alternative medicine

4 Questions to Ask Before Getting Trendy Beauty Treatments

Ashley Eneriz — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 08:30:10 +0000

Most of us spend money on beauty products and treatments to look and feel better. And if the end result is increased confidence, the cost is usually justifiable, so long as you aren't sending yourself into debt. But when beauty treatments are brand-new, they might be lacking the research and known side effects to deem them safe for the general public. So before you hit the salon or spa for something "guaranteed to make you look younger and feel better," ask yourself these four questions. (See also: 6 Beauty Rules You Should Be Breaking)

Is this safe?

Before you jump on the latest beauty trend, do your research. Find out the risks involved before you become the one with a horror story to share. Here are some of the risks involved in the latest beauty treatments.

Eyelash extensions: Adhesives used for lash extensions can irritate allergies and cause infections, which can then lead to swelling, permanent loss of eyelashes, or temporary vision loss.
Microblading: This is essentially getting a tattoo of your eyebrows, so there's no need to fill them in each morning. Instead of a needle, a small blade is used to make tiny, superficial cuts in your brows and are filled in with ink. With this treatment, there is a risk for infection, swelling, or blood-borne infections like Hepatitis.

Permanent makeup: Permanent makeup has the same risks as tattoos, as the method of application is similar. This includes infection from poorly sterilized equipment or scarring. In some cases, severe allergic reactions can occur.
Keratin hair-straightening treatments: These treatments contain formaldehyde, which is extremely toxic and can cause hair loss, rashes and blisters, and respiratory issues. Formaldehyde exposure, over a long period of time, has also been linked to cancer.

You need to make sure your technician has experience, plenty of before and after pictures of previous clients, and the necessary training to offer these services (some are required to take blood-borne pathogens training classes).

Can I afford this?

How are you going to pay for this treatment? Are you already on a tight budget with debt piled up? If you're struggling to afford your student loan payments each month, you should postpone your plans to get hair extensions or microblading, at least for a few months so you can get your monthly budget back on track. It's a harsh truth, but your bank account with thank you.

What is the long-term investment?

Nothing lasts forever. Even some beauty treatments labeled as "permanent" will need to be reapplied after a few years. For example, if you dye your hair several shades lighter, how often will you have to touch up the roots? Are you willing to let the dye job grow out completely in order to save money? Or will you need to head back to the salon every two months for costly upkeep? Trying a new beauty treatment once can be fun, but add up the long-term costs.

Are there cheaper alternatives?

Before you shell out the big bucks to look and feel better, have you pursued natural and more affordable options? A healthy diet and exercise can help many individuals feel and look better naturally. For example, adding certain vitamins to your diet can help eyelashes, nails, skin, and hair to look fuller and healthier. Also, it always pays to stay hydrated. (See also: 10 Ways to Age Well for $0)

Like this article? Pin it!

This article is from Ashley Eneriz of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

9 Frugal Ways to Treat the Common Cold

Michael Kling — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 11:24:30 +0000

It's winter again, and the common cold will be very, well, common. Fortunately, frugal ways to treat the common cold are readily available so you don't have to spend a fortune on doctor visits and over-the-counter medication.

Many frugal cold remedies are healthier than cold medicines that only cover up symptoms instead of actually curing your cold. Plus, many cold medications have unwelcome side effects, and they're rarely inexpensive.

The next time a cold lays you low, try one or more of these nine frugal remedies to put you back on your feet again. (See also: 25 Ways to Feel Better Fast)

1. Steam

Steam can ease sore throats and clear nasal congestion. Indoor heating systems frequently make indoor air too dry, which is probably a factor in spreading winter colds. Put a humidifier in your bedroom overnight or living room during the day. Or, if you don't want to spend money on a humidifier, sit in the bathroom with the door closed while running a hot shower or stand over a pot of boiling water.

2. Saline Nasal Drops and Sprays

Frequent drops or sprays of saline solution in the nose can help encourage decongestion. Saline drops are cheap and available over the counter, and they're different from medicated nasal drops or sprays, which can prompt cold symptoms to worsen if used more than several days. You can also make your own saline solution with a teaspoon of salt and a pinch of baking soda in a pint of warm water, and apply it with a child-size medicine dropper.

