Black and Red Nails: What They Really Mean to your Health
Read full story on The Green Beauty Guide
My first ever bright red nail polish was phthalate-free, toluene-free, formaldehyde-free very pretty shade of true red by Zoya, a professional quality line of nail polishes founded by a pregnant aesthetician – sounds good to me! When my petite Marie saw my bloody red 
toes (with pretty red glitter, mind you!) she said: “Mama boo-boo… Mama vava” which in toddlerish means that Mommy’s got a wound, Mommy is in pain! She actually thought mommy was bleeding.
How actually true! When did red nails start looking attractive or healthy? To the toddler who was not (yet) brainwashed with glossy mags and music videos, red nails simply look like open, bleeding wounds on Mommy’s toes. And as a holistic nutritionist, I got particularly interested in one area of studies, namely symptomatology. So here’s what a physician would think of latest nail trends:
Pale, ebony-colored nails: pale nails can indicate chronic liver disease, lymphoma, renal disease, or general fungal problem. So long for the chic, impossibly classy shades of pale beige and pink!
White nails, as in French manicure, can indicate of kidney, liver, or blood disorders such as anemia.(source: Disabled-World.com) Half white nails, with dark spots, especially on the tip, may be indicative of kidney diseases.
Blue and purple nails can often be symptoms of argyria or Wilson’s disease, a liver and blood disorder.
Green nails (does anyone over 14 wear them?) may signal of arthritis, glaucoma, lung problems, emphysema, cardio-pulmonary disease.
Yellow nails (as in golden shade of nail polish) can signal of fungal infection, lung disease, or diabetes.
Red nails, apart from looking a bit risque (which was my reason to wear gaudy red with glitter) may suggest polycythaemia and carbon monoxide poisoning. Disabled-World.com adds to this lovely list “possible brain hemorrhage, heart disease, high blood pressure, lung disease, stroke…” – all linked to red nails.
Black nails may signal of anemia, severe heart problems, vitamin B-12 deficiency, and cyanosis (in this case, lips turn blue, too). Disabled-World.com adds that black nails could be a sign of adrenal gland problems, liver disease, cancer or melanomas, silver deposits (heavy metals), and trauma. Rouge Noir, anyone? So I am off red polish, for the time being. I was thinking of medically neutral polishes, and it seems like the healthiest color would be a muted rose or mauve, maybe amber, basically, anything that is one shade darker than your natural lip color.
So far, Zoya nail polish line offers just one shade in warm pink. Revlon, being DBP, toluene and formaldehyde free (bless them!)Â has some lovely shades including Really Rosy and Tropical Temptation. They look very classical on the verge of being boring. But rose, coral, and blush is how healthy nails really look like. Any other ideas? Phthalate-free suggestions, please!
Adrenal Fatigue: Health Menace or Mythology? [Dueling Research]
Adrenal fatigue or Ambien-induced subway riding?
I had a pretty great weekend: went to the local high school’s chemistry demonstration, ate chocolate covered figs for the first time, sewed a vintage-esque dress from a pattern I made myself based on a picture (my first time making my own pattern and it turned out so cute!!) and watched Jelly Bean play “where’s your bellybutton” with two other toddlers at the church Christmas party. Oh and did I mention I lactated?! That’s right, the old gray mare ain’t what she used to be – and apparently now she’s mutated into a cow.
So I did what any woman who hasn’t nursed a baby in over a year and yet who has suddenly sprung a leak would do: I texted all my mom Gym Buddies. I got two immediate replies. Gym Buddy Krista told me I’m pregnant and Gym Buddy Megan told me I have a brain tumor. (Okay, three replies. Turbo Jennie texted me back, “I only have 1. What do I know?”) As I Googled my symptoms, I came across pregnancy (I’m not) and pituitary tumors (seriously?) but it was a different answer that really caught my eye: Adrenal fatigue.
