There could be many reasons such as thyroid malfunction, malnutrition, skin disorder etc.
But first review your hygiene products such as shampoo cosmetics etc.
I have tortured my hair for years with colour, curl, hot irons, blow dryers etc. But my hair remained shinny and healthy. My hairdresser often commented that it must be because I eat so healthy.
Well a few months ago I freaked out because my hair was coming out by the handful and I actually thought I might be getting areas of alopecia.
My hair has always been my favourite feature. In fact in my twenties I did some hair modelling. So when it started to fall out, panic set in.
Coincidentally I was reading a report by a personal trainer about solvents in many common over the counter products.
From my occupational health background I remember solvents are not something you want on your skin - they can pass the skin barrier and at the least cause dermatitis and with a severe exposure can cause systemic problems including kidney failure, central nervous system problems etc. The side effects of course are generally dose related as well as related to the type of solvent thus in industry there are rules to follow using personal protective equipment and/or ventilation and other measures to avoid exposure.
Anyway her article reminded me of a similar article I wrote in the 70's about some of the outrageous ingredients in cosmetics.
In the case of my hair, I thought back to what had changed several months before from the perspective of my hair products.
I have always been faithful and only used professional products recommended by my hairdresser. However my curls were a bit relaxed and one day while in the local drug store I saw a product on the shelf that was a curl enhancer. I bought up a few bottles and used it almost daily. My curls were instantly bouncy.
However, as I mentioned my hair began falling out.
I immediately grabbed the bottle and sure enough reading the ingredients - it contained a solvent common in many cosmetic and hygiene products 'propylene glycol'
it is used as an emmulsifier, degreaser etc. But nearly everything else I have has it as an ingredient as well.
I reasearched it and there were articles absolutely reporting that exposure to so many products with this solvent is a health risk as well as a number saying - kaffooey - it is too small an amount to worry about.
I conditioned my hair with natural oil and stopped using the product. (I either use natural unrefined virgin coconut oil from the health food store or olive oil). Within days I had no new hair loss other than the occasional one due to normal shedding. My spots that I was worried about are growing back.
I don't know who is right or wrong but I doubt that the propylene glycol was the problem versus another ingredient because although I stopped using the offending product, my professional products have the same chemical. So anecdotally, starting and stopping the use of the product for curl enhancement coincided exactly with the symptoms. This temporal association is enough for me not to use the product no matter what the offending chemical is.
You can read one of the articles by clicking on the link below.
Click this link to read an article about the chemical (it is also used in medications). Do your own research.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
PLASTIC SURGERY AT ITS WORST
On March 22nd 2009 on Discovery “Health” Channel I watched an episode of ‘Plastic Surgery Before and After’ which truly nauseated me and upset me as a health care professional.
First of all simply presenting the surgery in isolation without detailed background including any prior attempts at non surgical weight loss etc could lead the viewer to believe that this is an acceptable or recommended form of weight loss. If they were showing it for shock value - it kind of did the trick for me. I was shocked.
I realize that many plastic surgeons do charity work in foreign countries for conditions like cleft palate and disfigurement. But.. if they get the money to do that from their elective esthetic plastic surgery practice, particularly from outrageous procedures performed on obese people, then their ethics should be called into question.
Sure the patient has to be provided with ‘informed consent’ but.. does the patient truly know the harm they are causing and the huge risk they are undertaking as well as all the healthier options?
The case in question?
A woman noticed after seeing her son’s graduation videos that she was very obese. She admitted to being 335 lb but to me looked much heavier. She had a gastric bypass to lose weight.
Patients undergoing severe weight loss surgery are supposed to have proven attempts at medically supervised weight loss. There are supposed to be criteria prior to any consideration of the surgery. I understand that in the U.S. failure of medically supervised weight loss is indicated at 6 months if there has not been a 5% to 10% weight loss. Good grief if you are 200 lb overweight that is hardly a very good attempt – and sorry but I would doubt that the person is following the plan if they have not lost at least 5-10% of their weight even in 6 months. It is a very very weak guideline. From what I have seen, and read, I doubt very much that the criteria is rigidly enforced.
Mistake # 1
OK gastric bypass a treatment in bariatrics is not 'plastic surgery' but after gastric bypass the rapid and unhealthy loss likely make her proceed to mistake # 2.
Look at some of the complications involved in gastric bypass:
The functional size of the stomach is reduced and complications are not few. Some studies report that the 30 day mortality (death rate) is 7% for the laparascopic procedure and can be as much as 14.5 % for the incisional procedure.
