How to Take Care of Combination Skin This Season

Have you ever paid close attention to certain faces that have oily skin in some areas and dry skin in other areas? If your own skin is characterized by oily as well as dry areas, then you might have a combination skin type. Usually, people with combination skin find it tricky to figure out how to take care of their skin properly. It can feel like quite the balancing act when trying to address the oily and dry areas of your skin. Once you achieve this, the mystery to having great skin will be unlocked in much easier ways than you may have thought.

What is combination skin and how is it caused?

To put it simply, someone with combination skin has both skin that is oily in the area called T-zone (forehead, nose, and chin) while also having dryness in other areas. Even if you have oily skin only around your nose and center of your forehead but dry skin over cheeks and jaw area, then you are also said to have a combination skin.

The predominant factor that is responsible for combination skin is the genetics. It is inherited similarly as you would your hair color, eye color, skin color, and the body type from your parents.  Usually the people who have combination skin have more active oil glands on their nose, forehead, and chin which lead to clogged pores in these areas.

The other factors that play a key role in causing combination skin are lifestyle, nutrition, and skincare products. The wrong products for this skin type contain skin-aggravating ingredients that dry out certain areas of your face, while exacerbating oil production in other parts that were already oily. These ingredients are harmful sulfates and alcohols that prompt the skin to produce more oil in the T-zone area which, in turn, produces the symptoms of combination skin.

Important Tips to Follow For Treating Combination Skin

Treating the combination skin requires a dual approach of skincare in which different areas of skin are treated individually along with suitable products. Apart from these steps, there are also some natural ways that help greatly in treating combination skin:

• Use a gentle but effective cleanser

The skin of your face is the most exposed part of your body. As the day closes in, your skin gets covered with dirt, excess oils, and impurities. So a right cleanser is the one that effectively removes dirt, impurities, and makeup without making skin feel tight, dry, or greasy. It is important to retain the softness rather than causing it to be tightened and aggravated. This is one of the best approaches to gentle skincare for having a natural glow on your face.

• Balance your skin with a toner

Skin experts recommend using a hydrating, soothing, and non-irritating toner that should consist of skin-revitalizing ingredients and antioxidants. A toner of such quality really helps in effectively nourishing the dry skin and reduces oiliness at the same time.

Apply a gentle and non-abrasive exfoliant in order to gently and effectively exfoliate the combination skin. Products that contain BHA exfoliant are good in helping shed the dead skin without abrasion. It doesn’t require any scrubs or cleansing brushes to unclog pores. Lessen oily skin and gently smooth existing  rough, dry, and flaky skin to revive a healthy glow.

• Apply a suitable moisturizer

Choose a moisturizer that targets your dry patches of skin and mattes the oily areas of your face. A gel-based moisturizer or a gel-cream moisturizer usually works well. Such a moisturizer is important in helping calm skin, lessen excess oil on the surface, and improve dry areas including around the eyes.

• Protect your face from sun damage

All the skin types are sensitive towards sun rays – some only a little while others are extremely sensitive. One of the effective ways to counter this is to apply a generous amount of broad spectrum sunscreen with an SPF of 15 or more every day. This is also one of many steps in skincare that can help reduce the early signs of aging. Ideally, you need to apply a nourishing serum or booster over the dry areas and then apply the ultra-light sunscreen over the oily areas.

Conclusion

Your combination skin might be a cause of worry for you but, due diligence on your part in specifically treating different areas of your skin is key. The above mentioned tips can go a long way in treating combination skin. Apart from these, the natural ways like regular exercise, healthy diet, and disciplined fitness regime are also extremely helpful in treating skin problems.  

How to Take Care of Combination Skin This Season

Trial finds combination of pancreatic cancer drugs extends survival

Cancer campaigners are hailing a “monumental leap forward” in pancreatic cancer treatment after a new drug trial significantly extended survival from what is the most lethal form of the disease.

The clinical trial found that 29% of patients given a combination of two chemotherapy drugs lived for at least five years compared with 16% who received the one chemotherapy drug that is still the NHS’s standard treatment.

The results are important because they could lead to an improvement in the prospects for people who develop pancreatic cancer, which has the lowest survival rates among the 21 most common forms of the disease and kills 8,800 Britons a year. Only one in 100 people survive for 10 or more years after their diagnosis.

