About Consumer products:
As a scientist coming from the drug industry and skincare industry I find it interesting how companies exploit human insecurities. We all have fat cells which store fat; our bodies are designed to do that. While society today may perceive belly fat and cellulite as unattractive it is a fact of life. Most marketers want to make that promise of a miracle diet, exercise routine, treatment, pill or cream… Isn’t it time you stop trusting those miracle cures which promise everything.

Understanding Metabolism is the Key:
The reality is cellulite and belly fat can be controlled but not using any one method or treatment. Sugar metabolizes (lipogenisis) into fat making fat cells swell often in clusters giving the appearance of an orange peel surface on skin. Eventually the body metabolizes (lipolysis) this fat into glycerol which is eventually eliminated from cells.

How to lose belly fat and cellulite:
A great idea for regulating your cellulite and belly fat is to reduce sugar conversion into fat while boosting the conversion of existing fat into glycerol allowing fat cells to shrink in size. In simple terms, boost your metabolic rate while reducing sugar and simple carbohydrates in your diet.

To achieve this:

1) a smart but not extreme diet plan is needed

2) a simple not excessive exercise program is needed and

3) the use of safe diet pill (ephedra free), topical cellulite gel with active ingredients, and massage will give you the added benefit for regulating cellulite.

Just remember, getting and maintaining good results requires a life style change; not a one time pill you swallow. Small changes in life style with the use of Metabolic Contour® kit will make a visible difference. For straight advice about cellulite products go to http://www.losebellyfat.com/CelluliteHelpInformation.aspx.

Using common sense will get you fast and long term results.

Body Natural Inc. and http://LoseBellyFat.com

February 2005

George Majewski, Sr. Scientist, of Body Naturals Inc. has studied treatments of cellulite throughout his career from both internal and external approaches.

Most of us would privately agree that hair loss affects our psyche and self esteem intensely. The hair we have on our scalp - our crowning glory - is one of the most important features of our appearance and affects our overall ‘attractiveness quotient’.
It is absolutely devastating to our ego and self-worth when hair loss results in thinning or partial or total baldness.

Hair loss can become an obsession with anyone who suffers from the condition. These patterns have been identified on the The “Norwood scale” which classifies different types of hair loss. A research study recently found that most people showed extreme loss of self-esteem, ranging from vulnerability to jealousy.

A number of factors could lead to hair loss.

Diet: Eat right. A healthy diet can only improve your overall health. Include plenty of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and small amounts of lean protein. A paramount cause of hair loss for women is hypochlorhydria. So, ask your doctor to test you for inadequate protein digestion brought on by low stomach acid.

Lack of Vitamins: Excessive hair loss can also be caused by deficiencies in folic acid and vitamin B12.

Iron Deficiency: Another common, but generally unrecognized, cause of hair loss is an iron deficiency, especially in pre-menopausal women. Dr. Wright, who publishes an excellent ezine, stresses that you can increase iron intake by adding dried fruits, fish, legumes, meat, molasses, potatoes, dark green leafy vegetables, wheat germ, and whole-grain products to your diet.
(Unfortunately, iron does not help with male pattern baldness.)

DHEA: Many women past 50 find that when they raise their levels of DHEA back up to the range for a normal 30- or 40-year-old woman, it not only slows or stops hair loss, but it can actually help re-grow new hair. Noticeable diffuse thinning in women usually starts after menopause, when the production of the female hormone, estrogen, slows down dramatically or stops altogether.

Sunlight: Get out of the house! Sunlight provides you with vitamin D which the body greatly needs. So spend some time outdoors and reap the benefits of fresh air and sunshine. Your beautiful hair will soon mirror your health.

Dandruff: Among the more common factors concerning hairloss, there is the dreaded subject of dandruff. If you have an oily scalp, which is the real culprit behind most dandruff (not a dry scalp), a daily shampoo will help prevent dandruff. It should be a gentle, preferably herbal, shampoo. No strong chemicals.

Stress: Stress aggravates dandruff. It can either trigger it or exacerbate an already bad condition. A 5 minute daily meditation will do wonders for your overall health and hair.

