Month: January 2010

Moor mud – celebrity beauty starts at home

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Sometimes the oldest and simplest products are the best.  Mud from the lowland moorland of Austria, Hungary and Czechoslovakia has been used for wellbeing for at least two thousand years – the Romans prized it for its health and strength promoting qualities and the Celts dunked themselves into the odd mud bath too.  Now ‘Moor mud’ has become the latest ‘must try’ treatment for celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Trinny and Susannah, Kim Cattrall and Sarah Jessica Palmer. It’s thick and black (though odour free) and my first impression was one of mild distaste.  I was introduced to the Moor at the (now sadly defunct) Tyringham Hall naturopathic clinic around 15 years ago.  ‘Climb in and relax for twenty minutes,’ said the therapist, pointing at a bath full of murky black water.  ‘Honestly, it’s lovely.  Just make sure you have a little rest afterwards.’  I’m not really the mid-afternoon nap type but I obediently lay down in my room for the ‘little rest’ and didn’t wake up until sixteen hours later.  I felt fabulous – …

Electro-mesotherapy – holy grail or waste of time?

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When I look in the mirror something blotchy, baggy and bleary gazes back in a rather unpleasant fashion.  So it’s small wonder that electro-mesotherapy sounded so appealing. The claims for this face and body treatment make it sound like the Holy Grail of skincare: ‘anti-ageing, wrinkle reduction, collagen regeneration, skin rehydration, skin firming and toning, body sculpting and cellulite reduction.’  It also promises to get rid of dark circles and bags under the eyes. Oh, and to reduce stretch marks.  Maybe it might like to sort out the recession and global warming while it’s at it. Standard mesotherapy has been around for years – it involves injecting substances (generally skin-plumping and moisturising hyaluronic acid) into the skin.  It feels pretty uncomfortable and side effects (swelling, redness, itching, bruising) aren’t uncommon. However the new mesotherapy is altogether more sophisticated.  Needles are distinctly passé and electroporation is the new buzz-word.  An electrical field is applied to the surface of the skin which increases permeability of the cell plasma membrane.  This allows a serum painted onto the skin …

Zero Balancing = zero stress

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Good bodywork can soothe away the strains of modern life. It can unravel taut muscles, banish back ache and even soften emotional stress and psychological pain.  Yet many people flinch at the intimacy or the intrusiveness.  Lying butt-naked on the floor or having probing fingers diving under the ribs is a touch too far for those with a bashful disposition or a low pain threshold. So three cheers for Zero Balancing, a highly effective bodywork system  tailor-made for the shy and retiring. Zero Balancing was developed by Dr Fritz Smith, an American doctor, acupuncturist and osteopath who investigated a wide range of bodywork therapies and ‘energy healing’ techniques before concluding that the two approaches needed to be combined.  In 1973 he introduced his new form of therapy, describing it as, ‘a blending of Eastern and Western ideas in terms of body and structure. It brings energy concepts into touch, or body handling.’ It may sound esoteric but Zero Balancing is, in practice, one of the most down-to-earth therapies going.  Its practitioners train for two and …