WHO SAID CARBOHYDRATES WERE BAD? NOT AT ALL!

This article I've taken from the Daily Mail, advocates what I have been telling people for years. Carbohydrates are not all bad, its THE REFINED CARBOHYDRATES THAT ARE BAD. If you look at the list down below of carbs that contain resistant starch you will notice they are all UNREFINED CARBOHYDRATES. These foods fill you up, stop you feeling hungry and they use up energy being broken down, they also maintain blood sugar levels for longer, stopping the sugar peaks and lows, that can causing shaking and dizziness when trying to loose weight and prevent the brain fatigue that goes with this.

Eat carbs, lose weight: How carbohydrates can help you eat less AND burn more calories

For years they’ve been a no-no — but now a diet taking America by storm says bread, pasta and potatoes can help you drop half a stone in a week...

Weightloss wonder: You can still eat carbs and shed the pounds according to a new diet

Low-carbohydrate diets have been all the rage for some time. And with an estimated 15 per cent of the UK population following a reduced-carb diet at any one time, they’re certainly popular.
But, as anyone who has tried one can testify, there is something about carbohydrate denial that seems extraordinarily punishing.
Carbs are, after all, so tempting —whether it’s the smell of freshly baked bread or the delicious sight of buttery new potatoes.
But the low-carbohydrate message has become so entrenched in modern diet wisdom that pasta, bread, rice and potatoes have been widely accepted as being intrinsically ‘bad’.
But does it have to be this way? A new diet plan claims not, positively encouraging its followers to eat spaghetti and jacket potatoes with meals yet claiming it’s possible to still lose up to 6lb in a week.
It goes against everything we’ve been told by the likes of the Dukan and Atkins diets, but studies have shown that not all carbs are bad. Some contain a substance called resistant starch which, when consumed in quantity, actively encourages weight loss.
Found in ordinary foods — such as bananas, oats, beans and potatoes — resistant starch is so-called because it appears to resist digestion.
This starch travels through the digestive system nearly intact, producing fatty acids that stimulate fat-melting enzymes (particularly in the abdominal area), encouraging your liver to switch to a fat-burning state, preserving muscle mass (so stoking up your metabolism) as well as boosting satiety hormones, meaning you feel fuller for longer.

 

Now, the power of resistant starch has been harnessed in a book, The Carb Lover’s Diet, which has taken the U.S. by storm and is now available in the UK. Written by respected health editor Ellen Kunes and dietitian

FOOD FOR THOUGHT
A U.S. study found women who ate a low-carb diet had a poorer memory and attention span than those on a low-calorie diet

Frances Largeman-Roth, The Carb Lover’s Diet is a diet plan which, the authors claim, guarantees rapid but long-term weight loss.
Both authors are vehemently against the low-carb message, believing Atkins-style diets are difficult, unnatural and ineffective long-term. They claim our bodies and brains have evolved to eat starchy foods and willpower alone can only hold back on centuries of evolution for so long before we crack and all those good intentions are lost to a carb-rich feeding frenzy.

Resistance is futile: Avoiding carbs is against evolution, according to authors of The Carb Lover's Diet

OUR GUIDE TO 'RESISTANT STARCH' SUPER FOODS

Green bananas are the hero food of the resistant starch diet. If you eat one slightly green banana a day, you get a guaranteed 12.5g of resistant starch to help you lose weight without feeling hungry. Increase your daily intake of the
following foods, which are rich in resistant starch:

• Green banana 12.5g
• Ripe banana 4.7g
• Oats, uncooked (50g/2oz) 4.6g
• Cannellini beans (125g/4oz) 3.8g
• Lentils, cooked (100g/3.5oz) 3.4g
• Potato, cooked and cooled 3.2g
• Chickpeas, cooked (125g/4oz) 2.1g
• Wholewheat pasta (150g/5oz) 2g
• Pearl barley, cooked (75g/3oz)
• White pasta, cooked and cooled
• 150g/5oz) 1.9g
• Kidney beans (125g/4oz) 1.8g
• Potato, boiled with skin 1.8g
• Brown rice, cooked (100g/3.5oz) 1.7g
• Pinto beans, cooked (125g/4oz) 1.6g
• Peas, frozen (75g/3oz) 1.6g
• White pasta, cooked (150g/5oz)
• Black beans, cooked
• (125g/4oz) 1.5g
• Millet, cooked (75g/3oz) 1.5g
• Baked potato with skin 1.4g
• Pumpernickel bread (one
• slice) 1.3g
• Polenta, cooked (8tbsp) 1g
• Potato crisps (25g/1oz) 1g
• Cornflakes (25g/1oz) 0.9g
• Rye bread (one slice) 0.9g
• Puffed wheat (15g/0.5oz) 0.9g
• Tortillas (one) 0.8g
• Rye crackers (two) 0.6g
• Wholemeal bread (one slice) 0.3g

