News Skill Shot Zine

Most women are keenly aware of the ugly, discolored scarring known as stretch marks. As a matter of fact, there is an entire beauty industry centered around the removal of these unsightly skin defects. But what about stretch mark prevention?

You may be wondering if it is just a myth or whether a person can really do something to prevent stretch marks from developing. Clinical studies tend to be inconclusive in this area, but a large number of women have learned through personal experience that certain preventive actions can help minimize the risk of getting stretch marks.

These actions are detailed below and should be seriously considered by any woman that wishes to take a proactive approach in the fight against stretch marks. But first, let’s take a look at the real cause of stretch marks.

What Causes Stretch Marks?

The surface of the skin is generally fairly elastic, but when it is stretched beyond its capacity, damage can result. It is usually during periods of rapid weight gain and subsequent loss that you are at the greatest risk of developing stretch marks.

Prime examples of this weight change cycle can be identified during:

- Pregnancy

- Weight training

- Rapid weight gain and loss

- Growth spurts in teens

During these periods of physiological change, the normal production of collagen is disrupted. It should be noted that collagen is an important protein, with an essential role in providing pliability and elasticity to your skin. As a result of this disruption, the skin loses some elasticity and when stretched beyond its limits, white or red scars may appear. These scars are what are traditionally known as stretch marks.

Will a Stretch Mark Prevention Program Really Help?

Obviously, if you had a choice, you would agree that it is preferable to prevent stretch marks from developing in the first place, rather than trying to treat them after the fact. Unfortunately, there is no guaranteed method of preventing stretch marks, even though there are a number of products on the market that will make this claim. It is just not true.

The good news is that there are products that are proven effective in increasing the elasticity of the skin. It is believed that these natural creams and oils prevent stretch marks by attacking their root causes – loss of elasticity and sudden trauma through over-stretching. To increase the effectiveness of these products, it is recommended that they be used as part of an overall skin conditioning program.

Stretch Mark Prevention Tips

As Ben Franklin so aptly put; ‘An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!’ And no truer words have been spoken regarding an approach to stretch marks and their treatment. So, to help give you a jump start with your stretch mark prevention program, a number of helpful tips are provided below:

Tip #1

If you are thinking about getting pregnant, or are presently in the mother-to-be state, try starting an exercise program. Continue this regimen throughout your pregnancy and it should help in reducing a lot of the stretch marks that may have developed naturally during the process. An exercise program works by helping you to limit your weight gain and, therefore, limit the trauma and overstretching of your affected skin. Of course, before you start any exercise program, please check with your doctor.

Tip #2

Try using natural stretch mark products that inherently have the exceptional ability to increase the skin’s elasticity. Products made with cocoa butter and other natural ingredients are your best bet. Many women who have endured pregnancy swear to the effectiveness of this method.

Tip #3

To supplement stretch mark creams and oils, you should consider using a body brush to massage the affected areas where you want to prevent stretch marks from forming. This is usually on the thighs, breasts, buttocks, and arms. This extra effort helps increase the circulation to the skin and helps the absorption of the cream into the affected area.

Tip #4

If you are on a diet, moderation is the ‘keyword’. A diet encouraging slow weight loss will minimize trauma to the skin and allow the skin to better adjust to the weight changes. This will help reduce the likelihood of stretch marks.

At the end of the day, there really is no single fail-safe method to prevent the formation of stretch marks. But a stretch mark prevention program, based on a combination of natural stretch mark products and the helpful tips provided above, should dramatically increase your odds of reducing or eliminating stretch mark development. Give it a try – you have nothing to lose and everything to gain!

 

 

You’ve got cancer, are words, nobody wants to hear and naturally most people will turn to someone they trust to help them with their problem. Before you except any treatments for your cancer there are many important facts you need to know but unfortunately you are not likely to be informed of these facts from you health professional.

 

While our medical professionals are very good at diagnosing and monitoring cancer the response from their mainstream treatments is very poor. Also there is nothing in those 3 treatments of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy that will stop the cancer spreading or returning, because they are only treating the symptoms of a problem instead of the problem itself.

