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Source https://greatist.com/live/healthy-skin-ingredients?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed_https–greatistcom–

Looking for really healthy, beautiful skin? You might want to eat more marinara sauce.

It sounds like a joke, but it turns out the classic combo of olive oil and tomatoes is filled with goodies that may give your skin an antioxidant boost to calm inflammation, reduce sun damage, and fight back against fine lines.

Sadly, this doesn’t mean we get to binge on pizza or penne in the name of glowing skin. At this point, scientists haven’t found any proven skin benefits of mozzarella cheese and wheat flour (yes, it makes me sad too). But more and more dermatologists are telling people to get on the tomato train because of the many benefits of something called lycopene — the nutrient your skin never even knew it needed.

To find out more about the connection between tasty tomatoes and super skin, I spoke to dermatologists to get the straight scoop on lycopene.

Lyco-what?

Lycopene is a red nutrient in the carotenoids family that gives tomatoes, watermelons, and guavas their signature hue. Though it’s found naturally in a few red and pink fruits and vegetables, tomatoes have the most lycopene by far. As the tomato ripens, its lycopene content gets higher and higher.

So why are these ripe, red tomatoes so good for us? “Lycopene is a great food-derived antioxidant with many skin benefits that span the entire skin wellness spectrum,” says Karin Hermoni, PhD, head of science & nutrition at Lycored. “The nutrient not only quenches free radicals but also induces the body’s own protection mechanism against oxidative stress and inflammation, enhancing skin resilience and allowing skin cells to better cope with the environment.”

In simpler terms: When you have too many free radicals, it stresses the body. Antioxidants render the free radicals harmless, helping reduce stress, inflammation, and signs of aging.

Lycopene is an especially strong antioxidant, so it can help your overall health along with the appearance of your skin. Plus, antioxidants help reverse signs of aging, which means plumper skin and reduced fine lines. All in all, tomatoes help you look a little younger and feel a little better.

What exactly does lycopene do for skin?

“Antioxidants help prevent and undo damage to collagen in the skin. Lycopene specifically helps prevent skin discoloration, texture changes, and fine lines and wrinkles,” says dermatologist Tsippora Shainhouse of Stay Skin Safe.

Lycopene can’t turn back the clock, but by increasing your lycopene intake, you can boost the health of the collagen in your skin and stop some of the fine lines before they start.

Lycopene can benefit any skin type, but works especially well for sensitive and aging skin. “Tomatoes act as an astringent and can reduce the appearance of large pores,” says Shainhouse. Also, the antioxidant calms the body’s inflammatory process, reducing redness and irritation, according to Hermoni. Add the anti-aging properties and lycopene has something to offer for all kinds of skin.

But what really sets lycopene apart from all the other antioxidants is its potential effect on sun damage. A study in the British Journal of Dermatology found that lycopene supplements helped protect the skin from UV rays.

The small study found that participants who took extra lycopene had significantly less sun damage compared to the placebo group. That doesn’t mean you can chomp on a tomato and forgo the sunscreen. “The use of sunscreen and tomato carotenoids may increase skin resilience and support a healthy relationship with the sun,” says Hermoni.

The best ways to get more lycopene

Though you can get more lycopene through your diet, will that really help your skin? Hermoni says yes! For best results, she suggests using both topical and dietary treatments. That might mean adding a lycopene-rich serum or a mask to your skin care routine. But the dietary piece of the puzzle is still the most important.

“It was shown that carotenoids from ingestible products contribute more to the accumulation of carotenoids in the skin, compared to the topical,” says Hermoni. “So, if you are going to choose only one, opt for a healthy diet over a carotenoid mask.”

That said, a lycopene topical treatment won’t hurt, so if you’re in the mood to try a different ingredient in your serums or toners, give a tomato-based product a try.

“It’s important to note that lycopene works best for skin when it can team up with other tomato phytonutrients. Eating the whole tomato or supplementing with tomato-based products will provide better nourishment to our body and skin compared to supplementing with lycopene alone,” says Hermoni. Since lycopene is oil-soluble, she suggests cooking tomatoes in olive oil for optimal absorption. So yep, marinara sauce is good for your skin.

