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Now that Elisa Epel has discovered stress burning out telomeres at our nerve ends, causing visual aging, the first step to more beautiful skin may be smiling at all the good things and thus defeating stress. That and keeping our nerves happy and healthy by ensuring they have ample supplies of vitamin B12.

Way around aging…

Some years ago I told my doctor I thought stress was affecting my health. I was under huge stress because IRS was enforcing for a year I’d paid and ignoring proof I kept sending to show I had paid.

My doctor said, “No. There’s no connection between stress and health.” That made me blink. That wasn’t what I found to be true. So I was all the more happy to hear on telly that Elissa Epel won an award for linking stress with damage to nerve ends, called telomeres.

What I hadn’t appreciated until I saw Epel’s video was that the stress we put on ourselves is the most damaging. How that works is, IRS attacks me; stress is intense. I keep thinking about IRS’s mistake and no longer see flowers in my garden, my neighbors, birds or butterflies, etc. My mind is full of things related to the stress. Not surprisingly, I begin to look older.

To see how this works, look in a mirror when you’re worried. Smile at yourself in the mirror. See the appearance of years disappear!

It’s not easy to keep smiling under stress, as you likely know. This is where vitamin B12 can help. With good vitamin B12 levels available to your nerves they can restore themselves. For instance, without enough B12 the protective covering on nerves, myelin, becomes tattered and damaged. Messages your nerves send leak out and no longer properly reach your muscles. Your hands may shake, you may become unsteady on your feet, words no longer come to you as easily. So it’s not surprising you’re not looking at flowers or butterflies.

Jarrow Methyl B12, 5000mcg, 60 Lozenges  Jarrow Methyl B12 5000 mcg

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If you’re able to identify what’s happening and begin using Methylcobalamin lozenges to restore your B12 levels, and if you eat Swiss Cheese with live B12 making bacteria, which are the same little guys that are responsible for the holes in Swiss Cheese, you will more easily be able to defeat stress and protect your health. Seriously.

Emotions, Stress and the Rate of Telomere Shortening, by Elisa Epel ~ Watch Video.

Dry, lusterless skin?

Although the man I hired to rebuild my deck did an abysmal job, he showed me something valuable about face skin. He was ten years older than me, but his skin looked ten years younger, so I looked into the vitamins he said he took. All I was taking was B12, a multi, and vitamin C.

Based on what he was taking I added alpha-lipoic acid, lecithin, CoQ10, milk thistle and whey protein. One or all of them has definitely improved my skin. Plus, I drink more water now.

The dry skin on my legs, however, is a different story. All my life, that I can remember, my legs were very dry skinned. Later in life I found my back itching, especially during the winter, because it was so dry.

That changed dramatically when I began having B12 replacement. I knew B12 was good for nerves, memory, balance and things like that. But dry skin? I hadn’t heard that vitamin B12 could reduce dry skin. Nevertheless, the fact was that my legs stopped looking scaly for the first time in decades and for several winters now my back has not itched. So, it appears that vitamin B12 somehow helps regulate moisture and natural body oils, perhaps via the nerves.

I’ve noticed that when I’m stressed and forget to use methylcobalamin lozenges (B12) my tinitus, that awful ringing in the ears, starts up and then if I remember to look at my legs, they invariably have dry skin sticking up here and there looking like small parched fields in a draught.

Methylcobalamin ~ Read more.

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Brown Spots and Breakouts ~

Dusting baking soda on my brown spots, sebacious keritosis ~ the ones that have a dry, bumpy surface that frequently detaches ~ successfully lightened and lessened them. But, when I began dusted baking soda on the brown spots under my breasts I got a rash of pimples that made me wonder if they were some kind of measles.

I checked Google and found that many people have breakouts, especially on the chest, when they exercise. Those who wrote on forums attributed the problem to toxins being brought to the surface by the exercise. Most felt the benefits of exercise outweighed the discomfort of the breakouts.

When Google offered natural remedies for boils in its results for “breakouts” I wondered if breakouts were like a boil, only scattered instead of big, in one place.

