Tips on how to prevent wrinkles at an early age

Tips to prevent wrinkles at an early age

You can be an eye candy or a show stopper of any party even when you are turning 30! There is a notion that skin ageing starts at the age of 30. The ageing signs first appear on your hands, neck area and some areas of your face.

The glow and tightness of our skin at our early20s may be cherished. The glow of our skin is at its peak in this age because it remains free from extra oil, dirt and the problem of pimples and requires not much effort to maintain it.

But a research has shown that skin ageing can start at any age if you do not take proper care of it. If you want to flaunt glowing, healthy skin which you have in your early 20’s then start taking care of it from then.

There are a lot of anti-wrinkle creams available in market which claims that it will give you wrinkle free, youthful skin. But there is no need to use such creams at an early age.

In an exclusive chat with “Sakhi” dermatologist Simal Soin shares some tips on how to prevent wrinkle at an early age?

Mediterranean diet

Proteins like collagen and elastine keep the skin soft and glowing. But with the passage of time the level of these proteins decrease resulting in wrinkles. If you want to get compliments for healthy and glowing skin even after the age of 30 then start balanced diet. There are some DO’s and DON’Ts which should be followed:

•    Try to eat lots of fruits and green vegetables as these are good source of vitamin A, E, B and C and they help in the development of skin cells and maintain proper oil balance to keep your skin glowing.

•    Try to consume little sugar as it increases the sugar level in blood. Avoid carbonated drinks, candies, sweets.

•    Water is a great intoxicator. The easiest way to prevent wrinkles is to drink lots of water to keep your skin hydrated.

•    Stop smoking if you want to maintain the younger look because it damages the skin tissues.

Some important tips

Once you are in your late twenties, make cleansing, toning and moisturising a regular habit. Use anti-wrinkle cream before going to bed.

1)    Start doing yoga or meditation every day to be stress free.

2)    If you are uncomfortable using sun-screen then you can also apply foundation according to your skin tone.

3)    Make sure that your skin products do not contain such ingredients which can cause irritation. Do not use products which have menthol, lemongrass, lime or other botanical oils.

4)    If you have dry skin then use good moisturiser to hydrate your skin as this type of skin is more prone to ageing.

5)    Massage your skin with creams, containing vitamin E.

6)    Keep a watch on your weight. Do not lose or gain weight very frequently.

7)    Do facial exercises.

8)    Apply face mask once in a month and get a thermo spa from good beauty expert at least once in a fortnight.

9)    Apply alpha hydroxyl cleanser and lotion on wrinkles. This process lessens the marks.

10) Before going to bed pamper your face with night cream which contains vitamin E or aloevera.

11) Use either face lotion or anti ageing cream. Do not use both of them together.

Aloevera and Papaya

Aloevera is a good source of malic acid which helps in erasing the marks of ageing. Papaya has some enzymes which clean the skin and remove dead skin as well. It helps in controlling wrinkles.

Home-made packs

Orange and yoghurt mask: Mix 1 spoon of yoghurt and ¼ spoon of orange juice and apply it on the face. Keep it for 5 minutes. Then wash it off with lukewarm water. Yoghurt tightens your skin cells whereas orange maintains the glow.

Banana pack: Smash a ripe banana and mix it with1/2spoon of glycerin. Then apply the pack on your face. Keep it for 15-20 minutes. Before removing it pat your face with lukewarm water. Again wash your face with cold water.

Egg and olive pack:  Mix 1 spoon of olive oil with one egg and massage it on your face. Leave it on your face for some time, then again apply another layer of this pack on your face. Lastly wash your face gently with a wet sponge.

Massage your skin:

Before going to bed, massage your skin with olive oil or coconut oil. Then mix crushed cucumber with mint juice. Sieve the mixture and then apply the juice onto your face with cotton.

Skin sauna

Mix few drops of essential oil according to your skin texture in a bowl of warm water.

