Monday, January 22, 2007
Don’t Call. Don’t Write. Let Me Be.
Great article on how to get rid of pesky telemarketers, junk mail, credit card offers, and the like.
Monday, January 15, 2007
The skinny of the new injectables
JUVEDERM
Main Ingredient: Hyaluronic acid gelResults: Immediate; lasts six months or longerStatus: FDA-approved for moderate-to-severe facial wrinkles and foldsSide effects: Temporary redness, pain, swelling and bruising at injection site. Should not be used by people with severe allergies, particularly to bacterial proteins.
RESTYLANE
Main Ingredient: Nonanimal-source hyaluronic acid particles suspended in gelResults: Immediate, lasting up to one year Status: FDA-approved for moderate-to-severe wrinkles around nose and mouthSide effects: Redness, swelling, tenderness, rare allergic reactions.
RADIESSE (BIOFORM)
Main Ingredient: Microspheres of calcium hydroxylapatite suspended in gelResults: Immediate, lasting one to two years; may stimulate natural collagen productionStatus: FDA-approved for long-lasting correction of deep lines including nasal-labial folds, and for facial fat loss in HIV patients. Side effects: Clumping, lumping and nodules can appear when injected into the lips. Little risk of allergic reaction.
CAPTIQUE
Main Ingredient: Hyaluronic acid particles suspended in gelResults: Immediate; may last up to one year Status: FDA-approved for moderate-to-severe wrinkles and folds around nose, mouthSide effects: Bruising, swelling, rare allergic reaction
HYLAFORM, HYLAFORM PLUS
Main Ingredient: Hyaluronic acid particles derived from rooster combsResults: Immediate, lasting up to six months Status: FDA-approved for moderate-to-severe wrinkles around nose and mouth. Hylaform Plus is used for filling deeper wrinkles. Side effects: Redness, swelling, allergic reaction in those sensitive to bird products
ARTEFILL
Main Ingredients: 75% bovine collagen, 25% polymethylmethacrylate microspheres Results: Immediate - and permanent, but patients must wait three months between injectionsStatus: FDA-approved for severe wrinkles and folds around nose and mouthSide effects: Lumping, granulomas, possible migration of spheres
SCULPTRA
Main Ingredient: Synthetic polylactic acid in microspheres Results: Immediate, lasting up to two years Status: FDA-approved for HIV patients suffering loss of facial structure. In use outside the U.S. as the facial filler "New Fill." Off-label use in the U.S. for facial rejuvenation.Side effects: Redness, bruising, lumping, granulomas
Main Ingredient: Hyaluronic acid gelResults: Immediate; lasts six months or longerStatus: FDA-approved for moderate-to-severe facial wrinkles and foldsSide effects: Temporary redness, pain, swelling and bruising at injection site. Should not be used by people with severe allergies, particularly to bacterial proteins.
RESTYLANE
Main Ingredient: Nonanimal-source hyaluronic acid particles suspended in gelResults: Immediate, lasting up to one year Status: FDA-approved for moderate-to-severe wrinkles around nose and mouthSide effects: Redness, swelling, tenderness, rare allergic reactions.
RADIESSE (BIOFORM)
Main Ingredient: Microspheres of calcium hydroxylapatite suspended in gelResults: Immediate, lasting one to two years; may stimulate natural collagen productionStatus: FDA-approved for long-lasting correction of deep lines including nasal-labial folds, and for facial fat loss in HIV patients. Side effects: Clumping, lumping and nodules can appear when injected into the lips. Little risk of allergic reaction.
