Spring clean your beauty regimen

Those heavy foundations and dark makeup shades may have worked for winter, but warmer weather calls for a whole new beauty routine.  Spring2011's best trends all involve an array of bright, fresh colors and smarter methods of skincare. We caught up with some of the country's top beauty bloggers who revealed their favorite tricks for updating your beauty regimen starting today.

1. Toss the old: Before your bring in the new, you’ve got to clean out the old. Last spring's sunscreen is so last spring.  “Toss anything with an SPF that's more than a year old, especially if it's separated or a weird consistency because it can lose its efficacy,” suggests beauty blogger Karla Sugar.  You can also trash any dried-out skincare products with crusty caps and foundations that don’t look the way they used to. “You can tell when makeup has gone bad when it changes consistency, color, or smell,” advised Sugar. “But powders, for instance, almost never go bad.” 

2. Build a better toolbox: Visibility is the key to a new and improved beauty regimen. “The same principles you use to organize your closet are true for your makeup: you won't use what you can't see,” says Sugar. For organization, she believes in the power of home goods stores.  “Buy a small toolbox,” says Sugar. “They tend to have shallow drawers which are perfect for storing makeup.”  She also recommends small vases for storing make-up brushes, brush side up. "

3. Hold the oil: You know that layer of cream you lathered on your face in winter? Dead weight. “The thick, emollient creams that work well in winter are often too heavy come spring,” warns Annie Tomlin of Bella Sugar. “I think many people think that one cream will serve their needs all year, but our skin responds to the seasons, so it needs to change with time, too.” For spring, try an oil-free product with glycerin, a light-weight ingredient that moisturizes without clogging pores. 

4. SPF better: A new breed of sun-protecting products have emerged in recent months. Instead of the standard lotions, now sunscreen comes as a mousse for a lighter all-over covering, sprays for SPF touch-ups without smearing your makeup, and serums to block the sun without leaving a chalky residue. Extra strength SPF is also doing double-time in make-up primers, self-tanners, concealers and even lipsticks. "But skip the heavy, pore-clogging foundations and powders," advises Fashionista beauty editor Cheryl Wischhover. “Instead try a lighter, tinted moisturizer with SPF.” 
 
5.  Go green: Natural beauty isn't just a passing fad anymore. “I see more women giving eco-friendly, sustainable skin care another try,” .Tomlin says. “Today’s formulas are infinitely better than those of even five years ago.” Look for the words "paraben-free" on lotions and lipsticks, and "mineral-based" on loose powder bases. Both are free of preservatives found in standard skincare and cosmetics that have been linked to certain hormone-based health conditions.

6. Add neon: Lips are getting electrified this season. On the runways of Jill Sander, Fendi and Diane Von Furstenburg, bold, lightening-bright pouts were the hottest accessory adorning spring lines.  “Invest in an orange lipstick or gloss this season,” says Wischhover, “whether it's pinky-coral or full-on orange.”  But traffic-light lips require sharp definition, so use a lip primer and matching liner around your lip line to keep the shape and prevent the color from spreading. 

6. Perfect your tone: Skin tone correctors are big this spring, according to Wischover. These spot-erasing serums and ointments are designed to combat hyper-pigmentation, scarring and age spots to enhance the overall look of your skin. They’re usually spot applied to clean skin before moisturizers to reduce the signs of sun damage for a brighter, more even tone in a matter of weeks. 

7. Start your lab: The latest crop of anti-aging products sound more like chemistry kits than beauty products, but that's not a bad thing. Peptides, which produce collagen and elastin to tighten the skin, and antioxidants, which fight free-radicals responsible for fine lines, are becoming popular ingredients in anti-wrinkle creams and serums. But the biggest buzz in beauty? “Plant stem cells are the hot new thing,” says Wischhover. “That one's been coming slowly over the past few years, but it’s about to be much more common.” A small number of pricy products on the market, contain non-embryonic stem cells derived from plant extracts that promise to increase the skin’s ability to regenerate and reverse the signs of aging. But if you can't afford to drop $100 on your skin just yet, buy some time and lather on the SPF mousse.

