Cancer From Your Lip Gloss?

That shiny glossy lip gloss women love to slather on their lips is probably hurting your lips more than protecting them.

The slick, shiny nature of the gloss could be making the sun’s UV rays hit even harder on your lips, some experts say. And of course, wearing any lip product without SPF doesn’t help protect your lips either.

Lip glosses can make more of the light rays penetrate directly through the skin instead of getting reflected off of the skin’s surface,” says Dr. Christine Brown, a dermatologist at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas. The resulting sun damage can lead to potentially fatal forms of skin cancer. An estimated 3,500 new cases of skin cancer of the lips are diagnosed each year, and 90 percent of those cancers are squamous cell carcinoma. While that form of cancer isn't usually particularly serious, it can be more aggressive on the lips than on other parts of the skin.

Sun damage can also cause premature aging, making the already thin skin on your lips even thinner. Brown spots that look somewhat like freckles can form on lips that have been damaged by the sun's rays.

So what is the solution? What can you do for your dry lips? Use a lip gloss with SPF. And if your favorite lip gloss does not have SPF, then you can always get lip balms with sunscreen and reapply often. That way, you can use whatever lipstick or gloss you love and still protect your lips.

What's even better still? Using a balm, gloss, or lipstick that also includes vitamin E, which is both a rich moisturizer and a powerful antioxidant that can fight whatever sun damage you do incur.

5 Ways To Spice Up Your Romantic Relationship and Keep It Healthy as Well

We make resolutions all the time to improve our health, exercise more, watch what we eat, and so on. But sometimes we may forget how important it is to take care of our relationships with our significant others as well.

So here are 5 tips that I read on Yahoo Health that I found to be simple yet very meaningful ways to let your someone special feel special and keep your relationship healthy.

1. Give Foot Massages Often. Now I have to say here that a foot massage is just about my most favorite thing ever! When I read this tip, I fund myself nodding in agreement with the author. And as the author points out, if there's one thing that couples crave more and more as the relationship grows, it's non-sexual touch - touching that's sensual with a touch of sexual.

An unsolicited loving foot massage will definitely say to your significant other that you care about them.

2. Give a Gift that is Personal. Plan ahead for a birthday, anniversary, or 'just because' gift. Show that you cared enough to sleuth around, shop around, checked out online auctions, whatever, to find just the perfect gift that is meaningful to your special person. No ties, flowers, candy, and especially no more gift cards. Touch your significant other with a gift that shows you care about them and their passions in life.

3. Initiate the Passion. Yes, this may be hard if you are tired, burned out from kids, work, cleaning, cooking, etc., but it will be such a turn on for your partner if you start something once in a while ( at least). Now don't yell at me through your monitors for this one,please, I am just the messenger, really.
But I agree, even though I kind of wish I didn't, with the author on this one. Surprise your significant other sometimes and watch how much spice this brings to your romantic relationship!

4. Make an Effort to Fix the Little Problems. OK, so big things like money and work can impact heavily on relationships, but sometimes taking the effort to fix smaller issues in a relationship can actually reflect positively on the bigger issues.

Think about it. If your man were to start taking the time to put down the toilet seat and put a fresh roll of toilet paper on the holder, you'd probably take notice and appreciate these little gestures, right?

So if leaving your pantyhose on the shower rack irritates your guy, maybe you could change that habit. You get the picture. Ad it may not get noticed right away, but it will get noticed.

5. Don't Let Your Partner See You Naked. The author's point with this tip is that what you'll be doing here is building up the mystery until your partner absolutely has to see you naked. Have a robe, or sheet, or pair of pants all around you, until it's absolutely time to disrobe. The build-up, the anticipation, the mystery it's the "nectar" of new relationships that often gets spoiled in old ones.

Easy to do tips to keep your relationship healthy and spicy. Have any of your own tips you'd care to share?

related posts: Too Stressed For Sex?

Best Foods For Sex

Fighting Wrinkles From The Inside Out

Did you know that Vitamin C is good for your skin because it helps fight thinning and dryness which will likely mean less wrinkles!

And the wonderful fruit, Papaya, just happens to have loads of Vitamin C. The nutrient is essential for making collagen, the protein fibers that give skin its strength and resiliency. And being a powerful antioxidant, Vitamin C also disarms free radicals that would otherwise chip away and weaken collagen.

Walnuts are another fantastic source of nutrients for healthy skin care. Diets rich in linoleic acid, an essential fatty acid in walnuts, can also mean moister, plumper skin.

Magnesium and B vitamins can help with the regeneration of skin cells, so it is good for skin when you eat foods with whole grains. Foods like brown rice, barley, and soba noodles, are a great source of whole grains.

Another "good for your face" foods are carrots. The crunchy veggie is loaded with vitamin A, an antioxidant that a good for women's eyes and that appears to be great for skin, too. It helps balance the pH of the skin’s surface, making it slightly acidic. That’s good news, because slightly acidic skin fends off bacterial invaders.

4 Ways To Keep Your Appetite Under Control

Want some ideas for keeping your appetite from getting out of control? Here are 4 things you can do to suppress those hunger pangs from taking over:

1. Get enough sleep at night.

It may be surprising to know that not getting enough sleep can actually increase your appetite. It's because when we don’t get enough sleep, our levels of ghrelin, a hormone that increases appetites, goes up (weight gain) and levels of leptin, a hormone that suppresses the appetite, goes down (so we are hungrier). So as adults, we should try for 7-8 hours of sleep nightly.

2. Eat more protein and Fiber.

Protein takes more time to digest and so will keep you full longer. Fiber helps by absorbing water, and then expanding in your stomach – literally creating bulk to make you feel fuller and have less room for more.

3. Eat in the light.

This may sound funny, but try it the next time you go out to eat. Sit in a well-lit part of the restaurant. That’s because when you’re eating in a well-lit area, you’re more likely to consume fewer calories. You are more self conscious and feel others can see what you’re eating, so you’re likely to curb your appetite accordingly.

4. Keep Temptation Away.

This is not really anything new here...but try to keep a minimum of snack choices available in your kitchen. The more you snacks you have to choose from, the greater your appetite will be.

Persistent Cough? Low Iron Levels Could Be Culprit

I found this to be an interesting piece of health information for women. It seems that many women simply do not get enough iron in their diets, which can lead to feeling lethargic and unfocused, since your blood needs iron to transport oxygen to all of your body’s cells, including those in your muscles and your brain. Skimping on iron may also be one reason why some women are not able to shake a chronic cough.

A recent study suggests that iron deficiency damages the tissues that line the mouth and nose, back of the throat and trachea, making them more vulnerable to irritants and more prone to ­inflammation.

Interestingly enough, women that were studied in the research project and had persistent coughs that would not go away, had these coughs clear up after taking an iron supplement for three to four months.

This research could help explain why women are more likely than men to suffer unexplained coughs. Women are more likely than men to have insufficient iron stores because women lose the mineral through menstruation.

Tips for getting iron in your diet:

There are two forms of iron in the diet: heme and nonheme. In foods from animal sources, such as meat, poultry and fish, about half the iron is heme iron and the rest is nonheme. Iron from dairy foods, eggs and plant-based foods is entirely nonheme. Iron is better absorbed by the body from heme sources. Vitamin C also improves absorption of both forms of iron when consumed at the same meal. Fortified products, such as breads, cereals and breakfast bars, can contribute significant amounts of nonheme iron to the diet as well.