Posts Tagged ‘alternative health’

Have you always wanted to try the world’s finest skin care product, but found the prices somewhat outrageous? Ever considered making your own? It’s so easy to do, and you can create a formula precisely to match your skin type, with remarkable effective natural and pure botanicals (plant-based ingredients). Making these yourself will give you a skin care product that matches or exceeds the effectiveness of anything you can buy over the counter at a truly affordable price. Try one of these recipes and you may never go back to fancy labels, boxes and prices ever again!

Concentrated Beauty Medicine: The Essential Oils

You’ll find essential oils in every “high end” mature skin beauty product, though sometimes you’ll see them discretely labeled as “plant extracts” or similar terms. The thing is that many folks still don’t realize that essential oils truly are medicine, not just fine smelling precious liquid in tiny bottles. When you understand that essential oils are simply the concentrated “volatile” (easily evaporated liquid) constituents naturally present in ALL plants, you’ll see that they’re nothing less than any other herbal concentrate. And essential oils are so very compatible with our skin — they are very easily absorbed — that they can actually work better than other types of botanical skin care ingredients. Making a custom recipe for yourself is as simple as matching the therapeutic properties of the essential oils to your skin’s needs — then mixing them together with one or more “fixed” oils, and voila! You’ve got the perfect daily skin care creation.

Rose is the Oil of Beauty

Again and again, in every natural skin care recipe book, one finds one oil more highly regarded than any other — Rose Otto, the steam distilled variety of Rose (it is also found as an Absolute, which is more appropriate for natural perfumes). Rose Otto has a host of therapeutic skin care properties: it hydrates without being greasy, it’s gently antiseptic, soothing to damaged skin, can heal broken capillaries, and supports the skin’s natural metabolism. It is also the most important oil for women for its heart opening, anti-depressant action — considered the “oil of the highest vibration” used in aroma-therapeutics. While a bit pricey, it’s very potent; only a few drops are needed in any recipe.

Super Healing Calendula

Calendula oil has been used for hundreds of years for all sorts of skin care uses. Its exceptionally soothing, with the traditional use being for infant’s skin care. The flowers have been hard to work with however, limiting the uses of this magnificent medicinal plant. A new extraction technique now offers us a Calendula oil concentrate, often labeled Calendula CO2. This new extract is highly antioxidant, powerfully wound-healing, and one of the most effective soothers of irritated or damaged skin available on Earth.

Additional Therapeutic Oils for Every Skin’s Needs

One or more of these three oils are excellent companion oils to the Rose and Calendula. Rosemary “Verbenone” is a skin-care specialty oil, distilled from a particular variety of Rosemary herb. Long used in all sorts of body care preparations, Rosemary is thought to work by stimulating cellular metabolism (increasing the amount of nutrients getting into our skin cells), speeding the creation of new cells, and enhancing our skin’s vitality. Helichrysum is even more potently regenerative — often used in wound healing, Helichrysum will also increase new skin cell production, while drawing waste products from skin tissues. And lets not forget Lavender, the Grand-Daddy of skin-care medicine. Lavender is regenerative, antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, and aids skin conditions where stress may be an underlying factor.

A final two essential oils with significant therapeutic action in skin care: Green Myrtle and Sandalwood. Both of these oils are considered highly balancing, bringing oils back to a healthy middle ground. Sandalwood is excellent for both oily AND dry skin, adding a pleasing, grounding, earthy aroma to your formula (it is quite popular in men’s skin care too). Myrtle is astringent, tightening, antiseptic, and has a fresh, bright, herbaceous aroma with a lemony-twist.

Holding It All Together: Your Formula’s Base

On to the base of the formula, the “carrier oils”. These are oils cold pressed from nuts, seeds and fruit. Olive oil is an example, but we’ll use ones more therapeutic for woman’s beauty care. Virgin Coconut oil is the foundation of every recipe. It has a host of therapeutic properties itself: it is antibacterial, antioxidant, antiviral (just in case!). Coconut oil is also VERY hydrating and is known to balance hormones in the skin on a cellular level (which can clear up a number of skin “conditions” — acne being one of them, dry irritated skin being another). Kukui nut oil, also from the tropics, is another amazing, healing base oil with numerous skin care benefits similar to Coconut. Kukui oil is beneficial for all skin types bringing a gentle softness and silkiness to the skin. Both of these oils blended in equal amounts make a wonderful base into which to add the essential oils — OR you may use one or the other, in combination with this next amazing oil…

