About
The health and beauty spot is a blog for anyone who wants to look after themselves on the inside and outside. You can consult with our panel of healthy experts to answer your every day or long standing health questions and top up your beauty knowledge with a regular dose of fantastic beauty tips on how to look utterly fabulous.
Charlotte and I co-run glo-wellbeing, a company dedicated to providing mobile holistic and beauty therapies to the office, events and pamper parties. Our work takes us and our ever expanding network of therapists throughout the UK where we meet some incredible people and rather then keeping them tucked away, we wanted to share some of their tips and advice.
As a pair of thirty somethings who have only just got to grips with facebook and twitter we are looking forward to the next leg of our digital challenge and we just hope that you’ll join us on our journey to learn more, love life and increase wellbeing wherever we go.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and we hope that you enjoy our blog.
Kelly and Charlotte
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Hi,
I have terrible eczema, have had it all my life, I often go back to the USA, Indiana, specifically, at XMAS, and it totally disappears. On return to London, within hours, my skin started to deteriorate. I have thought and thought and was wondering if it could be down to the difference in the water. Indiana’s is very soft, whilst I live with very hard water here. It is definitely not down to diet or soaps as here I eat very well and buy lauryl free organic soaps and shampoos whilst there the produce generally comes out of a tin, powdered sachet, paper bag or take out container! And the lauryl sulphates are the first ingredient in all cosmetics! Any ideas?
Thank you so much for your help and advice.
Best,
Courtney
Dear Courtney
Thanks for your post. Sorry to hear you’ve had a terrible eczema experience. I have consulted with Daniel Maxwell on this post who is an acupuncturist and works at the London Acupuncture Clinic in Harley Street . According to Chinese medicine, the problem with eczema is that the allergen (ie. the substance causing the body to react) is only part of the story. The other major factor involved in the condition is your immune system and the body’s hyper-reactivity – so that at times your body may react to specific allergens while at other times these allergens pose no problem. As I’m sure you know, this can make searching for individual allergens a frustrating process. Most probably, in fact, the trigger in this case is not just one thing, but a combination of influential factors. According to Chinese medicine, the route out of this problem is to make your body less reactive, rather then constantly looking for triggers. One of the most effective ways of influencing the immune system and making the body less reactive in eczema is through Chinese herbal medicine. One of the best practitioners who specializes in skin conditions is Marzin Al-Khafaji. He is based in Hove and can be reached at: . In the meantime, common sense solutions such as proper exercise, plenty of pure water and a light diet rich in fruits and vegetables, whilst avoiding any known allergens, is the way to proceed. let us know if you found this reply helpful and how you get on.
Hi,
It seems I have pinched a little nerve in my upper hip on the right hand side. I think from sleeping wrong after collapsing from total jet lag.
Are there any stretches you can suggest or advice you can give.
Thank you very much in advance.
Best,
Courtney
Dear Courtney
Thank you for your post. If you have a pinched nerve, obviously you would need to get this checked out by your GP, Osteopath or Chiropractor. However, in the short term, try the following: ‘The hoola’ put your hands on your hips and do the hoola – rotate the hips one way or the other trying to make the movement massage into the area and loosen up the back, hips and waist. The alignment of your knees and ankles also have a significant bearing on your hips so do a similar movement for the knees: bend the knees, place your hands on your knees and then rotate circular movements one way and then the other. Then do your ankles as well, either pointing the toe and rolling the ball of the foot on the floor or holding the ankle in the air and rotating the ankle. Another helpful stretch is to lie on your back, bend the knees into your chest, place your hands on your knees and then guide your knees towards you, outwards, and then back towards you so they’re rotating in circles – first one way and then the other way – this benefits most of the important muscles and ligaments in the lower back and hips. Do all these exercises gently but multiple times during the day. Use them to loosen, rather than harshly stretch the area. Also Squatting is really good for the hips. Try and squat with your feet flat on the floor. If you experience any pain during these exercises, back off and make smaller movements. Research has revealed that general exercise is always beneficial for musculo-skeletal issues! Let us know how you get on!
I’ve got a lot on at work at the moment and sometimes i wake up in the night and start worrying about things and can’t get back to sleep. is there anything i can do about this?
Thanks for your enquiry Tanya. There are two things that will bring you peace in this area, but first remember the earlier blog I wrote about how you are never going to get it all done and the importance of having a structure for the things you are not doing etc.
1. First of all it is important that each day before you finish work you complete your day, eg put ‘what you didn’t do today’ into some form of existence for tomorrow eg your diary, then every day before you leave work, have a conversation with someone to complete your day, eg this is what I said I would do today, this is what I did do, this is what I didn’t do and what I have put in place to have it done in the future, (this is an opportunity to say what ever you need to say so that you can leave work at work and go home with a clear mind ready for tomorrow).
2. At all times it is important to carry around with you a pad with things that you need to remember (never rely on your memory). This allows you to get things out of your head so they don’t keep rattling around in there impacting your peace of mind. When it is appropriate put these notes into the relevant places eg your diary or the document you are working on eg. Make sure that this pad is emptied every night before you go to bed, and if you do think of something that needs to
be done last thing at night, or in the middle of the night, write it on your pad and get them out of your head, then relax.
let us know if this helps.
This advice was provided by glo’s life coach: Darren Withey. you can contact Darren by email: with.ease@gmail.com or phone: 07815719994