Asian Formula for beautiful hair: Here is a routine used by many Indian women for glossy healthy hair. Mix 25% castor oil with 75% almond oil and gently massage for 10 minutes into your scalp weekly. It should first be warmed (place the container in hot water for 5 minutes), so that it is readily absorbed into the scalp. Leave on your scalp for 15 minutes to 30 minutes before shampooing out with a gentle natural shampoo. Follow with a final rinse with a vinegar and warm water solution (5% vinegar, 95% water), and then seal the hair, and remove the vinegar odour, with a cold rinse. Towel dry. Look in the mirror. You will love your beautiful shiny manageable hair.

Remember, natural remedies are always better than harsh chemicals, especially for your hair!

Jay Chatterjee, a Chartered Accountant and ex-Corporate Banker, lives in Canada.
Roshmi Raychaudhuri is a businesswoman residing in India. They have shared a longstanding and keen interest in the success of natural therapies. Their website http://www.youngagainforever.com contains important information on natural remedies for a wide range of different ailments, including over-weight, hair loss, vision improvement, arthritis, heart disease, teeth and gum care and many other topics.

There are many forms of aloe vera supplements on the market today including pills, liquid, aloe juice, and freeze dried soluble powders. If you do your due diligence and seek information you will reach the obvious conclusion that freeze dried aloe is by far the most effective way to absorb the benefits into your system.

The consumer has to be careful because not all freeze dried aloe vera is the same. The most potent freeze dried aloe vera is produced from the pure aloe gel. This will give the product the highest range of molecular weight possible. The more complete the molecular weight, the more complete the healing properties will be.

By hand filleting the gel off the Aloe leaf and combining other proprietary extraction and mixing techniques, there is one company named 21st Century Aloe Vera that produces freeze dried powder containing all the healing advantages of the fresh plant in a concentrated form. 7-8 gallons of fresh gel make 1 ounce of this product! The biggest whole leaf juice competitor contains 97% of its molecular weights under 150,000 Daltons, which makes it almost useless in terms of healing properties.

Other more advanced freeze dried competitors do better with 99% of its molecular weight up to 1,000,000 Daltons. But they use alcohol in their antiquated freeze dried process while 21st Century Aloe Vera uses none. 10% of 21st Century Aloe Vera has molecular weights from 1,000,000 to 2,500,000 Daltons. You can’t find a more complete or potent aloe vera product anywhere.

In the rest of the aloe vera industry there are not very many products that actually offer anything more than 150,000 Daltons in molecular weights, a long way off any meaningful healing result.

Only the gel from aloe vera should be used for human consumption and not the whole leaf. All whole leaf products contain broken down MPS (Mucilaginous Poly Saccharide) molecules and therefore no real healing properties. Even worse than this is that whole leaf supplements contain caustic minerals and enzymes that are very hard on the stomach. Freeze dried products made only from the gel are very soothing and healing to the stomach.

MPS from the aloe plant is the sticky portion of the plant. It is a long sugar molecule arranged in long linear chains. The longer the chain, the more MPS weights. The MPS molecule ranges from 10,000 to 2,500,000 Daltons. For all the healing effects to be available in an aloe vera supplement, all the molecular weight ranges need to be there.

Unfortunately, there are not very many aloe vera products on the market that actually offer anything more than a few thousand Daltons in molecular weights of the MPS molecule. By hand filleting the gel off the leaf, freeze drying with a proprietary method of mixing the powder including the vast and complete range of MPS molecular weights 21st Century Aloe Vera contains all the healing advantages of the fresh plant.

Aloe Vera is a wonderful, necessary supplement for good health and well being. It’s anti-inflammatory, blood sugar balancing, anti-pathogenic, free radical scavenging, and immune modulating. As such it’s extremely effective in bolstering and balancing the immune system.

AIDS is a bell weather disease regarding the immune system because the HIV virus launches a direct attack upon it. Any product that positively affects the symptoms of this disease can certainly positively affect any other attack on the immune system.

Because of it’s potency in terms of it’s purity and absorption into the body, a freeze dried product made from the gel only repairs the immune system in a universal fashion resulting in the reversal of countless number of conditions and diseases. If a powerfully destructive disease like AIDS can be reversed with a natural treatment that repairs the immune system in a universal fashion, then literally all disease will benefit from this type of treatment.