Rosehip Seed: A Woman’s Beauty Gift from the Mountains of Chile

For everyone EXCEPT those prone to acne, Rosehip Seed oil is the third important base oil. Rosehip seed naturally balances the incredible tropical nut oils, coming from the high mountain arid regions of South America. Rosehip seed may be the most thoroughly studied carrier oil for skin care use — and with excellent results. Rosehip has been shown to significantly reduce the appearance of wrinkles, fine lines and scars, while smoothing overall skin texture and color. Imagine what its going to do with all these other top-notch therapeutic ingredients…let’s get on to mixing them.

Get Yourself Started With These Ingredients and Instructions

Gather your ingredients: 1 glass bottle 30 or 60ml (1 or 2 ounces), preferably colored glass (helps protect the oils) with an eyedropper (makes it easy to dispense your formula later). ALL recipes are for EACH FLUID OUNCE, so you’ll want to know the size of our bottle to make measuring easier. A funnel might make things easier as well. And of course your selected base oils and essential oils (note for purchasing oils — the recipe calls for drops, and essential oils are sold in milliliters — there are 25 drops per milliliter).

To Mix: Measure into the bottle your essential oils of choice. Fill the bottle with the indicated parts Coconut, Kukui or Rosehip. Spiral the bottle and allow to blend for 2 hours or longer. The scent will become more and more delicious over time. Use 2 x day on clean skin. Each recipe is for one fluid ounce of blend; you can make more by multiplying the amounts however many times you’d like.

Brilliant Beauty Recipes for All Skin Types:

Moderate to sever dry skin with smile lines: Rose Otto 8 drops, Lavender 12 drops, Calendula CO2 6 drops, three parts Coconut and one part each Kukui and Rosehip seed oils.

Mature skin with scars or color variations and smile lines: Rose Otto 6 drops, Lavender 8 drops, Helichrysum 6 drops, Rosemary V. 6 drops, Equal parts Coconut, Kukui, and Rosehipseed oils.

For irritated or sensitive skin: Rosemary Verbenone 8 drops, Lavender 6 drops, Calendula 6 drops, Sandalwood 6 drops, in equal parts of all three base oils.

For oily, acne-prone or combination skin: Myrtle 10 drops, Lavender 8, drops, Rosemary V., 6 drops, in equal parts of Kukui and Coconut oils.

And there you have it: incredibly effective “mature skin” care blends for every woman. Once you make one of these yourself, and realize you may have just made yourself the best skin care formula EVER, you can experiment a little with one or more of the hundreds of essential oils available. Each has unique therapeutic properties that are highly compatible to our skin. Here’s to your happy, healthy glow!

Skin care is one of the natural health realms where essential oils really shine.

If you are looking for a massage chair, then it is important to find unbiased information regarding potential shiatsu massage chair options. Reviews and evaluations can point out the relevant aspects of each product. To assist apotential purchaser researching massage chairs, we evaluate 5 key categories which include Warranty & Customer Service, Comfort/Ergonomics, Ease of Use, Features and Massage Therapy. Each category is worth up to 20 points. All points are added up to give a total score based on the 5 categories. A disciplined, systematic approach takes out bias and presents facts. We review the Luxury range of $4,000 to $5,000 and feature the Panasonic Real Pro Elite EP-3222 massage chair.

Warranty & Customer Service: A warranty protects the customer and customer service must rectify issues one may have. Warranty and customer service come from the company that makes the massage chair. The Panasonic EP-3222 has the following warranty coverage: 1 year labor, 1 year parts, 1 year in-home service and 1 year shipping. The Panasonic warranty expires after 1,000 hours of usage. Panasonic is started to provide warranty coverage like found with automobiles either time or total usage. Panasonic warranty coverage is OK. Panasonic service and turnaround are variable, depending the service center used. The EP-3222 is a 15 in Warranty & Customer.

Comfort & Ergonomics: Comfort and ergonomics are important design characteristics with a massage chair recliner. Panasonic massage chairs are fairly well designed and comfortable. The armrests are padded and the material soft. The upholstery on the chair back is soft and fits the back well. The head pillow supports the head and is plush. The footrest is not adjustable, so taller buyers beware. The Real Pro Elite Elite is a 17 in Comfort & Ergonomics.

