How much water should we drink in a day?

Certainly not 8 glasses a day as what we’ve been told. The American Journal of physiology reported in the 2002 findings that there is no basis for drinking water more than what we thirst for. As a matter of fact drinking too much water can be more harmful in certain ways as it keeps a heavy toll on our kidneys and depletes the important minerals that our body needs. So back to the question, how much water should we drink in a day?
The answer couldn’t be simpler. Observe the color of your urine. It your urine is yellowish or brownish, chances are that you are dehydrated so do drink more water. Drink enough fluid to ensure that your urine is colorless like water.

Stress and weight gain

Stresses can leads to weight gain. Stress causes us to loose sleep and as a result leads to rapid aging and cell degeneration. Furthermore, stress causes our body to store fat, decrease metabolism and increases our blood sugar level.

Under stressful condition, our body releases the hormone ‘Cortisol’ which is responsible for making our body less sensitive to the hormone ‘Leptin’. Leptin is the hormone that tells our brain that we are full. Thus once our body become less sensitive to Leptin, we will feel hungry all the time and this causes us to increase food intake unnecessary.

Our body is wired to response to danger by eating as much as needed to store energy in preparation for dangerous and trying times ahead. Thus when we are stress out, the body perceives danger lurking and signals the brain and this in turn causes our brain to signal to our gut to increase food intake.

Therefore getting adequate rest and sleep is vital for our health and help to regulate and maintain our appetite. This indirectly helps us to maintain proper weight.

Benefits of increasing metabolism

Did you know that the key to a successful weight loss is by mellowing down your metabolism? Metabolism is the process of burning calories in your body which happens naturally even if you are not exerting any effort- yes including when you are sleeping.

Metabolism, if increased, would result in taking much fluid thus weight loss would happen gradually. The recommended weight loss of 1 – 2 pounds per week is really possible... By increasing the metabolism you are giving the body a need to have more amount of protein.

As we all know, exercise could increase metabolism but the point is that an individual must do an exercise that is suitable and effective for his or her body type. Increasing the metabolism must come before trimming down on calories. Long duration exercise is not natural and should not be encourage. Furthermore, long duration exercise will cause us to increase our appetite since the body is very good at signaling to our brain that we ought to increase food intake to replace the calories that were being burn up during long duration exercise.

A permanent weight loss may be achieved through increasing metabolism and this process provides different benefits.

This would give you more time to do whatever you want because you do not need too much exercise- this would allow you to enjoy other activities. Moreover, you do not have to force your self to do tough exercises.

Wouldn’t it be nice and wonderful if we could increase metabolism while we are asleep or resting and thus help us to shed off excessive fats? Dr Sear who pioneered the patented weight loss programme PACE has shown that we can in fact rewired or reprogrammed our body to increase metabolism while we are resting and thus help us to shed excess 24 hours. This is accomplished via short burst aerobic exercise that last at most 20 minutes.
See http://www.alsearsmd.com/pace/


Unlike other diets that hold promises of remedies when actually you just end up disappointed, increasing your metabolism will give you better long-term results and will not give you bigger possibilities of gaining weight again.

You do not have to ignore the favorite food and you need not spend so much time just preparing non-fat meals. Of course, you could stop spending too much just for this non-fat food and the like.

These benefits are very simple but these are very important especially for the well-being of an individual. When we exert effort and work hard on our objectives like losing weight, impossible will not even be a fact at all.

These benefits are just some of the many increasing your metabolism could offer- so what are you waiting for?

Stroke

Our brain cells are severely impacted if it is deprived of oxygen. A stroke normally occurs when areas of the brain dies. The major caused of stroke is due to blockage of blood flow in the brain. Massive stroke can occur due to bleeding in the brain, mostly caused by burst blood vessels, normally known as brain hemorrhage. Not many people are aware though that low cholesterol in the brain could weaken the blood vessels and cause it to burst.

