hair

New drug restores hair growth in human trials: study

New drug restores hair growth in human trials

 

Researchers from the Columbia University have restored hair in patients suffering from alopecia areata – a common autoimmune disease that causes hair loss. They identified the immune cells responsible for destroying hair follicles in people with alopecia areata.
They tested an FDA-approved drug that eliminated these immune cells and restored hair growth in some patients. Each patient experienced total hair re-growth within five months of the start of treatment.

“If the drug continues to be successful and safe, it will have a dramatic positive impact on the lives of people with this disease,” said lead researcher Raphael Clynes from the Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC).

In the current study, the team first studied mice with the disease and identified the specific set of T cells responsible for attacking the hair follicles. Further investigation revealed how the T cells are instructed to attack and identified several key immune pathways that could be targeted by a new class of drugs, known as JAK inhibitors.

Two FDA-approved JAK inhibitors ruxolitinib and tofacitinib were able to block these immune pathways and stop the attack on the hair follicles. Together with Julian Mackay-Wiggan, director of the clinical research unit in department of dermatology at CUMC, researchers initiated a small clinical trial of ruxolitinib in patients with moderate-to-severe alopecia areata.

In three of the trial’s early participants, ruxolitinib completely restored hair growth within four to five months of starting treatment and the attacking T cells disappeared from the scalp. Alopecia areata can occur at any age and affects men and women equally.
The results appeared online in the journal Nature Medicine.

Source: first post

Simple Beauty tips that work

beauty-tips

Use toothpaste on yellow nails.
This usually happens when you let nail polish stay on your nails for very long and when you’ve used cheap nail polish. Whiten them all up by rubbing toothpaste to remove the stains. You can also add a few drops of lemon for extra whitening, it’s a natural bleaching agent.

Use suntan oil to treat damaged hair.
Here’s another use for that coconut suntan oil you love so much. If your tresses have been damaged from over styling or coloring, you can use this oil to treat it. Rinse your hair with warm water and then with a dollop of suntan oil, rub this on your hair. Wrap it in plastic cling wrap and secure with a towel. Sleep with this on overnight. The next day, wash your hair with baby shampoo (or anything moisturizing) to get the greasiness out.

Protect skin from the pool and the beach.
Don’t you hate the chlorine smell after swimming in the pool and the sticky feel of sea salt on your hair and skin after a dip in the beach? You can help minimize these effects by showering first with non-chlorinated water, which fills your pores and hair follicles. By doing this your hair won’t soak up much more water and then the residues will be easy to shower off.

Treat burns with milk.
If you’re burnt badly, first aid treatment could be standing under the shower and pouring canned milk over the burns. It will help pull the heat from the burn until you can get medical treatment.

Hydrate before travelling.
Since when you’re in a plane, you’re much closer to the sun, the proximity lets you be exposed more to the solar rays. Avoid drinking alcohol and salty foods because they are dehydrating. Drink lots of water instead, this will help your skin a lot.

Powder Your Roots
If by any chance you have no chance to jump into the shower and you need to look your best. Say for example you’ve spend the whole night preparing for an important presentation. Get a fluffy makeup brush and dab it onto loose powder and then brush it on the roots of your hair. Shake off the excess. The powder will soak off the grease in your locks.

Cure Calluses with Vaseline or petroleum jelly
It’s very unsightly to see hard calluses on your feet especially when you’ve been wearing closed shoes for a long time. I’ve seen a friend do this. To soften these tough calluses, she puts on petroleum jelly on them and puts on socks before going to bed.

Spot-Treat Smudges
I find cotton tips very usual for this. You can use it on your eyelids if you’ve made a mistake with your eyeliner and for your nails to correct a stray nail polish line.

Soften Your Body with an Avocado
Since avocadoes are natural moisturizers. Mash one up and slather this on your body just before taking a shower. The body mask will do wonders for your skin.

uper-Glue a Nail
Yikes! Accidents sometimes happen and when one of your nails break, you can choose to Super Glue it for the meantime. Add an opaque nail polish to cover the crack. Then when you get the chance to, better to cut it off.

Use Makeup Remover on Stubborn Lipstick
Instead of rubbing vigorously on your lips to remove red or dark lipstick, just dab on a cotton ball with makeup remover instead. This will help your lips from getting chapped and bruised.

Tame Brows with Eye Cream
Don’t you just hate it when there appears unsightly white specks on your brows that look like dandruff? This means they’re a bit dry, keep them hydrated with rich eye cream.

Use brown sugar to treat dandruff
If you’ve tried all the dandruff shampoos that you can buy and still your dandruff persists, try out this homemade treatment instead. Mix two parts of brown sugar with one part conditioner and then use this on your scalp. Leave on for about 3 minutes and then rinse it off.

Buff with Baking Soda
I’ve laughed at that episode in Friends when Ross went to a self-tanning sauna and got disastrous results. If you find yourself streaking (not glowing) after applying self-tanner (not all of us become experts at the first try), scrub away the unsightly spots with a loofah doused with baking soda.