Lycopene: Love it or leave it?

There are lots of antioxidants and vitamins out there that can help your skin, but lycopene is an exceptionally easy ingredient to add to your diet — and skin care routine. A few extra bowls of tomato soup won’t transform your skin, but regular added lycopene seems to show real promise for preventing damage and protecting your skin from the sun.

Beyond helping your skin, lycopene helps reduce stress and inflammation in the entire body, and you can get the benefits with only the additional cost of a few ripe tomatoes. “Lycopene lays a foundation for different systems in our body to function in an optimal manner. This includes healthy blood flow, metabolism, and more,” says Hermoni. “Today we know that health is the foundation on which beauty can thrive. When our entire body is balanced and well, this is reflected on the outside.”

With a few extra tomatoes a week, you could reap double benefits: a bit more balance within plus glow-worthy skin.

Source https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2019/05/mitochondrial-dna-damage-in-age-related-macular-degeneration/

One of the early features of age-related macular degeneration, in which the retina degenerates, causing progressive blindness, is a rising level of oxidative stress in the retinal pigment epithelium. Researchers here consider a role for mitochondrial DNA damage in the generation of this oxidative damage. Mitochondria are the power plants of the cell, descendants of ancient symbiotic bacteria that still retain a little of their original DNA. They carry out energetic chemical operations that result in a flow of oxidative molecules as a by-product. Damage to mitochondrial DNA that causes loss of proteins essential to the molecular machinery inside a mitochondrion can lead to a sizable leap in production of oxidative molecules, not just by mitochondria, but exported by the cell into the surrounding tissue.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a complex eye disease that affects millions of people worldwide and is the main reason for legal blindness and vision loss in the elderly in developed countries. Although the cause of AMD pathogenesis is not known, oxidative stress-related damage to retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) is considered an early event in AMD induction. However, the precise cause of such damage and of the induction of oxidative stress, including related oxidative effects occurring in RPE and the onset and progression of AMD, are not well understood.

Many results point to mitochondria as a source of elevated levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in AMD. This ROS increase can be associated with aging and effects induced by other AMD risk factors and is correlated with damage to mitochondrial DNA. Therefore, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) damage can be an essential element of AMD pathogenesis. This is supported by many studies that show a greater susceptibility of mtDNA than nuclear DNA to DNA-damaging agents in AMD. Therefore, the mitochondrial DNA damage reaction (mtDDR) is important in AMD prevention and in slowing down its progression as is ROS-targeting AMD therapy. However, we know far less about mtDNA than its nuclear counterparts. Further research should measure DNA damage in order to compare it in mitochondria and the nucleus, as current methods have serious disadvantages.

Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms20102374

Source https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2019/05/reviewing-the-reserve-supply-of-immature-neurons-in-the-adult-brain/

To what degree can the adult brain restructure and regenerate itself? In one sense the components of the central nervous system, brain included, are clearly among the least regenerative of tissues in mammalian species. In another sense the brain is capable of significant compensatory change following damage. Further, the normal operation of the brain over time depends upon the plasticity of neural circuits in response to changing circumstances: learning, memory, and so forth.

The authors of today’s open access research propose that these capacities for regeneration and change may arise not just from a supply of daughter cells created by neural stem cell populations, but also from a reserve population of immature neurons that are generated during early development and then retained throughout life. This hypothesis lacks solid evidence, but it is this sort of speculation – what is this apparently inactive cell population actually doing? – that drives further investigations.

Looking at the broader picture, it is a question of great interest to researchers in the field as to whether or not it is possible to upregulate the existing mechanisms of repair and plasticity in the central nervous system. Are there comparatively simple signal or regulatory proteins that can be targeted to change cell behavior in ways that provoke greater regeneration and maintenance in the aging brain? This is an open question for human medicine, though it is certainly the case that many studies in mice have provided promising data over the years. It remains to be seen as to where that work will lead.