Kunes and Largeman-Roth have devised and tested a diet that promises weight loss without carb-denial, which hinges on resistant starch. They quote more than 200 studies at respected universities around the world, which show resistant starch to be an effective appetite suppressant and metabolism booster.
Research at the University of Surrey found that consuming resistant starch in one meal caused participants to consume 10 per cent fewer calories (roughly 150 to 200 calories for the average woman) during the next day because they felt less hungry.
Another study showed that resistant starch increases the activity of fat-burning enzymes and decreases the activity of fat-storage enzymes, meaning stomach-fat cells were less likely to pick up and store calories as fat.
Results seem to indicate that adding a little resistant starch to your morning meal is enough to shift your body into fat-melting mode, enabling you to burn nearly 25 per cent more calories a day.
Meanwhile, you’ll eat about 10 per cent fewer calories because you don’t feel as hungry. Most of us naturally consume around 4.8g of resistant starch a day, but the authors believe increasing your intake to ten to 15g a day is enough to trigger a swift and simple route to weight loss.
They have devised a quick-start, seven-day diet plan which, they say, guarantees rapid 3lb to 6lb of weight loss, and a separate long-term strategy for incorporating healthy carbohydrates — particularly those containing resistant starch — into your life to ensure weight continues to come off, and stays off.
STAR CARBS

• BANANAS are your richest source of resistant starch. They are also rich in appetite-suppressing fibre (3g each) and contain the amino acid tryptophan, which is converted into the calming brain chemical serotonin to help you relax and improve your mood.
• Nearly half the starch in BEANS is resistant starch, making them a powerful weight-loss ally. They are also an incredibly rich source of fibre. A Canadian study found that people who ate beans regularly tended to weigh less and have a smaller waist than those who didn’t (they were also 23 per cent less likely to become overweight over time).
• In addition to the fibre and resistant starch they contain, POTATOES are a natural source of a proteinase inhibitor — a natural chemical that boosts satiety hormones and  curbs appetite.
• POLENTA — this cooked cornmeal is naturally high in resistant starch, but is also rich in fibre and contains a decent amount of protein. It can be cooked into a creamy consistency or baked into crunchy sticks (chop small to make nutritious crutons).
• BROWN RICE digests more slowly than white. One study found that blood sugar levels were 24 per cent lower in people who ate brown rice than those who ate white.
• BARLEY is rich in resistant starch and both soluble and insoluble fibre which reduces appetite and  aids digestion.

DIET RULES
Stick to the daily plan (below) or mix and match meals, but to lose weight quickly, follow these rules:

• Eat at least 1g of resistant starch with each meal and aim for a minimum daily 10g total.
• At lunch and dinner, ensure resistant starch fills a quarter of your plate and the remaining three quarters is lean meat and low-fat dairy products, fruit and vegetables.
• Write down everything you eat in a food diary, highlighting all foods high in resistant starch (research shows that dieters who jot down what they ate lost weight more quickly than dieters who didn’t, and keeping a food diary helps dieters follow their plans without cheating).
• Ban artificial sweeteners. Studies show they may increase your cravings for sugary foods. Fake sweeteners are up to 600 times sweeter than sugar and numb your taste buds to the natural sweetness of good-for-you carbs such as berries and other fresh fruit.
• Eat one snack a day to prevent between-meal bingeing (the longer you wait to eat your snack, the easier it will be to stick to the diet).
• Don’t skip meals. Sticking to a regular pattern maintains blood sugar levels and keeps hunger at bay.
• Keep trigger foods out of the house. This means you are less likely to lose your self-control and scoff them down.
• Drink eight glasses (240ml) of water each day, so you don’t mistake thirst for hunger. Don’t drink liquid calories. On the seven-day kickstart plan, you can drink water, coffee and tea (black, green or herbal, without sweeteners, but with up to two teaspoons of semi-skimmed milk), but skip fruit juice, alcohol and fizzy drinks (even diet drinks or sparkling water), which make you look and feel bloated.
• Sit down to every meal. Grabbing something and eating it over the sink sets you up for overeating. It doesn’t give you a chance to be mindful about your food, and you’re less likely to pay attention to the serving size. Eat slowly and avoid TV, music and even dinner companions — all of which can cause you to overeat.
• Use smaller plates (try your salad plate instead of your dinner plate) and keep portion sizes small.
• For a quick boost, try this fat-flushing cocktail, which includes metabolism-boosting ingredients that will help speed you to your goal: Take two litres of green tea, juice from one orange, juice from one lemon and juice from one lime. Mix together in one large jug. Serve hot or iced. Keep in the fridge for up to three days.

THE RECIPES

Prawn Stir-Fry with Ginger (serves two)
Heat 2tsp sesame oil in a pan and add 2tbsp soy sauce, 1tbsp honey, 1 tbsp grated ginger, two chopped garlic cloves.
Cook for one minute.
Add 400g/14oz stir-fry vegetables, 75g/3oz prawns and 300g/10oz cooked brown rice and cook for eight minutes.
Serve topped with 2tbsp flaked almonds and one chopped spring onion.

Chicken pasta primavera (serves two)
Cook 50g/2oz wholemeal pasta then cook 125g/4oz cooked chicken strips with one sliced onion, three finely chopped garlic cloves, a 400g/14oz can of chopped tomatoes, salt, pepper and 1tsp dried oregano for eight to ten minutes before combining with cooked pasta, one courgette sliced lengthways into ribbons and 2tbsp parmesan cheese.