Hang around health and fitness circles long enough and you’ll start to hear a few catchphrases over and over and adrenal fatigue is one of those (it comes right after “fat burning zone” and before “abs are made in the kitchen!”). For years I’ve heard fellow gym rats chalk up everything from extra sore muscles to fatigue to “tinny-tasting” protein shakes to this strange malady. A favorite diagnosis of alternative medicine practitioners, it is either ignored or decried by most conventional docs.
Basically your adrenal glands are two little tiny organs near your kidneys that help moderate your fight-or-flight response. For something so little they sure are controversial. While there is an official disease called “adrenal insufficiency/Addison’s disease” where your adrenal glands are woefully – and measurably – under-producing, it’s rare and you don’t get it from being overstressed. Adrenal fatigue on the other hand is, depending on the speaker, a very common by-product of our modern society and quite possibly the root of all evil. (And you thought that was Donald Trump!)
Says WebMD, adrenal fatigue is “a mild form of adrenal insufficiency caused by chronic stress. The unproven theory behind adrenal fatigue is that your adrenal glands are unable to keep pace with the demands of perpetual fight-or-flight arousal. As a result, they can’t produce quite enough of the hormones you need to feel good. Existing blood tests, according to this theory, aren’t sensitive enough to detect such a small decline in adrenal function — but your body is.”
Eh, naysayers! Plus WebMD doesn’t even list spontaneous lactating as a symptom. The Natural News rebuts, saying, “In mainstream medicine, doctors refuse to recognize there is a problem with the adrenal glands unless you meet the diagnostic criteria for Addison’s disease (extremely little adrenal function) or Cushing’s disease (hyper adrenal). These diseases together affect less than 2% of the population, but some experts believe that upwards of 80% of the population suffers from some level of adrenal insufficiency.” You hear that Mr. Web-anyone-can-string-MD-after-their-website-name-.com? 80%! It’s an epidemic!
Well, if the existence of Celebrity Intervention tells us anything it’s that we are all chronically overstressed (where Kathy Griffin leads, the country follows!). And heaven knows I’m a cortisol factory – my kids are going through a chanting stage that makes me want to stick forks in my ears – so I’ll give them that. But there are plenty of other symptoms besides chronic fatigue and stress, including everything from dizziness upon standing, headaches, memory problems, salt cravings, hemorrhoids, and a funky-sounding dub in the lub-dub of your heartbeat. Other than the last one (why oh why do I not own a stethoscope?!) I have every one of the 50+ symptoms listed.
And then it hit me: I am a Google-induced hypochondriac who just made her children all listen to her heartbeat to see if it sounded “funny”.
So now what do I do? Call my regular doctor and pray they don’t find a tumor? Find a naturopath and sun-salutation they don’t tell me for the eleventieth time to take up meditation? Sell my milk on the Internet and fund Christmas from my boob juice thereby making the phrase “money makers” both funnier and more horrifying all at the same time? Unfortunately there’s not a lot of definitive research into adrenal fatigue. Since the available tests supposedly aren’t sensitive enough to detect a biological change and pretty much everyone feels tired and worn down (except my 5-year-old who wakes up at 6 a.m. every stinking day) it seems like it comes down to a matter of opinion.
Seriously – what do you guys know about adrenal fatigue? Is it real? Pseudo-science? Any other women out there ever lactated spontaneously?? (And Dad, if you’re still reading, I’m sorry.)
Preventative Health Care: Is being “not sick” the same as being “healthy”?
YES IT WILL. At least that’s what I keep telling myself. Don’t disillusion me.
Remember that kid in your class who ate dirt or licked the inside of the freezer or sucked down paste? Well it turns out that he may not have been one pinto bean shy of a bingo like we all thought. Pica – the intense desire to eat non-food items – is now thought to be the result of an iron or other mineral deficiency. Who knew? Get the kid a steak and he might have been class president. Or maybe his blood was fine and he just really liked the taste. See, that’s the tricky thing about our bodies – figuring out what is actually going on inside them takes a weird mash-up of science, voodoo, ESP and cosmic luck. One of my greatest fantasies (you ready to find out how truly geeky I am?) is to have a computer screen attached somehow to my brain that would tell me exactly what is going on inside my body.