Newly Generated and Non-Newly Generated “Immature” Neurons in the Mammalian Brain: A Possible Reservoir of Young Cells to Prevent Brain Aging and Disease?

The aging of the brain, especially in the light of a progressive increase of life expectancy, will impact the majority of people during their lifetime, putting at stake their later life and that of their relatives. This cannot be seen only as a health problem for patients but as a more general, worrisome, social, and economic burden. In spite of fast and substantial advancements in neuroscience/neurology research, resolutive therapeutic solutions are lacking.

For a long time, some hopes have been recognized in structural plasticity: The possibility for a “generally static” brain to undergo structural changes throughout life that may go beyond the modifications of synaptic contacts between pre-existing neuronal elements. During the last five decades, the discovery that the genesis of new neurons (adult neurogenesis) can still occur in some regions of the central nervous system (CNS) supported such hopes, suggesting that young, fresh neurons might replace the lost/damaged ones.

The real roles and functions of adult neurogenesis are far from being elucidated, and it appears clear that the new neurons can mainly serve physiological functions within the neural circuits, rather than being useful for repair. Interestingly, and adding further complexity, non-newly generated, immature neurons sharing the same molecular markers of the newly born cells are also present in the mature brain.

Independently from any specific physiological function (at present unknown), the novel population of “immature” neurons (nng-INs) raise interest in the general context of mammalian structural plasticity, potentially representing an endogenous reserve of “young”, plastic cells present in cortical and subcortical brain regions. Finding more about such cells, especially regarding their topographical and phylogenetic distribution, their fate with increasing age, and the external/internal stimuli that might modulate them, would open new roads for preventive and/or therapeutic approaches against age-related brain damage and cognitive decline.

A current hypothesis is that in the large-brained, long-living humans the neurons generated at young ages might mature slowly, maintaining plasticity and immaturity for very long periods. Hence, immature neurons, intended as both newly generated (in neurogenic sites) and non-newly generated (nng-INs in cortex and subcortical regions), might represent a form of “reserve” of young neurons in the absence of continuous cell division. In this context, solid evidence suggests that “adult” neurogenesis in mammals should not be considered as a constitutive, continuous process taking place at the same rate throughout life, but rather as an extension of embryonic neurogenesis, which can persist for different postnatal periods by decreasing (even ceasing) at different ages and in different brain regions.

There is no sharp boundary between developmental processes and subsequent tissue maintenance and aging processes and some events, such as adult neurogenesis, have all the hallmarks of late developmental processes. In that sense, adult neurogenesis is not at all similar to the cell renewal/regenerative processes known to occur in other stem cell systems, such as the skin, blood, or bone; rather, it is characterized by progressive neural stem cell/progenitor depletion, the cell addition being directed at the completion of organ or tissue formation, not at the replacement of lost cells. This aspect is more prominent and precocious in large-brained mammals, especially humans.

Source https://changingaging.org/elderhood/the-tony-bennett-effect/

Adaptability, resourcefulness, and generativity are personality traits available to us, most especially in our later years.

The post The Tony Bennett Effect appeared first on ChangingAging.

Source https://www.theminimalists.com/technology/

By Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus · Follow: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

Our tools are only as good (or bad) as the person using them.

A chainsaw can cut down a rotting backyard tree, preventing it from impaling a neighbor’s house. Or, that same chainsaw can be used to hurt our neighbor, to chop him up into tiny pieces.

A can of paint can beautify a home’s facade. Or, one might use it to graffiti the walls at an otherwise pristine public park.

The same goes for technology. We can use Twitter and Pinterest and YouTube to enrich our lives and the lives of others, to communicate and share in ways we’ve never been able to communicate before. Or we can get stuck in social media’s Bermuda Triangle, careening from Facebook to Instagram to Snapchat, lost in the meaningless glow of our screens.

We can use our smartphones to photograph gorgeous landscapes, message loved ones, or map out directions to a distant national park (or—gasp!—to make phone calls). Or, we can use that same device to Twitch: to incessantly check email, thumb through an endless stream of status updates, post vapid selfies, or partake in any other number of non-value-adding activities, all while ignoring the beautiful world around us.

