, and extend leg back out 12 times. Next, extend right leg (B) and pulse, lifting and lowering a few inches, 12 times. Then bend right leg so sole of foot faces ceiling (C) and pulse 12 times. That's 1 set. Repeat with left leg. (No need to add additional pulses when you progress to 3 sets.)
Make It Easier: Place your forearms on the floor.
6. Pass through lunges
Stand with feet together, hands on hips. Step right foot forward 2 to 3 feet and bend knees, lowering until right thigh is parallel to floor. Keep right knee over ankle. Hold for 1 count. In one swift movement, press off right foot and bring it behind you. (Left foot doesn't move.) Lower into another lunge so left thigh is parallel to floor, holding for 1 count. Continue passing right foot through into a front then a back lunge without bringing feet together. Switch legs after each set.
Make It Easier: Rather than pushing through from front to back in one swift movement, bring feet together before going into back lunge.
Want to see these moves in motion? Check out Prevention's Fight Cellulite Fast! DVD. ($15; prevention.com/shop)
Provided by Prevention
URL: http://health.msn.com/fitness/womens-fitness/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100188434>1=10815
Prevention
Talk about stubborn fat: Last year, American women spent nearly $100 million on creams, lotions, and other topical treatments in hopes of eradicating cellulite from our thighs and butts. We doubt those products worked. That's because, despite its infamy, cellulite is just plain old fat (albeit dressed up in slightly more offensive attire) and a key to minimizing it is to drop pounds, according to a 2006 study published in the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
But how you drop those pounds matters: Crash dieting can actually make cellulite worse by reducing skin's elasticity, making more of those little puckers noticeable. Gradual weight loss (to better preserve skin's suppleness and reduce fat) accompanied by targeted muscle development, which firms and smoothes underlying tissue, is the most effective cellulite solution, says Glynis Ablon, MD, an assistant clinical professor of dermatology at UCLA.
When Wayne Westcott, PhD, co-author of No More Cellulite, tested such a strategy on 115 women, all of them reported a reduction in cellulite appearance at the end of 8 weeks, and ultrasound measurements confirmed a higher proportion of muscle to fat in their thigh areas.
Now, it's your turn. This comprehensive exercise and eating plan — based on Westcott's findings — will burn fat, build muscle, and shed pounds safely. It's not as easy as applying a cream. But it works.
The Workout
This two-pronged exercise program helps minimize the lumpy, bumpy appearance of cellulite. Aerobic exercise like walking and running burns fat, while lower-body moves such as squats and lunges build muscle. To maximize fat loss, you'll do 200 minutes of cardio a week — the amount found to produce the greatest weight loss — including high-intensity exercise to rev your calorie burn for up to 19 hours after a workout. You should see the slimming, smoothing results in a month!
Your Plan At A Glance
Part 1: Burn off cellulite
5 days a week
Blast fat with two types of cardio routines: Intense Workouts (an interval program that builds from fitness walks to calorie-blasting runs) and Moderate Workouts (any aerobic activity you enjoy).
Part 2: Tone, smooth & firm
3 days a week
Tone your muscles by doing six strengthening moves. (Take a day off between these workouts.)
Weeks 1 & 2
Do 1 set of 12 repetitions of each exercise.
Weeks 3 & 4
Repeat the circuit twice so you're doing 2 sets of each exercise.
Weeks 5-8
Repeat the circuit 3 times, so you're doing 3 sets of each exercise. On the third set, instead of holding the move, pulse for 3 counts by lifting and lowering a few inches before returning to start position.
Part 1: Burn Off Cellulite
Intense Workouts: 3 Days a week
Week 1:
Brisk Walk Interval: 2 minute
Run Interval*: 1 minute
Number of Intervals: 10
Total Workout (5 min warm-up, 5 min cool-down included): 40 minutes
Week 2:
Brisk Walk Interval: 1 minute
Run Interval*: 1 minute
Number of Intervals: 15
Total Workout (5 min warm-up, 5 min cool-down included): 40 minutes
Week 3:
Brisk Walk Interval: 1 minute
Run Interval*: 2 minute
Number of Intervals: 10
Total Workout (5 min warm-up, 5 min cool-down included): 40 minutes
Week 4:
Brisk Walk Interval: 1 minute
Run Interval*: 4 minute
Number of Intervals: 7
Total Workout (5 min warm-up, 5 min cool-down included): 45 minutes
Week 5:
Brisk Walk Interval: 1 minute
Run Interval*: 6 minute
Number of Intervals: 5
Total Workout (5 min warm-up, 5 min cool-down included): 45 minutes
Week 6:
Brisk Walk Interval: 1 minute
Run Interval*: 7 minute
Number of Intervals: 4
Total Workout (5 min warm-up, 5 min cool-down included): 42 minutes
Week 7:
Brisk Walk Interval: 1 minute
Run Interval*: 8 minute
Number of Intervals: 4
Total Workout (5 min warm-up, 5 min cool-down included): 46 minutes
Week 8:
Brisk Walk Interval: 1 minute
Run Interval*: 9 minute
Number of Intervals: 3
Total Workout (5 min warm-up, 5 min cool-down included): 40 minutes
Moderate Workouts: 2 days a week
You choose: walking, swimming, or cycling
Week 1: 40 minutes
Week 2: 40 minutes
Week 3: 40 minutes
Week 4: 40 minutes
Week 5: 40 minutes
Week 6: 40 minutes
Week 7: 40 minutes
Week 8: 40 minutes
*If you have joint problems, you can substitute fast walking for running.
Part 2: Tone, Smooth & Firm
1. Squat kickback
Stand with feet together, toes pointing forward, and arms bent at sides. Bend knees and hips into a squat, as if you were sitting in a chair (A), and hold for 3 counts. As you rise, press right leg back and squeeze glutes (B). Hold for 1 count, then lower. Switch legs after each set.
Make It Easier: Don't squat as deeply, and keep toes on floor when pressing back.
2. Curtsy and kick
Stand with feet together, hands on hips. Step right foot behind left leg and bend knees until left thigh is almost parallel to floor (A). Keep left knee over ankle. Hold for 3 counts. As you stand back up, kick right leg out to side before doing another curtsy (B). Switch legs after each set.
Make It Easier: Skip the kick and bring feet together between each curtsy.
3. Plié sweep
Stand with feet wide apart, toes pointing out, and hands on hips. Keeping back straight and abs tight, tuck tailbone and bend knees, lowering until thighs are almost parallel to floor (A). Hold for 3 counts. As you stand up, sweep left leg across body, as if you're kicking a soccer ball (B). Switch legs after each set.
Make It Easier: Eliminate the leg sweep.
4. Glute squeeze
Lie on floor with knees bent, feet beneath knees and hip-width apart. Keeping hips level and abs tight, press into heels and squeeze glutes, lifting hips to form a bridge. Lower hips halfway to floor for 2 counts, then press back up. (Instead of pulses on your third set, do a Hip Rock: In bridge position, squeeze left buttocks and lift left hip. Repeat on right side. That's 1 rep.)
Make It Easier: Lower hips to floor between reps.
5. Bun burner
Get on all fours, with hands beneath shoulders, knees beneath hips, and abs tight. Extend right leg behind you so it's in line with back, toes pointed and hips square to floor. Pull knee into chest (A), contracting abs, and extend leg back out 12 times. Next, extend right leg (B) and pulse, lifting and lowering a few inches, 12 times. Then bend right leg so sole of foot faces ceiling (C) and pulse 12 times. That's 1 set. Repeat with left leg. (No need to add additional pulses when you progress to 3 sets.)
Make It Easier: Place your forearms on the floor.
6. Pass through lunges
Stand with feet together, hands on hips. Step right foot forward 2 to 3 feet and bend knees, lowering until right thigh is parallel to floor. Keep right knee over ankle. Hold for 1 count. In one swift movement, press off right foot and bring it behind you. (Left foot doesn't move.) Lower into another lunge so left thigh is parallel to floor, holding for 1 count. Continue passing right foot through into a front then a back lunge without bringing feet together. Switch legs after each set.
Make It Easier: Rather than pushing through from front to back in one swift movement, bring feet together before going into back lunge.
Want to see these moves in motion? Check out Prevention's Fight Cellulite Fast! DVD. ($15; prevention.com/shop)
Provided by Prevention
URL: http://health.msn.com/fitness/womens-fitness/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100188434>1=10815
Skin care for every decade of life
Story Highlights
In your 20's, start vitamin A-derivative prescription retinoids
In your 30's, use moisturizer with antioxidants, like green or pomegranate
In your 40's, use a creamy cleanser or one with salicylic acid
In your 50's and beyond, apply serum containing peptides to damp face
(Oprah.com) --
For many of us, the way our skin looks in the morning dictates, like the weather, what kind of day we might have. We get out of bed, skip (or stagger) over to the mirror, and peer at our reflection as if we were peering out the window. What did the day blow in? A clear, calm complexion? A shower of breakouts? A mist of fine lines? A gloomy new cumulus of dark spots?