Turmeric to the Rescue

Among the natural remedies for boils were references to turmeric. So, I bought a small jar of the spice at the grocery and added a teaspoon of it to my brown rice.

Surprise ~ Not only did the turmeric stop the breakout on my chest, it stopped nasal drainage that I’ve had since I was a teen. No more does drainage keep me from sleeping soundly throughout the night.

Organic Turmeric Powder

After two weeks I felt that all was cured. I stopped putting turmeric into my brown rice. Almost immediately the nasal drainage started up again. So I now use a teaspoon or two of turmeric in my brown rice on a daily basis. Olive oil helps reduce the intensity of its flavor if I accidentally pour in too much, and Greek Oregano blends nicely when I add tomatoes. I also use either crushed chili peppers or black pepper to round out the flavor.

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I buy my turmeric from Amazon now, a pound at a time. It’s quite cost effective that way. I also use capsules so I don’t go without the benefits of Turmeric when my meals take a different direction.

Here is one of many highly informative pages on Turmeric, from a well researched Turmeric site. View info.

Over-the-Counter Acne Cure

Rubbing Alcohol 70%

It stings, but it works !!!

I didn’t have acne in high school because I swabbed my face with alcohol on cotton balls. My skin couldn’t break out because I kept killing the bacteria, is my guess.

When my teenage son had acne and came from London for a visit I showed him the alcohol trick, and while it stung, he stuck with it. The acne went away, most of it in less than a week, much to his surprise.

Periodically when I’m shopping a young clerk has intense acne and I want to explain about alcohol. But so far I’ve been afraid that I’d hurt feelings more than help. However, silence doesn’t feel good.

Breakouts on your neck?

The periodontist I went to listed breakouts on your neck as a possible indication of dental infection. He said the old kind of dental implants I have, with a bumpy surface, are prone to infection. He said that the more Ibuprofen I took for pain, the more it weakened my jaw bone thereby encouraging infection.

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I had no idea that Ibuprofen (Advil) weakens the jaw bone, but apparently it does, as does Fozimax which, ironically, people are prescribed to strengthen bone.

If you have breakouts on your neck, have been feeling tired, and you don’t have money to go to a dentist, vitamin C works well at controlling infection. I found that 12 grams a day taken in sets of 3 grams with a lot of liquid works for me. A gram is 1,000 mg. That may be too much or too little for you. (I used 26 grams a day when the infection was causing swelling and extreme pain. It took two days to feel good again.)

If you take more vitamin C than is needed to combat an infection the vitamin C will cause loose stool. Once it does that you’ve taken the maximum amount your body can use at that time and the rest is being eliminated. Sometimes the loose stool is also eliminating bad bacteria, like h.pylori, that has taken up residence in your stomach and intestines and keeps you from properly digesting and getting the magnesium and vitamin B12 from food you eat. If you have had whole corn kernels in your stool, you may notice that after a vitamin C “cleanout” everything is better digested.

Vitamin C Zaps h.pylori ~ Read more.

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Vitamin C in amounts over 250 mg. may not be good for people who have a particular gene and diabetes.

If you don’t have diabetes then it’s good to test out varying amounts of vitamin C to see how it goes.

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Be sure to drink a lot of liquid with the vitamin C (or any medicine).

Vitamin C ~ Read and Watch video of man saved from Swine Flu by Vitamin C

Large pores?

In high school I read that washing your face with hot water, then splashing on cold water reduces the size of pores. So, I’ve always followed a hot face-wash with a cold splash to snap my pores closed. I think it works because my pores are pretty small.

Large pores
Large pores

Except, when I was living in my condo with toxins I began to see my pores getting larger and more coarse looking. Because I didn’t know about the toxins for a couple of years I kept wondering why my face was looking more and more as if I smoked.

Once the hydrogen sulfide in my condo was identified and I had the outdoor toilet pit under my bedroom dug out I felt a lot better, but my pores did not quickly return to pre-toxin condition, although they improved slowly.

The reason toxins enlarge pores is that toxins interfere with oxygen availability throughout the body, so, I think that if I’d been eating more veggies it might have helped oxygenate my blood and reduce the stress to my skin that ultimately resulted in larger pores.