Bottom line: It is up to us to determine how we use our chainsaws, paint cans, and technology. Our tools are just tools, and it is our responsibility to ask important questions about how and why we use them. Because to become a Luddite is to avoid an entire world of possibilities, a better world that’s enriched by the tools of technology. If used intentionally, we can change the world with these tools. Or, we can do a lot of harm. It’s an individual choice, the world is at our fingertips, and it’s up to us to act accordingly.

Read this essay and 150 others in our book, Essential.

The post A Minimalist Approach to Technology appeared first on The Minimalists.

Source https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/602036096/0/griswoldhomecare~No-One-To-Help-After-Surgery-Recovery-At-Home

Recovering from surgery without friends or family can be a difficult process. Most surgeries will keep you immobile for long periods of time and you may require some assistance in performing daily tasks. However, there are steps you can take and services you can utilize to ease your recovery.

Surgery Recovery: What to Do Before The Procedure

If your home is not in order, after surgery care can be easier. Small steps such as making sure items are within reach can greatly increase your chances of recovery at home. Here are some things you can do before your surgery:

• Shop! Shop! Shop!
  • Think about the amount of days you’ll be bedridden and then shop for double that.
  • Nonperishable food items are easy to digest and will help after surgery.
• Move items for easy access
  • Make a list of items you use throughout the day such as your toothbrush, TV remote, water glass, etc.
  • Place all items within reach, such as on a nightstand, to prevent any need to dig through cabinets and drawers.
• Make room for in-home physical therapy if needed
  • Consult your doctor to see if physical therapy will be part of your after surgery home care.
  • Move obstacles such as furniture, rugs, and other tripping hazards for ease of movement.
• Clean
  • Make sure surfaces are free of dust and germs to ensure healthy recovery after surgery.
  • Move items and cords to ensure safe walking paths.
• Consult your doctor to determine additional needs
  • Let your doctor know if you have no one to help after surgery and they should be able to help you come up with ways to assist you.
  • Make a list of questions and concerns. Jot down your answers so you don’t forget.

Help at Home After Surgery: Items You May Need

During recovery, you will want to keep some basic necessities on hand. Here are some items you should consider having nearby:

• Hand sanitizer
  • Prevents infection
  • Be sure to always sanitize your hands before touching your incision
• Comfortable clothes
  • Make sure your clothes aren’t tight against your incision
  • Keeps you comfortable while spending the majority of your time in bed
• Easy meals
  • Frozen foods, cereal, salad kits, and nonperishable food items can make meal prep easy
  • Preparing meals before your surgery can also make it easier while recovering at home after surgery
  • Fill your diet with plenty of fiber
• Entertainment
  • Books
  • Magazines
  • Movies
  • Puzzles
  • Video games
• Filled prescriptions
  • Have prescriptions ready at home for after your surgery
  • Ensures you can head to your bed immediately after surgery
• Over-the-counter medicines
  • Fiber additives
  • Acetaminophen
  • Ibuprofen
• Water
  • Flushes anesthesia and other medications out of your system
  • Improves energy levels
  • Makes pain easier to manage

Specialized Home Help After Surgery

If you’re still concerned about taking care of yourself after surgery, Griswold Home Care can also provide one-on-one care for you. Griswold caregivers can assist in the following:

• Meal preparation
• Transportation to and from doctor’s appointments or physical therapy
• Medication reminders
• Getting dressed
• Bathing
• In-home physical therapy exercises

You can adjust these hours and services according to your needs until you are ready to live life normally. For more information, click here.

Source https://www.clubindustry.com/news-central/9round-opens-800th-location

Club Industry was not involved in the creation of this content.

International kickboxing franchise opens its 800th studio, projecting to have 1,000 locations open worldwide by the end of 2020.