To help you in your quest for brighter horizons complexion-wise, we talked to top dermatologists across the country about what it takes to get gorgeous skin, and came up with this straightforward, thorough, easy-to-follow, bottom-line guide for every age.
Your No-Fail Plan: In your 20's
Use gentle products, and focus on damage prevention. "You don't need anti wrinkle creams or microdermabrasion in your 20's," says Ranella Hirsch, M.D., president-elect of the American Society of Cosmetic Dermatology & Aesthetic Surgery.
Cleanser: If you have normal skin, you need to wash it only before bed, says Lupo.
Use a mild cleanser -- either a gel, if your skin is oily, or a milky one, if it's dry.
Moisturizer: Pick a brand, any brand. But be absolutely sure that your moisturizer has SPF 15 or 20, and that it gives you both UVA and UVB protection. Apply it all over your face and on your neck and chest, says Lupo. (This is critical no matter what your age.)
Nighttime treatment: Use a hydrating fluid or an oil-free moisturizer. Many dermatologists recommend starting on the vitamin A-derivative prescription retinoids (like Retin-A, Tazorac, and Avage) -- the gold standard for reducing fine lines, stimulating collagen, and treating acne -- or products containing the less potent, over-the-counter retinol. Before bed, apply a pea-size amount all over your face and right up under your eyes, says Hirsch; then you don't need an eye cream.
Your No-Fail Plan: In your 30's
Even if you've taken good care of your skin, you'll probably start noticing fine lines and wrinkles, especially around the eyes and mouth, says Susan Taylor, M.D., clinical assistant professor of dermatology at Columbia University.
Cleanser: In the morning, use a cleanser with alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs) to encourage exfoliation. In the evening, wash with a creamy cleanser.
Moisturizer: In addition to SPF 15 or 20 with UVA/UVB protection, your moisturizer should contain antioxidants, like green or white tea, pomegranate, or vitamin C, which will protect your skin from damaging free radicals. Start wearing an eye cream daily. For dark circles, use one with hydroquinone, vitamin C, or botanicals that brighten, like kojic acid, soy, or licorice; for puffiness, look for one containing caffeine; for extra moisturization, use one with hyaluronic acid, says Taylor.
Nighttime treatment: "Once you're in your 30's, a retinoid or retinol isn't optional anymore," says Hirsch. So if you're not on a prescription retinoid, choose a night cream or serum with retinol.
Your No-Fail Plan: In your 40's
Those great beach vacations you took in your teens are showing up on your face: You're beginning to see cumulative sun damage in the form of blotchiness, red spots, and ruddiness. You're also losing more collagen and elasticity, and your skin retains less moisture. Because it doesn't reflect light evenly, your complexion is losing some of its glow.
Cleanser: Use a creamy (rather than gel) cleanser morning and night, unless you can tolerate one with a mild AHA or salicylic acid once a day, says Ava T. Shamban, M.D., assistant clinical professor of dermatology at UCLA. (Try NIA 24 Gentle Cleansing Cream, $30, or Lumene Radiant Touch Moisturizing Cream Cleanser, $10; Bliss Steep Clean Cleansing Milk with salicylic acid, $32, is also a good one.)
Moisturizer: Supplement your broad-spectrum moisturizer, which should contain SPF 15 or 20, with a couple of creams, lotions, or serums containing at least two types of antioxidants, such as lycopene, green tea, or soy, alternating them every other day, says Shamban. (Try Skin Effects by Dr. Jeffrey Dover Wrinkle Effects Relaxing Cream with Lycopene, $30; Boscia Balancing Facial Tonic, $18; and Arcona Gentle Solution Repair PM, $48.) You'll get a wider benefit from switching off, because different antioxidants address different problems, says Shamban. Or, if your skin is beginning to look crepey, try a formula with peptides, which have been shown to strengthen collagen, says Hirsch. Treat dryness with a rich moisturizing cream that contains hyaluronic acid, petrolatum, shea butter, or oils. (We like CeraVe Moisturizing Cream, $15; L'Occitane Ultra Rich Face Cream, $36; and Shiseido Bio-Performance Advanced Super Revitalizer Cream, $70.)
Nighttime treatment: A prescription retinoid is the way to go, say both Hirsch and Shamban. It reduces brown spots, increases exfoliation and collagen production, thickens the epidermis, and can reverse precancerous sun damage. If your skin can't tolerate a retinoid every night, use it every other night.
Your No-Fail Plan: In your 50's and beyond
Don't even think of retiring from the skin care game. It's never too late to prevent sun damage and to stop the progression of damage you may already have. Cell turnover is slow; the most significant change you'll notice in your complexion is dryness and loss of elasticity. Expression lines no longer disappear after you stop smiling or squinting; pores are more visible, especially on the nose and cheeks. You're likely to have developed spider veins and hyperpigmentation (age spots), and precancerous spots from sun damage.
Once you hit your 60's and 70's, basically all the issues that arose in your 50's become more extreme. Aren't you glad you're flooded with postmenopausal zest?
Cleanser: Wash morning and night with a non-soap cleanser (like Awake Deep Purity Gel Cream Wash, $30, or Dermalogica Special Cleansing Gel, $29) or a creamy, foaming one (we like Neutrogena Fresh Foaming Cleanser, $6, and Estée Lauder Soft Clean Moisture Rich Foaming Cleanser, $19).
Moisturizer: Apply a serum containing peptides or an antioxidant like vitamin C when your face is still damp (try SkinCeuticals C E Ferulic, $128, or Cellex-C High Potency Serum, $90). Serums, in general, are more easily absorbed than creams and lotions. Then apply a broad-spectrum moisturizer containing SPF 15 or 20, with UVA/UVB protection.
Nighttime treatment: Try Renova, a prescription retinoid, which is more moisturizing than others, says Wendy E. Roberts, M.D., assistant clinical professor of medicine at Loma Linda University Medical Center.
From "O, The Oprah Magazine," November 2007
Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now!
TM & © 2007 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
In your 20's, start vitamin A-derivative prescription retinoids
In your 30's, use moisturizer with antioxidants, like green or pomegranate
In your 40's, use a creamy cleanser or one with salicylic acid
In your 50's and beyond, apply serum containing peptides to damp face
(Oprah.com) --
For many of us, the way our skin looks in the morning dictates, like the weather, what kind of day we might have. We get out of bed, skip (or stagger) over to the mirror, and peer at our reflection as if we were peering out the window. What did the day blow in? A clear, calm complexion? A shower of breakouts? A mist of fine lines? A gloomy new cumulus of dark spots?
To help you in your quest for brighter horizons complexion-wise, we talked to top dermatologists across the country about what it takes to get gorgeous skin, and came up with this straightforward, thorough, easy-to-follow, bottom-line guide for every age.
Your No-Fail Plan: In your 20's
Use gentle products, and focus on damage prevention. "You don't need anti wrinkle creams or microdermabrasion in your 20's," says Ranella Hirsch, M.D., president-elect of the American Society of Cosmetic Dermatology & Aesthetic Surgery.
Cleanser: If you have normal skin, you need to wash it only before bed, says Lupo.
Use a mild cleanser -- either a gel, if your skin is oily, or a milky one, if it's dry.
Moisturizer: Pick a brand, any brand. But be absolutely sure that your moisturizer has SPF 15 or 20, and that it gives you both UVA and UVB protection. Apply it all over your face and on your neck and chest, says Lupo. (This is critical no matter what your age.)
Nighttime treatment: Use a hydrating fluid or an oil-free moisturizer. Many dermatologists recommend starting on the vitamin A-derivative prescription retinoids (like Retin-A, Tazorac, and Avage) -- the gold standard for reducing fine lines, stimulating collagen, and treating acne -- or products containing the less potent, over-the-counter retinol. Before bed, apply a pea-size amount all over your face and right up under your eyes, says Hirsch; then you don't need an eye cream.
Your No-Fail Plan: In your 30's
Even if you've taken good care of your skin, you'll probably start noticing fine lines and wrinkles, especially around the eyes and mouth, says Susan Taylor, M.D., clinical assistant professor of dermatology at Columbia University.
Cleanser: In the morning, use a cleanser with alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs) to encourage exfoliation. In the evening, wash with a creamy cleanser.
Moisturizer: In addition to SPF 15 or 20 with UVA/UVB protection, your moisturizer should contain antioxidants, like green or white tea, pomegranate, or vitamin C, which will protect your skin from damaging free radicals. Start wearing an eye cream daily. For dark circles, use one with hydroquinone, vitamin C, or botanicals that brighten, like kojic acid, soy, or licorice; for puffiness, look for one containing caffeine; for extra moisturization, use one with hyaluronic acid, says Taylor.
Nighttime treatment: "Once you're in your 30's, a retinoid or retinol isn't optional anymore," says Hirsch. So if you're not on a prescription retinoid, choose a night cream or serum with retinol.
