Archive for April, 2009
HAIR CARE: “SAVE MONEY AND YOUR HAIR”
Author: admin
The condition of your hair is a good indicator of the general state of your health. The hair and scalp are able to absorb substances that not only change the hair but our health in general.
The majority of hair cafe products sold today have a synthetic or chemical base, even the so called natural products. They can strip the hair of its natural acidity, leaving it dull and lifeless.
Shampoo
A majority o shampoos contain ingredients such as sodium lauryl sulphate and other syndets. These ingredients are not made from coconuts as many cosmetic manufactures claim. They’re produced synthetically via the Ziegler process with sulphur trioxide or chlorosulphuric acid. Syndets used in shampoos do the same kind of harm to our environment that laundry and household detergents do.
Conditioner
Hair conditioners are mostly made of quanternary ammonium compounds. These are the chemicals originally developed as fabric softeners. They are quite toxic and do nothing for the long-term health of your hair. Read the labels on all the products you are using. Here are just a few synthetic ingredients you should avoid buying in any cosmetics. Cocamide DEA, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Sodium laureth sulphate, sodium lauryl sulphate and TEA-lauryl sulphate.
Ask yourself what synthetic or chemical cocktail you are using on your hair and have you ever wondered whether your shampoo could be causing you ill health.
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Aboriginal people lived in harmony with their environment. The plants were used generally without elaborate preparation; plant material was often bruised or pounded to be used as a poultice, or extracted with water. Aborigines believed that if a person became ill, he had either done something to offend the Ancestral Beings, or had wronged or injured another person who had then made him sick by sorcery. One cure the aborigines had was to remove the evil substance, then they called on the medicine man, the sharman or the cleaver man or cleaver woman.
Another cure, if the ailment was psychological, the healing ritual was done by the women. They had a special ceremony around the patient through song and dance. The cleaver men and women had special medicines and treatments, which would be used in addition to the faith healing.
Eye diseases were common for aborigines. A lotion was made of native plum-tree leaves and breast milk was used to soothe sore eyes. Treatment for cuts or gashes, they used to put a pad of mud, clay or ashes on the wound, or sometimes the cut was smeared with animal fat. In some tribes a deep wound was closed with an eaglehark feather before being bandaged with paper bark and kangaroo skin.
In Arnhem land the aborigines chopped up flower stalks, mixed them with warmed urine, and applied them to spear wounds. Some tribes used mud or ashes to dress wounds with no other treatment survived frightful wounds.
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SKIN DISORDERS: ACNE
Author: admin
Food: a paste can be made by soaking a slice of white bread in 1/4 cup of milk and 1 packet of dried yeast. Apply to the skin and leave on for 30 minutes, then remove with water. Wash your face with oatmeal, butter milk or honey. As a facial mask use either egg white, tomato pulp, lemon juice, cabbage juice or grated carrot once a week. Fresh garlic can be rubbed onto the spots.
A peeled cucumber, placed in a blender and pulped, makes a great acne lotion Facial steam baths consisting of the following herbs – marshmal-low. burdock and sage together with grated onion can also be used. Papaya: fresh latex from papaya is used to treat the affected areas. A mask using the fleshy side of the skin of a half ripe papaya on the acne areas is also recommended. Papaya diet supports the treatment internally. Papaya vinegar can be used weekly as a mask.
As a skin cleanser papaya vinegar is diluted 1:10. Stubborn areas are treated with undiluted papaya vinegar and papaya oil or apply hot compresses of double strength papaya tea.
Guava: wash the face repeatedly with guava leaf infusion. Drink guava tea daily, guava lotion can also be applied – Blend fresh guava with lemon juice and apply to the face, leave on for 5 minutes then rinse well. Kefir: drink half a litre of kefir daily and rub some kefir into the affected area.
Urine: washing the face with fresh urine, whenever possible or at least twice a day.
Water: wash the affected areas with “dead water” (acid water pH 4) and then with “living “water” (alkaline water pH 10) refer to “Water Medicine” written by Harald. W. Tietze for further information. This is also excellent as a prevention for acne as well.
Essential oils: bergamot, carrot seed, chamomile, cypress, geranium, juniper, lavender, lemon, orange, tea tree, thyme and yarrow.
Kombucha: cleanse the skin frequently with kombucha tea, then apply kombucha cream. Rub the skin with a kombucha fungus and also drink kombucha tea for detoxification.