CAPTIQUE
Main Ingredient: Hyaluronic acid particles suspended in gelResults: Immediate; may last up to one year Status: FDA-approved for moderate-to-severe wrinkles and folds around nose, mouthSide effects: Bruising, swelling, rare allergic reaction
HYLAFORM, HYLAFORM PLUS
Main Ingredient: Hyaluronic acid particles derived from rooster combsResults: Immediate, lasting up to six months Status: FDA-approved for moderate-to-severe wrinkles around nose and mouth. Hylaform Plus is used for filling deeper wrinkles. Side effects: Redness, swelling, allergic reaction in those sensitive to bird products
ARTEFILL
Main Ingredients: 75% bovine collagen, 25% polymethylmethacrylate microspheres Results: Immediate - and permanent, but patients must wait three months between injectionsStatus: FDA-approved for severe wrinkles and folds around nose and mouthSide effects: Lumping, granulomas, possible migration of spheres
SCULPTRA
Main Ingredient: Synthetic polylactic acid in microspheres Results: Immediate, lasting up to two years Status: FDA-approved for HIV patients suffering loss of facial structure. In use outside the U.S. as the facial filler "New Fill." Off-label use in the U.S. for facial rejuvenation.Side effects: Redness, bruising, lumping, granulomas
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
A new year, a new you
Healthy in London:
The meals and snacks are based around specially selected vegetables and fruits that “mainline” our bodies with vitamins, minerals and supernutrients known for their healing properties. They have been designed to contain slowly digested, low and medium-low glycemic index (GI) carbohydrate foods such as rye toast, tortilla wraps, oats, pulses such as peas, red kidney and cannellini beans and basmati rice to keep blood sugar levels normal and steady. This not only helps to satisfy your appetite, it takes the strain off your pancreas, which has had to work overtime pumping out more and more insulin to deal with festive foods.
The meals also contain easy-to-digest protein foods such as white fish, lamb and chicken, which will keep you full and reduce cravings. If you look at the meals and think “Help, that isn’t enough”, at least give it a go. Eating the right balance of low GI carbohydrates and protein works surprisingly well to keep your appetite under control naturally. But if you are still a bit peckish, between-meal snacks are included. This is not meant to be three days of torment but three days of healing from the inside out.
Liver foods
Our livers process nutrients, especially fats, as well as neutralising and making safe such toxins as alcohol. If you have been enjoying more than the odd festive tipple and have tucked into more fatty, rich foods than normal, certain vegetables and fruits are great for restoring the wellbeing of your liver.
We all know that broccoli is “good for us” in that “eat your greens” kind of way; what is less obvious is that, along with watercress, this über-veg provides supernutrients that boost an enzyme, glutathione, which helps the liver to remove the waste products of over-consumption. It is also a strong antioxidant, which can restore the strength of liver cells. If you cannot stand the bitter taste, have broccoli in soups — this tones the bitterness down — steam it as a vegetable at all main meals, or break it into florettes and add it to stir-fries.
Avocados are also very liver-friendly. Although we tend to think of them as fattening, they are one of the few foods to contain ready-made glutathione. Stick to half a small one a day and you won’t pile on the pounds. Throw them chopped into salads or mash them and spread on toast for a snack.
Artichoke hearts are full of cynarin, a supernutrient that enables our livers to make more bile; this, in turn, helps to carry excess cholesterol from our body. They also give us a little silymarin (plant compounds found in milk thistle, a supplement that renews and repairs damaged liver cells). The simplest way to get the goodness is to take artichoke hearts straight from a jar and add them to, say, pasta dishes. You can also serve them with roasted peppers as an antipasto, or with a salad.
Always use plenty of garlic and onions. Rich in sulphur-based supernutrients, these can increase our production of detoxing enzymes that can help to heal and repair damage.
Beetroot is rich in betacyanin (the deep-red pigments that both give this vegetable its colour and seem to support the liver) plus betaine, which is present in very few other foods and helps to detoxify homocysteine, high levels of which can trigger heart disease.
As for fruits, berries are best. Frozen are as good as fresh because they retain their ellagic acid, a plant compound that increases production of liver enzymes, thus improving the organ’s ability to repair and strengthen itself. Frozen versions are great thrown into smoothies, or defrosted and added to cereals. Fresh berries make simple between-meal snacks.
Oranges are rich in vitamin C and hesperitin, which — along with lycopene (the red pigment found in tomatoes) — is a supernutrient that can lower cholesterol and take the strain off the liver.
