1. Avocados – they are not just for eating! A good source of biotin, avocados help to prevent dry skin and brittle hair and nails. When applied topically, they can hydrate parched skin.

A tip from 1,801 Home Remedies:
Create a moisturizing mask. Pit the fruit, puree the pulp, and pat it on your face. The oil acts as an emollient. It also contains beneficial vitamin E.

2. Green Tea – Sip your way to healthy skin. Green tea’s high on the list of skin-friendly beverages thanks to its impressive storehouse of polyphenols. Aim for four cups throughout your day. See 3 more green tea benefits.

PLUS: Find out how green tea could help you lose weight

3. Tomatoes – Reach for tomatoes. A German study found that lycopene-rich tomato paste helped participants prevent sunburn when they combined it with olive oil, daily for ten weeks. Besides being a great source of the antioxidant lycopene, tomatoes are considered a high-carotenoid fruit. These nutrients may help slow down cellular damage from free radicals.

4. Salmon – Slow down aging with salmon. Salmon contains astaxanthin, a carotenoid that improves skin elasticity, so you’ll have fewer fine lines.

5. Eggs – Crack open some eggs. Protein helps repair cells that have suffered free radical damage. Eggs, a complete source of protein, also contain biotin, an essential vitamin that protects against dry skin.

6. Pomegranates – Put pomegranate on your list. When applied topically, this antioxidant-rich fruit may help skin create more collagen, while speeding healing.

7. Walnuts – Try walnuts. Looking to add Omega-3 fatty acids to your diet but not a fan of fish? Walnuts are a rich source of Omega-3s, which help put shine in your hair and aid in making skin smoother and younger looking. See 4 more nonfish sources of omega-3 fatty acids.

8. Beans – Build better skin with beans. Another protein source, legumes help repair cells that have suffered free radical damage. During digestion, protein breaks down into amino acids, the building blocks of cells. Amino acids help to speed the repair and regeneration of skin cells and collagen.

Many people suffer from persistent or recurring dandruff, also known as seborrheic dermatitis. The main causes of having this are the Impairment of general health, development of toxic condition mainly due to taking of wrong foods. Sugar is one of the biggest diet culprits that can make your scalp flake. But it’s not just sugar from the places you would expect, like candy, sodas or the molasses and syrups you put on your pancakes. Sugar can be masked under a variety of names and in products you wouldn’t even think of. Check labels for the following names which signal sugar content: corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, fructose, glucose, lactose, maltose and sorghum. Also, lessening up the yeast content of your diet helps, since most cases of dandruff is a result of a yeast imbalance on your scalp. This means limiting baked goods, beer, wine and alcohol.

A 5 day all fruit diet is recommended. Take three meals a day of juicy fruits. However, AVOID Citrus fruits, bananas, dried , stewed or tinned fruits.

Avoid strong tea/coffee, pickles, refined and processed foods. Meats, sugar, white flour and condiments.

Most people turn to shampoos for relief. Well bad news! Other factor contributing to this scalp condition are harsh shampoos too. Recently, shampoo manufacturers have been paying much more attention to the scent of such products, and they can now be found in a variety of scents, with many even having conditioner to help add sheen to your locks. The key to the shampoos is to make sure they have ZPT (zinc pyrithione) in them. This is the active ingredient that will ensure treatment of your scalp. . Emotional tension, exposure to cold and general exhaustion is also contributors.

Your beauty regimen may be what is causing your flaking, as well. Changes in climate can set a case of dandruff off.

a. Hair Blow-drying – this is a change in climate, although a temporary one. But it can still dry out your scalp and make you itch. To avoid this, keep your blow dryer as far away from the scalp as possible, preferably 8-10 inches.

 b. Hot water you use in the shower – The water can strip your scalp of natural oils needed to protect it from flaking. Using a conditioner and rinsing it out with cold water can help avoid this. The added benefit is that this closes hair shafts, adding extra shine to your mane.

c. Avoiding gels and hair sprays that contain alcohol will also help, since alcohol can also dry out your scalp

Natural and homemade remedies abound for a pesky case of dandruff. One of the cheapest and most common is to mix two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar with two cups of hot water and massaging it into your scalp, or using it to rinse out your dandruff shampoo. The smell of the vinegar fades quite quickly, if you are worried about odors. Vitamin E oil rubbed into the scalp then rinsed with cool water can help with the itching. Instead of buying a bottle of oil, you can squeeze some out of the caplets you may already have at home in your medicine chest. Speaking of oils, aloe Vera oil left on the scalp overnight is a great way to get rid of flaking. A spray bottle with one tablespoon of Australian tea tree oil (found in health food stores and many supermarkets now) and one cup of water can be spritzed right onto the scalp and left in until you shower. A strongly-brewed cup of black tea used to rinse out your shampoo will help, too. But beware! This can temporarily tint your hair, so blondes and red heads would not be advised to try this treatment.