Docs warn about Facebook use and teen depression

CHICAGO – Add "Facebook depression" to potential harms linked with social media, an influential doctors' group warns, referring to a condition it says may affect troubled teens who obsess over the online site.

Researchers disagree on whether it's simply an extension of depression some kids feel in other circumstances, or a distinct condition linked with using the online site.

But there are unique aspects of Facebook that can make it a particularly tough social landscape to navigate for kids already dealing with poor self-esteem, said Dr. Gwenn O'Keeffe, a Boston-area pediatrician and lead author of new American Academy of Pediatrics social media guidelines.

With in-your-face friends' tallies, status updates and photos of happy-looking people having great times, Facebook pages can make some kids feel even worse if they think they don't measure up.

It can be more painful than sitting alone in a crowded school cafeteria or other real-life encounters that can make kids feel down, O'Keeffe said, because Facebook provides a skewed view of what's really going on. Online, there's no way to see facial expressions or read body language that provide context.

The guidelines urge pediatricians to encourage parents to talk with their kids about online use and to be aware of Facebook depression, cyberbullying, sexting and other online risks. They were published online Monday in Pediatrics.

Abby Abolt, 16, a Chicago high school sophomore and frequent Facebook user, says the site has never made her feel depressed, but that she can understand how it might affect some kids.

"If you really didn't have that many friends and weren't really doing much with your life, and saw other peoples' status updates and pictures and what they were doing with friends, I could see how that would make them upset," she said.

"It's like a big popularity contest — who can get the most friend requests or get the most pictures tagged," she said.

Also, it's common among some teens to post snotty or judgmental messages on the Facebook walls of people they don't like, said Gaby Navarro, 18, a senior from Grayslake, Ill. It's happened to her friends, and she said she could imagine how that could make some teens feel depressed.

"Parents should definitely know" about these practices," Navarro said. "It's good to raise awareness about it."

The academy guidelines note that online harassment "can cause profound psychosocial outcomes," including suicide. The widely publicized suicide of a 15-year-old Massachusetts girl last year occurred after she'd been bullied and harassed, in person and on Facebook.

"Facebook is where all the teens are hanging out now. It's their corner store," O'Keeffe said.

She said the benefits of kids using social media sites like Facebook shouldn't be overlooked, however, such as connecting with friends and family, sharing pictures and exchanging ideas.

"A lot of what's happening is actually very healthy, but it can go too far," she said.

Dr. Megan Moreno, a University of Wisconsin adolescent medicine specialist who has studied online social networking among college students, said using Facebook can enhance feelings of social connectedness among well-adjusted kids, and have the opposite effect on those prone to depression.

Parents shouldn't get the idea that using Facebook "is going to somehow infect their kids with depression," she said.

3 tips for dealing with jealousy

One of the things that makes “jealousy” such a loaded word is that it’s really a concoction of various other emotions, the exact recipe for which depends on the individual. As Dr. Scott Haltzman, author of The Secrets of Happily Married Men, phrases it, jealousy “is the fear or worry that someone with whom you have an emotional relationship may be experiencing an attraction toward another person... it generates a host of emotions, such as sadness and inadequacy, or rage and desire for retribution. The sadness comes from the fear of losing the object of your love, and the rage comes from a desire to have it back.”

Fear, worry, sadness, inadequacy, rage — as stark as those emotions sound, you may be surprised to learn that a little jealousy is perfectly healthy (and even normal) in a relationship. No jealousy at all — or huge, seething buckets of it — are a good indication that something has gone amiss. So how do you know if you’re feeling the “right” amount of jealousy, and how do you express it without driving your significant other crazy? Here are some tips.

1. Be honest with yourself. According to Dr. Ish Major, author of Little White Whys: A No Nonsense Guide to the Lies Men Tell in Relationships and Why, some men feel so secure in themselves and in the fidelity of their partners that they experience no jealous feelings whatsoever. Aside from these lucky guys, Major says, most men who refuse to admit to jealousy fall into one of two camps: either “they aren’t paying attention and have no clue that they should feel jealous,” or “they simply don’t care... this type of guy would be more than happy if someone (other than himself) would come and sweep a partner off of her feet and right out of his life.”