Kidney foods
When your general food intake goes up, your salt tends to follow suit, putting more strain on your kidneys — which work 24 hours a day keeping mineral levels in the blood constant and within safe limits. Vegetables and fruits are, in general, rich in potassium, the mineral that helps to rebalance salt overloads — the more, the better.
Celery in particular contains apiin and other supernutrients that help to cleanse the kidneys through their diuretic properties. It is easy to use in salads and as between-meal snacks.
Also add parsley where you can. This herb is especially rich in potassium, helping to flush through the kidneys, eliminating excess salt and lowering blood pressure.
Cranberries are also a well-known kidney-friendly food. Drinking 250ml of cranberry juice daily (use low-sugar versions) has been shown to coat the lining of the urinary tract with tannins — supernutrients that act like a non-stick coating and help to flush bugs through and take the strain off these two small organs.
Colon foods
It is easy to view the colon as the dumping ground of the digestive system, but this would be to trivialise its infinite number of active roles that take place day and night, ranging from making certain vitamins, balancing out good and bad bacteria, breaking down dietary compounds and eliminating toxins and potentially carcinogenic compounds.
Some specific foods can help to restore colon balance. Apples and pears are rich in soluble fibre, which can grab on to potentially cancer-causing pollutants and toxins in the colon, removing them from the body in stools. Have them as between-meal snacks, and use them in healing puddings such as baked apples and poached pears.
Chicory, bananas and Jerusalem artichokes are all rich in fructo-oligosaccharides, types of carbohydrate that feed “good” bacteria, restore balance and reduce problems such as bloating and other symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome. They also help to bulk out stools and increase the speed of disposal of waste and pollutants from the body. Chicory can be braised and served with main dishes, as well as being used raw in salads.Finally, we come back to garlic. The sulphur-based compounds that it contains help to eliminate toxins, viruses, bacteria and parasites from the intestines, again lifting the strain from the day-to-day processing role that our digestive system undertakes.
THREE-DAY REPAIR PLAN
What to drink
Peppermint tea: the oils in peppermint contain more than 40 supernutrients, including menthol, which helps to relax the digestive system and relieves intestinal cramping and gas. It is also said to improve symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome. Drink between meals to avoid heartburn.
Chamomile: the supernutrient apigenin in chamomile affects the same part of the brain as anti-anxiety drugs, helping you to relax and sleep well, which enhances the repair process.
Dandelion tea: this can improve liver function and also acts as a diuretic to help the flow of waste through the kidneys. Have no more than three cups of root tea and three cups of leaf tea a day. (Teabags from all the main supermarkets and main brands are good. For mint tea, fresh mint leaves are easy to buy and are preferable).
Water: there is no need to drink a specific quantity of mineral water daily. If you are drinking herbal teas, top them up with mineral water in between so that the total amount of fluid you drink in a day is approximately two litres. And remember that you should have another litre of water for every hour of strenuous exercise that you undertake.
On waking: Drink a tumbler of hot water infused with lemon, and take 200mg of milk thistle in capsule form.
Puddings/snacks
Citrus fruits: rich in vitamin C to support your liver, plus hesperidin, a super-nutrient known to help to lower blood cholesterol.
Pomegranate seeds: help to lower blood cholesterol and break down fatty plaques on artery walls.
Berries: great for ellagic acid and vitamin C to support your liver.
Pears, apples: good for soluble fibre to help to lower blood cholesterol.
Nuts: a 30g handful. Almonds are good for vitamin E to help to repair your liver and give you plant sterols that help to lower cholesterol. Walnuts are rich in omega-3 oils which, again, help to lower cholesterol.
For the first three days, do try really hard not to eat anything with refined sugar to give your body maximum rest, and then for the following seven days we will advise the least damaging sweet pudding or snack.
Foods that help you hold back the years
Multigrain bread For selenium, a mineral that is essential for making glutathione, an enzyme that zaps free radicals, which are present in air pollution and cigarette smoke. When breathed into the body, they attack and break down collagen. Also good: muesli, brazil nuts, sunflower seeds and shrimps.
