BENEFITS OF EATING STRAWBERRIES:

# Nature’s alternative to Botox: Strawberries are your skin’s best friend, packed full of anti-ageing antioxidants. Not only do the nutrients improve circulation to the skin which results in a youthful and attractive glow, they protect against sun damage, one of the major culprits for premature ageing of the skin.

# Burn fat and lose weight: Strawberries are one of the top fat-burning foods. If you want to lose weight ensure that berries are part of your daily diet. A large 300g punnet of strawberries has the same GL (glycaemic load) - the same effect on your blood sugar and weight - as one single date, ten raisins or one third of a banana.

# Get some attention during all that summer sport: Feed your man British berries and reap the benefits. Zinc-rich strawberries will help to keep his libido in peak condition, meaning you’ll both be happy during the month of June. Zinc is also essential for healthy sperm, so if you’re hoping to get pregnant then strawberries and raspberries are a conception boost.

# Put a stop to sugar cravings: Berries contain the slowest-releasing natural sugars, meaning that you’ll be less tempted by that mid-morning chocolate bar and less likely to suffer from mid-afternoon burn-out.

# Increase vitality: Berries have the lowest glycaemic load rating which means they give you a consistent energy level. Reaching for sugar-laden goodies is the energy equivalent of a yo-yo - your body goes into overdrive, a quick peak followed by a sharp slump. Eat berries by the handful, summer and winter, to keep your blood sugar on an even keel.

Additionally, psychologists have proved that red fruit sends energy-boosting messages to the brain. Give yourself a wake-up call by eating strawberries.

# No more hangover hell: Rich in phytonutrients, berries promote effective liver function; great news for detoxing with the added benefit of making hangovers less painful and more short-lived.

# Boost your immune system: Packed with folic acid and Vitamin C, berries have the highest antioxidant power of any fruit - giving a powerful boost to your immune system and helping your body fight off infection. Five strawberries contain more antioxidant power than three apples or four bananas, and more Vitamin C than an entire orange.

# Reduce the risk of cancer: Berries contain a number of powerful anti-cancer nutrients not found in any vitamin pill. Strawberries have been shown to inhibit development of cervical, oesophageal and oral cancer.

# Alleviate allergies: Fed up with applying steroid creams and/or puffing on an inhaler? The high quercitin content in strawberries can bring respite for eczema and asthma sufferers.

# Improve memory: Berries are your brain’s best friend, not only because of their high antioxidant status but also because they are the best fruit source of folic acid. Extra intake of folic acid can reverse memory decline and sharpen concentration.

Source: http://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/mostpopular.var.2333863.mostviewed.strawberry_fields_forever.php

Originally posted 2008-06-10 21:02:03.

The rise in baby eczema has become more and more widespread in recent times and can cause a lot of distress, especially for a new parent. Nothing could be worse than to see your lovely baby covered with red, dry, or scaly skin which he or she can’t stop scratching. When you have eczema one of the hardest things to do is to stop scratching, and as hard as you try sometimes, you just have to have a hard scratch.

Trying to stop your baby from scratching his eczema can be a real problem. The major concern is that the constant scratching may lead to the condition getting worse and an infection developing. Not only that, in more severe cases, baby eczema can be so itchy and irritating that it may even disrupt baby’s sleep which is not only distressing for your baby, but also for you as a parent.

The good news is that baby eczema is easy to treat and there are several steps you can take to help. Here are some tips that may go some way to reducing itching, improving the condition of your baby’s skin and indeed avoiding further flare-ups.

• Keep skin moist by applying a generous amount of moisturizer several times a day, especially after a bath. This helps to prevent the skin from becoming dry and itchy.

• Avoid using soaps, shampoos or other skin products that contain perfumes since they may irritate the skin. Look for products that are fragrance-free or hypoallergenic.

• Use a non-biological liquid laundry cleaner because these do not contain bleaches and enzymes which can cause irritation to the skin.

• Make sure your baby wears clothing that allows the skin to breathe. Ideally the clothing should be 100% cotton.

• Using cotton bedding will stop your baby from overheating. Overheating can aggravate eczema. Make sure that you wash the bedding regularly in hot water (55 degrees C or more) since this stops dust mites (a common trigger factor).

• Keep your baby’s nursery as dust free as possible by keeping furniture and soft toys to a minimum. Vacuum the carpet as often as possible, or even better get rid of the carpet and have wooden floors. Wash down furniture with a damp cloth rather than a dry one and avoid using any harmful cleaners.

• Keep your home as well ventilated as possible.

• Keep furry pets away from your baby as pet hair and dander are common irritants.

• Do not smoke near your baby as tobacco smoke has been found to increase the risk of eczema

• Breastfeeding your baby until they are at least four months old is one of the best ways to prevent eczema.