In many ways the underlying cause of strokes are identical to that of heart attacks, in particular the hardening of the arteries that thereafter causes plaque builds up.
When plaque builds up, it narrows the artery and gradually reduces blood flow.
We may not even notice the narrowing of the arteries since our body is adaptive and the symptoms might be detectable till it is too late.

However, plaque in the carotid artery (the main artery supplying the brain -- there's one on each side) is a ticking time bomb. At any time, it might cause the artery to clot off, starving the brain of blood.

A portion of the plaque might break off, traveling downstream in the blood flow until it wedges in a smaller artery, blocking it and causing the part of the brain supplied by that artery to die. Physicians call this an embolus.

Another possible symptom of stroke is the sudden loss of vision in one eye. This symptom is caused by a tiny bit of plaque, that embolus which was referred to earlier, lodging in the artery to the eye.

The first part of the retina to die is the area farthest from the blockage. Vision fades thereafter the darkness spreads as more of the retina dies. The person experiencing this often describes it “as if a shade was pulled down”.

Is stroke preventable? The answer is yes. As mentioned earlier most strokes underlying process is identical to those of heart attack. Apart from those well beyond into elderly age years, it is possible to avoid stroke if we live a healthy life style.

Topping the list is 1) Do not smoke or stop smoking, 2) control your blood pressure and 3) cut down on alcoholic beverages drinks 4) maintain normal weight and exercise regularly and 5) reduce too much salt intake and have more fruits and vegetables in your diet. Low salt tomato based vegetable juice are rich in potassium which could regulate our blood pressure.

Beijing pollution control

The Chinese government ability to reduce the air and water pollution by as much as over 30 percent or more over in Beijing just couple of weeks prior to the Olympic 2008 event has drawn the attention of world wide international environmentalist, health and pollution control experts. No government in this world is able to pull off such incredible pollution control feat, with the exception of the Chinese government iron fist controlling machinery. Hundreds of factories in around and nearby Beijing vicinity that does not meet the required pollution safety standard were ordered to close down immediately. The Chinese government goes to the extra mile to reduce pollution in Beijing during the Olympic event by controlling and reducing the number of cars plying its roads.

Athletes over the world that participated in the Beijing Olympic event described clear blue skies and admit their unfounded worries and concerns about health due to the poor air quality once they touch down in Beijing. Let’s hope the Chinese government will continue to keep up with the good work of reducing environmental pollution now that the Olympic is over.

The art of winning (speed, accuracy and power.)

Time sure pass quickly. Olympics 2008 had just gone by. Many new world records were set and China has proved herself to the world that she is one big major sport powerhouse to reckon with.

Chinese martial arts in particular Shaolin emphasize on speed, accuracy and power to overcome adversary. Bruce Lee, the kungfu legend of the 60s and early 70s once mentioned that one must have complete total situation awareness to win decisive battle against your opponents in particular those hidden from your direct view, for instance those opponents that are positioned at the back of you.

One could easily relates speed, accuracy and power by watching the performance of the China’s world class gymnasts, badminton and table tennis players. For instance, China’s world ranking number 1 table tennis player Zhang Yining makes every smash counts and rarely make any unforced errors. Furthermore, I noticed that she is quick to respond to any return smashes by her opponents, simply because she has complete situation awareness and able to anticipate the next likely trajectory of the of ball return by her opponent. Each smash is follow by graceful response to counter attack by her opponents.

Singapore table tennis players on the other hand lack accuracy and situation awarenss skills. As a matter of fact I am inclined to believe that Singapore players such as Li Jiawei pulls in more smashes compare to her China opponents. The sad thing though is that even though the smashes are powerful and high speed but alas most of these smashes lacks accuracy resulting in loss of points unnecessary due to unforced errors. Furthemore, there is serious lack of situation awareness, of not being able to predict nor anticipate the opponent's next moves.
I wonder what the Singapore table tennis coach is doing?

Silver medal is good enough, who cares if it is gold?

