Water - for a Beautiful, Healthy Life!

Water - your health & beauty depend on it! The most important thing you can do, especially in hot weather, is stay hydrated.

We have all learned that water is the key to life. Drinking an adequate amount of liquid daily is important to maintain your health as water aids in digestion, circulation, absorption and even excretion. All your body's cells are mainly water and, as we constantly lose water through respiration, perspiration, urination & more, it is important to ingest enough water to maintain proper balance.

I want to add that as we age we tend to drink less liquids, and dehydration has many symptoms that are mistaken for other problems - including fogginess of the mind! It's important to be aware of your own consumption of water & water-rich foods & to be aware of the signs and water drinking habits of your loved ones as well.

It can even save a life.

So how does this relate to beauty?

Well, not just because we all look best when we are healthy, but that skin, the largest organ of the body, relies on water to be healthy, soft, & supple. If your skin is not getting sufficient hydration you will soon notice it turning dry, tight and flaky. Dry skin has less resilience and is more prone to wrinkling.  

As we lose water every day, it needs to be replaced. Unfortunately, the water you drink will reach all the other organs before it reaches the skin. So, it's important to care for your skin, particularly in dry, hot weather.

So what is the best way to add water to the skin?

• Apply a hydrating moisturizer within 2 minutes of leaving the bath or shower. The skin is still porous and is vulnerable to products that are applied following the bath or shower, allowing better absorption. This can be something as simple as olive oil, lotion, or skin creme. It doesn't need to be something fancy and expensive to achieve a good result.
• Drink more water. Drinking at least 8 - 8oz. glasses a day will help rid the body and skin of toxins. Some of this can be in the form of high water content foods (download this PDF chart) or juices. REMEMBER that caffeinated or alcoholic beverages act as diuretics, effectively causing you to lose more liquid in the long run, so don't count those in the total.

Learn more about how keeping well hydrated benefits your health here.

Of course, access to pure drinking water can be a challenge as we stress Earth's supply. Read more about water at 'Water, Water Everywhere'

Be aware of the physical 'Dangers of Dehydration'.

And use natural & organic products to help rejuvenate dry skin.

Mairzy Doats...

"Mairzy doats and dozy doats
And liddle lamzy divey
A kiddley divey too, wouldn't you?
Yes! Mairzy doats and dozy doats
and liddle lamzy divey
A kiddley divey too, wouldn't you?"

I grew up on this song & Oatmeal for breakfast. Oatmeal cookies and later Granola & Granola Bars and knowing oats were good food and good for your health. Much later I learned how good oats were for your skin, used externally, as well.

Oatmeal's many skin care benefits have been known since antiquity. Its skin-soothing powers were known as early as 2000 BC, and to this day, the FDA cites it as effective for relieving dryness and inflammation, clinically shown to help heal dry, itchy skin. Many people who suffer from eczema find that an oatmeal bath helps releive their symptoms. Oats are totally hypoallergenic unlike many of the ingredients that are given to people who have eczema by doctors. Oats can also soothe chicken pox, mosquito bites, and dry skin (caused by excessive central heating, pollution etc.) They soothe mild burns, any type of irritated skin.

Because oats are slightly rough, they are also a gentle natural exfoliant, softening & smoothing the skin and you will find colloidal (finely powdered) oatmeal in soothing body soaks, moisturizers and soaps.

(from the RealAge website)
"There are four reasons why your skin adores oatmeal," explains New York City dermatologist Amy Wechsler, MD:

1. Dryness fighting: Oats contain polysaccharides, which become gelatinous in water and leave a fine protective film on the skin, preventing dull, flaky dryness.
2. Moisturizing: Oats are full of healthy, lubricating fats.
3. Defense building: The proteins in oatmeal help maintain the skin's natural barrier function, which ensures that the world outside the skin stays out, and what's inside the skin stays in.
4. Pore cleansing: Oats are filled with natural cleansers (called saponins) that gently remove dirt and oil from the pores.
To reap all of these benefits, Wechsler suggests treating your skin to a colloidal oatmeal mask every week or two. Here's her super simple recipe -- good bet the ingredients are already in your kitchen.