Oats For the trace mineral silicic acid, which is needed to make the spongy cells that lie between collagen and elastin fibres. These make the skin plump and the nails and hair strong, and slow down the formation of fine lines. Also good: whole-grain wheat, beetroot, alfalfa sprouts and Fiji water.
Wholemeal pitta, goji berries and muesli For ferulic acid (pitta) and vitamins C (berries) and E (muesli). Ferulic acid is a potent antioxidant supernutrient that helps vitamins C and E to maximise their ability to protect the skin from the sun’s ageing UV rays. Goji berries contain 500 times more vitamin C than oranges, gram for gram. Also good: whole-grain pasta and bran flakes for ferulic acid; oranges, grapefruit, strawberries and peppers for vitamin C; sweet potatoes, sunflower seeds, almonds, avocado and spinach for vitamin E.
Sweet potatoes, tomatoes, spinach For three antioxidant pigments betacarotene (sweet potatoes), lycopene (tomatoes) and lutein (spinach), which accumulate in the skin and help to reflect ageing UV rays from the sun by giving skin an estimated permanent sun protection factor (SPF) of three. Also good: carrots, apricots and peaches for betacarotene; pink grapefruit and tomato juice for lycopene; oranges for lutein.
Cherries For anthocyanins, red and dark-blue antioxidant pigments that keep the tiny blood vessels that supply the skin with nutrients in good condition. Also good: blueberries, blackberries, pomegranates, pomegranate juice, black grapes and radishes.
Soya milk and lentils For plant oestrogens, which help to make lubricating oils and good-quality collagen in the skin. They also help to repair both collagen and elastin, which are essential for slowing down the thinning of the skin and the formation of lines. Also good: soya beans, tofu, soya yoghurt, bean sprouts, whole-grain cereals and linseeds.
Salmon For protein to build and regenerate collagen and elastin. Salmon also provides omega-3 oils, which are essential for making prostaglandins, hormone-like substances that keep the skin supple and hydrated. Also good: mackerel, herrings, sardines, anchovies, omega-3-enriched eggs, organic whole milk, omega-3-enriched semi-skimmed milk, hemp seeds, walnuts and almonds.
Steak For the mineral iron - depleted supplies can lead to poor hair growth and thinning hair. Steak is also high in protein. Also good: dark turkey and dark chicken meat, mackerel and sardines.
The meals and snacks are based around specially selected vegetables and fruits that “mainline” our bodies with vitamins, minerals and supernutrients known for their healing properties. They have been designed to contain slowly digested, low and medium-low glycemic index (GI) carbohydrate foods such as rye toast, tortilla wraps, oats, pulses such as peas, red kidney and cannellini beans and basmati rice to keep blood sugar levels normal and steady. This not only helps to satisfy your appetite, it takes the strain off your pancreas, which has had to work overtime pumping out more and more insulin to deal with festive foods.
The meals also contain easy-to-digest protein foods such as white fish, lamb and chicken, which will keep you full and reduce cravings. If you look at the meals and think “Help, that isn’t enough”, at least give it a go. Eating the right balance of low GI carbohydrates and protein works surprisingly well to keep your appetite under control naturally. But if you are still a bit peckish, between-meal snacks are included. This is not meant to be three days of torment but three days of healing from the inside out.
Liver foods
Our livers process nutrients, especially fats, as well as neutralising and making safe such toxins as alcohol. If you have been enjoying more than the odd festive tipple and have tucked into more fatty, rich foods than normal, certain vegetables and fruits are great for restoring the wellbeing of your liver.
We all know that broccoli is “good for us” in that “eat your greens” kind of way; what is less obvious is that, along with watercress, this über-veg provides supernutrients that boost an enzyme, glutathione, which helps the liver to remove the waste products of over-consumption. It is also a strong antioxidant, which can restore the strength of liver cells. If you cannot stand the bitter taste, have broccoli in soups — this tones the bitterness down — steam it as a vegetable at all main meals, or break it into florettes and add it to stir-fries.
