Fabulously Cheeky

How can you tell if your skin is hydrated? There is a very simple “pinch-test” you can do. Lightly try to pinch your skin in different areas of your face. If the skin goes back to normal in less than a second, your skin is hydrated, but if it takes 2-3 seconds for it to go back, it is dehydrated.

Often times, you’ll find that the skin on your cheeks and chin is fine, while the skin under your eyes are dehydrated.

Why does the skin under the eyes get more dehydrated than the rest of the facial skin? It is because there are almost no sebaceous glands under the eyes, so there is basically no oily barrier to stop evaporation of water from the skin in that area.

This is why it is very important to to treat the eye area with the correct products. This area needs moisture, first of all, and also very light oils that can create a barrier that stops the evaporation of fluid. My two favorite products for the eye area are:
the very hydrating natural face moisturizer and the age defying peptide serum. Check it out!
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Tags: skincare tips

I was reading an article on MSN today about how people leave the hospitals because they can’t afford the care that they need. People leave the ER against the doctors advice, and even people with pending heart attacks or dangerous infections just walk away. They refuse the medical tests because they simply can’t afford the cost, and the hospitals still charge them hundreds of dollars just to evaluate their conditions, even without providing them any treatment!

Something is really wrong with this picture! The cost of medical care in the United States is out of control, and it is about time that people are saying no and drawing the line. Going against doctor’s orders is a brand new thing. In the past, people wouldn’t even question doctors orders, but now, people are starting to stand up to the authority figures and refuse to participate, and this is actually a good thing.

This is the new way, the way of the Age of Aquarius! I feel sorry for the people who aren’t getting the treatment or surgery they need, but it is good that the hospitals are losing business. They will have to start reducing their insane prices so that it becomes more affordable to get help, and it is also time for alternative therapies to become socially accepted. Take homeopathy, for example. In Arizona, you can get arrested for doing homeopathy if you are not an MD! In Colorado, people have acces to homeopathy, but only if you are an MD! Why are medical doctors trying to monopolize on being able to provide health care?

The reason is obvious – for every person a homeopath helps, a doctor is losing money. Again, it always comes down to money. And, how do they get people to choose doctors? They either scare the socks off of people, telling them that they will die if they don’t choose their therapy, and they even make people sign papers where they have to agree to stay away from any alternative therapies, or the docs won’t treat them any longer.

The worst example I heard about was an older man who was diagnozed with cancer. Because his daughter was a homeopath, he wanted to use homeopathy for healing his cancer, so he turned down the chemo therapy and radiation.

A week later, he got a bill for $6,000 for the procedure of the diagnosis. He also got a letter saying that if he chose to use homeopathy, he would have to pay the bill, but if he agreed to have proper treatment (chemo and radiation) from the hospital, the bill would be paid by medicare. The poor man couldn’t afford to pay the bill, and ended up having to go through chemo against his wishes! This is simply MEDICAL ABUSE of innocent people!!!

People should have the right to choose alternative therapies without being punished for financial reasons! I wish we could come to the same place of understanding as they have in India, where doctors and homeopaths work side by side. Some things must be treated with surgery, other conditions are better off with homeopathy, so docs and homeopaths refer people to eachother to ensure that the best possible care is given. Now, that is what I call HEALTH-CARE.

But, here, nobody cares about the health of the patient. Both the doctors and the pharmaceutical industry just want to get rid of homeopaths, because there is no profit in homeopathic remedies. They are simply too affordable. So there is no way we can work together. Not yet, anyway. Hopefully, they’ll wake up and come to their senses one day. Hopefully, they’ll even realize that there are many things that they have no cure for, that can actually benefit from the use of homeopathy. If people stop coming to see them, or walk out of their offices, or even the ER, they’ll have to change eventually. Hurrah for the Age of Aquarius. All this nonsense will soon be a thing of the past, and I can’t wait for that to happen.