Singapore women table tennis coach Liu Guodong told the press that the Singapore women table tennis team has very slim chances of beating the China’s team in the final women table tennis team event match. I guess we all know that this is a fact however I feel this statement should not come from the Coach to the press during the crucial match leading to the final team event show-down between China and Singapore.

This remark was made after the Singapore women team’s successful match against the South Korean in the semifinal event competition. I wonder what kind of signal was Coach Liu giving to his team by saying that they have slim chances if any of beating the China’s team for the gold medal. Perhaps Coach Liu is telling the Singapore team that it is ‘okay’ to loose and that the Singapore team is no match for the China team anyway.
Perhaps Coach Liu spoke in good faith and was trying to reduce the pressure to the team who just overcome the mighty South Korean team. Perhaps Coach Liu is trying to signal to the China team that Singapore team is the underdog and has nothing to loose by pitting against the world number 1. Well we all by now that the China team outclass and outmatch the Singapore team.

Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant once made the following remark.
It is not the will to win, but the will to prepare to win that makes the difference.

It seems Coach Liu has throw in the towel even before the final’s team event match against China. As a matter of fact Coach Liu even had the audacity to say he has accomplished his task of training and leading the team to obtain Olympic medals for Singapore. True but is that good enough? The China teams never come with the mentality of being the 2nd best. It is either the gold medal or never.
It is like the mentality of 'silver medal is good enough, who cares if it is gold?'

Furthermore there are plenty of mistakes made by Singapore women table tennis team during the matches that I wonder if our taxes are well utilized and well spend on the team.

World class table tennis match

Watching the Beijing Olympic woman's single final table tennis match between world ranking number 1 Zhang Yining and 3rd world ranking Wang Nan is really entertaining. After watching the match between these two Chinese players, I can’t help but appreciate why these two players indeed live up to their reputation as the world best table tennis players.

On the contrary Singapore’s China born Li Jia Wei performance is rather dismal and disappointing. Lee not only makes too many un-force silly errors, the biggest letdown and something that I could not tolerate is her laziness and unwillingness to move around the court to intercept the ball. Instead Li just stood like a dead wood as if her shoes were glued and stuck on the floor. Li lost the bronze match to Guo Yue. Li does not deserve the bronze medal at all. At age 27, Li probably just have a few more years before retiring. Despite all the training and International exposure, Li ability and table tennis skills is far from China’s best.

An Easy Way Out of Exercising? Gastric Bypass Surgery

For people consumed with losing weight, surgery may seem like an easy option. Gastric bypass surgery has helped a number of people and has come to light in recent years due to a number of celebrities receiving this procedure. Although a gastric bypass surgery may seem like an easy way to shed unwanted pounds, it is actually a very serious weight loss method and is not for most people. You should only consider gastric bypass surgery if you are very significantly overweight and need to lose the weight for medical reasons rather than for cosmetic reasons.

Gastric bypass, which is also known as stapling one’s stomach, works by decreasing the amount of food that can be held in the stomach. You lose weight because the food bypasses a part of the small intestine and decreases stomach size, which means that you physically can’t eat as much without vomiting. You also don’t absorb calories as readily, allowing these foods to leave the body naturally instead.

Before you choose gastric bypass surgery, you should consider all other options. First, try losing weight on your own using diet and exercise. This requires lots of will power, but is much easier and safer than gastric bypass surgery. You can also talk to your doctor about medications that could possible help you lose weight and alternative therapy techniques, like acupuncture and hypnosis.

If you and your doctor do decide that gastric bypass surgery s right for you, start by losing some weight on your own. The more weigh you can lose through diet and exercise, the easier the surgery will be on your body. You should follow all of your doctor’s recommendations at this point to ready yourself for surgery.

After the surgery, you will also need to continue diet control and exercise, complete physical therapy, and take any prescriptions your doctor tells you to take. The work you do after the surgery will help you to lose the weight you want to lose, and this work is not easy.