Ease of Use: Ease of use is defined as how intuitive the controls and how complicated are they to use without reading the instructions. Panasonic has lead in the development of remote controls using LCDs and other advanced features. The Real Pro Elite EP-3222 has many features and correspondingly many buttons on the control. Most are intuitive, but some take some getting used to, which means lower ease of use. Panasonic tries to compensate for this with its “Voice Guidance” feature. The automatic massage buttons are located across the top of the controls for easy access and they have a “focus” button which allows you to repeat the massage action that occurred. The Real Pro Elite has a side panel with additional manual massage controls for the lower body massages. Overall Rating for the Panasonic Real Pro Elite for ease of use is 17.

Key Features: The most prominent features of the Panasonic EP-3222 are the Lower Body Air System and the Swede-Atsu massage system. The lower body air system has 33 airbags covering your hips, thighs, buttocks, calves and feet. There are 3 lower body massages including Grasp, Auto and Squeeze. The Swede-Atsu replicates the stoking of the palms of the hand, pressing by the heal of the hand, and kneading with the thumbs. The Swede-Atsu has rubber massage heads built into the rollers. These mechanisms can replicate the feeling of the palm, thumbs and heal of the hand. The Swede-Atsu is a good massage system. The Panasonic Real Pro Elite shiatsu massage chair is a 19 in Key Features.

Massage Therapy: The massage functions are included in the Real Pro Elite EP-3222 includes Four 14-minute Pre-Programs, One 5-minute Quick Program and One 14-minute Self Program has 4 full body automatic courses, 5 massage speed settings for a total combination of 14 massage courses. The automatic massage functions include the following: Shiatsu, Gentle, Deep and Refresh. Panasonic equips the EP-3222 its exclusive Swede-Atsu massage system providing a thorough and realistic array of massage therapy choices. The lower body has 33 airbags of coverage and three programs to choose from. This shiatsu massage chair provides good tension relief for the lower body and increased lateral coverage on the back. Overall Rating for the Panasonic EP-3222 massage recliner for massage therapy is 19.

How does the Panasonic Real Pro Elite EP-3222 stack up? Overall, our rating of the Panasonic is an 87/100. Panasonic continues to expand the range of capabilities of its massage chairs with greater back coverage, voice guidance and its Swede-Atsu massage system. The massage chair design is very modern, perhaps, too much so, but that is a matter of taste. Panasonic massage chair technology for both the mechanical and pneumatic provide for a thorough, firm overall massage. Panasonic needs to add an extendable footrest to accommodate taller people. Otherwise, the Real Pro Elite is a solid all-around therapeutic massage chair.

Searching for a fabulous shiatsu massage chair? Check out the Panasonic Massage Chair line. Feel free to view our articles, massage chair reviews and more on the best Massage Chairs currently on the market today. Massage Chair Warehouse where you will find the best massage chair recliner.

Infused Calendula oil has long been used as a component of natural skin care preparations for its special soothing properties. The oil of the flowers had not been available as an essential oil for most of its history, as the flowers had been too delicate to process in the typical steam distillation process. With the recent introduction of the Supercritical cold-extraction process, a concentrated Calendula CO2 essential oil is now readily available, making it very easy to include this wonderful concentrated in any skin care and wound healing recipe. This new Calendula extract has been the subject of much research over the last several years, confirming its nearly miraculous regenerative, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory actions — further encouraging its use for natural skin care products, whether purchased already blended or for you to make a personal formula at home.

Calendula Flowers: Nature’s Gentle Healer

Calendula flowers, a particular kind of Marigold, is a genus of 20 species of herbaceous plants in the Daisy family. Calendula infused oil — made by soaking the flowers in olive oil — is highly regarded as a base of soothing skin formulas, with cooling and hydrating effects. It has been a popular ingredient in formulas for eczema and baby’s needs — or anywhere skin irritation is being addressed. The infused oil had limitations in that the base oil needed to be the infused oil itself, limiting other carrier or base oils included in the formula. Even very small quantities (1-3%, or 8-24 drops per ounce) of the essential oil added to your recipes can have dramatic results

New Methods Offer Easy-To-Use Essential Oil

The Calendula essential oil concentrate is often labeled as Calendula CO2, meaning all the lipid-soluble components of the plant have been extracted using pressurized, liquified carbon dioxide. At the end of the process, the carbon dioxide is released and only the essential oil remains. A search through the data provided by the US Nation Library of Medicine uncovers hundreds of references to Calendula officinalis extract. The database is hosted at ncbi.nlm.nih.gov — simply search for the therm “calendula” for pages of facinating results to browse through.

