Making The Most Of Your Mouth

By Devon Monache

Your mouth does a lot: singing, smiling, kissing, speaking, laughing... As the years go by, these activities all take their toll.

The first place most women begin to see lines and wrinkles is near their mouth. The skin here moves as much as any skin on the face, bending and folding as we exploit its many uses. Sunblock, visors and hats help, however the lower portion of the face usually still suffers greater damage from the sun. Wrinkles are inevitable with all these factors.

It is unfortunate that, when someone looks at you, they first notice your mouth and eyes. Wrinkles can appear worse when wearing colourful lipstick, because it attracts more attention to the mouth. For many, wrinkles and textural changes begin to extend out from the mouth onto the chin and middle parts of the cheeks and with collagen loss, the skin begins to sag, contributing to a less firm jawline, or even jowls.

.: Weight Loss Tips for The Overweight: How to Lose Weight Without Getting Loose Skin

By Fia Gay Caballero

When you lose a considerable amount of weight, you might experience loose skin under the arms and around the tummy and knees. While this is not fatal at all, it can be very horrible and may make you feel insecure. Fortunately, there are some steps that you can take to lose weight without gaining loose skin. Read on below to find out how you can prevent sagging skin as you achieve your ideal weight.

Don't lose weight too much too soon - If you lose a lot of weight in such a short period of time, your skin will not have enough time to adjust and match your new body shape--leaving you with unsightly, saggy skin. So be sure not go on crash diets and other severe weight loss plans. Generally, you should only lose up to 2 pounds a week.

.: Excess Skin After Weight Loss: How To Get Rid Of It

By Jay Brachfeld, M.D.

Like many of my patients, maybe you have lost weight recently in an effort to boost your health and lower your risk for serious diseases like diabetes and heart disease. And like my patients, you may not have been prepared for the loose skin that can occur along with weight loss - especially if you're over age 40! Take heart, though, as there are several things you can do to tighten up your skin again that I'd like to tell you about.

Lose The Weight AND The Loose Skin!

In your 20's you could lose 20-30 lbs in a month and your skin could bounce back fairly easily. As we get older, past the age of 40, and especially past age 50, skin loses some of its elasticity and ability to bounce back as quickly as it once did. We shouldn't try to lose a significant amount of weight quickly - 1-2 lbs a week is best to help our skin re-adjust itself.

If you've lost a significant amount of weight, such as 50 lbs or more, it will take a little longer for your skin to re-form to a smaller frame with less fat. If your BMI (body mass index) was over 40 to begin with, you may need a surgical procedure to remove excess skin in certain areas, especially if it is prone to rashes and infections. However, your skin is an amazingly resilient organ and, with the proper treatment, it can re-form to a smaller frame. Here are some things that help:

Diet. While you were dieting, hopefully you were eating more protein. If not, some of your weight loss could have been muscle tissue and this needs to be rebuilt so that the skin has pumped up muscle to cover now instead of fat. Make sure you are eating adequate amounts of protein. Figure 0.5 grams per pound of body weight. Ex. Weight: 150 lbs/75 grams protein every day to re-gain muscle mass.

Water. Water is crucial to skin elasticity and plumping up sagging skin. In fact, a simple test of dehydration is skin "tenting" on the back of your hand or forearm. If you can pick up skin in these areas, you're dehydrated and need water. Drink a minimum of 64 ounces of water a day, although many researchers advocate more, such as 90 to100. However, drinking more than this, unless you are sweating very heavily can have negative health effects.

Vitamins. The best vitamins to rebuild skin and its collagen that helps it stay firm and elastic is Vitamin C. I recommend dieters take at least 1,000 mg of Vitamin C a day in divided doses of 500 mg. This helps build collagen that creates the "scaffolding" structure of your skin and holds it together. Other supplements that can help are liquid collagen which can be bought in most health food stores. This will help skin elasticity.

Weight training. As I mentioned earlier, skin lies over fat and then muscle beneath it. When you lose most of the fat, skin only has muscle and bone to drape across. Hopefully, you were weight training during your weight loss to build muscles while losing fat. If not, you have some work in the gym to do! Start weight training, 3-4 times a week. Ladies, don't worry, you don't have the testosterone levels to get huge bulky muscles. You will get tighter, toned, and slightly bigger muscles that your skin can drape across more attractively. Your weight numbers may bump up on your scale, but added muscle is good weight. It's fat weight that's unhealthy. Glutamine. This recommendation comes via bodybuilders who regularly supplement with this amino acid to build strong muscles AND tighten skin during and after significant weight loss. Glutamine powder, or capsules, can be bought at most health food stores. Take 5 grams on an empty stomach before weight training and 5 grams afterwards. Take an additional 5-10 grams before bedtime to augment muscle and skin repair that occurs during sleep repair.

Skin brushing/exfoliating. Skin cells die and slough off on a daily basis. Sometimes they do not shed as quickly as they should and form a dry, dull layer over new skin. It's important for new skin cell growth and health to remove this layer of old, dead skin cells. This can be done either vigorously doing a dry skin brushing on a daily basis or using a medium-coarse exfoliating skin cleanser in the shower 2-3 times a week.