 

All cancers happen for a reason as it’s not some mysterious disease that science can’t fathom. All the causes of cancer are well known and have been well known for decades and it’s far more important to find these causes and address them. By doing so will strengthen the body, or more importantly the immune system and it will rid the body of cancer permanently. Our immune system is our superbly designed repair system that keeps us healthy and cancer free. All cancers are simply a disease of a weak immune system which has allowed cancer cells to proliferate and it’s been weakened by the way we now live.

 

The 3 treatments you will only be offered now days all damage the immune system and that’s why these are not very effective at achieving a permanent cure. They target the cancer growths and give scant regard to the all important reason why cancer appeared in the first place.

 

Natural ways to overcome cancer have a much higher success rate than orthodox treatments because natural ways all treat the body or the reason why the cancer first appeared. There is one thing we know the human body can do and that is miraculously heal itself if given the right conditions. This natural approach is called using common sense, something that few people are using.

 

Effective ways to overcome cancer require a change in the way you live, especially with the food you eat and while that is not an easy task for some people; thousands have made those necessary changes and have beaten the disease. It just does not make sense to weaken the body further when a person is already undergoing a major health challenge. What the body needs is gentle treatments that strengthen the body which enhances the immune system and if carried out properly, has amazing results.

 

Cancer is an entirely preventable and curable disease and our modern medical approach is not necessary the most effective way to treat someone with the problem.

 

Alan Wighton is an independent health researcher, having spent many years specialising in cancer. For further information on more effective ways to overcome cancer using the powerful natural healing ability of the human body; please visit http://www.cancerhealed.com/

 

When Barack Obama, the elected President of the United States of America, last posted on Twitter on November 5 he had over 90,000 followers, come the New Year though that number had grown to over 150,000 – despite the man not posting a word since election day!

It seems like everybody is “Tweeting” – even the most powerful man in the world.

NASA, 10 Downing Street, BBC News, Steve Jobs from Apple corporation and John Cleese are all happy “Tweeters” and post regularly.  Between them alone they have over 40,000 followers on Twitter – users who receive every one of their regular posts.

There are over 4 million users on Twitter with these 4 million people sending nearly a quarter of a million messages between themselves every month.

For a service that started in the Autumn of 2006 this really is astonishing growth, and it’s all the more amazing when you consider that a post on Twitter can consist of no more than 140 characters.

Links to other website are allowed, but considering the craze for Flash-dominated, Javascript-heavy, all-signing, all-dancing websites, Twitter’s growth is extremely surprising.

For its very limited and minimalist approach, the service came in for a barrage of abuse when it first came to the attention of the world’s bloggers. A couple of years down the line, and nearly all those bloggers that initially criticised it now have their own accounts and are “Tweeting” like a happy canary.

Even established BBC journalist Rory Cellan-Jones declared his admiration for the application in May 2008:

“I was beginning to think Twitter – the micro-blogging service that’s all the rage amongst the technorati – was just another fad for people who want to share too much of their rather dull lives. Until this morning.

“When I logged on to my desktop Twitter application (sad, I know) it was alive with Tweets about the earthquake in China. Most of them were from the celebrated technology blogger Robert Scoble, who is famous, perhaps notorious, for receiving a Twitter message every second of the day.”

It has been used not just as a news service, but also as a means of fundraising, covering live events and campaigning.

As a news distribution system, it first came into its own in the autumn of 2007 during the seasonal Carolinian fire outbreak. “Tweets” were sent around users and filtered out into the wider net community. It was news from dozens, if not hundreds of people on the ground where the action was taking place.

As a means of distributing information, NASA grabbed hold of the new media application and used it to distribute the latest updates about its recent exploration to Mars using the Phoenix Mars Lander. Amazingly, the world was first alerted to the presence of water on the red planet, not on the BBC, Fox New or CNN, but on Twitter!

With this exciting development it was only a matter of time before a press release service began using Twitter to distribute items, and free press release service Press Release 001 has stepped up to the plate.

Launched on January 1, all the major categories of Press Release 001 are now also transmitted to the world via Twitter, although, of course, in a condensed version of no more than 140 characters.

It’s too early to tell yet just how popular this new type of free press release service will be, but if it is anything as popular as other news services then it will surely play a part in helping to change the strategy of online public relations.