Friday 19 October, 2012

17 facts and myths about great skin

Skin care is a tricky area. Your skin needs nourishment and care if you want it to look radiant and healthy. And with advances in medical science, you can greatly delay the signs of ageing. 

Here are some skin care facts and myths that you should be aware about...

1. Teens wanting blemish-free skin and fairness with over-the-counter (OTC) products advertised by film stars must identify the need for using these products. Radiant and lustrous hair cannot be achieved using OTC products. Consult a dermatologist — use the products they give instead of fancy OTC products whose unsupervised, prolonged usage can lead to hyper-pigmentation.

2. The young woman just out of her teens blessed with good hair and healthy skin needs to pay attention to what she eats, make sure she gets adequate sleep (seven to eight hours), exercise regularly and avoid taking stress. She must cleanse, moisturise and use a sunscreen.

3. What you put in your mouth is more important than what you put on your skin! If your core is healthy, it will show on your face. Have a diet rich with Vitamin A and antioxidant foods, lots of coloured fruits and vegetables. Regular exercise improves circulation and blood supply, and flushes out toxins. 

4. Bad hair days exist. The weather can wreak havoc on hair. Dry weather can make your hair frizzy, humidity can make it limp, stress can turn it oily. Products and chemical treatments that don't agree with you will also give you bad hair days.

5. Stress increases cortisol levels and this over activity of the oil gland will make one prone to breakouts. Psychological problems can lead to acne.

6. Fortunately, most skin problems if identified and treated early can be reversible.

7. The ageing process depends on the genes, but in a woman, it is any time between the mid 20s to late 30s.

8. If you get adequate sleep (the skin repairs and rejuvenates itself when we're asleep), eat the right diet, stay active and keep yourself hydrated, you won't regret later. Water retains moisture in the skin making it glow. Decrease stress levels and know your skin type (oily, dry, a combination, sensitive or mature skin) and use products accordingly. Sunscreen will avoid blotchiness and dullness. Exfoliate your skin at least one a week. This will remove dead skin and helps the moisturiser absorb better.

9. Men shouldn't shy away from approaching dermatologists for skin problems. Men have an added advantage — shaving daily is an automatic exfoliating process.

10. All commercially sold beauty products are not harmful. If made well and prescribed for a reason by an expert, they are beneficial; but certainly not when self-prescribed.

11. Continuous and long-term use of make-up does not damage the natural oils and texture of the skin if the make-up is of good quality, applied correctly, suitable for your skin type and removed properly.

12. Botox, fillers, wrinkle erasers, skin tightening machines, laser and mild non-invasive treatments are a boon.

13. Women in their 20s want fairer skin. A woman in her 30s fears blotchy and dehydrated skin, pigmentation etc. By the time she is 40, she fears lines, crow's feet, creases, deeper folds, wrinkles and sagging skin. Women in their 20s and 30s can start with microdermabrasion non-chemical peels, which remove dead, outer skin layers and delay the ageing process. As a woman ages, her dermatologist can tell her what she needs and doesn't. A woman in her 40s may need to get rid of wrinkles and folds near her nose and mouth and can opt for fillers and skin tightening. A woman in her 50s can go in for laser rejuvenation. This can erase 10 years off her face.

14. Dermatology and cosmetology are not the same. A dermatologist has done an in-depth study of skin, skin care and its problems. A cosmetologist is an expert on cosmetics on skin. A dermatologist can treat external as well as internal skin problems — something that a cosmetologist can't. The skin is a mirror of one's internal system. It can indicate more problems than just advancing age.

15. Botox does not harm the body. What is injected is a purified toxin. It relaxes the muscle where it is injected and is an excellent treatment for lines, creases, wrinkles, crow's feet etc.

16. It is never too late to salvage your skin. There are several non-invasive treatments like chemical peels and hydra dermabrasion which rejuvenate the skin. Non-abrasive skin tightening machines can help.

