Healthy Me - At Home and Away: Jeunesse LUMINESCE

Showing posts with label Jeunesse LUMINESCE. Show all posts

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Rear-facing seats safer for bigger kids too

Posted: 12 June 2009 0935 hrs

A parent belting up her child in a car seat
PARIS: Parents should keep their children in rear-facing car seats at least until the age of four, according to a British study released Friday.

Currently it is common practice in many countries to switch babies to front-facing seats when a child is about nine kilos (20 pounds), the average weight of an eight months old boy, said the study.

British general physician Elizabeth Watson and Michael Monteiro of Sunny Meed Surgery in Woking, near London, reviewed key studies from Europe and the United States to see if any safety patterns emerged.

They found that small children were consistently safer in a car when they were looking where they have been rather than where they were headed.

"Parents and guardians should be advised to keep young children in rear facing seats for as long as possible," the two researchers concluded.

"Excessive stretching or even transection (cutting) of the spinal cord can result if a child is involved in a head-on crash while in a forward facing car seat."

Data from Sweden - where rear-facing seats for kids up to four is the norm - showed that some children in forward-facing booster seats who died in accidents could have survived had then been facing the other way round.

----------
LUMINESCE Products for all skin problems
----------

A review of US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data on crashes between 1998 and 2003 involving 870 children concluded that rear-facing seats were better at protecting kids up to 23 months across all types of accidents.

Unlike forward-facing seats, rear-facing car seats keep the head, neck and spine fully aligned so the force of the crash is distributed over all of these body areas, noted the study, published on the website of the British Medical Journal.

The researchers called on manufacturers and retailers to increase the availability of rear-facing seats for older children.

They also called for a change to the current weight-range labelling of European seats, which suggest that forward- and rear-facing seats are equally safe for kids over nine kilos.

- AFP/il

From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Sun protection ought to be a top beauty must-have

SCREEN SAVERS

LYNETTE KOH, lynettek@mediacorp.com.sg

THESE days, almost everyone we meet greets us with complaints about the heat. It's official: Sunny days are here again (not that they really ever leave).

As the best line of defence against signs of premature ageing — such as wrinkles and pigmentation — caused by ultraviolet (UV) rays from the sun, sun protection should be the top must-have in one's beauty arsenal.

And their capabilities keep growing: Practically all the newest sunscreens arriving at our office lately boast a higher-than-ever Sun Protection Factor (SPF) of 50.

According to the US Food and Drug Administration, "SPF is a measure of how much solar energy (UV radiation) is required to produce sunburn on protected skin (that is, in the presence of sunscreen) relative to the amount of solar energy required to produce sunburn on unprotected skin."

A higher SPF, therefore, would mean a product offers greater protection against UVB rays, which cause redness and sunburn.

The other important measure to watch out for is PA, or the protection grade of UVA — the rays which cause skin damage and skin cancer. PA+ provides some protection, PA++ provides moderate protection, while PA+++ provides good protection.

While consultant dermatologist Dr Lawrence Khoo notes that using sunscreen with a higher SPF can be a good idea, he reckons that the main mistake people make with sunscreen is not using enough of it.

Noting that the amount of protection drops drastically when insufficient amounts of sunscreen are applied, he said: "For example, take the case of a sunblock with SPF50 tested at 2mg/cm2 in the laboratory. If the amount applied on the skin is only 1mg/cm2, the effective SPF drops to 7."

Dr Khoo recommends following the teaspoon rule: The amount of sunscreen we use should correspond to half a teaspoon for the head and neck, half a teaspoon for each upper limb, one teaspoon for the front torso, one teaspoon for the back torso and one teaspoon for each lower limb.

Slather them on
The latest high-powered sunscreens to try

1) Eucerin Sun Fluid Mattifying SPF50+ offers what it calls "a third dimension of sun protection" – licochalcone, a plant-derived antioxidant which helps to clean up free radicals caused by UV radiation. Available at Guardian, Unity and hospital pharmacies at $39.90.

2) Beta-glucan and enzyme extracts are used to help soothe and protect skin from UV rays in the Sunblock High Lasting SPF50+/PA+++ by Laneige. Available at all Laneige counters at $38.