Back in the days when I counted calories – so glad that’s over! – it used to frustrate me to no end that every measurement was an estimate. There was no real way to tell exactly what calories were in that apple or how my body used them or what nutrients I gained or lacked from it. And it wasn’t just calorie counting. I’d lay in bed and wonder if my intense craving for Lindt dark chocolate truffles were really from PMS hormones – and which hormone exactly? – or if I was lacking magnesium or if my body was fine but it was my mind that was whacked out. (I heart my OCD.) But of course there is no way to know any of that.
Or is there? Recently I got to try out a new service called Inside Tracker. Basically it’s all the blood tests you wish you could ask your doctor to do. The difference is that your doctor is mostly interested in diagnosing dysfunction in your body and being “not sick” is not the same as being “optimally healthy.” Inside Tracker doesn’t diagnose disease but rather focuses on helping people be their healthiest. All you have to do is go get your blood drawn at a local lab – because that’s what everyone does for fun in their spare time, right? Just me? – and within just a couple of days you get your results back along with recommendations about how to improve your numbers based on your age, gender and fitness level. It also gives you recommendations on what foods and supplements to take more of and which to avoid.
Answers? Numbers?? I was like a kid in a candy store! Unfortunately – or fortunately, depending on how you look at it (you say Back Street Boys, I say N*Sync) – my results were surprising. And they raised more questions than they answered.
First the good news: out of everything tested (folic acid, glucose, calcium, magnesium, creatine kinase, vitamin B12, vitamin D, ferritin, total cholesterol, hemoglobin, HDL, LDL and triglycerides if you’re curious), I only had two “red flags.” But here’s where it gets weird:
First, my folic acid was too high, despite not taking a multi-vitamin and pretty much never eating fortified foods like bread, pasta or cereal (I eat those things but I make my own so obviously I’m not adding supplements to them). This is concerning because too much folic acid leads to increased cancer risk and brain damage. (And in case you missed the memo, too little is really bad too, especially if you are a pregnant woman.) When I clicked on the recommendations from Inside Tracker it told me to eat boxes of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes. Because they’re really high in folic acid. Obviously the program is used to people being too low in folate rather than too high. (Inside Tracker assures me this was a glitch and they’re fixing it.) So I did what any freaked out person would and googled the crap out of it. According to the womenshealth.gov it is “impossible to get too much folate from natural sources.” Okay, then. Phew?
Second, my triglycerides are too low. Again, most people have the opposite issue. I’m a freak? I’m too healthy for my own good? I have a glandular problem?? Unfortunately Googling this did not reassure me. So I have my yearly checkup scheduled in a couple of weeks with my doctor and I’ll definitely be talking to her about this. (Side note: my regular doc happens to be my OBGYN. I adore her. Is it weird that I’m willing to put up with a pelvic exam just to talk to her about my anti-depressants?)
The other thing I noticed about my Inside Tracker results is that their definition of “optimal” is different than what most doctors and health organizations recommend. I found their answer very intriguing: ” The bottom line is that the AHA [American Heart Association] gives you generic numbers for everybody in the population, from baby to centenarian. If you are within these wider ranges you are within physiological boundaries, ie. you are not sick. This zone is depicted by the pink zone in the InsideTracker graph. However, we are not diagnosing disease. InsideTracker gives you an optimized zone for your special cohort: age, gender, race, performance needs. This zone is much tighter, and InsideTracker makes its recommendations based on this zone.” I’ve often wished for more individualized recommendations so this is awesome.
In the end, I am glad I did this. Preventative health care is so so important. Plus I’m a girl who loves numbers and this takes me a step closer to understanding what all is going on inside me. (Yay, no anemia! I had anemia for years as a vegetarian that never resolved with supplements so seeing these numbers was a relief and an assurance than adding some meat back into my diet has been helpful for my body.) While I still have a lot of questions – my total cholesterol is nice and low but my LDL (“bad”) is a little higher than I’d like and now I’m wondering if that’s because I eat a ton of coconut oil and other saturated fats? – I feel like this test gave me some useful information that I can now use to make tweaks. Their food recommendations were not at all accurate or helpful for me, however. I mean, there was no glue on their anywhere!
