BodyMegaMall - All about Health & Beauty

As women are experiencing ever increasing demands on their time, many have opted out of using a toner in their daily skin care regime and only use cleansing and moisturising as the key steps to keeping their skin looking healthy, vibrant and young.

This is however a big mistake, as toning is a very important part of a daily skin care regime. Toning follows the cleansing routine and actually serves some important functions.

1. Toning closes the pores of the skin. Once cleansing of the skin has been completed, the pores tend to be open and therefore slightly enlarged. As a result, moisture can leave the skin, which in return dehydrates the skin. This is not a desired effect on the contrary loss of moisture from the skin is highly undesirable.
2. Closing of the pores has another benefit. It stops dust and other air born particles from settling in the pores and potentially causing problems. In addition, good quality, natural toners are anti-septic and provides moisture and nutrients to the skin, preparing the skin for the third step in a skin care regime - Moisturising.

Some skin care companies have tried to eliminate the need for this step combining the cleansing and toning steps into one step and formulated their cleansers to include toning functions.

Now think about this for a second and you will realise how ridiculous this concept is. A cleanser is supposed to open the pores and remove dirt and stale natural oils from the pores and thus cleansing the skin. A toner, as we discussed above, is designed to close to pores… See the contradiction? It cannot possibly work.

Any astringent (substance that closes the pores) cannot be applied to the skin at the same time as a product that is supposed to open and cleanse the pores. It just does not work. The whole idea is just to market a product to time-poor women by telling them they can combine these to steps and thus save time.

Unfortunately most women do not fully understand just how their skin care products work. They like them, their skin may even look good and the products therefore appear to be doing their job. In reality however, these types of skin care products are only doing a moderate amount of caring for the skin and the bulk of the products do very little at all except look good on the shelf and cost money.

The three steps in any good daily skin care regime must include cleansing, toning and moisturising. In addition, you should always consider using natural skin care products, as there are too many synthetic and artificial chemicals in commercially made skin care products which may actually do you harm.

Let’s look at a natural toner and it’s ingredients to understand how they actually work.

The Wild Herb Toner from Wildcrafted Herbal Products is used for oily skin and has a number of specifically chosen ingredients, which include:

Rosemary, Witch hazel, Juniper Berry and Peppermint. These herbs and essential oils are chosen for their toning and invigorating effects on the skin, while Grapefruit, Niaouli and Sweet Orange refresh the skin and combine to maintain normal sebum (oil) secretion.

As you can see, it is important to understand the functions a particular product is supposed to have and how these functions interact with the other steps in your daily skin care regime. Knowing this you will now probably understand why toning is a necessary part of your daily skin care regime.

Danny Siegenthaler is a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine and together with his wife Susan, a medical herbalist and Aromatherapist, they have created Natural Skin Care Products by Wildcrafted Herbal Products to share their 40 years of combined expertise with you.

Join our Natural Skin Care Newsletter - it’s fun, free and Informative and you receive a free eBook on natural skin care.

© Wildcrafted Herbal Products 2006

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What is Benchmarking?

Benchmarking is the process of identifying specific reference points for your business to measure performance, efficiency and quality. It can be used in many different ways, though it ultimately comes down to seeing how you stack up against your peers and against your own past performance. It is through benchmarking that practices can also better understand areas for improvement and find ways to offer a wider range of services, as well as improve profitability.

Internal vs. External

Benchmarking comes in two forms: internal and external. Internal benchmarking is the process of comparing the current state of your practice against historical performance. Internal benchmarking can also help create progressive goals towards longer term objectives as you define bottlenecks, unnecessary expenses, etc.

External benchmarking compares your practice against the performance of others in your industry and/or specialty. External benchmarking can offer a window into general competitor performance as a way of seeing how effectively others perform similar tasks. Through external benchmarking, practices can see not only how they stack up, but also where they specifically fall short.

Information is Critical

Information is critical to benchmarking - but what information? And how much of it do you need? Information lacking depth and definition will only yield vague results; too much can overwhelm and confuse analysis. You’ll almost always want to start off on the side of caution and collect as much as possible about the aspects of your practice you think require the most consideration. Then, adjust your collection processes as you begin to identify what areas will provide the most benefit. You might even find that you already have more than enough data to analyze certain facets of your practice- for example, if you’ve contracted with a good medical billing company you’ll have a wealth of information on medical claim billing and patient accounting.