Avocados are also very liver-friendly. Although we tend to think of them as fattening, they are one of the few foods to contain ready-made glutathione. Stick to half a small one a day and you won’t pile on the pounds. Throw them chopped into salads or mash them and spread on toast for a snack.
Artichoke hearts are full of cynarin, a supernutrient that enables our livers to make more bile; this, in turn, helps to carry excess cholesterol from our body. They also give us a little silymarin (plant compounds found in milk thistle, a supplement that renews and repairs damaged liver cells). The simplest way to get the goodness is to take artichoke hearts straight from a jar and add them to, say, pasta dishes. You can also serve them with roasted peppers as an antipasto, or with a salad.
Always use plenty of garlic and onions. Rich in sulphur-based supernutrients, these can increase our production of detoxing enzymes that can help to heal and repair damage.
Beetroot is rich in betacyanin (the deep-red pigments that both give this vegetable its colour and seem to support the liver) plus betaine, which is present in very few other foods and helps to detoxify homocysteine, high levels of which can trigger heart disease.
As for fruits, berries are best. Frozen are as good as fresh because they retain their ellagic acid, a plant compound that increases production of liver enzymes, thus improving the organ’s ability to repair and strengthen itself. Frozen versions are great thrown into smoothies, or defrosted and added to cereals. Fresh berries make simple between-meal snacks.
Oranges are rich in vitamin C and hesperitin, which — along with lycopene (the red pigment found in tomatoes) — is a supernutrient that can lower cholesterol and take the strain off the liver.
Kidney foods
When your general food intake goes up, your salt tends to follow suit, putting more strain on your kidneys — which work 24 hours a day keeping mineral levels in the blood constant and within safe limits. Vegetables and fruits are, in general, rich in potassium, the mineral that helps to rebalance salt overloads — the more, the better.
Celery in particular contains apiin and other supernutrients that help to cleanse the kidneys through their diuretic properties. It is easy to use in salads and as between-meal snacks.
Also add parsley where you can. This herb is especially rich in potassium, helping to flush through the kidneys, eliminating excess salt and lowering blood pressure.
Cranberries are also a well-known kidney-friendly food. Drinking 250ml of cranberry juice daily (use low-sugar versions) has been shown to coat the lining of the urinary tract with tannins — supernutrients that act like a non-stick coating and help to flush bugs through and take the strain off these two small organs.
Colon foods
It is easy to view the colon as the dumping ground of the digestive system, but this would be to trivialise its infinite number of active roles that take place day and night, ranging from making certain vitamins, balancing out good and bad bacteria, breaking down dietary compounds and eliminating toxins and potentially carcinogenic compounds.
Some specific foods can help to restore colon balance. Apples and pears are rich in soluble fibre, which can grab on to potentially cancer-causing pollutants and toxins in the colon, removing them from the body in stools. Have them as between-meal snacks, and use them in healing puddings such as baked apples and poached pears.
Chicory, bananas and Jerusalem artichokes are all rich in fructo-oligosaccharides, types of carbohydrate that feed “good” bacteria, restore balance and reduce problems such as bloating and other symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome. They also help to bulk out stools and increase the speed of disposal of waste and pollutants from the body. Chicory can be braised and served with main dishes, as well as being used raw in salads.Finally, we come back to garlic. The sulphur-based compounds that it contains help to eliminate toxins, viruses, bacteria and parasites from the intestines, again lifting the strain from the day-to-day processing role that our digestive system undertakes.
THREE-DAY REPAIR PLAN
What to drink
Peppermint tea: the oils in peppermint contain more than 40 supernutrients, including menthol, which helps to relax the digestive system and relieves intestinal cramping and gas. It is also said to improve symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome. Drink between meals to avoid heartburn.
Chamomile: the supernutrient apigenin in chamomile affects the same part of the brain as anti-anxiety drugs, helping you to relax and sleep well, which enhances the repair process.