• Allergies to particular foods have been found to trigger eczema. The most common culprits are dairy products, wheat, seafood, soy products and nuts. If you are in the process of weaning your baby, try to introduce one food at a time so that you can notice if there are any reactions. Seek the advice your pediatrician if you find that your baby is allergic to any particular food.

• You can discourage scratching by making sure that your keep your baby’s nails short and by putting them in an all-in-one sleep-suit with attached mittens.

It can be very distressing to see your baby suffer with eczema, but the good news is that most babies grow out of it by the time they are two or three. Baby eczema is easy to treat, but takes a lot of hard work and patience on the part of the parent. By following some of these tips you will hopefully avoid baby eczema and have a happy and healthy child.

This the continuation on my previous post about a common type of eczema, Dyshidrosis or dyshidrotic eczema. In this post, we take a look at the common causes for this type of eczema.

While the definite cause of dyshidrosis are unknown, there are a number of common triggers:

- Dyshidrosis has been historically linked to excessive sweating during periods of anxiety, stress, and frustration, however, many cases present that have no history of excessive sweating, and the hypothesis of dyshidrosis as a sweating disorder is largely rejected. Some patients reject this link to stress, though as a trigger of vesicular eruption it cannot be overlooked, as with other types of eczema.

-Vesicular eruption of the hands may also be caused by a local infection, with fungal infections being the most common. Sunlight is thought to bring on attacks, some patients link outbreaks to prolonged exposure to strong sunlight from late spring through to early autumn.. Others have also noted outbreaks occurring in conjunction with exposure to chlorinated pool water or highly treated city tap waters.

-Soaps, detergents, fragrances and contact with fruit juices or fresh meat also can trigger outbreaks of dyshidrosis, as with other types of eczema.

-Systemic nickel allergies may be related.

-Keeping skin damp will trigger or worsen an outbreak. For this reason, people with dyshidrosis should wear gloves, socks, and shoes made of materials which “breathe well”, such as cotton or silk. Certain fabrics may greatly irritate the condition, including wool, nylon and many synthetic fabrics.

-Inherited, not contagious. Often, patients will present with other types of dermatitis, such as seborrheic dermatitis or atopic eczema. For this reason, among others, dyshidrosis is often dismissed as atopic eczema or contact dermatitis.

-Can be the secondary effect of problems in the gut. Some sufferers claim diet can ease symptoms (relieving internal condition of IBS or intestinal yeast infection).Also Inflammatory bowel diseases of Ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.

-Bandages, plasters or other types of skin-tapes may be irritating to dyshidrosis and should be avoided. As the skin needs to breathe, anything that encourages maceration of the palms should be avoided. If the ‘wounds’ are raw enough to warrant covering, pure cotton gloves or gauze should be used. Liquid Band-Aid brand bandage may be tolerated and helpful, refer to the Treatment section, below.

-Latex and vinyl gloves may increase irritation.

-Multiple Chemical Sensitivity

Originally posted 2007-09-04 23:27:46.

Oh, it brings such blessed relief and now scientists can tell you why – scratching an itch temporarily shuts off areas in the brain linked with unpleasant feelings and memories.

“Our study shows for the first time how scratching may relieve itch,” Dr Gil Yosipovitch, a dermatologist at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, said in a statement.

Prior studies have shown that pain, including vigorous scratching, inhibit the need to itch. Yosipovitch and colleagues looked at what goes on in the brain when a person is scratched.

He and colleagues used a technique known as functional magnetic resonance imaging to see which areas of the brain are active during scratching. They scratched 13 healthy people with a soft brush on the lower leg on and off in 30-second intervals for a total of five minutes.

Scratching reduced activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and the posterior cingulate cortex – areas linked with pain aversion and memory.

And the more intensely a person was scratched, the less activity they found in these areas of the brain.

“It’s possible that scratching may suppress the emotional components of itch and bring about relief,” Yosipovitch said.

But they also found why one scratch often begets another.

Scratching increased activity in the secondary somatosensory cortex, a pain centre, and in the prefrontal cortex, which is linked with compulsive behaviour.

“This could explain the compulsion to continue scratching,” Yosipovitch said.

The researchers noted that the study is limited because people were not scratching in response to an actual itch.

But they said understanding what goes on in the brain may lend clues about how to treat people tormented by chronic itch, including people with eczema and many kidney dialysis patients.

The study, which appears online in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, was paid for by the US National Institutes of Health.

Originally posted 2008-02-10 12:40:13.

IT came as no surprise to mum-of-three Andrea Walker when she noticed patches of eczema begin to develop on her youngest, Eva.

Her two older daughters, Casey, 11 and Elise, three, had both suffered with the skin condition, which is thought to be largely hereditary. With both older girls Andrea had tried a variety of emollients, but what worked for one didn’t necessarily work for the other.