Clearly, it’s better to acknowledge (at least to yourself, and perhaps to trusted friends or relatives) the little bit of jealousy you do feel, rather than letting it fester for weeks or months only to explode at a melodramatic moment. Sometimes, just sitting down and writing in a journal will help you to objectively assess your feelings; perusing a hastily scribbled entry, like “Mamie should have been home from the grocery store 20 minutes ago! I KNOW she’s been flirting with the floor manager!” will hopefully make you feel ridiculous enough that you’ll do something more productive than obsessing over your significant other.

2. Express your feelings appropriately. Sometimes, as with that grocery store fantasy, jealousy-provoking scenarios are best left unshared with your partner. If you do decide to unload, Dr. Haltzman says, you should keep in mind that “expressing jealousy is a double-edged sword. It says ‘I care about you enough to be jealous,’ but it also says ‘I don’t trust you.’ I think it’s more important to talk about the experiences that lead to jealousy rather the jealousy itself. So instead of saying ‘I’m really jealous of the time you’re spending with Tommy,’ you might say, ‘I have to admit, I’m a little jealous that you and Tommy went to the movies and then went out afterward.’”

Granted, very few people can discuss their jealous feelings so rationally and calmly. Says Dr. Major, “It’s rarely helpful to express full-fledged anger over an issue that has made you jealous. You can never control a person to determine who flirts with whom and what their respective responses are; just make sure you’re doing everything you should as a mate, because you’re the only one you can fully control in this equation.” What are the signs that you’ve taken your jealous feelings too far? One clue, Dr. Major quips, is that “you notice children and strangers looking on in horror and snapping pictures of you with their phones.”

3. If you’re not feeling it, don’t be afraid to fake it. “Some, if not most, women are absolutely flattered when their partners get jealous,” says Dr. Major. “Think Marilyn Monroe. Think Scarlett O’Hara. For women, a partner’s jealousy serves a multitude of purposes, not the least of which is letting them know they still ‘have it’ and somebody wants it. It also lets them know you’re paying attention and you care.” Not surprisingly, Dr. Major adds, “I am a strong advocate of feigned jealousy. I have used it personally and at times I’ve advised friends and patients to do the same.”

Dr. Haltzman points out, of course, that feigning jealousy (and expressing it) can have unforeseen consequences. “Some women worry that if a guy isn’t jealous, he might not care enough about her. Early in the courtship, she might use jealousy to get the man to pay more attention. If he seems disinterested, she’ll go off and talk to someone else and becomes a more ‘valuable’ partner because other people are attracted to her.” The trouble, Dr. Haltzman concludes, is that “if a woman is used to seeing jealousy as proof of attraction, she may worry when the jealousy disappears” — leading to a vicious cycle of jealousy and jealousy-provoking behavior. What’s the lesson in all of this? Tread carefully when feeling or expressing jealousy, but a little bit can be a good thing!

10 tips for better sleep

If you're having trouble sleeping, change your sleep habits for a better night's rest.

Feeling crabby lately? It could be you aren't getting enough sleep. Work, household responsibilities and child care can make sleep difficult to come by. Factor in other unexpected challenges, such as financial worries, layoffs, relationship issues or an illness, and quality sleep may be even more elusive.

