虽然在国内没有任何一家实体店，但已经风靡到不行的英国纯植物护理产品品牌The Body Shop日前公布了其创始以来启用的首个代言人，英国超模Lily Cole。早已淡出国际时尚圈的Cole在谈到她的新工作时也显得很兴奋：“我认为它（The Body Shop）是一个如此理想的商业典范，既可以保持积极负责的态度，又获得了巨大的成功。”
Lily Cole为The Body Shop拍摄的广告片“The Beauty With Heart”将于5月3日曝光。
When you found out you were pregnant, you knew you were in for sleepless nights and countless diapers. But your female friends and family members who have walked the motherhood road before you forget to mention a few things, like bigger feet, a saggy belly, and little to no sex drive.
Here is expert insight into the post-pregnancy body changes you never saw coming.
Combine sleepless nights with the shock of motherhood and a drop in estrogen, and your sex drive takes a serious dive.
“It can take up to a year to feel like you are really back in the mood for sex,” says Hope Ricciotti, MD, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Harvard Medical School and a practicing obstetrician at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston. “You are so focused on your child and your family that you have little to no time for yourself, and that includes sex.”
You’re also exhausted, stressed, and have almost no opportunity for romance for the first few months after baby is born to even think about the act that conceived your child, she says.
Mix these with estrogen levels that bottom back to normal post-childbirth, and sex drops to the tail end of your priority list.
“Estrogen levels rise during pregnancy, and fall abruptly after you give birth,” says Silvana Ribaudo, MD, an obstetrician at Columbia Medical Center in New York. “The change in estrogen levels means a woman’s sex drive is probably pretty low. It rebounds, but it does take time.”
"Elephant belly" is what Elizabeth Turkenkopf of Albany, N.Y.,?not-so-affectionately calls her midsection after having twins. Granted, she had two babies in her uterus instead of one, but her belly change isn’t uncommon.
“A lot of women experience loose skin on their belly after childbirth, after their uterus returns to its normal size,” Ricciotti says.
The uterus increases about five times its normal size during pregnancy, she says, so the skin needs to stretch to accommodate an organ the size of a small watermelon -- or two, in Turkenkopf’s case.
The problem is that stretched skin might stay stretched out.
“Its not the same as stretch marks, which lots of women try to prevent using creams,” Ricciotti says. “It’s loose skin, and it’s cosmetic.”
Turkenkopf's doctor told her the only way to get rid of it was through surgery. Now you have one less surprise post-baby, albeit an unpleasant one.
You give birth, you lose your belly, right? Not so fast.
“After you give birth, lots of women expect that their belly will return to its normal size almost immediately,” Ribaudo says. “That doesn’t happen. In fact, it takes about 6-8 weeks before the uterus is back to its prepregnancy size.”
Amanda Ezman of Oneida, N.Y. was among the new moms surprised by the size of her belly after she gave birth.
“I used the bathroom the day after my daughter was born, and looked in the mirror,” Ezman says. “I thought I would look a little different, but I still looked almost nine months pregnant.”
During pregnancy and as you recover from the birthing process, exercise and a healthy diet are key to getting your body back in shape (under the direction of your ob-gyn, of course).
“It takes time,” Ricciotti says. “Core exercises that focus on your belly do help in toning your baby bulge.”
Think the changes you experience from pregnancy happen mostly in your mid-section? Think again: You forgot about your feet.
"Yes, a woman’s feet swell during pregnancy,” Ricciotti says. “But after her baby is born, she may a have permanently different shoe size.”
The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommends that average-sized women gain between 25-35 pounds during pregnancy. Carrying around that extra weight puts your feet under pressure.
"The additional weight you carry may flatten the arch of your foot,” Ricciotti says. “With the arch flattened you might find that you need an extra half-inch larger shoe size to be comfortable.”
Hormones play a role here, too -- in particular, one called relaxin.
"It does just what it sounds like,” Ribaudo says. “It relaxes the muscle ligaments in your body to help prepare you for childbirth, but it’s not exclusive to your pelvic area. It also affects the rest of your body, including your feet.”