Do you worry more about being not sick or about being optimally healthy? (As I type that it strikes me there may be a happy middle ground between the two. Seeing as I am notoriously bad at the whole balance thing, please enlighten me!) Do you do any of these kinds of “extra” health tests? Have you ever had a pica??
Swanson Health Products Review & Giveway
Of course you all know that since vitamins and supplements are consumed like food, you have to be sure they are gluten free.
Thankfully, Swanson recently made that easier. They now have a
I noticed that the Swanson brand products are not labeled as gluten-free which concerned me since I have used some of their brand products, including the
When I inquired about the gluten-free status of their products, I was sent the following information:
“Since we do not specify “gluten free” for our manufacturers, their facilities may handle gluten-containing products, introducing the possibility of airborne cross-contamination even though a particular product may not contain any inherent gluten-containing constituents. The same is true in our warehouse since we do bottle products containing barley, rye, oats and wheat; there is still the possibility of airborne cross-contamination even though no inherent gluten-containing components may be present in the product.”
In addition, they recommended two companies,
“Country Life is a certified “Gluten-Free Manufacturer.” They do not handle any gluten-containing products, nor do they get components from any manufacturer that handles anything with gluten.
Now Foods is another good choice for “Gluten-Free” since they have separate areas in their warehouse for gluten-containing products and separate bottling lines for gluten and non-gluten containing products. Both of these manufacturers are excellent choices that will specifically label their products as “Gluten Free.””
That was very helpful to know. If you are interested in products from either of these two companies, there is a “shop by brand” option in the left column of the site.
I have decided to start using
The Giveaway: Swanson is giving away a $25 coupon to one winner. The coupon can be used towards products and shipping costs.
To enter you must leave a comment on this post, not on my Facebook page and not an email. If you receive my updates by email, click on the underlined title and it will take you to my blog page where you can leave a comment.
Leave a separate comment for each entry:
- Find a product at
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The giveaway will end on Friday, December 2nd at 11:00 pm eastern time. The randomly chosen winner will be contacted by email and will have 24 hours to respond after being contacted.
Disclaimer: I was provided with a Swanson coupon code to purchase products free of charge, but I was not paid to write this review. The opinions in this post are my own.
Good LORD I love my HEALTH! DANG!
This was KELLY the past few days. Seriously. Only without red hair. But I do love that coffee mug. Y’all know how I love my big mugs. 
Kids, I did my workout on Monday night and woke up Tuesday like a freight train name THE FLU hit me. OMG. I have not been that sick in years and it was ODD because- no sore throat- but I became SO OVERWHELMINGLY WEAK and every muscle in my body hurt and I was nauseated like to the nth degree. OMG. Bad fever too. Today, Thursday (is it Thursday? I’m in a fog) is my first day feeling remotely normal.
I’m telling you, although I do wake up every day and say my prayers and thank God for my health, being sick makes you SO GRATEFUL for your health!! Seriously! How can we complain about working out and getting fit EVER when there are people stuck in hospitals and that can’t walk!
I’m so in the mood for a kicka** workout today but…..I better take it easy. It’s about 6pm so I am going for a walk outside. Fresh air, reasonable way to get back into my workouts….sigh. Another week where I can’t say I did 6x a week. RATS!! BUT I am ok with it this week, as I literally could barely MOVE or eat or speak. That’s RARE!
I also feel like doing a Crossfit WOD but hello I haven’t even gone to my local Crossfit gym yet. I’m being patient because I know we have a whole lotta Crossfit fun coming up with FitFluential in 2012, and I am NOT going to a Crossfit gym locally alone….my Realtor actually is a total hardcore fitness-ninja-badass and I’m going to interview him for a future WWF– maybe he and his badass wife will go with me. He did a Tough Mudder race recently and loved it.