In the mean time, I am open for consultations…
http://www.homeopathyonline.biz
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Tags: homeopathy

Homeopathy is a holistic form of natural healing. The first principle of homeopathy is that like cures like. Today, I am going to tell you how you can apply this principle when you are trying to go to sleep, but your mind is buzzing so much that you simply can’t get it to shut down. Perhaps you really need to sleep because you have an important meeting the next morning. So what do you do? Take a sleeping pill? Probably, but that is not a very good solution.

Sleeping pills will basically suppress your mental activity and put you into a sleep that is not at all refreshing. All allopathic (traditional) form of medicine is based on suppressing your symptoms, but suppression never cures anything. It actually makes the symptoms worse in the long run. This is one reason why people tend to get addicted to sleeping pills, because as soon as they stop taking the pills, the sleeplessness is worse than ever. All that suppressed mind activity will come back with a vengeance. Remember, anything that is pushed down, must come back up. This is a simple law of nature.

So, how would homeopathy deal with a problem like this? Well, the homeopath could take your case, of course, and give you a remedy. But what if you didn’t have a remedy, and just needed to use something that you have in the house – what would you use? How about coffee?

Before you think I am insane again, let me explain. Think of what happens if you drink too much coffee – you get nervous, jittery, restless, your mind is buzzing, you can’t relax and you certainly can’t sleep. So, if you think that coffee creates sleeplessness, you are absolutely right. But remember the principle of homeopathy, that like cures like. Basically, what that means is that if a substance create certain symptoms in your body, the same substance can also cure those symptoms.

This is how it works: If your body is already showing all these “coffee” symptoms because you have had a day that was too full of events, and you are so excited you simply can’t relax, coffee will cure because coffee can create similar symptoms. Therefore, in this situation, a cup of coffee will actually relax both the body and mind instead of stimulating it. Try it, and you’ll see for yourself what happens. The coffee will actually help you go to sleep if you are already excited when you drink it.

If, however, you are calm when you drink the coffee, it will have a stimulating effect instead, like when you drink coffee in the morning to help you wake up. So the funny thing is that you can use coffee to wake you up, or put you to sleep, as long as you use it the right way. Very interesting, isn’t it? So, if you want the coffee to put you to sleep, you must already be over-excited when you drink it. If you want it to wake you up, you must be tired when you drink it. That’s it! Very simple!
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Tags: homeopathic, homeopathy

The other day, when I was at a friend’s house, we were watching a performance of Barbara Streisand on TV. Her voice was absolutely gorgeous, and when the camera scanned the audience, people were waving, screaming and saying “we love you.” How very nice!

Then my friend started telling me how Barbara Streisand had to have a face lift. She told me that Barbara used to perform when she was younger with her facial skin pulled back with tape that was hidden under her hair. But when she couldn’t get away with doing that anymore, she had to go under the knife. And she said to me that I had to understand the pressure those famous people are under. They HAVE to look good, no matter what their age is. And she said that a person couldn’t possibly perform onstage looking old and wrinkled.

It blew my mind! Why not??? A woman with a voice like an angel couldn’t perform if she had crowsfeet or lines on her forehead??? Does she sing with her skin??? What exactly did the audience mean by “we love you” then? Does even love only go skin deep? Are we really that superficial in our judgment of eachother? I hope not!

This perception, that everybody has to look like teenagers, really has to change. Yes, we need to take care of our outer packaging, our skins, but at the same time, we have to also learn to value the person who lives in the skin. We have to learn to value the quality of the being inside, below the surface of the skin. We have to learn to see beyond lines and wrinkles, or even better, we have to learn to honor wrinkles as an expression of life itself. Instead of trying to stay young forever, we need to learn to accept and honor the natural cycles of life.

I believe that if we live, fully and totally, while expressing ourselves in any way that our talents allow, our lives will be filled with joy and meaning, and when a being is full of joy, who cares about a few lines? If you wake up every morning, excited about going through another day, who has the time to get old? Oldness is simply a perception that has to do with a stuck mind and a life unlived.