Grilled burger and  three-bean salad (serves two)
Divide 175g/6oz lean minced steak into two and shape into a thick patty, cooking for six minutes on each side.
Combine 75g/30z green beans, 125g/4oz rinsed canned cannellini beans, 125g/4oz rinsed canned kidney beans, 100g/3.5oz finely chopped carrot and half a chopped green pepper with 2tbsp low-fat vinaigrette in a bowl.
Serve burgers in wholemeal  buns topped with lettuce and sliced tomato.

Fish Tacos with coleslaw (serves four)
Sprinkle 700g/1lb 8oz fish fillets with salt, pepper and cooking spray and cook in a non-stick pan for ten to 12 minutes. Mix 3tbsp low-fat yogurt with 2tbsp lime juice, 1tbsp dark sesame oil, 2tsp grated fresh ginger, 1tsp honey and coat 350g/12oz coleslaw mix (shredded cabbage, carrot, lettuce).
Divide the fish between warmed tortillas and top each with the coleslaw.

YOUR SEVEN-DAY KICK-START CARB DIET PLAN

This plan has been devised to provide a healthy, balanced diet that maximises resistant starch intake, but restricts calories to 1,200 a day, promising dramatic weight loss of 3lb to 6lb in just a week.
MONDAY

Breakfast: Banana shake (blend one banana, 250ml/12fl oz semi-skimmed milk, 2tsp honey with ice) or a wholegrain chewy cereal bar plus one banana.
Lunch: Chicken pitta (stuff a wholemeal pitta with 40g/1½oz baby spinach, 125g/4oz cooked skinless chicken strips, tossed with 2tbsp lowfat vinaigrette).
Dinner: Griddled salmon and parmesan potatoes (baked potato with salt, pepper and 2tbsp grated parmesan cheese) with salad.
Snack: One 180ml/6fl oz pot low-fat Greek yoghurt with 2tsp honey and
2tbsp rolled oats.
TUESDAY

Breakfast: Banana nut porridge (cook 50g/2oz oats with water and top
with sliced banana, 1tbsp chopped walnuts and 1tsp cinnamon) or a banana with 1tsp peanut butter.
Lunch: Hard-boiled egg, 25g/1oz cheddar cheese and one sliced apple
on three rye crackers.
Dinner: Prawn stir-fry with ginger (see recipe above).
Snack: Cannellini and herb hummus with crudites (mash 65g/2½oz canned white beans with 2tsp olive oil, 1tbsp chopped chives and 1tbsp lemon juice and serve with 75g/3oz sliced raw vegetables).
WEDNESDAY

Breakfast: Banana shake Plus (blend one banana with 350ml/12fl oz semi-skimmed milk, 2tsp honey, ice and 2tsp ground flaxseed).
Lunch: Big chopped salad of 125g/4oz salad leaves, 125g/4oz canned
chickpeas, 100g/3½oz grated carrots, 50g/2oz shredded red cabbage,
1tbsp grated parmesan, 2tbsp chopped walnuts, 2tbsp dried
cranberries, all tossed in 2tbsp low-fat balsamic vinaigrette.
Dinner: Black bean tacos (rinse and drain 400g/14oz of black beans and heat through, warm two tortillas, then divide beans between the two, stuffing with 75g/3oz shredded lettuce, 175g/6oz grated carrot and
60ml/2fl oz salsa).
Snack: 2tbsp salsa mixed with 2tbsp black beans (rinsed and drained) with eight tortilla chips.
THURSDAY

Breakfast: Banana berry shake (blend one banana, 350ml/12fl oz
semi-skimmed milk, 2tsp honey, ice and 40g/1½oz berries) or wholegrain
chewy cereal bar and a banana.
Lunch: Chicken pitta sandwich (40g/1½oz baby spinach, half a sliced
red pepper and 125g/4oz cooked chicken tossed in 2tbsp low-fat vinaigrette and stuffed into a wholemeal pitta).
Dinner: Chicken pasta primavera (see recipe above).
Snack: Two crackers with 2tsp almond butter.
FRIDAY

Breakfast: One slice of toasted rye bread topped with 1tbsp almond butter and one banana.
Lunch: Hard-boiled egg with 25g/1oz cheddar and an apple on three rye crackers.
Dinner: Grilled burger and three-bean salad (see recipe above).
Snack: Trail mix (15g/½oz cornflakes, 2tbsp flaked almonds and 2tbsp
dried cherries).
SATURDAY

Breakfast: Banana-cocoa shake (blend one banana with 350ml/12fl oz semi-skimmed milk, 2tsp honey, ice and 1tbsp cocoa powder) or wholemeal chewy cereal bar plus a banana.
Lunch: Big chopped salad (see Wednesday).
Dinner: Fish tacos (see recipe above).
Snack: 2tbsp oats and 2tsp honey in a small tub of low-fat yogurt.
SUNDAY
Breakfast: Banana and almond butter toast (top one toasted slice of
rye bread with 1tbsp almond butter and a sliced banana).
Lunch: Hard-boiled egg, 25g/1oz cheddar and sliced apple on three rye crackers.
Dinner: Grilled salmon served with parmesan potatoes.
Snack: 25g/1oz baked potato crisps.

Extracted from The Carb Lover’s Diet: Eat What You Love, Get Slim For Life by Ellen Kunes and Frances Largeman-Roth (Hamlyn).

