Danger…at Your Local Salon

Just 36 hours after getting a pedicure at an upscale nail salon near her home in Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania, Jamie Joffe, 38, had a fever of 101 degrees and a very scary-looking toe—“It was about five times its usual size, and there was greenish goo oozing out from under the nail,” she recalls. Joffe went to the emergency room, where they diagnosed her with a staph infection, probably from scissors or a cuticle pusher contaminated with the bacteria. “The doctor made an incision and drained all this stuff out of it,” she says. “If I hadn’t gotten the infection treated quickly, it could have spread to the rest of my body.”

After taking antibiotics for 10 days, Joffe was fine, but the experience left her with more than a scarred toe. “I still get pedicures, but I now bring my own tools and watch what they’re doing very carefully,” she says. “I had no idea you could get so sick from a pedicure.”

Most of us aren’t aware of the potentially ugly side of manicures, pedicures, Botox injections, haircuts, or waxing. “We assume that if a salon is operating it must be safe, but that’s not true,” says Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, MD, a clinical assistant professor of dermatology at Baylor College of Medicine, who has studied salon infections and salon safety. “There’s lots to worry about, including poorly trained technicians and dirty or illegal instruments.”

Each state has its own rules for salon safety, but even those with the strictest standards, like California and Texas, can’t scrutinize the businesses as carefully as they’d like. “Each of our 18 inspectors is responsible for 3,500 to 4,000 shops, which means most salons get inspected only about once every six years—unless we get a complaint,” says James Jacobs, a supervising inspector with the California Bureau of Barbering and Cosmetology. “About 75% of the salons we inspect have violations. Sometimes they’re minor, like a nail file being re-used when it should have been tossed. But lots of times they’re real health hazards, like filthy foot spas.”

That’s bad news because, like hospitals, salons can harbor dangerous infection-causing bacteria and viruses, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and hepatitis B. That means it really is buyer beware, and the onus is on you to protect yourself. Here’s how to make sure all your beauty treatments are totally safe.

Mata dan Komputer

Apa pengaruh terhadap mata kalau terlalu lama melihat monitor komputer?
Komputer merupakan peralatan yang selalu digunakan dalam setiap pekerjaan kantor, pabrik, kegiatan belajar mengajar bahkan dirumah-rumah pun sekarang sudah disediakan komputer, sehingga banyak orang harus bekerja di depan monitor komputer sepanjang hari. Untuk dapat meliahat dengan jelas dan berakomodasi, mata kita dilengkapi tiga otot eksternal yang mengatur gerakan bola mata. Ketiga otot ini pulalah yang akan bekerja keras ketika anda bekerja selama di depan komputer. Bila sudah terlalu lelah, otot -otot mata akan semakin berkurang kekuatannya dan kemampuan fokus mata pun akan menurun. Bukan tidak mungkin Anda akan mengeluh sakit kepala, penglihatan menjadi kabur secara permanen sehingga harus memakai kacamata, ataupun malah menambah ukuran minus/plus kacamata anda.

Berikut beberapa tips mengatasi kelelahan dan ketegangan mata di saat bekerja di depan monitor :

1. Berikan istirahat secukupnya secara berkala walaupun hanya dengan sekedar memejamkan mata selama beberapa menit, bahkan sebelum mata Anda terasa lelah. Jangan pernah mengucek mata anda, sering-seringlah berkedip. Ini dapat menurunkan ketegangan dan menjaga mata anda tetap basah dan sejuk. Bila anda terlalu lama melihat dalam jarak dekat, alihkan pandangan anda ke arah yang jauh. Lakukan selama beberapa menit setiap 30 menit.

2. Perhatikan pencahayaan dalam ruang kerja anda. Jangan bekerja dalam ruangan yang terlalu terang dan menyilaukan mata. Gunakan kerai untuk mengatur cahaya dari jendela. Letakkan lampu di atas kepala. Hindari anda menatap cahayanya secara langsung. Sebaliknya, jangan pula bekerja dalam ruangan yang terlalu gelap atau redup. Usahakan agar ruangan anda cukup terang agarmata anda tidak bekerja terllau keras.

3. Gunakan filter glass monitor untuk mengurangi sinar yang menyilaukan dan radiasi yang dipancarkan layar monitor. Berbicaralah pada vendor perlengkapan komputer anda untuk mendapatkan filter yang baik dan mampu mengurangipengaruh radiasi, bukan hanya sekedar meredupkan cahaya monitor. Periksa apakah monitor anda masih bekerja dengan baik. Bila gambar yang tampak semakin buram, atau tidak nyaman bagi mata anda, maka sudah waktunya untuk memperbaiki atau mengganti monitor komputer anda. Lebih baik mengganti monitor daripada membiarkan mata anda terganggu. Sering-seringlah membersihkan monitor dari debu dan kotoran yang mengganggu layar.

4. Jika anda harus bekerja dengan menyalin atau membaca kertas kerja, maka letakkan kertas kerja tersebut dalam jarak yang seimbang dengan monitor anda. Ini agar anda tidak perlu bolak-balik memfokuskan pandangan untuk membaca kertas kerja anda, setelah membaca di layar monitor.

5. Letakkan layar monitor sedemikian rupa sehingga membentuk sudut antara 10-15 derajat dari posisi sejajar dengan pandangan lurus anda. Hal ini selain agar tidak melelahkan mata anda, juga menjaga agar bahu dan leher anda cukup nyaman bekerja.