The use of a teaspoon of fresh lime juice for the last rinse, while washing the hair, is another useful remedy. This not only leaves the hair glowing but also removes stickiness and prevents dandruff.

The foremost consideration in the treatment of this disorder is to keep the hair and scalp clean so as to minimize the accumulation of Dead Cells.

If any of these treatments do not give you a noticeable improvement within a week to ten days, then you may have more than a simple case of dandruff. If the flakes on your scalp are oilier and/or resemble scales, then you could very well have a case of seborrhea or psoriasis. Though some of the stronger, tar shampoos claim to help with this, in these cases, it is advisable to see a doctor. A dermatologist can prescribe certain shampoos or medicines that can clear up these conditions better than anything sold over-the-counter.

CRY

You have to face the fact that you are sad and depressed. There’s no point in acting as if you are the strongest person in the world and you are unaffected. You can lock yourself in your room, sob, wail..it’s alright. Cry and let all your heartaches out. Be honest to what you are feeling but you have to remember that’s not the only thing you will have to do for the rest of your life! You might get puffy and swollen eyebags but at least you’re not stressing your way to sickness. Remember, it is healthy to express your anger and hurt. You can vent your feelings and relieve the tension and stress you feel inside.

Lend Some Ear

When in pain and confused, it is always advisable to have someone around. Pouring over your sentiments with a friend over a bottle or a cup of coffee is a great catharsis. Who cares if you have told the story a hundred times already to your friends? As long as the anguish is still there just keep on talking. It will soothe your soul.

Don’t Listen to Love Songs

As we all know, love songs tend to stir our emotional side, so be wary and don’t let yourself indulge into listening to love songs when you’re broken hearted. You’ll end up feeling like a complete loser and that’s the last thing you want to happen.

Keep Yourself Busy

Do the things that you neglected to do because you were busy with someone else before. Finish your project that you left idle for almost a month now. Open that novel where your bookmark has been on the same chapter for already a year. Do all the things you’ve been dying to do before but just didn’t have the time. Organize an out of town trip with your friends or try hosting a party. Be with happy people and absorb their vibes.

Reminisce

This may sound weird but is sometimes effective. If avoiding all the places you two have been and all the things both of you were doing before didn’t come up with a good result, then might as well try this one. No, reminiscing doesn’t mean that you have to punish yourself by reliving the memories you once shared, it’s just a way of making yourself immune to all the pains he has caused and for you to face the reality. Remembering the good times you have spent together will somehow make you realize that life isn’t bad after all. Believe me, in time, you will just find yourself laughing at all the things that happened and it will somehow make you proud also because you have overcome them all.

Start a Diary

Start writing in a journal and make it your new best friend. Jot down all the dreadful things that happened to you and purge out all the things that’s on your mind, no holds barred. Confess to your new best friend how despicable your boyfriend is and vow to forget him the soonest time possible.

Clean up the Clutters

It’s time to pick up the pieces and clean up the clutters of your once shattered life. A closing doesn’t necessarily mean a shut down; it’s just a phase that everyone needs to undergo to pave way for a new start. Keep away from your sight all the things that bring back memories of you together. Put them in a box and make sure you’ll never get a glimpse of it to avoid temptation to look at them again. And when I mean keep away from sight, just toss it aside first, not return to the giver.

Pamper yourself

Head to the spa, gym or even to the parlor for a complete makeover. Enough of the sulking days, it’s unfair for you to see him happy while you are still there in your room wallowing in despair. Give yourself a treat and stop looking miserable. You wouldn’t want to look wretched when the hands of fate suddenly give you the person who will completely ease your broken heart, would you?

Well, I know doing all those is not an easy feat. But if you value and love yourself more than anything else, you will have to realize that you need to have the courage to pick up the pieces again and continue living.

Julia Howard Howe

A few of us knows where did this celebration originate? Why do we have this special day? Mother’s Day originated nearly 150 years ago in the United States. An Appalachian homemaker named Anna Jarvis organized a “Mother’s Work Day” which aims to raise an awareness of the poor economic and health conditions that directly affects the children in her community. This she believes would be best represented and advocated by mothers.

Julia Ward Howe, a pacifist, suffragist and author of the lyrics to Battle Hymn of the Republic,” proposed to have an annual event called the Mother’s Day. That was fifteen years after the Mother’s Work Day of Anna Jarvis. Unfortunately the idea got little support.

Anna Jarvis

In 1905 Anna Jarvis dies. She had a daughter also by the name Anna wished to create a memorial to her mother’s work and she began to campaign for an official holiday in honor to mothers. She started the campaign in 1907 in Grafton, West Virginia. In the same year, Anna held a ceremony to honor her mother.

