Conquering breast cancer is something to celebrate, and I am so thankful that more and more women are surviving breast cancer than ever before. And without having a full month dedicated to Breast Cancer Awareness and even the year-long pink product and pink ribbon campaigns, we might not be celebrating this as much.

I hope you will join me and support Breast Cancer Awareness month by purchasing a pink product. I will be bringing you beauty suggestions all throughout the month, and hope you find something you like!

Post from: Aging Fabulous

I was equally thrilled when I saw this recent article on Yahoo! from HealthDay News:

Yoga’s postures, controlled breathing and meditation may work together to help ease brains plagued by anxiety or depression, a new study shows.

Brain scans of yoga practitioners showed a healthy boost in levels of the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric (GABA) immediately after a one-hour yoga session. Low brain levels of GABA are associated with anxiety and depression, the researchers said.

“I am quite sure that this is the first study that’s shown that there’s a real, measurable change in a major neurotransmitter with a behavioral intervention such as yoga,” said lead researcher Dr. Chris Streeter, assistant professor of psychiatry and neurology at the Boston University School of Medicine.

She believes yoga could prove a useful tool to help people battling depression and anxiety disorders. “We’re not advocating that they chuck their medication, but I would advise that they could use it as an adjunct and see how they are doing,” Streeter said.

Her team published its findings in the May issue of the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.

In the study, the Boston researchers used high-tech magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging to gauge levels of GABA in the brains of eight long-time yoga practitioners and 11 non-practitioners. The participants were healthy, and none was diagnosed with a major psychiatric condition.

Brain scans were taken before the beginning of the experiment. Then, the yoga group was asked to engage in the meditative practice for 60 minutes, while the non-yoga group simply read. The researchers then re-scanned each participant’s brain, looking specifically at GABA levels.

“We showed a 27 percent increase in the brain GABA levels of those doing yoga — a really significant increase,” Streeter said. No such change was noted in the non-practitioners who had just read.

She said the style or school of yoga practiced didn’t seem to matter. “We had hatha, ashtanga, bikram, vinyasa, and kripalu” practitioners included in the yoga group, Streeter said, “and many had been trained in several different schools.”

According to Streeter, “this all gives us one of the mechanisms by which yoga may be having a beneficial effect. There could be other mechanisms.”

But another expert pointed to what he considered flaws in the research.

Zindel Segal, chairman of psychotherapy and a professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Toronto, has for years studied the use of behavioral interventions to alleviate psychological woes.

He said the Boston researchers were to be commended for using brain scan imaging technologies to investigate the effectiveness of these techniques. But he questioned why the yoga group was simply compared to a sedentary reading group and not to another movement-based group.

“Exercise itself may have some effects on GABA, so I think in this study, you’d really want that comparison,” he said. Including such a control group would make it clear that it was yoga and not just an hour of physical exertion that was responsible for the brain changes.

He also pointed out that all of the people in the study were mentally healthy, and clinical depression and anxiety disorders involve more than the “daily fluctuations in stress and tension” that healthy individuals are prone to.

“We know that yoga can have a profound effect” on smoothing out life’s daily ups and downs, Segal said. “But so does working out on a Stairmaster for an hour.”

Segal also questioned the role of GABA in depression. While it may play a role in anxiety disorders, “GABA is not one of the main neurotransmitters that seems to be a part of the depression story,” he said. Other neurochemicals — most notably serotonin — play much bigger roles in the disorder, he said.

None of this means that the study’s findings are without merit, Segal said. “In fact,” he said, “we have a program called ‘mindfulness-based cognitive therapy,’ where we do use yoga, as well as mindfulness meditation,” as therapeutic tools. Streeter’s findings “suggest the need for more study of these practices,” he said.

Streeter agreed that her study is probably just a beginning.

“I think what’s important about this study is that it shows that by using really cutting-edge neuroimaging technology, we can measure real changes in the brain with behavioral interventions — changes that are similar to those that we see with pharmacologic treatments,” she said.

I am hoping that Yoga relaxes my mind while it strengthens my body. And if it helps ease a bit of anxiety – that would be a great benefit too!

