Health Matters

Although there is some truth to ‘you get what you pay for’, it can be taken too far. There’s not much proof that a skin care product costing £125 will do more for you than one that costs £12.50 – if any clinical studies were done at all you would probably find evidence that they both worked, or didn’t. However, it is probably true that a bottle of lotion that costs £1.50 may be less effective. How does cost affect the quality of skin care treatment products?

Some companies price their products higher simply because they can: They limit their sale to high end stores, they already have a reputation, or they have celebrity endorsements – something that will justify charging, and spending, more money, but does not necessarily guarantee the quality or efficacy of the product.

Other products use ingredients that are more expensive to produce and difficult to preserve. Natural skin care treatment products, for example, often contain ingredients you can’t simply make in a lab with chemicals. They contain aloe vera or other organic substances, organic (rather than synthesized) vitamins, herbal substances, and so on, that are more labour intensive to produce.

Also, because many manufacturers of natural products want to keep them as close to natural as possible, the products contain only minimal amounts of the preservatives and other chemicals that give them a longer shelf life and ensure integrity of texture. Under these circumstances, the products have to be manufactured in smaller batches since they’re not going to last on the shelves. This, of course, adds to the expense because the manufacturers can’t get the price break available if you buy in very large quantities.

That’s why many natural skin care treatment products – and other products – tend to be more expensive.

Source: Open Press NewsWire

Sales of natural/organic skincare, hair care and cosmetics items reached the $6 billion mark in 2006.

Are green cosmetics actually healthier than their synthetic counterparts?

For the most part, what’s going into today’s cosmetics is very similar to the past. Companies are linking the raw materials to the plant derivative. The labeling is different, but the actual ingredients are the same, or very similar. Previously, a product might have ‘ascorbic acid’ listed, now it will say ‘grapefruit rind.’

Dr. John Bailey, chief scientist at the Personal Care Products Council (http://www.personalcarecouncil.org/), a trade association for the cosmetics and personal care products industry, offers the following tips for consumers who are making the switch to green cosmetics:

“Natural products use some or all ingredients that are obtained from nature (usually botanical sources, but sometimes mineral). There is an effort to avoid the use of ingredients that are artificial or chemically manufactured.

Organic products take natural a step further by avoiding the use of things like chemical fertilizers or pesticides. The term “organic” implies additional steps to demonstrate the absence of specified substances, via a variety of private and government-certified programs.”

The term Natural or Organic does not mean chemical free, but it does mean that wherever possible the ingredients are obtained from natural as opposed to chemical sources.  The balance of the ingredients may be different with higher quantities of naturally sourced materials and the use of chemically sourced material minimised.

Taken from an article that originally appeared on commercialappeal.com

The love of citizens of the UK of tea is well known.  Tea is indelibly associated with summer afternoons, stiff upper lip and winning a war or two.  In recent years coffee has made an increasing dent in the British “Cuppa” and Latte, Cupuccino are perhaps now more well known than Darjeeling, “India or China?”.

That may be about to change.  What the British have known for years, that tea is the very lifeblood of a nation, now seems to have some scientific fact.  Both tea and coffee have anti-oxidant properties, but tea still has the upper hand in L-theanine, an amino acid that boosts immune responses to bacteria, including the ones that cause gut-churning food poisoning. Coffee lacks L-theanine and has shown no anti-bacterial properties in studies.  So it is “one up” to tea.

Thanks to Real Age for this little nugget of trivia.

Look Magazine has an article claiming that Victoria Beckham (Posh Spice) has started drinking Aloe Vera juice.  We wish her luck but think that the three bottles of juice a day that the article claims she is drinking needs some explanation.

Of course, if you are as wealthy as Victoria then three bottles is possibly small change.  For those on more meagre incomes three bottles of our Aloe Vera gel at £18 a hit will set you back £54.  In fact we recommend taking between 60ml and 120ml a day, in which case a 1 litre bottle will last you at least 8 days.

There is no doubt that Aloe Vera has some extraordinary properties, but we couldn’t really advise anyone to drink 3 bottles a day, no matter the size of their bank balance.  We don’t know what brand of Aloe Vera juice she is using, it may be ours but it equally may not.  If it is a competitor product then it may not be as strong as ours which is 98% raw inner leaf gel.

We can certainly commend the use of Aloe Vera, but you really need to look at your whole lifestyle not just one aspect.  Don’t expect drinking any amount of Aloe Vera to turn you into Victoria Beckham.  If you want to try an Aloe Vera based diet take a look at Clean 9 and Lifestyle 30 (details).  For a tea look at our Aloe Blossom Herbal Tea To improve your life, exercise regularly, eat sensibly and healthily, and don’t believe all you read in celebrity magazines…

We have heard some great news that Forever Living Products is licensed to use PETA’s (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) cruelty-free “Bunny” logo. Although FLP has been a PETA cruelty-free Company for many years now, it’s wonderful news that we can now display their official cruelty-free logo.