West Virginia became the first state to recognize the new holiday. President Wilson then declared the second Monday of May to be Mother’s Day is 1914. Jarvis used white carnations as a symbol for mothers, because carnations represented sweetness, purity and the endurance of mother love.

A little Trivia here, Anna Jarvis never got married and never had children of her own. She filed a lawsuit to stop the Mother’s Day celebration in 1923 because she didn’t like the commercialization of the holiday. She got arrested for disturbing the peace of the Mother’s Convention where white carnations re being sold.

Well, that’s about it. No matter how commercialized the holiday nowadays is, still that gives us the opportunity to show the light of our home our gratitude for the life and the love. Let’s make everyday a Mother’s Day.

There are various activities that will help us to maintain the figure, achieve that body we so want to have and get back into our old body. So we have age brackets categories, the 20s, 30s and 40s. Let’s see what are the activities that fits to which age bracket we belong.

To keep fit in your 20s and 30s

According to exercise physiologist who was Personal Fitness Professional Magazine’s 2004 Online Trainer of the Year Calabrese, “Fitness in the 20s and 30s is really all about creating good health habits, and that should really be your main goal.”

In our 20s bones are still developing in this decade. Exercise that help build the strongest bones possible are ideal. The idea is to put bones into stress which encourages them to become stronger. Doing weight-bearing workouts such as those that work your muscles and bones against gravity, like walking or jogging for 30 minutes at least twice a week helps a lot! Having a regular cardio workouts even just for 20-30 minutes two times a weekm an aerobic activity (running), swimming, biking or even dancing, you will reduce the risk of hypertension, high cholesterol, or even heart attack later in life.

In terms of your future health, nothing is more important than regular cardio workouts. You can reap benefits from just 20-30 minutes, twice a week, of an aerobic activity like running, swimming, biking, or even dancing, Carmichael tells WebMD: “You will reduce your risk of hypertension, high cholesterol, or even heart attack later in life.”And the sooner you incorporate fitness into your daily life, the more likely you will be to carry the habit into the next several decades.

“It’s a lot easier to carry a behavior from one decade to the next, than trying to change a behavior in later years,” Carmichael says.

At your 40s

There’s no denying that by the age of 40, no matter how active we were, women’s body begin to change and one of the most significant changes we encounter is the decrease of hormones which does not only affect the bones, heart and health but as well as the weight. The exercise goal during these years is to build muscles that will condition the heart and control weight. Shorter but harder aerobics type workouts to reap cardiovascular benefits is suggested by exercise psychologist Kelli Calabrese.

Lifting Weights while standing, riding in a stationary bike 10 minutes twice a week or sitting in a chair, then standing up, 20 times (both have the same effect) are suggested as strength-training workouts and in strengthening the thigh muscles, or quadriceps, thus giving attention to knee problems. These helps avoiding many mobility problems in the
later years.

As to the cardio workouts, it is safe to continue the routines that you’ve been doing in your 20s and 30s. Any form of activity that gets your heart beating faster such as walking on a treadmill or doing step aerobics at least twice a week will keep you in shape and in good health.

Remember, exercising should go along with eating right and healthy.

Some Tips for a safer Date Online

To women out there, it is very important that we check the guy’s background and character first before considering him for a date. Remember that here in the Internet you can be anybody you want. A man with a bad intention will do everything to get what he wants and that definitely includes lying and cheating! Scary! An advise from a relationship expert will surely help. As much as possible do not be secretive about it. Let your friends or your parents know. Seek online for the guy’s record, you might find out something “interesting” about the person. There are actually people who made an effort to create a database of men which women can always turn to whenever we need professional advices with Internet Relationship. All we need to is just surf for it. Do not let yourself fall into the trap of some losers who wants nothing but satisfy their lust and boost their ego over fooling and using women through the Internet. I am not saying that all men here in the Internet are opportunists. Just giving a reminder to be safe while we enjoy what the Internet offers . Remember, an ounce of prevention is better than cure.

Fine lines on the skin which is caused by the rapid expansion of skin beyond its tolerance. This is due to weight gain normally during pregnancy. These stretch marks lines are red in beginning, then turn purple, and then gradually fade into silvery streaks, finally turning into white lines. They usually occur during pregnancy on breast, upper arms, thighs or buttocks i.e. parts where fat is stored. Men and woman who put on a lot of weight or had sudden lose of weight in short span of time often see these ugly stretch marks in places mentioned above.

Causes of Stretch Marks

The skin has a layer of collagen beneath it. Collagen is a tight jelly like substance that gives the skin its smooth, glowing appearance. When the collagen layer breaks, it gives the appearance of stretch marks.