With loosened ligaments in your feet and an increase in body weight pushing down on your arch, your feet are primed to flatten and lengthen. It’s time to go shoe shopping.
A lot of women expect their breasts to increase in size before and after birth, especially if they continue breastfeeding. But what they don’t see coming is the drop in cup size.
Ricciotti says. “After you give birth and stop breastfeeding... that can leave your breasts looking not only saggy, as most women expect, but smaller as well," Ricciotti says.
It’s not uncommon for women to drop a cup size after pregnancy and breast feeding, and it’s not over yet.
“The more children you have, the more your breasts tend to sag,” Ricciotti says.
Don’t blame changes on breastfeeding, though. A 2008 study of 93 women found that history of breastfeeding was not linked to their odds of having sagging breasts. Instead, the risk factors for sagging breasts were higher BMI, greater number of pregnancies, larger bra size before pregnancy, history of smoking, and older age.
Most women experience fuller, shinier locks during pregnancy. Unfortunately, the hair they’ve always wanted but only recently had is short-lived.
“During pregnancy, you have increased estrogen levels, which keeps the hair on your head there longer -- the rate at which it falls out is decreased compared to when you’re not pregnant,” Ribaudo says.
But after pregnancy, when estrogen levels drop and return to normal, your hair has to catch up -- by falling out.
The excessive shedding of hair occurs one to five months following pregnancy, according to ACOG. Most pregnant women experience this hair loss, but the good news is that it’s temporary. Hair loss peaks around 3-4 months after birth, but usually returns to normal within 6-12 months.
On the way to manhood, your body is going to do a lot of things that you really, really wish it wouldn’t. Pimples will pop up everywhere, and so will hair. You’ll drip sweat and you will stink. You’ll get erections when you least expect – or want – them.
Sound bad? Sure. But remember these four things:
Believe it or not, some boys just starting puberty actually want to smell bad.
“They are upset that they don’t have secretions that stink. It’s a sign of manhood,” says pediatrician Lawrence D’Angelo, MD, MPH, chief of adolescent and young adult medicine at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
They won’t have to wait long. Those secretions – from glands in your armpits – start early on in puberty.
Once they do, even those once eager for B.O. will likely want to grab an antiperspirant and/or deodorant. (The first stops sweat, the second blocks the smell – they are often combined).
?Just don’t overdo it, says Cleveland Clinic dermatologist Jennifer Lucas. Using an antiperspirant too often can cause a rash. If it does, switch to a deodorant for a few days.
For the unfortunate few, no over-the-counter antiperspirant will stop the flow of sweat. If that describes you, don’t worry. There are stronger antiperspirants that only your doctor can prescribe. And, there is Botox. Usually used for a condition called hyperhydrosis (in which a person sweats a lot more than normal), injections of Botox by a doctor can stop sweating for up to six months at a time.
The only way to avoid acne, Lucas says, is to fast forward past the teenage years. Since that is not going to happen, it’s best to learn how to deal with it before it becomes a real problem.
Not all boys get that message. “When it’s mild, they tend to ignore it,” Lucas says. “But if it gets severe, it can cause scarring. And scars will be permanent.”
Lucas recommends getting an over-the-counter benzoyl peroxide-based wash and using it once or twice a day. That will help keep your pores from getting clogged, which causes acne. Cleaning up after sweating is especially important, so wash yourself and any equipment you wear after game time.
Even if you are really careful, your acne might still go beyond mild and into severe territory. “It’s not because they are not taking care of it,” Lucas says. “It’s just bad luck.”
If that happens to you, don’t panic. Make an appointment with a dermatologist. They have lots of options to help keep your pimples under control.
A lot of guys are eager to get ripped – or at least develop some muscle definition – and are embarrassed when they can’t.
The most important message for you to hear is ‘be patient.’ Muscles need to be ready to grow. That doesn’t happen until later in puberty, when the body starts to produce sufficient amounts of the hormone testosterone.