Your No-Fail Plan: In your 40's
Those great beach vacations you took in your teens are showing up on your face: You're beginning to see cumulative sun damage in the form of blotchiness, red spots, and ruddiness. You're also losing more collagen and elasticity, and your skin retains less moisture. Because it doesn't reflect light evenly, your complexion is losing some of its glow.
Cleanser: Use a creamy (rather than gel) cleanser morning and night, unless you can tolerate one with a mild AHA or salicylic acid once a day, says Ava T. Shamban, M.D., assistant clinical professor of dermatology at UCLA. (Try NIA 24 Gentle Cleansing Cream, $30, or Lumene Radiant Touch Moisturizing Cream Cleanser, $10; Bliss Steep Clean Cleansing Milk with salicylic acid, $32, is also a good one.)
Moisturizer: Supplement your broad-spectrum moisturizer, which should contain SPF 15 or 20, with a couple of creams, lotions, or serums containing at least two types of antioxidants, such as lycopene, green tea, or soy, alternating them every other day, says Shamban. (Try Skin Effects by Dr. Jeffrey Dover Wrinkle Effects Relaxing Cream with Lycopene, $30; Boscia Balancing Facial Tonic, $18; and Arcona Gentle Solution Repair PM, $48.) You'll get a wider benefit from switching off, because different antioxidants address different problems, says Shamban. Or, if your skin is beginning to look crepey, try a formula with peptides, which have been shown to strengthen collagen, says Hirsch. Treat dryness with a rich moisturizing cream that contains hyaluronic acid, petrolatum, shea butter, or oils. (We like CeraVe Moisturizing Cream, $15; L'Occitane Ultra Rich Face Cream, $36; and Shiseido Bio-Performance Advanced Super Revitalizer Cream, $70.)
Nighttime treatment: A prescription retinoid is the way to go, say both Hirsch and Shamban. It reduces brown spots, increases exfoliation and collagen production, thickens the epidermis, and can reverse precancerous sun damage. If your skin can't tolerate a retinoid every night, use it every other night.
Your No-Fail Plan: In your 50's and beyond
Don't even think of retiring from the skin care game. It's never too late to prevent sun damage and to stop the progression of damage you may already have. Cell turnover is slow; the most significant change you'll notice in your complexion is dryness and loss of elasticity. Expression lines no longer disappear after you stop smiling or squinting; pores are more visible, especially on the nose and cheeks. You're likely to have developed spider veins and hyperpigmentation (age spots), and precancerous spots from sun damage.
Once you hit your 60's and 70's, basically all the issues that arose in your 50's become more extreme. Aren't you glad you're flooded with postmenopausal zest?
Cleanser: Wash morning and night with a non-soap cleanser (like Awake Deep Purity Gel Cream Wash, $30, or Dermalogica Special Cleansing Gel, $29) or a creamy, foaming one (we like Neutrogena Fresh Foaming Cleanser, $6, and Estée Lauder Soft Clean Moisture Rich Foaming Cleanser, $19).
Moisturizer: Apply a serum containing peptides or an antioxidant like vitamin C when your face is still damp (try SkinCeuticals C E Ferulic, $128, or Cellex-C High Potency Serum, $90). Serums, in general, are more easily absorbed than creams and lotions. Then apply a broad-spectrum moisturizer containing SPF 15 or 20, with UVA/UVB protection.
Nighttime treatment: Try Renova, a prescription retinoid, which is more moisturizing than others, says Wendy E. Roberts, M.D., assistant clinical professor of medicine at Loma Linda University Medical Center.
From "O, The Oprah Magazine," November 2007
Subscribe to O, The Oprah Magazine for up to 75% off the newsstand price. That's like getting 18 issues FREE. Subscribe now!
TM & © 2007 Harpo Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Saranggola
Bien is showing the kids how to fly a kite.
Looks like Angel is more interested in stepping at the Makahiya grass.
Hey Dad, where's the kite?
bisikleta
Gian is learning how to ride a bike. He is really putting extra effort on this. Don't worry kuya a few more tries and you are ready to race.
Congratulation!!!
Angel is also learning how to ride a bike.
sa moa
A stroll at the SM Mall of Asia
Gian and Angel is getting upclose with some Chinese exhibits.
At the bridge. . . . then keep on walking and walking and walking. . .
Taking a break after some long walks. Pagod na kami.
Gian and Angel is getting upclose with some Chinese exhibits.
At the bridge. . . . then keep on walking and walking and walking. . .
Taking a break after some long walks. Pagod na kami.
At the grocery store. . . . .
I was at the counter paying . . . . .
. . . . and look at what my kid's been doing while waiting for me.
WHACKY. . . . KULETZ
. . . . and look at what my kid's been doing while waiting for me.
WHACKY. . . . KULETZ
halo-halo
We are now enjoy a treat of halo-halo after the saranggola and the bisikleta.
A reward for each of them.
And a reward for the two of us.
Decade-by-decade guide to exercise
By Carol Mithers
(Oprah.com) -- If there's a magic pill for staying youthful, it may be one that's hard to swallow: exercise. Daily doses have been proven to thwart a number of aging factors -- stress, obesity, heart disease, diabetes -- and the longer you're physically active, the less you'll notice getting older.
Weight training is good at any age.
The catch is that a 50-year-old's body is not the same as a 20-year-old's; you can't push it the same way you once did, nor should you if you want to keep it in working-out order.
So listen to these coaches -- they're talking not just professionally but also firsthand -- on how to remain fit, and proud of it, through the decades.
Find the perfect fit for any age!
There's a big difference between how we should work out in our 20s and how we should work out when ... we're no longer 20. Find your perfect fit.
The 20s
Rx: 30 minutes of weight training followed by 30 minutes of cardio 3x a week, plus 45 to 60 minutes of straight cardio 3x a week. One day of rest.
The great thing about being in your 20s is that your body is so strong, you can get away with abusing it. The bad thing is that you often do, punishing it with late nights and bad eating habits. And you routinely fail to appreciate what you've got.
This is the decade of anxiety -- frantic exercise, fad diets, the mad pursuit of pinup perfection and self-hatred when you fail to meet it. The fitness challenge of these years: Get over it.
Don't Miss
Oprah.com: Dr. Oz's excuse-busting workout
Oprah.com: The workout that does it all
Oprah.com: On-the-go exercises for busy people
"I tell my young clients, 'Forget looking like Jessica Simpson or Halle Berry, and forget weight; think health,'" says Jeanette Jenkins, 32, a Los Angeles based private trainer who has worked with rapper Queen Latifah and actress Taryn Manning.
The mistake many 20-somethings make is simply opting for "endless cardio and crunches," adds Vanessa Carver, 25, a personal trainer at Fitness Quest 10 in San Diego, whose clients include professional ice skaters and dancers.
Lots of cardio is great, she says, especially if you mix it up so you're really pushing the body. But it's weight training that builds muscle definition, not to mention bone density, which will be crucial for staying active later on and preventing osteoporosis.
"You've got to lift more than just three or five pounds," she says. "If you can do 10 to 15 repetitions of a weight with no real effort, it's too light. The last four or five reps should be challenging enough that you feel your muscles getting fatigued." And put your mind into it, she says. "Lifting weights while chatting on the cell phone is a joke."
The 30s
Rx: One hour of circuit training (cardio and resistance) 4x a week, plus at least one day of cardio for 45 to 60 minutes at a high intensity. Take one day off.
With the 30s, you start noticing that weight doesn't come off quite as easily as it used to. This is because after age 20, your basal metabolism drops by 1 to 2 percent every decade, and as lean muscle decreases and body fat increases, you don't need as many calories to sustain yourself.
"Exercise is the number one form of preventive medicine," says Jillian Michaels, 32, who was a trainer on the first three seasons of NBC's "The Biggest Loser" and is the author of "Winning by Losing: Drop the Weight, Change Your Life."
"You won't see that big a difference between 31 and 39 if you've been living a healthy lifestyle, but if not, you'll see a huge difference in muscle tone, weight, and shape."
In this decade, experts agree, keeping fit means working harder. Jenkins favors circuit training -- a series of resistance and cardio exercises done swiftly and back-to-back. But however you do it, Michaels advises strength training each muscle group twice a week with two days of rest between sessions. Don't stick with heavy weights/low reps or low weight/many reps, she says; switch it around to keep your body from getting used to the routine. One day of rest a week is crucial.
After pregnancy a program like Pilates can be invaluable in "pulling everything back in and up," says Brooke Siler, 38, whose re:AB studio in New York City has attracted famous figures like Amber Valletta, Madonna, and Liv Tyler. "I especially like exercises that involve standing, because they teach you to fight what nature wants you to do, which is slump," says Siler, the author of "The Pilates Body."
