“Travel Season” can be defined as practically any time of the year — Americans are a travelin’ bunch of people.  But the stretch of time from Thanksgiving through Christmas and New Years is finally starting to see crowds hit the road (or skies) in numbers almost reminiscent of the Pre-9/11 days.  Since we all take our skin with us when we travel, there are things we

A thoroughly unwanted travel companion: The Bedbug

can do to make the journey as pleasant as possible.

Airline cabin climate conditions are dry, dry, dry — sometimes downright hostilely so.  This is why airline attendants are so concerned about taking care of their own skin (literally) so they can be there to take care of yours (figuratively).  Their carry-on luggage typically is a treasure chest of travel-sized skin care life-support supplies.

Hotels and motels may not be much better.  A little telltale reminder of no moisture in the air is when you go padding across the carpet in your room and touch the door knob or anything that’s metal.  If you’re practically electrocuted from the static electricity, that’s a sure sign from Mother Nature that you skin may be headed for trouble.

And, speaking of lodging accommodations, your room may be a “chemical-rich” environment, thanks to the resurgence of the lowly bedbug.  I recall only too vividly a lady at a tradeshow I was attending in San Antonio last June who was awakened in the wee hours of the morning at a large, well-known hotel to find a bedbug feasting on the back of her hand.   Regardless of the time, she checked out within minutes, and although she doesn’t blame the chain in question — the bedbug epidemic can infest even the best of innkeepers — she needed a new venue immediately.  Within hours, her hand had the appearance of an engorged cow utter — ballooned, feverish and hot pink.

Does all this mean that travel isn’t worth the potential perils?  Not hardly.  There are people and places to see, business to conduct, and life to live.

The Ladies’ Home Journal printed an informative article recently that listed very useful travel tips, which I recommend that you scan before heading out the door on your next trip: http://www.lhj.com/relationships/family/travel/50-travel-tips-and-tricks/?page=1

What we do at Awakening is aimed at harnessing the benefits of natural minerals to help keep your skin happy and healthy no matter where on Earth you may be — hunkered down in North Dakota motel in January, cruising at 40 thousand feet enroute to Helsinki, or simply motoring 40 miles over fields and through the woods to Grandmother’s house for Thanksgiving.   One of our most popular items is a set of pocket/purse-sized tubes of Awakening HANDS and Awakening FEET in a ZipLoc® baggie that’s ready to send through the TSA’s baggage scanner at your nearest airport.  HANDS is perfect for dry hands; FEET is ideal for dry, tired, swollen feet.  Combinr them together and even the lady with the bedbug-mauled hand found instant relief.

“HERE’S MUD IN YOUR EYE” — Strange words!  This typically now is a toast to someone’s health that seems to have come into common usage during World War I as an in-the-trenches, tongue-in-cheek greeting of health between soldiers, and which most likely originated through Christian Scripture in John 9:6-7, when Jesus mixed his spittal with mud to

Mud in Your Face!

apply to the eyes of a man born blind, who, after cleansing his face in the Pool of Siloam, could see.  Not at all a bad outcome.

Well, all of us at Awakening learned long ago that putting our products in the eye was NOWHERE close to pleasant, given the high concentration of natural chloride salt crystals we use that are extracted from the Dead Sea.  So, when it came to naming Awakening’s unique formulation of Dead Sea mud mixed with extracts of chamomile, tea tree, myrrh and other costly ingredients, we definitely did not call it “mud-in-your-eye” or even “MUDEye” (even though the latter was borderline cute because it sounded like ‘muddy”).

Instead, we chose MUDFace, which had no Scriptural basis whatsoever, and really was quite close to less-than-affirmative folk sayings like “he ended up with mud (or, alternatively, “egg”) on his face”, we still thought it said it all.  Mud for the face: MUDFace (although I personally use it on my feet).  This is the same branding philosophy we used with our other products: Awakening HANDS for the hands, Awakening FEET for the feet, Awakening BODY for the body — we didn’t want to leave much for the imagination as to what to do with each of our products!  Say it like it is — that’s us!

Wrinkling and aging come (all too naturally) from the hardening and binding or meshing of collagen with adjacent collagen.  Hydration declines.  Wrinkles form.  Oxidants in the air disrupt the electron balance of the tissue molecules, accelerating aging.  People pay vast dollars in search of a cure!  They don’t have to.