The Skin Doc's Smoothing, Soothing Oatmeal Mask:

2 tablespoons old-fashioned oats
2 tablespoons hot water
1/2 tablespoon honey
1. Put the oats into a clean herb or coffee grinder on the finest setting, and process into powder.
2. Pour into a small bowl and stir in hot water and honey. Let stand for 5 minutes.
3. Wash face with warm water. While skin is still damp, massage paste onto face, circling around eyes and mouth. Leave on for 10 minutes.
4. Remove with tepid water and a washcloth. Apply your favorite moisturizer to seal the deal and set the glow.
P.S.: Don't stop eating oats just because you've transformed them into a beauty treatment! They're hard to beat as a source of health-protective soluble fiber -- and eating a high-fiber diet can make your RealAge up to 6 years younger.
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Here are a few more radiance promoting, totally natural, make them yourself oat recipes from NaturalNews:

Oat and Brown Sugar Scrub:

2 Tbsp. ground oats
2 tsp. brown sugar
2 Tbsp. avocado
5-6 drops of the beautifying rose essential oil.

Mix all ingredients in a bowl until you have a smooth paste. Gently massage onto damp skin, and rinse off with warm water. Increase the dose for a full body super scrub.

Oat and Honey Milk Bath:

½ cup rolled oats
¼ cup almond milk
5-6 drops of lavender (to ensure that you truly chill out in your bath!)
Place the ingredients in a small, natural fabric bag, such as hemp, muslin or cheesecloth. Hang the bag under the faucet as you fill the tub, then put the bag into the bath as you soak up the goodies.

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And, of course, you can enjoy these benefits as well from Simmons special Unscented & Almond scented Oatmeal soaps, both are rich in organic colloidal oats and rolled oats to maximize the soothing effect on your skin.

By the way, here's the rest of the song:

"If the words sound queer
And funny to your ear,
A little bit jumbled and jivey
Sing "Mares eat oats
And does eat oats
And little lambs eat ivy"

Just say no...

I recently was at the doctor with an injured heel. During the "first-time-visit paperwork/interview" they asked what drugs I was taking.I answered "Ibuprophen, occasionally". They asked "what else?", and I said "nothing" and they were visibly surprised.

OK, I'm no spring chicken, but does that mean I'm supposed to be a walking pharmacy? I do take calcium daily and a baby aspirin. In winter I might take vitamins C & D, in summer more vitamin E. I drink echinacea tea when I think it's necessary and drink a glass of water with 1 teaspoon each raw apple cider vinegar and maple syrup twice a day (yum!), but otherwise don't take or eat anything specifically for my health. I believe if you eat good food (for definition of "Food", see anything Michael Pollan writes!) and don't eat too much of it, you will be getting the nutrients you need.

I am in fairly good health and somewhat amazed to think that, at my age (or any age), taking a lot of drugs is the norm. NORM - as in normal thing to do!

What is really different about our life here is all the stuff we don't do. I do not wear make-up. Did once, for my junior high school prom, and that was a bad experience. I reacted allergically and my eyes swelled up and that was that. In part due to my sensitivities I do not drink soda, do not dye my hair, do not eat at fast food places. We do not buy prepared foods, use air freshener or scented candles. We do not take sleeping pills, cold medicine except the rare antihistamine when too clogged to sleep.
It really is a case of "less is more". Could it be we just overload our systems and the result is they get out of balance?

If something is an imitation of something else I stay away from it, including imitation sweeteners, vegetarian phony meat, butter "flavored" anything. Give me real butter, steak, cheese and sugar (or honey). This also goes for artificially colored or scented foods, shampoos, soaps... you name it. Laundry detergent or dryer sheets that make your clothes smell "fresh" - I just dry the clothes outdoors and they DO smell fresh.

People have become crucibles for chemical mixtures that no one has tested in combination, let alone testing them within the living chemical stew that is a human being. I am happy not to be a guinea pig in the race for "new and improved" and, as far as I can tell, healthier for it.
You have probably seen the posters showing how quickly a Meth addict ages - looking ancient when only in their 30's, or how a smoker ages quickly as well - not to mention the other health issues. I'm not convinced that the many chemicals we are exposed to daily don't have a similar effect at one level or another.

This is one reason we started making soaps and body care products back in 1979 for our own personal use, so we weren't forced to use the artificially colored and scented commercial soaps that were available to us. And, since 1982, we've made them available to you, too, at Simmons Natural Bodycare.