Now is the time to make good fitness habits a part of everyday life. "You always want to be standing instead of sitting, taking stairs instead of elevators," says Siler. "I'm constantly aware of how I sit and stand and walk down the street. I'm forever pulling in and up. These invisible workouts are really important for a woman in her 30s. It's how you start preparing your body for what's to come."
The 40s
Rx: One hour of weight training 3 days a week if you do your whole body at once (4 days for half an hour if you split it up), plus 45 minutes of cardio 5 days a week (it's more than in the 20s and 30s but with less impact and intensity). Take one day off.
This is the decade of the triple whammy: gravity, hormones, and yet more slowing of metabolism as lean muscle mass continues to decrease and body fat increases. Even women who don't put on a pound may expand, according to Pamela Peeke, M.D., author of "Body for Life for Women."
"After 40 and certainly after 50, virtually all women find that they gain fat more easily in the torso -- below the bra, through the triceps area, on the back, and in the belly," she says. "You're not doing anything wrong; your body composition is changing."
Cardio work at least three days a week is still important for keeping weight under control, but resistance training is crucial now. "Women should be doing more weight training -- and really going for it," says New York City based celebrity trainer Kacy Duke, who is in her 40s. "You have to find the time to do it consistently and train hard." If you're just starting, says Peeke, "you must learn proper form -- take a class, get a trainer, make sure someone is there to correct you so you don't get hurt. And add intensity."
Certain body parts may call out for extra attention. "Pilates can help some with the midsection," says fitness veteran Karen Voight, who teaches and writes a workout column for the "Los Angeles Times."
To tone the back of the upper arm, she instructs, "get on all fours in a bent-knee push-up position, with fingers facing forward and hands directly under your shoulders. Make sure your elbows point backward when they bend, and lower only halfway, which works the muscle but avoids strain on the joints."
Then there's the butt. "For that," says Voight, who is in her 40s, "I'd try squats with weights or stair-climbing."
It's also about enjoyment. "I find exercise that's satisfying on a deeper level," says Donna Richardson Joyner, 43, creator of the video "Sweating in the Spirit" and a recent appointee to the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. "It's not just about moving my body -- it's about strengthening my mind and my spirit."
The 50s
Rx: 4 to 6 cardio sessions a week, 20 to 40 minutes each, with an intensity that lets you answer a simple question but not chat, plus half an hour of weight training twice a week, 8 to 12 repetitions of each exercise, or 15 to 20 using lighter weights. Always stretch afterward.
If your metabolism feels like it's slowing to a crawl, it's not in your mind. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh studying 541 midlife women found an average gain of 12 pounds eight years after menopause. We also tend to gain a little potbelly, what Peeke calls the menopot. And other places begin to droop noticeably. "At this point, loss of muscle mass and tone really shows," says longtime fitness expert Kathy Smith, 54. "It can actually start to change your posture."
The classic shoulder slump from years of hunching over a desk or computer "will really age you," says Smith, who suggests this stretch: Clasp your hands behind your back at the level of your butt and squeeze your shoulder blades together, pinching your spine. Try, with straight arms, to stretch your fingertips toward the floor until you notice a tug between your ears and shoulders, then lift your hands as high as you can, feeling the stretch in your chest.
"If you haven't started weight training, you must," says Smith, "although if you're a beginner, I really recommend guidance. Women in their 70s have doubled their strength in nine weeks. If you feel intimidated going to a gym, you can rent videos to do at home. You want to hit all the major muscle groups, and you can do the whole cycle in 15 minutes if you keep some dumbbells around."
Yoga -- along with tai chi, dance, and the Bosu ball (a soft half-dome used for standing and sitting exercises) -- is great for balance, which will become an increasingly important issue. While the physical changes this decade brings may be hard to take at first, ultimately, says Smith, "you shift into an acceptance mode. You change what you can, and live with what you can't. It's a gentler way."
The 60s
Rx: 3 days a week of challenging but not exhausting cardio, such as a slow jog, plus 3 days of weight training, using lighter weights and slower, more controlled movements combined with slow, sustained stretching. Walk whenever possible, and do daily balance exercises.
In the 60s, problems like arthritis, bad knees, and spinal stenosis (a narrowing of the spaces between bones that can put painful pressure on the spinal cord) become common.
"But aches and pains shouldn't be an excuse for giving up on exercise," says Marilyn Moffat, Ph.D., a professor of physical therapy at New York University and co-author of "Age-Defying Fitness." "We now know that a decline in strength and fitness isn't entirely a natural consequence of the aging process but is also due to lack of use. We need to push ourselves physically no matter how old we are -- we just may need to alter the activity."
Adapting a workout routine for the 60s sometimes means giving up aerobic exercise that jars and stresses the joints -- for example, replacing long runs with jogging one or two miles, jogging in a pool, swimming, or riding a stationary bicycle. (Women with bad backs may need to use a recumbent bicycle.) Moffat, who is 65, says that, on average, she walks three to five miles a day because it offers both cardio and bone-strengthening benefits.
Resistance training is still important, "but I would not advise anyone to lift heavy weights if it aggravates your joints," Moffat says. And stretching and balance are absolute musts. If you don't stretch now, "by the time you're in your 80s, your joints will have lost their flexibility."
One of Moffat's favorite stretches is holding the head tilted earlobe to shoulder for 60 seconds; another (if you don't have osteoporosis) is sitting on the floor with legs straight out in front of you, feet flexed, and lowering your head toward your knees. For balance, she suggests "rising up on the toes of one foot and trying to hold the position for a minute. You can do this while brushing your teeth."
In fact, that's a good image for any age -- the sooner exercise becomes like brushing your teeth, the longer you'll feel younger than your years.
By Carol Mithers from "O, The Oprah Magazine," October
(Oprah.com) -- If there's a magic pill for staying youthful, it may be one that's hard to swallow: exercise. Daily doses have been proven to thwart a number of aging factors -- stress, obesity, heart disease, diabetes -- and the longer you're physically active, the less you'll notice getting older.
Weight training is good at any age.
The catch is that a 50-year-old's body is not the same as a 20-year-old's; you can't push it the same way you once did, nor should you if you want to keep it in working-out order.
So listen to these coaches -- they're talking not just professionally but also firsthand -- on how to remain fit, and proud of it, through the decades.
Find the perfect fit for any age!
There's a big difference between how we should work out in our 20s and how we should work out when ... we're no longer 20. Find your perfect fit.
The 20s
Rx: 30 minutes of weight training followed by 30 minutes of cardio 3x a week, plus 45 to 60 minutes of straight cardio 3x a week. One day of rest.
The great thing about being in your 20s is that your body is so strong, you can get away with abusing it. The bad thing is that you often do, punishing it with late nights and bad eating habits. And you routinely fail to appreciate what you've got.
This is the decade of anxiety -- frantic exercise, fad diets, the mad pursuit of pinup perfection and self-hatred when you fail to meet it. The fitness challenge of these years: Get over it.
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"I tell my young clients, 'Forget looking like Jessica Simpson or Halle Berry, and forget weight; think health,'" says Jeanette Jenkins, 32, a Los Angeles based private trainer who has worked with rapper Queen Latifah and actress Taryn Manning.
The mistake many 20-somethings make is simply opting for "endless cardio and crunches," adds Vanessa Carver, 25, a personal trainer at Fitness Quest 10 in San Diego, whose clients include professional ice skaters and dancers.
Lots of cardio is great, she says, especially if you mix it up so you're really pushing the body. But it's weight training that builds muscle definition, not to mention bone density, which will be crucial for staying active later on and preventing osteoporosis.
"You've got to lift more than just three or five pounds," she says. "If you can do 10 to 15 repetitions of a weight with no real effort, it's too light. The last four or five reps should be challenging enough that you feel your muscles getting fatigued." And put your mind into it, she says. "Lifting weights while chatting on the cell phone is a joke."
The 30s
Rx: One hour of circuit training (cardio and resistance) 4x a week, plus at least one day of cardio for 45 to 60 minutes at a high intensity. Take one day off.
With the 30s, you start noticing that weight doesn't come off quite as easily as it used to. This is because after age 20, your basal metabolism drops by 1 to 2 percent every decade, and as lean muscle decreases and body fat increases, you don't need as many calories to sustain yourself.
"Exercise is the number one form of preventive medicine," says Jillian Michaels, 32, who was a trainer on the first three seasons of NBC's "The Biggest Loser" and is the author of "Winning by Losing: Drop the Weight, Change Your Life."
"You won't see that big a difference between 31 and 39 if you've been living a healthy lifestyle, but if not, you'll see a huge difference in muscle tone, weight, and shape."
In this decade, experts agree, keeping fit means working harder. Jenkins favors circuit training -- a series of resistance and cardio exercises done swiftly and back-to-back. But however you do it, Michaels advises strength training each muscle group twice a week with two days of rest between sessions. Don't stick with heavy weights/low reps or low weight/many reps, she says; switch it around to keep your body from getting used to the routine. One day of rest a week is crucial.