One curative ingredient is as old as dirt because it is dirt: The mud of the Dead Sea.  The mud itself is awesome.  Awakening just makes it better.  Awakening MUDFace exfoliates, detoxifies and aids healing and health of the skin.  As with all other Awakening products, we offer a no-questions-asked “guaranteed to delight” commitment.   No Like?  Then No Pay!

Just recently, one of the newest of the late Steve Jobs’ remarkable consumer products has reached the marketplace.  It features state-of-the-art voice-recognition capabilities — “intelligent” human interface by an electronic contrivance.  Skin care is growing more ‘intelligent”, too, as more and more of it sources from the Dead Sea.  (Check out the YouTube video I’ve linked to further down in this posting).

The health-giving elements of the Dead Sea have been known for well beyond a millennium, but it’s not been until the past score of years that the word’s really gotten out globally.

Dead Sea Panorama

Thanks to Ahava, the commercial pioneer of the mineral skin care industry, products with Dead Sea content now are available worldwide in many forms and under many brands.  Not unlike the automobile industry, quality ranges from the Rolls Royce and Ferrari to the much-maligned Yugo (if you didn’t see the flick, Nick & Nora’s Infinite Playlist, when it first came out, I suggest you pull it from Netflix to see an honest-to-goodness Yugo in actual running condition — a most rare phenomenon).

So, you ask, what’s so ‘intellegent’ about a bunch of earthly minerals and muds?

Using concentrated, natural minerals as the basis for skin care products is infinitely more intelligent than the host of chemically concocted substances that you will find on sale at nearly every cosmetics counter of every high-end department store and boutique anywhere in the world.  And then go to a drug store and the chemical content can grow even more nasty. Dead Sea minerals are the foundation of intellegent skin care because they so perfectly maintain skin moisture levels, nourish skin cells and provide the skin with natural, anti-allergenic protection.

YouTube just posted a new video that gives a super overview of why the Dead Sea is such a special wonder of the world.  I recommend that you take the time to click this link to spend the 4 minutes to view it.

We named our unique brand of skin care products “Awakening” thanks to the Prophet Isaiah: “Awaken and shout for joy!”  The people you use our products have had their eyes opened — they’ve been awakened — to the benefits of intelligent skin care.  We ain’t no Yugo! 

Halloween approaches as I post this blog.  Since so much of what Awakening does is linked to the Dead Sea, “Dead” seems like an appropriate topic for Halloween!

The Bloggert "Mudded-Up" — Before His Morning Coffee!

While most bodies are buried only 6-feet deep, the Dead Sea is far deeper at 1,292 feet (or, for our friends in metric areas: 394 m) below sea level ( a zombie would have one heck of a time digging itself out of a grave this deep!).  And, if we were to drain all the water from the Dead Sea, the seabed floor would be a whopping 2,600 ft (800 m) below the level of the world’s oceans.  This ernormous pit is an extension of the Great Rift Valley up from eastern Africa and its impact on the world has been to create a gargantuan, hyper-salty mud puddle!

So, for Halloween, I encourage everyone to splatter the mud of this great puddle all over their faces, step out into public, scare a few people, then retreat to your home to see what has happened to your skin when the mud’s removed.

Mud is good!  As we all learned when we were two years old, mud is fun to play in and is especially wonderful to splat all over the face, and, if your mother didn’t move fast enough — all over your entire body!  Mud from the Dead Sea lends a pleasantly spooky aura to one’s presence.   It’s tactilely goopy, and if extracted from the proper locations, it also stinks (but of course, we have ways to neutralize the stench quite naturally into a virtual bouquet of gardenias)!

Go ahead: Mud Up!  Maybe even send me a photo or two of what you — kid, adult or adult-kid — look like!  For those of your who enjoy the learning process more if there’s a little humor added in, I recommend that you take the time to study

The blogger AFTER mudding-up AND his morning coffee!

Mike & Mitch’s What Now Wacky Workshop on YouTube cute “treatise” on the Dead Sea’s salinity.  You might even be quizzed about what you learn later!   [Why is it that all the people I know named "Mitch" fit so well into the Wacky Workshop motif?  Maybe that's why I prefer to know them!].