GREENVILLE, S.C.  – MAY 21, 2019 – 9Round Franchi

Source https://www.niashanks.com/feeling-beat-up-after-workouts/

Would you rather listen to this article? Use the player below, download it, or use iTunes.

One potential reason for feeling beat up after workouts is from pushing the intensiveness of the exercises too far. Done with many exercises for several consecutive workouts (or weeks of workouts), pushing each set to the near limit may lead to that “beat up” feeling.

The trend I’ve noticed with some trainees (certainly not all) is that they may feel “beat up” or overly fatigued from working out because they incorrectly applied a guideline commonly used in strength training programs.

Many strength training programs, the ones I design included, use what’s known as the reps in reserve (RIR) guideline. For example, a workout may call for 3×8 (three sets, eight reps) for squats while leaving two reps in reserve. Meaning, a weight should be selected that allows for two more reps than what’s listed in the workout to be performed.

With the 3×8 squat example, that means a weight that you could squat for 10 reps would be used, but you’d perform eight reps, thus leaving two reps in reserve (or as some say, “two reps in the tank”).

The critical element of this guideline can be overlooked, however, and lead to issues. If the instruction is to terminate the set with two reps left in reserve, that means to stop the set knowing two more reps could be performed without compromised technique or range of motion.

Why is that clarification important?

The overly enthusiastic trainee, for instance, may terminate the set of squats knowing she could grind out two more reps, albeit with compromised technique (or reduced range of motion). “I could force out two more reps,” she may say at the end of the set, thus thinking she correctly applied the two-reps-in-reserve guideline. However, if those “two reps in the tank” would’ve been performed with a shorter range of motion, or her hips would shoot up first out of the bottom, her back came unlocked from the neutral position, or some other technique breakdown occurred to force out the extra reps, then the guideline was not correctly followed.

If range of motion would be decreased or technique compromised to complete two more reps, then the trainee, in this example, actually trained to failure since two more solid reps were not possible. The intensiveness of the set was too high (i.e., she trained too close to failure). Too much weight was used for that set.

Conversely, the trainee who followed the two-reps-in-reserve guideline correctly would finish the set of squats knowing she could perform two more solid reps, and they would look identical to the previous reps — in both technique and range of motion — she performed. The only difference could be the speed of the reps; they could be slower simply due to fatigue. But no technique breakdown would occur.

This trainee would have, as I like to call it, “finished the set strong” or “dominated the weight.” Every rep was identical and the last one or two reps were certainly challenging, but she could have done two more without having to rely on sheer will and grit to grind them out.

With a set of push-ups as another example, incorrectly applying the reps-in-reserve guideline, additional reps could be forced out but with either reduced range of motion (not going all the way to the ground or barbell, if performing them with hands elevated in a power rack), elbows flaring out to the sides, or the hips sagging or shooting up. In other words, they wouldn’t look like the previous reps in the set.

The trainee who terminated the set of push-ups knowing two more reps, without compromised range of motion or technique, were possible would have correctly applied the guideline. The RIR guideline can be applied to dumbbell workouts too.

What Causes That “Beat Up” Feeling after Workouts?

I think it’s more of an accumulating effect from incorrectly applying the reps-in-reserve guideline (or not using it at all) that can cause the “beat up” feeling; something experienced after numerous workouts, or successive weeks of workouts. If a trainee follows a program that instructs termination of a set of an exercise when 1-3 reps are possible, but those reps would require compromised technique or range of motion as discussed above, then they would be training very close, or to, failure (the point when another rep isn’t possible).

Training to failure, especially on large movements that can handle a lot of weight (e.g.: the barbell squat, deadlift, bench press), on a regular basis can eat further into recovery than someone who finished most sets with 1-3 reps “left in the tank.” This is why the reps-in-reserve method is used, and is particularly important to apply, in the STRONG Program, because it uses primarily barbell exercises that can use a lot of weight, and so it’s important to correctly apply the RIR instruction so as to not build up too much fatigue.

What You Can Do Next

If you’ve been left exhausted or have that beat up feeling after workouts, aim to apply the reps-in-reserve method. Begin by aiming to leave 2-3 solid reps in the tank. Terminate the set knowing you could perform 2-3 more reps without compromising range of motion or technique. Think “finish this set strong” with all work sets.