17. The world has become a smaller place with advances in medical science. Indian dermatologists update themselves by attending international conferences and undergoing constant training. The same treatments available in New York can be availed at a clinic in Mumbai. People prefer doing it here instead going abroad.

Saturday 14 January, 2012

WHO lauds India’s polio-free drive




NEW DELHI : India's success in controlling polio - not reporting a single case of the crippling disease in 12 months - has been lauded by the World Health Organization (WHO). 

Calling it "India's greatest public health achievement", the WHO said the number of polio-endemic countries - those which have never stopped indigenous wild poliovirus transmission - could soon be reduced to a historical low of three: Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan. 

"India was once recognized as the world's epicentre of polio. If all pending laboratory investigations return negative, in the coming weeks India will officially be deemed to have stopped indigenous transmission of wild poliovirus. India's success is arguably its greatest public health achievement and has provided a global opportunity to push for the end of polio," said WHO's director-general Margaret Chan

Chan said the Global Polio Eradication Initiative is in full emergency mode and focused on using this momentum to bring down the crippling disease. "Stopping polio in India required creativity, perseverance and professionalism. The lessons from India must now be adapted and implemented through emergency actions to finish polio everywhere," Chan added. 

TOI on Friday had reported how countries like Angola, Lebanon, Tajikistan, Bangladesh and Namibia are fighting polio with most of them having imported the virus from India multiple times in the last decade. 

On similar lines, the WHO said, "Poliovirus can travel easily to polio-free areas. Stopping polio in India will prevent a recurrence of the polio outbreaks - due to virus of Indian origin - seen in recent years in countries as diverse as Angola, Bangladesh, Nepal, Russia and Tajikistan." 

Director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dr Thomas Frieden said, India must continue to protect its children through supplementary immunization activities and improved routine immunization coverage rates or risk a potentially horrific re-importation event. "Polio's history contains many cautionary tales," Dr Frieden said. 

"Polio anywhere in the world is a risk everywhere in the world, and to protect itself from a setback, India is appropriately planning to continue meticulous monitoring and intensive childhood vaccination against polio," he added. 

UNICEF executive director Anthony Lake said, "India's achievement is proof positive that we can eradicate polio even in the most challenging environments - in fact, it is only by targeting these areas that we can defeat this evil disease. We have the ability to protect every last person, especially children, from this entirely preventable disease - and because we can, we must finish the job of eradicating polio globally, once and for all." 

Rotary International had first launched the global polio eradication drive in 1985. Rotary International's president Kalyan Banerjee said that with the intensity of transmission in India, many experts had predicted it would be the last country in the world to achieve eradication. 

In 2009, India had more polio cases than any other country in the world. India recorded 741 cases of polio in 2009 - nearly half the number of global cases. But, the nation reported only one case of polio from West Bengal on January 13, 2011. Since then, India has managed to keep the deadly virus at bay. Experts agree that the introduction of the new bivalent vaccine made a difference. 

India saw a 94% decline in polio cases in 2010. It recorded only 42 polio cases. The number of affected districts also saw a sharp dip - from 90 in 2008, 56 in 2009 to only 17 in 2010. Polio hotbed Uttar Pradesh reported 10 polio cases in 2010 as compared to 602 in 2009. 

Bihar recorded nine polio cases in 2010 against 117 in 2009. Scientific studies showed that BOPV induced a significantly higher immune response - 30% more than other trivalent or monovalent vaccines that was used earlier...

One Life..

7 Billion, National Geographic Magazine

Dr.Aj 's to-read book montage

The Secret
Angels & Demons
Romeo and Juliet
Girl with a Pearl Earring
The Virgin's Lover
The Alienist
The Time Machine
2001: A Space Odyssey
Mein Kampf
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany
A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
Schindler's List
The Discoverers
Sex with Kings: 500 Years of Adultery, Power, Rivalry, and Revenge
The First World War
Sex with the Queen: 900 Years of Vile Kings, Virile Lovers, and Passionate Politics
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
Tales From Malgudi.
The Bhagavad Gita


Dr.Aj Sean's favorite books »
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