Weight gain or loss that occurs rapidly is one of the major reasons for stretch marks. Growth spurt in teens, rapid weight loss due to dieting or sudden weight gain causes the collagen layer to stretch and break. Repeated weight gain and loss causes many stretch marks all over the body.

In pregnant women, the belly expands to accommodate the fetus. This causes the collagen layer to break. Weight gain or loss during pregnancy can also cause stretch marks in areas like arms, breasts, back and thighs.

Treat Stretch Marks

There are various of lotions available in the supermarkets that promises to heal stretch marks. These lotions proved to a cheap way to solve a huge problem. These lotions include moisturizing creams that contains Vitamin A or Vitamin E. Continuous massage of the affected areas with these lotions can remove stretch marks to a great extent. Further, creams containing Alpha hydroxyl acids (AHAs), Tretinoin or Retin-A also help. Though these creams do not completely remove stretch marks, they help lighten the lines largely. There are 5 ways for pregnant women to prevent stretch marks.

1. Establish a Skin Care Program
2. Moderate Your Weight Gain
3. Moderate Your Weight Gain
4. Massage Your Skin
5. Eat Right and Take Vitamins

Beside lotions, there is another effective way of stretch marks removal and it is the laser treatment of stretch marks. It is recommended that the laser surgery should be carried out only when the marks are red as the laser rays cannot detect the marks that have faded or turned white. No doubt, Laser treatment for stretch marks is the most expensive option to choose as it requires number of treatment sessions.

• Get moving. Believe it or not, exercise not only helps relieve your tense muscles, but helps your mood too! Before and after your workout your body makes certain chemicals, called endorphins, which relieve stress and improve your mood.
• Talk to friends. Talking to a friend can help you work through your stress. Find someone who will let you talk freely about your problems and feelings — it can do a world of good. It also helps to hear a different point of view, if your friend has one. And friends will remind you that you’re not alone.
• Talk to a therapist. A therapist can help you work through stress and find better ways to deal with problems. For more serious stress related disorders, like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), therapy can be helpful. There also are medications that can help ease symptoms of depression and anxiety and help you sleep better (poor sleep can be a contributor to stress or a side effect of it).
• Compromise. Sometimes, it’s not worth the stress to stand your ground in an argument. Give in once in awhile.
• Write down your thoughts. Have you ever typed an email to a friend about your lousy day and felt better afterward? Writing is a good way to organize your thoughts and relieve anxiety. Grab a pen and paper (or sit at your keyboard) and write down what’s going on in your life! Keeping a journal can be a great way to get things off your chest and work through issues.
• Set limits. When it comes to the never-ending list of tasks you need to accomplish for your work and family, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Don’t just race through the list as fast as you can. Instead, figure out how much you can realistically accomplish. There are only so many hours in the day. Set limits with yourself and others. Don’t be afraid to say “No” to requests for your time and energy.

Source: http://www.everydayhealth.com

One issue that continually does get the attention it deserves is breast cancer. The breast cancer statistics are alarming, and almost everyone you know has a sister or mother who has suffered from this deadly disease. If caught early enough, it does not have to be deadly. In fact, there are things you can do so that you don’t get it at all. Every woman (young and old) should be checking their breasts monthly to detect for any strange lumps or any unusual signs. This can be done in the shower, with one arm raised and the other performing the checking task. Any doctor can show you the specifics on how to do this. If you do sense something suspicious, make an appointment with your doctor right away to have it looked at. The other thing you can do is be a conscious consumer; every day the FDA is coming out with new information as to what may be potential carcinogens (cancer-causing agents), from food additives to plastics to environmental hazards. Becoming aware and taking the time to be educated can make all the difference in the world.

Another major health concern for women is heart disease. This continues to be the number one killer of women, actually, and it doesn’t just happen to those you would suspect. When people think of heart disease, most people think of the severely obese. However, women can suffer from heart disease, high blood pressure, and clogged arteries from poor food choices, lack of exercise, and stress. Believe it or not, if you eat fast food on a regular basis and skip the gym in favor of drinks after a very stressful work day that ends at 7:00 p.m. instead of 5:00 p.m., you may be in a higher risk category than your friend who remains calm, eats a lot of healthy food choices, and practices yoga a couple times a week. If you know you are in the first group, the best thing you can do for yourself is to start making small changes. If you can’t get away from a stressful job or career, make sure to step away each hour and do deep breathing exercises, and stretch your body while at work. Go to the ladies room to do it if necessary! Try to make smarter food choices, even if it means just eliminating one of your ‘junk food meals’ a week. If you’re not big on exercise, start with a simple walk a couple times a week and go from there. The sooner you make these changes, the healthier you will be and the less at risk for heart disease.

Read more