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1394616/Diet-carbohydrates-help-lose-weight.html#ixzz1OVVWrbzC

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CELLULITE

The dreaded cellulite as the story below shows, but I disagree that you cannot get rid off it. How much we are likely to get it and how much of it can be genetic, but just because your mother had it, it doesn't mean you have to put up with it. Consider this: have you seen a woman athlete with cellulite, especially a runner? no chances are you haven't, so this gives you one clue, if you are active and the circulation to your thighs are good, this helps. 

You will hear many in the medical profession say that cellulite is just fat, not so, its more than that. True women get it men don't, partly because we have a bigger fat layer under the skin for good reason, to sustain pregnancy and breast feeding in times of famine, nature bestowed women with this for survival. We don't need this in the west now, so any extra calories we don't burn up are laid down as fat. But coming back to cellulite, not only is it fat but connective tissue. This connective tissue, areolar tissue, is akin to one of those nylon pot scrubbers, this holds the fat cells in place. This together with collagen and elastin in the deeper layers of the skin, within the dermis, is responsible for cellulite. In women, hormones, especially the female hormone Progesterone causes their bodies to retain fluid. Now due to the effects of gravity, where is all that fluid retained in the tissues going to go? Well if you have a sedentary life style and sit on your butt most of the time, its going to travel to your butt and thighs. As we age collagen and elastin fibres lose their elasticity and instead of lying in neat straight rows within the skin, they bunch up. UVA light from the sun (from sunbathing) can further damage collagen and elastin and if you are not very active, the circulation in those areas tends to be poor. So altogether this causes these areas to look like an old mattress, creating this rippled, lumpy, dimpled effect.

It's not just exercise that's needed though, its the food we put into our body, the quality of this food, if we eat a lot of refined processed foods they are rich in salt and artificial flavourings. Salt causes us to retain fluid, thus this fluid is further trapped in these areas. The body also tends to store toxins in fat and areas where the cirulation is poor.

So what can we do? Eat healthily, avoid processed foods and refined carbohydrates, drink plenty of water to help flush out toxins, this also helps prevent the body retaining fluid. Improve your circulation to these areas, exercise, even walking is beneficial and body brushing or massage will stimulate blood flow to remove the toxins and the trapped retained fluid. Bear in mind even skinny women get cellulite its not just a bug bear of the over weight, but by remembering its more a condition of poor circulation a lot can be done to lessen it.

Even celebrities can't escape the curse of cellulite... Christina Aguilera reveals dreaded 'orange peel' at L.A event

She has curves to die for but Christina Aguilera is proof that all the money and fame in the world can't stop you falling prey to cellulite.

There's an irony in the fact that the Lady Marmalade singer suffers from the dimples, which are often described as 'orange peel' because of their texture and appearance.

The singer, who was taping a segment for U.S entertainment show Extra at The Grove shopping mall in L.A, wasn't helped by being raised up on chair at an unflattering angle.

Cellulite: Christina Aguilera revealed 'orange peel' legs at an appearance for Extra The Grove in LA today

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1394209/Christina-Aguileras-cellulite-Even-celebrities-escape-dreaded-orange-peel.html#ixzz1OPtcqoOO

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A PRIME EXAMPLE OF WHAT EXCESS DOES TO YOUR APPEARANCE

A prime example of what smoking, drinking and drug use does to your appearance. Kate Moss had it all, and yet she has taken it for granted, sad to see really for she's only 37, if she keeps going at this rate what will she be like at 57.

As I see it you only have one body and if you look after it, it will serve you well, however if you abuse it, you will pay for it.

Article below from the Daily Mail

A face in the life of Kate Moss: The coarsening effect of drink, drugs and non-stop partying

Serene, poised and with the hint of a shy smile — Kate Moss was barely recognisable when the Mail published pictures of her yesterday as a sweet 17-year-old posing for a bridal magazine.

Twenty years on, and the wear and tear of her notorious lifestyle has taken its toll.

Here, we look back at Kate’s 20-year career and chart the decline of a once-great beauty.

1991: Fresh-faced and wide-eyed, a teenage girl from Croydon has been talent-spotted by Storm model agency boss Sarah Doukas while standing in a check-in queue at JFK Airport in New York.
It’s hard to believe that back then it was her peaches-and-cream complexion and wholesome looks that used to win her work such as this shoot in Brides magazine.

1992: The girl with the skinny body and squeaky voice is taking the fashion world by storm, securing fashion spreads in Harpers & Queen and Vanity Fair.
But the first taste of the controversy that will dog her career comes when she appears topless in an advert for Calvin Klein.

1993: Kate’s painfully thin body, part of the so-called ‘heroin chic’ trend, is giving cause for concern.
Alongside fellow models Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell, her skinniness is plain to see.
Even former U.S. President Bill Clinton criticises the look. But it doesn’t stop Vogue making the 19-year-old one of its youngest-ever faces on its cover.

1994: Moss mania has stormed the fashion world — and there is no stopping Kate.
She’s a regular on the club scene, but is still young enough for all of those late nights not to take their toll.
Here, the 20-year-old Kate shows why she’s commanding fees of £10,000  a day.