Also– today guess what arrived in the mail?? MY NEW TRX!! OMG OMG OMG. So badass!!
That dude pretty much defined Badass.com. right there. Holy Cow.
Anyway, I also found this video while I was dreaming about researching George St. Pierre….check it:
So. Awesome.
Anyway, I’ll be back with a KO vlog and workout tomorrow. Thanks for the well wishes!
Question of the Day: Do you get the flu shot? LOL my mom was just telling me I should and I said NO and then I get the dang flu…..
Myth Busting: Junk Food is Not Cheaper Than Healthy Food [Plus 4 More Health Food Myths]
One more excuse to eat poorly bit the dust as Mark Bittman of the New York Times took apart the oft-quoted adage that one reason why people don’t eat healthier is because junk food is more budget friendly. He writes, “In general, despite extensive government subsidies, hyperprocessed food remains more expensive than food cooked at home.” He then goes on to compare a McDonald’s meal for a family of 4 ($28) with a home-cooked dinner for 4 of roast chicken, salad, vegetables and milk ($14). Debunking the second part of the myth, that junk food provides more calories for the money than healthier fare, he points out that first of all few people in America need extra calories and second that it is still cheaper to add calories to home-cooked food.
I don’t know about you but I was surprised. I shouldn’t have been. Even though I’ve heard this rationale for years - and just accepted it to be true – in my personal life as the head budget maker for our home, I have proven month after month that it is always cheaper to eat at home than to go out. And no I don’t coupon. My friend Shellie taught me a couple of years ago how to plan a menu that would feed our family of 6 for $3-5/person/day. Considering the food stamp program allots $5/person/day, I figure that’s pretty awesome.
But are we eating tasteless gruel every day? Not hardly. It may take more planning and shopping – planning my menu and shopping list each month takes me a couple of hours and then buying everything several more – but eating healthy on a budget can be done. Here are 4 more healthy eating myths busted:
Myth 2. Farmer’s markets are the best place to buy healthy food. Perhaps in California, where food actually grows on trees, this works but up here in the hinterlands the only thing Minnesota grows nine months out of the year are sno cones. The farmer’s markets here, while fabulous when they’re open, are not cheap. Think outside the big box grocery stores and check out local Asian markets for cheap produce (and also weird stuff – just had my first taste of lychee nuts!), hispanic stores for cheaper meats and beans and discount stores for deals on frozen foods, bulk grains and seasonal items. Whole Foods, sadly, is almost never a good deal.
Myth 2b. Warehouse stores are bad for your waistline. People like to decry warehouse stores like Costco and Sam’s Club pointing out that buying peanut-butter pretzels in bulk makes you eat more of them – which probably is true although preventable by portioning them out into individual servings at home – but the reverse can also work in your favor. Buying a 1 pound box of salad for the same price you’d pay for 5 ounces at a regular store might inspire you to eat more greens. In addition to lots of produce, you can often find lots of shelf-stable healthy staples (say that 5 times fast) like quinoa, brown rice, raw honey, oats and dark-chocolate-covered pomegranate seeds (hush, nobody tell me those aren’t healthy). I also buy my uncured meats at Costco; I can get nitrate-free organic breakfast sausage and Canadian bacon for cheaper than the crappy regular kind at the grocery store.
Myth 3. You have to be a great cook. I suppose it would probably be helpful if you were a great cook but if you’re closer to the Swedish Muppet Chef – skewer the berjdie! – than Alton Brown, don’t despair. I suck at cooking so if I can manage, you totally can. It doesn’t take much skill to learn how to boil beans (because eating them raw might kill you - whoops) and chop and sautee some vegetables. I cook pretty much everything I eat in a big cast iron skillet – and bonus, you have permission not to wash it afterwards because it “seasons” the pan! – so I have basically one cooking technique: hot.