Michael Harvey is a retired professional athlete who has been in the nutritional industry since 1995 and you should check out his Aloe Vera website at www.1st-aloe-vera.com

Blushing can be a curse. Blushers experience a range of effects, including loss of confidence and fear of meeting new people. Blushing is an interesting phenomenon, as there is no generally accepted psychological theory to explain it (although many theories have been put forward). Nevertheless, some of the characteristics of blushing have been clarified.

Blushing is one of many psychological processes where feedback loops are important. Whilst a blush can be induced in a very sudden, unexpected way — your trousers fall down in public, for example — most blushers report that ‘fear of blushing’ is the most common trigger. So if we take a person who blushes when discussing sexual matters with a member of the opposite sex, for example, as soon as the conversation begins to steer towards sex, they may find a blush beginning to develop. This is the fear of blushing taking over : whilst the sexual content may appear to be the trigger, in fact it is the awareness that such content is going to be entering the conversation which starts the process off. The feedback loop then kicks in : aware that they are beginning to blush, their discomfort and the colour of the blush both deepen, until we have a full-strength blush and a strong sense of embarrassment.

This process is very damaging, because it generates fear in areas of life where we really benefit from being relaxed. Imagine the handicap of feeling unable to ask for a date. It’s tough enough for most of us (!), but many blushers give up on life before it’s really begun, because their blushing has effectively stifled their confidence in interpersonal relationships.

Note that the embarrassment is usually for the blush itself. Many blushers report that they regard themselves as socially outgoing, confident people whose only real insecurity relates to their blushing. So they aren’t truly embarrassed about sex, in this example, just embarrassed because talking about sex triggers a blush.

The triggers for blushing are many and varied, although most of the triggers which have been reported to me through my work as a hypnotherapist relate to personal or intimate communications, or to public exposure. It’s surprisingly common to find very capable, confident, competent people who dread being introduced to a group of people, for fear that they will blush.

How can blushers help themselves? Hypnotherapy and/or CBT (Cognitive Behavioural therapy) are the tools of choice. Through hypnotherapy it is possible to desensitise the individual to their triggers, and also to provide ‘escape mechanisms’ which allow the person to stop a blush from deepening.

We can all help blushers, simply by realising that the only thing which embarrasses them is people noticing their blush. Ignore it. Act as if it isn’t there. Don’t mention it, and don’t behave as if you’ve touched a raw nerve — you haven’t. Believe it or not, blushing is largely meaningless.

Jim Sullivan is a hypnotherapist specialising in confidence development and stress management. He may be contacted via the Confidence Club website http://www.confidenceclub.net

Are you living your life, the way you want to live?

If your reply is in affirmative then you must be a very successful and powerful person in full command of your life and the circumstances. However, if your reply is in negative, then I am sorry to say that you are like millions of other people who are living the life being dictated by others. Is this life worth living?

Let me explain you. Our minds are being bombarded with missiles of “free information” through electronic and print media. Often without knowing, we are doing what others want us to do. Look what are you wearing, what are you eating and how are your behaving. Isn’t it not what Miss. Fashions, Miss. Slims and Miss. Manners are telling you? Blindly following someone without using your own mind and common sense can be disastrous.

We the human beings, are no more than robots in the hands of those who are in full control of our lives and are commanding us through the remote control of so-called education, guidance and information. Is this the blessing or the curse of the “information age”? You are the best judge and you know very well how this “information” is affecting your feelings, thoughts and the life as a whole. Of course, you are not you. You have lost your individuality, your creative instinct, and the unique person within you.

Only a small number of people are strong enough to take control of their own lives without being influenced or forced by others, and they are, no doubt, the most powerful and authoritative people on earth. One needs a lot of courage, wisdom and inner strength to live the life in its full bloom, in its originality, in its entirety, and in a dignified and ambitious manner. That’s the life worth living!

There is no harm in accepting guidance from others if it is meant for the improvement of life. But be cautious and remain guarded all the time so as not to trap yourself in such a situation where you become the slave of others intentions and find no way out.