•    For normal skin- mandarin oil and lavender oil

•    For oily skin-lemon and eucalyptus oil

•    For dry skin- rose and chamomile oil

Then cover your face with a towel and take steam from the bowl. This process opens your skin pores and prepares them for applying face mask. But if your skin is very sensitive or you are pregnant then do not try skin sauna.

What to avoid?

The following ingredients should not be present in your face cream-

-Alcohol as it increases dryness

-Odour as it increases the risk of skin rashes

-Sunscreen as it alone cannot combat skin cancer

-Parabens as it can be a cause for cancer

-Paraffin wax or mineral oil as it closes the skin pores and decreases the secretion of natural oil from skin

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Eating rice may help combat cancer

Eating rice may help combat cancer

London: Rice consumption may help reduce the risk of bowel cancer, a study has suggested. Professor Ann Richardson of the University of Canterbury said more than 2800 Kiwis were diagnosed with bowel cancer each year and it was "very possible" dietary changes were associated with world cancer trends.

"Rapid increases in the incidence of bowel cancer in Japan and Hong Kong have been linked to dietary changes which have occurred in these countries over the last 50 years," Stuff.co.nz quoted her as saying.

Per capita, rice consumption declined by almost 50 per cent in Japan over the past 20 to 30 years. But countries such as China and India had not seen the same decline in rice consumption and continued to have low rates of bowel cancer, she noted.

Richardson said rates of colorectal cancer in Japan and Hong Kong had increased "too quickly to suggest that it is something genetic".

"So instead of it being something harmful, it might just be the loss of something protective. There is some laboratory research that suggests that rice has a tumour-suppressing effect, and it's a very interesting idea and we're going to pursue it," she said.

Statistics New Zealand rice-import figures showed that in 1990 each person was eating about three kilograms of rice. In 2012, Kiwis were eating about 8kg each.

A Health Ministry report in 2010 showed bowel-cancer rates were highest for Pakeha and Maori men but lower for Asians and Pacific Islanders

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Watermelon could help prevent stroke

Watermelon could help prevent stroke

Washington: A new US study has found a daily slice of watermelon could help prevent heart disease by halting the build-up of harmful cholesterol and also be a help in weight control.

Scientists who carried out studies on mice fed a high-fat diet found the fruit halved the rate at which 'bad' low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, accumulated, a daily reported.

LDL is a form of cholesterol that leads to clogged arteries and heart disease. The researchers from Purdue University, US, also observed that eating watermelon regularly helped to control weight gain and resulted in fewer fatty deposits inside blood vessels.

They believe the secret to watermelon's health-boosting properties lies in citrulline, a chemical found in the juice.
Although the latest investigation showed no significant effects on blood pressure, it did reveal watermelons had a powerful impact on other heart risk factors.

In Britain around 270,000 people a year suffer heart attack and nearly one in three die before they could reach hospital.

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Cosmetic creams cannot repair skin from within: Study

Beauty creams can’t repair skin

London: Researchers have found that even the most expensive cosmetic creams cannot 'penetrate' the skin to repair it from within as claimed by manufacturers.
  
Scientists at the University of Bath found that claims by pharmaceutical brands that nanoparticles in their products give their creams a 'deep penetrating action' are 'patently' untrue, a daily reported.
  
Even the tiniest of nanoparticles do not penetrate the skin's surface, creams are simply deposited into creases in the skin and do not carry nutrients deep under the surface, the study found.
  
"Whereas earlier work has suggested that nanoparticles appear to penetrate the skin, our results indicate that they may in fact have simply been deposited into a deep crease within the skin sample," Professor Richard Guy, a professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences who led the research, said.
  
"The skin's role is to act as a barrier to potentially dangerous chemicals and to reduce water loss from the body. Our study shows that it is doing a good job of this," Guy said.
  
"So, while an unsuspecting consumer may draw the conclusion that nanoparticles in their skin creams, are 'carrying' an active ingredient deep into the skin, our research shows this is patently not the case," Guy was quoted as saying by the paper.
    
Researchers studied particles less than one hundredth of the thickness of a human hair which are used in sunscreens and some cosmetic and pharmaceutical creams.
  