You may not be able to control or eliminate all of the factors that interfere with your sleep, but you can create an environment and adopt habits that encourage a more restful night. Try these suggestions if you have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep:

1. Go to bed and get up at about the same time every day, even on the weekends. Sticking to a schedule helps reinforce your body's sleep-wake cycle and can help you fall asleep more easily at night.
2. Don't eat or drink large amounts before bedtime. Eat a light dinner at least two hours before sleeping. If you're prone to heartburn, avoid spicy or fatty foods, which can make your heartburn flare and prevent a restful sleep. Also, limit how much you drink before bed. Too much liquid can cause you to wake up repeatedly during the night for trips to the toilet.
3. Avoid nicotine, caffeine and alcohol in the evening.These are stimulants that can keep you awake. Smokers often experience withdrawal symptoms at night, and smoking in bed is dangerous. Avoid caffeine for eight hours before your planned bedtime. Your body doesn't store caffeine, but it takes many hours to eliminate the stimulant and its effects. And although often believed to be a sedative, alcohol actually disrupts sleep.
4. Exercise regularly. Regular physical activity, especially aerobic exercise, can help you fall asleep faster and make your sleep more restful. However, for some people, exercising right before bed may make getting to sleep more difficult.
5. Make your bedroom cool, dark, quiet and comfortable.Create a room that's ideal for sleeping. Adjust the lighting, temperature, humidity and noise level to your preferences. Use blackout curtains, eye covers, earplugs, extra blankets, a fan or white-noise generator, a humidifier or other devices to create an environment that suits your needs.
6. Sleep primarily at night. Daytime naps may steal hours from nighttime slumber. Limit daytime sleep to about a half-hour and make it during midafternoon. If you work nights, keep your window coverings closed so that sunlight, which adjusts the body's internal clock, doesn't interrupt your sleep. If you have a day job and sleep at night, but still have trouble waking up, leave the window coverings open and let the sunlight help awaken you.
7. Choose a comfortable mattress and pillow. Features of a good bed are subjective and differ for each person. But make sure you have a bed that's comfortable. If you share your bed, make sure there's enough room for two. Children and pets are often disruptive, so you may need to set limits on how often they sleep in bed with you.
8. Start a relaxing bedtime routine. Do the same things each night to tell your body it's time to wind down. This may include taking a warm bath or shower, reading a book, or listening to soothing music. Relaxing activities done with lowered lights can help ease the transition between wakefulness and sleepiness.
9. Go to bed when you're tired and turn out the lights. If you don't fall asleep within 15 to 20 minutes, get up and do something else. Go back to bed when you're tired. Don't agonize over falling asleep. The stress will only prevent sleep.
10. Use sleeping pills only as a last resort. Check with your doctor before taking any sleep medications. He or she can make sure the pills won't interact with your other medications or with an existing medical condition. Your doctor can also help you determine the best dosage. If you do take a sleep medication, reduce the dosage gradually when you want to quit, and never mix alcohol and sleeping pills. If you feel sleepy or dizzy during the day, talk to your doctor about changing the dosage or discontinuing the pills.

Nearly everyone has occasional sleepless nights. But if you have trouble sleeping on a regular or frequent basis, see your doctor. You could have a sleep disorder, such as obstructive sleep apnea or restless legs syndrome. Identifying and treating the cause of your sleep disturbance can help get you back on the road to a good night's sleep.

29 Tips To Stay Young And Healthy

1.Eat Super Food

If you want to keep young and healthy, then the advice from researchers are: Eat Super Food! Super Food is food you make from fresh ingredients; berries, fruit and vegetables, salmon and other fat fish, bird and game, nuts, red wine and green tea.

2.Give your lungs a challenge

Frequent exercise increases lung capacity with up to 25 per cent.

3.Put the cigarette out

If you smoke: put it out now!

4.Become aware of your breath

Breathe with your stomach - ideally is 12-14 deep breaths per minute.

5.Keep your weight

It is a burden for your joints to carry too many kilos

6.Eat breakfast

A good and fibre healthy breakfast.

7.Build up musculature

A study of men between 60-72 years show that they have doubled the muscle strength by frequent exercise in 12 weeks.

8.Enjoy your sex life

Scottish researchers have proved that regular sex - three to four times a week - releases substances from your brain which slows down aging.

9.Check your posture

You can better our posture through exercise as yoga or Pilates.

10.Fill up the oil

The best oil for the body is fat fish, walnuts and linseeds.

11.Check for rust treatment

The best treatment for your body is green tea, nuts, berries, fruit and green vegetables, dark chocolate, red wine, red meat and Soya.