After pregnancy a program like Pilates can be invaluable in "pulling everything back in and up," says Brooke Siler, 38, whose re:AB studio in New York City has attracted famous figures like Amber Valletta, Madonna, and Liv Tyler. "I especially like exercises that involve standing, because they teach you to fight what nature wants you to do, which is slump," says Siler, the author of "The Pilates Body."
Now is the time to make good fitness habits a part of everyday life. "You always want to be standing instead of sitting, taking stairs instead of elevators," says Siler. "I'm constantly aware of how I sit and stand and walk down the street. I'm forever pulling in and up. These invisible workouts are really important for a woman in her 30s. It's how you start preparing your body for what's to come."
The 40s
Rx: One hour of weight training 3 days a week if you do your whole body at once (4 days for half an hour if you split it up), plus 45 minutes of cardio 5 days a week (it's more than in the 20s and 30s but with less impact and intensity). Take one day off.
This is the decade of the triple whammy: gravity, hormones, and yet more slowing of metabolism as lean muscle mass continues to decrease and body fat increases. Even women who don't put on a pound may expand, according to Pamela Peeke, M.D., author of "Body for Life for Women."
"After 40 and certainly after 50, virtually all women find that they gain fat more easily in the torso -- below the bra, through the triceps area, on the back, and in the belly," she says. "You're not doing anything wrong; your body composition is changing."
Cardio work at least three days a week is still important for keeping weight under control, but resistance training is crucial now. "Women should be doing more weight training -- and really going for it," says New York City based celebrity trainer Kacy Duke, who is in her 40s. "You have to find the time to do it consistently and train hard." If you're just starting, says Peeke, "you must learn proper form -- take a class, get a trainer, make sure someone is there to correct you so you don't get hurt. And add intensity."
Certain body parts may call out for extra attention. "Pilates can help some with the midsection," says fitness veteran Karen Voight, who teaches and writes a workout column for the "Los Angeles Times."
To tone the back of the upper arm, she instructs, "get on all fours in a bent-knee push-up position, with fingers facing forward and hands directly under your shoulders. Make sure your elbows point backward when they bend, and lower only halfway, which works the muscle but avoids strain on the joints."
Then there's the butt. "For that," says Voight, who is in her 40s, "I'd try squats with weights or stair-climbing."
It's also about enjoyment. "I find exercise that's satisfying on a deeper level," says Donna Richardson Joyner, 43, creator of the video "Sweating in the Spirit" and a recent appointee to the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. "It's not just about moving my body -- it's about strengthening my mind and my spirit."
The 50s
Rx: 4 to 6 cardio sessions a week, 20 to 40 minutes each, with an intensity that lets you answer a simple question but not chat, plus half an hour of weight training twice a week, 8 to 12 repetitions of each exercise, or 15 to 20 using lighter weights. Always stretch afterward.
If your metabolism feels like it's slowing to a crawl, it's not in your mind. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh studying 541 midlife women found an average gain of 12 pounds eight years after menopause. We also tend to gain a little potbelly, what Peeke calls the menopot. And other places begin to droop noticeably. "At this point, loss of muscle mass and tone really shows," says longtime fitness expert Kathy Smith, 54. "It can actually start to change your posture."
The classic shoulder slump from years of hunching over a desk or computer "will really age you," says Smith, who suggests this stretch: Clasp your hands behind your back at the level of your butt and squeeze your shoulder blades together, pinching your spine. Try, with straight arms, to stretch your fingertips toward the floor until you notice a tug between your ears and shoulders, then lift your hands as high as you can, feeling the stretch in your chest.
"If you haven't started weight training, you must," says Smith, "although if you're a beginner, I really recommend guidance. Women in their 70s have doubled their strength in nine weeks. If you feel intimidated going to a gym, you can rent videos to do at home. You want to hit all the major muscle groups, and you can do the whole cycle in 15 minutes if you keep some dumbbells around."
Yoga -- along with tai chi, dance, and the Bosu ball (a soft half-dome used for standing and sitting exercises) -- is great for balance, which will become an increasingly important issue. While the physical changes this decade brings may be hard to take at first, ultimately, says Smith, "you shift into an acceptance mode. You change what you can, and live with what you can't. It's a gentler way."
The 60s
Rx: 3 days a week of challenging but not exhausting cardio, such as a slow jog, plus 3 days of weight training, using lighter weights and slower, more controlled movements combined with slow, sustained stretching. Walk whenever possible, and do daily balance exercises.
In the 60s, problems like arthritis, bad knees, and spinal stenosis (a narrowing of the spaces between bones that can put painful pressure on the spinal cord) become common.
"But aches and pains shouldn't be an excuse for giving up on exercise," says Marilyn Moffat, Ph.D., a professor of physical therapy at New York University and co-author of "Age-Defying Fitness." "We now know that a decline in strength and fitness isn't entirely a natural consequence of the aging process but is also due to lack of use. We need to push ourselves physically no matter how old we are -- we just may need to alter the activity."
Adapting a workout routine for the 60s sometimes means giving up aerobic exercise that jars and stresses the joints -- for example, replacing long runs with jogging one or two miles, jogging in a pool, swimming, or riding a stationary bicycle. (Women with bad backs may need to use a recumbent bicycle.) Moffat, who is 65, says that, on average, she walks three to five miles a day because it offers both cardio and bone-strengthening benefits.
Resistance training is still important, "but I would not advise anyone to lift heavy weights if it aggravates your joints," Moffat says. And stretching and balance are absolute musts. If you don't stretch now, "by the time you're in your 80s, your joints will have lost their flexibility."
One of Moffat's favorite stretches is holding the head tilted earlobe to shoulder for 60 seconds; another (if you don't have osteoporosis) is sitting on the floor with legs straight out in front of you, feet flexed, and lowering your head toward your knees. For balance, she suggests "rising up on the toes of one foot and trying to hold the position for a minute. You can do this while brushing your teeth."
In fact, that's a good image for any age -- the sooner exercise becomes like brushing your teeth, the longer you'll feel younger than your years.
By Carol Mithers from "O, The Oprah Magazine," October
Go easy on medicated lotions, creams, gels
Story Highlights
With muscle creams, rub in a quarter-sized dab not more than 3-4 times a day
Pain-relieving methyl salicylate rubs may interact with prescription blood-thinners
Self-tanners' color can throw lasers off; allow self-tanned skin a week to fade
By Leslie Goldman
Lidocaine, methyl salicylate, hydrocortisone. You probably don't think twice about using over-the-counter creams with these ingredients when you need to soothe a sore muscle or bug bite, prep your legs before hair removal, or combat that vaginal itch. If the product's available without a prescription, it can't hurt you, right? Wrong.
One study estimates that women apply 175 chemicals a day from cosmetics, creams, and toiletries alone.
Take Arielle Newman, for instance, a New York City-area high school track star who died last year from a sports-cream overdose. She'd used large amounts of popular OTC pain-relieving ointments like Icy Hot and Ben-Gay on her sore muscles. The key ingredient in such products is methyl salicylate, which built up in Newman's body, may have interacted with other aspirin-based meds she was using, and caused her to go into cardiac arrest.
Another case: In 2005, Shiri Berg, 22, of North Carolina died of a lidocaine overdose. Following the instructions she'd been given by the staff at a local hair-removal clinic, she generously applied a numbing gel to her legs, then covered them in plastic wrap. On her way to the clinic to get hair lasered from her legs, Berg passed out. She went into convulsions, then a coma. Eight days later, she was dead.
Women dying in the name of hair removal? Athletes putting themselves at risk by using mentholated muscle soothers? Extreme situations, to be sure. But with all the stuff each of us slathers on our skin (one study estimates that women apply 175 chemicals a day from cosmetics, creams, and toiletries alone), it's no surprise that potential hazards are lurking.
Your skin is designed to protect you from countless insults: from air pollution to murky lake water, from dirty gasoline-pump handles to staph. Skin cells provide a physical barrier, sort of like bricks and mortar, to keep the bad stuff out -- most of the time, says Francesca J. Fusco, M.D., assistant clinical professor of dermatology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. "The cells aren't as tightly packed as real bricks, though, which means things can squeeze by and pentrate." That's good news if you want, say, an antiaging wrinkle cream to wage war against your crow's feet or an anti-itch product to tackle that exercise-induced rash on your inner thighs. Bad news when strong chemicals meet sensitive or thin skin, cause an allergic reaction, or dangerously flood your bloodstream.
Here, we investigate 14 ingredients commonly found in products you may be using right now -- and we tell you how to stay safe.
Methyl salicylate
Most OTC muscle creams (including Ben-Gay, Icy Hot, and Tiger Balm) contain one or more of three main ingredients: the cooling agents menthol and camphor, and the pain reliever methyl salicylate. The last one is similar to topical aspirin, says Matt Zirwas, M.D., director of The Ohio State University Medical Center Contact Dermatitis Center. And what happened to track-star Newman is essentially the same thing that could happen with an aspirin overdose, he says.