3) Offering SPF50+ and PA+++ protection, Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Complete UV Waterlight Lotion and Ultra Sheer Complete UV Moisture feature two FDA-approved sunscreens, avobenzone and oxybenzone. Available at leading personal stores and pharmacies at $20.90.

4) Coppertone Perfect UV Cut Milk SPF 50 offers high-coverage strength in a non-comedogenic, water-resistant formula. Available at Watsons, Guardian, Unity and NTUC supermarkets at $15.95.

5) Vichy UVActiv SPF 50 Daily Protective Anti-Pigmentation Fluid delivers UVA protection with patented UVA filters, Mexoryl XL and Mexoryl SX, to help prevent skin darkening and brown spots. Available at selected Guardian, Watsons, Unity and major hospital pharmacies at $48.

6) Roll on the sun protection on sensitive or overexposed areas such as the eyes, nose, lips and ears with Kiehl's Targeted Sunscreen Stick SPF 50, featuring UVA filters Mexoryl XL and Mexoryl SX. Available from June at Kiehl's outlets at $35.

From TODAYOnline.com; see the source article here.

----------
What if sun protection is taken, not applied?
And did you have wrinkles that you want cleared?

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Feed your wound

SCAR ISSUE
To heal, wounds need proper nourishment

EVELINE GAN, eveline@mediacorp.com.sg

FOR those who think that good care and time are the main things that help heal wounds, think again.

According to American surgeon Dr Annabel Barber, who specialises in hard-to-heal wounds, successful healing requires plenty of nourishment from the right diet.

This is especially so for those with diabetic or pressure ulcers, burn or trauma injuries, or surgical wounds.

“When a wound doesn’t heal as it should, malnutrition could be one of the reasons,” said Dr Barber, chief of General Surgery Clinics at the University Medical Center, Las Vegas, Nevada. She was in Singapore for a symposium on tissue regeneration last month.

Typically, new blood vessels and skin cells take about two to three weeks to form over a wound. Without adequate nutrition, the healing process can be prolonged. Other factors such as infection, smoking, diabetes and poor blood circulation can also impair the wound healing process.

Each day, the body requires a number of calories to function. For a wound to heal properly, the body would require more nutrients and calories, explained Ms Nehal Kamdar, a dietician at Raffles Hospital.

In most cases, a regular, balanced diet with an increased calorie and protein intake would be sufficient for normal wound healing. But for those with complex non-healing wounds, nutritional supplements maybe required in addition to a healthy diet, said Dr Barber.

An average-sized Singaporean adult requires about 2,000 to 2,550 calories, and 58 to68 grammes of protein daily.

Those with hard-to-heal wounds would need to consume about 20 per cent more calories than their recommended daily calorie intake.

They also require twice the recommended requirement of protein, according to Dr Barber.

She added that studies have also shown that certain amino acids found in protein — such as arginine and glutamine — have also been shown to be beneficial in healing problematic wounds.

Increasing the intake of vitamins A, C and E, fats and zinc may also help with the healing process.

People with wounds should also ensure they are well-hydrated, added Ms Kamdar.

She explained: “Dehydrated skin is less elastic, more fragile and more susceptible to breakdown. Dehydration also reduces the efficiency of blood circulation which will impair oxygen and nutrient supply to the wound.”

Ms Kamdar added that there is no magic figure when it comes to deciding how much nutrition works best. After all, each patient’s condition varies.

“A thorough assessment of the patient is necessary for effective nutrition intervention,” she said.

----------
The healing process.

Normal wounds go through three stages - the inflammatory phase, the proliferation phase, and the remodelling phase, said Dr Barber.

In the first stage, wound healing begins as blood clots and white blood cell count increases to fight bacteria in the wound.

By the end of the second stage, about two to three weeks later, new blood vessels, collagen and new skin cells would have formed over the wound.

In the last phase, which can last up to two years, the newly formed scar tissue flattens out and strengthens itself.

“Without adequate nutrients, wounds of malnourished patients can’t get from stage one to stage two of the healing process. They tend to get stuck in the inflammatory stage, prolonging the healing time,” explained Dr Barber.

----------
From TODAY, Health – Tuesday, 20-May-2009

----------
Want to clear a scar? Healing without scar?