Oh, and before I forget, the asterisk on the word “Dead” in this posting’s title is there for a reason.  The Dead Sea is not dead.  In a later posting, I’ll talk about Archaea — a recently discovered domain system of Bactertia doing rather good things whilst living happily in environments so salty that everything else trying to live there, too, is, well… dead!

In one of our company’s recent “Tuesday Trivia” posts on our Awakening Skincare Facebook page, some interesting little factoids were laid out concerning how many “components” it takes to “construct” 1-square inch of human skin.  This blog posting talks about how that componentry might affect diabetic feet.  The skin components in that 1-sq. in. of skin are these:

19 milion cells, 60 hairs, 90 oil glands, 19 feet of blood vessels, 625 sweat glands and 19,000 sensary cells.

Even Diabetic Feet Can Be Happy!

The American Diabetes Association is one of the preeminent authorities on the subject of diabetic feet.  The feet of folks suffering from diabetes are particularly susceptable to a range of complications:  Nerve damage (neuropathy), calluses, foot ulcers, skin issues and poor circulation.  As the disease progresses, nerves can become damaged and the damaged nerves then fail to regulate the proper functioning of those 90 oil glands, 19 feet of blood vessels and 625 sweat glands — on every single square inch of skin on each foot.  Adequate instructions fail to get transmitted for the glands and vessels to hydrate and lubricate.  Calluses form and skin becomes dry.  Because the nerves are failing to send out proper sensation reports to the brain, a diabetic foot might be suffering an injury that can go overlooked.

Unnoticed injuries can lead to foot infections and ulcers.

The counsel and services of professionals such as podiatrists and physicians are important.  Diabetic feet that are seriously neglected can end up being amputated.

Foot balms alone are not the answer to the health of that vast tangle of components in each 1 sq-inch sector of skin on diabetic feet.  In fact, foot creams actually can make a bad situation worse, primarily if they are over-applied between the toes and result in overly moist areas than can incubate germs and fungus.  Yet good foot balms, properly applied, can help in suibstantial ways.

So, what’s the definition of a “good” foot balm?

Inasmuch as our company formulates skin care products that emphasize high concentrations of natural minerals, oils and botanicals, I gravitate towards mineral foot balms as opposed to those that do not contain therapeutic minerals.  In the 16 years we have been in business, we have recived unsolicited communications from many people who attest to the relief they have experienced after applying one or more of our balms.

Yes, we incorporate ingredients such as peppermint and camphor to cool and soothe, but so do a great many companies.  Arnica Montana is an herb that lends help to the body’s healing system.  But my opinion of what has made so many people pleased with their feet is our use of natural magnesium and potassium — with emphasis on the former of those two minerals.  We isolate both minerals from the chloride mineral salts of the Dead Sea.

Dead Sea magnesium helps to dilate those 19 feet of blood vessels (mostly capillaries), which in turn nourish the skin tissue.  Nourished skin tissue becomes less dry, less callused and less prone to infection.  And since the balm also can be applied to the lower leg & calf, more skin ends up happiers & healthier.

Every year at the end of September, my spouse, several friends & I attend an arts & crafts fair in the western Nevada hamlet of Genoa.  We attend in part to enjoy each other’s company, to people-watch, to marvel at the array of really clever art that’s on display, and to introduce additional members of the public  to our own handcrafted Awakening mineral skincare products.

Nevada has never been known as a tropical paradise (except on the grounds of a few Las Vegas hotels).  The climate is dry, the wind often blows, the weather can change on a dime, and, through the summer and into the fall, it can be rip-roaring hot.  This is not what I’d call a ‘skin friendly’ environment!  For me, it’s just fine — maybe the Good Lord crossed some of my DNA with that of a lizard somewhere along the line!  But for many others, it’s not fine at all.  Among those are folks coping with eczema.

Eczema occurs most often in areas of high sensitivity.

Eczema and Kids This year, it seems as if there were unusually large numbers of children whom we encountered with eczema.  Could be that without the influence of an adult willing to take a stand (over & over, and at the distinct risk of jeopardizing ‘family harmony’) concerning what a kid eats (fruits & veggies, for example) or does not eat (we can include most junk food here), the opportunity for children to provoke the onset of eczema goes up substantially.  With children and eczema, diet is huge — and the biggest culprits often are gluten-intolerance and dairy-intolerance (in fact, not junk food-intolerance, but junk food sure doesn’t help).

