Are You Ready for Valentine’s Day?

Yes it’s that time of year again and if you’re done with lingerie and chocolates, then perhaps some beauty and pampering is more to your liking. 

And if time is of the essence, then check out our Treatments page and choose the services you would like to include in your gift voucher and give us a call on (03) 9826 6399 to order and have it sent out to you in time for Valentine’s Day.

Vitamin C reduces Blood Pressure in Young Women

Feeling a little stressed lately? We all know that Vitamin C is great for boosting your immune system and being an anti-oxidant, also good for keeping your skin looking young and protecting it from ageing prematurely.

An article from Reuters Health states that high vitamin C is linked to lower blood pressure in young women.

While the link between high Vitamin C intake and lower blood pressure in older people may not be news to the average person, this latest study has looked specifically at young women between the ages of 18 and 21 and links high blood levels of vitamin C with lower blood pressure.

How do you increase your intake of Vitamin C - increase the amount of fruit and vegetables in your diet and perhaps start taking a multivitamin or Vitamin C supplements.

Read the full article here.

Update (1st Feb 2009): Want to know where you can get your daily dose of Vitamin C? Check out this post on Be Well Buzz about the Top 10 Food Sources of Vitamin C.

Beauty From the Inside

How do you make the most of your external efforts to stay looking fabulous?

It seems that while beauty treatments are the most common way to try and keep you looking young and beautiful, the true secrets lie in what you eat.

An article from the Huffington Post “New Year, Younger You: 20 Anti-aging Herbs and Spices You Must Add to Your Diet Now” is really highlighting the importance of adding ‘a little extra spice’ to your life to help you not only look better but live longer (in a healthier body).

In a nutshell, adding herbs & spices to your diet can have the following effects:

• Increase the nutrients in the food you’re eating - herbs & spices are high in anti-oxidants - great for health & beauty;
• Herbs & spices rev up your metabolism - in other words, they make you burn more calories - isn’t that what we all want?
• Some herbs and spices help you eat less - high in flavour means you don’t need to eat as much to satisfy your taste-buds;
• Use less salt - similar to the point before, because herbs and spaces are so high in flavour and nutrients, you can cut down on your salt intake - this makes for a less puffy, more streamlined body;
• Herbs and spices have medicinal qualities - it’s back in fashion now to use natural ingredients to keep yourself healthy rather than dosing up on pharmaceutical drugs.

Now if that doesn’t convince you to add a little extra spice to your life, read on for some specific examples:

• rosemary and basil for their anti-inflammatory power
• cumin and sage for their dementia-fighting power
• cayenne and cinnamon for their obesity-fighting power
• coriander and cinnamon for their sugar regulating powerslemon grass, nutmeg, bay leaves and saffron for their calming effects on your mood
• turmeric for its cancer fighting power
• oregano for its fungus-beating power
• garlic, mustard seed and chicory for their heart-pumping power
• basil and thyme for their skin-saving power
• turmeric, basil, cinnamon, thyme, saffron, and ginger for their immune-boosting power
• coriander, rosemary, cayenne, allspice and black pepper for their depression-busting power 

You can read the full article here

Sunshine for Eczema and Psoriasis

Being a beauty salon, we see a few people with eczema or psoriasis who are looking for ways to get rid of or at least alleviate the problem.

Some of our clients have mentioned that safe use of the tanning beds or getting regular sunshine in small doses, helps to relieve and considerably reduce their symptoms.

I was curious about this and came across this article from the Lancet medical journal featured on Dr Mercola’s site:

Eczema, atopic dermatitis, is a common skin disease that usually arises in childhood, runs a relapsing and remitting course, frequently persists into adult life, and can result in significant discomfort.

Emollients and topical steroids form the basis of treatment, but response is often incomplete. Patients with atopic eczema often report improvement after sun exposure, and results from a series of studies suggest that ultraviolet B (UVB; wavelength 280-315 nm), ultraviolet A (UVA; 315-400 nm), and combined UVA-UVB are effective treatments.

Narrow-band ultraviolet B (UVB) is frequently used for psoriasis, and open studies suggest that thisphototherapy might improve atopic eczema.

Previous studies have shown that high dose UVA1 (340-400 nm) is as effective as moderately potent topical steroids for acute, severe atopic eczema. However, special irradiation devices, which are only available in specialist centers, are needed for this type of treatment.

A narrow-band (311 nm) UVB fluorescent lamp (TL01, Philips, Utrecht, Netherlands) has been developed that is effective in the treatment of psoriasis. Results of open, uncontrolled studies suggest that narrow-band UVB phototherapy might improve chronic, severe adult atopic eczema.

The researchers provided 12 weeks of this type of UV treatment for atopic dermatitis and noted improvements disease activity seen during treatment and were maintained 3 months after phototherapy had been stopped.

The type of UVA fluorescent lamp that we used is typical of lamps available in most sunbeds in UK and is widely used for psoralen photochemotherapy.

Lancet June 23, 2001; 357: 2012-16

Read the full article, including Dr Mercola’s comments.

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For a natural approach, we also recommend the following for more information on being

Psoriasis Free for Life

Click Here!

5 Reasons to get a massage

If you think getting a massage is just a bit of indulgence, think again. In a health article from CNN.com it was reported that massage offers real health benefits, so much so that some conventional hospitals are making massage a standard therapy for surgery patients.

So in addition to the “feel good” aspect of massage that we all know about, you might be surprised to learn that massage has also been shown to:

New Year Specials

Until the end of February, purchase any tanning package and receive a 10% discount on any tanning skin care product in store.

To qualify for this offer, simply mention that you saw this announcement on our website.

View our current packages.