Gastric bypass surgery simply isn’t for everyone. Statistics show that as many as 10% of the people receiving gastric bypass surgery have medical complications, and even though these risks are decreasing with new technology, this is still a danger. Side effects could include infection, hernia, ulcers, blood clots, and complications during the surgery, and even death. Make sure this is what you really need before you decide to go through with any type of procedure to help you lose weight.

Never give up

Never give up in the face of adversity. The more challenges we face in life and the more we learn to cope and live through it, the greater and the more confident we become. A successful man is one who can build a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him. Seize the opportunity to correct and learn from mistakes we make and move on with life. Try not to take criticism from others, as being too personal, instead be open and receptive to suggestions and feedback.

Take things in stride; never give up no matter how difficult or challenging a problem might be. Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending. Be positive about your life. As the saying goes, you can view a half glass filled water as either halt empty or half full. Which among these would you choose? Take control of your own destiny and work towards your goals. You cannot decide where and when you are born neither can you decide whom your parents are. You can however decide how you want to lead the rest of your life, so take charge and be responsible for your own success.

Extreme confidence

I was extremely dismayed with the performance of Malaysia’s one and only hopeful gold medalist in the men’s single final badminton tournament held in Beijing Olympic.
It was really unlike the usual fast furious attacking lackey that I know of. Lee was completely outclass and outmatched by his competitor, the world number one ranking Lin Dan of China. Lee is rank 2nd in the man’s badminton championship and I believe most people were expecting him to put up a good fight. Instead what transpired was a completely unbelievable one-sided match that I feel even a normal schoolboy could put a better badminton match than Lee. What on earth happen to the confidence Lee who told the press just a day before the match that he think he has fifty fifty chances of beating Lin Dan?

Perhaps the cheer of the crowds in the badminton court gave Lee the jittery and fright and he somehow lost confidence? Lee seems to have completely loss his confidence and this led to lose of focus thus causing him not just the title but also his reputation as a world-class badminton player in years to come. Not only that, he has also lose the 1 million dollar gold medal reward as well.

After watching the match I can’t but think about extreme confidence. Perhaps our poor chap Lee lack extreme confidence. Is it possible for us to have extreme confidence in the face of adversity and challenges?

Yes I believe we can have Extreme Confidence. It doesn't matter what our self-image is or how low our confidence is, we can still have supreme confidence.

You see... Confidence is not something we were born with. Confidence is something we develop and something we constantly develop over time.

It really comes down to how we see our self and what we think of our self.

If we focus on all that is wrong with our self and what we cannot do or achieve we'll never have any confidence. If we constantly beat our self up, think we're no good, not capable of achieving anything, not able to do what we want, etc. then we end up creating a negative self-image and we develop a lack of confidence and low self-esteem.

That negative thought pattern that led to the lack of self-confidence is not something we were born with. It's a thought process that we developed and thought process doesn't allow us to enjoy high self-confidence.

Now the truth is we can change that and we can develop your self-confidence.
First start by changing the way we see our self. Focus on the things we are able to do. Think of the past successes we have had - no matter how small and use those past successes as building blocks to new success. Regularly think about the qualities we like in our self and work toward improving those that we don't.

Brain cell degeneration

The human brain is a complex organ; there are many types of brain cells responsible for different tasks. It was long-held belief that human brain cell function deteriorates, inevitable some of the brain cells dies off as we age and that there is no way for the adult human to by themselves regenerate and replace this brain cells naturally.

The general agreed upon and widely accepted belief was that the marvelous human brain rewires existing old brain cells rather than through the generation of new brain cells to record new data or record new memory so to speak.

Doctors and medical researches do not rule out the possibility that common diseases plaguing elderly such as dementia disease might be attributed due to brain cognitive and control functions impairment caused by the natural attrition of brain cells and perhaps other contributing factors that might accelerate the declining rate of the human brain cells, term the neurons.