The safe way to use muscle creams? Rub a small amount (about the size of a quarter) into the painful muscle or joint area not more than three or four times a day to prevent accumulation. If you're applying more than a four-ounce tube a week, that's probably too much, Zirwas says. And watch your aspirin intake -- too much can increase your risk of overdose (in addition to the creams, Newman may have been using a pain-relieving patch and taking aspirin), as can wrapping or using a heating pad on ointment-covered skin.
Rubs with methyl salicylate may also interact with blood-thinning prescription drugs, such as Plavix or Coumadin, used to prevent blood from clotting, says Brian J. Krabak, M.D., sports-medicine physician at the University of Washington's department of rehabilitation medicine. Because of its toxicity, any product containing 5 percent or more of methyl salicylate (also called wintergreen oil) has to carry a warning label stating it must be used as directed and kept out of children's reach.
Lidocaine, benzocaine, tetracaine
If you've ever numbed a mole before the doc removed it or undergone laser hair removal, you've probably used a topical anesthetic that contains one of the "caines" -- lidocaine, benzocaine, or tetracaine -- which are commonly used in various strengths in medical and cosmetic situations. Most OTC types contain small amounts (less than 5 percent) of numbing ingredients and should be safe when used according to package instructions, experts say.
There are dangers, however, if your skin is too numb to detect that it's being harmed. If you have no feeling at all during a bikini wax or hair lasering, for instance, you won't be able to tell whether the wax is too hot or the laser is too strong.
An allergy is also possible, particularly when using vaginal-itch treatments with benzocaine, Zirwas says. A benzocaine product may temporarily help the problem, he says, "but a half-hour or an hour later, the itching will return -- often worse -- so women apply more cream," he says. "Sometimes we see patients who are using these creams 10 times a day." The results can be a severe vaginal rash. Zirwas' advice: "If the itch comes back an hour after you apply the cream or if you develop a rash, suspect that you have a benzocaine allergy and see a doctor."
When topical anesthetics are seriously overused, there can be big trouble. Shiri Berg applied a product called Lasergel Plus 10/10, a powerful anesthetic containing 10 percent lidocaine and 10 percent tetracaine. Experts have said the gel, a prescription-strength compound given to the 22-year-old without a prescription by a hair-removal spa, was too strong and applied over too large an area for Berg's system to handle. After her death, the Food and Drug Administration pointed out that risks rise when a topical anesthetic is left on the skin for extended periods of time or applied to broad portions of the body, especially if a bandage, plastic, or another type of dressing is used as a covering. This is exactly what Berg did, not knowing either the strength of the product she was using or that there was any danger. Even more surprising: Berg was not the first woman to die from the overzealous use of numbing cream. Blanca Bolanos, a 25-year-old from Tucson, Arizona, suffered a similar fate (convulsions, then a two-year coma ending in death) after using a cream of 6 percent each lidocaine and tetracaine prior to laser hair removal.
The safe way to use numbing creams? Apply them sparingly -- use as little as possible, most experts say. And always know the ingredients in and the strength of the product. Click here for tips on correctly applying creams.
Hydrocortisone
An anti-inflammatory topical steroid that shrinks swollen tissue by constricting blood vessels, hydrocortisone is often used to stop the itching caused by chronic skin conditions like eczema and contact dermatitis, and it's also an ingredient in vaginal and hemorrhoidal creams. OTC topical steroids can contain just 1 percent hydrocortisone, which should be safe, says Dina D. Strachan, M.D., a dermatologist in private practice in New York City.
Be careful, though, when applying the creams to sensitive spots such as the eyelids, armpits, and groin (all places where eczema, rashes, and allergic reactions are particularly common). In these locations, skin is thinner and more folds exist, so skin hits skin often, which can cause medications to penetrate more deeply. These areas are also prone to stretch marks, irritation, hypopigmentation (lightening), and "a crinkly, cigarette-paper appearance," Strachan explains -- a good reason to avoid that old beauty-queen trick of using hemorrhoidal cream to de-puff eye bags, experts say. In fact, last year the makers of Preparation H issued a warning cautioning consumers to avoid applying hemorrhoid cream to the face. Health.com: The year's best beauty products
Overuse of topical steroids containing hydrocortisone can cause the skin to develop a resistance (called tachyplaxis) to the medication, says Daniel Behroozan, M.D., dermatologic surgeon and founder of the Dermatology Institute of Southern California, and clinical instructor at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Medicine. As a result, "in order to have the desired medical effect, a stronger and more potent steroid may be needed, which may cause more potential side effects."
Estrogen
Women experiencing vaginal itching and irritation due to menopausal changes sometimes turn to OTC products that contain estrogen, a practice that worries Wen Shen, M.D., assistant professor of gynecologic specialties at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "Such creams get absorbed through the skin and metabolized into estrogens in the body. That means they can cause the same side effects as estrogen pills, such as elevated blood pressure, breast tenderness, increased risk of breast cancer, abnormal vaginal bleeding, and endometrial hyperplasia, which can lead to uterine cancer," she says. "If a woman is thinking about using anything with estrogen, she really needs to get it through her physician."
The same goes for OTC progesterone creams used to treat PMS and menopause symptoms, says Michael Krychman, M.D., medical director of sexual medicine at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach, California. "You have to be very careful. You don't always know how much you're getting or how much you're absorbing with these products," he says. "That makes it very easy to get too much." A lot of women who are trying these OTC creams on their own may not even have lowered hormone levels, at all, he says. Consult your doctor before using.
Hydroquinone
Want to "fade away" those age spots? Be careful if you're thinking of using hydroquinone, a popular ingredient in products claiming to lighten age spots, melasma (excessive pigmentation usually caused by the sun), or postinflammatory hyperpigmentation (a condition that can afflict darker-skinned women). Such products are often available over the counter but should be used only under a doctor's supervision, Francesca J. Fusco, M.D., says. Ironically, in certain skin types the opposite -- ochronosis, or darkening of the skin -- can occur. In many cases, this happens in darker-skinned individuals, she says, adding that hydroquinone has been under FDA investigation for discontinuation in OTC products because of possible cancer-causing activity in rats exposed to large amounts. Health.com: How I beat hypochondria
Dihydroxyacetone (DHA)
Wonder why self-tanners have such a distinctive scent? It's the dihydroxyacetone (DHA), a sugar derived from plants like beets and sugarcane, that combines with your body's chemistry to produce a "tan" and the smell. The odor won't hurt you, but the tan might -- if you're thinking of getting hair lasered from your darkened skin.
"Lasers work by detecting pigment," Fusco says. That's why laser hair removal works best on people with a good degree of contrast between their hair and skin, such as fair-skinned women with dark hair. "The stains in self-tanners can throw off the laser, leaving you with first- or second-degree burns or discolored skin," she explains. As a caution, allow self-tanned skin about a week to fade before going in for a laser procedure.
Vitamin A, glycolic acid
Retin-A and other vitamin A-based products (such as glycolic acid) are often used to treat acne, as well as to reduce the appearance of wrinkles by boosting collagen production. The downside: They thin the very top layer of skin, which can make you more sensitive to sunlight and to procedures like chemical peels, phototherapy (light treatments), or even a simple eyebrow waxing. If you're scheduled for, say, a waxing or a peel, it's a good idea to stop using any vitamin A-based products one week prior; and don't resume for another week. Also, avoid blackhead-removing strips, which can remove a top layer of skin more easily while on such medications. And check in with your doctor to be on the safe side.
Neomycin, bacitracin
Strangely, one of the treatments most often recommended to help heal burns, stitches, and other wounds is now thought to cause an allergic reaction in up to 10 percent of users. For those people, neomycin or bacitracin, the active ingredients in products like Neosporin, may cause an inflammatory reaction, angering the wound and making it appear infected. The result: A minor cut can take even longer to heal and have a potentially adverse cosmetic outcome, Behroozan says. "For that reason, most dermatologists are now avoiding products with neomycin and recommending plain Vaseline or Aquaphor Healing Ointment for superficial wounds," he says. "They promote a moist environment for better wound-healing without potentially causing allergic contact dermatitis."
Paraphenylenediamine (PPD)
Ever get a temporary tattoo on a beach vacation? Many of them are made with "black henna," which contains paraphenylenediamine, or PPD, a strong allergen that's also in hair dye. If you've had a product with this chemical applied to your skin directly, as is done with a tattoo, you're at risk of developing a strong allergy later from hair dye. "You can have a horribly intense reaction," Zirwas says. "I've seen people hospitalized for up to a week -- eyes swollen shut, lips swollen, too." Zirwas estimates that just 2 percent of women will develop an allergy to hair dye, but everyone should do a patch test when coloring hair at home and look for PPD-free dyes.