Dandelion tea: this can improve liver function and also acts as a diuretic to help the flow of waste through the kidneys. Have no more than three cups of root tea and three cups of leaf tea a day. (Teabags from all the main supermarkets and main brands are good. For mint tea, fresh mint leaves are easy to buy and are preferable).
Water: there is no need to drink a specific quantity of mineral water daily. If you are drinking herbal teas, top them up with mineral water in between so that the total amount of fluid you drink in a day is approximately two litres. And remember that you should have another litre of water for every hour of strenuous exercise that you undertake.
On waking: Drink a tumbler of hot water infused with lemon, and take 200mg of milk thistle in capsule form.
Puddings/snacks
Citrus fruits: rich in vitamin C to support your liver, plus hesperidin, a super-nutrient known to help to lower blood cholesterol.
Pomegranate seeds: help to lower blood cholesterol and break down fatty plaques on artery walls.
Berries: great for ellagic acid and vitamin C to support your liver.
Pears, apples: good for soluble fibre to help to lower blood cholesterol.
Nuts: a 30g handful. Almonds are good for vitamin E to help to repair your liver and give you plant sterols that help to lower cholesterol. Walnuts are rich in omega-3 oils which, again, help to lower cholesterol.
For the first three days, do try really hard not to eat anything with refined sugar to give your body maximum rest, and then for the following seven days we will advise the least damaging sweet pudding or snack.
Foods that help you hold back the years
Multigrain bread For selenium, a mineral that is essential for making glutathione, an enzyme that zaps free radicals, which are present in air pollution and cigarette smoke. When breathed into the body, they attack and break down collagen. Also good: muesli, brazil nuts, sunflower seeds and shrimps.
Oats For the trace mineral silicic acid, which is needed to make the spongy cells that lie between collagen and elastin fibres. These make the skin plump and the nails and hair strong, and slow down the formation of fine lines. Also good: whole-grain wheat, beetroot, alfalfa sprouts and Fiji water.
Wholemeal pitta, goji berries and muesli For ferulic acid (pitta) and vitamins C (berries) and E (muesli). Ferulic acid is a potent antioxidant supernutrient that helps vitamins C and E to maximise their ability to protect the skin from the sun’s ageing UV rays. Goji berries contain 500 times more vitamin C than oranges, gram for gram. Also good: whole-grain pasta and bran flakes for ferulic acid; oranges, grapefruit, strawberries and peppers for vitamin C; sweet potatoes, sunflower seeds, almonds, avocado and spinach for vitamin E.
Sweet potatoes, tomatoes, spinach For three antioxidant pigments betacarotene (sweet potatoes), lycopene (tomatoes) and lutein (spinach), which accumulate in the skin and help to reflect ageing UV rays from the sun by giving skin an estimated permanent sun protection factor (SPF) of three. Also good: carrots, apricots and peaches for betacarotene; pink grapefruit and tomato juice for lycopene; oranges for lutein.
Cherries For anthocyanins, red and dark-blue antioxidant pigments that keep the tiny blood vessels that supply the skin with nutrients in good condition. Also good: blueberries, blackberries, pomegranates, pomegranate juice, black grapes and radishes.
Soya milk and lentils For plant oestrogens, which help to make lubricating oils and good-quality collagen in the skin. They also help to repair both collagen and elastin, which are essential for slowing down the thinning of the skin and the formation of lines. Also good: soya beans, tofu, soya yoghurt, bean sprouts, whole-grain cereals and linseeds.
Salmon For protein to build and regenerate collagen and elastin. Salmon also provides omega-3 oils, which are essential for making prostaglandins, hormone-like substances that keep the skin supple and hydrated. Also good: mackerel, herrings, sardines, anchovies, omega-3-enriched eggs, organic whole milk, omega-3-enriched semi-skimmed milk, hemp seeds, walnuts and almonds.
Steak For the mineral iron - depleted supplies can lead to poor hair growth and thinning hair. Steak is also high in protein. Also good: dark turkey and dark chicken meat, mackerel and sardines.
Labels: glycemic index, Health, health food, nutrition