1995: Kate’s learned how to perfect the pout — here accentuated with a striking red lipstick — and hooks up with the first of many celebrity boyfriends in the form of Hollywood actor Johnny Depp.
In his day, Johnny was a hell-raiser, but even he told friends he struggled to keep up with Kate’s drinking and wild partying.

1996: This is the year Kate wins the  Vogue/VH1 Model Of The Year competition.
The sullen, vacant stare seen here on the catwalk at a Calvin Klein show is becoming her trademark.
Off-duty, Johnny Depp is introducing her to the Hollywood brat pack.
Brad Pitt and Keanu Reeves are becoming her new celebrity friends.
 

1997: When she’s not burning the midnight oil in Los Angeles, Kate is hitting the clubs in London with her new best friends, rock star Liam Gallagher and actress Patsy Kensit.
Her two-packs-a-day smoking habit is just starting to take its toll.
The supermodel’s skin is beginning to look dull and her teeth are showing signs of becoming stained.

1998: Reputedly earning £3million a year, but all those late nights — and the break-up of her relationship with Depp soon after this picture was taken — all prove too much, and in November Kate checks into rehab at The Priory.
Rumours of drug-taking are rife, but Kate insists she simply ‘partied too much’.

1999: Refreshed and detoxed, Kate appears on the catwalk for the first time after rehab.
The scandal didn’t harm her career — climbing to 18th in the list of Britain’s richest women, she racks up a six-figure fee for a L’Oreal hair commercial and closes the year on the cover of American Vogue.

2000: Is she really just 26? Kate has become a fixture in the louche Primrose Hill set, alongside Sadie Frost and Jude Law.
The reckless lifestyle results in a health scare that puts the model in hospital with a kidney infection. Not that it seems to matter in the cynical world of fashion.
She briefly quits the catwalk, but is soon coaxed back.

2001: Now with a new partner,  magazine journalist Jefferson Hack, Kate is fuller-faced — and also Britain’s wealthiest supermodel, worth £15 million. 
But in an interview she says modelling is often far from thrilling, and reveals that she turned to drink and drugs because she started to find the job boring.

2002: Eyes blurred, and a cigarette dangling from her mouth, the model emerges from another night on the town. Yet it is around the time this picture is taken that Kate becomes pregnant.
Nine months later, the model gives birth to Lila Grace. Whether Kate is mature enough to look after herself, let alone a newborn, is another matter.

2003: A mother, but still a jetsetter, Kate takes Lila with her to Thailand and to New York. If her eyes look weary, it may be because she’s still partying.
Even Lila’s christening prompts a two-day booze-fuelled celebration. As for maternity leave, forget it. Kate attends every major summer event, from Glastonbury to pal Stella McCartney’s wedding.

2004: Her once-healthy hair is losing its lustre. But as she turns 30, there’s no sign of slowing down.
Kate celebrates her birthday with a Beautiful And Damned themed party recreating the debauched world inhabited by the fast-living but ultimately doomed characters of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel.
The moral of the story seems to have escaped her.

2005: Scowling and with wrinkles around her eyes and nose, Kate is plummeting off the rails thanks to a new boyfriend, rock star (and junkie) Pete Doherty.
It’s not long before Kate is pictured snorting what appears to be cocaine and is plunged into a scandal. She loses an H&M campaign, but clings on to her Dior contract.
Today, she’s the face of their new perfume . . .Dior Addict.

2006: Kate starts the year on the ski slopes with a 20-year-old toyboy named Jamie Burke.
Despite the whole drugs debacle, the British model picks up contracts with Calvin Klein, Roberto Cavalli, Bulgari, Stella McCartney and Virgin Mobile among others. So why does she look so glum here?
Perhaps it’s something to do with her troubled rekindled relationship with Doherty.

2007: After splitting with Pete Doherty, Kate launches the second range of her designs for Topshop, after  chatting up its owner Philip Green with the line: ‘I’m a girl from Croydon, you’re a boy from Croydon, why don’t we do something together?’
The pair are soon out on the town together. Quite what Green’s wife Tina makes of it is another matter.

2008: Is it EastEnders’ Gillian Taylforth? The year begins with a planned 34‑hour celebration to mark her 34th birthday.
But age is catching up with the model as she heads to bed at her £8 million new home in North London after only 18 hours.
Her latest relationship — with guitarist Jamie Hince — follows a rocky path after rows over her party lifestyle.

2009: Oh dear. The past year has taken its toll.
It started with another boozy 18-hour birthday party (yawn). But the harsh light of the Cote D’Azur weather shows up the unflattering effect that sun, cigarettes and alcohol have taken on her skin.
Her forehead shows lines, crows’ feet are obvious and her skin  looks parched and patchy.

2010: Rumours circulate that Kate has married her boyfriend Jamie Hince, but, in fact, they have just got engaged.
At the launch party for Topshop’s Knightsbridge store, Kate looks more like her old self.
But her famously almond-shaped eyes and chiselled cheekbones are enhanced (disguised?) with heavy make-up.

2011: Looking 37 going on 47, Kate is now busy preparing for her July wedding to Jamie Hince.
How she is dressed on the big day will be a surprise, but one thing is certain: she’ll be almost unrecognisable from the fresh-faced 17-year-old that she was 20 years ago when she posed in that early shoot for Brides magazine.