In the meantime, lifting weights will help you build strength; it just won’t help you build muscle before your body is ready.
“You may get stronger but not any more defined if you are not at the point at which you will develop,” D’Angelo says.
If you do work out with weights, be careful and focus on doing lots of repetitions of lighter weights rather than trying to lift the heaviest amount possible, D’Angelo says. Otherwise, you risk overlifting, which can damage your growth plates.
Growth plates are areas of tissue at the end of your long bones – which include your leg and arm bones – that determine the final length and shape of your bones. They are the weakest part of your growing skeleton, and injuries to them can sometimes have a permanent – and bad – impact on your growth.
Get some guidance from a trainer or coach to make sure your technique is correct. No sense doing all that lifting the wrong way.
During puberty, some guys experience breast growth. This, too, is normal! It’s called gynecomastia, and it happens when the body converts of some of the male hormone testosterone into the female hormone estrogen.
Usually, it amounts to no more than half an inch of growth around the nipples, but in some boys it might be more pronounced.
D’Angelo says that most boys will have to live with it for a year or two before things settle down to normal size. That may sound like a long time, but the important thing to know is that nothing is wrong with you.
Is there anything more embarrassing than getting caught with your penis standing at attention when walking down a crowded school hallway? Sure, getting caught in gym class. Rest assured that all your guy friends are also getting involuntary erections at awkward moments, no matter how much they're pointing and laughing when it happens to you.
Erections can happen anywhere and anytime and for any or no reason. It is an unfortunate but completely normal part of puberty.?
And for guys worrying about what a sudden erection in the locker room might mean, the answer is: It means nothing. “It has nothing to do with erotic thoughts,” D’Angelo says.
When puberty kicks in, hair begins to sprout up in all sorts of places. Facial hair announces to the world that you’re that much closer to manhood, and guys often take pride in the fact that they now have to shave.
Few guys, however, feel the same sort of pride about the hair that’s growing on other parts of their body, like their shoulders and their back.
“Different people have different amounts of hair growth,” says Lucas, “and they often get it in places that they don’t like.”
Leaving it alone is one option. But for guys who want to get rid of embarrassing body hair, there are options.
The most obvious one is shaving it off. However, there are creams available that do a good job of cleaning up trouble spots. You can use these sometimes. But read the directions and be careful when using them. “Otherwise, they may end up with a chemical burn," Lucas says. Ouch.
Whether you are breezing through your body changes or having a difficult time with them, it’s important to see your doctor and let him or her know how things are going. The changes you are experiencing are complicated, and it takes a doctor’s trained eye to be certain all is as it should be.
So make an appointment for a check-up at least once a year, says D’Angelo. That, too, should be normal.
March 18, 2011 -- When you flip through a glossy beauty or fitness magazine, how much time do you spend starring at the models?
The answer may depend on how you feel about your own physique and whether or not these photos are accompanied by articles detailing how you too can achieve six-pack abs or slim, sleek thighs, according to a study published in Media Psychology.
In the study, 169 people recruited from a large Midwestern university filled out surveys that asked about their body image. Participants then evaluated two 21-paged magazines on a computer.
Both magazines included 16 pages of ads; half featured models with ideal attributes and the other half featured models with more average shapes. Men looked at magazines with male images and women only looked at female images.
Of the two magazines, one offered articles on diet and exercise while the other featured general interest articles. Computer software exactly analyzed how much time participants spent on each page.
Those people who were not satisfied with their body shape and size spent 50% more time looking at models with ideal bodies when these images were accompanying articles about diet and fitness, compared to similar images surrounded by non-self-improvement related articles: 59 seconds vs. 40 seconds, respectively.
“If the articles inspired them to go on a diet or start an exercise program, they would spend more time looking at the ideal bodies,” says study researcher Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick, PhD, an associate professor of communication at Ohio State University in Columbus, in a news release. “If the articles gave them no inspiration, they tended to avoid the photos.”
Those individuals who were satisfied with how they looked spent the same amount of time on the images regardless of the content, the new study shows.