They used a technique called laser scanning confocal microscopy to examine whether fluorescently-tagged polystyrene beads, ranging in size from 20 to 200 nanometres, were absorbed into the skin.
  
The study found that even when the skin sample had been partially compromised by stripping away layers, the nanoparticles still did not penetrate the skin’s outer layer, known as the stratum corneum.
  
"We did the study very carefully but not once we were able to determine that that were able to cross the outside layer of the skin which is out protective layer," Guy said.
  
"There is no magic associated with particles being able to wriggle across the skin, they are just too big to do that. We actually have lots of nanoparticles inside us that don't get out," he added.
  
He said that the research did however help to prove that potentially harmful ingredients, such as those used in sunscreens, cannot be absorbed into the body, alleviating fears.
  
The research was published in the Journal of Controlled Release

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Want to look slim? Blame your genes: Research

Want to look slim? Blame your genes

London: Researchers have discovered that women who crave being thin may be genetically programmed to think that way.
  
Scientists from Michigan State University have challenged the theory that women are pressured into idolising the look of size-zero celebrities, a daily reported.
  
Researchers assessed more than 300 identical and non-identical female twins between the ages of 12 and 22 on their attitudes to being thin.
  
They found that identical twins, sharing 100 per cent of their genes, had closer levels of 'thin internalisation' than fraternal twins, who share only 50 per cent. This indicated a significant role for genetics.
  
"We're all bombarded daily with messages extolling the virtues of being thin, yet intriguingly only some women develop what we term 'thin ideal internalisation'. This suggests that genetic factors may make some women more susceptible to this pressure than others," researchers said.
  
"We were surprised to find that shared environmental factors, such as exposure to the same media, did not have as big an impact as expected," lead researcher Jessica Suisman, said.
  
The study was published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders.

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Can we curb our texting addiction?

Can we curb our texting addiction?

London: 90 per cent of American adults now own cell phones and, whether talking or texting, it seems that 90 percent of the time, they are using them, experts say. "These days, the minute that people are alone, at a stop sign, at the checkout line in a supermarket, they panic, they reach for a phone," daily quoted MIT psychologist Sherry Turkle as saying.

According to her, high-speed connections have left us more disconnected than ever. "I studied families who are having breakfast together, and every member of the family is texting," Turkle said.

"I study funerals and people around texting," she said. Turkle's book 'Alone Together' surveyed hundreds of people about their plugged-in lives. Her conclusion was that "we have lost the art of conversation."

"An 18-year-old boy talks about how he always would rather text than talk. He says, 'I'll tell you what's wrong with having a conversation - it takes place in real time, and you can't control what you're gonna say'," she said.

Texting is seen as a skill these days. In New York recently, thumbs were flying as teens competed for the coveted title of "America's Fastest Texter."

On an average, 18- to 24-year-olds send and receive a whopping 3,200 text messages a month. Researchers at the University of Maryland discovered that "where would we all be if suddenly we didn't have any of these precious little devices? If we had to give up all smartphones, BlackBerries and iPads, what would happen? Could we even function?" are not silly questions.

Researcher Sergey Golitsynskiy and his colleagues asked students around the world to go without their cell phones for 24 hours.

"It ended up being the most horrible experience many of them had ever in their life, according to what they self-reported to us. The psychological impact was significant," Golitsynskiy said.

70 percent of them quit the experiment, saying they simply couldn't do it. "They felt a tremendous amount of boredom. They were bored without it Golitsynskiy said.

"They felt emotionally detached from the rest of the world," he said. Nicholas Carr, who writes about technology and culture, says that "we become obsessive in our desire to keep checking Facebook updates and texts and emails."

He believes there's a scientific reason why these devices are our favourite vices. "People have a primitive instinct to want to gather information, to want to know everything that's going on around them. And you can kind of see how that would help you survive back in cavemen and cavewomen days. Where it becomes a problem is when we create this new world for ourselves where there's unlimited amounts of information. We can’t stop this compulsive checking," he said.

"The trend is toward ever more connection, ever more distraction," Carr said. He also thinks that all this distraction is messing up our brains.