Of recent, scientific breakthrough in the field of human brain cells research indicates that the neurons can be regenerated naturally and that the brain is constantly generating new neurons for maintaining or replacing those that are loss due to natural attrition. The neurons are constantly regenerated, the growth rate is at its peak when we reach about 3 years old and then it starts to decline. As we grow older, the grow rate of new neurons slows down and lacks behind those neurons that dies.
It is noted that different types of neurons regenerate in varying capacities.

Furthermore, neuron science experts discovered to their surprised the human brain cells could be regenerated, a term called ‘neuro-regenesis’ through human action itself such as constant exercising of the brain so as involving thinking and logic decision making. Thus with the understanding that that exercising of the brain such as thinking can indeed cause the generation of new neuron cells responsible for thinking and consciousness, it is important to adjust our life style, in particular as we grew older.

Thus, it comes as no surprise that elderly people who are more active in life and frequently engaging in thinking tends to lead a more healthier life and do not suffer higher rate of dementia compare to retirees who lead a mundane life style of just passing time day in day out aimlessly. Aside from the sheer enjoyment of tackling more challenging pastimes, studies show that exercising your mental faculties helps prevent the onset of mild depression, dementia and other mental
disabilities.


The British Medical Journal in one of its article published in 2005 indicates that early retirement may translate into early mortality; at least for those 60 or younger. Similar studies in other countries likewise indicates similar trend. The cause of these mortalities is not known and medical researches and scientists are split in their findings and postulation with regards to such symptoms and trends. Could it be due to the fact that early retirement results in less stress and thus less exercising of the brain thoughts and thinking leading to brain degeneration thus early mortality?

Dieting myth.

There are many people out there who believe that eating less and exercising more will result in weight loss. This is far from the truth. As a matter of fact, eating less and exercising more can indeed cause some weight loss in the short term but cannot be sustain in the longer term. To make matter worst, eating less and exercising more will instead result in even bigger weight gain in the long term. Why is that so?

Have you ever asked your self why is it that your friend’s way of losing weight it seems not giving you half of the results she or he enjoys? Have you ever wonder why some people tend to eat a lot more than you but yet do not seem to gain weight at all? Have you ever wonder why those dress and clothing of yours that seems nice fitting becomes impossible to put on after 5 to 10 years later or as you aged?

The fact of the matter is that weight gain or loss has a lot and got to do with your metabolic rate. This metabolic rate varies in every person and it means we need varied way of losing weight. Metabolic rate is the rate at which our body burns calories to sustain life. Our body endlessly burns calories even if we are sleeping. Our muscles are responsible for burning down calories though we are not performing any physical activity. Muscles are called “metabolic reactive” because of the said qualities.

One important thing to take note is what science term as the resting metabolic rate. It is defined as the basic amount of energy or calories needed to run your metabolism for the day. Understanding what controls our appetite and metabolism, the way our body use or burn calories is the golden key to successful weight management and being able to keep your resting metabolic rate at top performance and tune up means being able to burn calories even while you are resting or asleep.


As we progressively aged our metabolic rate tends to slow down thus this result in less efficient burning of extra calories from our body. This explains why most people put on weight when they grow older.

According to medical weight loss experts, muscles are the biggest factor in a person’s metabolic rate. It is important to note that our bodies are genetically wired to make us gain weight and to keep it on. The key to achieving long term and sustainable weight loss is by knowing how to tune up your restive metabolism rate and thus use your natural calorie burning capabilities to help you regulate your weight.

Sound incredible, but oh yes, it is true. We should eat more to lose weight and not eat less to loose weight. Sounds crazy? The problem with eating less to the extend of starvation is that it causes our body to think its starving to death and this sets off chemical processes that forces us to eat more.

The biggest reason why dieting backfire is due to the fact that people restrict too much on eating and let the number of calories they consume drop below their resting metabolic rate. Dieting cost-losing muscle more than fat. Muscle burn over 70 times more calories than fat. When we diet and then eat more, we gain more fat and loss more muscle.