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HOW LACK OF SLEEP IS DETRIMENTAL FOR OUR HEALTH

The following is an article from the Daily Mail, which shows us of the effects of Cortisol, also produced during stress. Cortisol is a fantastic hormone when it is produced for what its meant for and short raised bursts to deal with acute stress. However if its produced for long term stress its very detrimental on the body (see section here on STRESS AND HEALTH)

How to never get ill: Take a nap

History has many accomplished nappers.
Leonardo Da Vinci took short naps every few hours; Napoleon Bonaparte dozed on his horse. And very wise they were, too.
Lack of sleep causes the body to produce more of the hormone cortisol, which gives us energy but restricts production of human growth hormone — limiting the body’s ability to repair itself.

Sleeping baby: A report from the University of Chicago found lack of sleep can lead to heart attacks and strokes

A 2008 Stanford University study found that fruit flies’ immune systems fought invading bacteria best at night.
This backed up the theory that our bodies use dormant hours to regenerate and fight disease (by producing immune cells called monocytes).

And a recent University of Chicago report found that getting as little as an hour less sleep than needed can increase calcium levels in heart arteries by 16 per cent.
This can lead to heart attack and stroke — so catch up with a nap.

Extracted from The Secrets Of People Who Never Get Sick by Gene Stone, published by Workman at £16.99. © Gene Stone 2011.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1392508/How-ill-Take-nap--according-University-Chicago-report.html#ixzz1NxKgWtkI

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WARNINGS ON CIGARETTE PACKETS

Now I have never been a smoker and probably being an Aquarian, I like to do my own thing and never had any desire to try it, so I have no idea what it tastes or feels like. As I was growing up I lost my grandfather and several aunts and uncles to lung cancer and had other relatives suffer heart disease and other lung diseases. When I went into nursing one of the first ward I worked on was one where there were several patients in the terminal stages of lung cancer. I guess therefore this instilled in me the dangers of smoking and what it can do to you. It's extremely distressing to watch patients suffer from lung cancer where upon death is a blessed release from the extreme suffering. Lung Cancer is avoidable unlike a lot of cancers, so why risk it by smoking. OK so you may want to risk it but research has proven not only are you risking your own health but on others by passive smoking, is this fair? In the UK our much cash strapped National Health System is under severe strain treating all those who indulge in smoking and you have to ask, why should others who take care of their health by not smoking pay for the treatment of those who do? Remember too it's not just lung cancer, but a whole range of ailments are caused by smoking, asthma, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, throat and mouth cancers, oesphageal cancer, heart disease, arterial disease, leading to amputation, high blood pressure, strokes. Can you imagine the stresses on the NHS being reduced if all the smokers were to give it up? but more importantly think how healthier the nation would be and how younger they would look too. I can't think of one good reason why anyone should smoke and if smokers were true to themselves, I am sure they would share this view.

Graphic warnings on cigarette packets DO help smokers to kick the habit

Graphic warning showing neck tumours and diseased lungs on the front of cigarette packets do push smokers in to giving up cigarettes, researchers say.
Scientists found nearly all adult smokers in countries that are required to place health labels on tobacco products noticed the warnings.
More than half of smokers in six of 14 countries in the study said the warnings made them think about quitting.

Shock factor: Graphic images are the most effective at encouraging smokers to quit, a study has found

In seven of the remaining countries more than one in four poll respondents said the warning labels prompted them to consider kicking the habit. The only country unaffected by the warnings was Poland.
Researchers analysed data collected between 2008 and 2010 for smokers in Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Mexico, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay and Vietnam.

The results of the poll called the the Global Adult Tobacco Survey were published by the US Centers for Disease Control.

Out in the cold: Smoking was banned in indoor public places in England in 2007

The most effective warnings were pictures of graphics that showed the harmful effects of smoking, possibly because they are better at evoking an emotional response the scientists said.
The study found that Brazil and Thailand both had 'numerous prominent and graphic pictorial warnings in rotation' and also had some of the highest rates of smokers thinking about quitting because of the warnings.

Warning: Cigarette packet labels in Thailand are particularly graphic

The CDC wants to see further research to try to find out how many smokers who think about quitting because of a warning on a packet actually do, and to determine what other factors come into play in getting someone to stop smoking.
The UK became the first country in Europe to place images on cigarette packs in 2008 that showed the 'grim reality' of the effects of smoking.
They replaced written warnings that had been printed on packets since 2003.
Smoking is responsible for one in every five deaths in adults aged over 35 in England, and half of all long-term smokers will die prematurely due to a smoking-related disease.
In the years from 2007 to 2008 there were 1.4 million NHS hospital admissions for diseases caused by smoking. In 2008, smoking caused 83,900 deaths in England.
Around 65 per cent of smokers in the UK want to quit the habit and around half manage to do so.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1391447/Graphic-warnings-cigarette-packets-DO-help-smokers-kick-habit.html#ixzz1NflWNvbV

Maggie Brown (Author)

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DEPRESSION~SCIENTISTS SAY IT'S GENETIC

I have reproduced this story from the Daily Mail to highlight there is no shame in any form of mental illness. For far too long there has been a stigma attached and the worst thing you can say to anyone who is suffering from mental illnesses is "To pull yourself together" or "Stop being so self indulgent". There is a physical reason for such ailments and slowly scientists are discovering this, hopefully this will lead to better treatments and a cure.