Oh Foo... we are under the weather

And I don't mean the rain! We are talking about the contagious nasty known as the flu, which is everywhere this time of year.

One of the greatest flu-fighters is soap. It sounds odd, I imagine, 'soap for health'... but in fact the act of hand washing with soap, is one of the greatest single advances in medicine.

Before soap and later, before the discovery of microbes and the idea of 'germs' became common knowledge, medical procedures from the common to the extreme were performed with no attention to cleanliness. Not only the environs in which treatment was done, but the hands of the healer were often filthy and doctors went from patient to patient without washing, as did the others who attended the wounded and ill. Little did they know that they carried with them the infection and contagious disease that often spread wildly among their charges. It was actually in fairly recent history that cleanliness became 'scientifically' accepted as a means of preventing disease.

You may have heard this anecdote: "Sometime during the 19th century, a doctor discovered that if he performed a simple procedure when assisting women in labor, their mortality rate was cut in half (this was at a time when childbirth was among the leading causes of death for women). He shared his findings with other doctors, who, much to his dismay, ignored his advice despite solid evidence that supported his findings. Only much later, after other researchers had come to the same conclusion, did doctors begin to adopt the practice... of washing their hands." (Thanks to Don Wangberg of Fair Oaks, CA. for contributing this).

More than two million children still die from diarrheal disease in developing countries every year. A review in The Lancet Journal suggests that "a surprising 42-47% of all diarrhea could be prevented if people washed their hands with soap. This makes hand washing more effective than water supply, fly control or sanitation improvement in preventing diarrheal diseases. There is growing evidence that hand washing also works to prevent acute respiratory tract infections, which are the biggest infectious killers in the world today."

And just last night on the National News, they capped the article on the current flu cases with a reminder that the best preventative is washing your hands several times a day.

"Most infectious diseases are spread by contact, either person-to-person, or by touching surfaces harboring germs," said U.S. Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona. "Proper hand cleaning is the best prevention against communicable illness."

What happens if you do not wash your hands frequently? You pick up germs from other sources and infect yourself when you:
* Touch your eyes
* Or your nose
* Or your mouth.
One of the most common ways people catch colds is by rubbing their nose or their eyes after their hands have been contaminated with the cold virus.
Yet in the United States today several studies have shown that 20% to 50% of us do not wash our hands after using public restrooms.

Doctors warn that it is critical to wash your hands before eating, when preparing food, when you or someone around you is sick, after touching animals, and after using the bathroom, and to do it correctly.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends the following technique:
• First wet your hands and apply liquid or clean bar soap. Place the bar soap on a rack and allow it to drain.
• Rub your hands vigorously together and scrub all surfaces.
• Continue for 15 - 20 seconds or about the length of a little tune. It is the soap combined with the scrubbing action that helps dislodge and remove germs.
• Rinse well and dry your hands with clean towel.

The most recent CDC guidelines for hand hygiene for practitioners in health care settings basically sums it up: wash your hands with soap and water. Additionally, use other hand hygiene preparation as called for.
It appears the key is "additionally" use other preparations. It seems that if your hands are even slightly dirty the other chemicals are not as effective. Everything seems to indicate that plain old soap and water remain the best all around health tool.

Taking care of your health includes eating right, getting fresh air and exercise, and washing well to ward off those sneaky microbes. Soap is your ally on the road to a healthy life! See all our excellent soaps for your health and pleasure.

Swine flu update - April 30: for current information, go to the Center for disease Control website: www.cdc.gov or The California Department of Public Health: www.cdph.ca.gov,both have up to date information specific to many situations including for schools, healthcare, home and more.

Dawning of the New Year...

túrána hott kurdís by hasta la otra méxico! from Till Credner on Vimeo.

See this video for a condensed bit of time-lapse sky gazing. And know that 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy.
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Today ends 2008. Tomorrow a new day, a new year, full of possibilities. What governs this calculation of time is literally our place in the universe, something I was thinking about last night as I gazed at the glorious crescent moon and opulent Venus.
If you do not sky gaze, make it one of your New Year's Resolutions to begin.
The sky is always amazing and always a source for reflection on beauty, the cosmos, on things bigger than ourselves and wholly detached from the petty goings on down here at human level. The universe is pretty grand, and that's all there is to it!
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As we are just human, wandering on the surface of our lovely planet, our thoughts for the New Year tend to have more terrestrial roots.
Given that, I hope you are all looking to toast the turning of time with the universal toast: "To your Health". That is probably the best toast - and the best New Year's resolution we can all make.