No doubt, its your life and you have every right to spend it in your own individual way without any hurdles or barriers from others. Give yourself a chance to nurture your creative qualities in a fear-free and pressure-free climate.

About The Author

Hifzur Rehman, the owner and editor of http://www.selfimprovement.ch is helping people in motivating them to reach their goals in life. This website provides free inspirational articles, useful tools, tutorials and other material for a better and more rewarding happy living.

hrehman@selfimprovement.ch

Acne is a problem that almost everyone has faced throughout their lifetime. It seems to occur at the worst times and sometimes never goes away at all. There are many products on the market targeted to clearing up acne, but perhaps the best cures are found in the kitchen right at home. Home cures for acne have no medical backing and no fancy packaging, but many people swear by them. The following lists different remedies, listed by category. Many ingredients can be found at the grocery store. Some ingredients may be found at health food stores.

Drinks:

Nettle tea. Drink four cups per day of this herbal tea.
Water. Drink eight cups per day.
Wheatgrass juice. Drink throughout the day.

Rubs/Astringents:

Aloe Vera juice. Apply two times a day to speed healing of acne.

A mixture of ground orange peel and water. Apply to acne.

Cucumber. Ground pieces and apply to acne.

Garlic. Rub on acne.

Nutmeg. Mix ground nutmeg with milk and apply to acne.

Lemon juice and cinnamon. Mix lemon juice with equal parts of ground cinnamon and apply to acne.

Papaya juice. Apply to acne to reduce swelling.

Masks:

Tomato. Mash and apply to acne for 1 hour then wash off.

Pomegranate. Roast and powder. Mix with lime juice and apply to acne.

Sesame seeds. Ground and mix with water. Apply to acne to
reduce swelling.

Salt and vinegar. Mix into a paste. Apply to acne for 30
minutes and wash off.

Honey and cinnamon. Mix into a paste and apply. Keep on
overnight and wash off in the morning.

Many of the ingredients used in these home remedies are herbs or other natural products that have been shown in studies to help with inflammation, have drying properties or to draw out impurities. Home remedies are tried and true recipes that have worked for many people. If a person does not have an allergy to an ingredient than nothing is lost in trying. Acne home remedies can help a person save countless dollars over their drugstore counterparts.

About the author: Stephen Kreutzer is a freelance publisher based in Cupertino, California. He publishes articles and reports in various ezines and provides acne information on Acne Facts!

Imagine that you could boost your confidence, courage, and compassion by 100% in the next three months. Imagine that you could learn five new skills you’ve been dying to learn all your life. Imagine that you could finally experience the kind of intimacy, connection, and love you’ve been longing for.

Sounds great, doesn’t it? And it’s possible — more than possible. But you might be surprised to learn that the #1 place to discover this things doesn’t come from learning to be better, nicer, happier, stronger. Actually, the place seems somewhat ironic and backwards.

The #1 place to find hidden power is in your powerlessness. That’s right, the very opposite place you might think to look for it. Inside your powerlessness, pain, insecurity, victim hood, and despair are the hidden goldmines of your deepest power.

Most the time people resist and avoid their powerless side because it’s uncomfortable, unpleasant, and down-right yucky. But it happens upon the best of us at least sometimes, and when it does, wouldn’t it be nice to make these visits not just bearable, but also transformational?

Here’s how:

1. Notice the feeling of powerlessness. Close your eyes and give yourself permission to feel that feeling. Name the feeling. Is it anger, numbness, helplessness, pathetic, sadness, despair?

2. Become the “witness” and acknowledge the feeling. Witness and watch the feeling. Separate from the feeling just enough to see that it is not all that you are. Let yourself see that it is just the feeling that is present in the moment. Acknowledge that you are more than this feeling.

3. Set the intention to surround the resistance with love, curiosity and understanding. Rather than telling yourself you don’t want to feel that feeling — of anger, sadness, hopelessness, or despair — just tell yourself that you’re going to send love to the feeling instead. Recognize that this feeling is here to give you access to your hidden power, but it can only to so if you are willing to understand it, love it, and be curious about it. Breathe deeply in your heart, and even if you are feeling some resistance, just set the internal intention of love.