We know this matters to a lot of customers and we are really pleased to put their mind at rest that Forever Living products are developed without causing any cruelty to animals.

You can download the list of companies who have banned animal testing and you will see that Forever Living Products is listed by going to http://www.caringconsumer.com/pdfs/companiesDontTest.pdf

We have had some customers who are confused by the fact that Aloe Vera Gel is in fact a liquid. The confusion is a natural one, but not one that is easily solved.

The contents of an Aloe Vera leaf are termed gel as this is what it is in its natural form. The process of extracting it and stabilising it makes it a liquid, but remember that stabilised Aloe Vera gel from Forever Living is 98% raw gel from the plant. As only the inner leaf gel is thought to have any beneficial properties the International Aloe Science Council reserve the term gel for Aloe Vera products that are more than 85% stabilised gel. They reserve the term juice for products that are diluted and contain as little as 15% Aloe Vera gel.

For customers therefore the term Aloe Vera gel means a product containing mostly raw gel from the plant (stabilised to prevent decay). If a product is referred to as “juice” it contains less than 85% Aloe Vera gel and possibly as little as 15%.

For customers wanting a product for topical application to the skin, use Aloe Vera Gelly

Aloe Vera is commonly nicknaned “the burn plant”. Research as long ago as the 1930’s showed that it was beneficial to treatment of radio-therapy burns. This was reinforced by further research in the 1950’s and 1960’s and by 1980’s Aloe was being used in several plastic surgery units in the USA. The research showed that Aloe Vera blocks the formation of Thromboxane which constricts blood vessels and reduces blood flow to the injured area. Aloe Vera was shown to have an anti-inflammatory effect and with the increased (or rather less reduced) blood flow supports the natural healing process.

Serious burns require immediate medical attention, but for minor burns in the home the application of Aloe Vera Gelly will
soothe the burn and help nature on its way. Many people in countries where Aloe Vera grows naturally keep a plant in a pot for this purpose. You can have the next best thing in a tube.

Further research suggests that the aluminium in many anti-perspirants has a potential link with breast cancer.   In an article in the Daily Mail on 4 September 2007 a leading breast cancer specialist explained why he suggests avoiding the products.

He recommended that women who have had breast cancer should consider not using antiperspirants or deodorants, and healthy women should think twice about it, especially those with a strong family history or other risk factors.

While the research is limited and disputed, there could be enough to suggest that elevating the risk of breast cancer, especially if there is a family history or risk factors is not one to be taken.

If you are worried about aluminium in anti-persperants than take a look at our Ever Shield Deodorant, it’s aluminium free

Aloe Vera Gelly was featured in YOU magazine this week (12 August 2007),  in Jemma Kidds make-up masterclass called “Turn down the heat”.

Taking the herbal remedy echinacea can more than halve the risk of catching a common cold, US researchers say. They found it decreased the odds of developing a cold by 58% and the duration of colds by a day-and-a-half.  The results in The Lancet Infectious Diseases conflict with other studies that show no beneficial effect.Experts believe echinacea, a collection of nine related plant species indigenous to North America, may work by boosting the body’s immune system.

‘Marked effects’

Researchers, led by Dr Craig Coleman from the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy, combined the results of 14 different studies on Echinacea’s anti-cold properties.

In one of the 14 studies the researchers reviewed, echinacea was taken alongside vitamin C. This combination reduced cold incidence by 86%. When echinacea was used alone it reduced cold incidence by 65%.

Even when patients were directly inoculated with a rhinovirus - the most common cold-causing virus - echinacea reduced cold incidence by 35%. The researchers’ report said: “With over 200 viruses capable of causing the common cold, echinacea could have modest effect against rhinovirus but marked effects against other viruses.”

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They found that more than 800 products containing echinacea were available, and that differing parts of the plant - flower, stem and root - were used in different products.

Professor Ron Cutler, of the University of East London, said: “The true benefits, and more importantly, how the agents work remains unclear and further better-controlled actual clinical trials still have to be carried out.

“Echinacea may reduce the duration of illness and decreases the severity of cough, headache, and nasal congestion. ”

He said people with impaired immune function might benefit from taking echinacea during the winter months to prevent colds and flu, but that healthy people did not require long-term preventative use.

“There has also been the suggestion in the past that continuous treatment with echinacea is not recommended - the benefits may only be effective for one or two weeks and after taking the agent for this time people should stop and give the immune system a week without the agent.”

Article in New Scientist

Reproduced from an original article on the BBC Website