3. Salt Water Gargle

Gargle with a quarter- to half-a-teaspoon of salt dissolved in an eight-ounce glass of warm water. Gargle for several seconds, then spit it out. It can soothe sore throats by drawing out excess fluid from inflamed tissue and loosening mucus. If you disdain salt water, you can gargle with warm water spiked with lemon and honey instead.

4. Rest

And plenty of it. Resting helps restore your energy and strengthens your body's immune defenses, helping avoid complications like bronchitis and pneumonia.

5. Drinking Liquids

Drinking water, juice, clear broth, or warm lemon water with honey helps loosen mucus and aids your immune defenses. Warm liquids, like broth or herbal teas, help soothe sore throats and loosen mucus, which eases congestion. Natural herbs can be added to hot water for teas.

6. Chicken Soup

Your grandmother was right. Chicken soup is easily digestible, and its warmth can help loosen mucus and relieve sore throats. It speeds up movement of mucus, possibly helps relieve congestion, and helps reduce inflammation.

7. Vitamin C

Many people swear by vitamin C, although scientific evidence has yet to prove that it cures colds; it's more likely that it can help you avoid catching colds. But if it works for you, placebo effect or not, reasonable doses won't hurt.

8. Healthy Diet

Fruits and vegetables rich in antioxidants and vitamins A and C, such as sweet potatoes, spinach, and broccoli for vitamin A; and oranges, kiwi, and tomatoes for vitamin C, help improve your immune system, although a year-round healthy diet is best before you catch a cold. Avoid caffeine and sugar.

9. Herbs

Elder (also called elderberry), eucalyptus, goldenseal, licorice, and marshmallow are some of the many plants used to treat colds, coughs, and sore throats. You can find these herbs in your local market or health food store; teas made from these herbs are also widely available. If you live in the right area you might be able to grow these herbs in your backyard or find them around your neighborhood.

Cold sufferers should research which herbs to use, as the list of possible herbal treatments is quite long, and the best options vary by person, symptom, and stage of the cold. Keep in mind that scientific evidence on their effectiveness is inconclusive, and women who are pregnant or breastfeeding and people with health conditions should talk to a doctor before using herbal remedies.

The best way to fight colds may be to avoid them in the first place. You've probably heard about eating right, exercising, and washing your hands especially after being out of the house and touching doorknobs, shopping cart handles, and shaking hands at parties. You might not have heard that reducing stress through yoga, tai chi, or meditation can also help reduce chances of catching colds, too.

This article is from Michael Kling of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Don’t Waste Your Money on Homeopathic “Remedies”

Paul Michael — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 13:00:06 +0000

I’m sure I’ll get some serious verbal abuse for this one, but I can stay silent on this no longer. I’ve been following this homeopathic trend for years now, and I am convinced that it is nothing but a bunch of mumbo-jumbo that delivers empty promises and fake cures. Worse than that, I think it’s dangerous, and it rips people off. (See also: Job-Search Scams That Target High Performers)

To understand where I'm coming from, you would first need to understand what homeopathic medicine is. It’s important to note that homeopathy should not be confused with natural cures. By that I mean herbal remedies, vitamins, minerals, and so on. No, I fully believe that our planet contains a wealth of natural cures that can do the body a world of good. My article about witch hazel is a good example of that.

Homeopathy was started over 200 years ago in 1796 by Samuel Hahnemann, a German physician. It basically takes minute doses of what you are suffering from, and then dilutes it repeatedly in water. For example, if you have a cold and the symptoms are similar to those caused by Mercury poisoning, then 1 part Mercury is diluted with 1,000,000,000,000 parts of water. That’s your cure. And regardless of your symptoms, that’s the cure you are given. The premise is that water has memory, and the more diluted the remedy, the more powerful the cure becomes.