"It begins to crowd out all the quieter, calmer moments, when you might engage in reflection or introspection or contemplation," he added.

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Eating 9 meals per day may cut your cholesterol and help you stay slim

9 meals a day cuts cholesterol, flab

London: Suggesting that eating little and often is healthier for us, experts have said that we should eat as many as nine meals every day. They say this may help lower blood pressure and cholesterol, and even encourage weight loss, daily reported.

"Splitting food intake so we eat many times a day will have metabolic benefits over and above the same food consumed in a small number of meals," the paper quoted Dr Susan Jebb, head of the Medical Research Council's Human Nutrition Research Unit, as saying.

In one of the latest studies, scientists from Imperial College, London, compared the diets of more than 2,000 people from the UK, Japan, China and the U.S.

While they all had the same calorie intake and food, half the participants ate fewer than six times a day, while the remainder ate more than six times.

Results show the first group had a significantly higher systolic blood pressure — the pressure that blood exerts on vessels while the heart is beating — compared with the more frequent eaters. They were also significantly heavier.

Another research from the University of Athens, based on more than 2,000 children aged nine to 13, found those who ate five times a day were 32.6 per cent less likely to have high levels of bad cholesterol than those who ate fewer meals.

Meanwhile, eating at least four small meals a day — a 'nibbling' diet, as researchers called it — sped up metabolism and lowered the risk of obesity, according to a Maastricht University study.

It's not clear why eating more often has these benefits, but one theory is that frequent meals prevent a high influx of fatty acids — compounds that are released from foods and can lead to a build-up of fats in the arteries, and also contribute to high cholesterol levels.

The build-up can also narrow the blood vessels, leading to high blood pressure. Eating more frequently during the day means there are no sudden spikes of fatty acids, enabling the body to deal with the intake more effectively.

Eating more frequently may boost energy levels, suggests a study from the University Of Montana. When forest firefighters were given standard lunches or ration 'grazing' packs designed to be eaten over a long period of time, those who had grazing packs did 25 per cent more work than the lunchbox workers.

So how is this approach different from just adding a snack between meals? The regularity of the smaller meals may be just as important as the quantity, say experts.

However, eating frequent meals is not an excuse to eat more, said Dr Susan Jebb, and it's important that calorie intake is tightly controlled if people are going to eat as many as six or nine meals a day.

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Prostitutes in UK offering discounted sex to elderly

Discounted sex for pensioners in UK

London: Prostitutes in South Yorkshire are plaguing pensioners by selling sex door to door for a discounted price of 2.50 pounds. According to complaints at police community meetings, the team of prostitutes are targeting vulnerable old men living in old folks’ bungalows.

“They have been knocking on doors offering sex. One knocked on my door and when I answered she said, ‘Sorry, I’ve got the wrong place’,” daily one woman as telling the police officers.

“The going rate is 2.50 pounds. What sort of girl would do such a thing?” she said. One elderly resident on The Oval estate in Conisbrough, south Yorkshire, said: “Yes, it is true there have been ladies of the night knocking on doors and offering sex for 2.50 pounds.

“The area is all flats and bungalows, and these women have been touring round looking for business.
“It’s been going on for about four weeks and it’s the talk of the village. It’s not happened to me because I live in secured accommodation,” the resident said.

Police said they knew of the problem and feared that the women may be checking out houses to commit burglaries or robberies.

PC Rob Scarrow, of South Yorkshire Police’s Mexborough Station, said, “We will try to educate residents not let them in.”

Sergeant Dave Jones, of Conisbrough Safe Neighbourhood Team, said, “If there are opportunists taking advantage of vulnerable people, we need to safeguard them.”

He also said that police were setting up neighbourhood watch scheme to solve the problem. But it seemed as if some pensioners were not taking the threat too seriously.

“The old blokes round here think all their birthdays have come at once. They’re all joking that they are checking their pensions to see if they have got 2.50 pounds left, just in case,” one said. “I just hope we can rid of these vultures before the men get their winter fuel allowance,” another said

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