Brush on Hair Spray
What I hate about hair sprays is that your hair becomes so stiff and the overall look doesn’t look natural anymore. For a neat hair trick, spray the hair spray on your hair brush after blow drying it. This way, you’ll still get the effects of the hair spray without making your hair look very stiff.

Boost Body Lotion with Baby Oil
For that shiny leg effect but don’t have any bronzing lotion with you, mix in a little baby oil into your everyday lotion to get the same effect.

Dab Body Oil on a Hangnail
Put on apricot oil, the kind found in health-food stores, to protect cuticles from turning rough and raggedy.

For younger hands, rub lemon and salt
Remove dead skin cells by rubbing lemon juice and sea salt on your hands with the aid of a toothbrush.

Freeze Your Eyeliner
I love eyeliners because they perk your eyes right back up. However sometimes they get too soft to be applied. A quick remedy for this will be to stick this into a freezer for 15 minutes.

Use Toothpaste on a Zit
Use just a pea-size amount. Let sit for 15 minutes to absorb the oil so the pimple won’t get more clogged, then wash off. Additional tip from Heyhaie: Don’t use any toothpaste that whitens, the bleach will cause the zit to redden.

Heat Up Your Curler
If you have stick-straight lashes, try blasting your metal eyelash curler with a hair dryer for a couple seconds to heat it up so your lashes bend more easily. And use a waterproof mascara. The formula dries faster than other mascaras, so it sets the curl more effectively.

Use Soap Without Water
You know those fancy bars that are actually too pretty to use? Toss them in your underwear or tee-shirt drawers to make your skin smell delicious. You may also use fabric softener in packets.

Lubricate Your Lashes
An easy way to draw attention to your eyes without putting on a pile of makeup is to comb petroleum jelly lightly through the tips of eyelashes to get a sexy, subtle sparkle. It might feel icky if you put on a lot, so watch how much you’ll rub in.

Steamroll Flyaways
Spray on hair spray, then roll the can over your strands. The round bottle fits the curved shape of your head, locks in the spray, and flattens out frizz. You can also use a bit of lotion to further tame the flyaway.

Air-Dry Your Curls
Let your hair dry indoors before going out in the cold. Sometimes my curls look best when dried naturally instead of using a blow drier. It’s friendlier to your tresses too.

Press a Tea Bag on Splotches
If your skin is sensitive or just looking irritated and puffy for some reason, steep a bag of green tea for a minute or two, let it cool down, and dab it over your face. The antioxidants in the tea take down inflammation.

Shave with Conditioner
If you’ve ran out of shaving cream, you can use conditioner instead. Yep don’t use that body wash, the moisturizer in the conditioner will help prevent razor burns and will keep your skin smooth.

Amp Shine with Vinegar
Mix one part vinegar with four parts carbonated water, and soak dry hair. Leave on for 15 minutes before you shampoo to lock in shine and combat dullness.

Exfoliate Your Pits
If your underarms start to look dry and flaky, an easy trick is to exfoliate them with a gentle face scrub to keep that skin pretty when going sleeveless.

Customize Your Body Lotion
Instead of shelling out for an expensive perfumed body product, you can make your own by pouring a few drops of fragrance into any scent-free lotion. Rub it on-the scent will last for hours.

“Brush” with Mouthwash
If you’re too wiped out after a late night of partying to clean your teeth, rinse with water and mouthwash, then use a dry toothbrush on the area where your teeth hit your gums.

Use egg-whites for eyebags
The egg whites will tighten the skin right up. Let the egg whites dry before putting on make-up.

Make an Egg-White Mask
To revive tired, dull skin without hitting the spa table, try this: Crack open an egg in a bowl, separate the yolk, and use the egg whites to make a face mask. The proteins help to heal and restore skin’s moisture. Leave it on for five minutes, and rinse off. A note though, since egg whites tighten the skin and egg yolks moisturize, best not to use the egg white mask on a dry skin.

Source: Cher Cabula’s Mindbox

Got Lemon? 6 Beauty Tips And Tricks Using The Fruit

Beauty treatments can dig deep holes into your pocket and not only that, but some of the treatments might not be that effective. So hundreds of dollars might be spent with no positive outcome. Before heading to the dermatologist or the department store, take a look in your own kitchen for your own beauty remedies. Lemons are a versatile fruit providing a number of aesthetic benefits. Originating in Asia, lemons have an extensive history but mostly of one used in cooking. However, many dermatologists and beauty gurus have recommended the use of lemons in daily skin maintenance.

“The alpha hydroxyl acid in lemons is similar to the ingredients you’d find in a dermatologist’s peel,” the Oz blog reported, speaking to Dr. Elizabeth Hale, professor of dermatology at the New York University School of Medicine. Lemons also provide a number of other skin, nail, and hair benefits. Take a look at six helpful beauty tips below:

1. Remove Blackheads: Take a lemon and slice it in half, rub the juice all over your face and wait five minutes before rinsing it off with cold water. Lemons have antibacterial properties, making it a perfect blackhead remedy. Blackheads are caused by clogged pores, and the acid called alpha hydroxyl from the lemons help to exfoliate the skin.