Skin wraps. A service of many spas, these are basically gauze bandages soaked in herbal mixtures that draw and tighten skin. You can be wrapped head to toe, or just problem areas like arms, thighs, and waist/stomach. Then you either do light aerobic exercise to raise your body heat or are placed on a far infrared heating blanket. Many of my patients swear by wraps for tightening skin, reducing unsightly cellulite that can make loose skin look much worse, and inch loss.

Laser tightening. Laser procedures heat collagen and elastin fibers beneath the skin and result in shrinkage and tightening of these structures, tightening the loose skin. Consult a good plastic surgeon for this procedure. Can be a little costly, but the results may be worth it to you. Burn more fat. You may be surprised to hear that part of sagging skin is that it actually still has fat pockets in it causing it to hang. This is especially true of upper/under arm skin, and inner/upper thighs, knees, waistline. Be sure to do some cardio/aerobic work, lower your carb intake a little to help burn those extra fat pockets out of the skin. Add these nutritional supplements: Omega 3's, green tea extract, L-carnitine to assist in fat burning and drink plenty of water.

Far infrared sauna. Available at certain spas for a weekly fee, or you can buy your own unit for home use. There are also far infrared arm, thigh, and body wraps for spot fat burning. Unlike steam saunas, far infrared saunas burn subcutaneous fat and reduce cellulite, as well as remove toxins from the body and burn calories. Recommended twice a week. Drink lots of water during use.

Let me also say, congratulations on your weight loss! It's a big accomplishment and you should be proud of your effort. Now, put a little extra effort into tightening up your loose skin and you'll be even more proud of yourself and how amazing you look!

With more than three decades of experience in treating thousands of patients, you could say I've seen it all. I treat a wide range of skin conditions- from cancer to acne- and believe that natural, practical alternatives carry the day.

I believe that education is fundamental to prevention and wellness. I've partnered with other medical experts and developed an online health education site, http://www.HealthyAnswers.com, which offers a wealth of natural health information, written by top physicians and medical experts.

.: Accelerating Weight Loss and Improve Skin Health and Appearance With Body Wraps

By Ella May Simpson

Body wraps are not merely a fad, they are proven effective techniques that can be used to lose weight, beautify the skin and generally improve your health. They have been in use for centuries, the first records of body wraps date back to the Ancient Greeks and Ancient Egyptians. These ancient cultures knew about the positive and especially the beauty effects of body wraps and used them not only for beautification but for treatment of skin conditions as well. What we know today though is that body wraps are a shortcut to weight loss.

You can now lose as much as 10 to 20 inches of fat on your skin without having to subject yourself to dangerous chemicals like Botox, demanding activities like exercising or starving yourself. The main reason this technique is very popular today is actually because people are looking for faster, healthier and practical ways to lose weight and beautify their skin. But then, how do these wraps work?

First, I will start by stating that one of the reasons fats accumulate beneath your skin is because of the presence of harmful toxins - fats act as insulators in the body to protect the body from these toxins because they can be poisonous should they get into the bloodstream. Therefore, the fats serve a purpose to protect your bodily processes and internal organs. This also means that detoxifying the body and getting rid of the toxins will help you lose fats faster and reveal a beautiful, evenly toned and tight physique underneath.

The fats will fade go away naturally. The best approach is to use natural ways to deal with the root cause of fat build up and let the excess weight fall away. Detoxifying your body also means weight loss, a softer and cleaner skin, increased metabolism, treatment of such conditions as eczema, asthma, arthritis and others and relief from chronic aches and pains on the skin. In a nutshell, body wraps will not only get rid of fats bit also eliminate the stagnant festering toxins and debris on the skin.

There are no health risks to using body wraps, just as long as your skin is not allergic to any nutrients in the natural substance that you apply on the skin before wrapping. If you have body fat issues that you want to get rid of before the next weekend, you better order a scientifically formulated body wrap solution that is proven to help restore skin health and do away with inches of fat within just a couple of days.

.: How To Get Rid of Loose Skin After Weight Loss?

By Carole McKinley

It has to be said that prevention is better than cure but do not be disheartened. You have achieved what you have set out to do, lost a lot of weight which is a massive achievement and you deserve a huge pat on the back and should be very proud of yourself. So why are you not feeling ecstatic? Answer, because you have not been left with the body you have always dreamed of. Instead, you look in the mirror and could cry. All you can see is loose, hanging folds of skin. Not only do they look unsightly but they can cause major health problems. You do not have to live with loose skin. There are options. There are non invasive procedures and invasive procedures and the treatment that would be appropriate would depend on the degree of your loose skin.

The non invasive treatment is called Thermage. This cosmetic procedure uses radio frequency energy to heat the deeper layers of the skin in a controlled way, promoting a healing response in the underlying tissues that give the skin its support. It can be used on the face, neck, decolletage, upper arms and thighs to tighten the skin. This type of procedure is for people who have loose skin but is not hanging in folds. If you have folds of excess skin, then unfortunately invasive surgery is the only answer.

