Have you tried to lighten your skin with over-the-counter lightening agents like hydroquinone but grew exasperated with waiting? Are you wondering what your options for removing age spots and acne scars will be if and when the Food and Drug Administration takes hydroquinone off the shelves? In that case, you may want to know about another skin whitener called mequinol (4-hydroxyanisole).

Even though the FDA approved the combination of mequinol and tretinoin to treat solar lentigines (”age spots” or “liver spots”) back in December of 1999, it has taken almost seven years for this drug to prove its effectiveness at treating ethnic skin types.

Research conducted by dermatologist Zoe Draelos has established mequinol and tretinoin as an effective treatment for lightening age spots or sun spots in Asian, Latin/Hispanic, and African American ethnic groups.

The study involved 259 subjects and according to report in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, the majority of subjects experienced clinical level improvements in their skin discolorations four weeks after starting the mequinol treatment.

In addition to treating age spots, Dr. Susan Taylor of Columbia University, New York has told Skin and Allergy News that doctors should consider combination mequinol and tretinoin therapy for treating post inflammatory hyperpigmentation (PIH). Taylor explains that PIH occurs in areas of the skin that become inflamed from a skin injury, a cosmetic or surgical procedure or from acne lesions.

Mequinol safety testing

While mequinol may soon displace hydroquinone as a trusted skin lightener, the question remains, “How safe is mequinol for human use?” Mequinol is actually a hydroquinone derivative, which makes one wonder about its possible toxicity.

However, members of the American Chemistry Council have administered oral dosages of mequinol to lab rats and rabbits. The animals did not die after exposure. Such experiments make mequinol seem non-threatening. However, the FDA does not recommend combination mequinol and tretinoin for pregnant women. Plus, women who are able to become pregnant should take effective birth control measures when using this pigment correcting treatment.

Potential side effects mequinol include redness, stinging, burning, irritation, peeling and itching. Moreover, you will need to exercise caution when using mequinol if you do facial waxing or use astringents that dry the skin. And, you can’t forget to use a sunscreen when using any skin lightening agent.

In the United States, the 2.0% mequinol and 0.01% tretinoin skin whitening treatment is sold under the trademark name Solage. While mequinol may soon supplant hydroquinone as a skin lightener, you will still have to visit your doctor to get a prescription in order to benefit from this drug.

Sources:
American Chemistry Council Hydroquinone Precursors and Derivatives Panel Hydroquinone Monomethyl Ether Task Force. High Productive Volume (HPV) Challenge Program Hydroquinone Monomethyl Ether Category Test Plan 4-Hydroxyanisole. December 20, 2002.

Food and Drug Administration. Solage Consumer Information. http: //www.fda.gov/cder/consumerinfo/druginfo/solage.htm, January 6, 2006.

Draelos, Zoe Diana. The combination of 2% 4-hydroxyanisole (mequinol) and 0.01% tretinoin effectively improves the appearance of solar lentigines in ethnic groups. Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology; September 2006, vol 5, no 3, pp. 239-244.

Muirhead, Greg. Combo Therapy May Be Hydroquinone Alternative.
Skin & Allergy News; April 2007, vol 38, no 4, pp 1,34.

Naweko Nicole Dial San-Joyz founded Noixia, a San Diego based research firm dedicated to helping people intelligently, safely and affordably enhance their image by offering custom skin solutions to people with

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One of the biggest conditions that most patients complain about is chronic pain. The conventional treatment consists of a combination of physical therapy and pain medication. The medications are usually given according to an analgesic ladder, with heavier medications prescribed for higher levels of pain. However, as many of us have discovered, the conventional treatment doesn’t always work.

So what can you do if you’re one of those people with chronic pain that doesn’t respond to the usual treatment? There are many options available from acupuncture to yoga, but we’ll focus this article on an approach called Neural Therapy. Although relatively unfamiliar to American practitioners, neural therapy is widely used in Europe for treatment of chronic pain.

Neural Therapy involves injecting local anesthetics into autonomic ganglia (nerve cell bodies), peripheral nerves, scars, glands, acupuncture points, and other tissues and anatomical sites. The history of neural therapy can be traced back to the late 19th century when local anesthetics were discovered. The Russian physiologist, Ivan Petrov, laid the foundation for the entire field in 1883 with his hypothesis that the nervous system exercises an influence over all organic functions. By the turn of the century, cocaine was being used as an anesthetic for abdominal surgery and as an epidural block. In 1904, novocaine was discovered by Alfred Einhorn. It resolved the potential for addiction found in cocaine. Novocaine is still widely used in medicine today.

A major development occurred in 1940, when Ferdinand Huneke was working with a patient that had a painful condition known as frozen right shoulder. Huneke was injecting novocaine into the right shoulder joint and finding little benefit. Instead, the patient experienced a burning, itching sensation on a seemingly unrelated scar on her lower left leg. On a hunch, Huneke injected the scar tissue with novocaine. What followed has been called the ‘Huneke phenomenon’ or ‘lightning reaction’. The patient’s frozen right shoulder regained full range of motion without pain in mere seconds. The scar on left shin had become an interference (inferred) field, in neural therapy terminology.

By continuing to work with local anesthetics and interference fields, Huneke and his associates created a system called neural therapy. It is used extensively for pain control in Europe, Latin America, and Russia. It is reported that up to 35% of all German physicians use neural therapy in their treatments.

Several possibilities have been given to explain why a scar on your left leg can cause pain in your right shoulder and how an injection of local anesthetic fixes the problem. One theory is called the ‘Nervous System Theory.’ It states that scars have different electric potentials across the cell membrane. The electrical imbalance causes the normal ion flow in the cells to stop. The cells accumulate toxins and abnormal minerals inside the cell causing the cell to be unable to heal itself. Local anesthetic may help restore the proper ion flow, thereby allowing the cell to rid itself of toxic material, repair itself, and return to its normal function.

Another theory proposes that scar tissue acts as battery of about 1.5 volts. This electrical interference disrupts the autonomic nervous system, which lacks the protective myelin sheath coating found on most nerve cells. The continued disturbance leads to more severe problems in the body.

Another explanation is the ‘Fascial Continuity Theory.’ It demonstrates that all bodily tissue is interconnected by tissue called fascia. Any scar tissue would then impair the natural movement of the fascia and result in pain.

It is quite difficult to find someone trained in neural therapy. Part of the reason is that it requires meticulous injection technique and detailed history taking. Both of these practices are very time-consuming and not in line with the fast pace demands of conventional medicine.

Jerry Ryan, Ph.D. is a Natural Health Coach who teaches individuals and group classes on the scientifically documented benefits of natural health techniques. He is also an internationally published author and has been a guest speaker at such places as NIKE World Headquarters. For more information, his website is JerryRyanPhD.com JerryRyanPhD.com

To find a qualified practitioner in your area, contact the American Academy of Neural Therapy. Here’s their address:
The American Academy of Neural Therapy
1468 South Saint Francis Dr.
Santa Fe, NM 87501
Phone: 505-988-3086

If you have any questions about anything in this article, please feel free to contact me at my website - JerryRyanPhD.com JerryRyanPhD.com I hope that this column has been helpful and informative. If you don’t take care of yourself, who will?

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Isn’t it exciting when you personally decide to take the step to make a commitment?

It’s even better when you have an Action Plan and a coach to be there with you.

Quite recently I made a commitment to lose some excess weight using the Perfect Body Shape - Glycemic Awareness Action Plan. I have tried a number of diets like the Adkin’s diet, the Scarsdale diet and even the cabbage soup diet. They all worked, but only temporarily. They all seemed to be missing one or more essential traits to create a lifelong partnership between the the diet and the dieter. Eventually, and every time, I returned to the state of which I had come from, sometimes even worse.

A couple of years ago I had the opportunity to watch the movie “Super Size It!” and was totally disgusted with the fast food industry. Although I have never been a ‘fast food junkie’, I’d have to say that my biggest and most problematic phase of weight gain occurred when I was in a travelling sales job and ate at the fast food places to fill the spot. I went from 215 lbs to 260 lbs in less than 2 years and felt horrible for it. I was at risk for Type 2 diabetes, my back was sore all the time and my feet were miserable trying to carry the excess tonnage.

So, what’s the answer? Who do you believe? Is this for convenience or is there a commitment? In order to succeed there are a few parameters that I believe are the main components of any successful diet program. There may be more but these are

1) Nutrition: The diet must contain a list of foods from all of the major food groups. Our bodies need the elements that are provided by the spectrum of foods nature offers, including lots of pure water to flush our systems of the toxins that are stopping us from progress. ps… fast food is not a major food group

2) Education: There are a lot of diet books out there suggesting this and that but what we really need to understand is what has gotten us to the point at which we are at. If we are fat and sloppy now when we use to be trim and athletic, what has changed? Why are my kids fat? It’s never just one thing but rather an accumulation of poor decisions that have long term repercussions. It’s also a matter of understanding which types of foods contribute most to the ease of weight gain and finding the proper solution for your individual situation.

3) Exercise: Always a key component, exercise is the catalyst in increasing your rate of fat burning and weight loss. Exercise can be effectively incorporated into any diet program and staged to accommodate most current states of physical fitness. Walking itself can do wonders.

4) A Plan… with a Goal: Having a plan with no goal or a goal with no plan on how to achieve it makes little sense, yet we fall into this trap all the time. Perhaps, subliminally, we do this in order to avoid the commitment. Many of us just don’t get it but we all have experienced the results of such omission… little or none.