2. Lighten Old Acne Scars: Instead of heading to the dermatologist to help fade acne scars, just take a look in your refrigerator. Take a cotton ball and soak it with a little freshly squeezed lemon juice, and rub it all over your face. The lemon juice when applied daily will gradually help to lightens up the scars as it works as a chemical peel.

3. Removes Calluses, Corns, And Warts: Using the inside of a lemon (the white part) and placing it against any of these skin imperfections will help to dry out the callus, corn, or wart. Leave it on overnight and in about week they should fall off.

4. Lighten Your Hair: Skip the dye. This is a perfect and gradual remedy for those sunny summer days. Mix the juice from four lemons with ¼ cup of warm water, put it in a spray bottle, and spray it in your hair until it’s damp. Make sure you only expose your hair to the sun for about 30-60 minutes, depending on how light you want to make it. After you’re done, take a shower and use conditioner, as lemon juice can sometimes dry out your hair.

5. Strengthen Nails: Soaking nails into lemon juice for about 10 minutes and rinsing them with warm water once a week will not only help them to grow but will also remove any discoloration.

6. Lighten Discolored Armpits and Elbows: Discoloration and hyperpigmentation happens to people when there is more melanin in their skin. The more melanin a person has in their skin, the darker it will be. Since lemon acts as a bleaching agent, rubbing a cut lemon on armpits or elbows will help to lighten the skin in those areas.

We hope you try some of these home remedies. However, in no way are these tips intended to cure or teat any type of skin, hair, or nail issue. Before trying any of these, please seek out the approval from your health care provider.

Source: medical daily

Health benefits of Natural Wonders – Amla

For centuries, we have seen the benefits of Ayurveda – the age-old therapeutic science that originated in India and is now accepted across world as an alternative form of medicine. The very basis of Ayurveda is to enhance life by emphasizing on using resources found in nature in the form of fruits, vegetables, animal products and minerals. And one the most beneficial fruits, according to Ayurveda, is the Indian gooseberry, or what we commonly call ‘alma’.

Amla is considered to be an especially revitalizing herb with multiple nutritional qualities. This highly fibrous round fruit with 6 vertical lines contains a variety of flavours, ranging from sweet and salty to bitter and sour.
Amla and its rich nutrients

Amla is one of the richest natural sources of Vitamin C – 100 gram of Amla contains 700 mg of Vitamin C or ascorbic acid which is 20 times more than that found in other fruits. Amla is also an excellent anti oxidant and one of its best qualities is that the nutrients don’t reduce on cooking or drying. Amla is 80% moist and contains calcium, carotene, iron, phosphorous and many essential oils. Even the leaves and bark of Amla plant are a good source of tannin (tannin works as an astringent).

Health benefits of amla:

Including amla in your diet can be highly beneficial:
Treats respiratory system: Amla acts as an astringent and helps in drying cough. Being a good source of vitamin C, it’s very helpful when it comes to treating cold, bronchitis and respiratory problems

Treats constipation: The fruit is a good source of fibre and has proved to be an effective laxative. It’s been known to reduce constipation and even helps in the treatment of piles.

Treats skin ailments: Amla contains antibacterial properties which prevent skin disease and ulcers. It can even help in treating acne.

Good for hair: Amla can do miracles with hair problems and is an important ingredient in many products made for stimulating hair growth. Amla soaked in water and kept in an iron utensil overnight could be used as a shampoo-conditioner-hair colour to check hair greying and to make it shiny.

Read Also http://www.texilaconnect.com/ayurvedic-remedies-for-hair-loss/

Improves vision: Amla is good for the eyes and can help in correcting eye problems like trachoma, glaucoma and cataract.

Treats acidity: One gram of Amla powder with a little sugar if taken with milk or water can help reduce acidity.

Treats cardiac disease: Cholesterol, hypertension and diabetes are ailments that contribute to heart disease. Vitamin C helps in widening blood vessels and strengthening heart muscles which can reduce the chances of getting a stroke because of high cholesterol levels which may have accumulated on the walls of blood vessels. Regular intake of a powder mix of Amla and sugar candy taken with water can help stabilize cholesterol levels. If taken in powder form or as triphala – a mixture of Amla with two other herbs; harada and bihara – helps in controlling blood pressure. Amla mixture taken with jamun and bitter gourd powder helps to normalize an enzyme – alanine transaminase found in liver responsible for high level of diabetes.

Good for reproductive health: Amla can act as an aphrodisiac and is supposed to increase sperm count. Dried amla seeds mixed with honey can help reduce white discharge in women.

Treats anaemia: Amla is high in ascorbic acid, which helps in good iron absorption, thus reducing deficiency.

Good for general fitness: The multi-beneficial fruit that amla is, it’s been known to improve metabolism, thus helping in maintaining body weight. Furthermore, it improves human immunity, and provides all-round health benefits.

Source: mdhil