The obese generally have poor wound healing. Fat doesn’t heal well and is prone to infection. Incisions are at risk of dehiscence – splitting open. I have actually seen several abdomens split open and the bowel come out in my surgical nursing career. It is not a very nice experience - (and I mean for the patient) gently holding the bowel in place with saline dressings until the surgeon arrives and hoping they don’t develop massive infection from the exposure of the bowel to the atmosphere. And hopefully they do not go into shock.
Other potential complications of the surgical weight loss procedures: infection, hemorrhage, blood clots, leakage of the anastomosis (joined part) from the bowel into the sterile abdominal cavity causing infection possible peritonitis; abcess; hernia; would infection, ulcers, stricture (blockage) dumping syndrome – when the client eats a sugary food it bypasses rapidly to the bowel causing symptoms of rapid heart beat, cold sweats and diarrhea; nutritional deficiencies such as hyperparathyroidism, iron deficiency, Vitamin B12 deficiency, malabsorption syndrome, anemia, protein malabsorption, as well as pulmonary embolism and respiratory failure; nausea and vomiting, gallstones, malnutrition. I haven’t even started on the anesthetic risks.
Histological and liver function tests are generally abnormal in the morbidly obese including fatty changes in the liver. There is no clear understanding regarding these changes and the ability to metabolize anesthetic agents which are mostly detoxified in the liver. The obese used to be at risk of “halothane hepatitis” but I believe they do not use that agent anymore. Even if the metabolism of anesthetics is not a risk there are dozens of others that the anesthesiologist has to worry about and which I won’t go into detail here.
I knew that often they have to use two operating tables to accommodate the patient but I was blown away at an anesthetic journal article that reported how common it is that these people can flip off the table during positional changes thus making it advisable to strap them down well. Due to their body habitus (size) they are also at great risk of pressure sores and neural (nerve) injuries during surgery.
Sound good so far?
On Oprah recently she featured some morbidly obese people. One was a woman 29-years-old and 900 lb - she decided on a gastric bypass. It took 8 firemen and a great deal of embarrassment for her to be transported to hospital. 12 different hospitals had turned her down for the surgery. She made a video plea for someone to help her. A hospital and physician stepped up to the plate. Tragically she died 12 days after surgery from a massive heart attack.
The other key person in the story was a 20-year-old 800 lb male who also underwent gastric bypass. He so far has lived and is down to around 500 lb.
The really horrible thing is, in the first case the woman was bed ridden and could not properly feed herself - so someone had to enable her eating habits - similarly the boy's mother had to bring him all his meals - he could get up to the bathroom but it was too painfull to do anything else for himself.
This procedure does nothing to change the eating pattern and lifestyle habits of the individual and bodes poorly for long term health.
The weight loss is very rapid along with ongoing lack of exericse it does nothing to allow your body, particularly your tissues and skin time to adjust and adapt leaving huge hanging folds of skin making it very difficult to maintain hygiene. I don't know how it affects the metabolism but I would doubt it would be a positive effect.
Perhaps the extreme weight of the 900 and 800 lb persons were considered a medical emergency - but who really knows if the woman would have fared better by some intense medically supervised hospital controlled non surgical weight loss plan.
The woman in the program I mentioned earlier (who was 335 lb) lost 100 lb and looked dreadful to me – she was smaller but still very fat with huge bulky bumps of cellulite. She was pleased with her weight loss.
She had the goal of wearing a bathing suit and hated that her legs rubbed together so what did she do next?
Mistake # 2 excessive plastic surgery.
Now remember - she is still at least 225 lb.
She underwent plastic surgery. The surgeon made a two foot incision at the back of her thighs across her buttocks trying to hide the gigantic incision in the butt crease. He cut enormous amounts of skin and removed fat and lipo-sucked out more fat. Then he made a one foot incision on the inside of each leg trying to tighten the legs and sucked out and removed more fat again. Cripes, it might as well have been a butcher shop.
The result? Very slightly smaller ugly legs now with huge ugly scars.
Yep. She wore a bathing suit bless her heart.
The woman is still obese. Although she ‘feels healthier’ probably because she is lighter overall but I do not see how two extreme surgeries would make her healthier. She still has the body, and organs and likely the habits of a morbidly obese individual. Organ fat and the health of the blood vessels are not altered with lipo suction procedures.
I could say she took the easy way out but I can't say that because it is so severe that she must have suffered terribly with both surgeries.
With a nutrition and exercise plan, she may not have ended up looking like Gwyneth Paltrow (thankfully perhaps) but she would have stood a chance of having a scar free pleasing appearance and she certainly would have greater health if she had proper support for nutritional counseling and exercise.
