| Wellness / Beauty / Inspiration |
Putting your best face forward. |
| ...in this issue |
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| Natural Beauty: BEAUTY SLEEP. | |
TRANQUILITY AWAITS.
Click on the image of Vespers Oil to find help from the Abbey
for insomnia and stress induced sleeplessness: Vespers Oil, lavender
soaps, Sandalwood Envelope Whipped Massage and Moisture Gel, and
Rose and Orange Blossom Hydrolats. Relief from the pain of fibromyalgia
and the quieting of restless legs are additional benefits.
Glorious sleep. It is the dearest beauty treatment your money can’t buy. Besides being an essential component of overall health, every dermatologist knows that sleep enhances the texture and luminosity of your skin. When you do not get the required amount of sleep, you look older. Your skin looks dry, dull, and loses its glow. The fragile areas around the eyes are especially susceptible as the skin here is 50% thinner than the skin on the rest of your face. Inadequate amounts, or poor quality of sleep, is first noticed around your eyes, leaving behind fine lines, dark circles, and under-eye puffiness. (The Abbey’s Eye Nourishment Crème has been called the “bagless wonder” for its ability to keep eyes line free, smooth, and clear of dark, puffy circles.) Skin care treatments can alleviate the effects of sleep deprivation, but the results are even more spectacular when used in combination with Mother Nature. Individual needs vary, but while medical studies still recommend the classic eight hours of sleep per night, most of us average 6.6 hours. Sleep refreshes and renews more than your spirit. Sleep reduces the stress hormone cortisol, while increasing levels of growth hormone. Higher levels of growth hormone that occur during deep sleep are necessary for repairing and renewing tissue, and cellular renewal is critical for youthful skin. Similarly, the lower cortisol levels that occur with sound sleep also contribute to a healthy metabolism necessary for that healthy glow. (And weight loss. See the June 2005 newsletter.) Higher cortisol levels also have a negative effect on sleep patterns, making it hard to stay asleep once in bed, which is why sleeplessness begets more sleeplessness. The best things in life are free. Sleep is one of them. Waking up refreshed is priceless. |
Nature's Pharmacy: TRAVELER'S COMPLAINTS
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| Fountain of Youth Quick Tip. | |
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Deeply colored fruits and vegetables tend to have the most vitamins, minerals, and have the highest antioxidant potential. Beauty starts from the inside out, so include some of the dark ones -- such as red grapes, cherries, raisins, tomatoes, oranges, carrots, spinach, peppers, and kale -- everyday. Your complexion will appear firmer and healthier within days.
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| Skin Care Cosmetics. BODY CAMOUFLAGE | |
| Less is Younger
~~ Keep it Natural
Skin that is losing firmness needs less makeup, not more. Makeup tends to slide into and accentuate even tiny facial furrows. Mineral powders applied with a light hand reflect light and minimize wrinkles and sagging. MINERAL POWDERS AS BODY CAMOUFLAGE Summer means more bare skin. Sometimes uncovered areas expose acne, scars, blemishes, bruises, age spots, hyperpigmentation, or spider veins. Mineral foundation powders are excellent for camouflaging discolorations and evening out skin tones. Not just for your face and neck, powders can be used anywhere on the body: chest, back, legs, arms, or the backs of your hands. Excellent for men as the powders become invisible. SMALL SPOTS: e.g. Blemishes, scars, age spots. Use the Taklon Camouflage Brush to apply powder to a targeted area. The Taklon hairs hold a larger amount of powder and deliver a concentrated amount. Feather into the surrounding skin. LARGER AREAS: e.g. Spider veins, birthmarks, burns, hyperpigmentation. Use any appropriate sized brush to cover the targeted area while feathering the powder into the coloration of the surrounding skin. Use a foundation brush, a kabuki brush, or a cosmetic sponge. MAKE A LIQUID FOUNDATION. Any of the powders can be made into a liquid foundation and this provides a smooth, water-resistant finish that is very useful as a camouflage medium. Mix a small amount of powder into any skin care lotion and apply lightly with a cosmetic sponge or your fingertips. See the website for more complete directions.
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| WELLNESS: TOMATO POWER! | |
 Can
ketchup and pizza prevent cancer? No, really, this is a serious question.
All this fussing about unknown plant medicines in the rain forests,
and perhaps we have an answer in our own backyards: tomato plants.
The key word is lycopene.
Lycopene is a plant pigment (carotenoid) responsible for the red color of tomatoes and thus tomato-based products, such as ketchup, pizza sauce, tomato juice, and tomato paste. Its job is to gather light and protect the organism against toxicity. Medical research is finding that lycopene may also protect humans against such disorders as cancer, particularly prostate and lung cancer, and coronary heart disease. Lycopene is also found in watermelon, papaya, pink grapefruit and pink guava. While cautioning that studies on lycopene are continuing, researchers observe that the consistency of the results across numerous studies in diverse populations lend credibility to lycopene as a significant factor in ameliorating certain diseases. In one study involving 47,000 men, there was a 35% reduction in risk of developing prostate cancer among those who consumed more than 10 servings of tomato products weekly, compared with those who consumed fewer than 1.5 servings weekly. Most of these servings (82%) were in the form of tomatoes, tomato sauce and pizza. Oddly enough, cooked and processed tomatoes contain lycopene that is more readily available to the body, i.e. more lycopene is available in tomato paste than in fresh tomatoes. Also, lipids (fats) increase its absorption, so the combination of tomato sauce and olive oil delivers more absorbable lycopene than tomato sauce without oil. In light of this, it should come as no surprise that Italian men have a lower than average rate of prostate cancer. While ketchup is a great source of lycopene if you calculate the amount on a per serving rather than per weight basis, there are some other sources to consider. A cup of tomato juice has 6 times more lycopene than a tablespoon of ketchup, a medium size tomato can have up to 3 times more, a cup of watermelon has 2 times more and pink grapefruit has about 10 times more. Regardless of the source
of lycopene, the results support increasing fruit and vegetable
consumption, including tomatores and tomato based products. Look
at it this way, any diet that promotes lasagna and pizza has much
to recommend it.
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SKIN FOOD: DARK IS BETTER