Mainstream medicine has for some decades now placed more emphasis on medical intervention as opposed to primary care, prevention, and helping body heal itself by natural methods. The negative results of these policies which can never work are becoming more apparent each year. To determine how serious problem is you need to consider some statistics. Ironically most reliable statistics have been published in none other than JOURNAL of AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION (JAMA) Vol 284, No 4, July 26th 2000. The researcher who wrote article is Dr Barbara Starfield, MD, MPH, of Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. Now let's review what Dr Starfield has unearthed! 'THE FACTS' Are...

2,000 deaths/year from unnecessary surgery 7,000 deaths/year from medication errors in hospitals 20,000 deaths/year from other errors in hospitals 80,000 deaths/year from nosocomial infections in hospitals 106,000 deaths/year from non-error, adverse effects of medications These total up to 225,000 deaths per year in US from iatrogenic causes which ranks these deaths as # 3 killer.

Generally fine lines, wrinkles, blemishes and sagging of skin still remain! Having said that, there are however a few natural products that will help with firming up skin and reducing fine lines and blemishes but you have to accept that there are limitations to what they can do on their own. More about this later in article! So, what is answer... plastic surgery? Many people obviously think that it is, given booming cosmetic plastic surgery industry. But is it? In my opinion definitely not! I have met quite a number of people that have had plastic surgery and I have not been impressed.

I remember just a few years ago meeting up with some old friends from St Louis for dinner in Palm Beach Florida.

My friends who were in their late 70's brought along a friend who would have been in her early 60's. It was apparent that this friend had had a number of plastic surgery procedures on her face and not all of them were successful. I remember thinking at time that she would have looked better without them. Of course that is not always case. Some people get really good results, but they are very much dependent upon skill of surgeon. So, risks are high. So, what causes skin to age which results in sagging, wrinkles and blemishes?

If you want to maintain clear, healthy, and firm skin into old age you need to know this. So ... here is brief version ... FREE RADICALS. That's it in a nutshell.

I am sure that you have heard about free radicals and you may even know exactly what they are, but nonetheless I will give you a quick briefing about them. Even though free radicals age our bodies and skin they are a natural and essential part of life. They are everywhere, inside our body and out. They are more concentrated in cities or anywhere there is any form of environmental pollution. Sunlight also creates free radicals.

It is possible to see effect of them quite dramatically when you cut an apple open and leave it exposed to air. The parts without skin quickly go brown. This is because it is being attacked by these free radicals. If they were not there then nothing would decompose and whole planet would be a massive garbage dump. So, what exactly are they? They are oxygen molecules that have lost an electron through interaction with other molecules. As with everything in nature an effort is made (in this case molecule) to heal itself!

There is only one way it can do this... and that is by stealing an electron from another healthy molecule. So, it rushes around like a thief until it can find one!

When it does and it steals electron, what happens?