Our health is one of the few things that we can truly change through our personal actions (or inaction, as the case may be), and it is by far the most precious thing we own on a personal level. Each of us knows deep in our being what we are lacking and what we need to do if we can summon the focus to accept it. Be it exercise or eating healthier foods, quitting smoking or other addictive behavior. Working on our health from within.

There are also the things that are outside of us that influence our health negatively and it is up to us to moderate those as best we can. Try to remove toxins from your lifestyle, be they chemical air fresheners, super toxic cleaners or moldy furnace filters. And always try to use the safest, least harmful products available - which, of course, is why we are in business. We hope you choose the soaps and basic body care products from Simmons Natural Bodycare for 2009 and beyond!

Climate Change... seasons

The climate of our fair planet is going through some changes. Both natural cycles and mankind’s influence are affecting it on a broad scale, the combination of which could produce some pretty major transformation from what we are used to. How fast this will evolve is still unknown. But I can truthfully say that in my own lifetime basic weather patterns have changed a lot.

Here in California's far northwest, just inland from the coast, the general weather pattern was easy to predict. The sun was out full time by the end of May and you saw little or no precipitation of any sort until late July or August when there may be a thunderstorm or two. Come September there would be a rainstorm to remind you winter was coming and you better finish getting the firewood in for the winter. By November it would be raining full time. During winter it would snow one or more times at elevations over 2000 feet. In January and February you would probably get one full week of warm sunny weather to remind you not to despair, you can relax about building an Ark, and that the day will come when you are not wading through rain and mud everywhere you go. Periodic dry weather would increase through May and then the cycle would start over again. It had been like this as long as anyone could remember.

Back around 1970 this changed. That was the first year of a 7 year drought (meaning only 30 to 45 inches of rain, not 60 to 100). You would get up in the winter and the sun, low in the sky and too far away to be warm, would shine brightly blinding you with its low angle. Since then the weather has never resumed its old, predictable, pattern. There also seem to be more intense storms followed by long dry spells in the winter. This summer, as noted in our post "Fire on the Mountain" we had a wholly unusual thunderstorm in June! Our ability to adapt is already being put to the test - as well as that of all the local flora and fauna.

In some cultures bad weather and other natural catastrophes are attributed to displeasing the various Gods, or Spirits. In the cases where we have changed our own environment through pollution, from poisoned rivers to acid rain, the tons of plastic refuse in the oceans or greenhouse gases, I can only hope we have attained a point where we have displeased ourselves.

In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments; there are
consequences. -Robert Green Ingersoll, lawyer and orator (1833-1899)

As a specie, our ability to change our habits to lessen our influence on the world's climate is one of the most important challenges facing us. Our ability to adapt to change, natural or man made, will determine our survival. These are interesting times.

Meanwhile, on the smaller scale, we undergo a climate change with each passing season and these fluctuations have an effect on our health, our skin, and even our temperament. Whether you go from hot and dry to cold and moist, warm and foggy to cool and soggy, or hot and humid to cold and dry, these changing conditions have their influence and the transitional season of fall gives us some time to prepare for the harsher (usually) environment of winter.

Not only is it time to boost your immune system, it is time to become aware of how the different conditions interact with your skin and complexion. Many people need to use more moisturizer in the winter months. Our lips may chap more readily in winter, but even more so in the transformational times of spring and fall. The dry, cracked, chapped heels and hands of those who garden or wear sandals in the summer months may fade, only to be replaced with dry skin elsewhere and hair that frizzes or otherwise reacts to the winter weather – both outdoors and in the now heated interior spaces of home and work.

While many notice the seasonal changes in their interior and exterior health, colds and flu have their “season” but changes in skin and hair fitness often are not related to the different climate conditions.

Time passes and things are always changing and, whatever the cause, it helps us maintain our health if we are aware of how these external differences act on our bodies and adapt our diet and personal care to flow with the seasons.

What can you find at Simmons Natural Bodycare to help you adapt to winter weather? Check out our moisturizing soaps, and our Apothecary section. You will find lotions, creams and balms to help keep your skin happy in every climate.