Betaine
Very gentle shampoos often contain a lathering agent called betaine, and they're fine for about 99 percent of the U.S. population. But for the approximately 1 percent who develop a betaine allergy, even a product created for the most sensitive skins can cause a red rash around the eyes and along the neck, with flaking, peeling, and itching. If you have this kind of contact dermatitis that just won't go away, try betaine-free products such as Free & Clear shampoo, Cetaphil soap, or Head & Shoulders shampoo, Zirwas says.
Copyright 2007 HEALTH Magazine. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Additional reporting by Allison Avery and Brittani Tingle
With muscle creams, rub in a quarter-sized dab not more than 3-4 times a day
Pain-relieving methyl salicylate rubs may interact with prescription blood-thinners
Self-tanners' color can throw lasers off; allow self-tanned skin a week to fade
By Leslie Goldman
Lidocaine, methyl salicylate, hydrocortisone. You probably don't think twice about using over-the-counter creams with these ingredients when you need to soothe a sore muscle or bug bite, prep your legs before hair removal, or combat that vaginal itch. If the product's available without a prescription, it can't hurt you, right? Wrong.
One study estimates that women apply 175 chemicals a day from cosmetics, creams, and toiletries alone.
Take Arielle Newman, for instance, a New York City-area high school track star who died last year from a sports-cream overdose. She'd used large amounts of popular OTC pain-relieving ointments like Icy Hot and Ben-Gay on her sore muscles. The key ingredient in such products is methyl salicylate, which built up in Newman's body, may have interacted with other aspirin-based meds she was using, and caused her to go into cardiac arrest.
Another case: In 2005, Shiri Berg, 22, of North Carolina died of a lidocaine overdose. Following the instructions she'd been given by the staff at a local hair-removal clinic, she generously applied a numbing gel to her legs, then covered them in plastic wrap. On her way to the clinic to get hair lasered from her legs, Berg passed out. She went into convulsions, then a coma. Eight days later, she was dead.
Women dying in the name of hair removal? Athletes putting themselves at risk by using mentholated muscle soothers? Extreme situations, to be sure. But with all the stuff each of us slathers on our skin (one study estimates that women apply 175 chemicals a day from cosmetics, creams, and toiletries alone), it's no surprise that potential hazards are lurking.
Your skin is designed to protect you from countless insults: from air pollution to murky lake water, from dirty gasoline-pump handles to staph. Skin cells provide a physical barrier, sort of like bricks and mortar, to keep the bad stuff out -- most of the time, says Francesca J. Fusco, M.D., assistant clinical professor of dermatology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. "The cells aren't as tightly packed as real bricks, though, which means things can squeeze by and pentrate." That's good news if you want, say, an antiaging wrinkle cream to wage war against your crow's feet or an anti-itch product to tackle that exercise-induced rash on your inner thighs. Bad news when strong chemicals meet sensitive or thin skin, cause an allergic reaction, or dangerously flood your bloodstream.
Here, we investigate 14 ingredients commonly found in products you may be using right now -- and we tell you how to stay safe.
Methyl salicylate
Most OTC muscle creams (including Ben-Gay, Icy Hot, and Tiger Balm) contain one or more of three main ingredients: the cooling agents menthol and camphor, and the pain reliever methyl salicylate. The last one is similar to topical aspirin, says Matt Zirwas, M.D., director of The Ohio State University Medical Center Contact Dermatitis Center. And what happened to track-star Newman is essentially the same thing that could happen with an aspirin overdose, he says.
The safe way to use muscle creams? Rub a small amount (about the size of a quarter) into the painful muscle or joint area not more than three or four times a day to prevent accumulation. If you're applying more than a four-ounce tube a week, that's probably too much, Zirwas says. And watch your aspirin intake -- too much can increase your risk of overdose (in addition to the creams, Newman may have been using a pain-relieving patch and taking aspirin), as can wrapping or using a heating pad on ointment-covered skin.
Rubs with methyl salicylate may also interact with blood-thinning prescription drugs, such as Plavix or Coumadin, used to prevent blood from clotting, says Brian J. Krabak, M.D., sports-medicine physician at the University of Washington's department of rehabilitation medicine. Because of its toxicity, any product containing 5 percent or more of methyl salicylate (also called wintergreen oil) has to carry a warning label stating it must be used as directed and kept out of children's reach.
Lidocaine, benzocaine, tetracaine
If you've ever numbed a mole before the doc removed it or undergone laser hair removal, you've probably used a topical anesthetic that contains one of the "caines" -- lidocaine, benzocaine, or tetracaine -- which are commonly used in various strengths in medical and cosmetic situations. Most OTC types contain small amounts (less than 5 percent) of numbing ingredients and should be safe when used according to package instructions, experts say.
There are dangers, however, if your skin is too numb to detect that it's being harmed. If you have no feeling at all during a bikini wax or hair lasering, for instance, you won't be able to tell whether the wax is too hot or the laser is too strong.
An allergy is also possible, particularly when using vaginal-itch treatments with benzocaine, Zirwas says. A benzocaine product may temporarily help the problem, he says, "but a half-hour or an hour later, the itching will return -- often worse -- so women apply more cream," he says. "Sometimes we see patients who are using these creams 10 times a day." The results can be a severe vaginal rash. Zirwas' advice: "If the itch comes back an hour after you apply the cream or if you develop a rash, suspect that you have a benzocaine allergy and see a doctor."
When topical anesthetics are seriously overused, there can be big trouble. Shiri Berg applied a product called Lasergel Plus 10/10, a powerful anesthetic containing 10 percent lidocaine and 10 percent tetracaine. Experts have said the gel, a prescription-strength compound given to the 22-year-old without a prescription by a hair-removal spa, was too strong and applied over too large an area for Berg's system to handle. After her death, the Food and Drug Administration pointed out that risks rise when a topical anesthetic is left on the skin for extended periods of time or applied to broad portions of the body, especially if a bandage, plastic, or another type of dressing is used as a covering. This is exactly what Berg did, not knowing either the strength of the product she was using or that there was any danger. Even more surprising: Berg was not the first woman to die from the overzealous use of numbing cream. Blanca Bolanos, a 25-year-old from Tucson, Arizona, suffered a similar fate (convulsions, then a two-year coma ending in death) after using a cream of 6 percent each lidocaine and tetracaine prior to laser hair removal.
The safe way to use numbing creams? Apply them sparingly -- use as little as possible, most experts say. And always know the ingredients in and the strength of the product. Click here for tips on correctly applying creams.
Hydrocortisone
An anti-inflammatory topical steroid that shrinks swollen tissue by constricting blood vessels, hydrocortisone is often used to stop the itching caused by chronic skin conditions like eczema and contact dermatitis, and it's also an ingredient in vaginal and hemorrhoidal creams. OTC topical steroids can contain just 1 percent hydrocortisone, which should be safe, says Dina D. Strachan, M.D., a dermatologist in private practice in New York City.
Be careful, though, when applying the creams to sensitive spots such as the eyelids, armpits, and groin (all places where eczema, rashes, and allergic reactions are particularly common). In these locations, skin is thinner and more folds exist, so skin hits skin often, which can cause medications to penetrate more deeply. These areas are also prone to stretch marks, irritation, hypopigmentation (lightening), and "a crinkly, cigarette-paper appearance," Strachan explains -- a good reason to avoid that old beauty-queen trick of using hemorrhoidal cream to de-puff eye bags, experts say. In fact, last year the makers of Preparation H issued a warning cautioning consumers to avoid applying hemorrhoid cream to the face. Health.com: The year's best beauty products
Overuse of topical steroids containing hydrocortisone can cause the skin to develop a resistance (called tachyplaxis) to the medication, says Daniel Behroozan, M.D., dermatologic surgeon and founder of the Dermatology Institute of Southern California, and clinical instructor at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Medicine. As a result, "in order to have the desired medical effect, a stronger and more potent steroid may be needed, which may cause more potential side effects."
Estrogen
Women experiencing vaginal itching and irritation due to menopausal changes sometimes turn to OTC products that contain estrogen, a practice that worries Wen Shen, M.D., assistant professor of gynecologic specialties at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "Such creams get absorbed through the skin and metabolized into estrogens in the body. That means they can cause the same side effects as estrogen pills, such as elevated blood pressure, breast tenderness, increased risk of breast cancer, abnormal vaginal bleeding, and endometrial hyperplasia, which can lead to uterine cancer," she says. "If a woman is thinking about using anything with estrogen, she really needs to get it through her physician."
The same goes for OTC progesterone creams used to treat PMS and menopause symptoms, says Michael Krychman, M.D., medical director of sexual medicine at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach, California. "You have to be very careful. You don't always know how much you're getting or how much you're absorbing with these products," he says. "That makes it very easy to get too much." A lot of women who are trying these OTC creams on their own may not even have lowered hormone levels, at all, he says. Consult your doctor before using.