“These results are a monumental leap forward in pancreatic cancer treatment. We believe this could herald a true step change in the treatment of this tough cancer, offering substantially more patients who have had surgery the chance to live for longer and, crucially, without significant added side-effects,” said Leanne Reynolds, head of research at the charity Pancreatic Cancer UK.

About 10,000 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year in the UK. However, the apparent breakthrough may only benefit the 800 who have surgery. The cancer is too advanced in most of the other 9,200 cases for surgery to be worthwhile.

Four in five patients are only diagnosed when the cancer has reached an advanced stage, and in 46% of cases only after they have presented as an emergency at an A&E unit. Survival rates have barely improved for 40 years, in contrast to some other forms of the disease. It is the fifth most common cause of cancer death in the UK.

The ESPAC-4 (European study group for pancreatic cancer) trial involved 732 patients from 92 hospitals in England, Scotland, Wales, Germany, France and Sweden. Of those given both gemcitabine and capecitabine, 28.8% survived for at least five years, compared with just 16.3% who received only gemcitabine.

Pancreatic Cancer UK and the researchers behind the findings are now urging the NHS to replace gemcitabine with the combination as the standard treatment for the one in 12 sufferers of the disease who undergo a resection of their pancreas.

“This is one of the biggest ever breakthroughs prolonging survival for pancreatic cancer patients,” said Prof John Neoptolemos of Liverpool University, who lead the team of researchers.

“When this combination becomes the new standard of care it will give many patients living with the disease valuable months and even years.” The two drugs taken together extend median overall survival from 25 and a half months for those on gemcitabine alone to 28 months, according to the study, which has been published in the Lancet.

Cancer survival rates in England and Wales

“The difference in short-term survival may seem modest, but improvement in long-term survival is substantial for this type of cancer,” added Neoptolemos.

Meanwhile, separate research has also brought good news about lung cancer, which has the second worst survival rates among the commonest forms of cancer.

The number of people surviving for at least a year after diagnosis rose from 31% to 38% between 2010-2015, according to the NHS’s latest audit of the quality of care patients receive. Experts in the disease welcomed the increase, which is mainly the result of earlier diagnosis.

Ian Woolhouse, the audit’s senior clinical lead, said it was “very encouraging” that one-year survival had improved in what is the UK’s second most common form of cancer after breast cancer.

His team noted other progress too in how the NHS treats patients, including the fact that 60% of patients now receive some for of anti-cancer treatment. They analysed the records of 43,000 people diagnosed with lung cancer in 2015.

However, they voiced concern about the persistent “wide and unacceptable variation in standards of care” provided by NHS trusts and boards across England, Wales, Scotland and Guernsey. Only 57% of patients are seen by a specialist lung cancer nurse, for example, even though the target for that is 90%.

Dr Jesme Fox, medical director of the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, said: “We are pleased to see this encouraging increase in patient survival. However, there is much still to do to ensure that lung cancer patients are diagnosed as early as possible and are able to access best practice treatment and care.”

Trial finds combination of pancreatic cancer drugs extends survival

Could Dark Chocolate and Green Tea be the Perfect Combination for Increased Concentration?

 

A new study has found that combining dark chocolate with green tea could be a better concentration pick-me-up than coffee.

Hershey Company sponsored a scientific study to find out whether their new product idea could become the ultimate concentration booster. A team of researchers at Northern Arizona University conducted the study, which included 122 participants between the age of 18 and 25.

What were the results?

Five different cacao concentrations were used to test the mental response of all participants, with 60% cacao counting as the minimum for the dark chocolate category.

It was found that those who ate chocolate containing at least 60% cacao were more alert and attentive, but also showed an increase in blood pressure. When green tea was added to the same chocolate, their blood pressure decreased!

“It’s remarkable! The potential here is for a heart-healthy chocolate confection that contains a high level of cacao with L-theanine that is good for your heart, blood pressure, and helps you pay attention”, says Larry Stevens, a professor of psychological sciences at North Arizona University who led the study.

The study was published in the Neuro-Regulation journal and claims to be the first to used electroencephalogram (EEG) technology, which measures electrical activity in the brain. By doing so, researchers were able to capture images of brain activity after the stimulants were given to participants, which helped them to prove the direct and positive effect of a green tea and dark chocolate combination.

What’s L-Theanine?

L-theanine is a type of amino acid found almost exclusively in tea and is especially potent in pure green tea.

