Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Stress and Psoriasis

There is no concrete evidence to indicate that stress worsens Psoriasis, on the other hand there is also no prove to otherwise conclude that stress is really indeed not a factor that triggers and worsen Psoriasis. Stress by its mechanism affects hormone balance.

Clinical laboratory animal experiment suggest stress can affect the growth of skin cells. Prolong chronic stress were found to affect immune functions and affect hormone balance. Some scientific studies indicates that stress may and can exacerbate psoriasis and increase itching.

Thus it is not surprising that stress is a triggering factor for Psoriasis given the fact that this form of skin disease were caused primarily by abnormal accelerated skin cell growth possible due to immunological disorder which caused uncontrolled T-cells attacking normal skin tissue resulting in skin inflammation.

Many people traced their first Psoriasis outbreak to a particularly unfortunate event that creates immense psychological stress. The sad thing about this skin disease is that not only could stress worsen the skin condition, this skin disease could also on the other hand cause further emotional stress. Social interactions can be very painful for those who are self conscious and concerned about their physical appearance.

Thus one of the ways to lessen Psoriasis condition is by dealing and coping with chronic stress. Managing stress is important, not just to those coping with Psoriasis but also for the rest whose health are affected one way another by the stress and worries in daily life. Keep your stress level control at all times.

Relaxation techniques such taiji and meditation involving deep breathing techniques are known to help relax your thoughts and ease tensions. Acupuncture, foot reflexology and massage can also help one to relax physically and refresh one's mind and thoughts.

If you are unable to cope with the stress associated with Psoriasis, arrange to meet up with your doctor, therapist or even close associates that you can trust such as your pastor to help explore ways to reduce the stress and emotional tensions in your life.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Missing link to weight loss

Guizhou is one of the poorer province in China. It is located near around the south western part of China. Guizhou adjoins Sichuan province to the north, Yunnan province to the west and Guangxi province to the south. Guizhou is home to many of the several ethnic minorities. The province boast some of the most spectacular mountain views, ravines, waterfall and other natural scenic views one could ever imagine. Asia largest waterfall, Huangguoshu Waterfall or better known as the Yellow Fruit Tree Waterfall is located in the Baihe River in Anshun Guizhou.

Guizhou transport infrastructure is surprising good, in particular the highways that cut across mountains and its overhead suspension bridges that links sky high line between mountains are truly indeed testimony to the incredible feats and accomplishment of its local civil engineering efforts which the province is extremely proud of.

Meal for the average people, in particular of those in villages and remote towns consists of simple dishes such as vegetable, lean chicken meat and rice. In the morning before day break, farmers would bring their animals such as buffaloes and goats to travel for miles, sometimes taking as long as two hours or more to reach the farm lands. Around 4pm in the evening, one could see buffaloes and its farmers prodding along the highways to return home after hard day's work plodding in the field during the day.

I went to tour China's province Guizhou two years ago and one thing strikes me. I noticed that there is hardly any obese people in the population, be it in the capital of the province Guiyang nor in other remote villages and towns both near and far from the city.

Even though most of the remote towns and villages are interconnected via modern highways and roads, it surprised me though the city and surrounding towns lack public transport amenities such as bus or taxi. Most people travel by foot, and I am not sure how they did it, but some walk as far as miles to get from one town to the next.

Perhaps that explains why people in Guizhou are generally lean and not obese. While people in other parts of the world, modern cities struggle to trim off fat and weight loss business is multi billion dollar business, those in the places like Guizhou struggle to keep themselves from being underweight.

In summary, eating and lifestyle can be the missing link to weight-loss efforts. As the saying goes, you are what you eat. Forget about wasting money in going to the gym for workout or taking those expensive weight loss control pills. Do the proper thing, eat what is necessary and well balanced nutritious diet and make it a point to walk if you can, after lunch or dinner to keep fit!. Walking is one of the best form of exercise to trim off fat and keep your weight in check.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Dealing with acne scar

One of the side effect of acne is the scar left behind ,the blemish could stay for days, weeks or even months before it heals. Acne scar may be temporal or permanent. The scar is usually caused by damaged tissue and dead skin cell that causes discoloration and pigmentation to the surrounding inflamed skin area. Some of the damaged tissue cause depressed surface on the skin. Mild scars can usually be treated using suitable topical applications while permanent and more serious scar may require surgical treatments such as skin resurfacing and etc.