Since vitamin B12 reduced my symptoms from the toxins – like how often I lost my balance, was numb and forgetful – I believe that if I’d had more B12 shots or used methylcobalamin lozenges while I was living in the toxins it might have mitigated the damage to my skin dramatically. (But, I’ll never know for sure since I didn’t try it at the time.)

What I do know for sure is that milk thistle taken as a supplement removes toxins from the liver and and Epsom salts baths remove toxins through the skin. So, if you smoke put Epsom salts in your bath a few times a week and soak to remove toxins as well as relax, and take milk thistle, at least for a week or two every month.

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My toxic condo ~ Read more.

Methylcobalamin ~ Read more.

Milk Thistle ~ Read more.

Epsom Salts ~ Read more.

Puffiness?

Puffiness can be caused by insufficient sleep, too many vitamins, too little water, too much vinegar in ones food, as well as a variety of other things.

If you are noticing puffiness the first thing to do is to drink a lot more water and also green tea. Green tea is excellent at flushing out things that cause puffiness. Plus, I’ve recently read that green tea contains significant amounts of quercetin, which is very good for skin — some accounts suggest that adding yellow onions to ones food, because they are a good source of quercetin, helps reduce the likelihood of getting skin cancer. Quercetin ~ Read more.

If puffiness is from insufficient sleep it’s a bit more tricky since if you’re having trouble sleeping you can’t just decide to sleep more and do it.

During August, 2008, I was under way too much stress and I couldn’t sleep due to ongoing legal problems stemming from the outdoor toilet pit under my condo, to include another foreclosure action. I barely got 4 or 5 hours of sleep a night, and that’s with no nap during the day. The result was puffy bags under my eyes setting the tone for my whole face.

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What’s peculiar is that when I was fat my face was pudgy so it didn’t have wrinkles and that part of being fat I quite liked.

Puffiness is not like pudginess. Instead of looking less wrinkled my face looks a bit wilted when it is puffy and resembles a balloon that doesn’t have enough air in it.

While B12 helps provide healthy sleep patterns, and melatonin is an additional healthy aid to improved sleep patterns, stress can defeat even these strong supports. A banana before bed can help you get extra sleep during the night, but it may not stop you from repeatedly waking. Apple Cider Vinegar is great at making sleep happen, but when it is taken regularly it affects the fingernails making horizontal valleys in them, which is what I had when I was living in the toxins, so I don’t think vinegar should be used regularly.

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Wrinkles?

Dry and/or puffy skin exaggerates wrinkles. And, stress can make a horrendous number of wrinkles appear in a very short time: Once in London I wasn’t well during a stressful time; when I looked in the mirror my face was that of an old woman in National Geographic, photographed for the topography of wrinkles making her face “interesting”.

I was shattered to look like that. But when I got better the wrinkles went away. That’s encouraging, right?

Now my face looks best when I do a few minutes of exercises with it every night and use a cotton ball with alcohol to remove any remaining dirt from the day, followed by petroleum jelly as a major moisturizer. (Not elegant, I know, but back in high school I read about a model who used Vaseline on her face as a moisturizer and I was WAY impressed given how great her skin looked.)

Also, my face looks better, less wrinkled, when I walk around my garden for five minutes first thing in the morning to stimulate my metabolism.

 

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Sunburn?

Okay, I know we’re “supposed” to use sunblock and thereby avoid getting burned. But! I’ve always worried about not getting enough vitamin D if I was using sunscreen, and now it looks as if my concern is born out by the experience of those getting cancer not from the sun but lack of vitamin D.

I was worried some years ago when my boyfriend drove a little sports car with the top perpetually down, even all the way to Las Vegas.

Okay, I know we’re “supposed” to use sunblock and thereby avoid getting burned. But! I’ve always worried about not getting enough vitamin D if I was using sunscreen, and now it looks as if my concern is born out by the experience of those getting cancer not from the sun but lack of vitamin D.

I was worried some years ago when my boyfriend drove a little sports car with the top perpetually down, even all the way to Las Vegas.