“At first, you’ll try anything and with Casey I did try quite a lot of things,” she remembers. “I found with many treatments it was trial and error in different combinations. Then a neighbour told me about Lesley at Little Herbal and a cream she was making. Now I’ve found something that worked I won’t change it.”

The cream she used is called, Themba, developed by Little Herbal International, based in Holmfirth, Yorkshire. Former pharmaceutical worker Lesley Robinson launched the company after a trip to Zimbabwe, where the remedies originate from traditional medicine.

Themba is made from the sausage-shaped fruit of the Kigelia tree, which grows in low lying altitudes of Southern Africa. The Kigelia fruit has been traditionally used for stubborn dry-skin conditions but can be used to soothe a variety of ailments such as acne, cold sores, athletes foot and insect bites.

Little Herbal has added aloe excelsia, calendula, wheatgerm oil, lavender and vitamin E to the cream, which seems to be suitable for the most sensitive of skins, even babies, promoting healing at the same time as tackling skin problems associated with viruses, bacteria and fungus.

Open-minded

“I think with a condition like eczema you’ve just got to be open-minded,” Andrea says. “We’re doing a bit of everything - looking at diet as well as skin care.

“Elise is on a dairy free diet because she is allergic to milk and eggs, which was aggravating her condition. We found out after she was hospitalised with asthma and the doctors did some tests, so we’ve been advised to keep her on a dairy free diet until she is about five and then try again. We tried all sorts, including adding acidophilus to her breast milk to rebalance the gut, and I rubbed a capsule of evening primrose oil into her thighs for the essential fatty acids to help reduce inflammation. Sometimes we had to use hydrocortisone cream, but it’s steroids-based so you worry about that - you don’t want to put anything very strong on the face.

“Casey’s skin isn’t upset by her food and her eczema is more seasonal now. It flares up in winter so we go back to using Themba and it calms down. With the other two I use Themba morning and night religiously. It helps keep it under control - I can tell if I’ve missed a bit because they’ll have a red patch.”

Eva was just seven weeks old when she developed a patch of red dry skin behind her ears, but in two months it had spread to her face, legs and body.

“I cried when I saw the patch,” Andrea admits. “I knew straight away it was eczema. It’s upsetting because you just want your baby to be peaches and cream. People stare and say, `Aw, what’s that on her face?’ You know they are being sympathetic but you just want it to clear up. It’s very sore as well - Eva’s skin was inflamed and hot. I dressed her in simple white cotton and put little mitts on her hands to stop her from scratching but she would be up all night crying with the pain. She was sleep-deprived as a result and I was, too.

“Sometimes, you just want someone to really listen to you and Lesley was a big support for me in that way. Together we put together a plan of action and she also put me in touch with an immunologist at the hospital who suggested that Eva take a small dose anti-histamine, twice a day.

“That stops her skin feeling itchy so she’s not scratching it - hence she’s not making it sore and not getting infected skin. It also means the Themba can do its own job of healing the skin without having to work doubly hard to stop the itching as well.”

Aggressive

As seen in the photos, when Eva’s eczema flares up it is very aggressive, red and hot. To try and reduce the inflammation Eva was one of the first to use a new cream from Little Herbal, Oshana (African for dry place), which contains the active ingredients of Themba mixed with other ingredients known to be kind to the skin, like aloe and vitamin E. It can be used in between applications of Themba to moisturise the skin.

“On the photos you can see the eczema was very aggressive on Eva’s face,” says Andrea. “We didn’t realise at the time but she had got some of it infected. When we went to the doctors they said that because I’d been using Oshana it had kept it under control.

“Because with eczema you need to get a lot of moisture into it, we used Oshana head to toe on Eva and then rub on Diprobase ointment (A mixture of liquid paraffin and white soft paraffin that produces a greasy moisturiser. It works by providing a layer of oil on the surface of the skin to prevent water evaporating). Once that’s soaked in we have a completely peachy little girl.”

Although there is no catch-all treatment for eczema there are things you can do to help minimise discomfort:

Keep your baby’s skin moisturised, especially after a bath. Emollients reduce water loss from the skin by providing a seal or barrier so the skin is less dry, itchy and more comfortable.

Bathing your baby in lukewarm water can help his/her skin retain moisture and stay hydrated

To reduce itching use cotton clothing and bedding, which keep the skin cool and allow it to breathe. At night, cotton mittens can be used over babies’ hands to help reduce damage to the skin during sleep.

Reduce house dust mites, which can aggravate the condition, by regularly vacuuming, damp dusting and airing bedding.

Dietary changes can be quite helpful although it is important to seek advice from a nutritionist in order to ensure your child is getting adequate nutrients. Keeping a diary of foods eaten and observing skin reactions can be useful when weaning babies.

Source: http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/lifestyle/health_and_beauty/health_and_beauty_feature/s/1038482_remedy_for_eczema_itch

Originally posted 2008-02-27 21:51:21.