Acne scar can be very perplexing at times. It's like kind of double calamity, first the irritation of pimple and acne thereafter follow by the scar that reminds you of the bad skin days long even after the skin inflammation is healed. Scratching inflamed skin area can leave permanent scar thus it is very important to avoid pricking the skin, no matter how bad the itch. Of course said is easier than done. One way to lessen the itch is by applying topical itch relieve cream.

Quite often we scratched uncontrollably and even unknowingly while we are asleep and by the time we woke up, the skin inflammation gets even worst due to the pricking and the scratching aggravates the damaged done to the skin tissue.

It is important that you make it a point to wash and clean infected acne skin areas with mild warm PH balanced soap, and then apply anti itch and acne topical cream just before you go to bed. One of the key secret to preventing acne scar is treating acne as early as possible before the itch and skin inflammation condition worsen and what better time to deal with it while we are asleep.

Acne scar treatment can be quite expensive and the treatment may may work well with some while worsening the skin condition of others. It is also extremely important to realize that scar will grown back across time if the underlying problem is not resolve.

As the saying goes, prevention is better than cure and certainly the earlier scar is treated the faster and sooner chances of recovery. Treating acne and scar is an ongoing process and the best way to deal with it is to prevent or reduce acne from occurring in the first place.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Anti aging skin care

One of the most interesting topics on skin care is ‘anti aging skin care’. As one gets older, the natural defence of our skin (and in fact of the whole body) weakens. ‘Anti aging skin care’ is about protecting your skin from the negative effects of aging process. ‘Anti aging skin care’ helps in maintaining a young and fresh look for a longer period of time. However, ‘anti aging skin care’ doesn’t end just here. Besides maintaining your looks (good looks), ‘anti aging skin care’ is also about retaining the resistance to disease. Though the awareness about anti aging has increased over a period of time, still a lot of people are unable to recognize the aging symptoms (and hence are unable to determine if they are in need of additional anti aging skin care measures).

Here is a list of visible anti aging symptoms that will help you in the planning and execution of your strategy for anti aging skin care: baldness, forgetfulness, graying hair, wrinkle formation, loss of eyesight or hearing loss and menopause. The occurrence of one or more such symptoms is an indicator for upping the ante on anti aging skin care. Note that we are talking about introduction of additional measures for anti aging skin care, we are not talking about starting ‘anti aging skin care’ altogether. ‘Anti aging skin care’ actually starts much before the symptoms of anti aging appear. Serious anti aging skin care is building and following a proper skin care routine much earlier in life (say in your teens). Anti aging skin care doesn’t mean adoption of any special skin care procedure but just following a normal procedure in the right earnest. Eating a lot of fruits, avoiding stress, drinking a lot of water and using natural therapies can delay the aging process.

Once the signs of aging start showing up, you should start using some additional measures in the form of anti aging skin care products. The market is full of anti aging skin care products. In fact there are so many anti aging skin care products that they will probably find you even before you find them. Also, with age, the skin undergoes significant change. So you will need to analyse your current skin care procedure to check if it still holds good i.e. if it is still suitable for your skin.

You should remember that aging is a natural process and there is nothing that can stop it from happening. All these anti aging skin measures can just help in delaying the aging process.

Sunday, March 08, 2009

You dont need to lose weight all the time

Weight loss is a tricky subject in world, where so many young girls (and boys) are turning to anorexia, bulimia, and other eat disorders. While weight loss can be a very good and necessary thing, it can also turn into something horrible that affects millions across the nation and can even cause death. Knowing when you need to lose weight and when you do not is important in the fight against both your personal poor health and the terrible disease that are sweeping all over the world

You can know that losing weight is often a very personal option. However, if you are more than 20 pounds overweight, losing the pounds is important for your health. Look at the recommended weight for someone of your size as a start. However, because everyone’s bodies are different, because of fat and muscle ratio to body weight, you should really see your doctor if you feel like you need to lose weight . A doctor can confirm this or put your mind to rest by telling you that your weight is normal. This is the best way to make sure that you are being healthy.

There are also times, however, when you definitely do not need to lose weight. First, if you aren’t as thin as your favorite actor or model, that doesn’t mean you need to lose weight. Often, models and actresses are airbrushed in photos to look more toned and they have personal trainers that work with them for hours every day in order to help them stay in shape. If your body weight is normal, you do not need to lose weight, even if you are a pants size bigger than your ideal celebrity.