All invasive surgery carries risks and before making a decision to have such an operation you should have a number of consultations with a reputable surgeon. If your main problem is confined to your abdomen, a partial or complete abdominoplasty will be required, commonly called a tummy tuck. An incision is made above the pubic area and the skin and fat are detached from the muscle. The muscle is tightened and the excess skin is cut away. The scar will be below the bikini line and should flatten and lighten but this could take up to 9 months. The secret is that you have to be realistic from the outset.

Cosmetic surgery can also be carried out on the buttocks and thighs called a belt lipectomy, thighs, arms known as a brachioplasty and breasts. All of these procedures carry risks from bleeding to death so it is imperative that you are in good health and have been educated in the risks, the realistic expectations, the recovery period and the cost.

.: How to Tighten Sagging Skin After Weight Loss

By Suzy Rich

Losing weight has great benefits not just for your physical body but also to the quality of your life. However, some people may encounter sagging skin right after they lost their weight.

But sagging skin should not stop you from losing weight. Remember, sagging skin can be prevented if you only knew how to deal with your skin while losing weight.

The most important thing to remember to avoid sagging skin is to prevent drastic weight loss. Those diet fads that promise you to lose weight quickly can be bad for your health. Those programs that promise you to lose weight in 5 to 7 days can really be tempting however, if it is extreme, It may lead to dehydration of your body and your skin. Dehydration of skin may result to lose of elasticity, which may lead to sagging skin.

Likewise, rapid weight loss may not give enough time to your skin to adjust to your new body frame. The ideal weight loss is just one or two pounds a week, this will prevent sagging skin in the future.

Then, to tighten skin, applying moisturizer is required. A good moisturizer may add 70% of moisture to the skin. This is important because as you lose weight, the moisture is needed to keep elasticity of the skin, so as the body shrinks, the skin will also follow.

Drinking multivitamins is also another way to tighten the skin. We know that cutting too much calories may prevent us from getting all the nutrients needed by our skin. Taking a multivitamins, which include vitamin A, C and E as well as other vitamins like B-complex, may do wonders for your skin.

Finding a multivitamins, which also include copper and zinc, may also boost healthy skin.

Aside from multivitamins, drinking lots of water is also important. Drinking eight glasses of water daily also maintain the moisture of your skin. It also aid in flushing out the toxin of the skin making your skin appears more healthier.

Caffeinated beverages are not included in drinking water. Beverages that contain caffeine are diuretic, thus, causing your body to lose more water from your system. 

Another way to tighten skin is to use weights in your exercise. Even though you already lost a significant weight, it is still important that you lift weight. Using weights can build more muscle, which can really plump your skin. This process will make your skin appear tighter.

In the end, exercising will also guarantee that you will not regain back the weight that you already lost.

.: The Connection Between Weight Loss and Skin Care

By William T Gates

It is clear from statistics that a majority of people in developed countries are overweight. What is less commonly known is that many of them have a variety of skin problems besides other assorted health issues. Attempts to lose weight using certain approaches can also have a dramatic effect on the beauty of the skin. However, many popular diets actually have the opposite effect, causing a flare up of skin conditions.

It is important to point out that there is a very popular misconception that avoiding foots rich with fats causes overweight conditions, and that the popular way to diet and lose weight is to avoid greasy, fat-laden foods. But this is not really correct. Low-fat diets lack essential fatty acids that promote weight loss and also provide superb nourishment for the skin. Low-fat diets are usually too high in carbohydrates, whose calories are immediately turned into body fat if they are not burned off for energy. Besides that, fats in foods make you feel full far longer than their higher caloric content contributes to weight gain. You quickly feel hungry when you consume carbohydrates, and go looking for more of the same to relieve the hunger.

The key to obtaining a clear and radiant skin is to obtain a much larger amount of omega-3 fats. These are basically not found in the average modern foods, while these same foods are loaded with an excessive amount of omega-6 fats.

One superb source of omega-3 fatty acids is fish oil, and it has the remarkable ability to make dull, dry skin come alive and look healthy. You can find numerous articles that explain how fish oil helps you lose weight, but few of these articles bother to explain that the fish oils nourish your skin better than omega-6 fats and especially better that hydrogenated trans fats, which are very injurious to your body. Omega-6 polyunsaturated fats are also bad for your skin because they easily become rancid, which become those nasty free radicals that attack bodily tissues, damage blood vessels and dry the skin and cause wrinkles.

We've been brainwashed that fats cause cholesterol to increase, but there is very little scientific basis for this point of view, or for the fact that high cholesterol causes heard disease; it doesn't. There is a lot of business sense for this propaganda to exist as it has for a half century. Quality saturated fats such as coconut oil. Olive oil and other tropical oils are very healthy. Consuming foods with these oils, avoiding margarine and other hydrogenated oils and taking fish oil supplements will improve your skit and help you lose weight at the same time.