Post from: Aging Fabulous

The members of The Beauty Blog Network (which I belong to) have come together to support our friends who are dealing with cancer. In this, we have created Comments For a Cure.

As my brother was diagnosed with GBM Grade IV (a life threatening brain tumor) in February, I knew I had to get involved with Comments For a Cure.

Now, I need your help. For each comment that is left on this post today (June 4th) through Wednesday (June 6th), I will donate $1 to The National Brain Tumor Foundation. So, please leave a comment. All you have to say is something like “I support your cause” or “I like your blog” or “Have a nice day”…anything! Just leave the comment!

Other members who are participating:
99 Products
A Touch of Blusher
A Girl’s Gotta Spa
Aging Fabulous
All About the Pretty
All Lacquered Up
AZ Spa Girls
Beauty & Fashion Tech
Beauty Hatchery
Beautiful Makeup Search
Brain Spam
eBeautyDaily
GirlPaint
Life of a Ladybug
Lipstick Powder n’ Paint
Makeup Minute
Mystical Beauty Musings
Pretty by Nature
Real Self
The Beauty Newsletter Blog
The Makeup Bag
The Makeup Girl
The Product Girl
The Perfume Bee
We Love Beauty
Yummy411

Please help support this worthy cause.

Over the next few days, I will keep reminding you to comment and will tell you about other ways you can get involved with Comments For a Cure.

Post from: Aging Fabulous

Here is a list of what I am reading now:

• Decorating Idea Book
• Dr. Andrew Weil’s Guide to Optimum Health: A Complete Course on How to Feel Better, Live Longer, and Enhance Your Health Naturally
• Landscaping with Stone
• New Complete Guide to Landscaping: Design, Plant, Build
• Bobbi Brown Living Beauty
• Pure Skin: Organic Beauty Basics
• The Tween Years : A Parent’s Guide for Surviving Those Terrific, Turbulent, and Trying Times
• 1,000 Places to See Before You Die: A Traveler’s Life List

What is on your reading list?

Post from: Aging Fabulous

There is a new website in town, called Boomertowne. I have seen it multiple times being plugged on TV! Yes, by way of television commercials. I was sort of surprised to see this.

When looking over the website, which is just overloaded with special guests and almost too much information, I sort of felt like I was lost in there. In the About Us page of the website, they lay claims to have three key areas, but then it goes on to list 6 areas. See what I mean about information overload?

Personally, I like more niche sites and blogs, where I can get in, get out, and find specifically what I want. But, that does not mean that I am missing the bigger picture here. One thing I totally don’t get, is the flash scene on the home page of the woman with a shopping bag walking her dog! You can switch her to walk either way, and it just makes no sense whatsoever to me!!! Am I alone here in how I feel?

If you like Boomertowne, let me know!

Post from: Aging Fabulous

I have been seeing this on my local news all day. Supposedly women are calling and e-mailing local television stations to find out where to get the Number Seven Cream. Well, the cream is actually a serum, from Best Selling UK Beauty Brand Boots. Boots recently launched in the United States, and the PR people have certainly done a great job of getting this “anti-aging miracle serum” out there. From what I hear locally, it is selling out at Target.

So is this just great marketing? Public Relations? Or does this serum really work? You know I will definitely put it to the test as soon as I can get my hands on it.

First off, this serum carries a different name here in the United States. It is the Restore & Renew Beauty Serum. Here is the description from the Boots website.
“Reveal younger looking, beautifully refined skin with this powerful blend of caring and skin restoring ingredients. Light and non-greasy, it glides on instantly softening and smoothing your skin. Then, with regular use, it works to renew your complexion, restoring radiance and helping to reduce the appearance of pores, fine lines and wrinkles in just 4 weeks. With concentrated levels of our unique antioxidant complex and skin-firming pro-retinol complex to boost and maintain skin’s elasticity.
Created with Care. We’ve created this hypo-allergenic product using only ingredients we know and trust. It has been tried and tested by guests with even the most sensitive skin, so you’ll know it will be good to yours. Dermatologically tested.”

From the frenzy of it all, if you want to try this beauty out, you better run – not walk to your nearest CVS or Target, as that is the only place you will find it here in the US. You will find it for $21.99.

Post from: Aging Fabulous