"For many women, the worst day of the month is when the Victoria's Secret catalog shows up in the mail,” Wendy Lewis, a New York City-based plastic surgery consultant and author of several books, including Plastic Makes Perfect, says in an email. “It's a double-edged sword.”
On the one hand, women study every photo-shopped dimple-free thigh and butt, which may motivate them to take an extra spin class or pass up dessert, she says. “Yet on the other hand, they secretly curse their genetics and long for supermodel legs that can never be achieved, so they are setting themselves up for disappointment.”
According to Lewis, real-life examples of people who have struggled to make changes in how they look, such as actress and singer Jennifer Hudson, who is now a spokeswoman for Weight Watchers, are positive role models. ?“Her success is more inspirational to a wide range of women because it is realistic rather than an example of a body image that is impossible to attain for most women."?
Beautiful skin is a reflection of your inner health. Sign up today to receive WebMD's Skin & Beauty newsletter and get the information you need to keep your skin healthy and beautiful.
March 3, 2011 -- A new way to measure body fat that relies only on measurements of your height and your hip circumference is an improvement on the commonly used measure known as body mass index (BMI), according to the developers of the new method.
"The body mass index (BMI) does not accurately represent the amount of [body] fat," researcher Richard N. Bergman, Keck Professor of Medicine at the University of California's Keck School of Medicine, tells WebMD.
The new measure, called body adiposity index (BAI), does, he says. So far, he has validated the new measurement in Hispanic and African-American populations, and says more research is required to confirm how well it works in whites and other ethnic groups.
With BMI, he says, ''you get a relative number" assessing body fat. With the new BAI, ''you get a number which is the percent fat." The new method, he says, is more accurate.
While an improvement on the BMI method is merited, the new method appears to have its limitations, too, says Fabio Comana, an exercise physiologist at the American Council on Exercise, who reviewed the new research for WebMD.
The new research is published online in the journal Obesity.
Besides considering body weight, BMI is the most common way doctors and others assess whether a person has too much body fat and thus at risk for health problems. It's a measure of fat based on height and weight, used for both men and women.
''The BMI has been around since the 1840s," Bergman says. A BMI of under 25, for instance, is deemed healthy, while those of 30 and above are considered obese. (A person 5 feet 10 inches tall has a BMI of 24.4 at 170 pounds and a BMI of 30.1 at 210 pounds.)
BMI is “OK in general for groups," Bergman says. But on an individual basis, it isn't so accurate in assessing body fat, especially for people who are very muscular.
For instance, he says, ''if you had a BMI of 30, you might have 25% fat [as measured on tests that directly assess body fat] if you are a man, but 35% if you are a woman." Someone very muscular may have a BMI over 25 but have little body fat, he says.
Body fat percentage ''norms" are different for men and women, according to the American Council on Exercise (ACE). For instance, it classifies a body fat percentage of 25% to 31% for women and 18% to 24% for men as ''acceptable'' ranges, with athletes and fit people having lower percentages.
Body fat percentages over 32% for women and over 25% for men are termed obese by the ACE.
Nov. 22, 2010 -- Nearly one in four women who is overweight perceives her weight as normal, according to a new study.
The study also shows 16% of the normal-weight women studied had weight misperceptions, considering themselves overweight, says researcher Mahbubur Rahman, PhD, MBBS, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology and a senior fellow at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Women's Health at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston.
There were dangers with both groups of what he terms "misperceivers," he tells WebMD. "Overweight women who were misperceivers are less likely to have healthy weight-loss behaviors." Those of normal weight who thought they were overweight, likewise, had unhealthy behaviors, such as using diet pills or smoking.
The study is in the December issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.
"The fact that people misperceive their body weight was already known," says Rahman, so the new research echoes some previous information. But in his study, he also wanted to see if the body weight misperceptions influenced health behavior.
Rahman obtained height and weight information from the medical charts of 2,224 women, ages 18 to 25. ?