It is known as a non-sedating relaxant, which helps to calm nerves, clear the mind, and reduce blood pressure naturally. Combined with dark chocolate, L-theanine is highly effective at reducing blood pressure while complementing the concentration and energy boost that the caffeine in both products gives.

Where to get it?

Professor Stevens says that green tea dark chocolate bars are not available on the market yet, but that Hershey’s was so impressed by the studies that they plan to include it in their new product launches.

Recent studies have already proven that including dark chocolate, red wine, and green tea in a healthy diet can boost weight loss, balance blood pressure, and increase energy and concentration, so the new findings come as no surprise.

Any other health benefits?

Dark chocolate is packed with iron, fiber, magnesium, caffeine, protein, antioxidants, and a range of vitamins and minerals, which has been proven to help with weight loss, anxiety, headaches, and preventing multiple diseases.

Green tea is packed with antioxidants, polyphenols, catechins, caffeine, and L-theanine, which helps with boosting mental, physical, and overall wellbeing.

While a variety of chocolate bars and green teas are available on the market, it’s best to stick to chocolate containing 60-100% cacao and pairing it with a cup of organic green tea.

The good thing is, the more intense the cacao concentration is, the less refined sugar you’ll get, which is excellent for promoting better health!

Could Dark Chocolate and Green Tea be the Perfect Combination for Increased Concentration?

A lethal combination of secrecy and jargon has overshadowed NHS plans

The NHS is in danger of losing control of public debate around the sustainability and transformation plans (STPs). Days after the unnecessary secrecy around STP blueprints for change predictably backfired, with lurid headlines about closures and cuts, both NHS England and the government have been trying to get a grip on public understanding of what all this frantic management work is trying to achieve.

At this week’s Health and Care Innovation Expo in Manchester, NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens said that in the next few days his organisation will be spelling out expectations on how the public will be involved in discussions.

This is a reversal of its previous position, which was to discourage STPs from publishing their draft plans. Meanwhile, at prime minister’s questions, STPs put the prime minister, Theresa May, on the defensive, forcing her to reiterate the importance of taking into account the concerns of local people.

The emerging plans are sensitive because a large number involve substantial changes to hospital services. It is far from clear how many of these will eventually go ahead, because there is a desperate shortage of capital funding with which to implement them.

While some of the emerging hospital changes, such as those in south-west London, are trying to resolve disputes about the right shape of hospital services which have dragged on for many years, there is a serious risk in some areas of pursuing highly controversial changes of questionable benefit on dubious evidence. The King’s Fund and others warned that major changes to acute services rarely deliver the anticipated substantial savings.

It has been repeatedly proved that the quickest way to trigger massive opposition to hospital changes is to make them look like a secret plan that is to be sprung on the public. Yet the NHS keeps on doing it.

Local political leaders are key. When councillors – not just the handful involved in the STP process – and MPs are involved early on, understand the case for change and feel their concerns are being taken seriously, they can be engaged in productive public debate.

And what about patients? One of the guiding mantras of the NHS is supposed to be patient involvement, but at the Expo a small band of community campaigners gave voice to their complaint that service users are being excluded from these crucial discussions. With much of the work supposed to be completed by December, it is stretching credulity to believe that much more than token consultations with patient groups can take place.

One of the difficulties around consultations faced by the STP teams is that some of them have made too little progress to present credible, watertight arguments.

It is difficult to overstate the huge variation in STPs. A handful involve organisations that have been working together for years, have well-developed plans and are poised to deliver. These areas are likely to have already carried out extensive consultations through their clinical commissioning groups.

Others are trying to work to unfamiliar boundaries and admit privately to having little more than “plans to have plans”. Public understanding of the issues is minimal, the evidence base is thin and they have little of substance to discuss. It is these ones at the back of the queue that are most nervous about consultations.

The crucial error NHS England has made is to allow the process to be seen almost entirely through the lens of cuts, obscuring the vast amount of work underway to reshape services around the needs of patients, particularly in the community.

As NHS staff giving talks at the Expo proved, across the country from pharmacy management in Wessex to musculoskeletal services in Wigan, clinicians, managers and commissioners are delivering the vision captured in the Five Year Forward View of a patient centred NHS – and driving up productivity along the way.

But the lethal combination of unnecessary secrecy and impenetrable management jargon has obscured the most important part of the story – that the health and care system would still need drastic reform even if it was awash with money.

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A lethal combination of secrecy and jargon has overshadowed NHS plans