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The art of using enzymes in cosmetics has long been known. Raw fruits, fresh vegetables, kelp and spirulina are rich in enzymes and vitamins and minerals. When enzymes are applied to the skin, they help to stimulate the life processes in your skin cells, making them firmer and fresher, with a healthy glow. For the enzymes to have a beneficial effect on the skin, only small quantities are needed.
When preparing plant-enzymes for home beauty treatments, you need to make up fresh preparations each time. It is the same as preparing your fresh live food for your daily diet
Raw fruits and vegetables contain valuable vitamins, minerals and enzymes to bring out the best in your skin. Add fresh fruit or vegetables combined with other ingredients in a fruit facial once a week.
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It is widely observed that patients with food intolerance often have candidiasis as well – and those whose main problem is Candida often turn out to have food sensitivities. Although there are no hard data to support these observations, many doctors working in this field feel that there must be a link between the two.
Sensitivity to man-made chemicals also seems to be part of the picture. Some patients date the onset of their candidiasis to some heavy chemical exposure, such as installing cavity-foam insulation (this releases large amounts of formaldehyde into the house). Others began to react badly to various chemicals at about the time they developed candidiasis.
One explanation for the link with food intolerance runs as follows: although Candida is normally a yeast (individual egg-shaped cells), it can convert to a hyphal form (tiny threads, as described above) in certain circumstances. In the laboratory, this occurs if there is a shortage of the vitamin bio-tin, or of other nutrients. Assuming the same thing happens in the gut, then a vitamin deficiency might make the yeast convert to the hyphal form. Once in this form, the hyphae grow into the gut wall, just as the hyphae of a mould penetrate a piece of stale bread. This creates tiny holes in the gut wall, making it more permeable. More undigested food molecules pass through the gut wall than in healthy individuals, making food intolerance much more likely.
Unfortunately, there is no evidence to support this explanation, apart from some rather dubious circumstantial evidence. Candida can convert to the hyphal form in infected areas of the skin or vagina, but it only does so partially – most of the Candida is still in the typical yeast form. Whether Candida ever converts to the hyphal form in the gut is unknown. Even if it does, the idea that it penetrates the gut wall, leaving tiny holes, is questionable.
This explanation also fails to explain the observed link with chemical sensitivity. Many of the chemicals concerned are airborne ones, such as exhaust fumes or solvents, which enter our bodies through the nose and lungs. So the leakiness or otherwise of the gut wall will not make someone more sensitive to such chemicals.
At present, there is no good explanation for the link between candidiasis, food intolerance and chemical sensitivity. It is clear that Candida interacts with the body in various ways, which are both complex and subtle – in particular, its relationship with the sex hormones and with the immune system. Perhaps these effects unbalance the body’s normal control mechanisms, and make food and chemical sensitivities more likely. Alternatively, there could be some underlying fault (in the control of the immune system, for example) that makes the body more vulnerable to Candida invasion, on the one hand, and more apt to react inappropriately to foods and chemicals, on the other.
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TOES, RED, ITCHY, WITH PAIN BETWEEN
Author: admin
Description and Possible Medical Problems
Athlete’s foot is such a common condition that the moment your feet start to itch and become red and the skin between your toes cracks, you probably already know what the problem is.
In fact, athlete’s foot is such a common condition that an entire industry of powders and lotions seems to have been built around it. Some other products also use the issue of athlete’s foot prevention— “Use our special sandals in the shower at the gym and avoid athlete’s foot forever!”—to sell their own products.
When it comes right down to it, athlete’s foot is a fungal infection that is easy to catch but also easy to treat. The best growing conditions for athlete’s foot include a moist environment such as a shower that other people use, like in a locker room, and shoes and socks that don’t allow your feet to breathe. In addition to redness, itching, and cracks between the toes, the skin may be flaky and will smell foul.
Treatment
To treat athlete’s foot, the best thing you can do is to keep your feet as dry as possible with talcum powder or an antifungal powder for athlete’s foot such as Tinactin. It’s also a good idea to wear shoes and socks that breathe—such as cotton socks and leather shoes—and sandals or other open-toed shoes as often as possible.
Usually these techniques will clear up athlete’s foot within a few days. If they don’t work or your athlete’s foot gets worse, see your doctor. You may need a prescription antifungal powder or cream or an antifungal medication.
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If you think you have a fungal infection of a nail, you need to see your doctor. Although there are many over-the-counter topical preparations available, they are not usually very effective because they don’t penetrate the nail. Instead, they contain the infection in the nail and prevent it from spreading to the skin around the nail. Fungal infections are extremely difficult to treat.
