Encouraging Health

Did you spend a little too much time in the sun this summer?

Here’s a pain-free way to undo some of the damage: Moisturize.

That’s right. Research shows it really does help improve the condition of your skin. After 25 weeks of regular use by women in a study, 3-D texture measurements revealed less photo damage and blotchiness and fewer fine lines and coarse wrinkles. And this kind of moisturizer may have an edge

Waning Wrinkles
Any moisturizer can help improve your skin. But a moisturizer that contains an antiaging ingredient can be particularly effective. Antiaging ingredients typically found in moisturizers include glycolic acid, lactic acid, citric acid, and salicylic acid.
Women who used a cream with glycolic acid for 25 weeks saw even better results than the regular moisturizer group.

summer skin, glycolic acid, lactic acid, citric acid, salicylic acid

summer skin, glycolic acid, lactic acid, citric acid, salicylic acid

Additive used in some Celestial Seasonings drinks raises ’safety concerns’

U.S. health regulators warned Hain Celestial Group Inc about a potentially unsafe herb in some of its herbal teas, saying it might be dangerous to blood sugar, reproductive, cardiovascular and renal systems.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration sent a letter to Hain dated August 17 calling the herb, a natural sweetener made from a South American herb called stevia, “an unsafe food additive.� The agency released the letter on its Web site on Tuesday.

Stevia is being eyed by big beverage makers looking for new low-calorie sweeteners. In May, Coca-Cola Co and Cargill Inc said they would work together to market the new sweetener, despite lack of FDA approval. Stevia has been approved in a dozen other countries including Japan, China and Brazil.

The FDA letter said that although it has received requests to use stevia in food, “data and information necessary to support the safe use have been lacking.�

It also said “literature reports have raised safety concerns,� including those “about control of blood sugar, and the effects on the reproductive, cardiovascular and renal systems.�

A spokeswoman for Boulder, Colorado-based Hain had no immediate comment.

Hain Celestial Group Inc, herbal tea, stevia

Hain Celestial Group Inc, herbal tea, stevia

Condition is like bulimia, but sufferers are of normal weight and don’t binge

An Iowa researcher is studying a little-known eating disorder that some doctors may miss: purging disorder.

Though similar to women with bulimia, patients who fit this description don’t binge-eat. Yet they feel compelled to purge, usually by vomiting, even after eating only a small or normal amount of food, said Pamela Keel, the University of Iowa researcher who led a study on the subject.

Keel, a psychology professor, and colleagues from Iowa and the Harvard Medical School describe their research in this month’s issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.

Purging disorder is new in the sense that it has not been officially recognized as a unique condition in the classification of eating disorders. But it’s not a new problem,” Keel said. “Women were struggling with purging disorder long before we began studying it.”

Revising diagnosis criteria
If further study supports that it is a distinct disorder, Keel said the American Psychiatric Association could revise its criteria for diagnosing eating disorders. That’s important because doctors could then better screen these patients and identify treatments for them. Otherwise, they might be missed because they are normal weight and don’t report binge-eating, she said.

More of this eye-opening study can be found by clicking above.

purging disorder

purging disorder

Frequent use of over-the-counter remedies may cause harm

Only one in every four women who seeks treatment for persistent yeast infections actually has one, a new study suggests.

Women will frequently treat suspected yeast infections themselves with over-the-counter (OTC) products, but the findings show that most of the time this won’t help. In fact, using such medications repeatedly may even cause harm, Dr. Susan Hoffstetter, the co-director of the SLUCare Vulvar and Vaginal Disease Clinic at Saint Louis University, told Reuters Health.

“We treat ourselves because we want our problems to go away quickly,� Hoffstetter pointed out, adding that this isn’t only the fault of patients. “We in medicine also do a lot of treating over the phone just to keep women from having to come in.�

Hoffstetter and her colleagues looked at the medical records for 150 women visiting the clinic for the first time who reported persistent yeast infections.

Lab tests showed that only 26 percent of the women were infected with Candida — the fungus responsible for yeast infections. Other causes of vaginal itching can include sexually transmitted infections, dry skin, or inflammation, Hoffstetter noted, which won’t respond to OTC antifungals and could even be aggravated by these products.

Read more of this important article by clicking above.

false yeast infection, OTC antifungals

false yeast infection, OTC antifungals

By Rob Parr, MSNBC The Fit List

When you think of a buff chest, celebs like Matthew McConaughey probably come to mind. Pumped-up pecs look good on guys at the beach, but they also wear well at the office. Strong chest muscles can help men — and women — stand up straighter and carry themselves with confidence.

Here’s a workout that will really challenge your chest.

Start by warming up on the floor with some push-ups. If you can’t do the full military push-ups right away, modify them by pushing up from your knees rather than your toes. Do a set of 20, then 15, then 10 and 5, with a 20-second break in between each set.