Quite often we have been misinformed that we should take note of the amount of calories intake because the more calories we intake, the faster we gain weight. This is absolute not true. The amount of calories intake is not as important as the type of calories that we are taking.

Thus instead of trying crashing course diets and starving ourselves to death, why not focused on eating the right kind of food to help lose weight?

Misunderstanding Acne

When those reddish things on your face start to show up, you may think that it may have been caused by this or that. You may even blame it to the most unreasonable reason. Well the best thing for you to do is to stop these misunderstandings. When you stick with them, it would not help you find the right treatment for your acne.


These are the common things we think of when it comes to the cause of acne:

The most misconception is that it is fine to have acne especially when you are a teenager. Common people would connect it to puberty or to adolescence. This is not a fact. Well, there may be some reasons such as the changes in hormones as one is in that stage. But there is falsity when people say that acne is for teenagers only. As we could see or read on some researches, there are also adults who experience the same acne problems as adults do. Age does not matter when it comes to having acne as long as you keep your face clean, you would not be prone to have it.

Another thing that has been believed to be the cause of acne is daily stress. Most people, young and old, believe in this wrong thought. There is no direct connection between stress and having acne for it the stress caused by your daily life and all other stressful activities you may think of. There has nothing to do with whatever root of stress in your work or studies. There has something to do with the way you treat your skin. When you do not keep your regimen to keep your skin healthy, you would probably have that acne that you are scared to have.

When most people think that acne is just a physical problem, it is but you should also know that it is also an emotional burden. There are a lot of emotional impacts that could be caused by having acne. On of the top most effect is having low self-esteem. As you live in a superficial world like ours, you would really feel insecure whenever you feel like having those eyes staring at your face. People with acne are so timid for they may just be tagged as “ugly” by others. There is a need for you to take care of your skin and face.

The most common misconception about acne is that it could be acquired from eating oily food. Desserts, chocolates and all those oily food must not be blamed for eating such food but for not taking good care of your skin. Well, you must se to it that you maintain that right way of keeping your face clean and healthy.


Of course as of now, it is unclear as to why some people are more prone to acne than others. It could be due to genetic make up of a person, environmental condition, immune system and life style.

Interestingly though of lately, German team from George August University found evidences of gene that might trigger acne. Research done to date indicates acne has ties with genetics.
The German researches discovered that the normally harmless bacterium Propionibacterium acnes, which are found on all adult skin, might cause some people to be more susceptible to severe acne outbreak. Some of the genes are believed to be blueprints for enzymes to breakdown the skin thus allowing dead skins cells to block pores and enabling the usual harmless bacteria to cause skin inflammation.

We do not know all the exact root cause of acne; just do not resort to the wrong conceptions. They could just harm you instead of helping you out in getting rid of acne. And, you know what could be the effects of those red tiny humps on your face.

While medical scientist works towards breakthrough in skin acne treatments, the best that we could do is to follow sound practical advice with regards to skin care. Just because you believe that your acne is due to genetic reasons does not mean you must live with it.

There are treatments, the dos and the don’ts that you could do to minimize acne conditions. At this moment there is no universal one-shoe fit all size effective treatment for acne so to speak. Each person responds differently to skin acne treatment. If you see no improvement in one particular treatment, go and see your doctor to try something else.

Guideposts on the footpath to inner peace.

We live in a fast pace moving world. Everything around us seems to evolve quickly it seems. In one moment we heard about the concern of air pollution in Beijing leading to the 2008 Olympics and next we realized that that the Olympics is already in its full swing with medal tallies reported daily. Back at home front, the somber speech by the Singapore PM reminds us of the challenging times ahead, the economic uncertainty and the global economic slowdown amidst record oil price hike and ever uncertain global political situation.

Our quality lives don’t seem to be improving that much either at times it seems. There seems to be increasing workload and work pressure, financial concerns and constraints and our deteriorating health as we aged. To top it all, it is already August and soon we will be entering another new year. We seems to live in mundane, cyclical and predictable life, well except for the fact that we don’t seems to know how we could achieve the kind of financial independence and success we all longed for. Our peace it seems is placed on how much we could save for our retirements, evident from the many hopeful Toto punters that try their luck during the recent 8M Toto draw.