My poor nose, it was so sunburned even with 30 SPF sunscreen that I was sure I’d get something horrible.

But, so far so good until I got a horrible sunburn during a recent spring day when I wasn’t paying attention to how long I’d been in the sun. When I saw how red my nose was I was extremely worried and decided to try rubbing the inside of leaves from my aloe plant on my nose, arms and legs, just in case it might help.

Well, I didn’t peel at all. I don’t know how that was possible, but it was a fact.

You can buy aloe in bottles, but I think using fresh leaves from the plant is especially therapeutic. (Right now I’m using aloe leaves every day to see if they reduce the intensity of a brown, age spot on my face. — Update:

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I failed to keep doing it, so I can’t report any results, one way or the other.)

Today I use astaxanthin to avoid sunburn and it works. What’s especially great about astaxanthin is that you still get vitamin D from the sun.

Astaxanthin ~ Read more.

Quercetin reduces incidence of skin cancer ~ Read more.

Bullet Points ~

1. Dry skin happens from the inside out. Low vitamin B12 levels often show themselves in very dry skin. Supplement your diet with  vitamin B12, alpha-lipoic acid, lecithin, and whey protein. Drink water and eat veggies, olive oil, fruit and nuts.

2. Sebacious keritosis brown spots are reduced in size, number and intensity of darkness by a daily dusting (sort of patting it on) with baking soda.

3. Breakouts on your chest may respond to turmeric added to your food. Mine did. And, I got to like the flavor. Turmeric also stopped my nasal drainage. I add a teaspoonful or two to my brown rice on a daily basis.

4. Swabbing your face with rubbing alcohol on cotton balls kills bacteria and clears breakouts. (The stinging tells you its working. For faster results hold the cotton ball longest where it stings the most.)

5. Breakouts on your neck can be a sign of a dental infection. Rubbing alcohol applied topically reduces the symptoms/ breakout. Vitamin C with lots of water can control not just the symptoms of the infection but the infection itself, even getting rid of quite significant pain.

6. Washing your face with hot water following by a splash of cold water shrinks pores. Large pores can result from toxins which cause a lack of oxygen. Milk thistle as a supplement and Epsom salts baths eliminate toxins and help keep pores lovely and small. It may be that ample amounts of vitamin B12 help reduce the effects of toxins from smoking, smog and chemicals, in the same way ample amounts of vitamin B12 reduce memory loss, numbness and nerve pain.

7. If you’re not getting enough sleep you aren’t going to feel well, and your skin is not going to look any better than you feel. Adequate sleep is essential for healthy, beautiful skin. Since vitamin B12 helps combat stress and regulate sleep patterns, it can also assist your skin in looking rested and happy.

8. Stress depresses our metabolism resulting in puffiness. As little as five minutes of walking first thing in the morning stimulates your metabolism and within a month reduces puffiness and gives a fresher, more supple appearance to your skin, especially that of your face.

9. The sun is good for us, to include our skin, but we need to pay attention to how long we are in the sun and doing that is healthier than using sun block because of the vitamin D we get from the sun. Aloe is effective when rubbed on an over exposed area of skin and can keep the burn from peeling. Fresh aloe from a plant is excellent and available for years, even decades with very little attention. Eating yellow onions and drinking green tea provide our bodies with quercetin which helps to keep us from getting skin cancer.

10. I wanted a rotary brush so badly, but the best reviewed ones were out of my price range. Then I remembered a small stain removing rotary brush that Tide provided a few years ago. I used it to successfully removed difficult stains, clean marks off my Saltillo, and now I tried it on my face. To my amazement skimming it gently in circles over my face made a huge difference. I surmise that the tops of wrinkles have a generous amount of dry skin that the rotary brush happily removes.

11. Skin care products are great and give a real boost not only to skin but to the sense that we are taking steps toward better skin. I have genuinely had people comment on my skin after beginning to use skin care products. BUT, skin care products are not a substitute for nutrition, sleep, hydration and stress reduction. Though, skin care products may help reduce stress by their inherent relaxing qualities.

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