Next, you’ll need a set of dumbbells for a combination of two chest exercises. Start by lying down on your back on a weight bench or the floor with your knees bent up.

The first exercise is the chest fly. Hold a dumbbell in each hand with your arms out to your sides, slightly bent at the elbows. Then press your arms straight up so that the dumbbells just come together (don’t bang them). Pause and then lower to the starting position. Do a total of 10 repetitions and then move directly on to the next exercise, the dumbbell press.

Click above to read more.

Pectoral muscles, Rob Parr, weight training

Pectoral muscles, Rob Parr, weight training

How much does it take to boost mood?

By Jacqueline Stenson
Contributing editor
MSNBC
How long does it take to get high on exercise? Are there moves to help prevent saggy breasts after weight loss?

Q: How much exercise do I need to do to get that “high” feeling?

A: The euphoria that some people report from exercise is often referred to as a “runner’s high,” though it’s been linked with a range of other activities, from swimming to biking to grueling workouts at the gym.

But the phenomenon is not well understood. Some people appear to experience full-blown runner’s highs from very intense bouts of exertion — such as running a marathon or finishing a miles-long bike race — and others from less-taxing workouts. Some people liken a runner’s high to that from cocaine or other street drugs, while others say exercise makes them feel very good but not ecstatic.

How long it takes for an all-out runner’s high to kick in — if it does — seems variable, but it’s generally associated with prolonged bouts of exhaustive activity. Even with that level of exertion, though, there are no guarantees you’ll be flying high afterward.

More here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18043835/

exercise high

exercise high

Under-the-skin devices monitor blood-sugar levels around the clock

Diabetes care is undergoing a transformation: Thousands of patients are switching from a few finger-pricks a day to track their disease to new sensors that keep guard around the clock.

The last six months brought boosts to the technology, as federal health officials approved children’s use of a sensor that works for three days in a row — and cleared the longest-lasting version yet, a seven-day model, for adults.

The ultimate goal is to create an “artificial pancreas,� pairing such sensors with implanted pumps that would automatically dispense insulin to make a diabetic’s blood sugar better resemble a healthy person’s.

Click above for more.

diabetic, blood sugar, insulin pump

diabetic, blood sugar, insulin pump

Courtesy of www.RealAge.com

Stopping those creeping cholesterol numbers would be grand — especially if you could do it drug-free.

One option: Live a yoga lifestyle. It could drop LDL levels as much as 26 percent in a year, according to a study. So what’s a yoga lifestyle? Well, it’s more than simply posing and stretching. Here are all the steps involved.

More Than a Poser
People who live a yoga-based lifestyle don’t just stretch and pose for a set amount of time each day. They take a holistic approach to health by also eating right, getting enough restorative sleep, and generally trying to maintain a positive attitude.

Benefits Abound
Turns out that’s a powerful combo. In one study, doing all those things together for a year not only slashed people’s cholesterol levels but also had an impact on heart disease. Heart disease lesions appeared less severe in nearly half of the people who had shown signs of the disease at the beginning of the study. Are your cholesterol levels making your arteries old before their time?

yoga, cholesterol

yoga, cholesterol

What heart helper can also keep your kidneys feeling fine?

It’s fish.

That’s right. The omega-3s in fatty fish (like salmon) not only help your heart stay healthy, but they seem to keep kidney cancer away, too. Women in a study who ate fatty fish on a fairly regular basis lowered their risk of kidney cancer by 44 percent.

Mega Omegas
It’s no fish tale! Almost 15 years of data show that when salmon and other fatty fish (like sardines and herring) regularly show up on your dinner plate, you could be giving kidney cancer the big kiss-off.

Researchers suspect that certain omega-3 fats in the fish may change the immune response of cancer cells in a way that thwarts their invasive process. But it’s got to be fatty fish; slim swimmers (like cod) can have 20 to 30 times less omega-3s.

Fatty fish are also chock-full of vitamin D, which may play a protective role as well.

fish, omega-3

fish, omega-3

To find out how your upper-body strength stacks up, try this quick test.

First, do light exercise (walking is a good choice) for 5 minutes. Next, hit the floor and do as many push-ups as you can (women can keep their knees on the floor, but men should do the standard kind.) Now, here’s what your total count means.

Strength in Numbers
If you’re a 30-year-old man, you should be able to do at least 35 push-ups. Subtract 5 from that total for every decade after age 30, until you’re 70 years old. For women over 30 years old, 45 push-ups (knees on the floor) should be doable (subtract 5 push-ups for every decade after age 30, until you’re 80 years old).

If the mere thought of these numbers makes your muscles ache, you probably need to build your strength. But it won’t take much. Just 13 minutes of strength training every other day should get you closer to your target

More Fitness Measures
Strength is key to overall fitness, but you also need stamina and flexibility. To increase your stamina, walk 30 minutes every day, and do 21 minutes of stamina exercises three times a week.

upper body strength

upper body strength