By Stephen Sedita, AP, DOM
Summertime is approaching, which means time for beaches, pools and swimsuits! Many people are not comfortable with how they look in a swimsuit. But almost no one stops to consider that looking good is more complicated than how you shape fills out (or doesn’t) your swimwear. Research has shown that a person’s level of health has a direct impact on their perceived level of attractiveness. There really is such a thing as a “healthy glow”. We’ll cover three areas of health that have a direct impact on your attractiveness: body shape, skin tone, and general health.
First thing’s first; to look good, you’ll likely not want too many extra pounds hanging around. Many people still think that weight loss is just about counting calories and or exercising more. Counting calories is nowhere near as important as the quality of the food you choose in the first place. Five hundred calories of salad greens provides a significantly better nutritional package than say, 500 calories of hotdogs. Diet is the key to losing pounds; exercise is not necessary for the majority of people to achieve weight loss. Dr. Meng has years of clinical practice and has developed a fail-safe diet for people to follow.
Excess fat isn’t the only culprit in determining body shape. Water retention can cause a bloated or puffy appearance in the face, limbs, and trunk. Certain diseases, such as congestive heart failure result in edema. While not always the case, quite often the overweight can have both excess fat and water retention. Bloating of the abdominal wall can occur from digestive disorders, poor diet, and from qi stagnation. In other words, you can appear fat without actually having excess body fat. Acupuncture can be successfully used to reduce water retention, clear qi and blood stagnations, and thus help to improve overall body shape and appearance.
The second aspect of health that strongly influences perceived attractiveness is the quality of skin. Several new studies suggest that the quality of skin is a more important factor than facial symmetry (which has long been considered to be one of the most important factors of attractiveness). The color, consistency, luster, texture, and tension of the skin all factor into how people will see you. Anyone who has ever lost a lot of weight in a short amount of time likely has experienced sagging skin. There are several ways that we can help to avoid sagging skin resulting from weight loss. The first is to help you lose weight at a healthy rate, allowing enough time for the elasticity of the skin to react to the weight loss. However for people who are significantly overweight it is very difficult to avoid sagging skin. For these cases acupuncture needles can be used to help tighten the skin and special topical herbal formulas can further help to smooth and tighten sagging skin. These methods can also be used for age related sagging skin.
The quality of the skin is very much affected by diet and lifestyle. A diet high in toxins and or poor lifestyle will result in dry, crinkled, dull and darkened skin with the possibility of acne, boils, or other skin eruptions. Healthy skin should be taught but not too tight, the coloring should be consistent, and there should be a natural luster or shine to it. A healthy glow of the skin is in part due to the carotenoid pigments found in fruits and vegetables, which is in part why a diet lacking fresh produce results in skin that appears dull or pale. Changes in skin tone, especially on the face, reflect underlying imbalances. For example dark black lines under the eyes indicate kidney trouble, a bright red nose indicates excess stress in the liver, and pale coloring in the lips indicates trouble with the blood and or heart. While makeup may cover up some facial discolorations, the best way to look better is to get better. Dr. Meng has developed two advanced formulas to help restore a naturally healthy shine to the skin; one specific for the facial skin and another for the rest of the body.
Finally there is the aspect of your overall health as a determining factor in how you look to others. This aspect can be a little vague due to the scope of what is involved in optimal health, which is quite broad. Everything from trouble sleeping to digestive trouble to stress can influence the way you look. For example chronic poor sleep can leave you looking tired and worn out with dropping eyelids, dark complexion, and loose facial muscle tone. Chronic stress can add wrinkles to your face, dark circles or lines under the eyes, and an overall dark or dull complexion. Certain illness and medications can damage the liver and result in jaundice – yellowing of the skin. Congestive Heart failure can result in a pale, dry, and dark complexion.
One of the greatest strengths of acupuncture is that as a treatment protocol it allows us to help improve overall health. Specific western markers of overall health such as blood pressure, cholesterol levels, blood sugar stability, and hours of continuous sleep can all be improved with TCM treatment. In fact acupuncture was traditionally meant as a means of preserving health; you didn’t go to the doctor when you got sick you went so as to not get sick in the first place.
To summarize, to look your best you’ll want to concern yourself not just with your body size and shape but with your overall state of health. The healthier you are the better you will look, and more importantly, the better you will feel.
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