4. Uncover the fear, and the fear beneath that, and the fear beneath that.

Just ask yourself, “What am I afraid of in this situation/moment?” Are you afraid that someone is going to hurt you? Are you afraid of being taken advantage of? Are you afraid of not getting your way? Are you afraid of looking like a fool? Let yourself identify the fear just beneath the surface of the feeling.

Now, look more closely at that fear. Let’s say underneath the feeling of regret, you discover “the fear that someone will be mad at me.” So look inside that fear, and ask, “What is the fear beneath that?” Just imagine, if it were true that someone were mad at you, what would be the fear in that? Maybe you would find, “the fear that someone won’t like me.”

Again, look beneath that fear — to see the fear beneath the fear. Keep digging until you find something that strikes a deep chord within you. For example, you might find the deeper fear of someone getting mad at you and not liking you is the “fear of being unlovable.”

5. Once you find it, repeat it to yourself and give yourself permission to move into that fear.

6. Claim the gifts and wisdom of the fear. Just ask yourself the following questions to mine out the gold (insert your own fear into the quotations below):

* What does “being unlovable” excuse you to do?

* How has “being unlovable” served me?

* What is this situation trying to teach me?

* What lesson am I meant to abstract from this?

* How is this situation meant to show me how to better love, trust, and care for myself?

* What is it I really want in this moment?

* What am I longing for in this moment?

* How could you give yourself what you want and long for?

* In what way am I draining my power and energy in this situation? What would I need to do to call my energy back?

* What power and gifts are available to me as a result of this situation and fear?

7. Send gratitude - to the fear, to the feeling, and to the situation - for being the catalyst of new discovery and healing

8. Reframe and empower the situation - Is there any other way you could look at this situation now? Find a way to reframe the situation so you no longer feel powerless, but rather you feel powerful — you have options, choices, and possibility rather than doom, gloom and hopelessness.

9. Take new action. Take an action aligned with the power you’ve discovered. Give yourself what the fear revealed you were longing for.

Copyright 2005 Coco Fossland

If you enjoyed this article, join the FREE Trust Circle Community Call (http://www.mytrustcircle.com), led by author, coach, and speaker, Coco Fossland.

Plastic surgery and reconstructive surgery are bandied about so much people often confuse them. While both involve the improvement of your appearance, there are distinct differences.

Plastic Surgery vs. Reconstructive Surgery

Both plastic surgery and reconstructive surgery are designed to improve the appearance of a person. This can be done through lifts, tucks, reshaping and so on. The correct usage of the terms, however, is dependent upon the underlying reason for the surgical procedure.

Plastic surgery is an elective surgery. In its most basic form, plastic surgery takes a normal part of the body and improves it in a manner desired by the patient. Common plastic surgery procedures include liposuction, breast enhancement or reduction, nose reshaping, reshaping of the abdomen and the well-known facelift. All of these surgeries are based purely on a voluntary desire to improve one’s appearance.

Reconstructive surgery is often elective, but can also be medically necessary. Reconstructive surgery differs from plastic surgery in one significant way. It is focused on making improvements to a damaged or abnormal part of the body. For example, a person may suffer damage from trauma or disease that leaves a part of the body looking abnormal and functionally deficient, such as breaking facial bones in an automobile accident. Reconstructive surgery will be undertaken to repair the facial structure so that it both performs and appears normally. While appearance is important, most reconstructive surgery focuses on functionality first.

The differences between plastic and reconstructive surgery often blur. Breast enhancement or reduction surgery is a form of plastic surgery. Repairing breasts after the all too common complications of breast cancer is considered reconstructive surgery. Repairing the septum of the nose is considered reconstructive surgery, but simply reshaping the nose is considered plastic surgery. This blurred line is repeated in other areas as well.

Ultimately, the dividing line between reconstructive surgery and plastic surgery is mostly an academic debate or vary obvious given specific circumstances. Regardless, it is important to understand that there is a distinction.

Ricardo de Silva is with PlasticSurgeonPractices.com a directory of plastic surgeons. Visit us to read more articles about plastic surgery.

Adolescent acne is referred to by many names, teen acne, acne adoloscent, and hormonal acne to name just a few. Whatever you want to call it, it can be frustrating, painful, and embarrassing to a teen.