To streamline the process of collecting information, remember that internal and external benchmarking are driven by the same data sets. Many practices might start off by contacting trade organizations or specialty associations (i.e. the American Medical Association) for existing benchmark data by region, specialty, practice size, etc. There is, in fact, so much information available from these types of industry groups for just a few hundred dollars that most of the work will already be done for you. Simply take a look at what others are measuring, how they are doing so, how they formulate their results, and work out from there. A few hours setting up a basic spreadsheet will help you maintain clean records and manage effective, albeit simple, comparisons. This will at least get you started and identify target areas where you might need to become more aggressive over time.

An additional thought on purchasing existing data: Industry-wide benchmarking is based on median figures and industry averages. Make sure you understand what type of information you are buying - whether it’s industry-wide, or industry leaders. If your goal is to become a top performing practice and your objective is to meet industry-wide benchmarks, you are only setting your sights on mediocrity.

Openness to Change

As you move through the benchmarking process don’t lose sight of the ultimate goal- affecting a positive change on your medical practice to improve your services and your practice’s profitability. Benchmarking is not just about identifying where you currently stand, but finding ways in which you can do better. It’s about evolution, growth, and change. Keep an open mind and be flexible when your results suggest that something you’ve done for years might just be the reason you’re not performing well.

For more information on improving your health care practice, as well as your medical insurance billing, contact Diversity Medical Billing Services. Diversity is a leading provider of Medical Claim Billing Services, helping practices across the US find increased reimbursements. You can also check out more Medical Billing Articles and Tools in their medical billing knowledge center.

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Age creeps up on us all. However we no longer have to allow it to ravage us, unchecked. Antiaging research and development have been releasing studies and new antiaging products almost daily - all to help us look and feel younger.

For those who want to stay the hand of time and remain youthful and active through and past middle age, there has been no more exciting time to be growing older.

Science has produced many new antiaging solutions. We now know that parts of the aging process can be slowed or delayed. There are steps one can take to support the body and keep healthy processes going.

We now understand the value of early and consistent sun protection, proper nutrition, vitamin supplements, and age-appropriate exercise. Thinning hair can be slowed and maybe even reversed with treatments such as minoxidil, propecia or copper peptide solutions.

Some signs of aging can be “erased”. There are antiaging procedures such as face lifts, facial peels, dermabrasion and laser resurfacing techniques that quite literally erase facial wrinkles.

Hair replacement can erase a receding hairline by implanting healthy follicles where others have died an untimely death.

There are antiaging skincare products that camouflage signs of aging, at least temporarily. Cosmetics with special properties like light-reflecting particles, foundation shades that match skin tones and provide coverage without a mask like appearance, temporary “lifts” that tighten facial skin all allow us to look years younger one day at a time.

AHAs, BHAs, Retin A and retinol preparations provide longer lasting results by uncovering more youthful skin beneath the surface and speeding up the skin’s natural rebuilding process. The latest antiaging firming creams for cellulite and slackening skin have performed well in standard industry tests, providing smoother tighter skin that lasts.

Most exciting of all are the new products that hold the promise of actually reversing some signs of aging. Newer antiaging cosmetic surgery techniques give more natural looking and lasting results. Botox, and perhaps the new serums that purport to mimic the muscle-freezing effect of Botox, prevent the formation or deepening of lines of expression.

There are new creams on the market that combine ancient herbal remedies with modern substances created in the laboratory and claim to actually rebuild collagen beneath the skin’s surface removing wrinkles from the inside out! Amazingly, they actually seem to work.

And there are the controversal hormone theraphies, such as HGH and DHEA. They seem to be effective, but at what cost to our future health?

All this has come just in time for the boomer generation, the leading edge of which is now turning sixty. There has never been a bigger demand for effective products to help them stay young and vigorous.

Everyone knows this lovely phrase written by John Keats.

A thing of beauty is a joy forever:
Its loveliness increases
It will never pass into nothingness

Endymion, 1818

If you desire to take joy in a more youthful and beautiful “you” and preserve your beauty, if not forever, at least as long as possible, you want to know about the most recent antiaging developments.

Just as importantly, you want to know which antiaging products are proven effective, look promising or are simply fads or marketing hype. You also want to know which product among competing ones offers the best value.

By Jean Bowler. For the latest in antiaging skin care and cosmetic procedures; diet, nutrition and exercise; hormone theraphy; hair loss and more, visit http://www.ageless-beauty.com

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