Depression: Scientists say it's genetic - and my family is the proof

For four long unendurable months, she lay in a darkened room, her face as white as the sheet on the bed from which she could not (rather than would not) move.
‘Mum, I want to die.’ That’s what my lively, funny and much loved 17-year-old daughter said to me, day after day, week after week. I was terrified of leaving the house, for fear of what I would find on my return.
She lost a stone, which she could ill afford on her 5ft 10in, size 8 frame, although I tried to make her eat three meals a day. She did her best, even if it was only a bowl of cereal, but said the pain of hunger was a welcome distraction from the pain in her head.

Shared suffering: Sally Brampton and her daughter, who displays all-too-familiar symptoms

The teenager who read voraciously — at least four books a week — could not read a simple sentence. The girl who, according to her school, was destined for Oxford University and a brilliant academic career, missed four months of school in her A-level year.

 

She thought she was a failure, a word she used repeatedly. She felt, in some strange way, that it was her fault. It was unbearable.
‘It’s just adolescent mood swings,’ people said. I knew it wasn’t. I took her to a psychiatrist. Diagnosis: major depressive disorder with a high risk of suicide.
I had heard those word myself, a tear-stained pillow clenched over my face in a bed in a psychiatric unit where I was admitted with severe depression.
So, long before the news this month that scientists had found a genetic link to depression, I knew there must be a connection.
Over the years, I had watched my mother standing in the kitchen, crying helplessly. ‘I want to die,’ she, too, had said. The first time I became conscious of her suffering, I must have been about eight years old.

Genetic? Sally knows better than most how the effects of her daughter's illness could shape her life

She would relapse into apathy, was constantly tired and did not want to leave the house. Either that or she would suddenly become snappy and irritable.
I didn’t understand it back then, either my mother’s sudden acute misery, or my own. I knew nothing about depression. As a family we weren’t given to hanging out with psychiatrists and therapists. These days, I understand it only too well.
In retrospect, I realise I have been suffering from depression since I was a teenager, just like my mother, and just like my daughter, whose episodes of the illness started when she was 13, the same age as me.
There was a reason for my misery; being sent to boarding school when I was ten, a place where I was terribly unhappy.
On top of that, my parents lived overseas, 5,000 miles away, so there was nobody I could talk to. Even if I had, they wouldn’t have understood and put it down to teenage blues.

 'My  mother would suddenly fly into a rage'

The first time I saw a doctor was when I was 20. I told him I was feeling depressed. He gave me medication but it was such a strong sedative that it only made me feel worse and, after a month, I threw it away and battled on.
Even when I was editor of a successful magazine, Elle, and I should have been on top of the world, there were weeks I could not stop crying. I pretended to the staff that I had flu and couldn’t come into the office. I thought I was just tired or stressed.
So the science that proves the first solid evidence of a rogue chromosome linked to depression, which gives some people a hereditary disposition, came as something of a relief.
Not because I wanted to find an ‘excuse’ for depression or thumb my nose at those who urge you just to ‘pull yourself together’, but because I wanted (needed) to understand why three generations of bright, lively women sometimes fade into the dark.
It happens for no reason, but happen it does — to all of us; time after time after time.
More than anything, the research proves something I have long believed; that depression is an illness, not a self-indulgence or weakness.
It is a complicated disorder, despite the blanket term given to the condition. Saying somebody has depression is like saying they have a virus. Which virus? What’s it called?

So young: Sally with her beloved daughter when she was a baby

There are many forms of the illness; reactive depression (as in a reaction to difficult life events such as bereavement, the breakdown of a relationship, the loss of a job), postnatal depression, bipolar disorder, bipolar II (which does not include the manic state of bipolar disorder), or simply debilitating, chronically low mood.
Dr Adrian Lord, psychiatrist and medical director of the Cygnet Hospital, explains that depression is so complex it varies even in individuals, let alone between individuals.
In clinical practice, he often sees patients where there is a distinct line of depression, suicide or bipolar disorder running through one side or other of the family. ‘It can span several generations and often does not seem totally due to shared upbringing, so a genetic component does seem likely,’ he says.
Scientists have long believed that certain people are more susceptible to depression than others but have, until now, not been able to offer substantial proof.
Some people shrug off circumstances that would topple another person like a pack of dominoes — which is another reason why depression is stigmatised as weak self-pity. How often have I heard the words, ‘Other people are far worse off than you’. Yes, I know. And?
Whenever I write a personal account on the subject for a newspaper, the comments on the website are inevitably the poisonous, ill-informed malice that any mention of depression seems to inspire.
Here is a real quote from one   website. ‘You should be ashamed of yourself. My Nan worked in a biscuit factory for 30 years, raised three kids single-handedly and never had a day’s depression in her life.’
Well, all I can say is, lucky old Nan.Quite apart from the implications these new findings signify for effective treatments for those suffering from depression (although, still far off in the future), the discovery that a section of DNA is responsible might finally put those ridiculous, antiquated attitudes to rest. It’s bad enough suffering from any severe illness, without being harangued for it.
In fact, it is so distressing that my most fervent wish would be to lock all the doubters and sceptics in a room with my pale, mute, severely depressed daughter for 24 hours so they can witness the illness first-hand and see for themselves the terrible toll it takes.