Every rep should be identical, except the last couple reps of a set may be slower due to fatigue. If you’ve been feeling achy or worn down from your workouts, leaving a couple reps in the tank may have a positive effect on how you feel, and even your performance. (There are, obviously, other reasons why a workout can leave you achy or exhausted: poor programming, poor recovery methods and nutrition, too much volume added too aggressively, life stressors, etc.)

To provide a visual example, here’s a clip of me performing a set of safety-bar squats leaving three reps “in the tank”:

 

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A post shared by Nia Shanks (@niashanks) on Feb 18, 2019 at 9:42am PST

I terminated the set knowing I could have completed three more reps with the same technique and range of motion as used in the previous reps.

If you’ve experienced nagging aches and pains from strength training before and have, as a result, developed a fear of lifting weights, rebuild your confidence by using the appropriate reps-in-reserve guideline.

Helpful tip: If you’re unsure whether your technique or range of motion is ever compromised during the final reps of set, record yourself so you can see exactly what’s going on. Trainees who’ve never had a coach or seen themselves perform an exercise often learn a great deal from this. What you think you’re doing may be different from what’s occurring.

Does This Mean to Never Train to Failure?

No, not at all. Training to failure — the point when another rep isn’t possible — is a viable training strategy, but it must be intelligently designed into a training program. Its execution, or inclusion, will vary according to:

• A trainee’s goals
• Age: Older trainees tend to take longer to recover from strength training, and training to failure can take longer to recover from.
• Exercise selection: Some exercises may be more suitable for training to failure, especially on a regular basis, such as machine-based exercises, isolation exercises like biceps curls and triceps extensions. Barbell exercises can be taken to failure but must be programmed properly and performed by trainees who know how to push a set to that limit confidently and strategically.
• Available training time and frequency: If someone has 30 minutes to work out three times per week, for example, training to failure can be useful since training volume is limited. (Related article: How to Make Short Workouts More Effective.)
• Training experience

When training to failure, apply this guideline: do not attempt a rep you’re not confident you can complete without compromising technique or range of motion. Some people think training to failure means they must gut out as many reps as possible, even if that means squirming around on the bench or putting forth a blood-vessel rupturing effort. It’s understandable why some have that assumption since term is training to failure, after all.

Even when training to failure, the last rep of the set should look controlled and use the same technique as the previous reps. Here’s an example of me performing a set of presses to failure:

 

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A post shared by Nia Shanks (@niashanks) on Apr 29, 2019 at 10:16am PDT

Notice that every rep looked the same, except the speed at which the last rep was performed. I may have been able to force out a fifth rep, but it would undoubtedly be ugly and my technique would break down, and it’d be an effort of sheer will to get it up. Because I wasn’t certain a fifth rep was possible, I didn’t even bother attempting it.

A good training-to-failure guideline to employ: the heavier the weights used, and thus the fewer reps that will be performed in a set, the more reps can be “left in the tank.” For example, if performing a challenging set of five reps, you can use a weight that leaves two reps in reserve. Most motor units from the involved muscles will be involved in most reps of the set due to the heavy load.

The lighter the weights used and thus the more reps that can be performed in the set, fewer reps can be “left in the tank” since the greatest amount of motor unit recruitment won’t occur until the last few reps as fatigue accumulates. For example, performing a set of 15-20 reps, you could stop the set with one rep in reserve.

To summarize proper execution of the reps-in-reserve guideline: Correctly terminating a set with the specified number of reps in reserve means those reps would look identical to the prior reps in the set, the only acceptable difference being the speed at which they’re performed. Due to fatigue, they could be slower. But there shouldn’t be egregious technique breakdown and no reduction in range of motion, nor should you fight to the death to complete them.

Train hard, and train smart.

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The post Feeling Beat Up after Workouts? How to Use Reps in Reserve (Correctly). appeared first on Nia Shanks.