Save Your Thighs: The Unstretched Truth About Cellulite CreamsWritten by Burke Jones
Dimples in your cheeks? Not so cute if we’re talking about your other ones. Blotchy self-tanners, expensive lipo, invasive lasers…women try all sorts of treatments and potions to smooth out their cellulite. The most accessible treatment, though, is cellulite cream. Many of these products promise to melt away inches from your thighs and hips, firm and contour your skin into a taut expanse, and refine and minimize your imperfections. There are high-end brands and drugstore brands; gels, lotions, and crèmes; and botanical ingredients that range from white tea to black pepper. Which of these brews should you try? How do you know that a certain ingredient will work? How heck does a cream get rid of cellulite?Cellulite creams work on surface of your skin. There is no miracle cream that you can put on your thighs to eat away cellulite, but creams work by lifting and smoothing surface of your skin to reduce appearance of wretched skin puckering. Cellulite is accumulation of fat, fluid, and toxins trapped into a network of collagen and elastin fibers in deeper levels of your skin. It forms because blood vessels under your skin get damaged, weakening outer layers of your skin. Fat travels directly to these spots and settles in, creating a hill and valley effect. The dense fat also decreases circulation to outermost layer of dermis, which gives you white, ripply, cold fish skin. Ew! Women are more prone to cellulite because they carry a higher percentage of body fat than men do, but even skinny women have cellulite. Actually, doctors say that 90% of women past puberty have it, so it doesn’t matter if you’re overweight, average, or even super thin. Your genes play more of a part in orange peel thighs than anything else, although a nutrition-deficient diet and high stress levels also factor in. So bring on fix! Doctors say that two most important and effective ingredients in a cellulite cream are caffeine and retinol. These ingredients help outer layer of your skin firm up to help relieve bumps. The other ingredients in cellulite creams are there to improve look of your skin. They smooth surface, decrease any stretch marks, and give you that overall “baby’s butt” softness. When searching through various creams, you will find ingredients like Par Elastyl and collagen, which are firming agents, ginkgo, green tea, soy, horse chestnut tree extract, all which tone skin, and various pepper extracts to give your skin that “get up and glow.” The formulation of your cellulite cream should be a personal decision. There are creams that contain ingredients that will make your skin tingle, like cinnamon, mint, cucumber, and other plant extracts. This tingle is supposed to help increase circulation to area and give your cheeks a flush. You will find that most of these creams have a light, refreshing, and energizing scent meant to give you a pick-me-up.
| | Menopause and Mood SwingsWritten by Cathy Taylor
Menopause equals mood swings. You know, where slightest request from your husband can cause you to go off. Or perhaps cries of your child for a new Playstation game makes you lose it. Mood swings, which can trigger sudden onset of crying, play a significant role in menopause game and are often one of first things women notices that causes her to suspect perimenopause. Characteristics of menopausal mood changes include extreme irritability, concentrated anxiety, depression, indifference (neutral feeling to both good and bad situations), and nervousness. Menopause and mood swings work together because changes in hormonal levels (most notably, progesterone and estrogen levels) take place. For one, hormone levels may affect level of serotonin (the ¨emotional chemical¨) in brain, causing depressive symptoms. Women often times feel insecure and irrelevant about themselves and their current roles, contributing more to feelings of worthlessness. Other factors that trigger mood swings in menopause sufferers are symptoms they face. Tinnitus (whooshing and ringing sensations in ear due to nerve damage as a result of aging & hearing loss), incontinence (abnormal bladder behavior), and hot flashes also add on to overall crankiness a menopausal woman can face. And of course, low levels of serotonin, and lack of progesterone production that relieve stress levels, can lead to sudden onset of crying – a definite disadvantage to any woman under this condition.
|