5) Commitment: A diet change can’t be “temporary”. Dieting needs to be a lifestyle adjustment with parameters to stay within. The attitude of dieting to lose the weight and then going back to the same old eating habits that got us there in the first place is absurd. But people like you and me have done it many times too often.

6) A Coach: Probably the most underrated of the 6 factors because the the coach can help you with the nutrition, education and plan plus be a reinforcement factor for your commitment.

This time around I am reinforcing my commitment and using the buddy system with recent business associate, Dr Cindy Meays. Her “Perfect Body Shape Program”, complete with food ideas, supplements, exercise and coaching seems to make a lot of sense. From what I understand, Dr Cindy’s program focus’s on Glycemic Awareness that provides the education and an Action Plan to put one on-track with coaching to reinforce my personal commitment.

So, here’s my starting point. I’m 52 years old, 240lbs at 5 feet 9 inches tall. I did a lot of body building and power lifting over the years and despite my current shape, I still carry a significant amount of muscle mass. My goal is to lose my gut and love handles, reduce to approximately 200 lbs and stay there.

Interestingly enough, this program suggests throwing away the bathroom scale and measure your progress in lost inches. The logic behind this is that in changing ones body shape in this program, you are likely to gain some muscle mass while losing the fat. Muscle is more dense than fat so even though you won’t appear to be losing a lot of weight, the fat inches will be melting off. This is not dissimilar to the regime put forward in Bill Phillips “Body for Life” where his emphasis is on both diet and rigorous exercise. “Perfect Body Shape” doesn’t appear to be as regimented as “Body for Life”. I have plenty of opportunity to walk and do other physical exercise at my day job. I may also set up the weights again although the heavy lifting will be avoided.

So, there it is. We will be starting this week and the initial program is 90 days. We will be keeping you up to date on the procedures and progresses we make each week by posting on Cindy’s blog. If you want to join me and others in this promising program, check out your Body Mass Index first at Dr. Cindy’s cindy.perfectbodyshape.com Perfect Body Shape. If you can commit to 90 days, then she will guarantee that you are successful. You can’t get better than that!

Dave O is an internet consultant and author who specializes in contract article writing and internet marketing. He has lived in British Columbia for almost 30 years and makes his home in Kamloops, BC. His interest in diet, nutrition and exercise began in the early 1990’s as he approached age 40 and became more aware of his change in weight and body shape.

Dave invites you to visit

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Endometriosis is a medical term that is defined as the abnormal growth of endometrial cells that spread to areas in the body where they do not belong. As the menstrual period approaches, these implants swell with blood and bleed into the surrounding areas and tissues. As there is no place for the tissue and blood to flow, this condition causes considerable inflammation and pain. There are various stages and treatment methods depend on the stage.

When endometriosis is suspected, patients are advised to record their symptoms, particularly the pelvic pain in relation to the menstrual cycle. During treatment, they are asked to describe their symptoms, sites of pain and if the pelvic pain worsens during menstruation. A routine pelvic examination is required to diagnose the condition, evaluate the stage and check for abnormalities like cysts or scars. Physical examination has its limitations. A pelvic exam alone will not pinpoint exactly what stage a patient is in, the degree of implantation or the cause of pelvic pain. Other tests may be necessary to confirm endometriosis and the specific stage.

Staging is useful in tracking and treating endometriosis. It involves tracking the stages of the disease so a treatment strategy can be initiated. Tracking of endometriosis stages helps evaluate a patient’s response to treatment. Dr. Stanley West, reproductive health physician and author of The Hysterectomy Hoax, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, has categorized endometriosis into four stages. Stage one involves a few endometrial implants, most often in the cul-de-sac of a woman?s pelvic area. Stage two has mild to moderate levels of endometrial implants affecting one or both ovaries. Stage three has moderate levels of endometriosis with implants in several reproductive areas and in one or both ovaries. Stage four is the most severe with widespread endometriosis implants throughout the pelvic area. The more widespread the endometriosis, the more is the likelihood of fertility problems.

Various tools such as transvaginal ultrasound, pelvic ultrasound, trial drug period and laparoscopy are used to determine the endometriosis stage in a patient. If ultrasound techniques fail to detect endometrial implants, laparoscopy becomes necessary. Although more expensive, laparoscopy is the most accurate method for diagnosing endometriosis and confirming endometriosis stages. Laparoscopy involves minor surgery under general anesthetic.

Endometriosis ceases to be a problem after menopause. Although endometriosis is a difficult condition to treat, there are several steps that a woman can take to reduce the suffering that comes with the various endometriosis stages

e-endometriosis.com Endometriosis provides detailed information on Chronic Endometriosis, Endometriorsis And Infertility, Endometriosis, Endometriosis And Cancer and more. Endometriosis is affiliated with i-menopause.com Male Menopause.

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