Living with acne over a prolonged period during your teen years can be emotionally devastating, after all this is the age where your appearance is most important. Teen acne is very hard on the ego, often resulting in teasing and razzing from peers. Some teens suffer from not only acne but sever depression.

During the adolescent years almost every teen will have at least an occasional whitehead, blackhead, or pimple. Adolescent acne usually occurs between the ages of 12 and 20, and is usually the result of fluctuating hormone levels. Once the hormones stabilize out the acne will normally disappear.

So what’s the bet way to deal with adolescent acne? The simplest and most important thing a teen can do, is to learn to take good care of their skin, keeping it clean and as oil free as possible. This is not a cure but can help keep acne breakouts to a minimum.

Eating healthy and drinking plenty of water will also help by keeping the skin hydrated and the body flushed. Girls should use oil free cosmetics. Lightly exfoliating once a week will help open pours, and remove dead skin debris.

Milder cases of acne can be controlled by using conventional over the counter medicines that are applied directly to the skin. These medications usually include benzoyl peroxide or retinoic acid as an active ingredient.

Some natural products that can be used to treat acne are tea tree oil or Echinacea. Wash your face twice a day with a mixture of these herbs to reduce the number of break outs. Both have anti-inflammatory and anti-septic qualities.

In more severe adolescent acne a Doctor may try various oral medications such as antibiotics, oral contraceptives or Accutane.

As teens get older and hormones stabilize, fewer outbreaks should be seen, however some people do continue to have outbreaks well into adult hood. If the teen acne condition worsens or becomes emotionally debilitating it is important to seek medical help from a dermatologist.

You do not want an adolescent to grow up with skin and emotional scars as a result of acne, so treat not only their physical scars but their emotional scars.

M.D. Stacener from The Acne Cure has been serving customers for over 20 years, providing valuable information to keep you beautiful and healthy. Please visit us at

href=”http://www.acnel.com/” rel=”nofollow”>The Acne Cure

Acne is a disease in which the hair follicles on your skin become clogged and infected. This results in one of the three types of acne lesions to form.

The production of excess sebum is the culprit. It causes the follicles to become blocked. The medical community is still uncertain as to what triggers this excess production. Sebum is produced by the sebaceous oil gland and everybody needs a small amount to achieve healthy skin. Sebum helps protects the skin from harmful bacteria by washing it away.

Types of Acne Lesions:

The three types of acne lesions are whiteheads & blackheads (also known as closed and open comedones respectively), papules & pustules, and cysts.

Whiteheads as the name suggests, look like white bumps. They form under the skin and never reach the surface. This makes them very hard to eliminate. Blackheads grow upward and break the skins surface. This enlarged follicle and the oxidation of the dead cells, sebum, and bacteria have a black color, hence the name.

Papules form when a whitehead burst and the bacteria spreads to the surrounding tissues under the skin. This causes your body’s immune system to increase its fight on the infection making the inflammation worse. They appear as small, firm, red bumps. Pustules form as the body’s immune system continues to fight the infection by sending pus to the area. They appear similar to a papules with the addition of a yellowish white head.

Cysts are the third and final type of acne lesion. They form when a pustule worsens and expands further down under the skins surface. They appear red or purple and are very painful. This is the most serious of all types of acne lesions.

Types of Acne:

Acne can not only be classified by the types of acne lesions, but further broken down by acne type; depending on what types of lesions you have. People whose acne consists of whiteheads and blackheads would have what is called comedonal acne. A mix of blackheads, whiteheads, papules and pustules acne lesions is called acne vulgaris and is the most common type of acne. The third type of acne is called cystic acne and it is when someone has all three types of acne lesions with numerous cysts.

Who Can Get Acne:

While most people associate acne with teens, anybody can experience some type of acne at any age. That said certain groups of people are more likely to experience acne. They include teens, people under stress, people who have a family history of the disease, people taking certain drugs and adult women.

Mark MacKay is a researcher, marketer, and former Acne sufferer. For more information on Acne Myths, Causes, Types of Acne, Acne Treatments, Skin Care, Adult Acne, Teen Acne, Acne Discussion forum, latest research articles and much more visit Mark’s Acne Explained web site at http://www.acne-explained.info.