Eczema develops most often in certain areas of the body.  Unfortunately, most of these target zones are those of highest sensitivity.  Atopic dermatits (the variety of dermatitis that’s typically labeled as eczema in children) affects people who tend to be allergy-prone in the first place.  It occurs on the face, neck, hands, the feet and in the bends of elbows & knees.  Children over 5 years of age who have never been troubled by eczema most likely never will be.  Children who develop eczema during their first 12 months often get better by age 2, but sadly some don’t.  Moreover, out there in that Nevada desert last month, the number of adults who were complaining to us of eczema also was larger than in any of the past four years.  What’s up?  My guess is that it’s stress over the economy.

Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate. And ‘hydrate’ doesn’t only mean that you should drink lots of water, which, of course, you should [as opposed to lattes, beer, 'juice-cocktails' (also known as high-fructose corn syrup), sodas and those perenial favorites of the adrenal gland: Red Bull and Rock Star].  As I’ve blogged in the past, proper skin hydration is important; don’t just let your body go unprotected when it’s so easy to take a little defensive action.  There are skin care lotions that can do lots of good.  My bias is for those lotions that contain naturally healing minerals.  The hotter and drier the climate, the more you need to hydrate to keep eczema at bay.  Allergens also are a problem.  The lower the quality of the air in terms of contaminants, the higher the risk of eczema.  People living in urban areas are especially prone.  The more stress a person encounters (and stress is most definitely NOT just an adult affliction), the higher the risk of eczema and the greater its intensity if you do have it.

An adequate intake of calcium and magnesium does much to keep nerves happier and stress lower (not to mention sleep deeper).  Lotions high in magnesium chloride can do wonders.  Because low levels of hydrochloric acid in your stomach can precipitate eczema, you might consider supplementing Betaine HCl to boost the efficiency of the gut.  Consider also the products made by GoodBelly.  All of the B Vitamins (with particular empahsis on B3, B6 & B12) work to calm nerves, help circulation and support skin health.  Essential fatty acids, such as flaxseed, primrose and fish oil,  especially the oil of salmon & mackerel, help to lubricate the skin from the inside out.  Minerals, particularly potassium chloride, applied as a lotion, help, too, from the ‘outside in’.  For information about what’s new, consult an authoritative website such as the National Eczema Association.  And stay positive:  There are things that you can do to give eczema the boot!

This is an “Awakening Wednesday” post on yet another matter that affects the health of skin and which may help you keep your own skin in good shape in an increasingly complicated world.  So, what’s with “Biotin”?

Probably best to start with the question, “What IS biotin”?  It’s one of the Vitamin-B’s — more specifically, it’s Vitamin B7.

Alcoholism notably is bad for skin health, let alone biotin levels.

[Then again, B7 sometimes can also be referred to as "Vitamin H" for the apparent (and somewhat peculiar) reason that Biotin is good for hair and skin.  In German, "hair and skin"  translates as "Haar und Haut", and inasmuch as the German translation contains two of the letter "H", biotin has ended up being called Vitamin H.  While this may make some sense etymologically, it doesn't seem at all very scientific.  Otherwise, why wouldn't we also be calling Vitamin A by the name "Vitamin S", since it, too, is good in limited doses for skin?].

Since biotin is known to help make skin healthier, should those of us in the skin care business be adding it to our lists of natural ingredients?  In fact, some companies have done just that.  Awakening is not one of those companies.  Why?  Because the odds of you needing it are miniscule.

Unless one subsists on a diet of roof tiles and armadillos — or is knocking back a half gallon of whiskey and two dozen antibiotic pills daily — the chances of you being biotin deficient are pretty doggoned small.  Biotin is a vitamin that is uber-easy to assimilate through any “nutritionally sound and well-balanced diet”.  In fact, given that the average American’s diet may well be less than “sound or well-balanced”, the odds are still in one’s favor of having an adequate supply of biotin.  This is one of the more encouraging (and very rare) instances of good nutrition actually sustaining itself in the face of fast food and junk food.

