The skin care business is, like many other businesses, steeped in and dependent on consumerism and marketing. Rather than having real effects, products have come to rely much more on sizzle; many purchases are the result of nothing more than hype and buying decisions are often functions of ignorance and ads. The world of cosmetic products as we know it today was birthed in the late 19th and early 20th century, at the same time that business enterprises were beginning to understand Freudian psychological theories of human motivations and buying behaviors and how to use them to exploit and manipulate consumer minds and emotions. No business has leveraged human desires and vulnerabilities via sales and advertising more than the business of beauty. We are endlessly manipulated and contorted into spending our hard earned cash via celebrity sales pitches, advertising slogans and the recommendations of dubious department store “advisers”.
But that all changed with the active ingredients dubbed “cosma-ceuticals” which worked as powerfully as prescriptions but were only regulated as cosmetics. The father of the cosmaceutical, Dr. Albert Kligman coined the term to distinguish inactive and superficial ingredients from those that went “…beyond mere camouflage…” and could achieve real and often long-term results. While it’s true that everything including water will inevitably alter the skin in some way, only true cosmaceuticals can provide the kind of performance most consumers expect and are (mis-)led to believe they’ll get when they purchase and apply their cream, lotion, toner and treatment skin care preparations and products.
The brain is an electrical generator endlessly producing and emitting streams of energy. And no mere random chaotic emanations of energy are these.
Rather, they are more akin to the organized flow of water on the on the surface of the ocean. Scientists actually refer to the movements as waves. They measure their motion and patterns on a device called an EEG (electroencephalogram).
Like all waves, the ones produced by the brain ebb and flow. Electrical bursts “fire” and then cease firing, essentially blinking on and off. The amount of times a burst of brain electricity and its subsequent cessation, turn on and off in every second is called a “cycle” and is measured as “cycles-per-second” (CPS). The number of cycles-per-second is referred to as the “frequency”. One that fires and stops firing, or cycles once a second, is said to have a frequency of one. If flow and ebb occur twice a second the frequency would be 2, three flows and ebbs, or “cycles-per-second” would have a frequency of 3 and so on.
The energy emitted by the brain ebbs and flows at various frequencies throughout the day and ranges from a slumberous 1 to a frenzied 100 CPS. Researchers divide this range into five categories, each associated with its own characteristic subjective qualities.
There are a lot of bad drugs out there. Calcium channel blockers can prevent cells from using calcium, an important nerve conducting mineral. Not good! Steroid drugs, like prednisone, suppress the immune system, making the body more susceptible to infections. They also suppress growth, repair and can accelerate the development of degenerative disease. Antibiotics impair gut health, diuretics induce the loss of precious minerals, like zinc, selenium and magnesium. Anti-osteoporosis drugs like Fosamax and Boniva can cause a horrible jaw affliction called osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ), which is basically a rapid decay and death of the jawbone. According to lawyers for ONJ victims, the potential connection of incidences of the jawbone disease to the use of these types of drugs was not unknown to manufacturers of the medications, who are currently being targeted by a class action investigation, as well as multiple individual injury lawsuits.
Human beings love to be stoned. Despite police and prison and pecuniary penalties, the human intoxication impulse is apparently insatiable. And, as it turns out, there’s a biochemical basis to our brain’s desires for deliriousness.
In many ways human neurology is literally hardwired to be high. For example, our brains make chemicals called peptides that activate the same cells that marijuana does. Essentially, we make our own pot. We’re all literally pot heads.
And that’s not all. Our brains make peptides that activate the same cells as amphetamine and cocaine too. In other words, in addition to making our own marijuana we make our coke and speed. We make our own valium and Vicodin too. Endogenous human peptides it seems are also behind lots of drug effects and drug addictions.
This past November’s issue of the highly regarded publication ”Nutritional Journal” has a cool article about avocados. It quotes a study (entitled, somewhat awkwardly, “A Randomized Crossover Study to Evaluate the Effect of Hass Avocado Intake on Post-Ingestive Satiety and Insulin Levels and Subsequent Energy Intake in Overweight Adults“!) that compared the effects of adding a fresh avocado to a lunchtime meal to the effects of eating a standard non-avocado-including lunch.
Did you know you can prevent avocados from browning by sprinkling the flesh with a little lime or lemon juice?
Use lots of Celtic Sea Salt on raw, fresh avocados. The salt and avocado fats will act synergistic-ally to amplify the distinctive tastes and subtle flavors of the rich, buttery fruit.
Can’t wait to eat your hard avocado? You can hasten it’s ripening by putting it in a paper bag. The bag will trap ethylene oxide, a ripening-inducing gas that is emitted by the tasty fruit as it ages. Make sure you keep the bag in a dark cool area and you check your avocado regularly or you may end up making guacamole!