Hydroquinone
Want to "fade away" those age spots? Be careful if you're thinking of using hydroquinone, a popular ingredient in products claiming to lighten age spots, melasma (excessive pigmentation usually caused by the sun), or postinflammatory hyperpigmentation (a condition that can afflict darker-skinned women). Such products are often available over the counter but should be used only under a doctor's supervision, Francesca J. Fusco, M.D., says. Ironically, in certain skin types the opposite -- ochronosis, or darkening of the skin -- can occur. In many cases, this happens in darker-skinned individuals, she says, adding that hydroquinone has been under FDA investigation for discontinuation in OTC products because of possible cancer-causing activity in rats exposed to large amounts. Health.com: How I beat hypochondria
Dihydroxyacetone (DHA)
Wonder why self-tanners have such a distinctive scent? It's the dihydroxyacetone (DHA), a sugar derived from plants like beets and sugarcane, that combines with your body's chemistry to produce a "tan" and the smell. The odor won't hurt you, but the tan might -- if you're thinking of getting hair lasered from your darkened skin.
"Lasers work by detecting pigment," Fusco says. That's why laser hair removal works best on people with a good degree of contrast between their hair and skin, such as fair-skinned women with dark hair. "The stains in self-tanners can throw off the laser, leaving you with first- or second-degree burns or discolored skin," she explains. As a caution, allow self-tanned skin about a week to fade before going in for a laser procedure.
Vitamin A, glycolic acid
Retin-A and other vitamin A-based products (such as glycolic acid) are often used to treat acne, as well as to reduce the appearance of wrinkles by boosting collagen production. The downside: They thin the very top layer of skin, which can make you more sensitive to sunlight and to procedures like chemical peels, phototherapy (light treatments), or even a simple eyebrow waxing. If you're scheduled for, say, a waxing or a peel, it's a good idea to stop using any vitamin A-based products one week prior; and don't resume for another week. Also, avoid blackhead-removing strips, which can remove a top layer of skin more easily while on such medications. And check in with your doctor to be on the safe side.
Neomycin, bacitracin
Strangely, one of the treatments most often recommended to help heal burns, stitches, and other wounds is now thought to cause an allergic reaction in up to 10 percent of users. For those people, neomycin or bacitracin, the active ingredients in products like Neosporin, may cause an inflammatory reaction, angering the wound and making it appear infected. The result: A minor cut can take even longer to heal and have a potentially adverse cosmetic outcome, Behroozan says. "For that reason, most dermatologists are now avoiding products with neomycin and recommending plain Vaseline or Aquaphor Healing Ointment for superficial wounds," he says. "They promote a moist environment for better wound-healing without potentially causing allergic contact dermatitis."
Paraphenylenediamine (PPD)
Ever get a temporary tattoo on a beach vacation? Many of them are made with "black henna," which contains paraphenylenediamine, or PPD, a strong allergen that's also in hair dye. If you've had a product with this chemical applied to your skin directly, as is done with a tattoo, you're at risk of developing a strong allergy later from hair dye. "You can have a horribly intense reaction," Zirwas says. "I've seen people hospitalized for up to a week -- eyes swollen shut, lips swollen, too." Zirwas estimates that just 2 percent of women will develop an allergy to hair dye, but everyone should do a patch test when coloring hair at home and look for PPD-free dyes.
Betaine
Very gentle shampoos often contain a lathering agent called betaine, and they're fine for about 99 percent of the U.S. population. But for the approximately 1 percent who develop a betaine allergy, even a product created for the most sensitive skins can cause a red rash around the eyes and along the neck, with flaking, peeling, and itching. If you have this kind of contact dermatitis that just won't go away, try betaine-free products such as Free & Clear shampoo, Cetaphil soap, or Head & Shoulders shampoo, Zirwas says.
Copyright 2007 HEALTH Magazine. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Additional reporting by Allison Avery and Brittani Tingle
My Life Quiz
http://www.monkeyquiz.com/life/rate_my_life3.html
This is how I rated my self as of August 12, 2008, very Interesting huh>
Your Life Analysis:
Life: Your life rating is a score of the sum total of your life, and accounts for how satisfied, successful, balanced, capable, valuable, and happy you are. The quiz attempts to put a number on the summation of all of these things, based on your answers. Your life score is reasonably high. This means that you are on a good path. Continue doing what is working and set about to improve in areas which continue to lag. Do this starting today and you will begin to reap the benefits immediately. (Read more on improving your life)
Mind: Your mind rating is a score of your mind's clarity, ability, and health. Higher scores indicate an advancement in knowledge, clear and capable thinking, high mental health, and pure thought free of interference. Your mind score is not bad, but could be improved upon. Your mental health is not weak, but you are not achieving full mental clarity and function. Learn how to unclutter your mind. Keep learning, keep improving, continue moving forward. Read advice from other quiz-takers on improving the mind.
Body: Your body rating measures your body's health, fitness, and general wellness. A healthy body contributes to a happy life, however many of us are lacking in this area. You have an excellent body score, which means you are incredibly focused on maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Continue in that focus, and your body will remain healthy and strong. Read advice from other quiz-takers on improving the body.
Spirit: Your spirit rating seeks to capture in a number that elusive quality which is found in your faith, your attitude, and your philosophy on life. A higher score indicates a greater sense of inner peace and balance. Your spirit score is relatively high, which means you are rewarded by your beliefs. Spirituality is clearly important to do. Never let it slip, and continue to learn and grow. Read advice from other quiz-takers on improving the spirit.
Friends/Family: Your friends and family rating measures your relationships with those around you, and is based on how large, healthy, and dependable your social network is. Your friends and family score is quite healthy. You have a social network you can depend upon. Count your blessings, but never forget that these bonds need to be maintained. Keep your friends and family close.
Love: Your love rating is a measure of your current romantic situation. Sharing your heart with another person is one of life's most glorious, terrifying, rewarding experiences. Your love score is in good shape, meaning that things are going well. Do all you can to maintain it, and continue to grow and move ahead. Read advice from other quiz-takers on finding and maintaining love.
Finance: Your finance rating is a score that rates your current financial health and stability. Your finances are somewhat in the middle, neither bad or exceptional. Keep doing what works for you, and improve what doesn't. Focus on long-term financial stability as your goal. Read advice from other quiz-takers on improving your finances.
| This Is My Life, Rated | |
| Life: |  7.8 |
| Mind: |  6.8 |
| Body: |  9.3 |
| Spirit: | 7.6 |
| Friends/Family: | 7.1 |
| Love: | 7.3 |
| Finance: | 6.7 |
| Take the Rate My Life Quiz | |
This is how I rated my self as of August 12, 2008, very Interesting huh>
Your Life Analysis:
Life: Your life rating is a score of the sum total of your life, and accounts for how satisfied, successful, balanced, capable, valuable, and happy you are. The quiz attempts to put a number on the summation of all of these things, based on your answers. Your life score is reasonably high. This means that you are on a good path. Continue doing what is working and set about to improve in areas which continue to lag. Do this starting today and you will begin to reap the benefits immediately. (Read more on improving your life)
Mind: Your mind rating is a score of your mind's clarity, ability, and health. Higher scores indicate an advancement in knowledge, clear and capable thinking, high mental health, and pure thought free of interference. Your mind score is not bad, but could be improved upon. Your mental health is not weak, but you are not achieving full mental clarity and function. Learn how to unclutter your mind. Keep learning, keep improving, continue moving forward. Read advice from other quiz-takers on improving the mind.
Body: Your body rating measures your body's health, fitness, and general wellness. A healthy body contributes to a happy life, however many of us are lacking in this area. You have an excellent body score, which means you are incredibly focused on maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Continue in that focus, and your body will remain healthy and strong. Read advice from other quiz-takers on improving the body.
Spirit: Your spirit rating seeks to capture in a number that elusive quality which is found in your faith, your attitude, and your philosophy on life. A higher score indicates a greater sense of inner peace and balance. Your spirit score is relatively high, which means you are rewarded by your beliefs. Spirituality is clearly important to do. Never let it slip, and continue to learn and grow. Read advice from other quiz-takers on improving the spirit.
Friends/Family: Your friends and family rating measures your relationships with those around you, and is based on how large, healthy, and dependable your social network is. Your friends and family score is quite healthy. You have a social network you can depend upon. Count your blessings, but never forget that these bonds need to be maintained. Keep your friends and family close.
Love: Your love rating is a measure of your current romantic situation. Sharing your heart with another person is one of life's most glorious, terrifying, rewarding experiences. Your love score is in good shape, meaning that things are going well. Do all you can to maintain it, and continue to grow and move ahead. Read advice from other quiz-takers on finding and maintaining love.
Finance: Your finance rating is a score that rates your current financial health and stability. Your finances are somewhat in the middle, neither bad or exceptional. Keep doing what works for you, and improve what doesn't. Focus on long-term financial stability as your goal. Read advice from other quiz-takers on improving your finances.
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