Indeed, the biggest risk of a biotin deficiency would be brought about by a diet very high in raw eggs whites (you always enjoy a big bowl of raw egg whites at breakfast daily, do you not??).

Biotin has the main function of of helping your body metabolize food, process energy and transport carbon dioxide.  Nerve tissue, sweat glands and bone marrow also perform at their peak efficiency with adequate biotin levels, according to one of my favor reference manuals for healthy living, Prescription for Nutritional Healing by Phyllis A. Balch, CNC.  Biotin is essential for processing nearly every food that we ingest, including carbohydrates, protein and fats.

But the good news is that we get lots of it in the normal course of living, and we certainly don’t need to supplement our skin care products with the stuff! [The one & only substantive risk of a biotin deficiency is with infants and involves a condition called seborrheic dermatitis, or "cradle cap".  In that case, consult a physician].  Biotin is produced naturally within the body by hard-working, well-behaved bacteria found in the small intestine, something that some infants take longer to cultivate than others.  As for adults, generally it’s no sweat.

Hence, rather than worrying about whether biotin is in your hand cream, it’s far better to eat natural foods high in Vitamin B7 such as meat, poultry and saltwater fish (or, if you are vegetarian, try soybeans, cooked egg yolks, whole grains and brewer’s yeast).

This is the first in a series of weekly (or, as the mood strikes) “Awakening Wednesday” mini-posts on skin topics that I hope will be of benefit to others.  Ultra-potent magnesium, applied topically to the skin as a cream or lotion,  is at the core of what makes my own company’s formulations so good for the people who use them regularly.

Magnesium is awesome for the health of skin -- and life in general.

There are three types of magnesium .  The most common from the perspective of the skin is magnesium sulfate, commonly known as Epsom salts.  After a hard day of work or play, this is what your grandmother would encourage you to use for a long soak in the bathtub.  Magnesium ascorbyl phosphate is something that you will encounter most commonly on the Vitamin C aisle and is an ingredient that frequently finds its way into skin care products, such as body lotions  Both of the previous two forms of magnesium are good for the health of skin.  But neither, in my opinion,  is up to the standard of magnesium chloride, a richly endowed earth substance that is a favorite of practitioners of natural medicine and the most precioous of the three.

Daniel Reid, author, health researcher and practitioner of eastern medicine, calls magnesium “…the single most important mineral for maintaining proper electrical balance and facilitating smooth metabolism in the cells of the human body, and its presence in the bloodstream and cellular fluids is an essential factor in over 300 metabolic functions.”

The magnesium choride that holds such fascination to me is present front-and-center to address such annoyances as cold hands & feet, dry skin, the irritations of allergic rashes and eczema, and cracked fingers,   (Deficiencies internally reveal themselves through nervousness, muscle cramps, bone loss, weight gain, facial blemishes and general cantankerousness.  And, of course, one of life’s little distractions that understandably eads to ornery behavior: constipation).  According to Carolyn Dean, MD, “…magnesium is one of those super-safe minerals that you can take without fear of build-up or side effects.”

There are actions and choices that all of us easily can take that will have a positive effect on the health of our bodies and how we cope with aging — internally and externally.  Eating right and using skin care products high in natural magnesium chloride are two very helpful choices.  As for what you put in your mouth, three foods very high is natural magnesium are walnuts, spinach and broccoli.  If you aren’t wild over the taste of broccoli, let me share with you one of my own favorite recipes that masks the taste in healthy ways of its own:

Ingredients:  Two cups broccoli florets with short stems, 1/2 cup honey, 1 tsp ground ginger powder, tiny dash of kosher salt, 2 tbs butter (or SmartBalance if you’re really, really spooked about healthy animal fats), 1/2 cup orange juice, and 1 cup chopped apricots (and while there are many things about Turkey that I truly love, Turkish apricots are not one of them, so track down apricots from California — they are deep orange in color, not the yellowish pale orange of imported apricots).  I first parboil (or, even better, flash cook in a pressure cooker for 30 seconds, at most) the broccoli, then set aside.  In a saute pan, melt the butter, add the ginger, kosher salt and honey until a smooth liquid forms.  Add the OJ and stir until everything bubbles, then add the chopped apricot.  30 seconds later, add the broccoli and saute for not more than one minute.  It’s healthy, it’s colorful, and it’s loaded with magnesium (and, thanks to the apricots) lots of natural potassium, too.

