Time-Saving Makeover Tips for Busy Moms

Our makeover dream team -- celebrity hairstylists and owners of Lukaro Beverly Hills salon Luke and Rona O'Connor, and celebrity makeup artist Taylor Babaian -- shows how a busy mom like Rachel can add sophistication to her look in less than 10 minutes. Follow her amazing transformation to pick up time-saving tips for yourself.

The "Before":

Busy P.E. teacher, mother of two and Fitness for Mommies blogger Rachel has a lot on her plate. "I only have 10 minutes between workout and work to get ready," she says, gesturing at her dry, damaged hair. "It's been nothing but trouble. Even if I try to blow it out, I look like I have two heads."

Does this sound like you? Read on to see whether the makeover dream team's easy solution will work for your lifestyle.

Step One: Chop it Off

If a ponytail is your signature hairstyle, it could be time for a short cut. Luke gives Rachel a Katie Holmes-inspired cut by lopping off eight inches. (Ask for gradual layers in the back for movement and long bangs in front.)

Style tip: Give a cut like this a sexy touch for evening by applying mousse to damp hair, then scrunching with hands while blow-drying. Tousle dry hair with your fingers, then "bump up" or lift roots with a curling iron. Total style time: five minutes.

Step Two: Add Multi-Dimensional Color

Rich, eye-catching hair color can make hair look healthier and enhance a new cut. (Before you color, deep condition dry, damaged hair the day before to protect it.) Rona works with the color that's most prominent in Rachel's strawberry-blondish strands -- red. Sticking with a tone that already appears in your hair will make your new color more low maintenance. To achieve a soft yet rich result, Rona adds honey-red to Rachel's hair then breaks up the color by painting on flecks of bright yellow-gold. Find out how to enhance your natural hair color here.

Step Three: Revive Tired Eyes

A fast pace can take a toll on the skin around your eyes. Aside from using a great eye cream (find one here), employ make up to revive tired lids. Start by filling in brows, which frame the face. Then conceal dark circles, watch this video for great camouflaging tricks, then finish by applying highlighter or white shadow on your inner eye corners. (Try Yves Saint Laurent Touche Eclat, $40.)

Total time: four minutes.

Step Four: Smile (and blush)!

Nothing warms up the face more than a friendly smile and a pop of color on your cheeks. Blend a pink, luminescent cream blush (like Stila Convertible Color, $20) onto the apples.

See more highly rated blushes and application tips here.

Total time: One minute

The "After":

"I love it!" says Rachel. "[The haircut] has really shortened my daily routine." And though she rarely wears makeup, Rachel is looking forward to trying Taylor's eye highlighting tips for her next evening shindig. "She made me look less squinty!"

Is cute packaging enough?

Who am I kidding? Sometimes, all it takes is cute packaging to trigger my makeup desire mechanism, ha! Matter of fact, there were things in MAC’s Hello Kitty collection that I *almost* bought simply because of the packaging, even though I didn’t really care for the products themselves.

I passed because of the cost, but drugstore beauty products — that’s a different story. When something only costs a couple bucks, sometimes I’ll buy for no better reason than the packaging.

What do you think? Is cute packaging reason enough to buy makeup and beauty products?

Source : http://www.makeupandbeautyblog.com/

Silent heart attacks: What you don't know could kill you

This segment on the use of MRI to help assess heart disease risk could have been much improved with just a few additional statements.

• It needed an independent expert to put the new research into the context of existing methods of predicting heart risk.

• It didn’t discuss costs.

• It didn’t discuss clear potential harms that were mentioned in the journal article upon which the story was based.

• It didn’t quantify “silent heart attack” prevalence or potential benefits of the MRI approach in the most meaningful way.

• It didn't mention that the researchers in the study in question hold a patent to the machine used in the study.

The anchor twice provided openings that may have led to overinterpretation of the findings, but the correspondent resisted admirably both times. And to her credit, the reporter did try, at least, to inject some cautious interpretation.

Source : http://www.healthnewsreview.org

Early Initiation of HIV Therapy Improves Survival

In August 2008, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published an analysis showing that an estimated 56,300 new human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections occurred in 2006, a number that was significantly higher than the previous estimate of 40,000. This estimate highlights the importance of elucidating practice guidelines for the management of HIV infection that is still asymptomatic. According to an article published online April 1, 2009 in The New England Journal of Medicine, deferring HIV therapy increases the risk of death.

Investigators from the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland and their colleagues performed two analyses on 17,517 asymptomatic patients with HIV infection in the United States and Canada who received medical care during the period from 1996 through 2005 in order to determine the optimal time for initiation of antiretroviral therapy. In the first analysis, which included 8,362 patients, 2,084 patients started therapy at a CD4+ count of 350 to 500 cells per cubic millimeter and 6,278 deferred therapy. The CD4+ count is a measure of how well the immune system is functioning, and as it falls, an individual's risk of infection increases. Among patients who deferred therapy, there was a 69% increased risk of death. In the second analysis, which included 9,155 patients, 2,220 initiated therapy at a CD4+ count of more than 500 cells per cubic millimeter and the remainder deferred therapy. Among those who deferred therapy in this analysis, there was a 94% increased risk of death.

Current guidelines recommend treatment for asymptomatic HIV patients when their CD4+ counts drop below 350 cells per cubic millimeter. The findings of this study suggests that these guidelines may need to be re-examined with randomized trials. However, the benefits of initiating antiretroviral therapy earlier after HIV infection still need to be weighed against the potential adverse effects of treatment.

Source
NEJM. Published online at www.nejm.org April 1, 2009.