No surgeon should touch a patient until the patient has lost a significant amount of weight with proper nutrition and exercise. This is just wrong. They need better controls to protect patients from themselves but most of all from surgeons who perform surgery just because they can and just because someone asks for it. Look at Micheal Jackson. Need I say more. Even the rich are not immune from plastic surgery nightmares.
Which brings me to the point that we need more non invasive obesity support centers. There is paucity of bariatric centres. Given the obesity in well fed countries, and the risks of increased mortality and morbidity, this is unbelievable.
We need more health care money spent on prevention and helping the morbidly obese to downsize in a healthy non-surgical way. Too bad the woman had not spent the $20,000+ for the plastic surgery on healthy alternatives.
First of all simply presenting the surgery in isolation without detailed background including any prior attempts at non surgical weight loss etc could lead the viewer to believe that this is an acceptable or recommended form of weight loss. If they were showing it for shock value - it kind of did the trick for me. I was shocked.
I realize that many plastic surgeons do charity work in foreign countries for conditions like cleft palate and disfigurement. But.. if they get the money to do that from their elective esthetic plastic surgery practice, particularly from outrageous procedures performed on obese people, then their ethics should be called into question.
Sure the patient has to be provided with ‘informed consent’ but.. does the patient truly know the harm they are causing and the huge risk they are undertaking as well as all the healthier options?
The case in question?
A woman noticed after seeing her son’s graduation videos that she was very obese. She admitted to being 335 lb but to me looked much heavier. She had a gastric bypass to lose weight.
Patients undergoing severe weight loss surgery are supposed to have proven attempts at medically supervised weight loss. There are supposed to be criteria prior to any consideration of the surgery. I understand that in the U.S. failure of medically supervised weight loss is indicated at 6 months if there has not been a 5% to 10% weight loss. Good grief if you are 200 lb overweight that is hardly a very good attempt – and sorry but I would doubt that the person is following the plan if they have not lost at least 5-10% of their weight even in 6 months. It is a very very weak guideline. From what I have seen, and read, I doubt very much that the criteria is rigidly enforced.
Mistake # 1
OK gastric bypass a treatment in bariatrics is not 'plastic surgery' but after gastric bypass the rapid and unhealthy loss likely make her proceed to mistake # 2.
Look at some of the complications involved in gastric bypass:
The functional size of the stomach is reduced and complications are not few. Some studies report that the 30 day mortality (death rate) is 7% for the laparascopic procedure and can be as much as 14.5 % for the incisional procedure.
The obese generally have poor wound healing. Fat doesn’t heal well and is prone to infection. Incisions are at risk of dehiscence – splitting open. I have actually seen several abdomens split open and the bowel come out in my surgical nursing career. It is not a very nice experience - (and I mean for the patient) gently holding the bowel in place with saline dressings until the surgeon arrives and hoping they don’t develop massive infection from the exposure of the bowel to the atmosphere. And hopefully they do not go into shock.
Other potential complications of the surgical weight loss procedures: infection, hemorrhage, blood clots, leakage of the anastomosis (joined part) from the bowel into the sterile abdominal cavity causing infection possible peritonitis; abcess; hernia; would infection, ulcers, stricture (blockage) dumping syndrome – when the client eats a sugary food it bypasses rapidly to the bowel causing symptoms of rapid heart beat, cold sweats and diarrhea; nutritional deficiencies such as hyperparathyroidism, iron deficiency, Vitamin B12 deficiency, malabsorption syndrome, anemia, protein malabsorption, as well as pulmonary embolism and respiratory failure; nausea and vomiting, gallstones, malnutrition. I haven’t even started on the anesthetic risks.
Histological and liver function tests are generally abnormal in the morbidly obese including fatty changes in the liver. There is no clear understanding regarding these changes and the ability to metabolize anesthetic agents which are mostly detoxified in the liver. The obese used to be at risk of “halothane hepatitis” but I believe they do not use that agent anymore. Even if the metabolism of anesthetics is not a risk there are dozens of others that the anesthesiologist has to worry about and which I won’t go into detail here.
I knew that often they have to use two operating tables to accommodate the patient but I was blown away at an anesthetic journal article that reported how common it is that these people can flip off the table during positional changes thus making it advisable to strap them down well. Due to their body habitus (size) they are also at great risk of pressure sores and neural (nerve) injuries during surgery.
Sound good so far?