The blessing of healthy skin and a healthy “you” is my wish!

There are thousands and thousands of people who detest what they feel to be the slimy, sticky, oily sensations that the application of skin care products provoke.  “Hate” typically is a word that I shun, but it’s a word that a very large number of people employ to express graphically their unvarnished opinion about hand creams, body lotions and the like.  One thing’s for certain, it definitely ain’t “Love” of skin care about which they’re talking!

Hate Skin Care? Love Skin Care?

I just read an article by Martin Lieberman, managing editor the community program at www.constantcontact.com,  in which he highlighted comments by senior associate dean and chair of the MBA program at Harvard Business School, Professor Youngme Moon.  Prof. Moon states that most businesses feel their products or services are profoundly different (read: “better”) from those of their competitors (most thinking that what they do or make or provide is FAR superior to the utter schlock pumped out by their competitors), yet the fact of the matter is that most consumers can’t discern ANY difference at all.  For example, “hand cream is hand cream — no big deal”.  Hence, the consumers holding this opinion most often opt for just about anything on the shelf — could be the least expensive; could be the most expensive (more expensive things are always better, aren’t they?).  …and the folks who ‘hate’ hand cream just don’t ever opt for anything at all, regardless of what they may or may not see as a difference between products.

Professor Moon explained at a recent conference on social networking and marketing in Boston (http://event.inboundmarketingsummit.com/boston/) that the majority of companies sadly are “afraid to be different” because it involves taking a risk in setting themselves alone from the pack and possibily setting themsevles up as a target.  Recommendations for how to differentiate one’s company’s products from another’s included such things as 1) Embrace the negative (don’t be affraid to say something that people may not like so long as it’s true, 2) Resist the temptation to “over-listen” to customers (because customers quite often say that your company or your products simply should be more like someone else’s), and 3) Have an idea of how you will be (or are) different.

“Difference often comes from passion,” Prof. Moon noted, adding: “if you can authentically communicate your passion or why you do what you do, then you can set yourself and your business apart.  After all, passion is magnetic and contagious.”

My point with this post is that if the “contagion” of passion augurs any value in the marketplace for a company, then our company, www.awakeningskincare.com, ought to be the equivalent of a viral disease! — that’s how different we work to be!  In fact, we have always considered ourselves to be the “skin care for people who hate skin care“!   We think that statement is a very positive “negative”.  But to sidestep that very disagreeable word, “hate“, we usually frame the statement as being that Awakening products are the “skin care for people who detest skin care”.

And it’s true: Thanks to the hallmark of Awakening’s formulations being our use of naturally hydrating potassium and healing magnesium isolated from the mineral crystals of the Dead Sea in Israel, our products absorb rapidly into the skin (more specifically, this is something that they do within exactly 40 seconds of when you apply the cream).  This means that they end up in the skin rather than on the skin — and therefore, because they’re ‘in’ and not ‘on’, they don’t feel greasy, slimy, oily or any other of those skin care negatives.

So, go ahead and “hate” skin care products all you want, but just use Awakening’s products anyway.  Your skin, of course, will be eternally grateful to you — and you never even need to confess to anyone that you’ve caved in and are using skin care products after all.  Awakening Mineral Skin Care apparently was an early-adopted of Prof. Moon’s suggestion to “embrace the negative“!

Nearly one year ago, I blogged about the benefits of coffee as an antioxidant for the skin.  Since then, interest in the therapeutic benefits of coffee for skin and hair has continued to grow.

Although our emphasis at Awakening continues to focus on the healing characteristics of natural Dead Sea minerals on the skin, specifically potassium and magnesium, we infused coffee extract to create Espresso HANDS to include the notable benefits of the caffeine on the skin.

The addiction to coffee in skincare spreads. It appears another personal care company, Barista Bath and Body, also has concluded that the benefits of coffee on the skin can be substantial.  Click here to read their posting.

Points made in the posting:

• Coffee has a pH balance perfectly aligned with the human body

• Coffee offers substantial antioxidant protection

• Proper pH balance allows the skin to protect itself against harmful bacteria

There’s now more than one way to get your daily dose of coffee!