THE MAYO NEWS 33TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 2011

WANT to slim down, glow with health and look your best? There are a few tricks to help you on your way.

Firstly, substitute white for brown; ditch white bread and white pasta and opt instead for healthy whole-grains. Plenty of fresh fruit and vege-tables will also help, and not just your waist, they’re great for skin too. And chicken and fi sh are good substitutes for fatty meats. If you want a helping hand, you could try a Hydroxycitric Acid (HCA) supplement.

HCA is derived from malabar tam-arind, a native fruit of southern India and scientists believe it can help with weight loss by blocking the enzyme responsible for converting excess car-bohydrates and protein into fat.

Take one 500mg capsule three times a day before each meal, bearing in mind that the effects of HCA are enhanced by following a low-fat diet!

We’ve also had some excellent results with Organic Cleavers, with some women dropping two dress sizes in only a few months. A grass-like tinc-ture, Cleavers helps to support and cleanse the lymphatic system, a com-plex network of f luid-filled nodes, vessels, ducts and glands that bathe our cells and carry our body’s waste material away from the tissues to neu-tralize it.

A few steps to looking your very best

This capacity to deal with toxins and decrease congestion and infl am-mation in the tissues also makes it a popular choice for cellulite and puffy skin, which is often the result of a slug-gish or overburdened lymphatic sys-tem. If you are prone to the dreaded dimple, body brushing can also help to improve circulation and detoxi-fi cation.

And to help your skin really spar-kle, try Viridian Nutrition’s 100 per cent Organic Ultimate Beauty Oil, an excellent source of essential fats for spot-free skin – it’s delicious driz-zled over food, or if skin is feeling

Nurturing Ask the pharmacist

James Geraghty

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> JAMES GERAGHTY is the managing director of the Molloy’s Lifestyle Pharmacy Group. He has a degree in biochemistry and pharmacy, as well as 15 years’ experience of the health industry. A huge believer in the importance of exercise and wellbeing, he regularly lectures to active retirement and special interest groups around the county.

WHEN you look in the mir-ror are them some unwanted friends staring back at you, reminding you that you are getting older? Red veins are a common complaint, and they can tug on your self confi dence. For many women, covering up these unsightly blemishes is a tedious part of their everyday beauty regime. Men just put up with them, and probably secretly curse them.

CAUSESRED veins most commonly appear on the cheeks and nose. They are the result of capil-lary damage that causes thread veins and blood spots. They are most common on fragile skin. Exposure to harsh ele-ments, rough daily treatment and using the wrong products also increase the likelihood of their appearance.

Normally positioned in the dermal layers of the skin, the small capillaries dilate (expand) and rupture onto the surface skin cells, seep-

ing through them in a thread formation, which is visible through the epidermal lay-ers. The blood cannot f low back into the skin’s general vascular system, so it becomes trapped and stagnant – and causes those unsightly little red dots and lines.

TREATMENTTHE individual vessels can be cauterised. This means treating the trapped blood in between the layers of the skin with tiny amounts of short-wave diathermy current. After the treatment, the skin might appear to be scaly or discol-oured, but this tends to disap-pear with time.

Red vein treatment is not advised for people with sun-tanned skin or coloured skin, however. You should also do your best to avoid red-vein treatment if you have skin infections or cold sores near the area to be treated, or if you are undergoing an acne treat-ment. Your skin care special-ist would be best to advise you on a suitable regime.

> BERNIE FAHY has over 19 years’ experience as a skin specialist. She works in Ballinrobe and Galway, and can be contacted at 086 2220125, at living@mayonews.ie or through her website, www.bernietheskinspecialist.com.

Make red veins vanish, for goodNurturing Skin specialist

Bernie Fahy

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For Further details visit our website at www.mongeyopticians.ie or call Ellison St, Castlebar 094 9024115 Cornmarket, Ballinrobe 094 9521556

Mongey OpticiansGift Vouchers Available

Free prescription sunglasses with every designer pair purchased

WALK IN THE SUNSHINE

particularly dry, you have any scars, stretch marks or uneven skin tone, their Organic Ultimate Beauty Skin Repair Oil with nourishing rosehip oil for topical use. A little goes a long way, so apply sparingly!