There are four general parts of homeopathy. They are:

The proving. This is explained more below.
Matching the symptoms of a patient to the proving and using that as a basis for the treatment.
NOT giving the patient the substance found from the proving, but an incredibly diluted form of it.
The final product (I hate to say medicine) gets stronger the more diluted it is.

Now, what’s a proving? Basically, you take a completely healthy person and give them a known substance. You then record any symptoms that arise from prescribing that substance by observing and asking numerous questions. And then you use that substance to reverse those symptoms. For example, if you give someone caffeine and they have trouble falling asleep, caffeine is used to treat people who can’t fall asleep.

Therefore, highly diluted caffeine becomes a sleeping pill! See what I mean by mumbo-jumbo?

You can read all about homeopathy on the ABC Homeopathy website and at Homeopathy.org. These are just a couple of the many sites devoted to the subject, and I don’t want anyone to think that my “oversimplification” of this medicine is not doing it justice.

The Big Issue — It’s All Done on Faith

Scientists around the world have tested millions of different homeopathic remedies ad nauseam. They have found no active ingredients within these cures. In fact, they are usually just water.

“Ah yes” the homeopathic practitioner will say. “But you cannot test for the efficacy of this medicine. You cannot test for something that is not picked up by modern scientific methods. You cannot test for water memory.”

How handy. You can’t test for the tooth fairy either, but I’m fairly sure that relying on one to deliver money for your old teeth will leave you very disappointed.

So if you cannot test for it, how can people who dispense these medicines stand behind them? Well, they have proof in the form of patients who have been cured by the medicines they prescribed.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t really stand up because in legitimate studies, the results of homeopathy fared no better than sugar pills and placebos. The water given by homeopaths is as effective as curing disease and illness as, well, water! What are the odds?

There are stories of people who swear by it though. And people make careers from this pseudo-science. How is that possible? Well, the mind is a powerful thing, so it is believable that we can cure ourselves if we actually believe something is working. But does that give these people the right to charge gullible people an arm and a leg for a bottle of water or packet of sugar pills?

Prove Me Wrong and Get $1 Million!

This is where homeopathy has the chance to prove itself, and if you practice it, please come forward and defend your chosen profession. James Randi is giving away $1 million to anyone who can prove that homeopathy actually works. It's all part of something called the 1023 Challenge, which I urge you to read more about.

Now, you can't just submit affidavits from people swearing it really did work, because that’s not evidence. No court in the land would accept that as proof. You need to submit hard evidence that homeopathic cures actually do what they are supposed to do.

I don’t see anyone coming forward though, and that’s because it cannot be proven. It’s the stuff of witch doctors and fancy imaginations.

For instance, thousands of people have proven the ineffectiveness of the homeopathic sleeping pills by taking a huge overdose of them. (The recommended dosage is two, by the way.) And the results?

No one died. No one got even remotely sleepy. Nothing happened to anyone because there are no active ingredients in these products. It’s all nonsense. The fact that there is an overdose warning on the pill box is laughable. You can’t overdose on nothing.

The Real Danger Here Is for the Patient

My biggest beef with homeopathy is that people with genuine illnesses put their trust (and money) into useless medicines. It’s dangerous to think that you can treat illnesses with anything that has been diluted so much that it is now just plain water. It’s wrong, it should be against the law and I for one would support any act that did so. In fact, there are some diseases that homeopaths and homeopathic remedies are not allowed to treat.

For instance: “In 1996, oncologist Vincent Speckhart, MD, was ordered to pay the widow of deceased patient Robert Rizzi $235,715. Rizzi's widow charged that Speckhart led her husband to believe that homeopathy was enough to cure him of his Hodgkin's disease after Rizzi refused further chemotherapy because of side effects.” You can read more about that on this page about legal issues in homeopathy. I have also posted some links to videos below that I hope will open your eyes somewhat. But please, if you have any kind of real proof that homeopathy works, let’s hear it. I will be the first to admit that I was wrong.

Somehow, I think that’s about as likely as a diluted caffeine pill putting me to sleep. So unless someone offers you real, hard evidence that homeopathic remedies actually work, don't waste your money on them. You'll sleep better.

Further viewing:

This article is from Paul Michael of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread: