How to Take Care of a Tattoo

Getting a tattoo is a big life decision, mainly because the ink will stay with you for the rest of your life (or until you decide to get it lasered off). For most people, having tattoos is the best way to express the person’s strong feelings, aspirations, and perspectives in life. However, the process of tattooing is not a joke, and neither is the healing and long-term care part. This article is mainly about how to take care of a tattoo, how to protect yourself from infection, and how to take care of the ink colors to keep them bright for the years to come.

During and After the Tattoo Session

The process of tattooing involves puncturing your skin using a tiny needle that injects the pigment into your skin. It is a very painful process and you need to be sure about getting a tattoo before sitting on your tattooist’s chair. After all, the suffering from getting a tattoo is not only during getting the tattoo, but also while waiting for it to heal which takes generally 3-4 weeks.

Before working on the tattoo, the tattooist will first disinfect the area where he will make the tattoo. You also have to make sure that your tattoo artist is not recycling his sterile needles. Getting diseases like HIV is very easy when people share needles for drugs and tattoos.

After the tattoo work is finished, your tattoo artist will cover the area with sterile gauze to keep germs from entering your artistic wound. Although the idea of covering the wound is ideal, you should not let the gauze stay there for longer than 2 hours. The gauze may stick to the wound when it dries up and it would be painfully difficult for you to remove it. Besides, a good 2 hours on top of a fresh wound would make the gauze itself conducive for bacteria-breeding.

While waiting for the tattoo to heal properly, you cannot let the area get wet for long periods of time. This means that you cannot, under any circumstances, swim in a pool or go to a sauna or spa. The wound needs to dry fast so the scabs will form easier and heal faster. When taking a bath, you have to lightly lather soap to the area using your fingers and immediately rinse the suds off. To dry the area, don’t rub it with a towel. Simply dab lightly with a cotton cloth and let it air dry.

Your fashion statement will also be affected by your decision to get a tattoo. For the next three to four weeks, you have no option but to wear clothing that will not brush up against your new tattoo. Else, it might cause infection or tattoo discoloration.

Scabs will form on your tattoo and it will be normal if the area is swollen and red for the first few days. Do not pick on the scab or scratch the area. Aside from risking infection, you are also risking the chance of taking off a scab too soon and picking off the color with it. Imagine a red heart tattoo with a big missing red piece in the middle if you pick on the scab too early. Scabs will peel off by themselves and this will happen while you are cleaning the area while taking a bath.

Protecting the Tattoo Ink

The most crucial stage of protecting the tattoo ink is while the wound is still healing and the scabs are there. Tattoos in their early stages can be really itchy and strong is the man (or woman) who can resist the temptation of scratching or picking on them. As earlier mentioned, you have to avoid scratching, picking, or applying too much pressure on your scabbed tattoo because the tattoo ink hasn’t properly settled on your skin yet.

To get a fine, evenly-colored tattoo, take care to let the tattoo heal naturally, including letting the scabs peel off by themselves. You may also protect the tattoo by applying salve (don’t use products with aloe vera as they tend to heal the wound too quickly) over the wound for the first 2-3 weeks. However, apply only enough salve that would make a thin covering over the tattoo. Applying too much salve can damage the color too.

You might be tempted to use hydrogen peroxide or rub alcohol to relieve the itching sensation without picking or scratching on the wound. Beware though, because these two things can make the color fade fast if the wound is still unhealed. Some people suggest slapping the wound instead of scratching it to relieve the itchy feeling. However, don’t do this too hard if you don’t want to open the wounds or cause further damage to the skin.

Long-Term Tattoo Care

If the tattoo has healed properly and you have a nice-looking skin print on your body, congratulations! You have passed the trying test of keeping a tattoo looking good through an arduous healing process. However, taking care of a tattoo doesn’t end with waiting for the last scab to fall off. After your wound has completely healed, your next task is to keep the color bright and to keep the tattoo looking as good as new.

One way to protect your tattoo is by constantly applying sunscreen over it every time you go out of the house. Sunburns over the tattoo will cause the tattoo to fade and look uneven in certain places. A sunscreen during the summer and lotion during winter is the best way to keep your tattoo looking bright and fresh.

For people who like working out all the time, try to keep the sweat off your tattoo as it makes the colors fade faster. Change clothes right after your work out or make it a point to wipe the sweat off your tattoo while you aren’t finished with your workout yet. In a few years, your tattoo might need some touch-ups to keep the color looking bright. As much as possible, try to go back to the tattoo artist who worked on your tattoo, especially if he has proven that he is clean and professional with his job.

Things to Look Out For

The most crucial part of getting a tattoo is waiting for it to heal. If it is still in the healing process and the tattoo is too painful, swollen, and red, you have to go to the doctor to check for an infection. If green or yellow pus is coming out, you need to go to the doctor as soon as you can to avoid an ugly hole on your tattoo area.

If the tattoo is old and you are noticing some small bumps or a large bump in the area, you have to get it checked with the doctor to make sure that it isn’t a skin tumor. Some poor-quality tattoo inks can also cause allergies and cancer. If there are raised spots on your tattoo, swelling, or an itchy sensation, better seek the help of a doctor to treat whatever is wrong with your skin. Tattoos should be a beautiful expression of yourself, but you have to make sure that it won’t endanger your life and that it will not cause you unnecessary pain.

With Thanks to:

Margrit Bradley | Skin Care 

http://www.healthguidance.org

Creator Public Relations Pvt. Ltd.

Caring for Your Contact Lenses and Your Eyes

Following these steps will extend the life of your contact lenses and protect the safety and health of your eyes.

Keep Lenses Clean

The type of lens you have determines how you care for it. Disposable extended-wear soft lenses need the least care, and conventional soft lenses need extensive care. To avoid vision-threatening complications, you must carefully follow directions for lens care. If you have a hard time following the cleaning steps, tell your eye care professional. You may be able to simplify the steps, or you may want to switch to disposable lenses.

1. Before handling contact lenses, wash and rinse hands. Use a mild non-cosmetic soap. Soaps with perfumes, oils, or lotions leave a film on the hands, which you may transfer to your lenses and cause eye irritation or blurred vision.
2. Dry hands with a clean, lint-free towel.
3. If you use hair spray, use it before you put in your contacts. It’s also a good idea to keep your fingernails short and smooth to avoid damaging your lenses or scratching the eye.
4. After your contacts are in your eyes, put on makeup so you don’t get any on your lenses. Take out contact lenses before you remove makeup for the same reason.
5. Different types of contact lenses require special care and certain types of products. Always use the disinfecting solution, eye drops, and enzymatic cleaners your eye care professional recommended. Some eye products or eye drops are not safe for contact lens wearers.
6. Never use tap water directly on lenses, and never put contact lenses in your mouth to "rinse" them. Microorganisms can live in even distilled water, causing infection or sight damage.
7. Clean each contact by rubbing it gently with your index finger in the palm of your other hand. Most multipurpose solutions don’t have “No Rub” on their labels anymore. Lightly rubbing your contact removes surface buildup.
8. Clean your contact lens case every time you use it with either sterile solution or hot tap water. Let it air dry. Replace the contact lens storage case every three months.

   Wear Contacts Safely

   Eye care experts currently consider daily disposable lenses the safest soft contact lenses for your eyes. Talk to your eye care professional to determine which may be the best choice for you. Then follow his guidance on care.

1. Each day, wear your contacts only as long as your eye care professional recommended.
2. If you think you’ll have trouble remembering when to change your lenses, ask your eye care professional for a chart to track wearing schedule. If he doesn’t have one, consider creating one on your own.
3. Never wear another person's contact lenses, especially if someone has already worn them. Using other people's contact lenses can spread any infection or particles from their eyes to yours.
4. Do not sleep with contact lenses in your eyes unless you are prescribed "extended wear" contacts. Closed eyes don’t allow tears to carry a healthy amount of oxygen to your eyes.
5. Don't let the tip of solution bottles touch other surfaces, including fingers, eyes, or contact lenses. All of these can contaminate the solution.
6. Wearing contact lenses may cause your eyes to become more sensitive to sunlight. Wear sunglasses with total UV protection or a wide brim hat when in the sun.
7. To keep eyes lubricated, use a re-wetting solution or plain saline solution that your eye doctor has approved.
8. If you accidentally insert contacts inside out, it won’t harm your eyes, but it will be uncomfortable. To avoid this, place a contact lens on the tip of your finger so that it forms a cup. Look at the contact lens from the side. If the cup looks like it is flaring out at the top and has a lip, the contact lens is inside out. If it looks like the letter "U", the contact lens is right side out.
9. If you develop any eye irritation, remove your contact lenses and don’t use them again until you talk with your eye care professional. Wearing a contaminated pair of lenses invites the infection to stay. When you get back to wearing contacts, closely follow your doctor's instructions to prevent eye infections.
10. Visit your eye doctor immediately if you have any sudden vision loss, persistent blurred vision, light flashes, eye pain, infection, swelling, unusual redness, or irritation.

With thanks to : http://www.webmd.com/eye-health/caring-contact-lens

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10 reasons gold is an awesome commodity

1. It is an universal currency – and the Central bank hates that. When I say central bank it means all the central money regulatory authorities.

2. Most of the Central Bankers and Finance Ministers are just kicking the can down the road. If we had a limit on how much of fiat currency we could print, we would be bankrupt.

3. When a borrower cannot pay, he just does not. Ask any defaulting individual, corporate or a country. So lending against gold is still even internationally the safest way to lend.

4. Terrorist bribes in unmarked gold is common – this will also ensure the demand for gold.

5. One day we will return to the Gold Standard. The day the governments of the world decide to call off the fiat currency printing madness, this will happen.

6. Gold prices will fluctuate – see it expressed in various currencies and you will know that when currencies fluctuate gold prices do vary. So a fall in US $ may actually mean it has gained in Yen or in Rupee.

7. Indians will continue to buy gold: there is something which the Indians know about owning gold which the others do not.

8. Trying to draw a co-relation of gold prices to US $, yen, rupee, oil, is all fine – but it is a time pass activity, do not waste time. If you have spent 30 minutes doing that, you have wasted 27 minutes at least.

9. How well gold performs against any OTHER asset, how it performs when the economy does well -or does badly, are just diversions.

10. Over long periods of time gold will beat inflation – and is a decent hedge against inflation – but with a caveat – it can suddenly pull the rug under your feet. That is exactly what scares people.

With Thanks To,

P V Subramanyam

Yahoo! Finance India

http://in.finance.yahoo.com/news/10-reasons-gold-is-an-awesome-commodity-100223119.html

The author P V Subramanyam is a Chartered Accountant by qualification and a financial trainer by  profession. Writing being a passion he also regularly pens his thought in his blog Subramoney.com

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The Precautions for Healthy Fasting

To engage in healthy fasting we don't need to be the picture of health and vitality. In most cases all that is necessary is average good health.

There are of course, certain precautions.....

• Children should never fast.



• Those who should consult a doctor and/or be under his/her care during fasting include: the extremely frail, those with a weakened immune system, those with eating disorders, medication-dependent diabetes, chronic ailments such as heart disease, especially if on prescription medication.
  
  
  With most conditions, it is possible to fast, but the more serious the condition, the more you need professional support during a fast to avoid any problems. If you are on any prescription medications, your requirements for that medicine may vary from day to day. For example, if you are on blood pressure lowering medication, fasting may naturally lower your blood pressure. You wouldn't want to take your full dosage of medicine or your blood pressure may drop too low. You would need a doctor to monitor you daily.
  You must take care of yourself. Use your best judgment, and that of your physician, if you have medical issues which leave you uncertain about the safety of fasting in your life.



• While rare, longer-term water fasting (more than 10 days), can drop an individual's electrolyte reserves too low, indicated by sudden and extreme weakness or persistent vomiting. This is the reason to have professional support during the more intense water fast. Dr. Joel Fuhrman, author of Fasting and Eating for Health, suggests professional support for any water fast longer than 2-3 days.
  
  
  His book contains a section a couple pages long in which he discusses other contraindications to longer-term water fasting, such as rare disorders, improper liver or kidney function, and prior medication therapies.



• Remember the "healthy" in healthy fasting. Use your common sense. There was a method of fasting once promoted for losing weight that consisted of fruit juices, coffee, and tea. Diuretics and blood thinners were also used. This was an extremely unhealthy fast and followed for too long and in obese patients with serious pre-existing medical conditions. One person died at 56 days, and another at 21 days. (But, of course, untold numbers lived). This is not healthy fasting, and not what is promoted here and by other responsible proponents of fasting.
  
  
  But if you're looking to call fasting "quackery", you can certainly find the rare example such as the above, of quackery fasting.
• Pregnant and nursing women should never attempt a fast. The effects on the unborn fetus are unknown and shouldn't be risked. As far as nursing, according to Annemarie Colbin, author of Food and Healing, who fasted a couple times while nursing, her breast milk seemed to contain less nutrient density even though the volume remained the same. She says her babies complained as if they weren't getting enough nutrition.
  
  
  Ideally, a woman would engage in healthy fasting well before getting pregnant, putting her body in the best possible state to support a growing fetus. The less toxins her body is carrying, the better for her baby.
  
  
  The pregnant woman can always, of course, improve her diet to include more nutritious foods, but check with your obstetrician before making any drastic or sudden changes. Healthy fasting is based on nature and natural elements. Water, fresh fruits and vegetables, and even grains are the tools of healthy fasting. Drugs, chemicals, artificial sugars, processed foods, denatured foods, additives are avoided. Attentiveness to your body's messages is always promoted, including the message to stop the fast earlier than you had planned. Fasting is done to help the body cleanse and rebuild, not to tear it down.
  Having read the warnings, keep in mind that there are different levels of intensity to fasting. Fruit fasting, rice fasting, and cleansing diets (a form of partial fasting) are all milder methods of healthy fasting. And just a one day fast of that kind, performed occasionally, will deliver you a great deal of benefit and knowledge of your body and emotions and habits. They can also serve to prepare you for longer fasts if that is your goal. 
  