Myth 4. You have to have specialty ingredients. Goat cheese. Chia seeds. Amaranth flour. Strawberries and cream hemp protein powder humanely squeegeed off dirty hippies. Us healthy types sometimes get caught up in some crazy food fads and while it can make you feel lame to be the only person not drizzling your shiitake mushrooms with white truffle oil, it doesn’t mean your simple dish of crap on a plate is less healthy. There’s a lot to be said for simple, whole, foods.
Myth 5. It’s time consuming. Like most hobbies, healthy cooking can be as time consuming as you’ll let it be but it doesn’t have to take any longer than hitting a drive through, especially if you’re okay with using your microwave. It really doesn’t get any faster than salad, especially if you have the forethought to pre-chop a bunch of veggies to keep in the fridge.
Some of my favorite cheap (about $1/serving), quick and healthy* meal ideas (that I totally am not the first to think of):
- Taco Salad: bowl of random greens topped with beans and/or meat, whatever veggies I can grab, sour cream and hot hot salsa.
- Yogurt parfaits: plain full-fat yogurt topped with all-fruit jam, nuts, frozen blueberries and raw oats
- Miso soup: microwave a bowl of water, a tablespoon of miso paste (another reason to hit up the Asian market!), chopped green onions and cubed tofu. My husband thinks this tastes like “dirty foot water” which cracks me up. I like dirty feet.
- Stir fry: meat, veggies, oil. Lather, rinse, repeat.
- Honey mustard chicken: whatever cut of chicken you want (I’m lucky enough to get my dead poultry cheap, straight from the farmer who just wrung their necks), mix equal parts of honey & mustard and spread on top. Sprinkle with a few herbs. Cook in pan. Tastes delish over rice.
- “McMuffins”: Top a whole wheat english muffin with 1 fried/poached/scrambled egg, a slice of cheese, a slice of Canadian bacon or ham and spinach leaves. If the muffin is too processed for you, just pile it all on top of the spinach leaves – still totally yummy!
* I realize that depending on what your personal food philosophy is, these may not be “healthy” per your definition. I’m not trying to make a definitive list – just saying these are examples of what works for me. I hope you’ll tell me what works for you in the comments!
What do you think about Mark Bittman’s assertion that healthy food is actually cheaper than junk food? Do you have a fave tip for eating healthy on the cheap? Do you have a $1/serving meal idea??
Lavender: Amazing Health and Beauty Benefits of Lavender
Lavender is a mildly antiseptic, soothing and calming herb.
Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia, Lavender officinalis) has been used in treating various health and beauty conditions for thousands of years. Lavender’s naturally soothing, calming aroma and cleansing purifying properties made it a favorite among natural healers, aromatherapists, beauty therapists, and conventional medicine practitioners around the world.
Lavender and your health
Lavender appears to have a strong health protective effect. Recent studies show that lavender is a strong antioxidant especially protective against sun damage, toxic exposure, and bacterial infection. One study found that women who have undergone botox injections recovered better after applications with diluted lavender oil! Lavender as an essential oil also shows to be helpful in the treatment of depression and Alzheimer’s disease.
Lavender and your mind
Lavender’s fresh yet woody and floral aroma helps soothe the body and mind.Lavender vaporizers are traditionally used for relaxation and meditation.
Preparing lavender oil
You can use lavender essential oil or infuse your own base oil with stems of fresh or dry lavender. Infused lavender oil can be used for general massage. We recommend using organic lavender oil but you can grow your nearly-organic lavender without any pesticides on your windowsill.
How to use lavender?
Here are ten amazing uses for lavender in your health, beauty, and wellbeing.
- Lavender for better sleep. Dot two drops of pure lavender oil on either side of a pillow to help you unwind and fall asleep easier. Lavender tea or a simply glass of milk can also be helpful.
- Lavender for combination skin. Add 3-5 drops of pure lavender oil to 1 tablespoon of organic yogurt and apply to your face (avoiding eye area) for 10-15 minutes.
- Lavender for wrinkles. Beat the egg white and add 3 drops of lavender oil. Apply to your face and reasonably away from immediate eye area.