12.Stay away from bad diets

Milk, plus fat fish is important to maintain healthy and strong bones.

13.Enjoy the sun

The body needs sun to produce vitamin D, some researchers recommend you take a few minutes under a sun bed frequently in the winter.

14.Drink water

Drink at least eight glasses of clean water a day. Check your urine - It should be clear. If it is yellow, then that indicates that you do not drink enough.

15.Go for a walk

Frequent walk reduces the risk of developing osteoporoses.

16.Strengthen your heart

Eat food that is rich on vitamin B, magnesium and Zink, as meat, fish, egg and milk. Other protective food is carrots, cabbage, avocado, nuts, garlic and wholemeal.

17.Watch your blood pressure

Remember salt, overweight and stress increases the risk of high blood pressure, while exercise, a healthy diet and distension reduces it.

18.Check the heart

Go to your doctor for a yearly check up.

19.Don't stress

People who stress have three times as much risk of developing heart illnesses at a young age, according to American study.

20.Use sun cream

It is important to use sun cream with a high UVA factor. And remember that sun cream is fresh, so invest in a new one for each new season.

21.Reduce sugar intake

If you have to have something sweet, then dark chocolate that contains at least 70% cocoa beans is preferred.

22.Have your beauty sleep

You should sleep a minimum of seven hours a night.

23.Give the skin nutrition

Use a lotion that contains vitamin A, C and E. From the inside nourish your skin by eating fruit, berries and vegetables, salmon and tuna and drink green tea and red wine.

24.Prioritize your body's need

Divide 24hours in three eight hours batches, one for work, one for recreation and one for rest.

25.Plan your day

Think and plan today for tomorrow. Shop food for several days ahead and plan food preparation, meals and exercise.

26.Look after your teeth

Brush your teeth twice a day and avoid too much coffee, tea and red wine. Use dental floss daily.

27.Keep in shape

Your body is not made to doze off on the sofa! Get up and out to be active.

28.Think positive

The expert's advice is that you every day thinks of something you are grateful for. It creates positively which makes you happy and younger.

29.Mental maintenance

According to a Swedish study you increase the risk of dementia with 30% if you spend too much time in front of the television.

Enjoy a young and healthy life!

Infrequent Sex or Exercise Can Trigger Heart Attacks

There's no denying that regular physical activity and a healthy sex life are good for your heart. But if you've ever huffed and puffed your way through a jog or a particularly strenuous bout of lovemaking, you might have wondered whether the exertion was actually stressing, rather than strengthening, your heart.

The question is a valid one. Doctors have long known that extreme strain in the form of physical (or psychological) stress can trigger heart attacks. Now, the latest study on the matter — a review paper analyzing 14 previous studies — confirms that the risk of heart attack does indeed spike in the hour or so after an episode of physical or sexual activity.

In the new meta-analysis, which included data on heart attack rates and occasional physical activity — everything from having sex to running to climbing stairs — researchers found that during exercise, heart attack risk can rise 3.5 times higher than during periods of non-activity. During sex, the risk is 2.7 times higher than at other times. And the risk of dying from a heart-related event during or immediately after bouts of physical activity is five times that when you're not active.

But before you hang up your running shoes or take a vow of celibacy, the authors of the study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, point out that the absolute heart-attack risk posed by physical activity is very low. "We don't want anyone to misinterpret our findings to mean there is an overall harm from exercise," says the study's co-author Dr. Issa Dahabreh of the Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies at Tufts Medical Center.

He says it's important to distinguish between triggering effects, such as his study did, and overall effects of exercise. The triggering effect of physical exertion, he says, is short-lived, and is limited to the time of exercise and up to two hours afterward. Taken in the broader context of a day, or even a week or year or lifetime, the amount of time you spend exercising is very small, so the small increase in risk posed by episodes of physical activity is outweighed by the larger benefit of regular exercise — which some studies say is as much as a 30% reduction in heart disease risk.