On Oprah recently she featured some morbidly obese people. One was a woman 29-years-old and 900 lb - she decided on a gastric bypass. It took 8 firemen and a great deal of embarrassment for her to be transported to hospital. 12 different hospitals had turned her down for the surgery. She made a video plea for someone to help her. A hospital and physician stepped up to the plate. Tragically she died 12 days after surgery from a massive heart attack.
The other key person in the story was a 20-year-old 800 lb male who also underwent gastric bypass. He so far has lived and is down to around 500 lb.
The really horrible thing is, in the first case the woman was bed ridden and could not properly feed herself - so someone had to enable her eating habits - similarly the boy's mother had to bring him all his meals - he could get up to the bathroom but it was too painfull to do anything else for himself.
This procedure does nothing to change the eating pattern and lifestyle habits of the individual and bodes poorly for long term health.
The weight loss is very rapid along with ongoing lack of exericse it does nothing to allow your body, particularly your tissues and skin time to adjust and adapt leaving huge hanging folds of skin making it very difficult to maintain hygiene. I don't know how it affects the metabolism but I would doubt it would be a positive effect.
Perhaps the extreme weight of the 900 and 800 lb persons were considered a medical emergency - but who really knows if the woman would have fared better by some intense medically supervised hospital controlled non surgical weight loss plan.
The woman in the program I mentioned earlier (who was 335 lb) lost 100 lb and looked dreadful to me – she was smaller but still very fat with huge bulky bumps of cellulite. She was pleased with her weight loss.
She had the goal of wearing a bathing suit and hated that her legs rubbed together so what did she do next?
Mistake # 2 excessive plastic surgery.
Now remember - she is still at least 225 lb.
She underwent plastic surgery. The surgeon made a two foot incision at the back of her thighs across her buttocks trying to hide the gigantic incision in the butt crease. He cut enormous amounts of skin and removed fat and lipo-sucked out more fat. Then he made a one foot incision on the inside of each leg trying to tighten the legs and sucked out and removed more fat again. Cripes, it might as well have been a butcher shop.
The result? Very slightly smaller ugly legs now with huge ugly scars.
Yep. She wore a bathing suit bless her heart.
The woman is still obese. Although she ‘feels healthier’ probably because she is lighter overall but I do not see how two extreme surgeries would make her healthier. She still has the body, and organs and likely the habits of a morbidly obese individual. Organ fat and the health of the blood vessels are not altered with lipo suction procedures.
I could say she took the easy way out but I can't say that because it is so severe that she must have suffered terribly with both surgeries.
With a nutrition and exercise plan, she may not have ended up looking like Gwyneth Paltrow (thankfully perhaps) but she would have stood a chance of having a scar free pleasing appearance and she certainly would have greater health if she had proper support for nutritional counseling and exercise.
No surgeon should touch a patient until the patient has lost a significant amount of weight with proper nutrition and exercise. This is just wrong. They need better controls to protect patients from themselves but most of all from surgeons who perform surgery just because they can and just because someone asks for it. Look at Micheal Jackson. Need I say more. Even the rich are not immune from plastic surgery nightmares.
Which brings me to the point that we need more non invasive obesity support centers. There is paucity of bariatric centres. Given the obesity in well fed countries, and the risks of increased mortality and morbidity, this is unbelievable.
We need more health care money spent on prevention and helping the morbidly obese to downsize in a healthy non-surgical way. Too bad the woman had not spent the $20,000+ for the plastic surgery on healthy alternatives.
EYEBROW TRANSPLANT - THE CRAZY WORLD OF COSMETIC SURGERY
A very wacky procedure costing $6000.
I have begun intermittently watching plastic surgery shows. Mainly because my former personal trainer is so anti plastic surgery and his rants have brought some of the issues to my attention.
I don't watch a great deal of TV but sometimes have the "boob tube" on for noise or diversion while doing housework.
Okay, so viola there was a program - get this - about eyebrow transplants!
They came up with the procedure originally to help those with no eyebrows due to burns or skin disease or chemotherapy and also supposedly to cover up permanent makeup tatoos. But of course now they are offering it for those who want perfectly enhanced eyebrows. The hook is that the eyebrows are a frame for the face and are actually quite important to appearance.
So just like people wanting Angelina Jolie lips - they could now get Brook Shields eyebrows albeit for about $6000.
How do they do it? - they cut a strip from the scalp (2-3 inches long - so you can't have really short hair or the scar might show)and hair by hair transplant them to the eyebrows a bit of a bloody sore, procedure just like hair transplants. I believe they implant about 300-400 hairs for each eyebrow - not all of the grafts take so it may have to be repeated.