Your also don’t need to lose weight. just because you gain it. People gain weight for a number of reasons, and this is especially common during puberty and for the few years after. If you gain weight check out the rest of your body—are you going through a growth spurt in height as well? Also, don’t worry about gaining weight when you are lifting at the gym. As you tone your muscles, you will look better, but because muscles are heavier than fat, you may actually gain weight.

Lastly, you don’t need to lose weight simply because someone else makes a rude comment about your looks. People are cruel, but everyone has a different body make up. If you are happy with your weight and it is within the normal range for someone of your age and height, than chances are that the rude comment is stemming from other issues, not because you actually do need to lose weight. Be happy with yourself and eat a healthy diet and you shouldn’t need to worry about losing weight.

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Suppressed feelings

The recent NTU stabbing cum suicide incident involving a final year student from Indonesia who stabbed a lecturer and later fall to his death shocked the campus community. No one knows for sure what exactly caused the student David Widjaja to snap and did the unexpected. According to the press and new reports, the deceased is an above average student whose grades deteriorated lately resulting in the termination of his scholarship.

I believed David Widjaja case is of one which has it core and root problem in suppressed feelings.
It is possible that this student is overwhelmed with stress and has been suppressing his anxieties for weeks or even months up to the day leading to the explosive uncontrollable actions. Suppressed feelings has tremendous impact to our biological stress hormones and prolong stress could adversely impact a person thoughts and reasoning.

People who are able to cry, hug one another, network with one another and be open about their feelings of sorrow and heartbreak had lower level of stress hormones in their urine and less vulnerable to heart disease compare to those who suppressed their feelings. Those who were withdrawn and buried their feelings of heartbreak and constantly live in state of self denial had high levels of stress hormones. Prolong bottom up feelings could eventually lead to chronic depression, heart attack and mental breakdown as it is the case with David Widjaja.

Monday, March 02, 2009

Healing acne

There are many different brands of acne medications that you can buy from off the shelf counter.
Unless recommended by doctors, it is advisable to firstly consider external medication, for instance topical acne treatment over oral medication. Most oral prescription for acne requires doctor prescription. Consult a doctor if the acne problem persists or worsens. There has been cases whereby what started as normal acne subsequently turn out to be something much more serious such as skin cancer.

Most topical acne treatment products normally do not require doctor prescription, cream or lotion is apply to infected areas and the acne should heal in couple of days or so. Topical acne treatments are generally safe, allergic reactions do sometime occur from time to time on those who have sensitive skin thus it is advisable to firstly apply the cream or lotion on small infected acne area for an hour or so before applying it to other acne infected areas.

The important thing to have when it comes to treating acne is patience. It is not surprising that some of the treatment options for acne may take 2 or 3 months to start working. It is therefore important to give each regimen or drug enough time to work before giving up on it and moving on to other treatments. Avoid applying different topical acne cream at the same time or worst still taking different oral drug treatment without doctor advice.

In certain conditions, your doctor may recommend oral treatment especially if the acne condition is very serious. It is important to note there are certain level of risk associated with any form of oral medication for acne. Dosage intake for oral acne prescription must be strictly adhere and stop taking the medication if you experience side effects.

Acne drug such as Accutane should be take with care and strictly under doctor supervision. No doubt Accutane is a powerful drug proven to clearing acne for almost a year or so after the medication is stopped. Accutane will cause serious birth defects and should never be taken by women who are pregnant or intend to conceive.

This drug is also known to trigger pyschiatric side effects and those who prone to stress should not even consider this drug. This drug has been link to patients commiting suicides. Accutane can also cause serious damage to the kidney, pancreas and other serious health problems. It is unimaginable that such a highly dangerous drug with serious side effects gets the green light from the FDA.
Please refer to Accutane risk for further information


Acne treatment and solutions are readily available everywhere, however what works for one person may not necessary work on others. Thus the key to successful acne treatment is finding one that works for you. Most acne problems are not life threatening nor serious.

Acne usually can usually be treated effectively using various topical creams and more importantly by practising healthy lifestyle such as taking nutrtious and well balance diet and doing requglar exercise. Acne treatment should begin from the inside out.

Meals containing vegetables, fruits, vitamin B and E are good for the skin. Fish oil and Krill oil are rich in Omega 3 fatty acid and this help to maintain healthy skin. A holistic approach involving proper skin cleansing, well balance diet and suitable topical acne treatment should keep acne at bay. Too much intake of milk is known to excerbate acne condition so try to abstain from foods that will trigger acne. Last but not least, oral prescription should only be considered based upon doctor's advice.