 'For weeks I could not stop crying'

Depression affects about 20 per cent of people at some point in their lives. Severe, recurring depression affects up to  4 per cent of people and is notoriously hard to treat. That’s the form that afflicts me, my daughter and my mother.
Medication helps but it is not, as some people believe, a cure — and nor are antidepressants ‘happy pills’. That’s the Disney version. They are powerful drugs formulated to help bring neurochemicals back into balance and have extremely unpleasant side-effects. Some work, some don’t — and some make depression infinitely worse.
For the lucky minority (30 per cent) they help to alleviate the condition. I have been on 13 different antidepressants, none of which helped until, under the constant care of a psychiatrist, we finally discovered a cocktail of drugs which keep me stable — at least, most of the time.
The workings of the brain are still so little understood that treating depression is like shooting a gun into the dark and hoping the magic bullet of medication will find its  target.
Hence the comment, from Gerome Breen, leader of the team of scientists at the Institute of  Psychiatry, Kings College London who found the evidence of a hereditary link, that ‘these findings are truly exciting’. An excitable scientist is a rare creature indeed.
Ten years ago, when the episodes of depression I have suffered since childhood escalated into a full breakdown, a psychiatrist implied that my depression might be genetic because my mother suffers from it.
However, he warned, there was no scientific evidence to prove it. I wanted to shout, ‘I am the evidence’, but one woman’s voice is soundless in the face of conjecture. Scientists want hard facts, not subjective accounts.

Down days: Depression is an illness. For some of us, there are no reasons. It just is

I wanted facts too, and spent years researching depression, even wrote a book about it. I wanted to know what might have caused mine — mainly in the hope of heading off another severe episode.
Was it my childhood and the instability of being brought up in six different countries and packed off to 12 different schools? Was it my mother’s undiagnosed, untreated depression which sometimes made her retreat from her children?
Was it my father, who has Asperger’s Syndrome (high-functioning autism) so is unable to empathise or, as he puts, ‘understand the difference between happiness and unhappiness.’
In other words, was it nurture — what psychologists call environmental or psychosocial circumstances? Or was it just plain nature?
Much of the time, I am happy and optimistic — joyous even. I have prodigious energy, work and play hard and love a project such as doing up a house; summoning builders, decorators, carpenters, electricians and plumbers. My speed and impatience are something of a joke among my friends.
But when I am depressed I don’t have the energy to do the washing up, let alone call a plumber. At my worst, I washed using hot water from a kettle for nine months because I couldn’t make a phone call to get the boiler fixed.

 'I'm not living, Mum, I'm enduring'

I have a successful career, a child I adore, wonderful friends, enough money and good health. What reason do I have to be depressed? That doesn’t stop the days when, quite out of the blue, I wake up feeling black despair and all my thoughts turn to suicide.
It was only when my daughter developed depression for absolutely no reason (happy, popular, with adoring parents and a childhood very different from my own) that it hit me, as clearly and as painfully as a bolt of lightning. Depression is an illness. For some of us, there are no reasons. It just is.
As my daughter put it: ‘I’m not living, Mum. I’m enduring. I don’t want to be here any more. Not like this.’ She tried, though; screwed up every little bit of courage she could find. Stuck on the wall by her bed was a page ripped out of a school exercise book.
On it she had scrawled in biro, ‘I will get better’. Then another line, in capital letters, ‘I WILL GET BETTER’. That brave little piece of paper broke my heart.
Friends came round to try to cheer her up. She sat in her dressing gown, trying to join in, sometimes even smiling, but I’d known my daughter’s face for 17 years and I knew the difference between a genuine smile and a desperate effort to reassure her friends.

In your biology? The discovery of a genetic link could shed light on depression

There is no blood test for depression, no easy answers and, sadly, no easy remedies. I have spent countless hours talking to therapists, but when I am severely depressed, no words can reach me.
Depression is not my nature; it is my biology — just as it is my mother’s and daughter’s. I have an illness that causes an imbalance of chemicals in one of the major organs in my body — my brain. To put it another way, I may as well have a chat with my liver and tell it to cheer up.
The discovery of a genetic link does not mean that, because depressive illness is present in a family, it is inevitable. But it may mean severe emotional stress is more likely to trigger an episode in somebody if there is a history of familial depression than in somebody who has no record of mental illness.
In other words, it is a pre-disposition rather than a predetermination. Psychiatrist Adrian Lord says he generally sees the former but admits that, in some people, ‘it is so strong, it does seem almost predetermined’.
Do I suffer from guilt from passing on such a terrible illness to my daughter? Hell, yes. My only consolation is that I know the condition so well, I could get her help fast.
Her solace is that she has a mum who understands and doesn’t dismiss her misery as adolescent mood swings. We call depression our ‘shadow side’. Where there is darkness, there is also light.
Despite missing so much schooling, she got her place at Oxford University, where she is excelling. I am so proud of her, it hurts.
So, for anybody who still believes that depression is strictly for lazy, self-indulgent losers, may I introduce you to my daughter?

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1391742/Depression-Scientists-say-genetic--family-proof.html#ixzz1Nfhi0j2y

Maggie Brown (Author)

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