The Data Is In: Calendula Has A Wide Range of Therapeutic Activity

The researchers, prompted by the great historical use of this flower as medicine, have investigated a great many of its healing properties. These include the speeding of wound healing, potent anti-inflammatory action, strong anti-oxidant activity, and a myriad of protective effects to various organs. The research notes that the extract actually increases the speed at which skin cells form, has uniquely strong antioxidant activity due to the red and orange pigmentation, and prevents damage to the liver and kidneys when they’re exposed to toxic chemicals. The conclusions of these studies indicate quite clearly the efficacy of the flower extract in a wide variety of applications. So how can we make use of this oil?

Home Care Formulas Using the Essential Oil

Simply adding a few drops of Calendula essential oil to topical wound healing and pain relief formulas is the most simple means. Calendula will synergize with essential oils such as Helichrysum, Lavender and Tea Tree depending on your needs. For wound healing, with the possibility of scar and hematoma reduction, try 5% Helichrysum, 3% Calendula, 3% Lavender and 3% Tea Tree in a base of virgin Tamanu and Coconut oils. This formula can prevent infection, sooth the injury, and speed the overall healing process. For joint and muscle pain, or injuries to muscles and connective tissue, increase the amount of Helichrysum essential oil to up to 25%, and use 5% Calendula in any carrier oil as a base. Helichrysum is known to be very effective at relieving pain and reducing inflammation, as is Calendula — the two together may provide an even more profound healing effect for many people. Calendula’s profound antioxidant activity make it a first choice for beauty care preparations as well, as its radical-scavenging activity will likely prevent premature skin aging.

Organ Supportive Formulation

Topical therapeutic application may be best performed using the practice of reflexology. Calendula and other essential oils used for support of the liver and kidney can be massaged into the reflex points of the feet corresponding to these organs. These points are directly behind the ball of the foot (away from the toes, toward the arch) — the liver point is in-line between the big toe and the second toe, the kidneys in-line with the split between the 4th and pinky toe. These areas can be massaged, with the practitioner and massage recipient communicating to find the exact points most in need of attention. An excellent detoxifying blend can be made with Calendula (10%), Helichrysum (3-5%), Blue Tansy (5%) and Carrot Seed (5%) in virgin Coconut oil. This same blend can be diluted in half again and applied on the body in the regions of the organs themselves.

An Excellent Safety Profile

Calendula essential oil has been listed by the FDA as being safe for ingestion in commonly-used amounts. What does this mean? When essential oils are ingested, they are typically consumed by the drop, and usually in the range of only 1-3 drops per day. Ingesting the oil may be a way to utilize the liver and kidney anti-toxicity protective effects described in the research. While typically essential oil ingestion is frowned upon in the United States, the real challenge is proper education about dosages. Calendula CO2 extract specifically should be quite tame, although perhaps the most tasty thing one has ever put in their body! Ingestion of 3 drops daily, put in an empty cellulose capsule if you like, may impart a range of benefits, from antioxidant activity, to chemo-protective, to antibacterial and antiparasitic potential actions.

Conclusion: Calendula Essential Oil is Worth A Look!

Calendula is a profoundly-healing plant, with both great historical AND scientific backing supporting its use. The most obvious and easy use of the essential oil is for treatment of skin irritation and wound healing of all varieties. Calendula synergizes with Helichrysum essential oil to speed wound healing, reduce inflammation, and provide support for injuries to the musculoskeletal system (painful joints, muscles, tendons and the like). Calendula extract has also been noted by researchers as protective for the liver and kidneys, and has other protective effects for nearly every aspect of our physiology. The extract can be safely ingested in small amounts, offering a range of supportive activity. You’ll readily find Calendula CO2 essential oil on websites offering therapeutic grade essential oils — look for one that’s described as a thick liquid rather than a paste, as it will be easier to work with for all needs. If these effects of Calendula seem like something you or your family members could use, its long history of medicinal use, along with scientific validation, make it a worthwhile product to investigate further.