Is there life after death? Who cares? The real question is, is there life after birth? That is what we are here to find out. Right here, right now, living life is what matters. Life is prescious, and each moment is a gift that shouldn’t be wasted on trivial nonsense. Besides, if there were no mirrors, who would care about wrinkles? It would be a very different world…
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Tags: wrinkles

Alpha-hydroxy acids and scrubs are both popular alternatives to dermabrasion and chemical peels. Alpha-Hydroxy acids work by dissolving the glue that holds the keratin cells on the surface of the skin together so you can get the dead skincells off. Dead skincells tends to make your face look a bit dull, and when you remove the top layer, the skin looks much fresher and younger. However, as with everything in life, it has to be done in moderation!

In our obsession to dig out younger looking skin, there is always the temptation to use our alpha-hydroxy acids more than we should. So, what happens when we use them too much? The skin can become sore, thin, dry and irritated, and not only that, it becomes way too sensitive to the sun as well. Recently, I read that the FDA had done tests on AHA’s, and they found that after using those acids for 3-4 weeks, the chances of sundamage from UV radiation increased 18%!!! They also found, however, that the sun sensitivity decreased as soon as they stopped using the product, so at least it is not irreversible.

So, how much is too much?
First of all, the concentration of acids should be less than 10% if you don’t want to damage your skin. Dermatologists use much stronger acids, but after one of their chemical peels, you have to stay out of the sun for at least 3 months, and you’ll most likely experience redness, swelling and irritation as well. Well, you may look a lot younger after you have had half of your skin removed, but it doesn’t sound healthy to me! I would prefer healthy skin with wrinkles any day!

Second, it shouldn’t be used too often. It takes the skin about 1-2 weeks to recover from the kind of AHA cream you would use at home, so it shouldn’t be used more than about once a week, or even twice a month, if your skin is sensitive. (And don’t forget using sunscreen afterwards!)

So, how can you tell when it is time to exfoliate again?
If you can rub a finger down your cheek, and feel skincells rolling under your fingertips, it is time to get rid of some more cells. If nothing happens, you don’t need to do it.

The dead skincells actually do have a purpose, even though they look a bit dull. They protect your deeper layers of skin from the environment, so when you keep removing them, you are also reducing your skin barrier, and therefore also your protection against the elements.

So, basically, there is a fine line between exfoliating too much, and not exfoliating at all.

Scrubs are another way to remove dead skincells. However, there are way too many scrubs on the market that are so rough that they literally scratch up and damage the surface layer on your skin. So, stay away from scrubs with pummace, ground up apricot seeds and other very rough substances. Instead, look for masks and natural face scrubs that contain gentle scrubbing agents like oatmeal, corn flour and jojoba beads.

In addition, you have to use your intuition, use your “finger on the cheek” test and if your skin becomes red, dry or sensitive, stop using the product. Moderation is the key.
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So, what solution can homeopathy offer to combat acne? Externally first: If the skin produces too much sebum, it needs to be treated with a moisturizing face oil. Yes, you heard me right – oily skin is treated with oil because the first principle of homeopathy is that like cures like. By applying an oily substance to oily skin, it gives the skin the message that too much oil is being produced, so better cut back on sebum production. This is the homeopathic way. But, before you start yelling at me for being insane, I also have to add that the oils must be non-comedogenic so they won’t clog the pores.

Examples of non-comedogenic oils are:
(0 is best, 5 is worst)
Almond oil 2
Aloe 0
Apricot oil 2
Avocado oil 2
Beeswax 0-2
Calendula oil 1
Candellila 1
Carnauba 1
Castor Oil 1
Emulsifying Wax 0-2
Evening Primrose Oil 2
Glycerin 0
Jojoba 0-2
Olive oil 2
Sesame Oil 2
Soybean Oil 3
Squalane 1

These are the oils you should look for in non-comedogenic skin creams that will benefit acne users. It is probably good to have ONE good deep cleanse from an esthetician first, to make sure that all the plugged hair follicles and pores have been opened, but then healthy oils should be added (don’t listen to your esthetician!!!). And, stay away from products that suppress or strip the oils away! They will just make things worse!

When you suppress the sebum production, you create an imbalance that can make you sick, because many sicknesses are caused by suppression of symptoms on the skin. If you suppress eczema, for example, you can end up with asthma instead. And if you strip the oils away with harsh cleansers and medications, the body has to keep producing more and more sebum. So the nasty cleanser will actuallly make the skin uncomfortably dry and sensitive, and also cause the body to produce more oils to make up for what you stripped away.