6. Jika anda harus mengedit tulisan di depan komputer, pastikan ukuran atau “font” hurup yang anda gunakan cukup besar. Jangan paksa mata anda untuk membaca hurup kecil pada monitor. Mata anda bukanlah mikroskop bagi tulisan yang ada di layar monitor. Gunakan fasilitas untuk memperbesar atau menyesuaikan besar tampilan gambar di monitor anda. Bila anda telah selesai mengedit atau membacanya, anda bisa kembalikan font tersebut ke posisisemula.

7. Jika anda menggunakan kacamata atau lensa kontak dan anda harus bekerja sepanjang hari di depan monitor, ada baiknya anda konsultasikan dengan dokter mata atau optik anda agar anda bisa mendapatkan kacamata yang sesuai. Baik, ukuran lensa dan framenya. Bila anda merasa lelah menggunakan kacamata, tanggalkan saja. Kacamata bisa membuat mata lelah. Sesekali biarkan mata anda melihat bebas. Namun, segera kenakan kacamata anda bila merasa harus mengenakannya. Jangan paksa mata anda melihat tanpa bantuan kacamata anda.

How to Lose 20 lbs. of Fat in 30 Days… Without Doing Any Exercise

t is possible to lose 20 lbs. of bodyfat in 30 days by optimizing any of three factors: exercise, diet, or drug/supplement regimen. I’ve seen the elite implementation of all three in working with professional athletes In this post, we’ll explore a variation of the “slow carb” diet as used by Dean Karnazes, an ultramarathoner famed for completing 50 marathons on 50 consecutive days in 50 different states. The most impressive part of this, for me, is that he did so, not with the typical anemic marathoner build, but with a well-muscled mesomorph body. Here are the four simple rules I followed…

Rule #1: Avoid “white” carbohydrates
Avoid any carbohydrate that is — or can be — white. The following foods are thus prohibited, except for within 1.5 hours of finishing a resistance-training workout of at least 20 minutes in length: bread, rice, cereal, potatoes, pasta, and fried food with breading. If you avoid eating anything white, you’ll be safe.

Rule #2: Eat the same few meals over and over again
The most successful dieters,regardless of whether their goal is muscle gain or fat loss, eat the same few meals over and over again. Mix and match, costructing each meal with one from each of the three following groups:

Proteins:
Egg whites with one whole egg for flavor
Chicken breast or thigh
Grass-fed organic beef
Pork

Legumes:
Lentils
Black beans
Pinto beans

Vegetables:
Spinach
Asparagus
Peas
Mixed vegetables

Eat as much as you like of the above food items. Just remember: keep it simple. Pick three or four meals and repeat them. Almost all restaurants can give you a salad or vegetables in place of french fries or potatoes. Surprisingly, I have found Mexican food, swapping out rice for vegetables, to be one of the cuisines most conducive to the “slow carb” diet.

Most people who go on “low” carbohydrate diets complain of low energy and quit, not because such diets can’t work, but because they consume insufficient calories. A 1/2 cup of rice is 300 calories, whereas a 1/2 cup of spinach is 15 calories! Vegetables are not calorically dense, so it is critical that you add legumes for caloric load.

Some athletes eat 6-8x per day to break up caloric load and avoid fat gain. I think this is ridiculously inconvenient. I eat 4x per day:

10am - breakfast
1pm - lunch
5pm - smaller second lunch
7:30-9pm - sports training
10pm - dinner
12am - glass of wine and Discovery Channel before bed

Rule #3: Don’t drink calories
Drink massive quantities of water and as much unsweetened iced tea, tea, diet sodas, coffee (without white cream), or other no-calorie/low-calorie beverages as you like. Do not drink milk, normal soft drinks, or fruit juice. I’m a wine fanatic and have at least one glass of wine each evening, which I believe actually aids sports recovery and fat-loss. Recent research into resveratrol supports this.

Rule #4: Take one day off per week
I recommend Saturdays as your “Dieters Gone Wild” day. I am allowed to eat whatever I want on Saturdays, and I go out of my way to eat ice cream, Snickers, Take 5, and all of my other vices in excess. I make myself a little sick and don’t want to look at any of it for the rest of the week. Paradoxically, dramatically spiking caloric intake in this way once per week increases fat loss by ensuring that your metabolic rate (thyroid function, etc.) doesn’t downregulate from extended caloric restriction. That’s right: eating pure crap can help you lose fat. Welcome to Utopia

It's All About Juice.....

- Carrot + Ginger + Apple -Boost and cleanse our system.
- Apple + Cucumber + Celery - Prevent cancer, reduce cholesterol, and eliminate stomach
upset and headache.
- Tomato + Carrot + Apple-Improve skin complexion and eliminate bad breath.
- Bitter gou rd + Apple + Milk - Avoid bad breath and reduce internal body heat.
- Orange + Ginger + Cucumber - Improve Skin texture and moisture and reduce body heat.
- Pineapple + Apple + Watermelon -To dispel excess salts, nourishes the bla dd er and k id ney.
- Apple + Cucumber + Kiwi -To improve skin complexion.
- Pear & Banana - regulates sugar content.
- Carrot + Apple + Pear + Mango -Clear body heat, counteracts toxicity, decreased blood pressure and fight ox id ization .
- Honeydew + Grape + Watermelon + Milk - Rich in vitamin C + Vitamin B2 that increase cell activity and str engthen body immunity.
- Papaya + Pineapple + Milk-Rich in vitamin C, E, Iron. Improve skin complexion and metabolism.
- Banana + Pineapple + Milk-Rich in vitamin with nutritious and prevent constipation