Your doctor can prescribe a treatment called Spornox, an oral medication taken once a day that will destroy the fungus. Treatment may last for at least three months. In the meantime, while the infection cleats up—which may take as long as nine months, or the amount of time it takes your nail to grow out—don’t wear nail polish, and wear gloves whenever you immerse your hands in water, since water may cause the fungus to spread, as it thrives in a warm, moist environment.
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Description and Possible Medical Problems
Remember Madge, the manicurist in the TV ad who recommended that her clients soak their hands in dishwashing liquid to soften them? After they reacted with shock, Madge reassured them, and they gamely put their hands back into the solution.
Most of us know better and would prefer real moisturizer, just to make sure. After all, washing dishes—a common activity even in these days of automatic dishwashers—still tends to leave your hands red and swollen for about 30 minutes after you finish no matter what you do.
If, however, you have red, swollen hands that don’t clear up and if you’ve recently injured your hand in some way, you may have a condition called cellulitis, which is a skin infection. Cellulitis occurs when streptococcus bacteria enter the body, usually through broken skin. Besides red, swollen hands, you may notice that small red lines appear on your skin in a weblike design and your skin feels hot to the touch. You may also have a fever.
Treatment
If you think you have cellulitis, you should see your doctor. You’ll need to soak your hands in warm water for 10 minutes three or four times daily. The best course of treatment is Tylenol, though in severe cases I’ll also prescribe a course of an antibiotic such as penicillin or erythromycin, taken four times a day for at least two weeks. When the cellulitis is severe, hospitalization is necessary for intravenous antibiotic therapy.
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Here ate some more definitions. HDL stands for high-density lipoprotein, LDL stands for low-density lipoprotein. A lipoprotein is a molecule that catties cholesterol in the blood. High-density lipoproteins carry cholesterol in a fashion the body can utilize; they allow the cholesterol to break off when it is needed. Low-density lipoproteins carry cholesterol into the bloodstream but do not allow the body to use it. Therefore, much of the low-density lipoproteins end up as cholesterol plaque deposits on the walls of arteries. The good news is that HDLs are stimulated into action by regular exercise.
And then there are triglycerides. When the body digests either saturated and unsaturated fat, it breaks it down into molecular chains. These chains then bind together in a triplet form called triglycerides. Triglycerides flow from the intestines through the lymphatic system and then into the bloodstream. The greater the amount of triglycerides in the bloodstream, the thicker the blood. This causes a strain on the heart, since it has to pump a thicker liquid through the blood vessels. If this condition is compounded by a narrowing blood vessel system due to arteriosclerosis, the thickened blood may have a difficult time getting through the smaller vessels and some of the body may be deprived of oxygen and nutrients. This is not a healthy scenario for the heart or any other body part. High triglycerides in the blood can usually be brought down by cutting concentrated sweets from the diet.
Then there’s the genetic factor. Maybe we can control outside factors to improve our health, but some of us are simply genetically predisposed to heart disease. Surprisingly, some people who have low blood cholesterol levels still have heart attacks. No one knows why. Researchers are attempting to determine which genes are responsible for preventing or delaying heart disease, either on their own or in combination with diet and/or drugs.
Until they know the answers, however, my best advice is to follow the advice of the American Heart Association, which says the best thing to do is to control your blood cholesterol levels through diet, exercise, and weight control.
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As for exercise, I feel that walking briskly for twenty minutes a day is the best activity for anybody, regardless of the state of one’s health, since it lowers one’s stress level and increases physical conditioning. For some people, a low-salt, low-fat diet with a daily brisk walk is all they need to control their blood pressure. However, if you wish to pursue more strenuous activities, it’s important that you get a go-ahead from your physician first. If you haven’t been active for a long time, he may ask you to take a stress test so he’s sure your heart can withstand the additional effort. Relaxation techniques and exercises such as biofeedback and yoga are also helpful in reducing your blood pressure, so ask your doctor for advice on how to use these methods as well.
If changing your diet and exercise routine and learning to relax fail to lower your blood pressure, only then do I recommend that you take medication. Once you start on medication, however, it’s important that you continue with your diet and exercise program so that you can keep your medication to a minimum.
The good news is that there are a wide variety of medications available to help lower blood pressure. My goal as a physician is to find the perfect medication for each person. Sometimes this is an easy process, but often it is a frustrating challenge.
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