It may seem contrary that a behavior that poses a short-term risk after each episode actually confers benefit when its effects are added together over the course of a year or longer, but that's exactly what's happening with exercise and heart disease. "There are two competing forces operating when a person is exercising," says Dahabreh. "There is a significant force we estimated that tends to increase heart-attack risk during exercise. But once you stop, studies suggest that within one to two hours that transient effect goes away."

Even more important, he says, the study found that people who were regular exercisers experienced a relatively smaller rise in heart-attack risk during or immediately after periods of exertion, compared with people who didn't get as much regular physical activity. For every additional bout of physical activity a person regularly got each week, his risk of heart attack dropped by about 45%.

In other words, the fitter you get, the lower your risk of succumbing to a heart attack triggered by physical activity. "Everyone experiences spikes in risk when they exercise," says study co-author Jessica Paulus of Tufts University and Harvard School of Public Health. "But our analysis suggests that the magnitude of the spike is lower for regular exercisers."

Which means that if you're thinking about getting more active, you should do so gradually, especially if you have been sedentary and aren't used to physical activity. For such individuals, even climbing a set of stairs or taking a long walk may qualify as sufficient physical activity to increase heart-attack risk, so it's important to adopt an exercise program under the supervision of a doctor, says Paulus.

Even though physical exertion can put some strain on your heart, sticking to a regular program of exercise, it turns out, can help you to overcome that small risk. And what better reason to start getting in shape than the promise of better sex?

How to Stay Relaxed During a Job Interview

Whether you're an interview virgin or have simply been "interview celibate" for awhile, that first interview in a new job search can be stressful. From the sweaty palms to the rambling stories to the nervous laughter, it takes a great amount of self-discipline to harness your energy when trying to impress an employer. And since it's something we don't get to do regularly, it's easy to find yourself out of practice when you're hunting for a job.

By now you've researched the company, picked out a winning outfit, and are planning to arrive 15 minutes early. Good thinking! But how will you stay calm during the interview?

Keep the following tips in mind during your next job interview, and your skills, experience, and personality will do the talking:

Know you'll be OK no matter what. As badly as you want the job, you'll have other opportunities. There are few "once-in-a-lifetime opportunities." Don't put undue stress on yourself by believing that one mistake will change the course of your life. This is the first of many job interviews you'll go on in your lifetime. Adding unrealistic weight to the interview situation only adds pressure. Even if you never hear back from the company, life will go on.

Remember we're all human. Don't forget that the interviewee once sat on the other side of the desk to get the job they currently have. You're both breathing the same air and are more alike than you might realize. Don't assign superhero status to the interviewer. Speak to them the way you would talk to one of your friend's parents; be respectful, polite, concise, and natural. Accept that they're in control (at least partially) and all you can do is represent yourself as honestly as possible.

Be personable. The interview is not just about your accomplishments and the skills you bring to the table to help an organization meet their goals. It's also an exercise to assess your personality and determine whether you're a match for the company's culture. Nothing is easier than being yourself. If you attempt to change yourself to match a company's culture, you're doing nothing more than trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. It's a futile exercise that ultimately ends with both parties being unhappy.

Convey confidence. Give yourself a confidence boost before the interview starts. Avoid colloquialisms such as, "I'll do whatever it takes to get the job done." You don't want to appear cocky or like you're owed anything, but just like a first date, the stench of desperation is a turn off. Calmly and firmly state your answers, never putting yourself down and never begging for the opportunity.

Use calming techniques. The more relaxed you are during an interview, the clearer you will be think--making you a better listener and speaker. There are many natural ways to keep calm, and it's your job to identify which anti-anxiety mechanisms work best for you. Some people will be at their best if they meditate before the interview; others would prefer to exercise vigorously to get rid of stress. If you don't know what helps you relax in stressful situations, your first homework assignment is to figure that out.

Don't make the mistake of confusing excitement with anxiety. If you're fearful of a job interview, tell yourself that you're feeling a certain way because you're excited. You could have a new job, bigger paycheck, and better boss in your future, and those are all things to be stoked about. Be true to yourself and your first interview can't go wrong.