How to Look 10 Years Younger in 1.3 Seconds

Don't miss any of HealthyWoman from Bottom Line. Add our address, HealthyWomanfromBottomLine@news.bottomlinepublishing.com, to your Address Book or Safe List. Learn how here. June 26, 2011  How to Look 10 Years Younger in 1.3 Seconds Should Women Take Statin Drugs? What You Must Know If Your Mother Had a Stroke Drug-Free Diabetes Cure Breathe Easier with Rolfing   How to Look 10 Years Younger in 1.3 Seconds In my mind’s eye, I am still 27 years old. Then I look in the mirror, and I am momentarily shocked. That can’t be me! Although I know that I’ve earned every wrinkle, age spot and sag while experiencing life to the fullest, sometimes I yearn to look a little (or a lot) younger. Don’t you, too? Well, we can—and we can do it without much effort, expense or Real Housewives-like scary plastic surgery. Honolulu-based naturopathic physician Laurie Steelsmith, ND, author of Natural Choices for Women’s Health, offered an abundance of creative suggestions. Some take just minutes, others take almost no time at all... yet they can take as much as 10 years off a woman’s appearance. Youth-restoring options for when you have only 1.3 seconds to spare... Project your "love glow." A new study from Syracuse University shows that falling in love takes only one-fifth of a second! Remember how new love could light you up from the inside, projecting youth and vitality? OK, maybe it’s not possible to fall in love just now. But you can think a loving thought and give a big smile, Dr. Steelsmith said, which will bring a youthful sparkle to your face. Check your posture. Nothing reads old like slumping. For an instantly improved figure, stand up straight, raise your chin, throw those shoulders back and pull in your tummy. Do a facial exercise. Open your mouth and eyes wide... then scrunch up your face... then release. This gets the blood flowing, putting roses in your cheeks. Brighten your eyes. Use two drops of homeopathic Similasan eyedrops in each eye every three hours, as needed. This remedy, which is generally safe for everyone, reduces redness and soothes dryness and irritation, Dr. Steelsmith noted. De-stress with instant aromatherapy. The scent of lavender makes you feel—and look—more relaxed and rejuvenated. Lightly spritz yourself with a lavender product designed for use on the skin, such as Aura Cacia Lavender Harvest Aromatherapy Mist ($7.99 for four ounces at www.AuraCacia.com)... or rub a drop of lavender essential oil onto the pulse point on your wrist... or swirl four drops of lavender oil into your bathwater. Dash on the right lipstick—a light-colored one. Dark lipstick seems old-ladyish and actually emphasizes tiny lip lines. Take a pass on heavy makeup. Pancake foundation and too-bright blush look unnatural and make wrinkles more noticeable. What to try when you have three minutes... Exfoliate your face. Getting rid of dead cells with a facial scrub makes your complexion glow. Natural option: Combine a spoonful of ground oatmeal with enough honey to make a paste, then gently rub it onto your clean face. Rinse. Use contrast hydrotherapy. To rinse your face, use two splashes of medium-hot water followed by two splashes of cold water. The hot/cold contrast increases circulation and tones skin, Dr. Steelsmith explained. Next: Moisten a cotton ball with a natural astringent, such as rose water, aloe vera juice or green tea, and stroke it across your face to remove lingering residue and restore the skin’s proper pH. Combat sun damage. Smooth a dab of vitamin C serum over your face—its antioxidants protect against ultraviolet rays and environmental toxins. Dr. Steelsmith recommended the brands Obagi (www.Obagi.com) and SkinCeuticals (www.SkinCeuticals.com). Counteract saggy eyelids. Curling your eyelashes is a simple beauty technique that makes eyes appear larger. Eat some blueberries. Berries won’t restore youthful comeliness instantly, of course—but they take just a moment to eat, and their vitamin C and bioflavanoids promote skin health and strengthen connective tissues. If you can indulge yourself for 10 minutes... Make your hair shine. Rosemary essential oil gives tresses an extra sheen and a scent that’s light and clean. It is particularly helpful for dry, brittle or frizzy hair. After shampooing: Add a few drops of rosemary oil to your conditioner, work through your hair for a few minutes, then rinse... or towel-dry your hair, rub a dab of rosemary oil between your palms and stroke it onto your damp hair. Then style as usual. Repeat after each shampoo (as Dr. Steelsmith does to keep her long hair frizz-free despite the Hawaiian humidity) or as often as desired. Clear up blemishes. Even if pimples remind you of being a teen, they don’t make you look any younger. The fix: Use your fingertips to spread honey over your face, avoiding the eye area. Leave on for five minutes... rinse off with water... then cleanse your face as usual. "For people prone to acne, this works like a charm if used every day," Dr. Steelsmith said. Give yourself a steam facial. Steam cleans pores, boosts circulation and promotes a rosy complexion. Dr. Steelsmith’s method: Fill a sink or bowl with steaming hot water. If desired, add a few drops of stimulating peppermint essential oil and/or anti-inflammatory lavender essential oil. Drape a towel over your head to trap the steam. Then bend over the water for several minutes, keeping eyes closed and taking care not to burn yourself. Ease eye puffiness. Dampen cotton balls with diluted witch hazel, then lie down with eyes closed and place the cotton balls over your eyes for five minutes (be careful not to let the witch hazel get into your eyes). Witch hazel contains catechol tannin, which reduces puffiness by constricting tiny capillaries just below the skin’s surface. Do some quickie aerobics. Just 10 minutes of dancing or brisk walking increases circulation and reduces puffiness in the face, hands, ankles and elsewhere. Drink a cleansing shake. "I put many of my patients on a ‘magic smoothie.’ It is chock-full of vital nutrients and supports regular elimination, promoting the health and vitality of the whole body. And the healthier you are, the more youthful you tend to look," said Dr. Steelsmith. To prepare two servings: In a blender, combine one cup of chopped parsley or spinach... one chopped carrot... one-half chopped, peeled cucumber... one-half chopped, peeled apple... one banana... one-half cup blueberries... one heaping tablespoon of whey or rice protein powder... and two cups of water. Blend well. Enjoy immediately or refrigerate and drink later in the day. Source: Laurie Steelsmith, ND, is the author of Natural Choices for Women’s Health (Three Rivers) and a medical reviewer for HealthyWoman from Bottom Line. Her private practice in naturopathic and Chinese medicine is in Honolulu. www.NaturalChoicesForWomen.com Should Women Take Statin Drugs? Here’s a radical thought. Your doctor tells you to take Lipitor® or Zocor® or some other best-selling cholesterol drug, and you refuse. Not because of the oft-reported side effects—but because you’re a woman. Says who? Say two world-acclaimed mainstream women doctors. We put the question to Judith Walsh, MD, MPH, associate clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco—and Beatrice A. Golomb, MD, PhD, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego. Both mainstream doctors have nothing against prescription drugs—when they work. But both say there’s simply no evidence that statin drugs work for women. Learn more... What You Must Know If Your Mother Had a Stroke Here’s a man, here’s a woman. How likely is either to have a heart attack? No one knows for sure... but what we do know is that the current tools for predicting heart attack risk are less accurate for women than for men. Now a new study reveals a useful piece of information in this prediction puzzle—a particular type of family history, not of heart attack itself, but of stroke. Researchers from the University of Oxford analyzed data on 2,210 men and women who had suffered a heart attack or other coronary problem caused by reduced blood flow to the heart. Findings: About 24% of these patients had one or more first-degree relatives (parent, sibling) with a history of stroke. The female heart patients (but not the males) were more than twice as likely to have a mother who’d had a stroke than to have a father who had suffered a stroke. What this means: Maternal stroke history may provide a valuable clue in gauging a woman’s heart attack risk—even though this factor is not currently included in standard heart attack risk assessments. Best: Women whose mothers suffered a stroke should be especially careful to minimize heart attack risk by getting blood pressure and cholesterol levels checked regularly, exercising, eating healthfully, losing weight if necessary and not smoking. Source: Amitava Banerjee, MPH, MRCP (Member of the Royal College of Physicians), DPhil, is a cardiologist, researcher and clinical lecturer of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Birmingham in the UK. He is the lead author of a study on cardiovascular risk, conducted while he was a clinical research fellow at the Stroke Prevention Research Unit at the University of Oxford in the UK. Drug-Free Diabetes Cure Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh have established that 83% of obese patients who try a new natural treatment code-named "LGB" that dramatically corrects the way your body metabolizes food see dramatic improvement in their diabetes. In fact, many see total reversal of the disease. Dr. Philip Schauer, who led the study, also comments, "Most patients in the study with type 2 diabetes... achieved excellent biochemical [blood sugar] control and were able to reap the clinical benefits of withdrawing from most, if not all, antidiabetes medications, including insulin." LGB works in as little as 90 minutes, even on morbidly obese patients... Read on... Breathe Easier with Rolfing Q: After just one session with a Rolfing practitioner, my friend claimed that she could breathe more easily. But isn’t the purpose of Rolfing to improve posture? A: Rolfing structural integration, a type of hands-on bodywork, is designed to improve posture, alignment, flexibility and movement as well as to ease tension and pain. A side benefit of the therapy is that it becomes easier to breathe—and typically that does occur after the first session. Rolfing releases areas of restriction in the myofascial tissue, the weblike connective tissue that wraps around muscles, organs and bones. (Think of the thin white film you see just beneath the skin of a chicken breast as you prepare it for cooking.) Using fingers, hands and elbows, a certified Rolfing practitioner applies firm, steady pressure—slower, deeper and sometimes more uncomfortable than, say, a Swedish massage—to this tissue to stretch and loosen it. Typically there are 10 hour-long sessions in a Rolfing series. Ida Rolf, PhD, who developed the Rolfing technique more than five decades ago, believed that, to prepare the body for this type of intense therapy, it is important to open up the ribcage. So at the initial appointment, the practitioner applies pressure to the front of the chest and the spaces between the ribs. When that first session is over, clients often find that they can take fuller, deeper breaths because their lungs literally have more room to expand. To find a certified Rolfing practitioner in your area, contact the Rolf Institute of Structural Integration (800-530-8875, www.Rolf.org). Source: Greg Brynelson, RN, is a registered nurse and certified Rolfing practitioner based in San Francisco. www.CityRolfer.com    Tamara Eberlein, the editor of HealthyWoman from Bottom Line, has been a health journalist for nearly three decades. An award-winning author or coauthor of four books, she is committed to helping other women in midlife and beyond live healthy, fulfilling lives. Her latest book is the updated, third edition of When You’re Expecting Twins, Triplets, or Quads (HarperCollins). She is also the "chief health adviser" to her husband of 26 years and three college-age children.    BOTTOMLINESECRETS.COM Terms & Conditions Privacy Policy About Us Contact US Bottom Line Publications | 281 Tresser Boulevard, 8th Floor | Stamford, CT 06901 You received this free E-letter because you have requested it. You are on the mailing list as healthwellness82@gmail.com. Or... a friend forwarded it to you. Click here to easily unsubscribe. To change your e-mail address click here. 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