It is important for us to achieve inner piece if we are to succeed in life. Success in life should not be measure entirely in dollars and cents. After all, who could predict that an American tourist would end up stab to death over Beijing? Some say it is his karma, being at the wrong place and at the wrong time.

Why is it that there are many people who enjoy watching sci-fi and action movies, even though the story plot might seems out of this world and outrageously ridiculous at times?
I must admit I am one of those regular movie fan goers who won’t mind spending 10 bucks or more to watch a movie, even if Channel News Asia Melanie Oliverio rates the movie one out of 5 popcorns rating. Why is that so? It is simply because deep within us adults there lies the childhood creature that longs to get away from the reality of this world, to escape into a world of fantasy, even it if it means just for a couple of hours entrench in the man made movie fantasy world. Speaking of Melanie Oliverio, I think she forgot that one man’s meat is another man’s poison so to speak. She is better off reserving some of the movie review comments and ratings to others who are less biased towards action movies.


Excerpt below a write out by Clergyman Henry van Dyke nearly over 100 years ago that I would like to share with you my dear friend and readers.

"To be glad of life, because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars; to be satisfied with your possessions, but not contented with yourself until you have made the best of them; to despise nothing in the world except falsehood and meanness, and to fear nothing except cowardice; to be governed by your admirations rather than by your disgusts; to covet nothing that is your neighbor's except his kindness of heart and gentleness of manners; to think seldom of your enemies and often of your friends... these are little guideposts on the footpath to peace."

Oily Skin

Oily skin can be quite irritating. It can show up to be thick and dull looking with coarse pores and pimples forming. Some people suffer from overactive oil glands, sebaceous glands that excrete excessive oil and this causes the skin pores to block thus resulting in skin oil build up. If you don’t have sharp nose bridge and you wear spectacle, oily skin can really be a pain in the neck cause you might feel irritated with the spectacle sliding down your nose bridge now and then. Oily skin condition is further exacerbated due to environmental conditions such as heavily polluted, hot and humid climates.

The only one good thing about oily skin is that the skin tends to age at slower pace compare to dry skin condition. The one big major disadvantage of oily skin, well, apart from pimples and acne is that it is much more difficult to treat compare to dry skin.

There are many other factors that contribute to oily skin conditions. These include heredity, diet, hormones, cosmetics and pregnancy. Hormones such as testosterone could make the oil glands over active. Growing up teenagers is more susceptible to oily skin condition. Pregnant and menopause condition could also worsen oily skin condition.

Oily skin condition resulting in pimples and other facial skin problems is easily treatable if you are aware of the factor that contributes to the skin problems. A visit to the dermatologist could easily reveal the root cause of your oily skin condition.

It is important to take note that the treatment that works for one person suffering from oily skin condition may not necessary work well on another person suffering from the same problem even though the root cause might be identical. The key to treating oily skin is personalized treatment tailor to your specific needs.

Skin care.
Regular cleansing with mild warm water and soap to prevent oil build up and clogging of skin pores is important. You need to be careful that you do not use harsh soaps and other products that will make your skin dry. If you are using dehydrating products on the skin, the upper layer will go dry and shrink. This will result in the obstruction with the flow of oil through the pores. The result is going to clogging of the pores.

You need to wash the skin with warm water that is comfortable for you. Mild warm to hot water will dissolve the oil better. Do not use cleansing creams. You need to go for an antibacterial cleansing lotion or a mild medicated soap to do this. When you are done cleaning, treat the skin with a natural and oil free moisturizer.

If your skin is too oily, and you are under the age of thirty, you should do four cleanings a day and use little or no moisturizer after cleansing. Use your fingers to massage your face while you are cleansing.