  
  
  With thanks to:
  allaboutfasting.com/healthy-fasting.html
  
  
  Creator Public Relations Pvt. Ltd.

Summer Steps for Healthy Living

Improve your health with steps so simple you'll barely notice the effort.

Give Your Diet a Berry Boost

If you do one thing this summer to improve your diet, have a cup of mixed fresh berries -- blackberries, blueberries, or strawberries -- every day. They'll help you load up on antioxidants, which may help prevent damage to tissues and reduce the risks of age-related illnesses. Blueberries and blackberries are especially antioxidant-rich.

A big bonus: Berries are also tops in fiber, which helps keep cholesterol low and may even help prevent some cancers.

Get Dirty -- and Stress Less

To improve your stress level, plant a small garden, cultivate a flower box, or if space is really limited, plant a few flower pots -- indoors or out.

Just putting your hands in soil is "grounding." And when life feels like you're moving so fast your feet are barely touching the stuff, being mentally grounded can help relieve physical and mental stress.

Floss Daily

You know you need to, now it's time to start: floss every single day. Do it at the beach (in a secluded spot), while reading on your patio, or when watching TV -- and the task will breeze by.

Flossing reduces oral bacteria, which improves overall body health, and if oral bacteria is low, your body has more resources to fight bacteria elsewhere. Floss daily and you're doing better than at least 85% of people.

Get Outside to Exercise

Pick one outdoor activity -- going on a hike, taking a nature walk, playing games such as tag with your kids, cycling, roller blading, or swimming -- to shed that cooped-up feeling of gym workouts.

And remember, the family that plays together not only gets fit together -- it's also a great way to create bonding time.

Be Good to Your Eyes

To protect your vision at work and at play, wear protective eyewear. When outdoors, wear sunglasses that block at least 99% of ultraviolet A and B rays. Sunglasses can help prevent cataracts, as well as wrinkles around the eyes.

And when playing sports or doing tasks such as mowing the lawn, wear protective eyewear. Ask your eye doctor about the best type; some are sport-specific.

Sleep Well

Resist the urge to stay up later during long summer days. Instead pay attention to good sleep hygiene by keeping the same bedtime and wake-up schedule and not drinking alcohol within three hours of bedtime.

It's also a good idea to avoid naps during the day unless you take them every day at the same time, for the same amount of time.

There they are: Eight super simple ways to boost your health this summer. Try one or try them all. They're so easy you won't even know they're -- shhhh -- good for you.

By Kathleen Doheny

WebMD Feature

http://women.webmd.com

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Smiling 'is good for the heart'

The Telegraph

Grinning and bearing it really might work, say scientists, following research that smiling can reduce stress and help the heart.

Researchers found smiling can reduce stress levels and low the heart rate while performing difficult tasks. Writing in Psychological Science, the authors tell how they studied the effects of different types of smiling in difficult situations. Tara Kraft, of the University of Kansas, said: "Age old adages, such as 'grin and bear it' have suggested smiling to be not only an important nonverbal indicator of happiness but also wishfully promotes smiling as a panacea for life's stressful events.

"We wanted to examine whether these adages had scientific merit; whether smiling could have real health-relevant benefits." She and Dr Sarah Pressman divided smiles into two categories - standard smiles, which use the muscles surrounding the mouth, and genuine or Duchenne smiles, which engage the muscles surrounding both the mouth and eyes.

Kraft and Pressman worked to manipulate the types of smiles to examine the effects on stress. They recruited 169 participants from a Midwestern university and divided them into three groups, with each group was trained to hold a different facial expression.

They were instructed to hold chopsticks in their mouths in such a way that they engaged facial muscles used to create a neutral facial expression, a standard smile, or a Duchenne smile.

Chopsticks were essential to the task because they forced people to smile without them being aware that they were doing so: only half of the group members were actually instructed to smile.

Participants were then asked to work on multitasking activities which, unknown to them, were designed to be stressful.

During both of the stressful tasks, participants held the chopsticks in their mouth just as they were taught in training and the researchers measured participants' heart rates and self stress levels.

Compared to participants who held neutral facial expressions, participants who were instructed to smile, and in particular those with Duchenne smiles, had lower heart rate levels after recovery from the stressful activities.

The participants who held chopsticks in a manner that forced them to smile, but were not explicitly told to smile as part of the training, also reported a smaller decrease in positive affect compared to those who held neutral facial expressions.

Dr Pressman said that the findings show that smiling during brief stressors can help to reduce the intensity of the body's stress response, regardless of whether a person actually feels happy.

She said: "The next time you are stuck in traffic or are experiencing some other type of stress you might try to hold your face in a smile for a moment.

"Not only will it help you 'grin and bear it' psychologically, but it might actually help your heart health as well."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9440567/Smiling-is-good-for-the-heart.html

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