The women answered questions about healthy weight-related practices in the 30 days prior -- including eating less, eating differently, or exercising. They also answered questions about unhealthy behaviors, such as the use of diet pills, use of diuretics, vomiting, laxative use for weight control, cigarette smoking, or skipping meals.
For the study, Rahman used the standard definitions for normal, overweight, and obese, with BMIs below 25 termed normal, those 25-29 overweight, and 30 and higher obese.
The women also answered questions about education, ethnicity, marital status, household income, employment, and Internet use.
The women were divided into four categories:
Jan. 14, 2010 -- Pear trumps apple when it comes to body shape and your health.
A new review suggests that having body fat stored in your thighs and backside may actually be good for you. Especially compared with the risks of storing excess fat around the mid-section.
Researchers reviewed recent studies on the health effects of body fat distribution and found that having body fat in the thighs and backside, known as gluteofemoral fat, helps protect against heart disease and diabetes.
It’s not the first time experts have said that body fat distribution may play a significant role in health and disease risk. Previous studies have already shown that belly or abdominal fat raises the risk of heart disease by increasing blood pressure and cholesterol levels and is also an independent risk factor for type 2 diabetes.
In contrast, researchers say the protective role of gluteofemoral fat is striking.
“In day-to-day metabolism it appears to be more passive than the abdominal depot and it exerts its protective properties by long-term fatty acid storage,” write researcher Konstantinos Manolopoulos of the University of Oxford in England and colleagues in the International Journal of Obesity.
Researchers say the protective effects of lower-body fat distribution, which is typical of a pear-shaped body type, has been confirmed in many studies in people with a wide range of age, weight, and health status.
Gluteofemoral fat is measured by thigh circumference, hip circumference, and fat deposits on the legs. This type of lower-body fat storage takes more time to accumulate and is harder to break down than upper body fat.
Belly or abdominal fat is designed to be built up and broken down quickly for use by the body. But the breakdown of this type of body fat releases a stream of inflammatory proteins known as cytokines that have been linked to heart disease, insulin resistance, and diabetes.
Researchers say fewer of these pro-inflammatory cytokines are released when lower body fat is broken down, and studies show people with higher levels of this type of fat have healthier cholesterol levels.
In addition, researchers say certain health conditions that cause a loss of lower body fat, such as Cushing’s syndrome and lipodystrophy, with redistribution of fat to abdominal areas lead to serious metabolic problems.
Oct. 13, 2009 -- Cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy feel less exhausted if they enroll in an intense program that exercises the mind as well as the body, a Danish study finds.
Fatigue is one of the most troubling side effects of cancer chemotherapy. Patients don't feel like doing anything, either physically or mentally. And the less they do, the weaker and more depression-prone they become.
Earlier studies showed that moderate exercise can help. So can psychosocial programs. Could both kinds of programs be combined -- and intensified -- for greater impact?
To find out, Lis Adamsen, PhD, and colleagues at Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark, asked 269 adult cancer patients to enroll in a nine-hours-a-week exercise program for six weeks. Half the volunteers were randomly assigned to a control group and were asked to wait six weeks to join the program.
Although the program was designed to appeal to men and women, women were much more likely to volunteer. In the end, 196 women and 73 men volunteered for the study; 235 of them completed the program.
The program included:
Patients weren't allowed to pick and choose -- they had to show up for the entire program, regardless of how they felt after their chemo treatments.
One patient with a brain tumor had a seizure after cardio training, so Adamsen and colleagues warn brain cancer patients not to try this kind of exercise. Ill effects were not seen in other patients.
Instead, those completing the program felt better. Although improvements were small to medium in size, the exercise program significantly reduced fatigue and increased patients' sense of vitality. They felt fewer limits in their daily activities than did patients who did not exercise.
"The range of exercise components used ... has been shown to be feasible, safe, and beneficial to various patients with cancer during chemotherapy -- even patients with advanced disease," Adamsen and colleagues conclude.
They note, however, that a program with more appeal to men needs to be developed.
The findings appear in the Online First edition of BMJ.
