Whatever It Takes

Sunset is a very nice view to watch specially when you are with your love one sitting on the romantic shore.   I personally adore that scene even solitary.  In a woman’s   life there is what we call menopausal stage which give signal or remind us that we are now on a different stage of life.  We can notice a lot of physical changes in response to hormonal imbalances.   I have read a lot of valuable readings which convinced me that this is nothing to worry about.  Its just a matter of acceptance and positive attitude towards aging.   Honestly, I’m even happier in this stage because more or less i’m now settled with my job and my kids.  I can devote my time for self enrichment.   As a result to this quest to enrich myself ready for my journey to “sunset”, I have encounter this reading which I find very helpful to understand some of the physical changes that we experience as we aged.

We talk a lot about the impact of aging and hormonal changes on our health—but did you know these same changes affect your hair and nails? As your estrogen levels drop, it can affect the texture and thickness of your hair. Plus, years of blow drying and hair coloring can take their toll. Hair and nail growth also slows down as you get older.

With nails, a lack of circulation is often to blame as well. As we age, many women are often less physically active than they used to be and develop sluggish circulation. Because your nails are at the farthest reaches of circulatory system, they get less nutrients and oxygen than the rest of your body—and as a result become older-looking, more weathered, and less healthy.

The good news is there are simple steps you can take right now to bring back thicker, fuller hair and strong, healthy nails.

1.   Nourish Your Hair and Nails With Vital Minerals: There are three minerals that play a critical role in hair and nail health: zinc, copper, and silica.    Zinc and copper protect your hair and nails from oxidative damage. Plus, they support tissue growth and strength—helping your hair and nails grow longer, thicker, and more luxurious. Plus, silica is pure magic, helping to make your hair strong and shiny and your nails hard and long.

Our levels of these vital minerals begin to decline as we get older, so it’s important to replenish their levels. I recommend supplementing with 6 mg of zinc per day, 60 mg of silica, and 1 mg of copper. You can find all of these beauty boosting minerals  along with other important nutrients to hydrate, protect, and strengthen your hair and nails.

2.  Keep Your Hair Follicles Fed with EFA’s: Your hair needs a constant, nutrient-rich flow of blood to its follicles. One of the best ways to nourish your hair follicles is with adequate amounts of essential fatty acids and zinc. To ensure that you’re getting enough EFAs in your diet, eat foods rich in omega-3s, like flaxseed (4 to 6 tablespoons per serving) and cold-water fish like tuna, salmon, trout, or halibut (3 times a week). The best sources of zinc are wheat germ, oysters, pumpkin seeds, and high protein foods such as chicken breasts, eggs, and fish.

3. Treat Your Locks Gently: In addition to nourishing your hair, you also want to treat it with tender, loving care. It’s important to get regular exercise, which improves your circulation and nutrient flow to your hair. If you smoke, you want to quit. Smoking can damage every cell in your body, including your hair follicles and shafts. It’s also important to not “over-brush” your hair, and to limit the use of hair dryers, curling irons, and styling products which can weigh down and damage your hair.

4.  Up Your Biotin: Deficiencies of the B-vitamin biotin are supposedly very rare, but 20 percent of the population has brittle nails, which suggests that many of us are lacking adequate levels of this nutrient. If your nails are brittle, I recommend taking 2,500 mcg of biotin. After five months if your nails are stronger, I recommend reducing that dose to 300 mcg for maintenance.

5.  Buff, But Don’t Polish Your Nails: Nail polish remover, even the acetone-free kind, dries the nail and delicate tissue around it. Buffing the nails every couple of months removes old residue from hand cream, soap, sweat and more—improving circulation to the nail bed. It also evens out small ridges and nail surface defects that make the nails porous. Buffing your nails naturally seals and makes them stronger, and less likely to chip—so polish is unnecessary.

• First, use a mild emery board on the edges of your nails, shaping them into slightly rounded rectangles.
• Smooth ridges in your nail surface with the mild side of a two-way nail buffer.
• Wrap a piece of chamois cloth around your finger and briskly rub your buffed fingernails to a glossy sheen

6.  Add Healthy Moisture to Your Nails and Hands: Soak your fingertips for 15 minutes in warmed avocado oil two or three times a week—then pat dry with a soft cloth and re-buff with a chamois cloth. I also recommend nourishing and hydrating your hands, and protecting them against future moisture loss, with a good quality hand cream.

As you can see your luscious locks and gorgeous nails do not have to suffer the effects of menopause and aging.   With these techniques you can improve the look, and feel, of your hair and nails.

Cheers to a beautiful hair and nails—and a healthy you!

Friends I wanted to introduce to you Jim La Valle.  Actually I don’t know him personally but I’ve read a lot of articles about him.   He is a great pharmacologist, a dynamic public speaker and one time he speak at the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine’s continuing education conference in Boca Raton.   Many physicians from all over the world joined the conference.  I was struck by the fact that our country’s doctors need to be better educated about disease prevention and natural healing techniques before they reach for the prescription pad.

One example which Mr. Jim La Valle gave in his presentation was about diabetes in relation to high blood pressure.  According to him Metabolic Syndrome is a cluster of disorders that includes insulin resistance, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol levels, and obesity.  The comulative effect of these disorders can lead to type 2 diabetes and heart disease.   Most physicians will prescribe the drug hydrochlorthiazide (HCTZ) for early blood pressure problems and Metformin for insulin resistance.

The problem is, HCTZ causes depletion of nutrients like magnesium, potassium, zinc, CoQ10, and sodium, but the package level only warns you of potassium depletion.   By unknowingly losing all of these vital nutrients, your body cannot properly metabolize glucose.  So the end result is that medication being prescribed to manage blood pressure pushes the insulin resistant person right into the path of becoming a type 2 diabetic.

And that’s not all.  Metformin will deplete B12 and folic acid causing your homocysteine levels to rise to dangerously high levels.   This can result in kidney and cardiovascular damage and contribute to Alzheimer’s disease —– all known consequences of type 2 diabetes.   So by taking Metformin and not supplementing with B12 and folic acid,  you could be accelerating the complications of the very disease you are trying to prevent :((

Here’s another piece of information that I think is new to many doctors.   That because HCTZ causes the loss of magnesium, Restless Leg Syndrome can develop.  So after people take HCTZ for awhile, they complain to their doctors that they can’t sleep at night because of restless legs or muscle cramps.  The doctor then prescribes Requip for Restless Leg Syndrome, when the solution is really to take more magnesium.

I was made to imagine how many doctors now a days still unaware of these facts.   If you care please spread this great learnings and save a life.   I am unearthing every day new knowledge about diabetes because my father is a diabetic and most of the employees in the company where I worked in are also diabetic.   I wanted to impart health teachings in preventing the disease.