Alright, now to why this is the most ridiculous procedure ever? Well guess what - the hair grows like the hair on the head - you know - the place it is transplanted from.
CAN YOU IMAGINE HAVING TO GO TO THE HAIRDRESSER FOR EYEBROW TRIMS ON A REGULAR BASIS? Why not just let em grow and wear them in a pony tail? And you have to use gel to train the hair as well.
Geez Louise. You'd think even if they are going to help those with no eyebrows, they could find an area of the body to transplant from which has a similar growth pattern.
There are other ways of doing it. A really good permanent makeup esthetician can 'tattoo' eyebrows which has got to be better than having to have a hair cut on your brows on a regular basis. And the cost is around $400 and it lasts for about 5 years - I will get more info on that and post at a later date. But of course the plastic surgeon's article almost pre-empted the topic by giving permanent makeup as one reason for needing the surgery (e.g. to cover the tatoo with hair so it is not visible). It has probably been 5 years why not just have them re-tatooed - how could it be more unnatural than having to shampoo condition gel and cut your eyebrows on a regular basis?
I have begun intermittently watching plastic surgery shows. Mainly because my former personal trainer is so anti plastic surgery and his rants have brought some of the issues to my attention.
I don't watch a great deal of TV but sometimes have the "boob tube" on for noise or diversion while doing housework.
Okay, so viola there was a program - get this - about eyebrow transplants!
They came up with the procedure originally to help those with no eyebrows due to burns or skin disease or chemotherapy and also supposedly to cover up permanent makeup tatoos. But of course now they are offering it for those who want perfectly enhanced eyebrows. The hook is that the eyebrows are a frame for the face and are actually quite important to appearance.
So just like people wanting Angelina Jolie lips - they could now get Brook Shields eyebrows albeit for about $6000.
How do they do it? - they cut a strip from the scalp (2-3 inches long - so you can't have really short hair or the scar might show)and hair by hair transplant them to the eyebrows a bit of a bloody sore, procedure just like hair transplants. I believe they implant about 300-400 hairs for each eyebrow - not all of the grafts take so it may have to be repeated.
Alright, now to why this is the most ridiculous procedure ever? Well guess what - the hair grows like the hair on the head - you know - the place it is transplanted from.
CAN YOU IMAGINE HAVING TO GO TO THE HAIRDRESSER FOR EYEBROW TRIMS ON A REGULAR BASIS? Why not just let em grow and wear them in a pony tail? And you have to use gel to train the hair as well.
Geez Louise. You'd think even if they are going to help those with no eyebrows, they could find an area of the body to transplant from which has a similar growth pattern.
There are other ways of doing it. A really good permanent makeup esthetician can 'tattoo' eyebrows which has got to be better than having to have a hair cut on your brows on a regular basis. And the cost is around $400 and it lasts for about 5 years - I will get more info on that and post at a later date. But of course the plastic surgeon's article almost pre-empted the topic by giving permanent makeup as one reason for needing the surgery (e.g. to cover the tatoo with hair so it is not visible). It has probably been 5 years why not just have them re-tatooed - how could it be more unnatural than having to shampoo condition gel and cut your eyebrows on a regular basis?
Friday, March 27, 2009
NATURAL BEAUTY WITHOUT PLASTIC SURGERY
I am dedicating this site to non surgical beauty enhancement topics. Although you may not consider some of the procedures 'natural' the main point is that the information is about non surgical options.
I am almost 61.
At age 20 I thought that by the age of 30 I would have a face lift.
Then it was 40, then 50, then 60. I still haven't had one. Why? As a nurse I have a healthy fear of surgery and complications. I have seen the horrors that have happened - even to people with money to buy the best. Need I mention Michael Jackson and some others?
Am I going to age gracefully? Not on your life, however I am going to work at it from a non surgical aspect. I don't feel how I anticipated I would feel at 61. Why should I look like it? But I will be clear that I have no desire to look 20 either. I just want to be the best I can be for my age.
I will share all I have learned as well as what I will learn along the way.
I am almost 61.
At age 20 I thought that by the age of 30 I would have a face lift.
Then it was 40, then 50, then 60. I still haven't had one. Why? As a nurse I have a healthy fear of surgery and complications. I have seen the horrors that have happened - even to people with money to buy the best. Need I mention Michael Jackson and some others?
Am I going to age gracefully? Not on your life, however I am going to work at it from a non surgical aspect. I don't feel how I anticipated I would feel at 61. Why should I look like it? But I will be clear that I have no desire to look 20 either. I just want to be the best I can be for my age.
I will share all I have learned as well as what I will learn along the way.
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