- Lavender for relaxation. To make an amazingly effective relaxing oil add 10 drops of lavender oil to 100ml / 3.3 fl oz of any base oil and shake well. Grapeseed, jojoba, apricot and peach kernel oil are the best, but olive oil works just as well.
- Lavender facial: to unclog pores and detox your skin steam your face with 3 sachets of green tea and 10 drops of lavender oil. Do not use if you have low blood pressure!
- Lavender for insect bites and sunburn: Combine a tablespoon of aloe vera gel with 10 drops of lavender oil. Keep handy!
- Lavender for a soothing soak. Add 10-12 drops of lavender to a bath under running water. Relax for 10-15 minutes. Do not use if pregnant!
- Lavender for home cleaning. Add 2-4 drops of lavender to a bottle of vinegar and use as an all surface cleanser.
- Lavender for baby massage. To soothe a baby into a sleep, massage her back with an oil enriched with 2 drops of lavender essential oil per 100 ml / 3.3 fl oz of base oil (any thin oil would do).
- Lavender for smooth skin. Combine 10 drops of lavender essential oil with 2 tablespoons of fine salt and 4 tablespoons of olive oil. Massage your skin using gentle sweeping movements, then rinse well – and no need for a moisturizer because nothing beats the pure rejuvenating power of lavender.
Tea Tree Oil: Health and Beauty Benefits
Tea tree plant from which tea tree essential oil is made
Tea tree essential oil is a well-known antibacterial and purifying natural solution. With it’s unmistakable spicy, slightly medicinal fragrance, tea tree oil has variety of uses. Australians have long used tea tree oil to combat colds, flu, viruses, and various germs. The oil is derived from fresh leaves of a tea tree growing in Australia.
Tea tree oil (Melaleuca alternifolia) is used for its hygienic, antimicrobial, preservative, and antioxidant properties. This non-toxic, low-sensitizing oil is very useful in skincare. Tea tree oil is particularly useful to soothe and purify oily and acne prone skin. The antiseptic action of tea tree oil far surpasses that of antibiotics, and germs never acquire resistance to tea tree oil. Tea tree oil is especially active against Staphylococcus aureus.
Tea tree oil is also devastating to herpes virus, shingles, candidiasis (Candida bacteria), mites, scabies, head lice, and nail fungus. Tea tree oil also kills mosquitoes and other pests.
Tea tree oil in skincare
To prepare an antiseptic cream with tea tree oil, combine 8 drops of this essential oil with 30 ml / 1 oz of any unscented lotion or a cream. Mix well. Do not use tea tree oil neat on the skin. Natural acne remedies use tea tree oil as a potent agent against acne bacteria.
Tea tree oil and acne
To prepare a purifying steam facial, add 3 drops of tea tree essential oil and 3 drops of lemon oil to a bowl of steaming hot water, then lean over the bowl and let the fragrant steam penetrate your skin for 5-8 minutes. You can also add tea tree oil to the Purifying Steam Bath from Petite Marie Organics. This steam also works to clear sinuses during the cold season. When applied to the skin, tea tree oil has shown as much effect on acne as 5% benzoyl peroxide preparation.
Tea tree oil and oily skin
Do not be afraid to apply light oils to your oily skin! It’s the waxes, especially paraffin and mineral waxes that clog pores and contribute to acne. Add 5-6 drops of tea tree oil to 30 ml / 1 oz of jojoba or almond oil and shake well. Dot lightly on your face and massage gently.
Tea tree oil face masks
To treat oily skin, combine 3 drops of tea tree oil with 2 tablespoons of live yogurt or a paste made of oatmeal and water. Apply to the dry skin and leave for 8-10 minutes or as long as you can. Wash off with warm water.
Tea tree oil and chapped lips
Add 2 drops of tea tree oil to 1 teaspoon of jojoba oil or combine with little cold cream or a facial balm such as Crème Galen. Apply to your cracked, chapped lips daily. Avoid licking your lips too often as tea tree oil can be toxic when swallowed.
You can also use this blend on dry, inflamed cuticles.
