A recent study published in Psychopharmacology found that nicotine withdrawal starts as soon as 30 minutes after the smoker’s last cigarette.
This is much sooner than was previously thought, and represents a greater challenge to those seeking to stop smoking.
The study looked at 50 people who smoked a pack a day. 25 of them were told to continue smoking, while the other 25 were asked to stop smoking for four hours. Every 30 minutes, both groups were tested for signs of nicotine withdrawal.
After the first 30 minutes, those in the abstaining group reported greater cravings for cigarettes. After one hour, they reported greater anger than those in the smoking group. After the first three hours, those in the abstaining group felt sad, anxious, and had difficulty concentrating. They also did worse on tasks of sustained attention. Physiologically, their heart rates slowed within the first hour, which is another sign of nicotine withdrawal.
This is the first study demonstrating how early withdrawal symptoms can begin. This is important for those people who want to stop smoking, because they may need to seek alternatives to smoking sooner than they planned.
Smoking damages the surface and health of your skin by exposing it to smoke and free radicals. People who smoke for a long time tend to have duller complexions, more wrinkles, and less elasticity in their skin.
I’ve long suspected that the Europeans know some thing about skincare that they’re just not sharing with us folks across the pond. One of their secrets- just recently come to America- is thermal water.
Thermal water, as it sounds, comes from natural hot springs in Europe. These waters naturally carry minerals like selenium and sulfur; and they are free of chlorine and other chemicals.
The European thermal springs have a long-lived reputation for health and healing benefits. You may have heard of the English city of Bath, which was famous for its therapeutic springs. People would travel from all over to “take the waters” for better physical, emotional, and mental health.
Similarly, in the Roman times, thermal water was prized for its various benefits.
But just because thermal water might be good for your skin, is it a skin do or a skin don’t? Professional opinion says that certain minerals can be good for your skin, serving to reduce redness and inflammation. Some of these minerals may even help in treatments of skin problems like eczema. However, at the same time, for some people, the minerals in thermal water may irritate or inflame the skin.
Your best bet? Start with a mineral water spray and work up to using mineral water lotions and creams from there. Mineral water sprays stay on your skin, and can combat skin allergies, skin irritation, and can even soothe sunburn. Sometimes, doctors even use them to calm the skin after cosmetic surgery procedures like chemical peels or micodermabrasion.
Thermal water lotions and creams may be very useful for people who live in arid climates and/or who have sensitive skin. They can be refrigerated for extra soothing and cooling benefits. Don’t spend money on thermal water bath soaks or body cleansers, as these usually rinse off the skin too quickly to provide lasting skin benefits.
Some of the best well known thermal water mineral sprays are Vichy, Evian, and La Roche Posay. Vichy Thermal Spa Water Spray is reasonably inexpensive (about $12 per bottle), and has more than 14 minerals, including calcium, silica, and sulfur. Other brands have different benefits, including the addition of skin boosting water soluble vitamins.
Filed under The Latest Skin Care News by 
You know how sometimes you look at your skin and you see little “plugs” of black in your pores? Yes, you guessed it, these are blackheads.
Blackheads fill the pores of your skin’s top layer, the epidermis. The occur when oil production kicks into overdrive and there is too much oil produced by the skin. The clinical term for this oil is sebum.
When sebum begins to harden in the pore, it forms a bump. The top part of this bump, when exposed to air, oxidizes and then turns black. This black top is pushed to the surface by the continually hardening sebum under it. Once it reaches the surface of your skin, you can see a blackhead.
No one really knows why the oil glands start to overproduce. It may be related to hormones, which may be why so many teenagers experience blackheads- but this doesn’t hold completely true for all people who continue to have blackheads and whiteheads throughout their adult years.
In case you were wondering, whiteheads are formed the exact same way as blackheads, except that whiteheads are within a pore that is closed, so the top part does not reach the air- no oxidation occurs, and, therefore, it does not turn black.
Preventing and removing blackheads can help control skin conditions like acne.
The best ways to remove blackheads at home?
There are three keys: cleanliness, exfoliation, and heat.
If you are troubled by blackheads, the most important first step is to keep your skin as clean as possible. Stay away from any very harsh chemicals or soaps which may strip the skin. This can make the oil production even worse.
Use a gentle exfoliant to aid your skin’s cell turnover. This can keep your pores open and keep them from getting clogged with cells, dirt, or oil.
A warm, damp cloth applied to the blackhead may help the pore open up. You can also try gently pulling the pore open by applying gentle pressure to your face and pulling away (again, GENTLY) away from the blackhead on both sides. This may help the plug move closer to the surface.
Do not scrape, squeeze, or push the blackhead. This may lead to scarring.
You might also try one of the commercially advertised “blackhead” strips- these are pieces of a sticky tape-like substance which you place on your skin, allow to dry, and then pull off. These “glue” to the blackheads on your skin and pull them out when you pull the tape off. (I’ve used these with great success, especially for the sides and top of my nose).
If you are troubled by blackheads, try these steps to get rid of them.
If you don’t want to remove your blackheads yourself, you can schedule a facial with extraction to get these taken out. This might be a good option if you have a lot of them and can afford to have them professionally removed. Just be careful though, as extraction can hurt.
Your face is likely to be red for a day or so afterward and it will feel tender. Don’t have an extraction procedure done less than a week (two is better) before any kind of important event.
Filed under General Skin Care Information by