Internally: In homeopathy, we never treat single symptoms, we always look at the whole person and their life situation and mental/emotional state as well. This is why homeopathy is called a holistic form of natural healing. If the acne condition is caused by a hormonal imbalance, a remedy can bring the body back into a state of balance, and the acne will heal itself as a result.

Homeopathy is an awesome form of alternative healing that, unfortunately, is not very well known. To read more about homeopathy, or to see my homeopathic psychology book “Beyond the Veil of Delusions,” you can visit my website @ http://www.homeopathyonline.biz.
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Tags: homeopathy

From a homeopathic point of view, the symptoms we are experiencing, in this case acne, aren’t really the problem. The problem is caused by a deeper, underlying imbalance, and this imbalance is what needs to be addressed.

Basically, it is the overproduction of sebum that needs to be balanced, but balancing something is very different from suppressing it. Retin-A simply suppresses the production of sebum without balancing anything. The thought behind it is that if we can reduce the production of oil, the acne problem will go away, which sounds very logical. However, the problem with this kind of thinking is that, not only do you get dependent on using a suppressive product on your skin everyday, it also has side effects that you have to put up with:

Some of the side effects are: Less oil on your skin, which leads to drier skin, obviously! Drier skin means less protection against the elements. Drier skin means more sensitive skin. Drier skin means more tendency for appearance of wrinkles. Retin-A also leads to suppression of keratin production, which are cells that create a protective barrier against the elements. So, you end up with skin that is drier, thinner, more sensitive, and more prone to sun damage! And, who wants that???

In addition, they also found that because Retin-A improves cell turnover in the hair follicles, they could use it as an anti-aging cream as well. But, for a so called “anti-aging” cream, it seems to me that it can just as well be causing what it is supposed to cure!!! And, from a common sense point of view, increased cell turnover can just as easily turn into an overproduction of skincells in a localized area, which is actually the definition of a tumor… Even though there is no research that I know of that links Retin-A to tumors, intuitively, I know there is a connection. Overproduction of skincells can easily get out of control, especially when suppression is involved too, and when it does, it is my personal opinion that pre-disposed people can eventually end up with skin cancer!

So, basically, Retin-A is actually upsetting and harming the natural balance of the skincells and oil glands in an effort to suppress acne and remove wrinkles. However, suppression cannot cure anything, ever, because suppression doesn’t follow natural law. What is pushed down, must either come back up with a force, or it must go somewhere else instead. This is just simple physics….
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Anti-aging skincare and products to create blemish free skin are extremely popular because everyone wants perfect skin. One of these products, Retin-A is commonly used for getting rid of both acne and wrinkles, usually by prescription of a dermatologist.

What is Retin-A?
Retin-A is a medication used to treat acne and unwanted lines and wrinkles on the skin. It is supposed to be one of the only products that can effectively make a difference when it comes to removal of wrinkles, but the question is, at what price?

How does it work?
It actually does a few nasty things to your skin – like suppress your sebum production (oil production) as well as the production of keratin cells (surface cells on the skin), and this is why it is a very popular method for treating acne.

Acne is caused by the effect of hormones on the hair follicles and sebaceous glands (oil producing glands). When the glands produce too much oil, the follicles can be plugged through a combination of sticky oil and lose skincells, and if you add bacterias to that, you end up with acne. So the idea is to use Retin-A to suppress the production of sebum as well as the production of keratin cells, because that will solve two of the problems that cause acne in one go. In addition, it was also found that Retin-A stimulates the cell turnover in the walls of the hair follicles, which will basically push out the sebum and skincells that are clogging the opening, and when that happens, your acne will magically disappear.

Sounds great, doesn’t it? But something is very wrong with this kind of thinking – this is what I call allopathic thinking. For anyone who doesn’t know, I am a homeopathic practitioner by trade, so tomorrow, I will share with you the homeopathic view on the problem of acne.
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Tags: homeopathic, Skincare, wrinkles