Tea tree oil and dandruff
Dandruff is a variety of yeast, and tea tree oil can perfectly tackle this task. Add 6 drops of tea tree essential oil to 100 ml / 3.3 fl oz of warm water and stir well to disperse the oil. Apply to your freshly shampooed wet hair and wait for 1 minute before rinsing. You can also add 6 drops of tea tree oil and 5 drops of lemon oil to an ounce of grape seed or jojoba oil and apply the solution to the dry unwashed hair before a shampoo.
Tea tree and home cleaning
Add 10-15 drops of tea tree oil to a spray bottle with a vinegar-water mix or plain water. Use to wipe door handles, keyboards, telephones, shoe insoles, and other surfaces (except leather and vinyl). You can also add tea tree oil to a glass of water and place toothbrushes for an antibacterial soak. Add 10-15 drops of tea tree oil and/or lemon oil to a bucket of hot water and wipe the floors. Your home will smell gorgeously green, too!
Tea tree oil and cold viruses
As an antiviral, tea tree oil combats cold and flu viruses. Add a few drops to a bowl of hot water and place it on a radiator if someone in your household is ill (be careful to place the bowl out of the reach of children!) This trick also works to eradicate cooking and other unpleasant smells.
Tea tree oil safety
Never swallow tea tree oil! Tea tree essential oil is believed to have mild estrogenic properties, so it is not advisable for use if you are pregnant, have epilepsy or asthma, taking a prescribed medication. If you have any doubts whether tea tree oil is suitable for you, please contact your medical practitioner before using pure tea tree essential oil.
Hair Over Health? The Surgeon General Talks Hair, Bacne and Other Reasons Women Don’t Workout
I bet people just fawn all over her…
“Oftentimes you get women saying, ‘I can’t exercise today because I don’t want to sweat my hair back or get my hair wet,’ ” said Surgeon General, Dr. Regina Benjamin. “When you’re starting to exercise, you look for reasons not to, and sometimes the hair is one of those reasons.”
The mostly male press core giggled at her logic – and Peter Stier of the National Center For Public Policy Research sniped, “I don’t know whether the surgeon general’s role is to engage in smaller issues like this. It strikes me as bizarre.” – and she is taking a lot of flak for her opinion, especially when she mentioned black women and their extensive and expensive hair regimens specifically. But I totally understand where Dr. Benjamin is coming from and while I’m not saying that we girls should value our hair over our health, I think that if you want to encourage more women to exercise you do need to talk about some of the cosmetic issues.
Women are placed in a strange position in our society when it comes to exercise. We’re told that we should exercise to be skinny (health repeatedly comes in second in polls of why women exercise), that we should doll up when we go to the gym and that looking hot is equally as important as getting sweaty. (I once had a male friend tell me that women should only sweat in “sexy” places like our cleavage and face and that anything else, like our pits, is “gross.”) Once we’re there we’re cautioned not to get “too muscular.” And people are surprised when we are confused over these conflicting messages?
I’m very dedicated to my workouts but even I’ll admit to occasionally skipping or modifying a workout because of my hair. Just recently I skipped my usual evening workout because I didn’t want to show up to the first parent-teacher conference of the year looking like a drowned rat and there would have been no time to do my hair between the gym and the conference. And I’m not the only girl who’s done so. A good friend of mine refuses to swim because it will ruin her blowout. Another friend avoids working out because any sweat aggravates her terrible bacne. And who hasn’t heard a woman say that she’ll come to the gym… after she loses weight?
Just because these are “women’s” issues doesn’t mean they’re “small” issues.
Have you ever skipped or toned down a workout because of a cosmetic issue? Do you have any advice for working around “gym hair”?
Other places I am this week:
Kids in the Delivery Room: Family Bonding or Traumatic? (Shine!Yahoo)
Sisters and Weight: It’s complicated (iVillage)
Baby Boomer Boob Jobs (iVillage)
Rules of Civility (BlogHer Book Club)
10 Creative Alternatives to Time Out (Shine!Yahoo)
The Surprising Thing That Working Moms and Stay-at-home Moms Have in Common