The oil tends to build up around the side of the nose. Use a clean tissue and gently squeeze the excess oil from the side of your nose.

A clay or mud mask will help you to take care of the oily conditions of the skin. For sensitive skin, white or rose colored clays are better to use as a mask. Before putting on makeup, a woman may want to use antiseptic day cream that will reduce the activity of oil glands.


Apart from Western medicine, one could also look to the traditional oriental Chinese herbs for treatment of oily skin. Many herbs are beneficial to the skin and are used both internally and externally for skin care condition. They normally have one or more of the following traditional properties: benefits/improves complexion, removes heat, removes toxins, removes swelling, invigorates/nourishes blood, lightens skin, moistens the skin, prevents scar formation, promotes flesh growth, etc.

The following are some common ones:
lycium fruit, ligustrum, astragalus, licorice, Chinese hawthorn, sanqi (Panax notoginseng), reishi (ganoderma), common jujube, red and white peony root, luffa, safflower flower, Sichaun lovage (Ligusticum chuanxiong rhizome), gaoben (Ligusticum sinense root/rhizome)

There are diets that are high in protein but are going to lack the sugar, fluids and salt that are recommended for anyone with oily skin problems. Eating vegetables and fruits are defiantly going to help you. You especially want the ones that are rich in vitamin B2. These will be whole grains, beans, nuts, and royal jelly. You should use minimum oil in your diet and stay away from alcohol, soda, sugar filled drinks, chocolate and many other junk food items. You need to talk to your doctor or dermatologist about your skin conditions and find out what is best for you. .

Broccoli and cauliflower

Include more vegetables in your diet, in particular increase intake of cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower. Researches in Mt. Sinai School of Medicine of New York has collected and analyzed data of over 1,000 men of whom over 50% suffering from prostrate cancer. Based on the data, the researches discovered those who has higher intake of cruciferous vegetables such as cabbage, broccoli or cauliflower has decreased prostrate cancer risk.

The exact root cause for such findings is not fully understood at this point of time. Researches believed that consistent and regular intake of broccoli enable our body to interact with specific gene that trigger alterations to signaling pathways associated with prostrate cancer and inflammation.

Cut down red meat intake and increase more vegetable in your meal, in particular broccoli or cauliflower, after all, there are plenty of ways to dish out wonderful dishes with such vegetables and off to a healthier life style.

Sauna and slimming

Detoxification and slimming with infra-red sauna..
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Cheers
Rich

The advantage of taking afternoon naps.

I hardly take nap in the afternoon in particular over weekdays. Lunch is usually quick meal and then it’s off to office and back to work till end of the day. Of course at times I can’t help it but feel the urge to doze off due to inadequate rest and lack of proper quality sleep. There are doctors who advice insomnia patients to avoid sleeping during the day as it might cause disruption and interfere with night sleep.

My dad live a ripe of age of up to 83 and I recalled he usually make it a point to catch a quick 15-20 minutes of afternoon nap daily throughout his life. Is afternoon nap good for health? Surprisingly the answer is yes. Those who live close to equatorial hot humid weather countries tend to loose concentration and focus during mid noon. A quick short afternoon nap could help to refresh and reenergize our mind.

There’s been much medical and scientific research into the benefits of taking afternoon naps. To date most sleep medical experts and researches agree that afternoon nap break is good for our health. Some companies even have policy of afternoon 1 or 2-hour official afternoon naptime for employees. As a matter of fact I am told that quite a number of companies in China are practicing afternoon nap break policies.
Sad to say, this afternoon nap policy does not go well with western employers and thus even Asian companies are starting to do away with official afternoon nap breaks.

On the other hand, over sleeping in the afternoon could cause headache thus the recommended afternoon nap should be just around 20 minutes of so.

Checkout the following web sites for more on the advantages of taking afternoon nap.

http://www.siestaawareness.org/pages/siesta-facts.php
www.talkaboutsleep.com/sleep-disorders/archives/insomnia_drjacobs_benefits_of_naps.htm